ilkleyram

I’m in my late 60s and was lucky enough to be able to retire 10 years ago. After a difficult couple of years getting over not working I love my life - exercise every day, never felt fitter, though bits are dropping off - my hearing needs aids, my eyes need glasses, my joints creak, I’m on medication (low level) for cholesterol and blood pressure and my hair is largely a distant memory. I do find myself thinking about my mortality fairly frequently  though not morbidly. Death is the last great secret I have to experience. I  know I have long since passed the halfway mark in my Rams watching season tally.
In my youth 65 was old and people often died soon after retirement. Now I’m there I want to keep going but I am a deathist - never heard that expression before. I want to keep on going so long as life is comfortable and my body is not giving out. I’ve no interest in the far future - I expect it would look terrifying to today’s world, just as today’s world might be terrifying to people born 300 years ago. I’ve no interest in rounds of surgery to replace my heart or organs for the 5th time - you would end up like Trigger’s broom on its 20th handle and 10th head or whatever it was.
What I would like is the opportunity to pick the moment I go and in the UK. But that’s another debate.

I’m in my late 60s and was lucky enough to be able to retire 10 years ago. After a difficult couple of years getting over not working I love my life - exercise every day, never felt fitter, though bits are dropping off - my hearing needs aids, my eyes need glasses, my joints creak, I’m on medication (low level) for cholesterol and blood pressure and my hair is largely a distant memory. I do find myself thinking about my mortality fairly frequently  though not morbidly. Death is the last great secret I have to experience. I  know I have long since passed the halfway mark in my Rams watching season tally.
In my youth 65 was old and people often died soon after retirement. Now I’m there I want to keep going but I am a deathist - never heard that expression before. I want to keep on going so long as life is comfortable and my body is not giving out. I’ve no interest in the far future - I expect it would look terrifying to today’s world, just as today’s world might be terrifying to people born 300 years ago. I’ve no interest in rounds of surgery to replace my heart or organs for the 5th time - you would end up like Trigger’s broom on its 20th handle and 10th head or whatever it was.
What I would like is the opportunity to pick the moment I go and in the UK. But that’s another debate.

I’m in my late 60s and was lucky enough to be able to retire 10 years ago. After a difficult couple of years getting over not working I love my life - exercise every day, never felt fitter, though bits are dropping off - my hearing needs aids, my eyes need glasses, my joints creak, I’m on medication (low level) for cholesterol and blood pressure and my hair is largely a distant memory. I do find myself thinking about my mortality fairly frequently  though not morbidly. Death is the last great secret I have to experience. I  know I have long since passed the halfway mark in my Rams watching season tally.
In my youth 65 was old and people often died soon after retirement. Now I’m there I want to keep going but I am a deathist - never heard that expression before. I want to keep on going so long as life is comfortable and my body is not giving out. I’ve no interest in the far future - I expect it would look terrifying to today’s world, just as today’s world might be terrifying to people born 300 years ago. I’ve no interest in rounds of surgery to replace my heart or organs for the 5th time - you would end up like Trigger’s broom on its 20th handle and 10th head or whatever it was.
What I would like is the opportunity to pick the moment I go and in the UK. But that’s another debate.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

Great post.  I concur fully. 
I too am not sure I will ever see us in the top flight again in my lifetime 

No reason in principle why not but a lot of things have to go right at the same time from player to manager (and that is NOT a comment about our current manager). And above all we would have to have a lot of luck going our way on everything from referees decisions to academy fruitfulness.
If there’s anything I worry about about David Clowes’ ownership is his relative wealth. He’s clearly a rich man by any stretch of imagination. Good for him.  But he isn’t football rich it seems to me even at championship level never mind PL level. When you have clubs effectively owned by countries rather than individuals then having a couple of hundred million isn’t enough, especially if you then want your club/business to be self sustainable.  
There are reasons why very few (can’t name any but I presume there are some) football clubs are actually self sustainable and genuinely have income greater than expenditure. I doubt any in the PL actually are, nor the championship for that matter and so for us to get there requires someone to spend/gamble enough to make it possible or take a long time (and have a lot of patience). We’re not a club with a lot of patience from top to bottom as these pages often demonstrate.
I don’t know how many years of watching live football I have left.  I’ve done 60 or so. David Clowes’ relative financial weakness is a huge problem for football as a whole and is the result of FFP and TV plus feeble football administration. I live in hope that we will gain two promotions in the next 10 years or so and that I see it,  but I’m not expecting it. We certainly can’t win anything in the top league any more other than individual matches. I am just glad that I have lived through the golden age of football when football life was simpler, fairer and better. And we were good.

Archie Gemmill. Not our greatest ever player but the best midfielder we’ve ever had with skill, pace off the mark, tackling and an indomitable spirit that refused to accept losing. He would transform this team and any we’ve had over the last 25 years as well, through force of personality alone. Willie Carlin on steroids and Willie transformed what became a really good side. Archie was better.

Archie Gemmill. Not our greatest ever player but the best midfielder we’ve ever had with skill, pace off the mark, tackling and an indomitable spirit that refused to accept losing. He would transform this team and any we’ve had over the last 25 years as well, through force of personality alone. Willie Carlin on steroids and Willie transformed what became a really good side. Archie was better.

Archie Gemmell for the reasons put forward by ilkleyram

Saved me posting exactly the same as above , though I seen some derby greats 

Archie Gemmill. Not our greatest ever player but the best midfielder we’ve ever had with skill, pace off the mark, tackling and an indomitable spirit that refused to accept losing. He would transform this team and any we’ve had over the last 25 years as well, through force of personality alone. Willie Carlin on steroids and Willie transformed what became a really good side. Archie was better.

Archie Gemmill. Not our greatest ever player but the best midfielder we’ve ever had with skill, pace off the mark, tackling and an indomitable spirit that refused to accept losing. He would transform this team and any we’ve had over the last 25 years as well, through force of personality alone. Willie Carlin on steroids and Willie transformed what became a really good side. Archie was better.

Archie Gemmill. Not our greatest ever player but the best midfielder we’ve ever had with skill, pace off the mark, tackling and an indomitable spirit that refused to accept losing. He would transform this team and any we’ve had over the last 25 years as well, through force of personality alone. Willie Carlin on steroids and Willie transformed what became a really good side. Archie was better.

Archie Gemmill. Not our greatest ever player but the best midfielder we’ve ever had with skill, pace off the mark, tackling and an indomitable spirit that refused to accept losing. He would transform this team and any we’ve had over the last 25 years as well, through force of personality alone. Willie Carlin on steroids and Willie transformed what became a really good side. Archie was better.

Archie Gemmill. Not our greatest ever player but the best midfielder we’ve ever had with skill, pace off the mark, tackling and an indomitable spirit that refused to accept losing. He would transform this team and any we’ve had over the last 25 years as well, through force of personality alone. Willie Carlin on steroids and Willie transformed what became a really good side. Archie was better.

We go on about a lot of things on this forum that we have zero influence over. 
Or perhaps we have a bit of influence somewhere along the line. Maybe just maybe fan dissatisfaction with wasting time influenced this season’s changes for example. Maybe not but we should live in hope otherwise what’s the point?