Just now, RV Blue said:

How boring has this window been so far? ? Come on Tony, get on with it!

This window is absolutely crucial and going in with knee jerk reactions on recruitment could be an absolute disaster.

Better to take some time and get it right.  As far as I am aware, we have not lost any potential signing due to the wait unless you consider the guy Bolton have just signed, forget his name, a missed opportunity.

Have patience.

Sorry to bring up the untouchable name up but now recovering, so back to transfer speculation.

i see Stephen Ireland has just been released at Stoke.  Anyone fancy a punt on him, big risk admittedly but still in his early 30's and can certainly pick a pass.  Maybe too injury prone but just a thought.

5 hours ago, ChrisPriceBaldSpot said:

Just seen a car with TW4T as the reg outside the Fox and Hounds. Any ideas? 

Yes,  Steve Kean just turned up for a pint.  God I have just made myself puke up!

1 hour ago, islander200 said:

Do you think that maybe the reason we haven't heard anything from Mowbray since he got back from India is because he is considering his future due to the Venkys telling him he has no money to spend?

Do you think that maybe the reason we haven't heard anything from Mowbray is that he may have gone on a family holiday before the real work begins at the start of June?  If he has, I for one believe that he fully deserves a break.

5 hours ago, JacknOry said:

Hoilett is not the type we should be looking at even IF we had a chance of taking him on. Turned into a billy big balls after a few decent performance for us in the top division and thought he made it. Admittedly, been performing better at Cardiff but a fragile attitude like that I would avoid. Young, hungry and a step up remember.

In fairness, when Hoilett was here, we didn't have a manager or coach to make the best of him and his pace.  Same can be said of King and possibly Barrow.  If we had those now, it may be a very different story?

20 minutes ago, Mercer said:

I draw two conclusions from Mowbray's statement.  Firstly, IMV, there is too much bowing and scraping going on with Venky's - he says 'humbly' twice - and it is not indicative of the healthy and robust type of relationship needed between owners and management.  Secondly, there is very little money to be made available and this is going to be a lengthy and slow build - just hope there's enough available to stop us falling back through the trap door.

Hi Mercer, I understand what you are saying but I think Mowbray is being very canny.  I have done business in India for many years and I know how their minds work, in a cultural sort of way.

IMO I think Mowbray is playing it exactly right and we will see where it leads.

Just now, ChrisPriceBaldSpot said:

The Scottish Iniesta is how my Hibs mate described him. Great playmaker. Looks very promising and I wouldn't be surprised if Charlie has recommended him too. If we can get his midfield partner McGinn as well then I would very happy. 

Just reading the Scottish papers.  Apparently McGeough is out of contract so available for next to nothing.  McGinn is also available but still has 12 months left so Hibs looking for around £5,000,000.  Also rumoured Rangers are interested in him?

Anybody know anything about this lad from Hibs?

Dylan McGeough.

looks like we are linked.

9 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

We signed Evans knowing he had a groin injury, gave a contract extension knowing he could only play with constant groin injury management which often seemed weighted towards his international appearances.

If the surgery he had last year has finally cured the problem then maybe next season he can play fully fit.

The Barry Ferguson purchase and sale is one for Maigret and best forgotten.

The transfer saga around Ferguson was never right.  If someone who is as thick as two short planks with half a brain while living in Glasgow , then he will still have half a brain and be as thick as two short planks living in Blackburn or Birmingham or Blackpool.

Ferguson was and I guess still is being manipulated by unscrupulous agents.

Isn't this the pub where they are going to run the competition "Burnleys got talent"?  I hear a guy who can tie his own shoelaces is favourite to win.

13 hours ago, Kamy100 said:

At BRFCs we want to expand our writing pool to include people who can write about wider football issue, with that in mind we are delighted to welcome Stuart Grimshaw to our writing team, he will be focusing on Grassroots Football.

 

Even before the gentlemen of Sheffield FC laid down the rules of soccer that we know today, there has been grassroots football. Whether it was Shrovetide football, kids in the street with jumpers for goalposts or one of the larger local clubs with a team or two for each age group, a committee and hundreds of volunteers. People have always gathered to kick, carry or throw a ball at a goal, and even though the opportunities to play are becoming fewer, it remains the most popular activity in many countries.

"Football is for everyone and can be played anywhere and everywhere. Football is a school of life that is also fun. Let the kids be kids." No, not a Guardiola, Mourinho or even Allardyce quote, this irony-free statement comes from the fine, upstanding citizens of FIFA.

Considering they say it can be played anywhere, their videos of techniques being demonstrated are all filmed on finely manicured grass, by kids in kits that don't have holes in and with footballs that haven't been chewed by that dog that invaded the pitch that time.

Grassroots football has always been the poor relation to professional football, it's never basked in the warm glow of sponsorship, sugar daddies and TV money like its older brother Premier League which has more money than it knows what to do  with (Don't believe me? What about Andy Carroll to Liverpool for £35m ... Robinho to Man City for €42.5m?) it feels worse than ever. The closest a grass roots club gets to a sugar daddy is when one of the players dad's stumps up £300 from his building firm to buy a new kit.

Austerity has councils under huge pressure to slash budgets; Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council's budget for Leisure, Culture & Young People was cut by £2m from 2015/16 to 16/7. They don't have funds to maintain pitches, even basic maintenance such as cutting the grass as often as is needed, or marking out the lines; never mind proper maintenance like renewing the grass over the summer or improving drainage so the pitches can be used more during the winter. It's not unusual to turn up to play with one of the crossbars, much like Rovers’ back four under Owen Coyle, hideously bent out of shape.

Schools have long since sold off their pitches to cover short term gaps in funding, and those that are lucky to have a new 4G pitch as part of their redevelopment are hugely overpriced or hugely oversubscribed, sometimes both. There's no money to buy new land for pitches, there's no money to buy new equipment for the pitches, there's no money to pay for improvements to pitches.

What little funding is available is so sparse that very often only 1 or 2 teams actually benefit. How many times have you seen your nephew's posting on Facebook or Twitter asking you to vote for their club to win part of some company's community fund? Like greasy Lords of the Manor handing out alms to the poor as if it absolves them of any blame for the fact poor people exist at all.

I haven't even touched on the fact that kids don't (can’t...won’t?) play in the street any more, and any patch of grass worthy of the name, will have a "No Ball Games" sign planted in the middle.

What are we to do when one end of the football spectrum has never had it so good and the other hand has never had it so bad?

First we need to understand what grassroots football is and what it's for. It's not for finding the next £10m player, it's not Darwen FC or Padiham FC, non-league football is as far from grassroots as it is from the Premier League.

Grassroots football is 15 kids kicking a ball in their local park, the game ends when the kid who owns the ball has to go home. It's clubs like Blackburn Eagles, Clitheroe Wolves, Lammack Juniors & Wilpshire Wanderers, Saturday and Sunday morning football for kids under 16. It's weekend football for your local pub team (if they even have one any more) or local village side. It's booking a 7-a-side pitch after work every week and playing against your friends. Each one of these different types of football faces its own pressure, but they all boil down to money and not enough of it making its way down the football ladder.

The answer is clear. Professional football needs to support grassroots football. It's not a government problem, FIFA quite rightly says that football associations should be apolitical. Professional clubs need to do more than send an injured player, shuffling at the front of the class with his hands in his pockets like a naughty child and say that they contribute to their community.

The community football they run often costs a fortune, their academies and development squads are often treated like profit centres charging a small fortune for players to go and get coaching, all the time softly cooing to parents about how their child might make it.

Look at any British player in any team around the world, but especially playing for British clubs and they will have started out age 8 or 9 for a grassroots club, none of them went straight into an academy. I would say it's in their interests to support grass roots because that's where they get their players from.

There's currently a petition urging the government to put pressure on the Premier League to honour its commitment to spend £1 billion of the 2016-19 TV revenues deal on grassroots facilities. Most of the money goes on "solidarity" payments to the lower leagues though.

If little Jonny or Gemma plays any kind of grassroots sport, I urge you to sign the petition. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200094

In my next article, I’ll run you through the life of a grass roots football coach.

 

View full article

 

Excellent Kamy. I have now signed.

Takes me back to a previous time when I used to play.  Some awful pitches, dump kit in changing room never to be touched again until following Saturday when the smell would hit you as you walked in.  Wouldn't have changed it for the world.

2 hours ago, tomphil said:

I said last season that if we went down to league 1 under this lot we'd be finished as a club. At the very best we've 1 chance to bounce back this season and that rests on Mowbray which is worrying.

After this season it's curtains for the foreseeable believe me.

I certainly believe you and I can't see us getting promotion this season.  There is no heart in the personnel, first 2 games, going through the motions.

Anybody who is anybody wants away and who can blame them.  Would you work for these people, I know I wouldn't.

You have to ask yourself, why are they here?

can only be a vehicle for the rest of their group, maybe a vehicle to launder money?  They are not interested in football in fact completely disinterested.   I would love to see the accounts for the club over the last 6 years but don't expect to.

if these sharks don't sling their hook quick, I think we are finished as a club.

sad, sad days!

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Joao was a Coyle signing and someone he wanted according Nicko and Bayes both said this. Im not sure. 

Senior and Mowbray will have a good working relationship and hopefully have a plan going forward for the recruitment. Last summer recruitment wasnt good enough. Coyle to blame

"Hopefully have a plan"

Will it it be a cunning plan?

Just now, Mike E said:

While I realise the difference in quality, one could equally apply those misgivings to some of Hughes' better signings.

Namely the Kiwi from an MLS team, the tall African in Hertha Berlin's C team, the injury-prone Paraguayan, the angry stroppy Welshman.

Reasonable comment Mike but I think there is a world of difference in the calibre of Hughes and Coyle.  Hughes knew the system he wanted to play and brought players to fit in that system.  Coyle was all over the place and bought / borrowed whatever was available, possibly his mates.  When budget was extremely tight, why Giles Barnes when everybody knew we needed the defence shorting up?  

Just now, sweeneybrfc said:

Is the press conference available on video or audio online? Haven't heard or seen it anywhere...

There was a live blog on the Lancashire evening telegraph web site earlier.  Presume it is still there?

If we win our game in hand we could be in 13 th Place...

Hope you are right but I fear the important word in your sentance is "if".

Like, if my auntie had balls, she would be my uncle!

Beware the word if!

I don't remember Gilliver scoring the first goal of the season at Ewood. He may have sorted the first goal of the season after we got relegated in 1966 but that game was at Derby County.

I remember the Coddington penalties very well. He'd never taken one for us before. He started his run on at goal on around the edge of the centre circle and ran in like Jimmy Anderson. I thought " this one will either burst the net or end up in Darwen ". When he got to the ball he weakly side footed the ball straight at a bemused Palace goalkeeper who never moved !

For some reason the ref told him to take it again. I couldn't believe it when he did exactly the same thing with exactly the same result !

Later on the ref gave us another penalty ( he must have had us down as a home win ! ) and Eamon Rogers calmly scored that one.

The team that day -

Barton

Newton Wilson.

Clayton, Coddington, Hole.

Ferguson, Rogers, Martin, Gilliver, Connelly.

sub Ben Anderson.

It's amazing when you look at that team that they let Coddington get anywhere near the ball for that penalty.

Yep but Gilliver first goal, seem to remember it was the Darwen end, not sure what year but sticks in the mind? Maybe an ageing thing?

The season so far comes down to this. A win and things are looking good, lose and we're back in the kean. We've had some under performing players from Hudds over the years. Alan Gilliver, John Coddington and that guy who made Jason Wilcox look like Gareth Bale , the one and only Brian Hill.

Come on! When everything kicked off at 3-00 on a saturday everywhere, Gilliver gave us the first goal of that season in the leagues anywhere. This was at Ewood and that is now history. Maybe history is unfortunate but history is the one and only thing that cannot change! Then again I can remember Coddington taking a penalty which was terrible, the ref blew because of an infringement, he took it again and result was same. Seem to remember he ran from the centre circle to hit the ball both times, What joy?