Untitled Document
NEWS
DISCLAIMER:
Due to time constraints, lazy bastard etc etc, much (though not all)
of this stuff is "borrowed" from elsewhere, all I do is take what's
interesting, and repackage it in typical SW19 fashion. If you're a webmaster
of anything that I've borrowed, don't feel pissed off that I haven't
credited you, chances are that I've got a link to your site anyway,
which is endorsement enough. And besides, most people nick news from
Reuters, so it ain't anything new.
Additionally, long away match reports may take a day to come through,
because mainly I'm too bloody knackered to write them after I get in
:)
As ever, I make no claims to spelling names or places correctly.
31 August 2000 [early evening edition]
Specially early update tonight, I'm off out tonight (but not MCTSing). In a move that probably shouldn't have surprised anyone who read
this last night, the JH to Rangers move is off after he failed the medical.
Like you never saw THAT coming. Apparently, David Murray was quite sceptical
about the likelyhood of it going ahead as early as last night, which makes
me wonder (a) why they wanted him in the first place, and (b) why they were
prepared to pay £7m for him. As a result of this, JH has withdrawn from
the Welsh squad as he isn't in the "right frame of mind", according to Mark
Hughes. Either that or the private jet to Belarus that Rangers promised
him hasn't materialised and WFC wouldn't pay the National Express fare.
So now what? At this very moment in time, we are left with an unfit, unsellable
player who is denting a hole in our resources. This is a critical time for
JH : he is now drinking in Last Chance Saloon. He quite simply HAS to get
fit if he wants to move. Barnett isn't going to keep around him much longer,
he'll try and fuck some other poor bugger up the arse. I want him to get
fit, but as everything I wrote yesterday shows, I'm not too hopeful that
even this setback will force him to buck his ideas up. The reaction he'll
get next "home" game will be mixed to say the least - especially considering
that it took a mere 10 minutes for him to agree terms with the scummy team
in Glasgow.
It's difficult to see who to "blame" in all of this. WFC, BRG, TB, Rangers,
even Jonathon Barnett have had fingers pointed at them. I don't think this
is a situation where we can "blame" anyone (well, we can wish for Barnett
to get gang raped), however I will say this. How competent are our club
doctors? Think about how we managed to pass Hartson at his medical, yet
nobody else did. Have we been employing Dr Harold Shipman? Did the club
doctors get, erm, "persuaded" to pass him IYSWIM? Do our club doctors actually
HAVE legitimate qualifications? Think of the injuries we get, are they being
properly treated? I'm definitely not too sure, and this is probably the
most vital part of the teams operation apart from tactics. Again, just why do we get so many injuries?
Onto other news, and apparently Dunne is still coming. I've given up with
the ins and outs of this one. Anyway, regardless of the JH story, TB is
still after players. He quotes "I need to bring in some
top quality players. The money isn't burning a whole in my pocket. I can
assure supporters that we are making moves, and they are the type in the
next couple of weeks which will benefit the club in the long term".
Cheap, in other words. Actually, you shouldn't be surprised at this, if
you read W&WW with CK's comments, this is more or less the club's strategy
for now. Even before JK's ticker went, I did wonder if the big name signing
approach would put us in the shit in the long run : three years on, WFC
seem to think so.
In a story that could have come from last season, IFK Gotheburg midfielder,
Per Karlsson, is about to sign for us. We can either get him now for £150k,
or wait until November when we can get him for nowt. He's "talented" - aren't
all footballers? - and he apparently could give Michael Hughes a run for
his money. Plus, he can defend as well which may put him about Michael Hughes
as well. I wonder what certain elements of the WFC support (many of whom
wanted TB in) will make of a Scandinavian kicking out Michael Hughes? At
least they can't blame Drillo this time.
And to sum up the whole saga, it's back to the EU scrapping the transfers
again. Sept Bladder, sorry Sebt Blatter has basically conceded that the
transfer system will be ruled illegal next month (or this month if you're
reading this tomorrow). In a nutshell, you'll probably be OK for those players
under 24, but once they get older than that, you're fucked. Did you know
that John Hartson is 25?
30 August 2000
And just when you thought that TB was done with the WFC Culling, along comes
this bombshell..... subject to medical, John Hartson to Glasgow Rangers
for £7m. And I have to admit, I was taken aback by it somewhat. Gobsmacked
almost. But I've regained my composure, and here's my $0.02 on the whole
thing.
Contary to what the paranoid Womble wishes to believe, the man who is letting
JH go is Tezza. I suppose that we should really have seen a sign or two
when we read that TB reckons that "within the last two years we've made
some poor signings". And yes, that does include JH in that. You should know
by now that TB doesn't have much time for last year's squad. You should
all know by now he's in rebuilding mode. And I suppose you all should know
that we're still in need of a wage culling.
But why JH? Why now? Why? Why? Simple - I think TB thinks that JH is an
expensive liability. There were stories going around that TB has tried everything
to get JH's weight and fitness to an acceptable level, but is now just cutting
his losses. Against Sutton, he was painful to watch. Against Kingstonian,
he didn't play but some people who saw him commented on how unfit he looked.
Against Watford he wasn't really much cop. Against PNE he got into some
good positions but he definitely needed much more match fitness. And he
wasn't coming off a nasty injury either - he was coming off a ban. An offer
of £7m was never likely to be rejected.
The fallout from this, as you can probably imagine, is going to be horrendous.
Many Wombles may consider this to be the straw that broke the camel's back.
So to save mass wrist-slitting exercises, I'll disect the major aspects
bit by bit : what message does it send out? That we've just sold John Hartson,
that's all. The departure of him is symbolic to WFC fans but nobody else
in football. To "us" (I use that term generically), it symbolised that we
were no longer a "small" club and that we could buy name players ready to
hit the big time. To everyone else, we wasted £7m on somebody with a proven
record, and not a goalscoring one either. Remember the reaction we got?
It wasn't so much "bloody hell, Wimbledon have signed a major player for
lots of money" but "Wimbledon have just wasted £7m on John Hartson". It
may have been mocking but there were very few opinions of support for the
move. Doesn't that sound like warning bells? West Ham fans weren't too upset,
though I suppose we thought we could have made something of it. Guess TB
is giving up on him, just like Arsenal and West Ham did. Perhaps "our" dismay
at his going says more about "us" than it does anything else - a case of
the Emperor's New Clothes perhaps? A tad cruel maybe, but why are Celtic
fans using this possible transfer as ammo against the Huns?
On a more logistical level, what message does it send out to the team? Well,
team spirit wasn't exactly in abundance when JH arrived, did it? I doubt
if smashing the wage structure did much for team unity. Was he popular?
Dunno. Remember the allegation at Bradford when Dean Blackwell reportedly
smacked him? Another popular gripe - Why are we selling our best striker?
He could have got 30 goals this season you know? The key word here is "could
have". He could have played 45 games last year but couldn't. He could have
stayed on the pitch against Bradford, but didn't. He could have got 30 goals
IF he got fit. Yeah, here's the rub - ***IF***. Not when. When did you see
him 100% for us? Whenever a player comes off pre-season training looking
worse than before, the alarm bells have got to start ringing. This despite
new and improved training facilites, at least two differing training regimes
under two different managers. Of course JH could score 30 goals if he got
fit. But how much longer are we going to wait until he does get fully fit?
Forever? Are "we" going to constantly make excuses like "OK, so he didn't
score today, but wait until he's fully fit"? I doubt if TB will, it appears
that he's finally lost patience with him. But he improved our attacking
options against Watford and PNE? For the first half against Watford, we
were anonymous up front, and it was only when [deeeeeeep breath] Mr 110%
came on that we looked anything. We may well keep Euell now, may not be
110% (sorry) popular but if that's what TB feels.......
The other golden phrase going about is that old favourite, asset stripping.
You know, R&G are trying to get their £30m back via transfers then bugger
off back to Oslo. So here's my answer : don't think so. Even if they wanted
to, they can't. Why? Because WFC don't "own" the players - the FA do. They
own their registration, all a football club owns is their contract. You
don't count a contract as an asset because it could go belly-up at any minute
(ie injury), and the value of your company would fluctuate quicker than
Graham Rix's arsehole did in jail. Money from transfers I presume goes back
into stuff like wages and such like, remember the Deloitte and Touche thing.
Asset stripping doesn't really go on that much in football, simply because
of the FA thing, and as I remember saying last year (under "Norsemen of
the Apocolyse", under Articles"), if R&G wanted to asset strip a football
club, they wouldn't have picked WFC anyway. Where does the main value of
a football club lie? The land that it owns. Do we have any land? Only the
PGPF bought by, erm, R&G. The rest of it got sold off by the previous owner,
remember him? But he did it because he cared about WFC, I forgot. And he
never sold players either.
One other thing to think about, and it eminates from Brussels. You know
the EU are trying to scrap transfers altogether because of EU Employment
Law, well that's due up next month, and this could well be us doing the
proverbial "rainy day" saving. There will be loads of clubs fucked by this,
it could well be that we're trying hard not to be one. If so, it's a damn
clever piece of business. I guess Rangers will make up the £7m anyway through
being in the Champions League, so that's their perogative.
Of course, the whole thing above could be deemed irrelevant by this time
tomorrow - JH is going for a "rigourous" medical and we all know what happened
last time.... if he fails it, he will effectively become unsellable, which
makes me think that a "retirement" could be due soon at WFC. And will also
make me wonder how competent (or how easy to bribe) our club doctors are.
Just one more thing on a hectic day - Grimsby is off. TA got the sympathy
vote from Norway and got called up. So that makes JH, Mark Williams and
Trond our three (soon to be two) renegades. I'm glad it's been called off
- one, because it gives us time to heal injuries, two, because it gives
TB an extra week to scout round, and three it will delay TB's imminent public
lynching by a suitable period....
29 August 2000
So, how did you spend your bank holiday then? Dancing with
policemen at the Notting Hill Carnival? Enjoying picnics in the country
with your family? Or did you decide to spend all day in a Lancastrian mill
town? Well, like most normal-minded people, I went to Ribblers
1 Wibblers 1, and I saw a bit of promise creeping through. We
scored through Mark Williams on 45 minutes, our first goal since that JH
goal against the Villa. They equalised through ex-Man U reject starlet Michael Appleton (didn't he play for us in the Intertwobob?) just
after half time with a nice strike. We could, and should, have been 4-2
up at half time, JH getting in on the goal and deciding not to actually
shoot properly. Still, it's nice to score I suppose.....
Anyway, on to the nitty gritty:
Plus points: We scored. We didn't lose. We
have now conceeded only two goals in 360 minutes of play. Peter Hawkins
looks the DBs. So does Damien Francis. JH looked competent if not quite
100% fit. Mr 110% was putting in about 72% today. We're creating loads of
chances. Mark Williams and Chris Wilmott look a solid centre-back pairing,
given a few months we could be into Eric Young/John Scales territory again.
Marcus Gayle was putting some nice crosses in. Kelvin Davis looks the part,
can't be too long now before we hear the first "who needs Neil Sullivan"
comment.
Minus points: Our shooting is wank - we are
trying to walk the ball in far too many times. Our top goalscorer is a centre-back.
Ardley runs....and runs....and runs....and that's about it. Actually the
general midfield (and sad to say, attack) looks like a farmyard of headless
chickens. Michael Thomas is too slow, though his actual skill is far beyond
most of our team. Trond's passing and general confidence has been shattered,
is he playing like a man on WFC's Death Row? Injury to Peter Hawkins, just
what we need I don't think.
Where to improve: Play Gayle as a winger if
he is to play, he just doesn't cut it anywhere else. Give Robbo and/or Agyemann
a decent run-out. Get somebody to replace Ardley. Find out the person who
drastically altered Trond over the summer and kill him. Invest in some voodoo
witch doctors to improve our injury problems (just why do we get so many injuries?). Defence needs to concentrate a bit more for the
whole 90 minutes, we definitely looked shaky at times still. Need width
in defence.
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) The PNE
mascot of an, erm, duck. Or is it a sheep? (2) The 200 year old Preston
fan living on borrowed time who described JH as "sheet" outside. No, I've
no idea what it means either, I guess it's old Lancastrian dialog for "good
player, lacking in fitness". Probably. (3) The journey home on Virgin Trains,
or: How To Fit 4 Trainloads Into One Train. I've travelled in more comfortable
Vauxhall Novas. (4) Mark "I shag plastic goats" Lawrenson actually praising us on Radio Dive. (5) People booing Euell - perhaps understandably - and
the team off. Strange or just plain twattish? [Insert lecture on "why you
shouldn't boo a makeshift team" here]
In a nutshell: We're getting there.
Anyway, who wants some transfer news? OK then : the Richard Dunne saga is
still just as confusing as ever. Everton say it's off again, claiming the
old personal terms thing. However, nobody else has reported on it (guess
they've just got fed up with it), and this does seem to contradict other
reports that the player has agreed terms with us. I honest wish that the
whole bloody thing was sorted ASAP - if he's coming, great. If he's not
coming, it's too bad. But if we don't get anything definite by Grimsby then
I'm going to give up on it.
Meanwhile, nice rumour is abounding that Tony Cottee may be coming to us,
after Leicester reportedly "offered" him to us. He could be what we need
at the moment, he could definitely have the same impact that Mick Harford
had when he first came here. Though hopefully without the same "impact"
he had when he stopped playing.
Just one thought about transfers etc for tonight (still feeling the effects
of exhaustion) - I can appreciate TB not wishing to panic buy, and his apparent
reluctance to throw too many inexperienced players in, but we definitely
need some strengthening in places. Now we're not in the Premiership (no,
I didn't wince now I said that), perhaps TB ought to make use of his contacts
and get a couple of decent players on loan. IIRC the last outfield player
we got on loan was Alan McLeary when we had no fit CBs at the club. It certainly
wouldn't hurt, we won't have to pay wages and it might shake up in various
positions too...
Oh, and JFK got into trouble with a copper in Dublin at about 4am. At least
he wasn't doing anything out of character :)
27 August 2000
I'm not going to write much today, believe me, I don't need a sparrowfart
3 hour train journey up to Preston, coupled with 90 minutes of standing
on an open terrace. I just want to sleep for a week....
Anyway, here goes : fallout from yesterday. TB reckons that we're still
creating chances, which is true. He was quoted on Ceefax as saying that
he was impressed with us in the first half. I genuinely hope that is a mis-quote
and that he meant the second half. He also was full of praise for Alex Hawkins,
saying that he would not hesitate to put him instead of AK if he was crocked.
I can't see what's wrong with putting him in anyway, he certainly stiffened
up the defence, tackled well etc etc.
Still in two minds about Mr 110% playing. However, I think we all have to
admit that we did improve when he came on. When JH misses the Grimsby game,
do you think we'll see Euell and Robbo up together? Also, lack of Patrick
Agyeman yesterday got tounges wagging. I reckon it could be a leveller that
TB uses for the youth team. Paddy played extremely well against Tranmere
and looked out of it vs Burnley. So perhaps TB dropped him as though to
say "hey, you don't walk on water with me around". I'm only supposing, so
no flames please :) Shame we didn't do something similar with Cort and Euell...
Finally, here's something to make you think. Kevin Sharpe of Wigan Athletic
gets £180k a year in wages. Kevin who? Exactly. And you wonder why Deloitte
and Touche reckon our wages are so high....
26 August 2000
Well, if
there was ever a game of two halves, Penises 0 Horns 0 would be it. The first half was basically how we left off against Burnley
(yeah, it was that bad), whilst in the second half we decided that we would
actually learn how to (a) defend, (b) attack and (c) try and win a game.
JH returned, though he looked a little off the pace at times. That said,
he was our far best striker, and just proven what we needed. There were
debuts for Lionel Morgan and Peter Hawkins, however no Patrick Agyemang.
This surprised me, although it could well be that his lack of effectiveness
last week probably forced TB to bring him down to earth. AK played at right
back I think, he certainly didn't appear in his usual LB position, but his
injury forced him off.
So, some questions and answers. What were the good points? The overall second half performance. We didn't conceed a goal. Kelvin Davies
looks the part already. We're learning to cross the ball into the box. Solid
debut for Peter Hawkins once Kimble went off - before that, he was getting
skinned. Michael Thomas looked pretty good, certainly the most skillful
player on there, though his lack of fitness showed. With JH we exist as
an attacking force. Better performances from Gayle and Ardley. What
were the bad points? The first half performance was shocking
- it was disjointed, players got in the way etc etc. Trond's passing/distribution
was appauling : any good bit of skill/defending he performed was ruined
by his lame passing, though he did play much better in the second half.
We still haven't scored since Villa at SP. Did Mr 110%
play? Yup, he came on as sub. Got a mixed reception, some clapped,
some booed him. To be expected I suppose. He put in more effort than most
of last season, though that wasn't particularly difficult. What
was the general feeling? More upbeat than last week, acceptance
of the first half as "dire", second half was much cause for encouragement.
Radio 5 reckons we'll win soon (bloody well hope so). Unbelievably, some
people booed that performance at the end and at HT. Do wot? Listen, it may
have been crap in places, but when you're doing a major rebuilding with
a higher than average intake of newcomers, they aren't going to play like
Man U in their third game. I didn't like it under Drillo, I certainly don't like it now. Where can we improve? Score
some goals, maybe need another CB in there (Dunne?), plus some back-up in
LB and RB (or get back KC). Today would have been ripe for either Wild Thang,
Hughes or Dry Martini. Midfield needs to know who to pass to. Trond needs
to learn to pass. Can we beat Preston? Don't
see why not, if they can carry that second half performance over....
Final word on Richard Dunne. He's supposed to be signing next week. He was
due to sign yesterday (and get 2 of his suspension matches out of the way
by Tuesday), but it seems there's been a delay somewhere. Now, when we're
claiming that we've sorted personal terms and yet others are claiming we
haven't, it does make it difficult to work out where the "fault" lies. Worth
remembering though, that half the reason for the delay in the first place
was Dunne's problem with Everton over a Loyalty Bonus - as Everton have
a none-too-swift reputation in transfer dealings (who remembers that Brazilian
they said they'd signed when the Brazilian turned up at the airport and
left half an hour later?), it may not be WFC's fault for once.
21 August 2000
Things must be bad. Could we see the imminent return of Mr 110% to our team?
Well, don't slit your wrists, but TB is considering it. In a radio article
yesterday, he mentioned Euell by name as a returning striker, and considered
him a valuable edition to the squad. Now, this means that (a) TB has lost
his marbles, (b) TB has finally twigged that Carl Leaburn is shite, or (c)
there is no point in not playing him all the while JH is still "under suspicion",
so to speak. There is a (d) here, which could be that if we play him we
get more money for him. But that's just a vulgar level of cynicism. Besides,
today Coventry wised up and said that they weren't going to go in for him.
So, unless Bobby Robson goes senile again, Mr 110% is likely to play his
next game in a Tiny shirt. I'm still in two minds about this : I don't want
him to play again, but at the same time we need a goalscorer (and as unpalatable
as this sounds, Jason Euell is actually quite a reasonable player). Then
again, the person who must be POed most of all is Euell himself - he was
convinced by Barnett that he would be in the Premiership this season, he
quite clearly ain't, and now he's rotting away at a first division club.
Really, it's in his interests to want to play for us, surely?
20 August 2000 [am edition]
Now
I know why I reckon we can forget the playoffs this season : Northern
Slum 1 Clueless Cockneys 0, and I sometimes wonder if the malase
that affected OGEM, Drillo and now TB is much deeper than first thought.
To save you having to read through today's papers, I can sum up the game
for you now : shite passing, too much giving away the ball, too much un-necessary
overplay and an utterly shocking forward line. The big question is, why?
Well, TB made the game after the comment that we played like total strangers,
that it was a makeshift side etc. Which worries me because half our problem
in recent years is that as soon as anyone of the first XI got crocked, we
suffered. Serious questions must be made of the effectiveness of people
like Gayle, Ardley and even Kimble (who was pulled off because of a hamstring,
which buggers SW19's theory that he was pulled off because he was crap),
and it is wondered whether TB's threat that he made on Ceefax South East
that "he may well bring in a big money new addition to the squad" could
well become reality quicker than first thought. Interesting story about
Gayle BTW - somebody was telling me at HT that he's another player suffering
delusions about playing in the Premiership and has reportedly "asked" for
a transfer. Shame he didn't even remotely play like a second division player
yesterday
Some more questions : did the sale of Double H have any affect on yesterday?
Doubt it, if the truth was known, as said earlier we seem not to have gone
further forward under at least 3 different managers and even his presence
wouldn't have made a jot of difference. Should Burton go, as a couple of
people have suggested already? Fuck off, teams who sack their manager after
one bad game never get anywhere - look at Spurz. Are we relying too much
on the likes of Hartson and Ainsworth returning? Yes and no. Yes, because
it's always a gamble to rely so much on one or two players, no because unfortunately
our "best" players are still out. What exactly is our gameplan? Fuck knows,
but I don't think it's direct enough at the moment. Then again, we've got
no decent headerers of the ball up front at the moment so maybe it figures.
Who did play well yesterday? Thomas, Williams
and Paul Robinson. All three looked up for it (dare I say the only three?),
and ironically all three are TB's signings. So there is hope. And are there
any other silver linings about yesterday? Yeah, in our last promotion season,
we lost badly in the second game as well.....
Meanwhile,
being the superstitious type, I like to pass away poor performances with
omens, so here's one. For the first time in a long while, we were frogmarched
from Burnley Manchester Road to the ground. I know that Burnley fans have
a bad rep, and I don't travel to away games colourless for nowt, but I think
this was waay OTT. Firstly, whatever happened
to freedom of movement? It was overheard by the coppers on not less than
one occasion that if anyone "not from Burnley" wanted to go on their own,
they would be arrested. I'm not too sure if that's legal. Secondly, I think
that frogmarching in such a fashion before a game is counter-productive. Anyone heard of the expression "sitting duck"?
They may well have put a sign on us saying "Cockneys. Please stone". Thirdly,
how come that in places like Derby and Middlesbrough, which are just as
shitty as Burnley you don't get any of this? I think that this part of the
world still lives with the 80s mentality that blighted soccer, and they
wonder why people fight at games? Ironically, we passed a newsagent with
one of those billboards from the Burnley Express which stated "Clarets Fans
Run Riot At Station". Grow up, children.
Oh, and to sum the day up - I got into bed at 12am, the trains fucking up.
Great :(
17 August 2000
Right, who fancies being confused? Let's see, most of you...... OK then
: according to BBC Radio Merseyside, the Richard Dunne deal is OFF. He returned
up to Merseyside, Walter Smith says he's not going to Wimbledon because
the two parties have failed to agree terms. Straightforward enough - disappointing,
but straightforward. Now, TB goes on the OS and says that the deal is still
ON. We've agreed terms, and he's gone up to Merseyside purely to sort a
couple of things out. There's no rush on the deal, says Tezza, because Dunne's
currently got a 5 match ban anyway (good start...). So, WTF is going on?
Well, here's what we do know : Double H will
be an Ipshit player tomorrow because he's passed the medical. This is according
to TB and George Burley. Now, TB must be extremely confident that the deal will be Dunne (sorry) because he would not have
let Double H go so "easily". Other things to consider include the fact that
their prodgical nutcase son, one Duncan Ferguson,
is now back wearing Everton colours, and Everton do need the dough to pay
for it. Coincidentally, that leaves a vacancy at Newk now for another striker.
He needs to be English and Newk are prepared to spend £6m on him. Hmm, anyone
got the Ministry of Sound's phone number.....?
So, what else? Well, both Neil Ardley and Maggie have been giving their
views on last season, Neil is blaming Drillo ("the players had no respect
for him" - yeah, we gathered), whilst Maggie is actually blaming "a few"
of the other players for basically acting like disinterested cunts. I know
who I'm more inclined to believe.
Meanwhile, I came across some info today which may explain why we're culling
a lot of "top name" players. The Deloitte and Touche report on UK soccer
came out yesterday, and it makes for some pretty shocking reading. Get this
- in the 1998/89 season, you know, when OGEM was in charge, players wages
were accounting for 78% of our entire TURNOVER.
And people said that we could afford buying JH - I'm honestly convinced
that I'm not so sure now. Now, you work it out : Let's assume that the average
wage at WFC is about £7,500 per player : we have a paid squad of about 40
odd players. Each year, our collection of professional footballers costs
us £15.6m : I'm in shock just seeing that figure on the calculator. So,
let's be generous and add all the other wages together of WFC, and that'll
work out as £17m. I can't be arsed to work out the "in" column, but suffice
to say, I reckon that even with all the sales and BRG's projected £10m shortfall,
that's a fuckload of a deficit just from 1998/99. Who knows what it is now?
This may explain why culling is taking place both on and off the pitch,
and also the extreme quickness of WFC to open up TWO club shops within months
of being allowed to. Remember - Uncle Ron took 100% of receipts from the
SP club shop. Man, hope that hasn't spoiled your day.
Just one final thing about this - Maggie said that SH was going to offer
him a new contract with higher wages (subsequently adding to an already
obscenely huge debt), yet R&G sold him simply because they didn't want any
more wage burdens. Maybe this explains TB's transfer policy - only keep
those who you really want to keep. That's probably
why you'll never see Double H in a WFC shirt again
14 August 2000
Bloody hell, what a day - when you wake up to read that Double H is on his
way to Ipshit Down for about £4m, it doesn't get you off to a good start.
When you hear the terms "asset stripping", "selling to survive" and "no
ambition" complemented by "why?" etc, it makes it even worse. However, I
think I've figured what's going on, through various info sources :
It seems apparent that Double H has been "tapped" by Ipshit. Reportedly,
he met with them on Sunday to discuss personal terms before flying off to
join the Icelandic team. Ipshit claimed they'd signed him, but WFC have
publically stated that it's an offer (and one being considered) and not a signing. Got that so far? OK, so who's idea is it to sell him? Well, I
think it's more than one person : Double H will obviously jump at the chance
of playing in the Prem again, even if only for one season. And now we find
out that TB is not entirely unhappy about letting him go - this afternoon,
he made comments to the effect that ALL the money he gets for Double H will
be channelled solely into transfers including "a direct
replacement" for Double H : one involving somebody of Prem quality,
apparently. Meanwhile, in the short term, expect either Trond or Chris Wilmott
to fill Double H's shoes.
The next question is, why? I have a few theories. One, TB is wanting to
totally rid of Drillo's men. Petty, and actually wrong IMO but there you
go (while he's at it, can he get rid of the shit OGEM collected?), start
afresh if you will. Secondly, he wants to strengthen the squad but probably
needs to sell to do it. Now, you could say "well why doesn't BRG put any
money in?". The answer to that is, it doesn't quite work like that. As anyone
who's run a business will testify, the less of your own money you put in
the better - regardless how much you've got or how big or small your business
is. The reasoning behind this of course is that if you bankroll it yourself,
you're throwing money away, your money away.
For something that is not guaranteed. That's something too many football
fans tend not to realise IMO..... besides, he does put in the money where needed. I for one would like to see good backup in
CB, RB, LB and striker role, we shall need to wait and see for that. Thirdly,
and a continuation of that point, TB wants the money but can't get it from
Euell. Face it, Euell is practically unsellable at the moment, and who else
do you reckon could get that money as of this exact moment in time? Fourthly, it's quite possible that TB doesn't rate him.
Despite his hero status at WFC, he's still not really the best defender
we've ever had - he's not universally regarded in the same way as Scales,
Eric Young and KC are/were - and £4-5m is a very good price for him. And
finally, perhaps he simply wants to leave........?
So, what of the fallout? Well, it's thought that it will give the wrong
signal out to other clubs that everyone is up for grabs at WFC. A train
of thought that surprises me because as Euell has shown, half our players
are simply unsellable. Besides, every player
has his price - if Overmars and Petit can leave Arsenil, if Leeds can try
and swoop for Rio Ferdinand, why should we assume that we're immune from
all this? We are a first div club these days, don't forget. And anyway,
why get the hump about a clearout (or "exodus")? Remember, the tossers who
have gone are the ones who relegated us last year. Double H and Maggie were
50% of the second worst Premiership defense last year, you can defend them
all you want but that concrete fact is unmovable. I want to see us win games
and keep clean sheets, and if it means selling people like Double H, so
be it. If, as has been hinted, Double H wants to go, let him. Get as much
money as we can. I'd rather hear comments from the likes of Ian Selley and
KC than "XYZ are a big club and it would be my dream to play for them".
Remember - TB has said that he'll get shot of anyone who doesn't want to
play for WFC. And will we miss him? Yeah, maybe, but then I'm more attached
to the team than any one player...
Anyway, I need a bed. Night night.
12 August 2000
So, first game in the new first. And what was the momumental total? Er, Us 0 Fake Scousers 0, that's what. Actually,
I'm being unkind, we did actually play pretty well, though our shooting
boots were clearly put in the same place as Crystal Palace's defence. Had
we manage to shoot, then I shudder to think what the score would be. Apparently,
TRFC are an "average" first div side, and many people reckon that it's only
Blackburn and Fulham we need to "fear" this season. Which is fair enough,
we clearly dominated today. Patrick Agemang shone, though there were good
debuts for Mark Williams, Kelvin and Ian Selley when he came on. Paul Robinson
also came on, looked very hungry which is nice to see. Jupp and Kimble were
solid, so was Double H. Trond got better as the game went on, Damien looked
useful, but up front concerned me a little. The fact that Carl Leaburn played
the full 90 simply because of his experience may well have cost us two points.
He may hold the ball up well the ball well, and he may be a loyal and dedicated
servant to WFC, BUT.... he's still not particularly skillful. Can't wait
till JH returns.... Gayle and Ardley were good in parts, though Neil Ardley
cannot shoot to save his life. Overall, not too bad, still needs a bit of
work, but at least we didn't lose.
A couple of extra things. One, it was too bloody hot today (I'm struggling
a bit writing this at the moment because I've got a bit of heat exhaustion).
Two, the expected collapse in our support hasn't materialised. The crowd
was 8,000 odd, no worse than many Premiership games we've been in (and indeed
you could argue that it's as many as we normally had when we played the
likes of Man U), the lower Holmesdale was practically full, and apparently
the upper tier was open as well. Thirdly, I like the new programme - more
mentions of Plough Lane in that one programme than there probably has been
for about the last 9 years. Fourthly, did anyone else notice in front of
the Arthur Waite stand that the CG thing has now gone, and WTID has been
painted over it? What's the betting that it will become our new name for
the membership? (I hope not, I think it's too gimmicky a name for such an
important thing). And finally - the new WFC club shop at SP looks nice,
even though it hasn't been fitted out yet. General thumbs up, can't wait
to see it finished....
One more thing, if you click HERE,
you will now get a movie of the Tranmere player getting sent off [note:
you'll need Quicktime or a suitable plug-in and it's not streaming]. It
was such a shock that it caused a huge surge of radiation onto the pitch.....
11 August 2000
After what seems like years, the first game of the new season is upon us
tomorrow, and to be honest I haven't actually thought much about it. So
here's a few random comments off the top of my head : We can't do any worse
than last season. The attitude is much better this time round, nobody inside
the club has swiped at the new manager for a start, and only one major crybaby
remains at the club. The general talk is of optimism, for the first time
in a l---o---n---g while. Our top signing this year is Paul Robinson, Tranmere's
top signing is Stuart Barlow, for nowt. Although I'm still sure that we
won't reach the playoffs this year, I still find it hard to swallow that
such teams as Sheff Wed (who have had severe losses of playing staff) and
Watford are considered better than us. It pisses me off greatly to still
keep on reading that our attendances are there to be taken the piss out
off. And why oh why do people still consider the selling of Carl Cort a
loss?????
Actually, speaking of attendances, good bit from Sir Reg about ST sales
in today's Wimbledon Guardian. He says that sales haven't slumped : they've
only gone down "fractionally" - though how big a fraction I would not like
to say - and the main casualties are the corporate cocksuckers. And there
are many more new "proper" fans about. Suffice to say, the whole of block
D is sold out tomorrow........
Michael Thomas has signed. Finally. Guess he's finally sorted Benfica out
good and proper. All he needs to do now is lose some weight - is Daley Thompson
still looking after us?
Jason Euell, arch crybaby and winner of the SW19 "Tosser Of The Year" has
really got a knee injury. Officially at least. Well bugger me, I honestly
thought we weren't playing him because he was a disinterested cunt whose
idea of circuit training was going into the Ministry of Sound one night,
then Home the next........
On the totally other end of the scale, our new midfield dynamo/tough tackler/nutcase,
Ian "winner of the 1994 CWC at age 19" Selley was interviewed on ITV teletext
today. Some real good stuff, including: "We are one of
five or six clubs that can really challenge for promotion.",
and "To succeed here, after everything, would be my biggest
achievement." . Some stuff about his previous injuries are mentioned,
the last player I know to successfully come back from two broken legs was
Sully, and this bit may give an insight into his mentality : ""After
the first break, I played for Arsenal reserves and 10 minutes into my first
game the moment of truth came. I was a bit rusty and I let the ball run.
I had to tackle to get it back. It was a tough one - and it broke my shin-pad
in half. But I didn't worry. I never will." . I like the guy
already, he reminds me of Lawrie Sanchez, or Andy Roberts with skill and
pace and ball control, and I'm sure he and Trond will make a real nice midfield
pairing.
BTW, one more thing for you - next Thursday, WFC are doing something at
Centre Court in Wimbledon. No idea what, but if anyone can find out what
it is, there are a couple of posters about apparently. Whatever it is, be
there or be a Celsi fan.
8 August 2000
Wahey, updating daily again. Don't faint. Anyway, we've decided to do a
linkup : Wisbech Town, Dr Martins side. It's not financial, it's only really
to give some of our youngsters a trial, and of course we get Wisbech's best.
This may be a bit of a weird linkup, but as somebody from Wisbech said -
"WFC have their roots in the Southern League, so there's
an affinity there". That's not the only thing both sides have
in common. Wisbech got in trouble a couple of years ago when during an FA
Cup tie they forgot (or refused) to supply the visiting team and other such
visiting dignataries with grub. So much so that they had to go to the nearest
chippy to rectify this. Now, come on, doesn't that sound exactly the sort of thing WFC would do?
IMBD reports that the new WFC club shop in Wimbledon will now be ready in
10 weeks. Bit too late? Hope not. Coincidentally, I was in Wimbledon today,
and I passed the new shop site. It's actually not that far from the Centre
Court in truth, and that particular area of Wimbledon Broadway never seems
to be empty so I hope it's a success. At least, I think it's the current Scope shop : the vacant shop unit between Game and the
BT shop opposite Centre Court is having the fitters in........
Good interview with TB with the Evening Substandard today, nothing really
new, although he did say that "I never held [Jones and
Fashanu's] opinions highly when they were at WFC". Coincidentally,
Vinny Jones was in the MOTD magazine as well, and said something like OGEM
was much better than TB. Hmm.
Sven Goran Erikkson wants Alex Ferguson's job at Old Trafford. So what?
Well, Erikkson (isn't that a mobile phone maker?) is a great disciple at
Lazio of the zonal system, which apparently was too shitty a concept for
our obviously over-talented squad last year to attempt to master. Be kind
of ironic if Man U were to somehow play exactly the same system that so
many claim was our downfall last season.....
Bobby Gould is new manager of Cardiff, pushing the current Cardiff gaffer
to assistant to him. He will be wished well here, but I can't help thinking
two things: 1: Speaking to some Cardiff stewards last year, they were none
too appreciative of Bobby Gould, especially his tenure as Wales boss. I
don't doubt that many Cardiff fans feel the same way. 2: Hammam has seriously
shafted his "great friend", one OGEM. Now, does this mean that Kinnear's
managerial career is finished? After all, only Sheff Weds have offered to
take him on, we certainly would never take him back, and if his business
partner won't employ him......?
Coincidentally, a couple of things about the Lebanese Tax Evader that should
be bought to your attention. One, he made a bit of a sneery comment about
WFC's support on Sunday when he mentioned that Cardiff "bought half the
crowd" last season at SP. True, but not what you want the Father Of WFC
to say. Then again, as Sam The Sham (see Articles) has shown, the guy always
was two-faced about our crowd size. Second, and much more interesting -
the NOTW reports that he has a personal fortune of £100m. Naturally, I won't
ask where it came from, but isn't it funny that we find out how much he's
got just as soon as he leaves WFC? Hmmmmmmm................
7 August 2000
Is it REALLY 4 days now till the start of the season? Seems only yesterday
that I was in foreign climes trying to get hold of the Soton result - ah
well, with luck WFC as a whole won't try and piss me off quite so much next year.
ST sales are down by half, apparently, which contradicts Barney's claim
that they have actually gone up in the "proper" areas. Hmm, who's telling
the truth? We can gather that corporate stuff has dropped, plus the parasites
who only get them for Man U/Celsi/Arse games etc, but on the other side
I'm hearing quite a few stories that more and more "proper" people are getting
STs. Worth bearing in mind that this time last year ST sales were similar
and did boost up to 6,000. If we do well, expect that figure to be reached
by Xmas.
JH to Blackburn? That's the rumour going around at the moment. £4m is the
quoted fee, which sounds really low and probably should be laughed out of
court. That said, a few people saw JH at the pre-seasons and said that he
didn't look at all well (or fit). Whether his knee really is as fucked as they say it is is anyone's guess, though it would not surprise
me to see WFC do a Casiraghi on JH (you know, retire him and claim the insurance).
If TB buys another expensive striker within the next year or so, then don't
be in the least bit surprised. Remember, you read it here first.
Nice quote from Ken Murray, St Pats Athletic CEO on Des Byrne, from the
OS : "Terry Burton has really done his homework on Des
and has watched him four or five times before taking him over for a trial
and we are delighted that he has signed for a good club and he got himself
a good, secure contract. "He has a fabulous footballing brain and is very
good in the tackle and I believe he will be the best signing Wimbledon will
make this season, and I would even go as far as to say that he will be the
best signing made by any club in Division One. Things did not work out for
Des at Stockport but he came home, worked hard and has got himself a good
move to a better club and he can only become a better player with a coach
of Terry Burton's quality working with him," . Now, I've heard
some CEO's say great things about their players in order to boost their
profile, but I think this is going just a little too far. Never mind, we
need cover on the left. Oh, and did you that Pats manager Pat Dolan was
an apprentice at Arsenil when TB was there? Suddenly, it all makes sense....
5 August 2000
You
know, it's kinda nice to get back into the swing of things again. And what
better way to get re-aquainted than Country Yokels 2 Sophisticated
Urbanites 5? The team that started is more or less going to be
the same team that will start against Tranmere. A heady mixture of youth
and experience. To put the scoring in order : we scored first through Francis,
they equalised after some pressure, we got back just before half time with
an OG, then we sort of went for it in the second half, with CARL LEABURN
scoring. Yeah, I am in shock. I had actually made a bet with someone that
if Leaburn scored at Kingstonian then I would eat one of my own testicles.
Thankfully, I didn't extend the bet to today, otherwise I would be sitting
here now in not mild discomfort. Gayle followed soon afterwards, then Ian
Selley netted the fifth. They got a last minute penalty - sounds familiar?
- after Kimble brought down one of theirs. It looked like when we put ourselves
in gear, we can destroy teams. When we sit back, as we did on occasions
today, we still look iffy.
Negatives?
Our defence still looks shaky. Looks like the
age old problem of WFC collectively bricking it whenever an attacking forward,
er, attacks, still hasn't gone away. This despite our fourth managerial
change within 2.5 years. Apart from that, there's nothing really alarming.
The youngsters look good, the oldies look good as well, I'm more impressed
with Ian Feuer than Heald (even if DB did skank
me in for nowt), Gayle looks better on the wing than he does up front, I
definitely like Agemang, and Francis looks as though he's gone to the Lentini
School of Football. We seem capable of mixing it, which is what TB is trying
to do, and what could have been a tricky fixture actually became quite comfortable.
All in all, a pleasing day, and I bet that Tranmere are bricking it. Yeah,
I'm pissed.
Oh, and the SW19 poll is now closed. Just thought I'd mention it. Results
in the next couple of days....
3 August 2000
Seeing as though this is likely to be the last update before Saturday -
you now have about 48 hours to complete the SW19 poll. I will be shutting
the page off when I update on Saturday after coming back from Carrot Crunching
Land : I will not accept any entries that are
dated on my email after 23.59 BST on Sat 5 August. Hell, I have given you 3 months practically to do it :) As for when it'll be up? Who
knows, may even be Sunday night......
We drew 1-1 against Helen Chamberlain's side, and by all accounts it was
typical pre-season fayre. JH scored for the third time in two games, apart
from letting in one goal our defense reportedly looked quite solid for the
first time in 2000 years. TB was reasonably happy, though his excuse for
not stuffing Torquay 8-0 was that it was our second game in three days and
we weren't quite up to it. Jezus, making excuses already. Co-incidentally,
we're training at Nigel Mansell's complex down there. I wonder if some of
our players are taking personality lessons from the tached one himself?
Now, I don't know what the hell is wrong up in Tyneside at the moment. Have
they been sniffing too much sulphur from the shipyards up there (whatever
ones are still open anyway)? They want first refusal on Mr 110%. For £6m.
And he's got a knee injury, which is legit and is in no way shape or form
one of those ones which players who are just about to move get. Are they
mad? Is Sir John Hall in some dodgy tax fiddle where he's got to "lose"
£20m? Or is this an elongated way of apologising to us for Mirandinha trying
to kick the shit out of Dave Beasant in 1988. And can we have Duncan Ferguson
in return please? OK, so he's never played for Arsenal.....
Apparently, Michael Thomas hasn't signed for
us. He's still stalling, apparently, over the contract he's been given.
Either he wants a better deal from somewhere else, or he's still learning
to read. Then again, I suppose that having been stiched up so chronically
by Benfica, I probably wouldn't blame him for taking his time.
Two interviews published today, by ex-WFC employees, one who has won stuff
and one who hasn't but is apparently the best manager we ever had and we
should owe our very existance to him. On the one hand, Terry Gibson was
on Teletext today, saying that clubs should look at their youth policies
a lot more. He did say that WFC needed to bring back some "spirit" - getting
rid of Cort and hopefully Euell will solve just about all that - but thankfully
he rubbished terming it the CG spirit. Remember that Gibbo left because
Hammam did the dirty on him, which may explain a lot. On the other hand,
some ex-manager of ours is slagging us off for selling Thatcher and Cort,
and claiming that we won't go up. No bitterness there. Coincidentally, the
same guy may be about to take over a top international club - somebody called
Cardiff City, apparently - but he says that the new owner of that place
hasn't spoken to him about it yet. Tragic.
1 August 2000
Two things before today's update : one, I will put the July news in the
archive sometime this week. This is due to the second thing, namely the
SW19 poll. Basically, the results may be up Sunday night, providing that
I don't have (a) loads more entries coming in between now and Saturday,
(b) a sudden influx of non-SW19 related stuff to deal with and (c) a brain
aneurysm. However, to be on the safe side, assume around about this time
next week. A lot of people have asked me what the results are, but then
if I was to tell you there'd be no point in me telling you :)
Anyway, news time now, and we won 5-2 last night at Exeter. Well, I thought
it was 5-3, which sent the alarm bells ringing yet again. Lots of positives
came from this match : obviously, scoring five goals is nice. Conceeding
two is a bit of a shit, though as more mellowed out Wombles keep telling
me - "it's only a friendly". I don't know who scored, nor how everyone played
etc, but nobody who went was upset - you know, I really really wished that
it was played on Saturday or even Sunday. Still, those who organise these
things never think of the poor man do they??? Reportedly, 60 odd Wombles
were down there, which is a promising sign for things to come - I reckon
that these last three friendlies have been the best attended series of friendlies
in quite a while, maybe ever (though some oldie will doubtlessly tell me
that when Selwyn Rice was playing we played a friendly at Dartford and took
over 3,000). Tomorrow is Torquay, then down to Berwistol on Saturday, where
SW19 will be. If you're wavering, then do yourself a favour and get down
there.
Jason Euell still wants to leave. I didn't actually know he was still here,
though the words "turd", "toilet" and "lingering" spring to mind. Coventry
are the next gullible honoured club who desire
his lack of services, we want £6m. However,
a spokesman for Euell (guess who?) has said that we are being stubborn over
the dough. Bloody hell, is that a thinly veiled opinion that even Barnett
thinks Euell is worth diddly squat?
Not to annoy me or anything, but Carl Cort is going on a bit of a scoring
run with Newk at the moment - three goals in about 2 games against the might
of, er, Columbus Crew. And some third div team they played (or was it second
div?). Well worth the £7m I would wager.
