Leveller

8 minutes ago, CityCiderEd said:

As I am from Parga

Love Parga!

22 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

That was Nottm Forest. 

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?

6 hours ago, Hello Dave said:

Aren’t they basically owned by one person? Surely all these companies are made up as a tax fiddle? Slag Lansdown off as much as you want, but the bloke ain’t stupid where finances are concerned!

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.

47 minutes ago, OddBallJim said:

I think we have to agree to disagree on this, NO replica football kit or sportswear realistically justifies a £50 price tag regardless of quality, but sadly that’s the age we live in.

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

14 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Main reasons are:

1. He didn’t also play for us

2. Social media has grown in those 13 years

3. Human nature of social media activity tends to focus on being negative / critical

4. Somebody has overlooked Rob bored’s posts.

19 minutes ago, Rocky said:

I don't get these interviews really, he didn't get asked anything and answer anything we didn't already know/assumed to be the case.

Ah well, that's what happens when you only let club officials do friendly interviews in-house, everything is so closed and sanitised. 

 

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. 

On 11/09/2023 at 18:06, Dollymarie said:

Criminal mixing ketchup and mayo up together mind! 

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

47 minutes ago, SecretSam said:

I had a dream last night that the anthem had changed to 'Jerusalem'.

 

I have boring dreams...

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.

4 hours ago, NickJ said:

As I pointed out to @Leveller a few posts up, there appears to be a misundertanding of the word vitriol.

A few people seem to have taken criticism of any kind as vitriol.

Your posts are not vitriolic, neither are mine, nor are the vast majority on here, as defined by the word vitriol.

Saying he's a crap manager or was a crap player, is not vitriol.

To suggest he benefitted at Bristol City from nepotism (player) and mysterious favourtism (manager) is not vitriol.

There would need to be an element of gratuitous malice.

Words such as blagger, fraud, charatan, inept, incompetent - for those who have tried to say otherwise, they are not malicious and therefore they are not vitriolic.

What is obvious from this thread and others I have seen on Sunderland and Hibs (I do, as clearly do many others on this thread, take an unexplainably perverse interest in his career) is that the vast majority of commentators think he is a crap manager for all sorts of reasons, and he is widely ridiculed.

I'd say that many on here defending him do so from a sense of perceived unjustice, which is very laudable, but I could list a page or more of examples why he is ridiculed, and I really do not understand how anyone who isn't really taken very seriously can hope to succeeed in management of any type.

 

 

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. 

27 minutes ago, Red_Alligator said:

Their best bet would, in all honesty, be to develop the Mem as best they can. 

Quite where the money (and planning permission IF applied for) is going to come from is another story........

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

13 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

There is certainly the footprint at the mem to have a decent sized stadium, would require as you said moving the pitch but it would be doable.

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.

26 minutes ago, Calculus said:

I'm sure he's a very decent guy, wants the best for the club and still has ambition - just that he's 71 now and trying to tidy up his affairs before he himself is promoted to the division above. Maybe Jon isn't willing to take it all on, or maybe he's not as business-savvy as his dad. Either way Steve needs to plan ahead. After all he's done for City and the city we could just trust him...

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.

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

You’d have thought so wouldn’t you.

I agree.  But he has in the past, the very recent past, but why now, of all times, to pull up the drawbridge?  And in fairness, it’s not really “why now”, it’s the lack of communication regarding the seismic change of funding strategy.

Is it because he’s close to selling?

Is it because of his lack of Cashflow?  I know that sounds stupid, but he’s pumping money into all manner of projects.  It’s not just a case of nipping to the ATM.

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?

9 hours ago, NickJ said:

Vitriol would include abusive or malicious language.

Words such as blagger, charlatan, inept, incompetent, aren’t vitriolic they are simple assessments and/or opinions. 
 

 

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

11 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Given the match was abandoned five minutes into injury time it would be harsh if the result doesn’t stand. Don’t suppose there are any precedents though?

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.

26 minutes ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Have heard many people in the game feeling he’s a bit of an in joke. Not someone we ever would welcome back. I’d sooner have Holloway! 

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.

12 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

You’re playing a team who you knew were going to sit in and you play two defensively minded midfield players. Not only that but neither of them pick up a runner from midfield the first time they put us under pressure. Meanwhile Foden, on fire for Man City, has knocked out five crosswords in the first half hour……. 

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.

3 hours ago, NickJ said:

Saw that inteview, Wilbs was careful what he said but plainly thought LJ was not someone he could take seriously. I've heard, and heard of, other players take the piss also.

He's a blagger and doesn't in general command respect as a football manager, because he is is the reincarnation of David Brent.

Blamed losing 3 league games at Hibernian to inferior opposition on "fixture congestion", caused by a "European run" which involved beating a team from Andorra and another from a  small Swiss town.

There are 2 teams in Scotland "bigger" than Hibs, and 2 others more less the same, and yet he managed to lose more games than he won during around 50 games in Scotland, despite being given, by their standards (where have we heard this before), a transfer budget which far exceeded previous managers.

Measured by win ratio, his most successful period as a manager was at Sunderland - where with the resources of that club in division three Mike Bassett would have got them promotion. And yet Sunderland sacked him while they were in the play-off positions. Why? It came immediately after a 6-0 defeat, but there was more to it than that. 

Wherever he goes, he's an unusually divisive figure, but judging by what I've read, mainly disliked and/or ridiculed. How can somebody possibly be a successful manager under those circumstances?

If Fleetwood are mad enough to gve him the job, they will probably be relegated, or he will be sacked before that happens. I'd like to say that will then be the end of it, but he will pop up again at somewhere like Newmarket having bamboozled some unfortunate non league chairman, still convinced he's a future England manager in waiting.

 

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.

1 hour ago, Bedred31 said:

There’s route one and then there was Beck. Most soul destroying football I ever watched. His tactic, actually, was to over water the corners, so that the ball would stop when the goalkeeper punted it forwards. The left/right back would invariably kick it into touch, whereupon Cambridge would produce a long throw into the box. That was literally it- big kick, splash, throw into the box. I liked Wimbledon but this was truly awful.

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.

8 minutes ago, Glen hump said:

Totally agree, he’s a charlatan 

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

On 08/09/2023 at 10:20, Davefevs said:

I read a book by Ben Smith, a player who’d been a lower league / National League player and I can’t remember at which non-league club it was where he signed, but it was a pro contract, so he got paid over the summer.  He’d been on a non-league contract and his pay ended in May over previous summers.  With a mortgage that contract gave him a lot of security.  It certainly showed the non-glam side of being a pro footballer in the lower reaches of the league.

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.