UncleBill

There’s no way we should be looking at Warnock. How many times has he retired now? His heart’s not in it, at the very least we need someone who actively wants to be involved in football

I wrote some of my background down for something marketed as the Global Rovers Project and was in communication with club as a participant. To my knowledge this project never came to fruition. But perhaps it might be relevant to this thread, because, honestly, I don't even think I like football anymore. It feels perhaps a little childish but if I can't take pride and joy in watching Rovers, I don't wish to find a substitute. This is what I shared with the clubs communicators, and which got as far as being edited and formatted but never published: Disclaimers: this was written before we knew how shit Wahlstedt is, nor can I remember the questions to which I was answering. Nor is the response to question 7 applicable any longer and I might never have the chance with 10 As to how I became a Rovers supporter, I have to say I hadn’t much of a say in it. As far back as anyone can remember, my dad’s side of the family have followed the club. My grandad, who had something of a penchant for spurious tales, always told us that his grandfather, Harry Walmsley had been Vice President of the club. We had very little evidence to this, aside from a silver tankard dedicated to a Mr H. Walmsley, team dentist, of all things. To my dad and uncle, this was just one of my grandad’s many flights of fancy. However, not long ago, earlier this summer in fact, my dad was in contact with the club with a view to selling his match worn Terry Genoe jersey from the early 1980’s, since as chance may have it, neither the club or Terry himself were in possession of one. He was invited to meet the club archivists and have a tour of the stadium. He recounted the same ‘tale’ to the archivists, who in turn produced several documents proving my grandad to be right all along! So, you could in many ways describe the club as being part of my family. I suppose this ties very much into the above. The club feels like my home, and its brought me no end of pride and joy to see what might once have been a smaller unfashionable club reach the heights they have, when so many can say the same for the clubs they love, respectively. The club is Blackburn in many ways, and the intersectional work they do in the community, be it with multi faith fans, supporting social issues, or promoting grass roots football really make it a pillar of the community. My first match, or so I’m told, was a 3-0 win over Aston Villa in the 1992-93 seasons. Being 3 at the time I have no recollection of it but I’ll take my dad’s word for it (he’s a far more reliable narrator than the aforementioned grandad). I don’t truthfully remember much from 94-95 either, aside from Tim Flower’s red jersey and my Merlin sticker collection. My first real memories were of the 1995-96 season when my dad bought me my first season ticket. I hadn’t the slightest understanding what Kenny Dalglish’s now role was, but revelling in chanting ‘Championes’ from the Blackburn End nonetheless. Goalkeepers have always been my heroes. To begin with my dad was one, but more pertinently I adored Tim Flowers. I remember how he used to celebrate with the Blackburn End after every win, though why he was allowed to wear Uhlsport branded shorts over the club branded ones remains a mystery to me to this day. Next came John Filan, whose name I had printed on the back of my shirt, followed by a strange affinity for Alan Kelly, who in my mind at the time could do no wrong. I remember crying at the top of the stairs when Brad Friedel was bought to club to replace him, having not at all been impressed with at Liverpool. But then of course, the rest of that tale is history, and who could wish for a better goalkeeping role model than Brad As for my favourite memories, the most significant memory I have is the Worthington Cup Final, where Brad Friedel was of course, really began the course to legendary status. I remember the trepidation as we held on for the final whistle, I could not sit still for trembling. More prosaically I remember the matches where I got to sit with my grandad. My grandad, Barry Illsley, was commentator for Radio Hospitals for 50 years, and every now and again I was enlisted as support. He wasn’t particularly good at commentating; he once failed to distinguish Dwight Yorke from David Dunn, but to see how appreciated he was by the staff and his peers alike was deeply touching. Plus, I got to chat with Glen Keeley and Kevin Gallagher, and the pies in the press room were fantastic. Sadly, since I moved to Sweden in 2017, I’ve not had the opportunity to attend a match, home or away, but I follow the matches semi-religiously through a combination of the broadcasts available to international fans and the matches picked up by Viaplay (via Sky Sports). When I can I quite enjoy watching the latter matches in Gothenburg’s sports bars, where I’m frequently met with confusion as to why I’d want that to be shown over whichever Champion League match is being broadcast, but each to their own. I have a much pride as ever, unless I’m in Trelleborg. We don’t talk about Trelleborg. Many Swedes my own age and older are well aware of the club, and it feels like a lot of them appreciate the playing connections the club has had with Sweden in the past (apart from Trelleborg. And Sven Göran Eriksson). Yes, if my dad counts? We usually talk, quite ruefully of late, following every match. Otherwise, mostly via the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. I know there are Swedish Rovers supporters but Sweden is huge so I’ve yet to seen one in the wild, so to speak. To be quite honest, given the chance I tell people more or less exactly what I’ve recalled to you, which must be quite annoying. I do enjoy meeting Swedes familiar with the club though. Morten Gamst Pedersen and Tugay are always good conversation starters, though Patrik Andersson, the player we could have had, is a popular conversation topic with my father in law and relatives. I’m quietly confident Leo Wahlstedt will be the next big connection; I’m crossing my fingers that he wins SVFFs goalkeeper of the year for which he was recently nominated. I have no desire to force my interests on my children, but part of me is awaiting the day when both my daughter’s are old enough to go to a match at Ewood Park. Just to share with them, a fraction of the experiences my family and I have had - even if its just the once, would make me feel like I’d be making my grandad proud.

I spoke with a GAIS fan on Sunday. Apparently Henriksson was in the away end with their fans for the last match of the season at Malmö. Apparently he’s pretty unhappy here because of how segregated the squad is. Everyone has their cliques: Yuki and Mori hang out together, the African lads, Axel and Sonny (presumably Andri too) - it’s not very integrated at all. So that little liaison officer lad is clearly earning his crust.

No, it’s not generative AI, it’s just an LLM, it only predicts what the most likely response to a question would be. also, Rover are rubbish playing against 10 men, and always have been. We rarely press home any advantage from it

This was reported in Sweden too

To be fair to Toth, he’s clearly misjudged the bounce but he recovered well enough.

I watched the BTS and he was pretty slow getting up from that volley, it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s how he got injured. But you can’t rule anything at at Rovers it seems.

They’re singing “Slössa inte bort din målchans, passar till Henriksson”. essentially, don’t waste your opportunity, give it to Henriksson