Mattyblue

I think I speak for everyone in wanting you to open that particular thread…

‘Phelan, Phelan, Phelan!’

‘Tens of thousands of Burnley fans’ in a different borough? Thought Longers was trying to make out that their supporters all wandered to the ground from the terraced streets around t’Turf?

Amazing photo, like a pic from an 1840s east end workhouse, not the late 1940s.

He was 38 by the end of his time here, so of course he was in decline. But in his pomp, he was without doubt world class in certain games.

Still be higher than Watford (they fetched 592), with it being a Saturday 3pm, no?

Sacking the manager on the day of the game is novel, even for the Championship…

Me neither, but 7k with £30 tickets? Think we know what Swag will be doing… unless an allocation is restricted due to a bubble/police advice.

They won’t get 8k, as there will obviously be netted off areas. So 7k-ish as per PNE. Certainly does sound like no bubble…

Ian Miller next to Patterson.

In the early 90s we had a promising young winger called Jason Wilcox who quit the game due to the abuse he got from the Riverside.

It is a dead rubber NL wise. So GS can’t hide behind an excuse like ‘I can’t try x, y or z because we need Nations League points’. If he wants to try something, try it. On the other hand if you think it’s too close to the tournament to experiment, fine, say that. But don’t come out with weak stuff like ‘well, we’d just get criticised if I try it’.

I get that, my point was how big could a football club been in those towns if RL had never taken off there, like it didn’t in Bolton or Blackburn. We’ll never know obviously, just an interesting counter-factual.

So what if you are criticised? It’s a dead rubber. You’re the manager you play the personnel/system you think will suit the players you have and may give you other options in a tournament. What pathetically weak management.

I’ve always wondered how big a football club the likes of St Helen’s, Warrington, indeed Wigan could’ve produced without RL being so embedded. Warrington has a pretty big catchment area, for example. A Rovers/Bolton sized club? Or due to the vicinity to Manchester and Liverpool, more a Bury/Rochdale?

Why do white Brazilians only ever play in goal?

Why are Rovers pretty much *never* the Friday night Sky game after a decade in this league and there’s one shown pretty much every week? 🤷‍♂️

Of course, I judge people at this football club on results/actions, not words to an in-house video. Just like you judge a politician on their results or the CEO of your company on theirs, not whatever puff piece they put on your company’s intranet. We’ve had a decade of a lot of hot air here and not a lot of results. And so by that same barometer, GB’s results/actions have been pretty good so far and that’s all that matters.

Freddy Adu never actually existed.

Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t make it complicated.

Not sure what I’ve said there that can be disagreed with. I.e Businesses and public bodies employ PR, but ok.

I trust him to do his best for the club whilst employed here, and part of that employment is engaging in PR with stakeholders. Very simple concept to grasp (well I thought it was).

It’s not ‘cynical’ to understand that sports clubs, businesses, celebrities, politicians, the monarchy, you name it, spin narratives. Basic PR, indeed that’s why said institutions/people employ PR professionals. Just the way it is, but you are, of course, free to take the word of any public figure at face value. I am also free to always take it with a pinch of salt.

The naivety, endearing really. He will be telling some truth, but will also be spinning a narrative. For fans, for the owners, for the press, for the rest of the competition. And that’s fine by the way, it’s what everybody in football does. And as for the second paragraph, well, I suppose the local media are as supine as you’d expect the in-house to be anyway, so why not.

Or constantly playing him wide to accommodate the Lampard/Gerrard combo that never worked.