Tyrone Shoelaces

Like I said Tony, we’re really easy to play against. We were like that when Hughes came in, and Big Sam for that matter. The first thing they did was make us hard to play against. The expansive football can come later.

What’s the captain doing to prevent that situation ? Your job as captain is to ensue whatever orders that have been given prior to KO are adhered to.

You’ve played football. Which is hardest ? Trying to play your way out of trouble as a back four player or trying to press the ball when the defender has it ? I could get young lads out of the Sunday League who can press the ball all day as long as they are good athletes. No real skill required.

The bottom line is we’re too easy to play against. Until that changes expect more repeats of last nights results.

It’s worth watching for Didi alone. The Tugay of his day.

Is his way of playing different to Mowbray’s ? I remember that season when Mowbray tried playing “ Keep Ball “ and we got nowhere with it. Expecting high class possession football with average players is a recipe for disaster. It’ll get more lower level managers the sack than ever it will a trophy. The lad at my local club, Rochdale, tried it and it got them relegated and he lost his job. He’s coaching City’s kids now, maybe it will work with them.

He’s skating on very thin ice for me. If things carry on in this vein up to the dingles game and we lose that I think the fans will turn. The football is dogshit.

I’ll take that now.

Add that to the very, very long list of games we’ve lost after going behind. That tells me all I need to know. I said I wasn’t happy with the line up before KO and I’m even less happy now ! Watch it all change again on Saturday. Tomasson is skating on very thin ice for me. If he can’t see the “ play it around at the back until we lose it “ style gets team relegated he’s nothing like as smart as he thinks he is. Get a style of play that suits the players, don’t try and do it the other way around. That’s what smart managers do.

It looks like 4 at the back. What happens to the other 6, anybody knows.

I’d say no. Would you have Brittain in a back three instead of Wharton or even Carter ?

If I was going to rest a centre back it would be Ayala not Wharton. Another change in the way we’re playing. If we get a result I’ll hold my hand up. If we lose I’ll not be a happy guy with that team.

That was a mistake - Slater was a better player.

I don’t remember those, the ones we had were white.

Sometimes 6 minutes is enough. Some times it’s more than enough.

It’s not summer now and the bills need paying ?

I agree playing Ayala in every game will only end one way.

Edit - make that three cars.

A lot of so so strikers haven’t got a great first touch. I remember hearing Tommy Docherty talking about signing Ted MacDougall who was a prolific striker when he was managing Man Utd. He said he couldn’t believe how bad he was when he first saw him in training. He could put the ball in the back of the net though.

Great photos. Just two parked cars in the first one !

That’s crazy.

You can’t turn players who aren’t ball players into ball players very easily. The die is cast once you get into your twenties. Lots of recent managers in the lower leagues have lost their jobs through trying to play the Pep way.

Yes, I agree. I call it percentage play. The likelihood of our opponents scoring when we’re passing it around at the back is high. The likelihood of our opponents scoring when it’s in their half is low. The other down side to all this is that the passing players are usually more or less stood still and the pressing players are going at full speed. Eventually there’s only one winner there.

He was also bigger. Teams targeted Wrighties lack of height at time. Great little player though. Oh and he didn’t shit on the club like LeSaux did.

Another story about my klepto pal. We also had a record store on the Main Street in town. It was called “ The Spinning Disc “ and it was upstairs above a little tobacconists shop. One Summers day we were browsing the remaindered records in the shop. Anything that didn’t sell after 3 months was sold at a knock down price. All the 45’s were all in boxes on a table in a corner of the shop. With it being really hot the shop windows out onto the street were wide open. I’d had a good look through the boxes and drawn my pals attention to a few really good soul records that hadn’t sold. I was bemoaning the fact I was skint that weekend and couldn’t buy them. After a while I wandered outside on my own intending to wait for the other lads to come down. All of a sudden I heard a shout “ Tyrone “ . I looked up and saw my pal was leaning out of the open window with a handful of singles in his hands. He started slinging them down to me like Frisbys one at a time ! Of course I had to catch them. This was in the middle of a crowded shopping street on Saturday afternoon ! How I didn’t get arrested I’ll never know. After a couple of similar episodes in other shops we had to ban him from ever going into shops with us ever again. He really had it bad.