Tyrone Shoelaces

He was never the same player after the injuries. Once he lost that blistering pace over 20 yards.

I know he was played out of position but putting that to one side I wasn’t impressed. He looked very ordinary to me. Even out of position you can tell a good footballer. I remember midfielder Eamon Rogers being played as an emergency right back and looking like he’d played there all his life. Maybe Giles realised he’d dropped a bollock coming to Rovers and just gave up.

I used to work with a lad who ran a social club in Leigh back in the day. At about 8-00 pm every night he’d announce “ Anybody here from Wigan ? The pies have arrived. Come and get them “.

I remember watching Forest under Brian Clough play a German team in one of the rounds of the European Cup. Forest footballed them to death that night but the Germans defended really well and kept the game tight. After 90 minutes of Forest dominance it was still 0-0. Then the Forest goalie launched an ale house ball straight down field, the two German centre halves got in a tangle, left the ball to each other, it bounced over them and Peter Withe nipped in to slot the ball past the keeper. All that football had got them nowhere until that point.

Brilliant, anywhere else I wouldn’t believe you, but at Rovers anything is possible. What a joke of a club. They’re appointing a manager of a football club not the deputy head of a local secondary school !

You need to go to Liverpool or City then.

I watched Bolton quite a bit in Sam’s time there They started out as an ale house team but as time went by he introduced more and more skilful players. If you couldn’t admire the likes of Djorkaeff and Okocha you shouldn’t really be watching football.

Wigan RLFC fans are known as pie eaters because the miners in Wigan went back to work during a strike a hundred years ago. They were seen to have eaten humble pie.

Ex Rover Matty Platt has just signing for them as well.

Sam was more or less pre Venkies. You couldn’t accuse the club of being un-professional then irrespective of what you thought of the football.

I would think not. He’s not captain material in my book.

That’s not really why we sign players. The idea is to sign players that improve the team and get the club further up the pecking order. We needed to improve the team that season and not 3 years in the future. If we’re looking for investments we should be putting our money in bitcoin or Rolex watches.

It’s not just the last five years is it ? Basically it’s been a doss since Big Sam left.

If I had to bet on it I’d say Dack will never be the force he was previously. Those were two really serious injuries. Being out for the best part of a year in todays football is never a good sign. The thing is, everybody in football will be thinking the same. Who’s going to take a chance on buying him ?

That’s what’s needed. It’s been too easy peasy at Rovers for too long.

One of my mates was on the books at Bury when they were in the old Div 2. Same Div as Rovers at the time. I bumped into on the Saturday night and he told me he’d been selected to play against Wolves Reserves at Molineux in the old Central League on the following Tuesday afternoon. I was making my way home that afternoon after work when I saw him in one of the local record shops. I said “ I thought you were playing at Wolves today “. He said “ I over slept and missed the coach “. Needless to say he didn’t go far in the game. I’d have walked to Wolves to play at a ground like that. Some have the right attitude and some don’t . If it isn’t in you it’s hard for somebody to put it there.

Yeah I thought that as well. Indicative of the malaise that has run through the club from top to bottom. Holiday camp mentality. He’s going to have to upset a few.

How I’d expect it to work is - JDT tells Broughton we need a new right back, “ see what you can find “. Broughton has a look around , finds three likely candidates, and the two of them make a joint decision on who it should be.

Or a right back.

You won’t get many results without performances.

I haven’t followed much of the interviews. Mowbray cured me of listening to interviews. It’s not what they say but what they do that matters to me. Having said that you’d have to be churlish not to be impressed by the blokes general demeanour and manner. What a change to see the manager with a smile on his face.

Play to his strengths, get the ball in front of him, make it so his first touch is a shot on goal.

It was 5 wasted years for me. I’m 5 years older and we’re no nearer to getting back to the top level. In fact you could argue in terms of resources we’re further away.

Will Luton be up there again ?

That’s been my experience with marketing people in other sports unfortunately. I suppose the same applies to football.