OFFICIAL: Martin Caceres signs for Southampton

Where could one start on football terms which annoy.?
Anything that Ron Atkinson invented or improvised, like 'early doors' instead of simply 'early'.
'On the bounce', instead of the perfectly obvious 'in a row'. 'Up top' as a position in a formation, instead of 'up front', which I grew up with, but I accept that was just another football term, if a more accurate one.

There are numerous others which thankfully don't come to mind at present. No doubt they will later.

 

The term I dislike most is "professional foul". That is an oxymoron if ever there was one.

 

Although, as Fran points out above, "early doors" dates back to the 1870s, so marginally preceding Mr. Atkinson!

 

Good job writers from Shakespeare to ee cummings didn't share you lot's linguistic pedantry.

 

Godders this thread is reminding me of the excellent poem on the English language you (or maybe I'm confusing you for someone else) posted a while ago. I'd like to read it again.

 

We're all cunning linguists.

 

Oh, and I thought this was the Martin Caceres thread. No?

 

Who?

 

Hence why I wrote invented and 'improvised', as in adapted, by Atkinson.

 

I twitched when you mentioned Atkinson, then noticed your weasel word. I have no reason to feel smug as I only found out about the real origin of the word this morning, but one cannot afford to miss smug opportunities....so rare these days.

 

Yes, writing his name doesn't make me feel great exactly. FWIW, I only knew the truth about that saying when I read your post.

 

So you can have your own 'did you know' moment now.

 

Yes, I'm not sure it's going to be worth remembering as all my friends are total non-footy types, if you remember. The nearest that anyone gets is my eldest brother and he wouldn't know who Ron Atkinson was, so it might be slim pickings there.

 

Sometimes you just have to store nuggets like this away and wait your moment.....may need to wait for a couple of years though. I have lots of gems apparently unrelated to football, but one day I will twist a comment on here and gain an opening.

 

Oh I have dozens myself. They are just not the sort of stuff that I'd bother with on here, because most people wouldn't take two looks at them. In fact, I do, just occasionally, and as far as I can see, people don't take two looks at them.

 

No I posted it but can't find it at the moment.

You might enjoy this link.

http://spellingsociety.org/uploaded_misc/poems-online-misc-1419940069.pdf

 

Just to further illustrate the non-football world I inhabit, I've just finished a casual phone conversation with my least sportive brother who, amongst other things, asked me what I was up to at the moment. I answered that I was preparing something to eat and loosely following the FA Cup matches. 'Oh yeah, did Saints play today then.?' Was his follow up [rare because he never refers to football at all]. And so it carried on...

[Me] No, they're in Spain, preparing for this Sunday week.
[Him] What's happening next Sunday.?
[Me] They're playing in the League Cup Final.
[Him] What at the Dell... no, they're at that new place, aren't they.?
[Me] No, it's at Wembley.
[Him] What, the same stadium as when we used to go and watch the Speedway finals.?
[Me] Well, yeah it's successor. No speedway track there now.
[Him] Yeah, it's just bloody football everywhere now. Still, you must like that.
[Me] I do, but I understand it from your point of view. There's too much.

And then we talked about something else. Notice that there was no interest in what Saints were about to achieve.? He's not stupid, but like the majority of the country, he's not a football fan. In his case, so much so though that he is almost completely ignorant of Saints status. I think he knows that they nearly went out of business and were saved. His 'sporting' interest died when Southampton Saints Speedway was sold up. I'm pretty sure it broke his 'sporting' heart. It was like Saints FC never being rescued, only in Southampton Saints case, they were the biggest club in the country, being the equivalent of Premier League champions at the time.

 

That's exactly like my dad. No interest in football. He only knew Saints scores from me and my brother and the TV South news.

When ever I see him he seems to remember the late 60s early 70s and if they lose he says Saints are 'bloody rubbish' which he knew used to wind us up, especially my brother.

He did want them to win the FA Cup in 76 though and even watched the game on TV.

He's 90 now and still have never really shown any interest in football.

 

That's almost exactly the level of interest the rest of my family shows, apart from my eldest brother who only really gets interested for my sake because he's a kind bloke. My friends too, have a similar level of interest.

There is one bloke in my Ramblers group [tbf, he's from the New Forest Ramblers, but we often get on the same walks], nicknamed Smoking Steve, because he smokes [too obvious.?], and can get himself into quite a tizz on occasion. But he's an avid Cherries fan. When he knew I was a Saints fan he thought he was going to spend every moment in piss taking banter. That kind of stuff wears me out rather quickly, so I nipped it in the bud by lavishing praise on the Cherries at every opportunity I saw him. Nowadays he's rather complimentary about Saints, and even sympathises over injuries and such, eg, 'You would have won if so 'n so hadn't been out.' In fact he knows a lot more about Saints than I do about AFCB at the moment. Something I'm going to have to address, because this one-sided praise can't last forever.

 

Interesting. You've perfectly illustrated why I would never move back South! I'm trying to buy a new car at the moment. Spoke to a salesman who asked if I could go in next Sunday as they had a promotion on. Told him why I couldn't do that and he asked if I was a United fan, not surprisingly. When I put him right we then talked Saints players past and present; tactics used at Anfield; chances of Van Dijk playing in the final and then moved on to Sadio Mane. Still haven't decided about the car!

Went to get my paper this morning, and the lad on the counter said he'd presumably not see me next weekend. Two others in the queue, who I'd not seen before, chipped in their views of Saints chances and I left to good wishes as if I were the manager at the very least. Being "not interested in football" causes real confusion around here.