He’s deemed a broadcast ‘journalist’, so thus on the list.

Ewood a ‘very tough environment’? Heard it all now

As an aside, Piers is a key worker. So get that test son!

I’m certainly not anti-Rovers, so I get the need for the top divisions to get back as it could well be financial Armageddon otherwise. But it just sticks in the throat that we’ve got to this position that we are scrambling to play sterile games at empty grounds in the midst of a global pandemic, instead of just drawing a line under this season and trying to salvage 2020/2021, solely to satisfy TV contracts. It’s so dire that any break in payments or rebates could collapse the whole operation, it seems unbelievable with the money pumped into the game this past couple of decades, but of course, hundreds of millions are pissed up the wall every year.

https://youtu.be/kEcV8FZH4mI

Neither side usually get close to filling it, apart from the Milan Derby and Juventus games. The upper tiers are closed a lot of the time.

Works both ways Rev. You either snap back into an old habit as you say, or you pick up new habits and old ways become obsolete - the decline of the high street a prime example.

Indeed, doesn’t take long for humans to get used to new ways of doing things and develop habits accordingly.

Probably shouldn’t have used you as an example Paul, as like you I’ll be back, whenever that is. However, the point stands, I believe crowds have now peaked in this country after 30 years of growth and will now decline sharply, especially in the EFL (we were ahead of the curve on that score!).

Made me laugh that the chadster liked Rev’s post about folk falling for every bit of government PR and ‘treating it as gospel‘. Self-awareness not his strong point, obviously.

Didn’t look that way on Southend beach...

I have read them, and I have spotted a big change in tone. It’s called managing expectations and is a big part of PR and crisis management. But I’ll bow down to your inside track of 47 Championship and League 1 boardrooms (in various stages of financial collapse) garnered from an EFL press release.

Chaddy before you start trying to patronise people, try to stop taking every bit of PR guff as gospel and at least try to read between the lines.

Looks as if postponement is becoming increasingly likely then. But they do seem insistent on playing the play offs, not sure why those games should be exempt, but there you go. The ‘C’ below stood out, with one of those 4 teams being us if we’d actually turned up at Derby... 2. This means that, in the event of an early curtailment: a. Final divisional placings should be determined on unweighted points per game (if required). b. Promotion and relegation should be retained. c. Play-Offs should be played in all circumstances but should not be extended (beyond four teams).

Then the sport is f*cked.

Football has never been this reliant on TV money. If this would’ve happened 30 years ago the season would have long been postponed. This farce is only carrying on because the game is now totally in hock to television money, vast amounts of cash that goes straight back out of the game and into the pockets of players and agents. What should be the strongest, richest sport in the world is entirely built on sand.

3rd choice (or 4th) even better. Don’t need to play cup games or U23 games or even bother with match day squads.

And this is exactly why English football is in big trouble. A year + out of the ground and ‘Paul’s’ across the country, fans with decades of attending their club’s games, fans who have usually renewed their STs as a force of habit, realise that they don’t particularly miss it, then the sport in this country is over as we know it. Floating fans obviously float in and out, but you lose your core support and it’s game over. Which in someways will lead the sport to a well overdue coming to collective senses, but could also lead to a huge number of clubs folding and our unique pyramid will be finished.

So lads largely from working class backgrounds in their 20s and early 30 with wives and kids have ‘settled down’ and lost that edge, have they? For a bloke that isn’t particularly young you’ve a lot to learn Vinners

There’s obviously a big public appetite for rural based detective shows then! Get John Nettles a test ASAP!

Hull the first Championship club to break ranks and call for a curtailment of the season. Obviously a shed load of self interest there with them 21st, but a return to action doesn’t seem to be cut and dried as some posters thought. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/football/hull-city-allam-season-voided-4144894.amp

It probably will. Remember the first game after Kean went? The gate jumped about 5,000, it soon died back down. Our crowd is heavily built on the back of a hardcore of 8,000- 10,000 ST holders, we lose a fair number of those due to a plethora of reasons in the post COVID world and we will down to mid 80s levels.

The main issue is that even if a good number of clubs survive, 12/18 months out of the ground will see the habits of match goers broken and a collapse in crowd figures not seen for many a decade.

Indeed we don’t which is why I was lamenting the fall of two grand clubs in Rovers and Sunderland.

Of course keepers mature later. But in the modern game it is increasingly rare for footballers to come from the lower leagues well into their 30s to become a regular at a much higher standard. ‘Class’ I’m fairly confident, he ain’t. Neville Southall to answer your question - who was playing for a top side like 1980s Everton at 23. Not still in the third division at 33.