Well Goofle would have been in nappies then and I was still 3 years away from hatching so you've been following football the longest here.
Assuming Fluffy Kittens is no older than either myself or Goofle.

I hope you're saying this in jest.

I would say I am the biggest football fan here from what I gather from comments generally, not that this means I have superior opinions, I will have just consumed more football in general.

And I am not joking. There isn't a better PL player than any I named in my team in their respective position. The only arguable ones are Beckham possibly ahead of Ronaldo and RVN getting in ahead of Bergkamp.

Your credentials, sir?

Maybe second? :D

I do watch around five games a week though.

I appreciate the vote of confidence, but although in terms of years I may have been following football longer than some/many of you, I follow it quite passively, as it were. My Saturday night in front of MOTD, FLS and Sunday then for MOTD2 is about it. I'll watch the Irish internationals when they're on (if I need a laugh!) and even when the European Champions or World Cup is on I won't watch every match, and even the ones I do I watch mostly in ff thanks to the miracle of Sky Plus!

I don't want CL really ever and I don't keep up with the football transfer news, so it's constantly a surprise to me to see someone who last week was playing for, say, Newcastle, listed in the Norwich line up, or whatever. I couldn't tell you statistics or anything like that, and I only know the prem foreign (as it were) players from when they play here, as in, unlike you guys I couldn't say that player X when he joins say United was brilliant in Athletico or whatever.

So longer in years, maybe. Older almost certainly (b 1963) but more knowledgeable about football, definitely not. I bow to your younger expertise :bowdown:

However I do remember Viera and recall him having a problem with temper or something that got him sent off often and meant he was a bit of a Collymore or an Anelka when he went from club to club. Not the mark of one of the best players in the game, even in England.

Now, where's my cup of milky tea before bedtime? Yawn! :)

Vieira absolutely shat himself in the tunnel before the 4-2. You don't want your captain doing that. Bergkamp asking him if he was alright after was hilarious.

yeah, but watching and understanding aren't one in the same.
I've played the game for teams from the age of 10, still play amateur football.
I'm also a qualified youth football referee (easy cash in hand stuff, £30 for an hour) so I wouldn't base ones knowledge on a subject by how much time they've sat and watched the highest level of it on TV.

I wouldn't say I understood how to produce a successful TV show by just watching Eastenders.

This works for you too.

I feel that I have a very good understanding of football, considering myself a student of the game in some sense. I get things wrong of course, and there are obviously more clued up people on the game, but I don't just watch football matches to pass the time.

Yeah but in fairness MC said he has played in and reffed the game for years, so he has a much better "grass-roots" knowledge of it. I mean, I could watch someone make a bad tackle, say "Ouch!" but not have a clue how it actually feels. Merry on the other hand has no doubt experienced those tackles and so I would say overall has a far deeper knowledge of the game than you or I. In this case, he's not just watching, he's participating, which therefore gives him a much better understanding of the game.

To use his own analogy: watching Eastenders on the tv or taking part in it, whether it's acting, producing, directing, writing, making sets --- who is the more involved and thereby the more knowledgeable about the subject?

English Football? I support Norwich City, then :D