Championship and Lower League Thread 2012/13

[patiirc]

I was going to repost the bear picture again, but that's not quite fair. 0-1 was the right result given the way both teams played. Defensively we looked much sharper than Tuesday, looked very hard to crack apart from a few close calls but the holes are still there and people responsible still need to plug them, sharpish. We didn't do anything as stupid as put Wools in the back, but we still didn't create much from anything. The Campbell signing is a little worrying as it looks like either the Bolassie transfer request has legs or Pitman's getting cold feet; we still haven't sorted the supply issue so I believe this will be a continuing trend unless one of the strikers steps back and takes matters into his own hands.

 

Bolassie's been confirmed today despite the usual denials from the club. Bear picture would still be apt. Palace tuesday, see what happens then

[TUFCfan]

Bolassie's been confirmed today despite the usual denials from the club. Bear picture would still be apt. Palace tuesday, see what happens then

I always love the old "want to move closer to London" excuse, as you're normally guaranteed that they'll move somewhere just as far away.

 

Take Mustapha Carayol for example. That's the excuse he used when he wanted to move from Torquay when his contract expired and he then moved to Lincoln, followed by a move to Bristol Rovers and is now at Middlesbrough, which as everybody knows is just a stones throw away from the M25. At least it is in Muzzy's road atlas.

[patiirc]

Bolassie's been confirmed today despite the usual denials from the club. Bear picture would still be apt. Palace tuesday, see what happens then

I always love the old "want to move closer to London" excuse, as you're normally guaranteed that they'll move somewhere just as far away.

 

Take Mustapha Carayol for example. That's the excuse he used when he wanted to move from Torquay when his contract expired and he then moved to Lincoln, followed by a move to Bristol Rovers and is now at Middlesbrough, which as everybody knows is just a stones throw away from the M25. At least it is in Muzzy's road atlas.

 

Carayol and Bolassie have the same agent afaik. So it's not a complete shock. Ironically Palace has been mentioned previously as a destination for him. So will see what occurs

[Zebra Kid Mark]

It came across as shit as you describe. Cardiff were rubbish, I have no idea how they pulled that one out. Huddersfield much the better team.

 

Ref was alright. The foul on Helguson that should have been a penalty was the only real wrong decision apart from the odd throw-in. Linesmen are the problem, they do fuck all to help. Funny hearing the crowd get on the ref back when he's done nothing wrong. Come across as stupid as fuck when the TV audience can see what's really going on. Not a dig at Cardiff, same for everyone. Number of times during our PL era we'd be screaming about decisions for handball, offside, etc and I'd get a text from my brother "Just shown it on TV he was miles on" or something.

It seemed like we dominated play in the 2nd half and were completely deserving of the win as we had chance after chance but I agree that Huddersfield were the better team in the first half. I still stand by the fact that the ref was shocking as I wear my rose tinted glasses.

[seph]

4-1 over Palace. Woolford AND Adomah scored. Sam Baldock was unveiled at half time. Ryan Taylor proved himself. Richard Foster wasn't balls. My new home at the top of the Dolman saw it all.

 

I'm hard-pressed to think how tonight could've been better.... oh yeah, if the gas hadn't levelled against Barnet.

 

EDIT: We got our first win *before* September as well. Ye gods.

[patiirc]

4-1 over Palace. Woolford AND Adomah scored. Sam Baldock was unveiled at half time. Ryan Taylor proved himself. Richard Foster wasn't balls. My new home at the top of the Dolman saw it all.

 

I'm hard-pressed to think how tonight could've been better.... oh yeah, if the gas hadn't levelled against Barnet.

 

I swear I have been abducted by Aliens or something, couldnt believe it.. Mental

[Daaaaaad!]

Went to see Sheffield Wednesday vs. Birmingham City tonight at Hillsborough. Thoroughly entertaining game and Wednesday definitely deserved to win. More importantly though, under Dave Jones they're clearly progressing into a footballing team as opposed to Megson's 'hit it for the big man' routine. Interesting to see players such as Rhys McCabe and substitute Gary Madine struggle when given that little bit less time as compared to the SPL/League One football they were used to. Their Barcelona B loan signing Rodri looks pretty tasty too, could see him coming back after this season.

[stumobir]

Blackburn Rovers' fans have to be some of the most horrible fans in the country. A home attendance of only 13,000 and booed their own team off at half-time when it was a goalless draw and continued to boo their team at full time even after a 1-0 win. They wonder why their team is struggling? Might be something to do with how low team morale must be having to listen to that. Personally, I don't like Steve Kean and think he should have walked in January but after he made it clear he wasn't the fans should have rallied around him and done everything they could to help their team stay up. Yes, you were relegated and now this guy is trying to make amends and get you back up to the top tier, at least give him a few games of support to see what he can do in the Championship. Even though I'm not keen on Kean (har har har) I hope he has a stormer of a season and leaves everyone of those self-loathing pricks with egg on their face.

[Fatty Facesitter]

I'm surprised there isn't a bit of renewed optimism amongst them. Apart from Yakubu leaving and Best getting injured in pre-season, their squad now actually looks stronger than last season for me, definitely a squad capable of winning promotion one way or another. 4 points against two tough Championship opponents is hardly the worst way to go about it either. The players seem to have a great deal of respect for Kean too.

 

The people running the club have just caused such apathy amongst the Rovers faithful, and in many ways they are justified. But to boo the players too? It's starting to have a reverse affect. I totally appreciate that they're not happy with the ownership and Kean was always out of his depth from the moment he took on the job in the Premier League, but I think he might actually cut it at this level given time. But something's got to give, and clearly there's no ownership or managerial change on the horizon. If they really don't want to do something about it, organize some sort of supporters trust and drum up some funds to make an offer to buy it or something.

[next_big_thing]

Blackpool to finish top of the table.

[Fatty Facesitter]

Blackpool to finish top of the table.

 

Playoffs at best I reckon. I love Ian Holloway and love watching them play, but if Matt Phillips goes for starters then they won't get automatic promotion. Too many stronger overall squads around them I think.

[RobJ_87]

Blackburn Rovers' fans have to be some of the most horrible fans in the country. A home attendance of only 13,000 and booed their own team off at half-time when it was a goalless draw and continued to boo their team at full time even after a 1-0 win. They wonder why their team is struggling? Might be something to do with how low team morale must be having to listen to that. Personally, I don't like Steve Kean and think he should have walked in January but after he made it clear he wasn't the fans should have rallied around him and done everything they could to help their team stay up. Yes, you were relegated and now this guy is trying to make amends and get you back up to the top tier, at least give him a few games of support to see what he can do in the Championship. Even though I'm not keen on Kean (har har har) I hope he has a stormer of a season and leaves everyone of those self-loathing pricks with egg on their face.

 

Now as a Rovers fan I have to dispute this.

 

How are we some of the most horrible fans in the country?

 

If your club was being run into the ground by a man with a win percentage like Kean's would you be happy? Would you be happy if your club is signing players based on who your manager's agent is? See Riberio and Myles Anderson (the son of a certain agent who's name shall not be mentioned for the fact he googles himself for what he see's as slanderous comments. Only one has played in the first team and that's taken until Wednesday to happen.). Would you be happy to see your club's entire boardroom disappear to be replaced with a man who has only ever worked in PR and Shebby Singh? Would you be happy to have a manager who when charged with drink driving 'allegedly' claimed fans had spiked his drink to try and get off the charge? Would you be happy to have a manager allegedly make slanderous comments about why Big Sam got the boot? Would you be happy if your club was treating it's sponsors like crap? e.g. WEG local sponsor, withdrawn their money due to no communication from the club about anything commercial, we've had no shirt sponsor for ages due to them being unable to negotiate with anybody. (yes we had the Princes Trust last season, however they had no choice but to give the shirt space away as nobody wanted to sponsor them). Would you be happy if your club was about to lose it's shirt deal due to 'allegedly' bootlegging them in India for the academy? Would you be happy if you signed a player for 250K but coincidentally spent nearly 2.25million on agent fees? Would you be happy at losing players because you've been told you cannot play them because it'll activate a contract clause? (see Vukevic, Rochina, Salgado, Roberts). This could go on and on and on.

 

It is fact that he has the worst win percentage in the club's history, he doesn't have the respect of the players, according to people close to the club in the local area Givet nutted Kean at half time in the Wigan match and Nzonzi had done similar in training 'allegedly'. From those close to the club it is apparent Kean is unsackable regardless of what he does, Venky's buy into his every word and they do not care one bit what the fans think.

 

Season ticket sales are at the lowest we've had since the redevelopment of the ground, people are voting with their feet, they want to support the players and trust me they are getting behind the team, they just refuse to get behind Kean. The boo's are for Kean & Kean only and always have been, anyone with any knowledge of the situation which isn't basing it off the national media reports which are very pro Kean would know this. Many fans who have been season ticket holders for 20, 30 years have stopped going as they feel it isn't their club anymore, they cannot relate to the club under the current owners or manager but still back the players. Look for our away attendances to be higher this season as fans do not want to put money into Venkys coffers.

 

I would love nothing more than for Rovers to be doing well under Kean, he has been given a fair crack of the whip at the start of his tenure, it just went downhill very, very quickly through the way he antagonised the fans with his quotes. I'm sorry but how you give any credibility to a man who after a 2 or 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa said we were unlucky to lose as we'd entered their box 16 times. Who even uses that as a statistic? Not shot at goal 16 times, just entered their box!

 

With that squad, we should not have been relegated, we scored the most goals outside of the 6 or 8 I believe, he just couldn't organise a defence to save his life.

 

Please ask yourself those questions and see if you would be happy with your club being run like that?

 

EDIT: Having read that back it sounds mega bitchy, not my intention. Just shows how frustrated some of us fans are by the club. Forgot to add, I do not agree with any booing whilst Rovers are at 0-0 or even winning, some fans genuinely do want the team to lose in the hope the cretin is removed, that is something I do not agree with. It'd be great if he could pull it around, however he has done serious damage that unfortunately will never be forgiven.

[WU LYF 4 LYF]

I fully support the Blackburn fans in this. Kean is a vile, despicable, antagonistic, smug cunt, and it is clear that there is some agenda (probably money, or corruption somewhere) as to why he has inexplicably kept his job.

 

People forget that a year or two ago he was championing the fact he'd get Blackburn in the Campions League, amongst other bullshit. I hate him almost as much as I despise Adrian Chiles, which is really something.

[seph]

-- other thread, delete.

[stumobir]

As I've said, I fully agree Kean should have gone months ago, whether the guy is just clinging on to his pay cheque or whether he believes he can actually turn the club around is something I don't have the knowledge to comment on but I can't see how that sort of atmosphere inside the stadium is ever going to help matters.

 

Obviously, I understand why the fans are pissed off but it seems that most of the problems you highlight are problems behind the scences with the Venkys and Co. That's why I'm a bit surprised the protests aren't directed at them and why some sort of Supporters' Consortium hasn't formed in an attempt to buyout the Venkys.