Well you did then like other posts saying ‘how far we’ve fallen to lose players to West Brom’ etc. so...

Were you? Didn’t sound like it or the other posters saying similar things straight after. Glad to hear you didn’t mean it anyway.

West Bromwich Albion are Founder Members of the Football League, they’ve spent around 80 seasons as a top flight club (10 seasons more than us), they’ve also won numerous trophies. They are a historical football club of similar ilk to Blackburn Rovers... oh and they are in the Premier League. Some serious football illiteracy if you think West Brom are a ‘nothing club’.

Ha that’s why I quickly edited after a Wiki, too slow obvs! I’m sure I spent the 90s thinking they were Aussie... probably how we signed Robbie Slater, or something

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Think they were only on trial. Naughty Rovers breaking the ‘1 A Trialist’ , ‘8 A Trialist’ rule and naming them.

One of our top earners (if not the biggest) playing for the U23s last night. That League 1 salary cap has caused a headache as that dead weight contract of Mulgrew will take some shifting...

Our announcement is due, then?

Noticed Willem Tomlinson was playing for Accy last night against the U23s. Looks like something has gone on down at Mansfield off the pitch by the looks of this thread... https://www.stagsnet.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=37273

The ‘disconnect’ that Tom mentions is going to be a big problem. Talking to the father in law yesterday, who’s been going since the early 60s, he said he’d lost a hell of a lot of interest. The longer there’s nothing on sale, the longer folk are out of the ground, the more will simply drift away, happy to have their weekends back.

Immediately? He’s about to start his third season here...

We must have visited on different occasions...

But you also need to pick an 11 to win games. He was very poor for the most part in his cameos, the manager can’t then risk building an attack around him.

Newcastle is usually silent, one of the biggest myths going about ‘52,000 screaming Geordies’. They gave 10,000 STs away for free last season as their fans had walked away. No club has fans any more ‘passionate’ than any other. Is Joe Bloggs, Newcastle fan more passionate than Joe Harvey, Rovers fan? And it certainly wasn’t the case in the 90s, which is Batty’s terms of reference...

Define ‘great’?

Total nonsense though. Conflating raw numbers (that one club big cities like those two should have) with passion.

It really was just a job for him. Since retirement he’s totally walked away from the game, no interest - as proven when he was the only member of the 94/95 squad not to come to Ewood for the reunion evening.

Considering league games are only £10, and you can get a SEASON pass for £110 (£4.70 a game), yes I think it’s poor value.

Batty was one of the best midfielders I’ve ever seen at Ewood. 93/94 he was immense. However, spent much of the next season injured and left at Christmas the year after, so obviously he didn’t have the consistent presence Sherwood had. Though still a much better player, for me.

A competitive game? Absolutely. However fans are still consumers and expect value, £5.99 is steep for a friendly on a stream.

Thought it was a service provided by Blackpool?

He looked better, though from a very low base. Really, really hope you are right, vital that such a big outlay for the club turns out ok. With a name like yours, I presume you’ve been watching football a long time, so fair enough if you think he ‘has it’, for me, he still seems extremely raw and not someone who will make a telling impact in the short to medium term.

It’s that fee that’s kept him hanging round here, when it was screamingly obvious he should’ve spent some time on loan learning his trade. Would a 19 year old from our academy been given so many chances? The fee can’t come into it when you are a million miles away. Instead TM has insisted on throwing him on the pitch when it was clear his confidence had completely drained away. Will he ever make it? Not sure he will, glimpses over lockdown, this upcoming season is last chance saloon here for him and the club, but I do feel he has been managed poorly.

They seem to be trying to sign folk up intermittently. I couldn’t read any articles at some points last week. Today and I’m straight in.

I watch very little European football as don’t have BT, and to be honest seeing the cartel clubs playing and further enriching each other year in year out at the expense of the competitiveness of domestic football does little for me. However I remembered at the last minute that BT have to show the final free of charge so I found it on their YouTube channel... they don’t advertise that fact very widely though, strangely enough