Smiley Culture

You’ve always had managers moaning that it’s hard to attract players to the North East. I’m not sure if it’s an excuse towards why their recruitment has been so bad, which it definitely was at Sunderland for years on end and has been at times with Newcastle. It does seem lazy but it could have some merit to it. With that in mind and what you said, I think Newcastle need to be careful with how they go about their business in order to not be hoodwinked into paying an extra £10-20k a week to a player just to get him out of the clutches of an Everton or West Ham and certainly not just throw money at a load of players without a plan in mind.

I have no idea how work permits work these days but if he’s young and South American, won’t be spend the next two or three years bouncing around Europe, before either making it at City or signing permanently for a side in Europe?

You know you can still get someone who has spending power who is a shit owner, don’t you? Like, I don’t know, Mike Ashley when it’s “Ashley In” not “Ashley Ooooot”. Simple as that.

You addressed nothing, in fairness. You claimed the papers are telling people that these new owners are good owners. That’s a bizarre opinion and frankly, bollocks.

I really don’t get what you’ve said. The media tell these people they’ll be good owners and spunk £300m over the next three years on some mercenaries?

Mike Ashley has pretty large spending power...

Why do people think that whenever their club is being bought that they’re getting a Sheikh with the spending power of Abramovich and Mansour combined and not getting a Venky’s or Duchatelet?

Think my girlfriends Dad has it. He’s been quite rough the last couple of days and is showing a few symptoms now.

Didn’t a load of fans fuck off at the start of the season, resulting in the club either severely reducing season ticket prices and/or giving a load away?

Just finished ‘The Frying Pan of Spain’. It’s about the history of both Sevilla and Real Betis. Was a bit tough going at one point, as I got a bit bored, but the last ten or so chapters pulled it around. Now on ‘Living on the Volcano - Secrets or surviving as a Football Manager’. Flew through the first couple of chapters. Fascinating and a reminder that Football Managers are people, too.

What is it with mouth breathers on Facebook sharing posts like “x amount of people have recovered from Covid-19 in Italy, if they’d died it would be all over the media, like and share to get this in the public eye”?

Confirmed as null and void.

Yeah, definitely. I’m a fan of International Football. The introduction of the Nations League has been a much-needed game changer to replace dour friendlies. I’m not a massive fan of the Qualifiers for tournaments and feel they need a bit of a revamp, though I’m not sure how.

I’m not calling for the return to this format, though I do find the group stages of the Champions League monotonous, but the old European Cup format of champions only fascinates me. You could go out in round one through bad luck in the draw or you could get a favourable draw and go far.

Totally agree.

- There’s too many teams in the Premier League. - I get how damaging it is to domestic football across Europe but just for the pure mystery of it, I’d be intrigued to see a “European Super League” breakaway, to see how teams get on over say 5-10 seasons.

Just had “the call”. Woke up at 5.45 this morning convinced that I was going to be furloughed this morning. Sat watching the phone for the whole morning waiting. The call did materialise, however, for now at least, I’m not on the list of 8 that’s been furloughed. I know it’s not full blown redundancy for them, I can’t help but feel bad for them. That said, I’m also pleased I’m not (yet) on the list. Weird mix of emotion and dose of reality today. That hour I spent this morning looking at courses you can do at home was wasted (potentially temporarily).

I’m not sure there is a right answer that satisfies everyone. I’m also not sure that it actually matters at all given what’s going on here at the minute. I find it a bit distasteful that there’s people really that are see about Football and are having a whinge about it at the minute. These people and their teams have scored a major PR own goal by having a moan. Granted these non-league teams aren’t going to lose their “official tyre partner” or “beer provider” like a Manchester United or a Liverpool would in this situation but in the list of things that are important, whether a football club with a couple of hundred fans are playing in the ninth tier of English Football or the eight just really isn’t important. I wouldn’t be averse to seeing football voided for this season personally. The preservation of life and prevention of this virus is more important than the remaining ten or so games of football.

You’d almost certainly have to do the same across all three National Leagues and that would be daft.

Not sure you can do that, tbh. A game per fortnight just isn’t enough for non-league clubs, even with a few tournaments thrown in. I think whatever decision taken would have opened a can of worms and I suppose it was about finding the decision that opened the smallest of those cans. I do wonder how much the decision made at this level was discussed with the immediate level(s) above them. With no season, the National League North and South’s relegation battles are obsolete (which will please seven clubs at the bottom of the South), which has its positives and negatives. Do they now carry their seasons on? At that level you have a wider Geographical spread of clubs, so multiple games a week would be a strain. I just think logistically resuming the season with ten to twelve normal games left then sorting the play-off’s would just be a huge strain on clubs physically and financially and the welfare of their players, who are all part-time and two to four games a week for an extended period would be a massive ask. Is the best thing to do to cancel the season and then clubs generate zero income when they were expecting x amount from these postponed games? It’s a difficult one. I thought that these levels would probably look at a points per game average to determine league tables but that opens up another can of worms.

Probably the best thing for that level of the game. Below the Ryman Div One and the equivalent levels across the country, you then feed into county leagues and the many league AGM’s that happen each summer that decided whose in what league for the coming season, would be a quagmire of problems. Granted, there will be a small handful of clubs that feel hard done by at this time but is kicking off all worth it from a PR angle, even if these are small clubs with a couple of hundred fans?

Mrs’ dad and sister made redundant in two separate jobs today. It’s going to be a shit...however long.

My manager’s daughter, who works in a school, is off with a temperature and a cough. Not only has my manager come in today but she’s now scoffed at the advice given by the government saying she’s too busy to work from home and joked she doesn’t want to be at home with her daughter. Never mind the asthmatic lad opposite your desk, the director who is a diabetic or the bloke whose had an irregular heartbeat for a year or so. Idiot.

It’s here to stay. Get on with it.

Was a proper underdog away performance in many respects but also, as you say, Halifax were poor.