Mattyblue

I’m not too fussed about it. It’s round four against a middling opposition, not the semi final, on a midweek just before Christmas. Fairly standard to sell bugger all. But of course, that LT story will now see a week of hand wringing and ‘shit are Rovers fans’ posts all over social media.

Hannover must be lying, as I thought ‘demand has been met’?

To be fair a lot do buy in the run up. So I presume 5/6k home fans by KO, which is what we’ve seen many a time for League Cup ties… though that’s usually a 1st round turn out against a L2 club, not round 4 against a PL side.

I’m thinking more of your Guy Mowbray, Martin Keown types on comms.

Part of it is because outside World Cups the BBC/ITV pundits and commentators never get to do games with him playing, ergo they seem to be a little starstruck.

Haven’t won there since 1999.

World Cup Semi Final… and it’s Danny Murphy 🤦‍♂️

They pretty much never get to Christmas with shirts in stock, every other club does. Ergo the initial order has to be too low.

We are third in the table, simple as that. Always the way that from December onwards they just pick whoever is at the top end of the table over and over.

Wigan now a Monday night Sky game in February… still going to be Cat A (£30 to £35), Swag?

Oh I get that in isolation a World Cup QF is obviously a bigger event than a Championship game. I suppose for me the difference is that I have no emotional connection to the England team, I check in to watch a few matches in a tournament every couple of years, so if they lose it doesn’t upset me one iota, whereas Blackburn Rovers is one of the biggest things in my life, day in day out, year in year out, if the team struggles, the club struggles, and that can really impact the future health of our great club, so defeats and bad runs feel much more existential. England lose? Well they’ll just go again as one of the favourites next time and I’ll see how they go in 2024.

I find it interesting that folk get really invested in England every couple of years to the extent of ‘devastation’. I enjoy a tournament, especially in a summer as a distraction, and obviously I want England to get as far as possible. But literally as soon as the whistle went on Saturday night, it was an ‘oh well’ and I won’t give that team a single thought now until June 2024… On the flip side I’m still fuming about PNE now.

Yep, I bought mine in a brief pique of giddy excitement post West Ham, not sure I’d be bothering if they had gone on sale on Monday morning…

Just imagine with all the horrors and injustice we see in the world… and it’s a footballer getting lauded by pundits that ‘sickens’ you.

Nearly Christmas and they’ve lost one game and they’ll presumably spend in January. They know they need to get back up quick so they aren’t messing about.

We saw that in patches against the South Africa attack in the summer. We go gung-ho against Starc, Cummins et al and we could be in a hole very quickly. But for now let’s just enjoy the ride!

Two classics there. 2003 UEFA Cup shirt and the 125th anniversary. 👌

13 out of 15 permanent managers have been English, so obviously the vast majority of good ones are going to be… English. Not for the first time I think he missed his statistics lessons in Maths…

Happy hour is over up there… https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/thats-on-mowbray.1595567/

They do, but the manager has often gone before they have the chance.

Do managers that have had a distinguished career in the game not lose dressing rooms?

Two absolute shockers. We were utter garbage in both. I’m not glossing over it, the honeymoon is well and truly over for him. But that doesn’t lead me to demand his sacking when sitting third at the season’s halfway point (and no I don’t think we’ll stay there). Lost the plot some on here.

No club, never mind this one (Well, maybe Watford) are sacking managers when 3rd in the league half way through the season. With this budget and these players, should we be second, first? ‘But, but, false position’ will be the response. We probably will fall away, I imagine we’ll finish mid table. But actual demands to sack the bloke as we stand? On what grounds? Being well beaten by sides 1st and 5th? Be angry after those two debacles, certainly, but bloody hell get a bit of perspective.

Aririgo Sacchi

Most fans don’t take it literally, Masher. Just a neat turn of phrase from a great football orator about the passion we have for the game. ’The most important of the non important things’ is one I like.