In May 2006 Tokyo based Rovers fan Dillo asked for help understanding and documenting words and phrases whose meaning might not be imediately obvious to someone brought up outside the UK. This page is based upon the effort of dillo and those that tried to explain the peculiarities of some of the language used.
The basis for this info was taken from Dillo's page [1]. The Original forum thread can be found at [2]
Several of these entries should be expanded into their own pages.
- Amo - Nickname for former defender, Lorenzo Amoruso. The Italian was signed for circa £1.8 million from Rangers by Graeme Souness in a transfer that was widely considered idiotic from the outset. Amoruso quickly proved that his lack of speed was not a an optical illusion caused by the low temperatures in Scotland but a genuine physical shortcoming. Despite assisting Rovers in avoiding relegation, Amoruso, was recognised as a liability and new manager Mark Hughes allowed him to move on. Although a bad signing and manifestly too slow for the Premier League, Amoruso did not plumb the evil depths of defensive doddery reached by such names as Christian Dailly, Darren Peacock and Aaron Mokoena.
- Arte et Labore - Rovers motto, translated from latin it means by skill and labour.
- Arsenal - Nicknames are normally varients of Arse (i.e. The Arse or Le Arse) - See Arse.
- Arse - Slightly offensive word for backside, used as a nickname for Arsenal.
- Axe/Axeman/The Axe - Nickname for Aaron Mokoena which preceded his time at Blackburn and, naturally, refers to his aggresive style. South Africa's most capped international was plucked by Mark Hughes from the obscurity of Racing Genk's reserve to the surreality of starting in the Premier League for Rovers. Manager, Hughes, saw real promise in the player that few others, with all the will in the world, can see. Mokoena executed a functional spoiler role in midfield with heart at the start of his Rovers career. However, as the need for a specialist shin-pad mangler decreased, so did Mokoena's role in the team. His status at Blackburn is in real doubt now that his greatest benefactor, Mark Hughes, has departed. A utility man who could manage, just about, one position.
- Barn door - "He couldn't hit a barn door" is a phrase used to disparage the accuracy of a footballer's shooting. Barn doors are large and inferred by this phrase as an easy target to hit.
- Birmingham City FC - Nicknames include The Porn Boys (because of owner David Gold's connections with the porn industry) and The Big Club (see Big Club)
- Big Club - Nickname applied to Birmingham City. It roots lie in the fact that whilst on the pitch performances saw them relegated from the Premiership into the Championship, the believed the could expect of attract better players than club and out perform them as they were "a bigger club". Statements of being a bigger club have come both from the fans and from the staff.
- Barcodes - Nickname for Newcastle. Gievn becuase their black and white striped kits resemble a barcode.
- Burnley FC - Local Rivals, See Burnley and Dingles
- Beamo - Ken Beamish, one time player at the club now the comercial manager. At one time (long after Ken had stopped playing) any shot hit way off target would result in the crowd chanting "Beamo, Beamo".
- Bents- Nickname for England Whizz-kid David Bentley
- Chelski - Nickname given to Chelsea after being bought out by shady Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich
- Citeh - Nickname given to Manchester City. City is pronounced sit-eh in a Mancunian accent.
Cheats- universal term for West Ham (Wet Spam, West Sham etc) following playing a ringer throughout the 2006/7 season and conspiring with the FAPL to get away with it.
- Dingle - Nickname given to anyone from Burnley. The term originates from is a TV programme that runs every weekday at 7pm on the ITV main network and is seen in all regions of the UK. In this programme the Dingles are a family of very dubious character, and very "scruffy". They seem to all live together in the one cottage in a fictitious village called Emmerdale in the Yorkshire dales. The programme is called after the village; "Emmerdale". Now this family of Dingles are cast as being very stupid and very ugly (well most of them) and there is an unspoken but strong suspicion of inbreeding with them as well. They don't seem to be gainfully employed but always seem to have enough money for smoking and drinking to excess in the local pub. They are also involved most of the time in all sorts of dodgy deals and scams. Thats it really, except to say that somwhere along the way some Rovers fans must have noticed the strong resemblance of the Dingles to the Burnley fans and the name has stuck ever since.
Also, The actor playing one of the main characters in the TV family, Zak Dingle, lives in Burnley.
Rovers fan have long since implied Burlney is in Yorkshire (there is a strong rivaly between Lancashire and Yorkshire and a Lancastrian refering to anything as being from Yorkshire is quite an insult. Whilst Burnley is in Lancashire, it is quite close to the Yorkshire border.
It's believed the practice of calling Burnley fans Dingles may have orginated at Preston North End and that Bolton fans refer to us a Dingles. Additional, some of the West Midlands Club refer to each other as Dingles.
Burnley's nickname for us is simply The Bastards or Bastard Rovers
- Dingledome - Nickname of Burnley's ground Turf Moor.
- Dumpdale - Nickname for Deepdale (Preston North End's ground)
Devine Intervention - what happens when you are the linesman and West Ham handle the ball, go offside and fail to get the ball across the goal line.
- Eurosport - A satelite TV channel that often covers European Football. Due to a thread where people repeatedly ask what channel a game was being shown in (the response each time being Eurosport), "Is it on TV, It's on Eurospor" has now become a regular forum meme anytime somebody discusses televised football.
- Football Manager - Very popular football management computer game. FM has an amazing in depth database of information on players, leading some people to allow FM to influence their opinions on real life players (most notably in transfer discussions, where potentially good players in FM are presumed to be potentially good players in real life).
- Franchise FC - Name given to Wimbledon FC as they effectively became a franchise, moved to Milton Keynes and became the MK Dons.
- Freddy Adu - Talented, young american footballer. "Where's Freddy Adu" briefly became a forum meme after a patch to the Football Manager game revomed the desirable football, resulting in a large number of posts simply asking where he'd gone with having read that previous answers. Like the Eurosport meme, "Where is Freddy Adu" is sometimes posted in threads where people have repeatedly asked the same question without first looking for the answer.
- Glory Hunter - Any fan who only follows a team because they are sucessful.
- Grabbi, Corrado/"Ciccio" - Failed Italian striker brought to Blackburn from Ternana in 2001 for an infamously large fee of circa £7 million. He is commonly recognised as Graeme Souness' worst Blackburn signing. The name, Grabbi, has become a messageboard synonym for ignominious failure by a footballer (especially Italian) due to his extremely poor record at Rovers. In a form of black humour, messageboard users occasionally provide updates on Grabbi's career progress.
- Grooby, Lee - Lee is so important to this site he gets his Own Page
- Horseface - Nickname for Ruud van Nistelrooy
- Hill-Trolls - Alternative name for Burnley supporters
- Hypocrisy - The practice of professing to hold certain values, which, in reality, one does not adhere to. This behaviour is common in polarised environments, such as football. Thus, a football manager will condemn the behaviour of people outside of his club but defend similar or worse behaviour from his own. Football fans will do likewise. Blackburn fans were noticeable uncritical of Robbie Savage's prevarications made in leaving Birmingham City for Blackburn. However, Barry Ferguson is a unspeakable evil for his 'disrespectful' actions in forcing a move back to Rangers.
- JW - The initials of the chairman of Blackburn Rovers, John Williams. It is employed by users as a popular shorthand. He has a moustache and is considered one of the most astute chairmen in the Premier League.
- Lady Luck - A phrase used frequently by Graeme Souness when trying to excuse poor performances and tactical mistakes simply as bad luck. There is no evidence to prove the rumour that Lady Luck offered Souness a good time everytime Dominic Matteo was played on the left wing.
- Middlesborough - Nicknamed "The Smoggies" due to the fact that they are situated in an industrial town next to one of Europe's biggest chemical factory complexes (smog being a name for a thick cloud of polutants).
- Manchester United - Nicknames include - Man Yoo/Man Ure/Manure/Red Scum/Scum/Prawn Sandwich eaters (See Prawn Sandwich)
- Mackems - Nickname for Sunderand fans.
- Money-grabber - One of the non-obscene labels for footballers who are deemed to be motivated by financial gain. Outpourings of revulsion from fans when a footballer leaves the club for supposed monetary reasons are a manifestation of the ideological clash of free market capitalism and inert tribalism inherent in the game. There is an expectancy from fans that players will only leave their club for genuine career progression. This denial of business reality clashes with the free market idea that an individual is motivated by material self interest.
- Nicko - Nickname of Alan Nixon, sports journalist of a national tabloid newspaper. Nixon, in a pique of philanthrophy, chose to spread some of his journalist insight on the messageboard. These visits became more frequent and consequently he gained his own thread to provide an easy access platform for readers to find out his updates. His popularity has soared as a result and Nicko's Thread is now the focal point of most users' attentions.
- Notlob - Nickname for Bolton, more often witten than spoken. It's origins are from a Monty Python sketch
"Is this Bolton or isn't it?!"
"Yes it is how can I help ya?"
"But I was just in here an hour ago and you said this wasn't 'Bolton'"
"No, no, no. That was a pun"
"What kind of a pun is that?"
"No, no. I-its one of those words that are spelled the same forwards and backwards."
"A palindrome?"
"Yes that's it!"
"But that's not a palindrome! The opposite of 'Bolton' is 'Notlob'!"
- Official Messageboard/"Offish Board - The official Blackburn Rovers fans' messageboard on the official Blackburn Rovers website. Known to attract the younger end of the Rovers fan spectrum, it has thus developed a reputation for being full of hormonally confused, text-speaking, ignorant teenagers. In fact, this view is untrue. The board is more anarchic but intelligent discussion is not unknown - just as it is not completely unknown on this board.
- Preston North End - nicknames include Preston Nob End and Nobenders (nob being slang for male genitals)
- Prawn Sandwich Eater - Originally used by Roy Keane about Manchester United fans, it is used to refer to the growing number of fans who partake of corportate entertainment or simply more passive fans, rather than the traditional partizan working class fans.
- RFW - Nickname for Sir Alex Ferguson either Red Faced Wanker or Rat Faced Whinger.
Referee - biased individual supposedly neutral who officiates. Pet hates include George Courtney (despite the Speedie dive pen at Wembley), Gerald Ashby (rip), Uriah Rennie and anybody officiating in any game involving Rovers playing Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs.
- SCUM - nickname for Manchester United
- Spuds - Nickname for Tottenham Hotspurs or Spurs. Spud is a slang word for a potato.
- Scousers - People from Liverpool
- Sheepshagger - Someone who has sex with sheep. Normally used as an insult to anyone from Yorkshire or Wales (predominantly sheep farming areas).
- Sparky - Nickname for Mark Hughes, former manager.
- Steadinho - A sobriquet for former striker Jon Stead. The name was coined by fans of Huddersfield Town, from where Stead was signed. The "inho" is an affectionate/ironic attempt to "Brazilian-ize" Stead's name to reflect his capacity to produce unexpected moments of skill, belying his mediocre all-round game. The name has fallen into disuse since Stead left Blackburn Rovers for Sunderland.
- Swallow-dive - A goal celebration that takes its name from a swimming dive. Made famous amongst Blackburn Rovers fans by former striker, Shefki Kuqi, who would celebrate goals by throwing himself forwards, in a horizontal flying attitude, landing on his front. This tended to incite jokes amongst the fans about pain ("that must hurt!") and indentations ("he's left a dent in the ground!").
- Turf Morgue - nickname for Turf Moor, Burnley's ground.
- Theatre of Merchandising - Nickname for Old Trafford, Manchester United's ground. It is a play on "The Theatre of Dreams", the official strapline for Old Trafford.
- Van Persie - A Dutchman that consistently scores against us.
- Vinjay - Vinjay was a prominent poster on the forums who outraged some and amused others by hijacking dozens of thread to get across his dissatisfaction with John Williams, The Walker Family and the Jersey Trust. He was eventually banned from the forum for repeatedly taking threads off-topic.
- West Ham - nicknamed Wham (after an 80s pop group)
- Woy nickname given to ex-manager Roy Hodgson
Rovers Dictionary
