Mark Jirobe

“Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important” It’s not news to anyone that, what used to be a source of playful benign jabs in the pub after a hard weeks work has become 24/7 tribalisim with disrespect praised, highlighted and rewarded sometimes in legacy media certainly on social media, almost to a level above deep thought out fair analysis and discourse. This leads to every negative comment being perceived rightly or wrongly as a declaration of war, as is the right of the receiver to do so. In Carraghers case his comment on Villa fans was crass, rage baiting and over the top and ill advised. Most will agree. I dislike him for them but more so for his flippant attitude to the footballing pyramid, to blindly declare that there is a ceiling on every other club outside a chosen few. No one should have a right to declare that as gospel truth otherwise it’s all meaningless. However as Oscar Wilde said “I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself”. Ironically Carragher made the pointed comments on a show called “Stick to Football” but thats neither here nor there and for what it’s worth I think Villas legal action is likely to go nowhere with maybe an on air apology the most that they will get from it, provided producers don’t see the dollar signs in the publicity the action will bring. I love my football club, it almost defines me as a person. People know me as The Villa fan and I spend hours thinking and talking about it, lament the fact I can’t go every week and try to make up for it to my soul by spend stupid amounts of money to surround myself in its memorabilia to make myself feel a part of it. It’s tough in the current world and I’m not telling you how to feel as I’m sure most will disagree, but to keep the thrill of football fandom alive in 2026, I personally have to stop take pause and remind myself that…. “Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important”