Parachute money fails to deploy - the Football League and beyond 2015-16

http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/67/590x/Charlie-Austin-498934.jpg

He's ready to gtfo

somebody had to take the plunge, so to speak

if he gs tfo as top scorer after gameweek one it will be a right old shame

can we do some more READY pix now

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article8990379.ece/alternates/w620/Uwe-Rosler.jpg

he's ready to follow orders

http://www.herefordtimes.com/resources/images/4100786/

HE'S CLEARLY READY

http://www.burtonalbionfc.co.uk/cms_images/player/tfs-1537-4x3241-2232363_478x359.png

JIMMY'S READY

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/62233000/jpg/_62233697_robinson_emp.jpg

HE'S GOING PLACES

http://media.balls.ie/uploads/2015/05/Blackpool-pitch-invasion.jpg

HE'S NOT

Rösler is already coming out with this "give me another season" narrative, lol not happening dude!

It's an extraordinarily beautiful morning in East Devon and I'm feeling an odd feeling of looking forward excitedly to the new season, but having no real expectation of any particular excitement.

I'd be surprised if we are much involved in happenings at either end of the league, but then again I'm often surprised.

Lovely boring social football season.

Tisdale only has to last the season and he'll bring up the Big Ten

this is one of the best football wiki pages obv: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_Football_League_managers

gareth ainsworth at 11 already

i see one obvious candidate for not being in the top 10 by next May

you're right - Jim Bentley's taken Morecambe as far as he can go

considering the number of times Karl Robinson's name crops up when anybody from Champo down needs a new manager that's an impressive record of nobody wanting him

tbf he's turned a few down

kind of wonderful that the league's premier paragon of loyalty is the mk dons manager

also, Tisdale is ~42 years old~

he could go full Gradi if Exeter feel like it

Several things would need to change significantly at the club for him to want to leave, or be sacked I think (our corporate decision-making structure is not really fit for firing managers, I think).

My instinct is that Gradi is Tisdale's model, but I do wonder whether he fancies a crack at something bigger than little old Exeter. Conventional wisdom is that he was offered the Swansea job twice back along, including the time that Brendan R took it - tis's career trajectory would have been very different if he'd gone then, for good or ill.

Now I think he likes the continuity and has an eye on his own ongoing quality of life - there's a chance he really will eventually be seen as a Gradi figure, especially if we can get the odd promotion here or there. Two Exeter youngsters in last year's England u-20 squad (the only ones from outside the prem iirc), two more in the u-15 right now, there's a chance that we'll come good (some version thereof at least) with the youth system.

You were not a million miles from a tilt at the Championship a few years ago. Could it happen again? The leagues are getting tougher and tougher as player recruitment and coaching improves and globalises, but if you can't beat 'em...

There's no reason it couldn't happen, but it requires a bit more of each of luck + brilliance as each year goes by.

I should add that I *love* Paul Tisdale but lots of our fans don't, he's by no means perfect.

62 percent possession first half, never change Kenny J

t.watt indeed

sounds like a greeno rick, glad we're back in the groove

Gillingham is the big story in L1 today

ffs just need Doncaster R to get a late winner for a 119/1 acc

oh shi

Yes!

93rd minute!

Holy Shit! I have Ipswhich13/5,Sheff Wed 11/8, Donny5/4, Notts Co 21/10. Not quite 119/1 but I have £2 on it!

oh fuck

Leon f'ing Clarke as well!

lol that must be Leon's most valuable goal ever

i mean literally

i suspect we have not missed him today

4-1 was a decent enough start, plus we hit the woodwork three times. They were favourites to go up last week.

Attendance 4060, a league record. By over 2500. They brought 37.

tsk you money clubs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

chin up rtc if twatt hadn't had a little incident in training during the week and been banished to the naughty step for 45 minutes it could have been worse

I haven't watched it yet but it sounds like Football League Tonight is a terrible show and some are even saying "we will even take Claridge back, anything but this!"

I might just catch it later for the league table review bit

lol, more on Clarke's at the death equaliser.

Doncaster allowed Bury to walk in an equaliser after netting a freak goal themselves in a bizarre 1-1 draw at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Paul Dickov instructed his players to clear a path for Bury to find the net after Doncaster scored by mistake in second-half stoppage time when attempting to return an act of good sportsmanship.

The midfielder Harry Forrester tried, following a throw-in, to return the ball to visiting goalkeeper Christian Walton who had knocked it out of play following an injury, but the ball bounced over Walton and found the Bury net.

Rather than take advantage, Doncaster allowed Leon Clarke to amble half the length of the pitch unchallenged before tapping home.

doncaster deserve more credit, having leon walk it in is like burying a 30 yard free kick

The C5 FL show was jawdroppingly bad

Crystal Palace have accepted an offer from Bristol City for striker Dwight Gayle, according to Sky sources.

It is understood the deal is worth £6m, but could rise to as much as £8m with incentives that have been included in the bid.

I knew that Landsdown was minted but their current chairman Dawe is only worth a modest £40m so there must be someone else bankrolling them

I was googling Bristol City chairman and found out that one of them was a former Pet Shop Boys/Bros keyboard player.

Images of him shoehorning in a Drop The Boy gag at every board meeting

Itt weak jokes that you make that could have been sketches on the laughter show

I couldn't care less about the league cup but jeez Powell, playing 5 at the back at home against L2 opposition and not changing anything when they are down to 10 is diabolical management.

Sometimes I think the last few managers we have had all resorted to self sabotage deliberately in order to get sacked because it is a shit job and some kind of malaise sets in after a season.

At least Brentford have the 10 changes excuse

11 changes tyvm

I couldn't get to the match last night but this league might not be a piece of pish after all.

we seem to have had a bid accepted for tim "rules everything around me" ream

the amount of times i've watched per mertesacker over the years and thought gosh i'd really love one of those at lr 👍

Reading go into the insect extermination business

Green>>>West Ham
Smithies>>>QPR
It looks like QPR have bid £2 mill for Smithies and they want him as no. 1 so this could be a goer. He is worth double that imo but our chairman seems a lot less resolute these days on transfer matters.

Today was a shocking game, both sides still looking in jittery pre-season mode and players like Rhodes & Marshall looking a shadow of their former selves. Town increasingly looking worse than they have ever been at this level, they are definitely missing the influence of Coady.

It's an ominous sign when Coventry who we have studiously avoided in the league since '72 are making a good start in L1.

not sure what of any of that situation to believe tbh - that green is actually wanted, that the club wouldnt still prefer daniel bentley (and if so that southend want more than 2m), that smithies is worth it (i'll take your word)

today was a hot mess p much, i'm none the wiser about any of it. quite bored of zamora's curse now tho

Smithies wasn't in the squad today so he is probs off.

he only bothered for 15 mins but i was intrigued by ben gladwin - real oddball autodidact non-league curio, looks like a cross between luke shaw and ivanovic but with a fancyman winger's sporadic airs and graces. gl fitting him into any type of system

chris waddle if we're going for a specific winger actually

i'm also really going to miss austin's traditional 55th minute "i am so bored and frustrated at this fucking hoofball that i'm going to charge over across cover my left back or something idk" play

ah forgot we had wolves away next. nv your boys are going to dick us no fear

Dave May ‏@davehmay 4h
@Lolleyj10 Failed fitness test, Joe?

Joe Lolley @Lolleyj10
@davehmay No, feel fit!

what's all this about then btw xelab. i'd have him at ours

Probably fucking too adventurist for Powell's liking. I had not actually heard anything and presumed he was injured. I think we have drained his vitality to the point that his heart flummoxes the beep test.

just c+p that to the burgeoning Joe Lolley thread on our board.

fuck me football league tonight on channel 5 is atrocious. can't believe the beeb let the rights go to channel 5, football league show was fucking great. manish and steve claridge, come on this was classic stuff. football league tonight is post-soccer am (groan) shite. get it tae fuck man.

sub not used adam virgo as a studio guest for the love of christ

you thought this was bad, last week was apocalyptic. mad dog martin allen for fucking crying out loud

Full name Benjamin Thomas C. Gladwin

how many footballers affect an initial

There is a lot of noise that our owner wants to sell up and is disillusioned with the club and Powell is pissed because funds that were promised didn't materialise. It sounds quite credible seeing as we seem to be selling players at the first offer and there has been a lethargy at the club for the last year. We not at the Blackpool level of crisis club yet but the squad is wafer thin + lacking championship class at the back in particular.

I can't bring myself to watch that C5 shite, I agree with jim, the beeb show wasn't really that bad and Mannish was sound.

thank fuck the art of Scottish goalkeeping isn't dead

Butterfield >>> Derby confirmed by his step-bad who posts on the Barnsley board. The club is rudderless right now and accepting first bids on all the best players, what a wretched start to the season :(

well this has gone slightly better than expected at coventry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2jahZBzjjc

Allan McGregor you beautiful man

Just seen that ceballos corner for charlton, poor lad

one has to fear that with a few of our fans his reputation is therein fixed for good

oh man i've just been offered an exclusive evening at Nando's with members of the first team

:D

you good with a hidden camera?

Queuing for a cup of tea out the back of Dagenham's away stand. 1-0 up at half time. Jamie Cureton is still playing. Stuff of dreams.

bbc london doing regular reports from that one, didn't know ryan harley went back to st james'

Love him so much. He has a good song to the tune of the bridge from "Can't Take My Eyes Off You".

Cup of tea achieved. Dream come true.

Thank fuck the chairman has ruled out selling up and selling Butters unless the offer is £4m+ at the canalside before the game and also promised the Coady/Smithies money is going to be re-invested. Also confirmed that Vaughan aint getting a new contract which is sensible considering his top earner/least games ratio.

Some kind of crisis of confidence in the first half and we could have been a few down and looked like fooking L1 hoofers, but right at 'em in the second and beautiful equaliser by Butters.

Any win is a pleasing win; that we've won two of our three league games so far and still have a minus 1 goal difference is weirdly satisfying though I know it shouldn't be.

Daggers look worse than usual this year, one of their lot really stood out as miles better than the rest - turns out he's a 17 year old youth product called Jodi Jones.

(I've always assumed their team has been made up of big strong willing cheap lads who didn't make the grade at London's bigger (but not biggest) clubs, augmented by a few who have drifted up from your Grays and Billericays; this year they don't seem as big or fast or scary, somehow, and dear old Jamie Cureton can't keep going forever.)

We've been linked with Jones but West Ham have too, so we probably won't sign him like we did Danny Green way back when. He's probably better than Danny Green though

He was impressive tonight for sure; I hadn't heard of him because I don't really pay attention, but he stuck out of a mediocre Daggers side.

oh i don't want the scouting report, always feels dreadfully patronising when premiership fans do it to our own youth prospects

dagenham & redbridge will probably always vacillate between league and non-league; they are almost the perfect cusp club in that sense. their break for freedom was valiant but alas short-lived

Except they haven't, have they? They came up and they've stayed, unlike Barnet and Torquay. I have half an idea that the Daggers understand how to scrape along on a shoestring in a way some others (ourselves included) have never quite got.

Yeovil look like they might make a bid to crash back out this year, which given they seem to attract crowds easily twice as big as the Daggers would be unforgivable. But there seem to be plenty of clubs in the early season running for having a total stinker of a year, and Yeovil did recruit a totally new squad ten of fifteen minutes ago, so maybe they're just gelling or whatever.

or, not of.

i mean in a grand sense, looking into the deep long-term

they've stayed, they've gotten into league one, but if they manage to stick it and establish themselves in the league over a period of decades i'll be impressed and amazed

My alltime second fave season was the 03/04 Season in the basement, so much degenerate action and so many new grounds to visit. It was a beautiful season. We got dicked 6-2 by Scunny + 4-0 by Macc and blew a 1-0 lead against Cheltenham via a suicidal Pav Abbott backpass. We completely fucked up auto on the last game and went up via a controversial ruled out goal by Clattenburg and penalty shoot out- (again)

For some reason I thought Lansdown had walked from Bristol City, more ffp madness when a team who have recently written off £35m worth of debt + just up from L1 can bid £9m for a rival club's striker. Sickening, really hope these fuckers fail.

That's ridiculous.

I am recalling how, when Daggers brought on Ashlee Chambers last night, I was wishing very very hard for him to have squad number 36.

dicking in the balance

i swear to god Claridge has just commented adversely on Le Fondre's "moving clubs a lot"

Ikeme back in goal at the weekend

we must've spent pre-season playing dominoes or something

wd love a stream of this, commentators talking so much bollocks idk how to perceive (i went for bbc london, preferring steve froggatt to claridge)

did lol at their bemusement at austin and phillips barely celebrating the first

steve froggatt was excellent for our game last night

or maybe he was just saying lots of nice things about us and coming off like an ex pro who's also a good bloke idk

p sure the two of them (a&p xxp) literally just had a word in the centre circle at 0-2 and said "ffs lets get ourselves the fuck out of here"

nv deserves everything he gets for 'dicking in the balance' tbrr

ya froggy just went on a real england rant about wenger letting afobe go

just wait until he sees akpom eh

lol someone's bunning on my bus btw

Claridge is a fucking cunt who must've got bullied to shit at Wolves cos he's always hated us, wd take Froggatt given the option obv

a night of two-twos xp

o no lies it is the man behind me rolling one

what's happening in the match

claridge doesn't like us either obv

smmfh

worst is this doesn't sound undeserved, and i wasn't impressed with the 70 minutes of us i saw on Sunday either

wow phillips is terrified of staying

just rly glad I wasn't online when we went 2 up over rtc's boys to commence premature gloating

my old man's health is shaky enough without this you feckless twats

i'd actually last minute bottled betting against us with afobe first scorer, wasnt a good moment

this game is basically kinda meaningless for both sides tho rly in the grand scheme, two class players on their way out perverting the natural course of justice

script says this is a late 3-3 btw

I hope Andre Gray is negotiating a decent relegation release clause into his Bristol contract.

see, luongo just declined to square a tap in xp

9m for gray is so obscene, you could pay off a whole ffp fine with that

If he decides not to sign for them at that price I'm going to be so angry.

at best we'll have dropped 4 points from our first 2 home games, thank fuck our fans are philosophical and patient

apparently Claridge only had 5 games for us, that explains a lot

it felt so much longer

9m for gray is so obscene, you could pay off a whole ffp fine with that

― r|t|c, Wednesday, August 19, 2015 8:28 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why must you

if Sako is the difference between last season and this season then christ help us

dicko coming off was a big touch for us

ahahahaha leeds

sigh

well, kudos rtc

Wonderful.

(Bristol v Leeds, obv)

One of them rare moments when i would actually wanted a Leeds win for once.

excuse the bad english, i'm pissed

knew i shd've bought more crisps and sweets today

<3 David Wheeler.

As far as I'm concerned, Rupert Murdoch embodies a lot of what is wrong with society and, while I don't kid myself it will change anything, I make my own mini protest by not buying any of his newspapers – if I'm honest, it's not a huge hardship as there isn't much in them to interest me in any case.

Unfortunately, it's a bit more difficult to keep abreast of all the football action without subscribing to Sky, but at the minute I'm getting around it by utilising my dad's log-in details to watch games online.

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/David-Wheeler-column-Trip-Northampton-Town-left/story-27638529-detail/story.html

He needs to become acquainted with wiziwig, but good on him for hating Murdoch.

opinion of smithies is probably the most divided i've ever seen for a keeper. what's the deal? it seems to be something a bit deeper than sour grapes extremism or the usual awesome shot stopper/clown otherwise review you'd normally get

A lot of our miserable fuckers never get bored of critiquing Smithies which is odd considering he is probably our best keeper since Vaesen. They will soon have something to moan about with Murphy who recently got lobbed from 36 yards. I think the reason the club sold him was because he was the 2nd top earner and I don't think they will be offering that level of wage any more. The more balanced posters on our board are sad that Smithies has gone and consider it a derisory fee, the haters are feeling vindicated.

I just re-watched the penalty shootout at Wembley, that Smithies vs Simonsen moment was glorious and pretty much his defining moment at Town for me (╯︵╰,)

i am having weirdly ambiguous feelings towards Birmingham under Gary Rowett

ace manager is GR and one of the more likeable managers from recent brum history, it is hard not to wish him well

yeah plus fuck Derby County

It looks like Butterfield>>>Derby is completely back on, so fuck them indeed - i hope they end up in receivership, fucking boring no-mark club and city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OM7sXY8KKE

beauty

shame i kiss of deathed them tonite

knew this'd be much better than pissing it away on ilm :)

bookmarked it. know a few people who are gonna love that one

meanwhile, i really cannot afford to go to the pub tomorrow, fiscally or spiritually, but i fear i may have to demonstrate to my Hull compadres that i'm not prematurely shook

if that isn't blasting out at St Andrews on a match day when the team walks out, they really need to look into it.

blues blues blues blues vs the tamperer is probably the best football song of all time tbf

it beats Wanky Wanky Wanky for sure

thudd is at the valley and i am playing cricket ;_;

pub it is then :/

There is a God!

We should be beating the likes of Fulham :-7

surprised symons lasted past the summer. they'll be dangerous when they get rid

league already looking intriguing (/evenly mediocre)

Tranmere 0 - 2 Boreham Wood

ouch! Jason McAteer, Kenny Irons Your boys took a hell of a beating

No surprise that Bowyer is the first to go

ooof xp

nigel blackwell gonna be writing some murder ballads

Very much a karmic payback result for Bruce today. Lol 9 minutes!

oh well at least i was in the pub

it looks like Bowyer hasn't gone yet, the board want to struggle session him a bit more first.

David Wheelerwatch: shot goes astray during pre-match warm-up, breaks wrist of his girlefirend; scores goal against Sunderland; recommends reading matter in his column in the Express and Echo:

While we're well used to some fairly long coach trips, we were very happy to fly most of the way to the Stadium of Light. Nevertheless, there was still a fair amount of travelling involved and I took the opportunity to get some sleep and catch up with the latest issue of New Statesman and How Much is Enough?, a fascinating study of wealth by Robert and Edward Sidelsky.

Love him so much.

back to the normal for coventry
"Coventry City fans have expressed their disbelief at being told they cannot use the new railway station set to open at the Ricoh Arena next month.
Train operator London Midland said the hourly passenger service would have 75 seats - the stadium has 32,600"

when twitter handles go wrong

Charlton Athletic FC ‏@CAFCofficial 8h
LOAN NEWS | @Cally_messi has joined @ColU_Official on loan until January 2nd

oh our forum has been giving him almighty & deserved shit for that for years, you'd think he'd change it

i thought he was gonna be a big deal, what happened

well h8 to remind u of the trauma but that famous jackson 1-0 at ours right, well he came on and did brutal things to aaron hughes that day, u probably have that seared onto an obscure part of ur cerebrum. he basically still runs down the left, with or without the ball, and makes terrible decisions. he cd still hack it at this level but he needs a major awareness upgrade

don't u have a spry young thing from like swindon or non-league or something urselves, hope he's not called like @davo_cron7

Pre-twitter but our old winger Lee Elam let it be known that his nickname was "Bestie", which amounts to the same thing.

His name is "male eel" backwards; just saying.

ok lol

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/alf-header.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uybtn6ebG0I

let in two goals every game this season but the minute i put on a btts...

anyway soz xelab sounded jammy

9/11 away wins in the champo today!

glad to've bucked that trend

dying throes of ALF morelike

― imago, Monday, 3 August 2015 13:49 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fp

lol i forgot about that

I had to leave just after the first half but up to that point we could have been ahead and often were better than or matching QPR, too many positives to moan. I am not too dispirited or worried yet because we have an improving team here, we just need that transfer window to fuck off.

I was talking to my brother + my step-dad at the game today and they both hate Smithies, I was weakly arguing with them about his superb distribution and lightning shot-stopping skills. They countered that I was too much of a vicarious fan for the last 5 years to know shit!

my old man does that line on me if i ever express an opinion he doesn't fancy

why u sell stearman idgi

well maybe:

Jackett talks about wanting to strengthen elsewhere, and needing cash from Stearman and Van la Parra. cautiously i think Stears is dispensible, and the needs in midfield are way greater. we have Hause, Ebanks-Landell, Iorfa and Danny Batth who all look Championship class at centre-half to me. all of them apart from Batth can play more or less anywhere across the back 4, and the more games they get now hopefully the better they'll become.

i think any defensive frailties at the moment are down to a lack of strengt in centre mid and not enough shielding the back 4. as my dad pointed out tonight, it's not even like Stears is the cool older head, he can be just as gung-ho as any of the rest of them.

if it was me then i wd still prefer to keep him but that might be sentiment - i really don't think we run much more risk without him in the back four than with, and the problem areas are elsewhere. so i'm prepared to trust Kenny Jackett that it's a straight squad-building decision at this stage.

don't see us bringing anybody in permanently before tuesday tea-time tho. we'll see, the club play their transfers v close to their chest under KJ

yeah idk i agree the kids look good but all together learning on the job in the champo is p intense... hause especially has looked raw

wasnt coady the ball winning answer tho. neither he nor mcdonald getting dropped i'm assuming so maybe dicko injury a blessing in disguise wrt having to change formation and fill the midfield?

i sincerely hope Coady is the long term answer to a lot of the midfield ish but he's young too and something's not clicking yet. personally feel like 2 up front plus Dave Edwards is always a mistake, it inevitably seems to lead to gaps further back. tbf to the squad as is, the problems might be youth plus underdeveloped team cohesion, we'll see.

as i said about Stears if it was me i'd keep him but Jackett has always seemed to keep a small squad, he seems to want the players he settles on playing as regularly as possible. given the potential in the back line i think he wants to develop it as quick as poss now. he may not have accounted for this being the most entitled, impatient set of fans he's ever worked with.

alternative is Morgan and Moxey are a pair of money-grubbing cunts who don't care how the club performs in the league. this is over-stated by some of our fans i think but there's elements of truth in it.

and also as i said Stearman has the experience but it has not really converted into wily old game-reading elder statesman leadership skills imo

"I didn't feel the mix was right necessarily in the early days.

"And I think we have to make some big decisions. If it's getting some money in and strengthening in other areas it's best to do it early.

"The early games there's been some promise but we do need to get sorted out, we do need to improve.

"The season is still early enough, if we make the key decisions and the big calls. Obviously we all realise within the club this is a big call."

At this stage he's lying thru his teeth or he's taking a big gamble in which case good luck to him.

Van la Parra is more worrying in a way, Jackett brought him in, he's never really worked out, who's scouting these boys?

the familiar feeling: "how the fuck are we losing to these cloggers"

according to my West Midlands-based correspondent we need to sack the owner, the chief executive and the manager and put Big Sam in charge but i'm not so sure tbh

We are beginning to look a bit better and our second today was a thing of beauty.

https://mobile.twitter.com/MattQuinn75/status/642796108889108480

According to a section of our myopic fans we need to be freed from the yolk of our evil despotic fan chairman who is carrying a 2 mill annual operating loss, just to be a shit selling championship club. Deal with it you fucking arseholes.

could powell get sacked if you lose at the valley on tuesday? kind of wondrous/horrifying if so

Redfearn has been spotted at about every home game recently x0== and I get a strong feeling Powell's days are numbered so I wouldn't write off that possibility. Thus far he has been the most boring and conservative manager we have had since Lou Macari. This probably sounds a bit harsh but, but he really is starting to piss me off. Another in a long fucking line of fucking shite mediocre cunts, fucking up my club :(

hopefully we'll be the latest in that line :D

Powell has benched some of our most creative attacking players and given his reluctance to make substitutions, this is looking like a fucking awful homecoming for him tonight. Wells on the bench for the woeful Miller who cant even trap a bag of sand, mind you neither can Wells at the moment tbf. I am just trying to cast some magic here, sometimes it works and Powell sure needs a helping hand at the moment or a new team selection tombola or something.

Miller scores, you have a FP :)

you twat

Lol! Good night tonight because Leeds lost as well and were denied a blatant penalty call and Pearson has just walked out on them. That is the former Hull City Pearson who probably was a moderating influence on their fucking insane chairman.

well at least someone's in a good mood

just be thankful we have a sieve for a keeper

awesome night for us, don't play, go up one place, think we have a new plan

xp
Obv all credit goes to big Ish who lead the line so well tonite :p

Some Bobby Fischer quote to NV.

What's worse than losing 3-0 at Blackburn? Losing 3-0 at Blackburn but being on a train that's shortly to arrive at Milton Keynes just in time to be flooded with sodding Leeds fans

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/SethJohnson02.JPG

that loaded v slowly but was obv seth.jpg before it got down to the eyes

be sure to update that rate people on public transport thread u revive from time to time when the dread beasts enter the carriage

the vile revenants

the very same, lj, the very same

just one family got on, but they're loud, and quite fat, and one of them is wearing a Smiths t-shirt

Bolton got off lightly today, in the 2nd half it was some Big Ish profligacy that spared them further humiliation. Huws has been some good business, we need to get the best out of him before he is recalled and sold in january, freescoring midfielders don't fuck about with shit like Town and he has already refused to play for his host club.

you've got yr swagger back all right

tbf it was said powell had these two games to save himself. and how

It was only reactionary, hysterical tossers like me saying that. I think after selling so many players our chairman was always going to give him some leeway.

"We took 6 thousand to Mk Dons, no other club in this division can do that"
*dead Bremner farts*

We were on the verge of signing free agent Shola Ameobi, but the latest word is he is talking to Wolves.

http://www.mkdons.com/news/article/club-break-attendance-record-1452294.aspx

go fuck yrselves dirty Leeds

oh i was wondering which Newcastle ledge my dad was trying to describe on the phone tonight

cuuuuuuunts

o lol

hoping this one gets 'tasty' at full-time!!

best bit of that complete and utter fucking shambles was chery, unjustly hooked at 35mins, eschewing the bench and slowly walking round the whole pitch applauding the fans on his way to the dressing room and presumably home

ahaha dear me

and there goes austin's hammy

shit we've got these on Tuesday

can't beat an injury time equalizer

Preston finish with 9 men

oh football

nggghgh

i guess Morgan's taken us as far as he could - turns out it's the same place we was when he bought us

Even in that short time the levels of spending in the 2nd tier seem to have escalated madly. Seven years ago our chairman, in his moment of hubris was saying he would gift us hundred quid season tickets in our first prem season. Since then he has been on a sharp learning curve, especially since we returned to the championship.

i think there is truth that Morgan invested in the team unwisely and then inadequately, but i don't know where the billionaire Wolves diehard that the idiot section of our fanbase expects is coming from

am sure robert plant must have a few quid to spare

has always demurred when asked about it, says it would spoil the pleasure of supporting us which seems fair enough

Did Morgan have a say in player recruitment? Someone has to take the rap for Clarke :p Incidentally Clarke is having his 2nd or 3rd (I may have lost count) career Indian summer at Bury, something to monitor for amusement in the next transfer window

i noticed he was scoring again

recruitment is allegedly managed thru a combo of Head of Football Development and Recruitment Kevin Thelwell, Kenny Jackett and Chief Exec and self-confessed football illiterate Jez Moxey - Moxey signs off on the cheques, i think, tho presumably his budget is set by Morgan. Morgan has certainly palled around with ex-Liverpool stars who may or may not have "advised" him about players at times

whoever is ultimately responsible i've gotta say that the "misses" column is looking bigger than "hits" right now, unless we have a ridiculous number of late-blossoming 21 year-olds on our hands

watching Sako get some plaudits in the Prem is sweet but tinged with melancholy btw

i notice with a similar pang of sadness that moneyball appears to be stalling at Brentford?

Benham's not the only owner shafted by FFP changes tbf

I don't know if it qualifies as moneyball, but us getting Huws, Carayol and Paterson on loan after losing some of our best players was some pretty nifty transfer action. I means Huws is a young freescoring midfielder that is worth at least 5 mill in the current market. Lol poor Wigan, he exerted player power over them and refused to play in L1, that is fairly decent recompense for us watching them cunts doing the fucking conga at our place when we got relegated to the basement when they were on the up.

You can't wack an ilx derby

telling me, we've got tracer hand's lot on telly tomorrow

Is Coady injured? Watch out for our Huws today he is on fire at the moment + our first freescoring midfielder since Chris Beech. I hate these early kick-offs, espesh when there are no beers in the fridge:(

Coady still suspended I think, got a red a couple of weeks back

Solved beer ish by coming to pub, also suspended or not McDonald and Price probably our best central two atm

Price being the chap who just bunted it out for a goal kick with a 20-yard first touch? :D

Sick goal from the other bloke tho

had been all hudds tbh

Yeah hoping that might give us a bit more confidence

Bunn + Scanz are both having an off day so far, Powell should never have sent Lolley out on loan

We're largely poor at the moment - no pressure on the ball and no real service for Alf, disjointed as fuck at times

your lot are winning the midfield battle and ours need to pull their fingers out, they do play some lovely stuff at times but are a bit rough in the final third. I get a bad feeling Crainie won't last the full 90 today

Davidson (our aussie bun-head leftback) is pure garbage, without doubt our worst summer signing

we'd been riding our luck up to that goal, we are playing so shit now we don't deserve anything from this game

lol you see what I mean about Davidson?

I bet ALF will be kicking a few things over in the dressing room now

I was calling for the ref's public execution until I saw the third replay. We was far better in the second half, think we deserved that in the end

That Wolves hoodoo we used to have has well and truly had it's arse kicked in now :p

right that's it fuck off ramsey

alright hang on

the enigma that is Leon Clarke scores again

Bury aren't fucking about this season, serious contenders

3-3 and last minute winner disallowed for bolton

just burn the whole place down and replace with an effigy of clint hill i'm done

lol 4-3 we've won

You can't beat winning at the death like that

QPRnet ‏@qprnet 2m2 minutes ago
It's all over as #QPR and Bolton battle out the worst seven goal game you're ever likely to see

I can't even believe Bolton managed to score more than one based on the last time I saw them, but you do get a lot of that in the championship

right dudes I watched half an hour of your game yesterday...payback time

look i spend enough time in the pub

i've got the match on the radio anyway, sorry for intruding on private grief

looooooooooooool

beautiful

fuck you Jamie O'Hara

Fuck me we were losing in the 95th minute and nearly won that

I was going to watch this one imago, the weather was so unexpectedly good I opted for the greenbelt instead

you only missed a cracker ;)

nah take this early october balm while you can. it's been a fixture of the last few years, interestingly

well bollocks

well alright

well Martinez can bugger off

well maybe i can forgive him

oh ffs

sure that was an entertaining 45 minutes for any passing neutrals

call me a bad loser but i'm depressed enough without seeing this thru

Just noticed there was £6million worth of recently recruited ex-Town midfielders not starting on either side today O_o

Coady came on just as i was walking off to Aldi in disgust

Steve Evans to Leeds, seems like a match made in heaven.

xelab had some nice things to say about the man a while back. now rescinded i'm sure

exciting times
& welcome to coventry joe cole :)
(for 35 days)

xp
I thought Evans was supposed to an old-school intransigent shit-kicker type, lol if he can't say yessir to Cellino he won't last a week in that job.
http://i57.tinypic.com/59sle8.jpg
This was partly the reason why I changed my mind on Evans^^^

this is legit the worst performance I have ever seen, the atmosphere here is rich with a sort of tragic catharsis

actually it is comparable to Pardew's last game, a 5-2 home defeat to Sheffield United

we did score twice then mind

It is always a pleasure to beat fucking franchise "Shall we buy you a club?!"

http://s4.postimg.org/m6j065ru5/no_ameobis.png
I don't think he has adjusted to the reality that he won't get previous wage levels, nor two year deals from any fucker at this point.

goodnight sweet wanker

yeah he really did just seem like a total prick from the get go

guess cos peeters was too cuddly?

another company man or will duchat go local this time

rtc you might have to hold me

malky mackay was at the game today

fear not, skybet have di canio and pearson as the other two cherries on the slot machine

oy heavens

peeters wasn't even cuddly but this is dismal

tfw Grant Holt gets subbed on and you turn to the next person at the bar and say "fucking hell when did we loan Grant Holt?"

They had to keep such a transfer coup quiet obv :P

Tbf as pez as he is these days he would be an automatic starter amongst our dire striker options right now.

fuck you qpr

mate,

you do not know you are fucking born

It really does genuinely hurt me to see the former prem behemoths from London doing so fucking shit right now, at least you have some good restaurants to retreat to:p

Jackett: the Outening slides ever closer

we'll have him, ex-wall or no

and if you can find a good restaurant in se7 you're doing a damn sight better than me and I've only lived here the three years

Powell gone. I am genuinely surprised but it seems something has been simmering behind the scenes for a while.

"We understand that Chris Powell's sacking by HTAFC is NOT based on results but on not meeting club objectives"

sounds a bit corporate bullshit speachy

ahahahahahha christ our messageboard must have gone into ultrameltdown

chris powell is really bad at these objectives right

he needs a cuddly owner

Last night was a very un-Powell like team selection and it sounded like a very exciting performance which should have got us 3 points if not for a keeper blunder. I wonder if our dictatorial chairman was twisting his arm on team selection a little, it seems like it. Powell is such a nice guy but the football has often been some of the most boring shit since the Macari days. At least we will have Lillis in charge for Leeds, was having nightmares about Miller shite up front in the lone role that has yielded zero goals/zero assists, with Bojaj and Wells on the bench and Dempsey + Billing not even in the squad. Tbh when I look at all the next manager candidates they all seem either damaged or overrated, just give the job to Lillis.

"Liverpool snubbed by Jurgen Klopp's former assistant David Wagner - who wants to take over at Huddersfield"

This is from the Torygraph who for some reason were the first to break Powell's sacking, interesting if true.

Wagner is looking nailed on now, all but confirmed by Ogden on RL tonight. Probably our most extraordinary + famous appointment since erm.. Steve Bruce!

Holy shit Ramsey just gone and Warnock back.

condolences rtc

jackett for the hat-trick of burying my real woes beneath your fake ones

can't see him going while we're looking to sell

don't think i want him to go

hate lots of our fans right now but may be confusing that with daddy issues

don't wolves have more extant hoolie elements than basically any other uk club rn

correct me if calumnous

we have a fairly vociferous away crew, wdn't know how it measures up

of course it's not realy the hoolies acting as if failure to boss the league is the greatest betrayal since the Munich Agreement

money issues aside Jackett's man management and team selection has been quite peculiar this season

the championship is a fucking weird and stressful league

maybe we should just kick back and embrace relegation w/ a pina colada

as i say i am more or less unruffled about our current level of performance - a little sad maybe - compared to being royally turned off by the entitlement of yr average fan

also a bucket of pina colada wd be good bout now

I have said this before but 3 of my favourite promotion seasons have been in the bottom 2, but these high points were punctuated by years of torturous clambering and worthless fucking about. If you are not truly MASSIVE the championship is preferable to L1.

from a coventry pov i'm enjoying this season in L1 over any we had in the championship

plus you get the football league trophy of course :)

lol the good old autoglass trophy, we almost won it once in the 90's. Now we have adopted this high falutin Euro model of appointing a Head-Coach I imagine a few of our old L1 local rivals will be willing us to fail and I wouldn't blame them.

Referee bottles a second yellow for Wooton and then thanks to some reprehensible defending we are 2-0 down within minutes.

Wooton, who should have seen red involved in the 3rd goal which tbf was a spectacular goal, but I hope that ref cops a dose of botulism.

oh hey look what happens when i play football rather than attend the valley

bad news though: i'm back for the second half

sorry about leeds, xelab

xe la b

I am not too discouraged, we were only bad for a few fatal minutes and with a bit more composure in the final third we could have easily won this. Probably getting some karmic payback for my unpleasant drunk comment the other night!

I can't help thinking we wouldn't have conceded 3 if it was a Powell XI though :p

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTnxGQSXAAA2lPn.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTnxGQSXAAA2lPn.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTnxGQSXAAA2lPn.jpg

need to have their own uk volkisch league

menopausal casuals and young crims given reduced entry, dogs allowed within grounds, discount alcohol, mnml security, filmed on vhs quality and shown on some cable channel alongside amateur mma

― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 18:29 Bookmark

need a theme for the new league

― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 18:35 Bookmark

just some guy bashing on a dustbin lid and shouting 'Oi! 'oi!'

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 18:41 Bookmark

75% possession, the first half was breathless and consistently exciting. it is a sin we got fuck all from this game. I have never seen a manager make such a dramatic impact in 3 weeks, not worried about relegation in the slightest.

“We gave Sandro a round of applause in the dressing room because he lasted 90 minutes, which is a unique situation for us all.”

still dunno why sky have fake playing real on a thursday nite

announcer bellows come on you rs, madstad crowd roars, rmde

that were shite :]

stay golden uncle neil

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/happy-gilmore-the-end.jpg?w=650&h=417&quality=80

can totally see jfh coming in all brash and rigorous and the whole squad getting the hump now

lol that pic seriously cracks me up

truly hope i live long enough to see h gilmore rightfully elevated to the esteem of some like it hot bringing up baby etc

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

lookman's another of your profusion of quite astonishingly good youth players i take it

I think you can still get 33's on Town for top 6. I got the 66's last week after bearing witness to Wagner's Gesamtfußball

Wish I'd made the effort to see the brighton game now, your lot definitely gave them a scare there imago. Equalizer from Bobby Z wouldve gone down well, first goal for James Wilson too

That point we got in the night game against Brighton is looking pretty good now, at the time people were moaning like fuck about Powell's negativity - bless him.

Football league show on channel 5 did an incentive, asking fans from around the world to register as SUPPORTERS OF THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE with a chance to win a flight to England to watch their very own team. Apparently they had hundreds of thousands register representing every country in the world. They just announced the winner, Bill, a Middlesbrough fan... from Donegal.

ha! boro fans are pretty good value ime

"Forget their position in the bottom three the terriers destroyed Middlesborough last week, and against lesser opposition could have run up a cricket score. Even the championship renowned for its frenetic pace hasn't seen anything like this, with players hunting the ball like sharks roiling in chum. In the short term at least they will scare the life out of opponents, expect a rapid rise."

This type of bollocks will have fizzled away by Feb, but for now I love it!

i hadnt realised good old easter island whitehead was playing for you lot now

http://i3.gazettelive.co.uk/incoming/article9653511.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/JS67442795.jpg

He wasn't a very popular signing at first but it soon became apparent that he is made out of the same stuff as Barry Horne. Ah I see he is April on my club merchandise calendar.
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQAmHMZ8t7g_e3yS8S2A-j2olmFNFEoTgBm8s4UwFo94rIbkvdVbA

We have had so many ageing midfield duffers in recent history but Deano ain't one of them

I thought he had just taken a knock on saturday, he is out for 8 weeks now:(

Lol a lot of water under the bridge since the days of talking up a no-relegation two-tier premiership Phil!

A consortium involving former striker Dean Holdsworth is thought to be the preferred bidder, though that deal is thought to involve an element of borrowing and is complex.

oops I didn't realise he was critically ill. But That still doesn't change a thing really.

Just lost irl 8-1, now haring it to The Valley. It's a sickness

felt pretty sick last night

nah i felt almost nothing, that is the feel of this season, limbo

ah but for sweet merciful limbo

am still gonna pay caSH money to watch our shower on Boxing Day

and I shall do likewise two days later, so at least one of us might see a wolves win

actually I have a season ticket so no choice really

I couldn't go today because of illness, but looking at that cold incessant fucking rain out there and listening to this shite on the radio - it seems I am in the right place.

relieved that the unstoppable march of the terriers has been delayed momentarily :P

thought i'd go gawp at a wolves forum earlier, saw some berk saying kj is now as bad as saunders

i can't stand to read most of our fans tbh, Kenny has done some rum things this year but it's obvious the real standing ish is Morgan selling up, until that's resolved i see no point in change and if we do get sold i'd be happy to see what Jackett can do with some improved resources

An amusing thing occurred on our message-board, a load of lifers had a hissy fit and deleted their accounts because of the constant negativity. This new haven of positivity they attempted to set up hasn't quite worked out so they are slowly returning as socks, trying their best not to be id'ed. Bigger bunch of egotistic divas than you would find on ILX!

there's a balance isn't there between legit criticism and fantasyland moaning? the difference between most of our pie-eyed optimists and most of our doom-mongers doesn't seem to extend to having one clue about how football actually works

that is very true, but when you subtract all the irrationality and stupidity it ceases to be a football message board! The wiseacres soon get bored of agreeing with each other!

to be fair, xelab, there is nothing more annoying in this life than an entire football messageboard convinced it knows better than the people who run its related football club, but then that is probably every football messageboard, and I haven't hissy-quit the charlton one just yet

this was an xpost and i see you have basically just made my point for me

btw there was the best moment ever in our game, i hope it is a gif, i wil look for it

For a second there I thought I saw some Charlton fans having some comedy bantz with Cellino :$

xp

Perhaps there is a gif that encapsulates fucking up a 2-0 lead, twice!

you'll be lucky not to get the entire region of yorkshire impugned very strongly with some profane language

Hopefully in few weeks time you will have a good reason for impugning us. If we haven't signed a striker or two by then it might be benign commiserations (again)

There is still enmity from our lot towards Jimmy Hill for the time he picked up a £10k fee from the City chairman Geoffrey Richmond to be an "expert witness" (via a television link) when Gordon Watson sued the club for a mill. He stated that Gray's tackle on Watson was the worst he had ever seen, which was scarcely believable considering the era he played in.

Hill was always a self-serving wanker, obv his death sucks for his family but

le sigh

just when i was getting excited about no goals whatsoever in the champo so far we have to go and bloody score

and it's that man of the moment again, the talismanic junior hoilett, finally running into some form three and a half fucking years into a four year contract

That was one of the worst Wolves performances I've ever seen, the haters were actually right, Jackett out right now please god

this really will be the game of booing

If you are anything like you should walk this, enjoy having all possession ceded to you for 90 minutes

oh no no, it is all yours my friend

we insist

Two teams camped in their own penalty boxes while two lonely front men half-heartedly tussle over the ball in the centre circle it is then

That sounds better than ECFC vs AFC Wimbledon, which is intensely boring. Slightly enlivened by the first message over the tannoy at h/t: "Tjis is a message for John Way: your wife has called to tell is she can't find anywhere to park so can you get the train or bus home please..."

My god Charlton must be bad

tight game between two good sides, decided by a couple of moments of brilliance

*chin-stroking motion*

-_-

anyway i am now taking credit for kick-starting this turnaround which is no doubt going to continue at Brighton on Friday

My fucking eyes nearly dropped out of my head when I saw the starting line-up against QPR today, but we nearly got a "famous victory"! tbf they had a strong penalty claim but that scruffy toe-poke from the big Aryan wi'the headknot, directly from a long throw was less than what we deserved after the first half performance is my current take.

too poorly even to go to the pub and watch today, but i can only assume that's three ugly, ugly wins on the bounce

This has been a weird experience. I'm sure I've never had so much fun watching football but at least part of that is seeing players on a pitch that you romantically think you might actually be better than - a couple of months ago we brought on a sub at the hour mark who was hauled off again 10 minutes later and never seen again. And we have another midfielder that... Well, he must have incriminating photos or something because he keeps getting given a run out.

In terms of the football, it's really hard to tell. We haven't dropped a point since August Bank Holiday, a run of 26 straight wins in all competitions equalling Ajax's world record. Quarter finals of the FA Vase next weekend. 15 point lead at the top but the side in second have 6 games in hand because of the weather and Sporting Khalsa have 6 in hand b cause of their FA Cup exploits (then again, they have to play each other twice). John Mills has 38 goals so far. But until we got a different keeper a couple of months ago I was paranoid every time the ball was in our box; weirdly the new guy has let in more goals but inspires more confidence. We've just been through a really tough stretch of away games on a series of barely playable pitches.

But I recommend non-league to everyone. It's the future.

that now makes it £24m with big wages and no sales splurged by candy crush fc this season

blackman's rubbish and all. i love these midseason £2.5m extra striker just in case signings, it's always basically just leon best changing his name every year

I really hope they fail as unlikely as it looks right now + lol @ candy crush fc!

Brum, Wolves, Huddersfield, Preston are all linked with Tom Bradshaw in this window, I think he is out of contract in the summer so will going somewhere this time...

Just read that nasty business about Leon Clarke's dad getting stabbed to death in a pub during the holiday period.

http://beesotted.co.uk/?p=17330

in other epl2 goings on says here tuna fish fc apparently only offered £1m for alan judge the other day but were prepared to pay him £30k+ p/w on a par with hooper forestieri and bannan

oh god hadn't heard that about Leon, was just gonna make a Best/Clarke joke too

byebye Benik :(

wonder how much of it Jackett will be allowed to spend? there's a bunch of his signing out on loan already

Jesus wept! I always expected better for Benik than his dream move being to fucking Boscombe x0==

http://chrispowellsflatcap.com/2016/01/10/preview-huddersfield-town-v-charlton-athletic/

This person talks a lot of sense imago, but we do need to lose the odd game, just so Liverpool don't realise we have the good one and they have the duffer:p

I got quite angry watching that channel 5 shit league show last week when Powell made a reference to some of our good young players as if he had some input into their development. The way he treated Lolley and Dempsey was a fucking travesty and I think he will regret the way he dealt with them and it was ultimately a big part of what cost him his job.

you're winning most games now aren't you

this won't change on tuesday. roger johnson's coming to get you ooh-er!

It's the performances that have been getting people excited, the results have been p much business as usual!

don't worry, sooner or later your boys will give someone a right old thrashing

Bournemouth have continued to keep tabs on Grabban's situation and sources have told ESPN they have tabled a new bid in the region of £7 million for the former Millwall man.

its not epl

it's not champo

it can only be ~~~ epl2 ~~~

Lewis Grabban, Glenn Murray, Benik Afobe and Tyrone Mings; that be £30 million worth of action this year alone, a far cry from the not too far off Steve Fletcher days when they had the begging baskets out at every game. The chairman should try some of the excellent noodle bars in London that heartily welcome Russian expats.

Something something intentional self-clowning something something

yep

apparently we're about to sack karel fraeye

and appoint the manager of fc ujpest, duchatelet's hungarian club. a man best known for his work with indoor football

i've disparaged our fans before but this is war

Charlton fan @ work keeps me abreast of latest developments.

At least those poor bastards who made the long journey last night will be getting a full refund. Chin up imago, you are only 3 pts adrift and there is still time to turn it around.

we're about to appoint the sodding fc ujpest manager, a former indoor footballer

we're fucked

boro sticking it right up candy crush by putting down £6m for matt phillips and £8m + kike for mccormack today

ffps

didnt u lot just gave a 4.5 year contract to a 29 year old

but, his nickname is 'the fly'

well that leaves an easy zing then doesnt it

idk man 'charlton arthropod' doesn't rly have that ring

zyro out for saturday along with graham. we've no excuses

think Kenny has been his own worst enemy at times this season but cannot believe the shitty luck we're having

didn't really see any of that thanks to daughterly violin commitments but i'll take the point ta v much

we seem to be a shade less frangible than we were before Christmas which is nice

Williamson and Joe Mason, bet the opposition are shook right now

mason's handy. just not £3m handy

yeah he might be a fit for us going forward but he's not gonna come in and bring the goals

don't understand what we're doing at the moment tbh, we're not going down and I'd rather see some of the kids getting some proper first team experience until the end of the season or the point when Morgan decides he can't get a price for us and goes back to playing at being the owner

We put in a second bid for Rajiv Van La Parra the other day and it has gone a bit quiet since. Now that Scanz is out till April that would be a welcome addition, but I get the feeling there might some haggling over wages that might scupper the deal going on. He sounds like a classic Town signing - as in an improver type that has shown potential but not quite got it together and a bit ropey in the final third.

rvlp was the best player on the park vs us last week but i guess you could also tell he was the sort with bad days many and infuriating too

sympathise with nv's frustration but tbh wolves are hardly abandoned drifting either i'd argue...? mason, zyro, byrne (err where is he actually?), some experience restored to the back, dicko next season... basis of a decent, not unambitious rebuild there

btw calzino u can tell ur fam that they were talking out of their arses re smithies, he's mint imo. replacing green with him has genuinely improved my whole quality of life by 15%

lookin back on greeno generally but especially those last few months man... you really do not appreciate the place of tearful rage darragh was coming from re robinson for so long until your side's hostage to its own gormless idiot

Good on Smithies, I hope he keeps Green out for the rest of the season because he is way too good to be sat on his arse. My family weren't moaning at Wembley when he blasted that penalty through Simonsen's hands and then psyched him into spooning his shot into orbit.

Rhodes has finally got his dream move to The Smog, it was his childhood dream to play for them.

i was looking at next season's potential squad this morning and yeah it's full...of potential. Kenny's "everybody gets loaned out unless i fancy them this week" policy isn't helping anybody tho - "where is Byrne?" exactly, we've been signing too many promising kids under false first team pretences imo

Rhodes has finally got his dream move to The Smog, it was his childhood dream to play for them.

― calzino, Saturday, 30 January 2016 00:32 Bookmark

haha i'm p sure this is sarcasm but thought i'd check just in case

be interesting to see if rhodes even suits karankanaccio let alone the prem. they're champions either way, ayala-gibson/clayton-leadbitter are rock solid

feels like this season's more or less done for everyone tbh, bar charlton's futile struggle

still rooting for burnley to chase down hull cos literally the only thing that isnt terminally boring about hull is fuckin flamingo land on the shirts

otoh that would mean vindicating joey who recently piped up with this dick head belter

"I thought I was really good last year even though QPR got relegated. The reality of it is I was in a really poor team but my own professional standard was sky high. Sometimes you are only good as the players around you and I think that's what enabled me to turn in performances. I'm playing with some really good players."

Flamingo Land's not all that tbh

Statement from Middlesbrough FC

The club can confirm that we have held talks with Blackburn Rovers striker Jordan Rhodes over the weekend but have failed to agree terms.

I guess it will be his massive wages that are the prob, his first contract was allegedly 40k a week and to keep hold of him he got an improved deal since. It sounds like they are going for fly-tipper McCormack now, maybe he will take a slight wage cut to play in the top flight next season.

"Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson “had a dramatic change of heart.” The cancelled deal left the 25-year-old “baffled and disappointed"

Presumably he was more disappointed by not getting a juicy double what J Vardy earns contract rather than missing another good chance to play at the highest level.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/jordan-rhodes-boro-pull-out-10814223

The club had agreed a fee with Blackburn Rovers for the prolific striker believed to be an initial £9m and then a further £2m plus £2m in instalments.

Boro were ready to take on his lucrative Rovers deal - which includes a promotion pay rise - and add another year to the length of the contract.

But Boro grew uneasy during talks as further performance clauses and bonuses were requested which pushed the investment above their ceiling.

It is understood the deal being demanded would have seen Boro invest a figure heading towards a total of £30m over the course of the bumper four-and-half-year deal.

oh lol i didnt realise hudds had a 20% sell on. ouch

tbf west brom just turned down £21m for berahino so i actually have no idea what value looks like any more

Nah that 20% sell on only applies to the excess of the £8mill that Blackburn paid, so it is no biggie really.

I know it is fucking mental. I wouldn't be surprised is Nahki goes for £12mill tomorrow, what the hell it is a sellers market.

is if

In his free-scoring pomp days at Town he was living with his dad (who is goalkeeper coach at Sheff Wed) at a pretty modest property in Holmfirth.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach 5m5 minutes ago
Moussa Dembele's move to #THFC has fallen through & Ross McCormack is set to sign a new deal tomorrow. Decent end of the window for #FFC

I wonder if Boro are going commit some crazy last minute panic-buy blunder or even try to resurrect the Rhodes deal, a luxury penthouse on Newport Rd could seal it :p

Allegedly 2 deals that have been scuppered by the stalled Rhodes deal are; Boro wont let Kike go to Wolves, who then won't let Van La Parra go to Town.

tbh i can live with that, not sure there's any long term plan beyond fan appeasement at the moment

Huws has been some good business, we need to get the best out of him before he is recalled and sold in january, freescoring midfielders don't fuck about with shit like Town and he has already refused to play for his host club.

― xelab, Saturday, 19 September 2015 19:03 Bookmark

soz m8

seems it may be us, to be clear (although it is v vague atm)

i rate him as a player but i) he seems a massive tart and ii) we have faurlin and tozser for deep lying passers so idk why even bother

or not

@pjcadden: Told Emyr Huws to remain at Huddersfield for the rest of the season despite QPR interest. Out for two weeks with sprained ankle tho.

Lol after I described him as freescoring he has scored once and should have been fined for his wretched penalty miss.

it looked like it was happening earlier, especially when we recalled Hiwula from Wigan, but I'm not so sure now. I rate Huws a lot but there isn't a chance we will get him permanently as they are still allegedly paying the lion's share of his wages and we wouldn't match them, let alone the 3mill they paid for him. Wigan must want to keep him for their return to epl2 next season if they are encouraging him to stay. I thought they'd be dying to cash in on him after he downed tools.

There is no accounting for some clubs' willingness to get repeatedly robbed by flashy wasters

ya trick ya

sanogo fanni

Elvis Manu

a 1.5mill flop at Brighton

Coventry perspective alert but good signing for Norwich imo glad we have maddison rest of season

It sort of bugs me when mediocre clubs in the prem are warehousing lower league talent. fucking Norwich - garbage club

r|t|c wrote this on thread Parachute money fails to deploy - the Football League and beyond 2015-16 on board I Love Football on 29-Jan-2016

lookin back on greeno generally but especially those last few months man... you really do not appreciate the place of tearful rage darragh was coming from re robinson for so long until your side's hostage to its own gormless idiot

ty this means a lot

saw an everton fan say something similar regarding tim howard

Another clean sheet for Smithies I see. My bro is dismissing it as his honeymoon period, I think a new start may have re-invigorated him.

what were his perceived faults? seems an all round good keeper to me. maybe not physically dominant but he commands his box fine and the defence are visibly more relaxed and organised with him. shot stopping, concentration, and especially kicking has been first class

lol clement sacked holy shit

“When Paul joined us last year we worked with him to develop a plan for the club which we asked him to embrace.

“It was clear in this plan, which was briefed to supporters, players, sponsors and all our stakeholders last summer that promotion this season was not the primary target. The priorities were building on the Derby way and style of football enjoyed in the past two seasons; adding depth and strength to our playing squad; and, developing and improving player and team performance.

“Sadly, on these measurements, we have not made enough progress and that is why we have decided to part company with Paul."

who the actual fuck do they think they are

leicester city have sent the remaining e midlands into a fugue, forest to send their entire squad out on loan next

i would say it's more who the ffp accountants think they are once they don't go up this season

pearson in surely

clement been sabotaging this shit ever since carlo got the bayern gig lets be honest

Smithies had a few ropey periods but his shot stopping and distribution have always been consistently excellent. His command of the area has not always been good but he became the no.1 at 18. His intelligent and varied distribution is something we sorely miss right now tbh and would be perfect for our current system. This guy we have now - Steer, who isn't completely terrible, but his kicking is absolutely thoughtless and his constantly launching the ball out to the vagaries of the wind or the bounce, is not what I like to watch. Maybe I'm naive, but I could never see much wrong with Smithies game at all and even some of his previous critics are realising he is better than what we had.
xxxp

Oh lol at Derby, I hope they fucking go bust!

edit:better than what he currently have.

rumour seems to be that chairman candy crush went in the dressing room a few weeks ago to deliver a bollocking over clement's head and it's all nosedived since

alternatively the players just thought clement was a wanker and sacked it off

Well that is Rotherham guaranteed to stay up now, need to start looking over the shoulder now that uncle Neil is back in the game.

rotherham are not guaranteed to stay up

they lost 4-1 at home to fc freefall the other week

they are the dictionary definition of fucked

They do look pretty shit, but they have beaten Brighton + Hull their last 9 and Warnock teams don't get relegated from the championship, or least in my fucked up memory they don't.

always a first time for these things

i still somehow think we'll stay up. don't ask how. 90% of our fans have given up already

I'd say every team from Reading down are relegation threatened apart from us with our famous high pressing game, even though we just lost 4 on the bounce!

le sigh

Having a star manager >>>>> multiple flashy wasters. If we still have Wagner this time next year I seriously think we will look like contenders, scoff away folks - but I 100% believe this.

might just excise my yearly away game

(ｏ・_・)ノ”(ノ_<、)
you have to catch Franchise to get out of the shit so I'm totally on your side

I was only there for the first half today but saw enough of VLP to see why NV was glad we didn't get him in jan

I am impressed with the manner that (old arch enemies from 2002 season) the Cobblers have risen without a trace, RIP Torquay and Mansfailed.

today's result felt v plausible, losing to Brentford on Tuesday feels v plausible, if Kenny goes this week it will have nothing to do with club aspiration and everything to do with head-patting whilst the early birds are on sale

Yesterday was an absolute roller-coaster, Camberley were the best-organised defensive unit I've seen all season. But a 120th minute winner and here we are, 180 minutes away from Wembley.

Excited.

Tony Fernandes ‏@tonyfernandes 20h20 hours ago
As for QPR fans running is down. My first game we lost to Bolton 4 0. We drew today and fought till the end. I'm proud we didn't give in

comedy gold, never change tone

Salisbury it is then. Bugger.

When other teams visit Bramall Lane they're taken aback by the quality of our Stadium, Academy and other facilities - all geared up for the Premier League and definitely not the third tier of English football.

Rest assured, our position is not a result of lack of effort, investment or ambition from the owners - my family's investment over the years amounts to around £90 million and Prince Abdullah has in a short space of time contributed a further £15 million. In this season alone, the joint owners have, in total, put in £8 million of money.

On the playing front, the number of new recruits brought on board in the last three or four seasons alone exceeded over 40 new players joining the Blades, surely demonstrating our commitment to succeed. Whatever the reasons at the moment, the various costly recruitments have not as yet brought us the success we crave.

These billionaires and kleptocrats often don't understand how hard League 1 can be and how hard it is to consistently beat The likes of. But it does sound like they have already paid for a few promotion seasons there.

a placeholder head coach with no prospects of continuing after the end of the season vs Darren Wassall

jesus he's pulling these teams out of a hat

lol my god :D

ah well

lol Candy Crush lol George Saville lol Jackett Out lol how the fuck did this happen??

not like this

Ipswich were lucky today as confirmed by the "backside in the bacon slicer" man, godawful side to watch and if Nahki was a bit more clinical we would have arseholed them today.

can i just say that roger johnson actually deserves to die

Whoever signed him on an 18 month contract probably deserves a harsh struggle session

hey he's a guy who at least you know he'll always give 100 per nah i'm sorry can't do it for laughing

Guiseley afc of the Conference, the keepers of the Corinthian Spirit in the game like their neighbours! Lol, Braintree kick the ball out for player to receive treatment then Guisely player lobs keeper at restart and celebrates goal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_lHoD7AAbk

srsly fuck u qpr

Uncle Neil not helping your cause much either

I am a bit sick that we couldn't beat Candy Crush fc today. Usual story; that fucking Coldplay cunt who always scores against us and us having most of the meaningful possession but not the finesse to make it count.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11776/10193603/watch-accrington-stanleys-disallowed-ht-goal

I do like the look of Van La Parra a lot. Not a priority position till the end of this season, but this is looking like it will be permanent by the end of the season.

karanka left a broken man by warnock, not the first.

VLP could turn out great given the right management but he's mostly flattered to deceive at Wolves. hard to tell really, Jackett has made some very idiosyncratic decisions this season and the club reeks of malaise

When we signed Butterfield + Paterson they both were similarly damaged goods, it is how we do business.

It is hard not to admire Burnley, they will be worthy champions + Dyche is such a splendid guy. Still hate that diving twat Boyd tho.

yeah i am v comfortable with Burnley/Dyche doing well even tho i have to make sympathetic noises to a lot of City fans atm

I have always seen Bruce as a chequebook manager who has never built anything greater than the sum of it's parts. While he was at Town he did write a novel called Striker though...

http://www.balls.ie/football/steve-bruce-novel/293169

Bruce's self-defeating cautiousness is so obvious now that City fans shd want him sacked even if he does take them up

First leg of the Vase semi was as tight as thought it might be but I think we have enough to get to Wembley.

In the league, our rivals have finally played Asian fixtures as us and have properly dug in to win them (mainly in the last 5). It's as tight as a tight thing.

I was going to make an ignorant post about my Shaymen allegiances until I realised the FA trophy + vase are two different competitions. So for what it is worth, good luck Aldo.

Yeah, geddon the Bulls.

My parents have just moved round the corner from Priestfield and as they are my local team as well now, I'm tempted to get a season ticket for Gillingham if they go up next season. They have been pretty ropey recently though.

didn't know the gills played their home games in laos and montenegro ;)

I was quite disappointed to find out my trip to India next month wouldn't coincide with a chance to see Roberto Carlos, Florent Malouda and John Arne Riise turning out for the Delhi Dynamos, tbh. I suspect the standard of football at Priestfield is higher though.

This relegation battle at the bottom of EPL2 is getting tasty. Lol Rhodes/Karanka/Smog

We should disrupt all our home games lol

Roland speaks!

Dear Fans,

Last Sunday, some individuals did not come to The Valley to watch the game and support the team, but came to create disorder on the pitch and interfere with the players and the game. Disorder which is, allegedly, needed to drive change in ownership and management.

Whom would they expect the club to be sold to? How long would a sales process take? Is it easier to sell the club when it is in League One rather than Championship?

Some individuals seem to want the club to fail. This is a confused approach, since following this logic leads to exactly the opposite of what we all want: staying in the Championship.

Allegations regarding the CEO are misrepresented* and are continuously used as a method to discredit and fuel personal abuse, hatred and with a risk to personal safety.

Although certain individuals tell you it does not happen, in recent weeks Roland Duchatelet has met the fans, the CEO has met with several different groups of fans and the communications team have attended several fans meetings. We will continue these meetings and constructive dialogue with fans.

We have 9 games left in which we have to get 6 points more than our competitors.

The team just got 7 points out of 3 games.

We still have the chance to make it happen with the support of the fans until the very last game. We must believe it is still possible. Every football fan knows the 12th man is a crucial factor in the success on the pitch.

*I think the difference is also because fans don't see themselves as customers and {…} they go to the restaurants with their families every week and they go to the cinema but if they aren't satisfied with the product will they go and scream to the people in charge of it? No they don't, but they do it with a football club and that's very weird (meaning unique) because they feel a sense of ownership of a football club and that's a really difficult balance of how you try and engage with fans and make them, incorporated into some of the decisions of the club, {…}.

We're owned by an actual confirmed idiot :D

weird choking noise coming from the direction of the KC Stadium at the moment

was at the brighton - reading game last night, brighton kind of lucky to get away with the points really. still not totally convinced by james wilson but it was a pretty cool finish for the goal.

that reading away kit though. good to see that my nan's old bedsheets were put to good use after all, god bless her

http://www.fulhamfc.com/-/media/Gallery/2015_16_matches/Home/Reading/Reading_H05.jpg

taken me until now to clock that tom payne of http://spielverlagerung.com works for huddersfield. i don't think he's calzinolab but who knows..

ok he's 19 so i hate him

Paul ‏@UtdRantcast Mar 16
At FC Midtjylland and Brentford do they have Expected Goal music?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/new-premier-league-ii-reserves-7569298

shook ones (epl 2)

haha
xp

It sounds he is doing his work experience at the club or something or maybe his Performance Analyst and Scout position has been an integral part to our current success. My brother did some writing for the club site/program a few years back whilst at college, he hobnobbed with Stuart Hall at a night game and probably set up some bollocks LinkedIn profile as well!

I hope we haven't been using 5th form fm fanatics to scout tomorrow's opposition, we need a result against these bastards.

boro v hull tonight is a big one. wouldn't mind seeing boro go up tbh, they were good value when i saw them. fans seem like a good lot too.

I bet if the Smoggies go up then Jordan will be at Villa next season or some other basket case parachute money recipient club.

obv would prefer Hull ftw, think anything less might consign them to the play-offs to get done by Wednesday

Anyone know a streaming site that doesn't request Disable Adblocker?

forget it, they all seem to be at it.

1 nil down after another wretched Nahki missed penalty and already on two bookings. this ain't going to end well :(

I blame tom payne myself

I'd definitely take Rotherham staying up at the expense of franchise.

[emoji for crystal mdma]

I wish they would desist with that awful "he's better than Klopp" chant. But what a day!

heartbreaking for all fans of Leeds *Muttley snigger*

ohmygod Danny Batth with the well-deserved injury time equalizer

this is the only fixture that really has the potential to dramatically enhance or ruin my weekend

trashing the champions of europe... you'll have to add another star to the badge :P

The club are already putting out a DVD, I am lucky to be alive in such heady days!

So, Wembley then.

Don't get robbed by The Highwaymen, but I'd guess you will be odds on favs for this.

Bookies gave Salisbury the slight edge today but after the first 20 they had nothing, so they do get it wrong.

My only problem is I'm supposed to be in America. I'm going to have to have a difficult conversation at work on Monday.

Fucking hell Claridge is their manager. Way to fucking go against Salisbury.

He's been an arse about the games tbh. Complaining about being stuck in a corner at our place, we were stuck in one today. We gave them 750 tickets of which they only sold 600 and only 500 turned up - they pro-rata'd their ground and gave us 650 which we sold in under an hour; they gave away several hundred tickets rather than change the allocation.

Felt completely unwelcome in the ground today. They put on a bar that only took about 100 and took 20 minutes to get into. Almost like they didn't want to take the money.

Fucking hell, we've sold out our initial allocation (3000) for Wembley already. And that's before the FA have even told the club what the ticket arrangements were (which most of us were waiting on).

Any thoughts about the current rumblings at FCUM, NBS? (Or anyone else obv.). Looks to me like the inevitably - painful transition from crisis-mode to operational mode that all such endeavours go through, but there may be more nuance than that!

i could not believe the boyler thing

Hi Tim. I have many, many thoughts about it, but I'm on holiday in the middle of nowhere with poor & sporadic internet on my phone. Will say more later, but Danny Taylor's article is long overdue, Dave Boyle (once of this parish) badly let himself down and heads need to roll. The article only scratches the surface of what's been happening since last May and things look like getting much worse in the near future.

I'm sorry to hear that, would be interested to hear more when you have the chance.

Do people actually give a flying fuck about FCUM for real? I wouldn't care if a bolide impact took em out in one fucking go.

:D

superficially it has appeared to be a beacon of football "done the right way" in an age of rampant commercialization, clubs being the playthings of legitimately horrific oligarchs, and terrace-gentrification through egregious price-of-admission inflation.

before the news emerging in the last few months - have been reading blog posts about the troubles there since december on a fine lung - i certainly thought fondly of them. one of my best pals has lived in manchester the last 5 years and fc is his team of choice there and i had planned to attend a game at broadhurst park if i ever get back down to manchester on any of my infrequent trips back to britain.

i suppose it should not be surprising that things have not been smooth, that concerns over how it is being ran have arisen. fan-owned football clubs are terra incognita. football clubs have always been companies owned by the rich - previously local businessmen, now, at the highest levels, veritable tycoons - and all the dogy dealings, autocratic-meddlings etc. that that has entailed are par for the course and to be expected. why we (i anyway) may have expected a fan owned, ostensibly more democratic structure not to devolve into shite im not quite sure.

I'm an Exeter fan, we've been fan-owned since 2003 so it's not quite as incognita as all that.

I am quite invested in the idea that football clubs can be set up to do actual good in their specific communities, that it can be something in addition to being a fun-dumb distraction or an excuse for a drink and some shit-talking (those aren't bad things, but they can be augmented by more positive stuff also). At root, the point of Exeter City (who, let's face it, won't ever win any trophies) is to be something for the community of Exeter* in some form, why not make that an explicitly progressive organisation, right?

Anyway I have a general interest in the progress of fan-owned teams, though I have mixed feelings about FCUM because it seemed to me they got a ton more interest than others because of the magic Manchester United name and I resented that**;I sometimes thought I caught a whiff of self-righteousness but that's terribly hard to avoid if you're trying publicly to do things differently and better.

A few months back I got talking to two fellows on the train who I thought were FCUM fans, they turned out to be the chair and manager. I was impressed by them both, and the attitude that ultimately they're just trying to do a good thing. So I've been feeling a bit more positive towards them. As noted above, there's a transition from campaign-mode to business as usual which (I suspect) all such organisations go through and it seems FCUM are feeling that rather keenly just now. Having read through a few bits in A Fine Lung and similar now, I can't help feeling that the misdeeds (50p on a programme; £900 on some consultancy, an attempt at a written code-of-conduct) seem fairly minor in the great scene of things, and the strong words on both sides might be more about an atmosphere of mistrust rather than the substance of any objections.

*Actually it's more complex than that, because the community of Exeter and the community which identifies as ECFC fans are different things, but that's another story.
** not having a go at Jim here but we got very used to reading stuff about FCUM which gave the impression that no-one had ever tried fan-ownership before, which you couldn't help was really just the same old sense that any football thing not related to The Big Teams was negligible.

extremist or not i should think whether its £9m, £900 or 9p any misdeed of the nature in question p much invalidates the entire existence of the club. u can hardly pretend its not full kit wanker fc without it

tbh the size of the club as well as the ideals make the consultancy stuff particularly ridiculous

iron law of capitalism tho - where there are mug punters to exploit, some cunt will get in there and start exploiting

XpThat's only true if you think the club is only valid if it's an exercise in perfection. I don't think any of the people involved claimed that was the point (I could be wrong about that of course).

From what I can tell the incident amounts to the club having been concerned about the levels of personal abuse sloshing around on the internet and asking someone in from outside to assess with a bit of objectivity how bad things were, perhaps I'm being unnecessarily generous...?

if somebody at the club felt they'd been libelled then i guess that's one thing - hiring somebody to go look for it feels like something else?

i'm sympathetic to the aims of fan-ownership but don't see how it can end up creating much more than a limited company. football fans often seem to naively think that their clubs can be businesses that evade the way that businesses general work in 21st century Britain

Ridiculous maybe, an unpaid £900 is hardly that big a deal, even if it was a mistake. I haven't yet seen proper details of the "project" proposed. It's not at all clear to me that any cunt is doing any exploiting in the running of FCUM; not saying they aren't, just the weight of the language sloshing around seems disproportionate to the actual misdeeds listed.

i mean it in the mildest possible sense in that instance tbh - but money and the nature of running a business, any kind of business, is always going to attract people with "ideas" imo

what this situation calls for is AFC Devils

there's a cognitive dissonance about participating in competitive league structures with progression upwards and thinking "we don't care about growing the club" for one thing

Football league clubs have to be limited companies fwiw, yes they exist in the world and are subject to the same conditions of capitalism as the rest of us. That doesn't mean the institutions have to be run as the playthings of the rich, though, even if some people (players, mainly) do very well out of them. I know that in the cased my club, which is a million effing miles from perfect, the fact of fan ownership has done a lot of good stuff (things like anti-racism and inclusion) which simply never happened before we were fan-owned. It doesn't mean the club doesn't exist in the context of capital but when times are tight, which they always are, it keeps those community aims at the core of what the thing is there for.

I get a bit exasperated at the line that if these things can't be perfect they're no better than the alternative, when they are (in my view) quite a lot better than the alternative.

That was an xpost. I have never seen FCUM say they aren't interested in growing, ECFCST have always wanted to grow the club, I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

XpThat's only true if you think the club is only valid if it's an exercise in perfection. I don't think any of the people involved claimed that was the point (I could be wrong about that of course).

From what I can tell the incident amounts to the club having been concerned about the levels of personal abuse sloshing around on the internet and asking someone in from outside to assess with a bit of objectivity how bad things were, perhaps I'm being unnecessarily generous...?

― Tim, Friday, 1 April 2016 09:48 Bookmark

fcum are explicitly a critique of what united have come to represent - that is what defines them. they are an extreme entity for an extreme situation. if all it added up to was some woolly concept of "ultimately trying to do a good thing" then there are hundreds of local clubs, hundreds of local communities that have existed for a hundred years where that energy and dedication could have been applied, without the looking for eric routine

re abuse, worth pointing out that it seems db didnt go thru with it in the end after receiving personal threats. doesn't really excuse snitchporters direct as such but...

Perfection is not required in order to be a valid critique. People make mistakes, sometimes even out of good intentions.

Why the hell should clubs from lower end of the football pyramid (some of which are 100+ years old, been in existence longer than many league clubs) have to make way for disgruntled Man Utd fans? Maybe not most nuanced opinion but i don't see anything positive about this model and absolutely detest them. Although I have genuine non-condescending respect for the Exeter model Tim, and it is probably the way we would go if our benefactor either snuffed it or got bored.

I absolutely feel the frustration of clubs who distort competitions, we've seen tons of them power past us (usually temporarily) fuelled by the few million of some tinpot Abramovitch. Of all the clubs you could point at who are distorting competition up and down the leagues, FCUM, living within the means of their gate receipts and commercial income, are a long way down the list. I don't see anyone heaping loathing on Fleetwood or Forest Green or Crawley for that reason.

FWIW I rather like their disgruntlement.

I've seen calzino heaping loathing on clubs like that tbf

I'm sure, and tbh I don't give a toss about FCUM in the great scheme of things, And as noted above I don't know the specifics of what's happened up there past a few articles where the allegations are either very vague or don't seem to justify the level of anger.

I'm really just using them to rehearse some things I've been thinking (or have noticed) in our experience: when things started to get tricky on the pitch we heard a great deal from an unholy alliance of (a) people who thought the whole project was worthless in the first place, because there was no point trying to use a football club to do any good in the world (b) those people who didn't really believe in the social element but were prepared to go along with it as long as we were consistently winning but as soon as that stopped they said the model was broken and unworkable and (c) some who were only too delighted to be able to pick holes and pour out online abuse because it justified their decision to do the square root of sod all by way of actually helping in the first place. This is setting aside quite how unpleasant it is to find yourself the subject of online criticism, particularly when you don't have the energy or time to defend yourself properly.

obviously people will behave like total douchebags on the internet, but non-abusive criticism is just part and parcel of having opinions about football and what it means tbh

I don't think anyone would argue with that. And have we an agreed line on where non-abusive spills into abusive? Because your point stands or falls on that crux, really. If you've given up weeks and months of your free time and are absolutely knackered and you come home to find someone (someone apparently on your side) continually questioning your motives and commitment and so on, and then if you fail to respond exhaustively or immediately, then that feels a whole lot like abuse even without swears or libels.

*if you fail to respond exhaustively they accuse you of secrecy and elitism or whatever

I'm unwilling to accept that the price of getting involved in this kind of collective action is someone on your own side relentlessly -if "non-abusively" - hammering you in the internet. But then I'm the kind of football fan who naïvely thinks it's possible to use football clubs to do things which are good and positive in a community context, even if it does mean you have to also work within the unhappy context of capitalism.

many many xps. oh yah i apologize for inadvertently denying the existence of other fan-owned clubs in my post.

About to show up an entire half late, lol

I'm back now.

Having read through a few bits in A Fine Lung and similar now, I can't help feeling that the misdeeds (50p on a programme; £900 on some consultancy, an attempt at a written code-of-conduct) seem fairly minor in the great scene of things...

50p on a programme is a relatively trivial spark that kicked all this off, but it's not so much about the price rise as the fallout afterwards and the dishonesty, stonewalling and cronyism. And it's not £900 on "some consultancy". But to be honest, it would take so long to explain everything I'd have to write a book and I just don't have the time or the energy. I keep trying to think of how to give a brief summary, but every time I think of one thing I think 'ah, but that doesn't make sense unless you know about that bit too' and it soon gets out of control.

Why the hell should clubs from lower end of the football pyramid (some of which are 100+ years old, been in existence longer than many league clubs) have to make way for disgruntled Man Utd fans? Maybe not most nuanced opinion but i don't see anything positive about this model and absolutely detest them. Although I have genuine non-condescending respect for the Exeter model Tim, and it is probably the way we would go if our benefactor either snuffed it or got bored.

In what sense have any clubs from the lower end of the football pyramid had to 'make way'?

Some actual real clubs are inevitably going to be pushed into relegation spots or deprived of promotion at the expense of the patently made up by Man U fans' club FCUM. I believe in supporting your local clubs, not setting up some "big club" brand to compete with them. Although I understand that principle might be difficult for most Man U fans to understand.

Is your beef the impact of the existence of FCUM on other clubs? Or the very existence of the club in the first place? In the 2008/09 season FC United didn't get promoted or relegated. Two clubs were promoted - exactly the same as would have happened if FC United hadn't existed. Four clubs were relegated - exactly the same as would have happened if FC United hadn't existed. Ditto for the 2009/10 season. And for the 2010/11 season. And for the 2011/12 season. And for the 2012/13 season. And for the 2013/14 season. In 2014/15 there was the incident with a pigeon they finally got promoted at the seventh attempt, but it would be stretching things to say they had distorted the competition over this period. And some of the teams that got promoted ahead of them during that time were either 'made up clubs' or playthings of wealthy owners (FC Halifax, Chester, Bradford PA, North Ferriby...). But I'm guessing it's more the fact the club exists that bugs you, rather than fear of the impact it could have on Curzon Ashton. If we rewind back to 2005, what is it you would prefer the Man Utd supporters who set up FC United to have done instead: stayed at Old Trafford / stopped watching football altogether / started supporting another existing club?

you could have saved stockport county from purgatory made something of altrincham supported city instead idk

"FC Halifax, Chester, Bradford PA, North Ferriby"

If I became disillusioned with my club and was looking elsewhere it would be a toss up between BPA and Halifax. In the days of re-election the Bradford City chairman helped vote BPA out of existence and consequently a lot of their fans switched to Town. Both them and the 'Fax have been reborn after a liquidation, it's all part of the rich tapestry of football league history.

Admittedly I do hate Man U and the idea of a proxy Man U and no amount of discourse will change that. But also I would be anti the fans of Blackburn R or FC Newcastle Utd or [any badly stewarded upper tier club] doing the same thing tbh.

Admittedly I do hate Man U

That's the crux of it really, isn't it? If three thousand disaffected MUFC supporters had descended en masse on Trafford or Altrincham (or, ironically, Salford City) and effectively taken over a club with its own history, everyone would have been up in arms about it (quite rightly). And if everyone who had opposed the Glazer takeover just carried on going the following season as if nothing had happened, then they would have been quite rightly condemned. The bottom line is that lots of people just *really* hate Man United and anything associated with it.

If three thousand disaffected MUFC supporters had descended en masse on Trafford or Altrincham (or, ironically, Salford City) and effectively taken over a club with its own history, everyone would have been up in arms about it (quite rightly)

strongly dispute this. trafford fc especially seems practically begging to be the mufc rebel's second team of choice

obviously despite our dire straits all talk of charlton afc or addicks united or whatever has rightfully been laughed out of town. a few more people are going to welling or thamesmead games and that's cool

Typically fucking imperious Man Utd bollocks; you couldn't just support another club that would appreciate that support and grow stronger. No! it has to be a hostile takeover or nothing. Very nice.

an influx of united fans to a smaller club's crowds in numbers equaling or exceeding the existing fanbase would necessarily amount to a hostile takeover, or thereabouts - would distort existing fan culture to an unrecognizable degree. do you think that the supporters of many clubs would want a gang of man u fans turning up week in week out?

that probably happens at literally every match played in the uk

oh come on you know what I mean. if the 3k who went to the fcum game at the weekend instead went to stalybridge celtic increasing the attendance from 2k to 5k then what would the stalybridge fans think?

It would if they were a graceless set of arrogant pricks with no decency, yes.

xp

I don't agree. Considering that you actually get factions, splits, arguments etc. within the support of one club there's no way infiltrators from another support would be easily incorporated without friction to another club.

I'm with NBS on this one, they wanted to do things differently, to try to show it's possible to do things differently, and just pitching up at a little local club would have offered neither the opportunity or the impact. So, fair enough.

There's way too much policing of perfectly acceptable (in fact commendable) behaviour around football fandom - "support your local club" is (I think) a total canard. I mean, I grew up twelve miles from Exeter, presumably I should be supporting Honiton Town (lived there aged 4-11) or Sidmouth Town (11-19) or Ottery St Mary (went to school there, knew a few of the players)... But if they're too rubbish to bother supporting, how come Exeter aren't? I could've supported Bristol City (1st division when I was a nipper) or Southampton (first fa cup I remember properly), they're both sort of local, right? I realise that's pedantic but I know lots of fans of clubs, big and small clubs, who have no history of living near the teams they support, it's just happened that way; such people are no less supporters than I am and I see no reason why they "should" support someone else for some geographical reason.

Seems to me perfectly alright to support whoever you want. More than that, if we're saying that football clubs are important because of the community that coalesces around them, we want to be a bit careful about policing who's allowed in. "You can't be in this community, you're not from around here; you can't be part of that community, you have to identify with the community where you came from" is not a good position to take in any circumstance.

We are disgruntled Man U fans here, looking for alternative clubs to watch. Not the fucking Bolsheviks and The Social Revolutionaries, get a fucking grip.

talking^

and

xp

Phew! we are probably going to lose to Hull as well so MK losing has soothed my nerves a bit. Their next game against Rotherham means we keep that cushion for at least another loss.

Unbeaten in 5 Wolves, with the makings of a secretly decent squad next season if we're all fit and Jackett has some courage re: trying to play how he wants

mo' jackett required

He's been awful this season in ways that seem out of character

Looking at MK's hellish run-out and our 3 fixtures against bottom half sides, i am still too superstitious to say we are safe yet.

It would be amusing if we went down though because our chairman has just flogged a load of (something near 15000) discounted for all £179 season tickets on back of the "Wagner Revolution", I don't even know which side the # is meant to go on and i find it too presumptuous and a bit tacky. He is a fine manager though and the football has been way more entertaining than ever, be interesting to see how he does against Uncle Neil's style in a few weeks.

Tim - don't know if your ILX mail thing works (I've never attempted to send a message to anyone using this before), but I've sent you a message

Top of the table clash tonight between us and Alvechurch, at third attempt of playing. I haven't been this excited about a game of football that I can remember.

Was a very nervy game, we bossed it for the first 70 but let them into it at the end; a win for us was a fair result but they'll rue another missed penalty (their 10th of the season). Ironic then that Ian Long's attempts at Step 9 mindgames were initially about us getting too many penalties. The decision was right in front of us though and a terrible shout, no contact at all.

Weird to see a bit of crowd trouble at this level and more will no doubt come of it; one of the players from Highgate Utd was reported as being at the forefront of the 'home' support rowdy bunch, and it's since come out that Alvechurch were 150 in excess of their registered capacity which they claim is because the MFL told them they had to accept player passes from other MFL teams. But let's be clear about suspicions - when a team with a normal home gate of 80 sells 600 tickets for the visit of a bigger team that used to have a hooligan element, it's not outwith the realms of possibility that some of them are sold to people just interested in a scrap (c.f the number of Birmingham City fans commenting on their twitter).

Also their ground was a real dump, but the team I feel sorry for is Hartley Witney that we put out of the Vase. Their ground is as good, if not better, than Alvechurch's but they've been denied the next step because it's not good enough yet the Church have been approved for Step 8.

Back to football, I did the numbers last night. It's going to be possible to finish THIRD in our league this year with 98 points. That would be a sore one to take.

Step 4 rather, Tier 8.

let's see if rtc can summon any sort of appropriate decorum

good riddance

this will not be forgotten

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2016/04/10/paul-lambert-wolves-game-one-of-the-worst-ive-seen/

proud

i was surprised to hear about kevin mcdonald being banished, what's the deal

i think he's frequently an over-rated wastrel but i don't know the exact details, i think every member of the squad has been banished by Emperor Kenny at some point this season, must be an exciting place to work

tactical decisions in general this season have been somewhere between inscrutable and clutching at straws

at least you don't have roger johnson contracted until next summer

was p grim reading the qpr boards being v complimentary about harriott, lookman, cousins, pope... i know gudmundsson and solly are dece too. it's a shame (obv)

£300k the lot

hoping we don't sell all of them this summer but who knows, we owe roland big time!!

4 games to go, 10 point lead but Alvechurch have two games in hand. They might even get a season extension after their game was cancelled yesterday. 96 points and the league not won, who could have predicted that?

http://www.afinelung.com/?p=7544

:D

They know what happened to the Levellers, right?

r/t/c - that was distributed to hundreds of people on Saturday pre-match, the latest news this morning is that Adam Brown has resigned from the board with immediate effect

http://www.emersonkent.com/images/charles_execution_speech.jpg

xp yeah i gathered. i'm just morbidly reblogging rather than making any partic point

is this 'course you can malcolm' business as dismal an effort to maintain a senile manc humour volksgemeinschaft as it sounds though...?

(not just bobby spirals with the dece nakh impreshes eh)

hmm

I hope lots of asbestos blows all over the pitch and many dogs shit all over it as well ##whtever fucking Manu spinoff

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1soj3gd?new_post=true

http://i.imgur.com/hrAm2e0.jpg

tell that to roland huh

Top of the champo is tiiiiight as shit rn

sight more eventful than our season's been. all fingers crossed for Boro to choke

An overly comfortable 8-0 today means a win Monday vs 3rd bottom secures the league. And I can't go. Arse.

I expect Calzino will be wanting another FCUM update. The long-awaited general meeting was today, where the board would have finally had to answer a growing list of questions they've been doing their best to ignore for months and face several votes that would effectively have functioned as vote of no confidence. Two board members resigned earlier in the week (to avoid it?) and it emerged that Andy Walsh (who will still employed by FCUM for three months following his own resignation) hasn't actually been back to work at all since he announced his resignation. About double the people they expected turned up for the meeting and they rapidly realised the venue was too small to cope with it. Then they announced that they had somehow failed to get an independent scrutineer to attend. Then it became clear that an unknown number of people who had already voted (either by post or by delivering their ballot on a previous matchday) were still on the register as being eligible to vote (when the procedure is to show that those people have already voted). This raised the possibility that people could end up double voting and that votes already made had been 'mislaid' and not counted. In this situation it was impossible to go ahead with the meeting as the result of any vote taken would obviously have been challenged by the losing side. Farce.

And 4-0 wins the league.

MFA semi final on Thursday night, HFA final Monday and Wembley to come.

It's been quite a season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQYuLiuGFyg

I think Uncle Neil was definitely doing these type of h/t talks to keep the Millers up. I love watching this cos he even goes ham on mild mannered Chris Billy who is not very well disposed for aggro. The ugly thug bastard no.10 is back working with him at Rotherham. I saw him (Ronnie Jepson - uglybastard no.10 - not Neil) being a loud pissed up prick on a train once and he was a horrible person, a truly horrible thug.

I fucking doubted Warnock this time around. Idiot

There used to be this arsehole who was chairman of the HTFC patrons, a supercilious prick on our messageboard in the early days of messageboards, like in the late 90's. He had some consultancy company and occasionally summarised on the match commentary on a tacky local local commercial station. Well this guy made it his life to either correct people's grammar or tell them that Warnock was shit and they don't understand football or just generally tell people that they were thick. He always made a big deal that he publicly challenged Warnock at some fans meeting about his "negative football". Then in the first wave of Operation Ore this fucker got arrested for possession of child porn and it was on the front of the YP that this guy was rotten to the core and he had paid for some of the worst material there is.

A heartwarming story for the ages!

and Wednesday's march to the Prem continues apace

I reckon if Brighton or Burnley knack up auto then they will be the playoff winners, although predicting these things is futile.

i agree tbh but my dream scenario is Boro 3rd, Wednesday do them in the semis, then heartbreakingly do Hull in the final

nah i will still have to pretend to cheer for 'ull

Burnley - got a title cakewalk against holographic loafters

Brighton - on fire right now and can even afford to slip up against candy crush on monday and it will still be in their hands

I think Boro probably are nailed on for 3rd