Leveller

Forest do indeed have a strong link with Garibaldi, but he was such a beloved figure in England in the nineteenth century (as a populist rebel - a bit like Che Guevara a century later) that many things were named after him. Many towns have streets named after him and he was particularly associated with red shirts, hence football links arose. Edit - and despite the comment in the pasoti article, Garibaldi is I think generally regarded as a socialist and hero of the left, rather than right wing. Above all he fought for Italian independence and unification.

So he’s been pushed out against his will? Interesting, after being given a contract for the season.

Perhaps, just perhaps, Phil Alexander wasn’t as good at the job as expected?

What would be the point of a “tax fiddle” where there are just big losses? Surely it’s just to protect the stadium if the sports club goes bust? That seems the sensible reason.

Exactly. You can buy similar shirts in Sports Direct for £10 if they have no club attached to them.

4. Somebody has overlooked Rob bored’s posts.

He certainly made it pretty clear that it was Alex Scott who wanted to leave for the EPL as soon as possible, not the ownership or management chasing the fee.

Apart from that being the basis of most of the prawn cocktails ever eaten!

Nice tune, so it beats GSTK on that front, but for me a religious hymn about Jesus visiting England is worse than a royal one.

At the end of the day, it comes down to your definition of vitriolic, or whatever. To me, it’s just the difference between an honest assessment of ability, and insults. Words such as fraud, charlatan and blagger are all insults implying knowingly tricking people. That goes beyond not being as good a manager as you think you are.

They should definitely try to tap up Johnny Depp next time he’s at his Somerset mansion. He has Pirates connections!

It's Catch 22 though - they can only afford to build something if they sell the land. And its not worth enough to buy a new site and build on it. Of course, the mysterious new owner may be wealthy and open-handed enough to finance it just for the warm feeling it would give him. Or not. Even the Gasheads don't seem to have found out much about him yet. As with Wael they're busily downgrading their expectations again.

I agree. You can justly criticise his achievements, but I don't see why people try to malign his motives. He's about as close to a well-meaning owner as you can get. He didn't need to increase his fortune through sport and while he would no doubt have welcomed the acclaim of a more successful club, his business achievements and recognition mean that he really didn't need personal glory from it. I think he genuinely wanted to "give something back" to his home city - he could easily have invested in a more promising club otherwise. It hasn't entirely worked out, but without him (or another wealthy owner) we'd probably still have facilities from Harry Dolman's era.

I think the quotes in this thread show that he’s always wanted to try and operate sustainably, but has relented and been tempted to another throw of the dice. Probably by people like MA persuading him that this time will be different and player trading will save the day and be consistently profitable. It may be illogical but it’s not unlike the temptation of gambling, is it?

I would suggest the average reader would consider those negative assessments as abusive too.

I suppose if the lead was substantial you would fix the result - but with five minutes left and only one goal difference, the losing side could argue they missed the chance to equalise.

Not really sure why you’re quoting me there, when I was just pointing out to NickJ that his comment about Sunderland being a doddle was a fallacy.

Wins for Bath, Taunton and Yeovil today, leaving them all in the top six of National League South.

We’ve got Kane, Saka, Maddison and Bellingham as attack minded players. How many more do you want?

From what I’m seeing we’re still likely to win 3-1.

As a matter of record, LJ was Sunderland’s third manager in League One. Jack Ross got them into the playoffs but they didn’t get promoted. Phil Parkinson didn’t even manage the playoffs. LJ got into the playoffs but didn’t get promoted. Alex Neil got into the playoffs and got promoted. Nobody got them automatic promotion. So LJs record was little different from their other three managers.

I’m sure you’re right about the watering - he probably did that and the long grass thing too. It doesn’t alter my point about LJ.

Chances are, he’ll take the job, improve them slightly, avoid relegation, and everybody will still be arguing whether he’s average or terrible!

Has anyone else read Jonathan Sayer’s book (“Nowhere to run”, I think) about buying Ashton United? They’re a Manchester club in tier 7, and JS and his dad decided to take over, being genuine long term fans. For context, Jonathan is one of the actor/writers behind the “Goes Wrong” plays and TV shows, so is relatively well off, but knew little about football admin, except from a fan’s perspective. This isn’t exactly the Wrexham scenario though! Its an interesting read, but not as funny as I’d hoped. It does shed some light on non league management and recruitment though, in particular the difference between contract and non contract players. It’s also good on the angst that owners can suffer when faced with bad decisions and pure bad luck.

He very probably did. Let’s not forget that LJ was born in Newmarket and spent his childhood watching Gary who was assistant to John Beck at Cambridge United, during their phenomenal rise up the league. Now Beck’s tactics may have been derided, but they were based on analysis that was light years ahead of most other coaches, which led him to believe that direct football was the route to success. And of course it was, up to a point. As you well know, Beck used every trick in the book to find “marginal gains”, tricks which have become legend, many being to unsettle the opposition before they even got on the pitch. One of his tricks was to order the groundsmen to leave the grass longer in the corners of the pitch, so the ball would hold up more, helping his wingers get in crosses to Dion Dublin and John Taylor. So it’s highly likely that LJ’s views on marginal gains derived from his experience of Beck’s methods, either directly or via Gary. And he would have been aware that other managers might follow Beck’s example so the grass would be at different lengths in different places. Thus, relying on players’ instinct during the warm up could be seen as over simplistic and a bit late in the day. I think the story originated in this article by Gregor McG in 2017, actually an interview with McAllister. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/jamie-mcallister-explains-bristol-city-704346 ‘The Bristol Post asked how the different height of the grass might influence the game plan. "It can do [influence a tactic]. If the grass is a bit long then you might be able to leave it [the ball] in the corner a bit more, it'll hold up," explained McAllister.’ The article also uses the “marginal gains” phrase. So the echoes of John Beck are clear. JB wasn’t popular, but his attention to detail clearly left its mark.