Posts Tagged ‘Plymouth Argyle’

Leeds United and the other 91 Basket Cases, PR Special including Portsmouth, Southend United, Crystal Palace, Manchester United, Plymouth Argyle,

Jul 22nd, 10 / Comments Off
 

Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

 

They never learn do they.

It was never going to take long, the succession of cack-handed communications from clubs to fans and the outside world continues to astound. Take for example that world class proponent of peeing off the fan base, Mr KW Bates at Leeds United. Season still 3 weeks away but Ken is getting his form back early. Yesterday he not only insulted the whole of our foreign based support by calling them “so called fans” (this via Yorkshire Radio which regular readers will know is part of the club when a balance sheet is produced or a promotional drive is on but not when we go into administration) but also with the help of our newish Director of Commercial whatever, Mr P Bell, has devised a real humdinger of a rip-off, charging on LUTV for pre-season friendlies!! Well to be fair we expect no less.

Mr Bell of course came to us from that other bastion of integrity and financial propriety Portsmouth FC. The PR generated around that club has become legend already without them becoming expert in the burying bad news department. Not content with racking up legal fees and administration costs than could have covered the wages of the 80 people who lost their jobs, not content with plotting to return the Fratton Park club to the owner that put them in administration in the first place (now where have I seen that before?) not content with still paying Mr Storrie for being awful at anything they also generate a large story around not resigning David James (a goalie they couldn’t afford to pay anyway) to obscure the fact they are sacking their youth team players on mass! Good work boys.

Work, or other business interests, is what keeps some chairman from fulling focusing on the job in hand. take Southend United’s Ron Martin, a bloke so busy shoring up his wide range of Essex based property interests he can’t find time to stop HMRC calling the club “habitually insolvent”. To be fair all this activity means you can always find space for more, hence the trumpeting of Mr Martin being elected to the Football League board to represent League 2. What’s that you say The Guardian? He wasn’t elected as it was uncontested and it wasn’t the main place on the board but the alternate? Oh that’s just mere detail, a bit like the non building of Fossets Farm!

Speaking of detail the administrator at Crystal Palace seems to think that on Friday the club will sail out of administration and HMRC won’t do what they rightly did to Portsmouth and challenge it. Well maybe that might happen maybe it won’t. What might tip HMRC into appealing might be a nagging doubt in the back of the mind that the taxpayer is subsidising a property deal. Whilst their is no evidence that the new owners are not squeaky clean and with the best intentions they constantly refuse to confirm that Selhurst Park is the clubs home for the foreseeable future whilst at the same time saying without ownership of the ground no deal could be done. I think the Palace administrator might be in for a shock soon.

Nothing shocks me about Manchester United anymore, not even the brazenness of their financial operation. However credit where its due, they have come across a way of extracting extra income from shirts, use nick-names instead of normal ones. So Hernandez becomes Chicharito “little pea”. You can see where this will lead, Ryan Giggs becomes “little wizard” and Paul Scholas becomes “little ginger” and Wayne Rooney becomes “little sulk” and Gary Neville is a “little….” You get the rest.

Before the Glazers came along boardrooms in England were full of the likes of Sir Roy Gardner, presently stationed at Plymouth Argyle. Now its difficult enough to sell any positive message when you have just been relegated to League 1 and then give our old mucker Peter Reid the manager’s job (as an aside how bad were things at Home Park that Paul Sturrock runs off to Roots Hall?). Its even more difficult trying to defend a complex land and loan deal between Sir Roy and Sir Roy when one is the club and the other is a financial holding. Still to be fair, if they can mutter the words “We are trying to build a rational business-based future for Plymouth and people will have the opportunity to invest in either the football or infrastructure development activities of the club” with a straight face its perhaps just goes to show that the Ken Bates school of communication skills lives on.

Editor.

The Other 91 Basket Cases

Sniffers Sunday Shorts 13/12/09: Leeds United, Plymouth Argyle, Notts County, Liverpool, Hull City, England, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Northern Ireland, Sheffield Wednesday.

Dec 13th, 09 / Comments Off

 

Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

Welcome to the Sunday edition of Sniffer Nose, a punchier version of your favourite occasional column.

Once is enough.

Yesterday I added another game to the endless list from the last 3 seasons that I call “Third Division Dirge” by attending Brentford verses Leeds United. The dirge collection is a series of games so mind-numbingly rubbish that just to recall one is enough to make me shudder. Whilst I had a lovely day in Putney and Brentford (thanks Col) please god never sends us back to Griffin Park for a league game.

Doing it the right way.

Usually when a manager is sacked a certain amount of spite is directed towards them by fans and sometimes the board. In Plymouth however it seems people recognise the contribution to their relative success that Paul Sturrock’s reign brought. That is a development that hopefully other clubs will learn to replicate.

Taking the test constantly.

So Munto Finance is no more at Notts County. Does that mean that another set of secret “beneficial owners” will have to pass the “fit and proper” test? Well clearly it does, wonder what the odds of them being named this time? Very little if the spineless FL has anything to do with things.

Repeat loop.

If Rafa Benitez were to stop claiming that Liverpool can still compete in the top 4 maybe the table will reflect that. As things stand every time he entertains us with one of his moody press conferences another “big club” like Birmingham City, Fulham or Sunderland catch them. Actually Rafa keep chirping, you could be 14th soon.

Mouth of the Humber.

So Phil Brown sees nothing wrong with managers hitting/head-butting/pinning players? In fact Brown goes on to say (in that style only a thicko manager with no tactical sense could) such things should “stay in the dressing room”! Surly he means on the pitch at Eastlands?

Taking the Michael.

This isn’t rocket science Fabio, if Michael Owen can still bag hat-tricks in the CL then he is clearly good enough to go to South Africa. England fans will think he must have slept with your wife when you were both at Real Madrid if you continue to leave him out. Even if he did, put your pride in your back pocket and make sure he is on the plane.

Money to burn.

So to clarify, Liverpool, Arsenal, Birmingham City, Manchester City, Sunderland and Aston Villa are not interested in Ruud Van Nistelrooy. So who does that leave to pay £100k a week to a PL cast-off? Oh that will be Spurs then because they don’t have enough expensive strikers not getting games do they?

Unfulfilled.

The news that West Ham United’s Dean Ashton has been forced to retire at 26 is not just a blow for the relegation strugglers at Upton Park but also one for England. If he had stayed fit we wouldn’t have had to sweat over Heskey or Carlton Cole and instead left both of them back in blighty this summer. A big shame for Ashton and a big shame for us all.

Tight-fisted amateurs.

Stories coming out of Belfast suggest that the Northern Irish FA are about to lose their manager, not because of results, (quite frankly given what players Worthington has had to work with he has done miracles) no its because they want to cut his wages. That’s cleaver is that, motivation supreme! Not.

Ticking clock.

A few months ago this blog attracted some typical Wednesday whining from the Sheffield boys when I suggested that Brian Laws treatment of Richard Wood reflected his limited ability. So where are we? Wood has gone to Coventry, Jeffers is still on £10k a week being a idiot and the owls are in the bottom 3 and likely to be missing from the CCC Yorkshire League next season. The clock is ticking down on Laws. Oh well, how sad, well never mind.

The Other 91 Basket Cases

Sniffers Sunday Shorts 29/11/09: Leeds United, Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield Wednesday, Lincoln City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Wycombe Wanderers, Chester City, Weymouth, Kingstonian.

Nov 29th, 09 / Comments Off

Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

Welcome to the Sunday edition of Sniffer Nose, a punchier version of your favourite occasional column.

No lose situation.

So one year on and Leeds United face the prospect of defeat by a non league side, in a game played at a cramped ground and broadcast live on television, are we worried? Well I’m not, for some reason (and for a change) I don’t intend to let an unlikely defeat derail a cautious optimism that this season we will make enough progress to make worrying about 1st and 2nd round draws redundant from the end of the season. Having said that however it would be nice to get through to the third round for the first time since relegation through results.

Man overboard.

Yesterday’s stand out controversy has to be the decision to abandon the Plymouth/Barnsley game whilst the latter was 4-1 up. Whether or not it was justified or just another example of how football over-pampers players these days, one thing is for sure, it may have saved Paul Sturrock’s job for a week or so. Sturrock is one of those managers who gets clubs promoted but seems to never get a chance to build something substantial. Personally I hope the new owners of Plymouth give him the rest of the season but I doubt he will be in work come Xmas.

Owls of disillusion

The classic example of Sturrock not getting time was Sheffield Wednesday after he got them promoted. Over 3 years on and his replacement Brian Laws has taken the club not a smiggin further. The ownership side might be more secure but on the pitch the Owls are as stagnant as they could be, 4-0 home defeats to a WBA side testament to that lack of progress. Laws needs to take responsibility for this, when you bring the likes of Francis Jeffers back into the fold whilst binning the likes of Richard Wood you deserve to be Sturrocked!

Impinged.

Watching the Northwich Victoria/Lincoln game I was struck by a few things worthy of note at Sincil Bank; firstly that victory over Blue Square North Victoria does not a significant turn in fortunes make. Secondly that the Bermudian international Smith needs to recognise the difference between being tackled and fouled (and thus doesn’t become marked by referees as a serial cheat). Finally this; when you have your manager, assistant manager and the squad under investigation for a mass brawl already do you really need to charge in like cretins simply because a part-timer tries to connect with a loose ball? Lincoln City are too close to the relegation zone of L2 to be having suspension after suspension, especially given the size of squad!

And your point is what?

Another modern idiocy in the game is the opinions of footballers on issues nothing to do with them, Gary Neville’s comment on Liverpool’s exit from the CL being a classic example. No matter how much us fans enjoy Benetiz hitting the wall I convinced that the moronic mutterings of a serial whinger we can live without. We can only hope that some bright spark decides to fast track Neville on to the Old Trafford coaching team and he gets a senior position in the post SAF world, that should scupper any future success!

Got it wrong, an occasional series.

Time to hold my hand up, looking at Newcastle United top the CCC has really knocked my sideways a bit. Like a lot of you I could see no reason to believe a club under ownership crises, with a temporary manager and a squad full of PL relegation fodder was going to adapt well to the lower division, well they have and with spades. Some credit goes to Chris Hughton and his coaching team for this but some also goes to the motivational leader of this lot on the pitch, take a bow Alan Smith.

Putting 50p in the meter.

Another ex Leeds United player who gets venom for no dam good reason is Michael Duberry, presently captain at struggling L1 Wycombe Wanderers. Personally I think Gary Waddock has made a sound decision to make Duberry the leader as they struggle to adapt to the consequences of promotion. As Stoke City and Reading fans will testify whilst the ex Chelsea man isn’t quite up to his 1999 standards he is certainly better than the one who struggled at Elland Road. I wish him and the club well, would be nice to see them both come out of things smiling.

What took so long?

One place where smiling would be inappropriate is the Deva Stadium home of Chester City, when supporters disrupt a game they are winning in order to protest against the chaos ensuing that is a sure sign it’s time for some real action. The FA should take responsibility off the Conference and immediately ban Stephen Vaughan from all involvement in English football, period.

Less Royce more bread.

Of course it wouldn’t be English football if we didn’t have various dodgy characters hopping from one club to another and showing arrogance and contempt (can’t for the life of me think who the best example of this over the last 30 years is!) as they leave behind a big fat mess. Weymouth may have had no choice in the matter but does taking the ex Cambridge chairman Mr G Rolls on board really constitute stability. This south coast club has had enough drama already; the newest inclusion to the soap opera can only increase the tension.

Quicker by carrier pigeon.

One little piece of tension that has come to my attention recently is this; whenever I am watching the scores come in on Sky on a Saturday afternoon (and god I hate being at home on match days) the last HT or FT result to come in is usually Kingstonian when they play at home. Why is this, the distance between the Sky studios and Kingston is in single figures, the same doesn’t apply when AFC Wimbledon are at home so why when the K’s are? Maybe my small loyal following from around here can illuminate?

The Other 91 Basket Cases