Yep, noticed Southgate was hinting at it yesterday...

I read today that the wider sport industry is hopeful of having fans in grounds by the back end of the year, if allowed. On the surface that’s good news. However, the industry is making a big assumption that fans will be happy to flock back to stadiums. Just like hopes for a V-shaped (or a version of V) economic recovery is based on public habits snapping back to the heavy consumer spending we had before, sport will expect fans to come back in similar numbers to before. If the virus is still circulating in the country (which it very likely will be, and to be clear, there won’t be a vaccine this year), many fans (especially older supporters, that make up large percentages of match goers) will be reticent to go back, I know a few myself. And that’s before we even think of the parts of the fanbase that are very worried about their personal finances and season tickets will be way down the list of priorities. A League 2 club that budgets for 4,000 crowds and a few hundred hospitality heads per game, suddenly gets 2,000 and no hospitality, blowing a massive hole in budgets already decimated. Yes, it’s salvageable through wage cuts and the like, but BCD or not, many lower league club’s will take a long time to recover, if they ever do, as the PL and CL clubs carry on with their £60million transfers...

Bet he was very well behaved at school

Remind him of that next time he goes on about potential signings for next season

Hope you’re right, but I feel you are going to be very disappointed (bit like your vaccine)...

Of course that’s right, everybody has been saying the lower league clubs need help, doesn’t take a genius to work out no income = no club. Where you have been consistently wrong is that you actually expect the football authorities to step up...

And I thought we wasted our parachute money...

A lot of things could be offered by the likes of the FA and PL. (Which is what you were saying on the 22nd April, so you’ve been consistent in naively expecting infamously selfish and inept organisations to ride to the rescue). Two months later and bugger all has been offered to these desperate clubs. Soon it will be too late for something to actually happen

That’s the first time you’ve acknowledged that many clubs could go to the wall. Usually it’s been ‘well this could happen’, ‘the FA/PL/PFA could that’. We all hope that loans are offered by the ‘football family’, but knowing the ineptness of the FA and the shoulder shruggers of the PL, it doesn’t seem very likely. Rugby League has already sorted a government bailout, if EFL clubs are going to go down the same road, they and the government need to get into negotiations very quickly...

So you do agree with my original point that the football pyramid is in a real mess?

Exactly. And that’s why some people need to get real on here to the absolute dire straits the lower leagues are in.

You’ve just repeated your last post, what happens if they don’t get these loans (loans that don’t exist currently)?

Sorry Mr Chadwick, I’ll make sure I’ve listened to all SSN interviews before I comment in future! Well obviously they need bail outs, we’ve been discussing that on here for weeks. Indeed it’s the only way for them to start playing again at best, survive at worst from what I can see. However, you can’t just pin your survival on a possible loan that may/may not arrive at some point in the future. For any re-start these clubs will have to service their fixed costs that would need paying immediately. The government? perhaps, considering Tottenham have arranged one with the BofE. The PFA? They are a trade union, they can’t bail out 40/50 distressed companies! The PL? They should, but I’ll believe it when I see it. But there’s no guarantees, so what’s the plan then? Salary cap? There will be no salaries to cap.

Issue is now, if the majority of L1/L2 clubs couldn’t afford to finish this season with no fans in the ground, how could they possibly start next season BCD? What on earth will have become of the pyramid if fans aren’t allowed back for say, 12 months?

We are in agreement then, if TM thinks he is the best man for the job, then get him in.

Read my last post again, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Of course football recruitment can’t be just based on qualifications, it’s too dynamic, coaches need real match day experience to draw on, too emotional an industry for that, relationships are all important. Can’t say I put much truck in ‘coaching badges’ anyway. My point was merely you don’t just hand out jobs because old pros round the place fancy it. You give them to people that can improve the club, if TM thinks he can, then sign him up. Fair enough, no?

Who’s being dismissive? I, like you have no idea of how good he could be. If TM feels he needs a new coach and DG interviews best, then that’s good enough for me. Remember, TM is a ‘football man’, his requirements for a coach won’t just be how many qualifications/university time he has, but if he feels he’s a leader the players will listen to/relate to, if he can use his playing experience to improve our strikers, if he’s a motivator, if he can play that bridging role between him and the players. Wholly uncontroversial in my view, to have only the highest standards in recruitment. That’s how organisations improve.

A bit like when Allardyce appointed a certain coach...

A qualification (and he hasn’t completed them, by the way) is just that, it qualifies you for a particular role. Doesn’t mean you have the other qualities needed to perform it, that’s for the recruiting manager to assess. He seems a popular bloke around the place, but because he has a qualification and has had a decent career as a player doesn’t mean he should be just given an important role in a non-playing leadership position If he’s the best man for the job, then get him in, in an ideal world we’d all prefer ‘Rovers men’ at all levels of the club, part of the reason the club feels so hollow is the lack of them on the board of directors, but if we aspire to be a top professional organisation it should always be a rigorous recruitment process, for whoever the candidate is.

How do you know it’s a sound investment? Is he a good coach? We have no idea. So what if he’s completed coaching badges, or if he wants to be a coach. The game is saturated with wannabe coaches. Only TM will know if he looks as if he’s got what it takes to make it in a non playing leadership role. If he feels he has, great, if he hasn’t then off you go. Appointments should always be on merit, not jobs for the boys or by sentiment.

An empty ground is par for the course in a lot of Test playing nations unfortunately, so it won’t be too odd to see, especially for the West Indies players...

I saw the screenshotter was getting wound up when it was on, as our overlord J*B was saying the ‘66 team would get beat by Mowbray’s Rovers. I presume he was on a fishing expedition. But it’s an interesting point. Not that the two teams are even close in quality, but the game is just quicker now. So you plonk that team into 2020 and they’d struggle to get to grips in with the pace. A bit of a daft discussion really, as given time to condition they’d wipe the floor with Mogga’s lot. Reminds me of the famous Harry Enfield sketch...

So? He should still have knowledge of emerging county and international cricketers. That’s part of the job. He had been Durham chairman for a couple of years and I didn’t spot any improvement. I like the bloke, but his time had come and gone. I was more annoyed about Gower, as he was an excellent host.

Thought Botham was past it. You could tell he watched zero country or non-England international cricket, so had little knowledge of emerging players and teams. Usually just went on about getting pissed up in the ‘80s. Totally in contrast to the likes of Nasser and Atherton and even Bumble, who behind the clown persona, is still in touch with the game lower down.

Possibly. She had to apologise as she was trying to contact others to help with my MyRovers account but was finding it difficult to get hold of other departments.