Cry Wolves (Ooh-ooh-woooh!): The Football League and Beyond, 2013-14

MIDDLESBROUGH - lol tony still thinks he's fancy

They're my team to hate this season, for Tony's line "with respect, we should be beating teams like Charlton at home"

fuck off Boro

This year will either make or destroy David Flitcroft. I know you're all with me hoping it's make. Dale Jennings is a helluva signing.

jennings will be lying in his own vom under a bridge somewhere within three years. pretty sure that's how the icarus story goes anyway

- 'arry will blatantly be in the Leicester job by November.

I realise I haven't mentioned any actual players there, but... that's hardly the point, is it?

― William Bloody Swygart, Tuesday, 30 July 2013 22:50 (51 minutes ago)

never had a job north of tottenham

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http://www.millwall-history.org.uk/Morison.jpg

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ah yes, and royston the royal to look forward to

http://i3.getreading.co.uk/incoming/article4581181.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/drenthe-at-reading-4581181.jpg

- 'arry will blatantly be in the Leicester job by November.

I realise I haven't mentioned any actual players there, but... that's hardly the point, is it?

― William Bloody Swygart, Tuesday, 30 July 2013 22:50 (51 minutes ago)

never had a job north of tottenham

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Tuesday, July 30, 2013 10:43 PM (11 minutes ago)

I didn't say he'd still be in it by March.

The fact that some Millwall fans draped a banner across the gates of The Den telling Lomas to “f**k off” because he is a former West Ham player will only motivate him further to succeed.

There is absolutely no doubt who is in charge, though, and Robinson admits Lomas reminds him of Dennis Wise, who took the club to the 2004 FA Cup Final.

“A lot of people wouldn’t have wanted Kenny to go but now he has a lot are thinking ‘actually, it was the right time and Steve has been a breath of fresh air since he came in’. From the first day he was in the thick of it with the banter.

“We all went ‘woah’ when that happened as Kenny would take a step back and be observant, whereas Steve will give any rascal gear some stick, and he takes it as well."

I think two or three of Barnsley, Millwall, Charlton or Huddersfield will finish above some of the big spending parachute money bismarcks. Reading will piss the division, Bolton to push them all the way and Blackpool, Burnley and Birmingham for the drop. Yeovil will battle their way to safety, only just. It will be probably be like last season where there was a 7 point swing between pushing for the playoffs and relegation dogfight.

Blackburn seem to have strengthened in a sensible manner and if Rhodes gets good service he is easily capable of 30+ goals. He is the most clinical finisher I have seen in the flesh, but I suppose that is after a decade of mostly watching League 1 football.

Leicester have some exceptional players and should have done better last season, Knockaert has serious potential and they were unlucky Wood got injured at a time when he was damn near unplayable.

From what I have been reading the crisis clubs could be Leeds and Birmingham cos they are both have debt problems and nefarious couldn'tgiveafuck owners.

Charlton have signed Simon Church who was abysmal on loan at Hudds last season, that could be a bad move. Even our chairman publicly berated him saying "I think we must have accidently signed his twin brother".

Middlesbrough had the opposite type of season to Barnsley and barely won after the new year and were garbage. I would rather be a Barnsley supporter.

I have an affection for Flitcroft after the Yorkshire love in we had in the last game. 2-2 and town at some points of the game were in the unlikely position of being in a relegation berth on 57 points and Barnsley needed a point to stay up after the news filtered through that Palace had gone ahead against Peterborough consigning them to the trapdoor, as long as we just piss around with the ball for the last 2 minutes. I am surprised there wasn't an FA enquiry, Vaughan signalled to the Barnsley keeper it's your ball I ain't going to challenge for it and some players just sat on deck. It had been a full blooded local derby up to that point. It would have been a sin if Barnsley went down after such a heroic recovery.

yes perhaps the most marvellously absurd thing about the 8m fee for rhodes, colossus of, is that in the end he was actually sorta kinda worth it

That was the only thing I predicted correctly last season. I'm surprised he hasn't moved on yet.

rip spiralli

Oh thank god it's back.

Straight red for Gary Liddle for cutting Sheffield Utd attacker in half with what I believe they used to refer to in the wrasslin' as a "Big Boot". Otherwise nothing to report

Kevin MacDonald scores for Sheff to match his tally in all competitions from last season. Nice ball from Febian Brandy in the build-up to let in the Utd right back down the flank. But I'm off now, being kicked out the kitchen

phew we're off the bottom

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lol wow windsor werent wrong

in related news the talk of the town is that we're starting barton and henry tomorrow. togeths.

http://forevercinematic.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/double-team1.jpg

It's 7.45 and I am sitting, hung over and sleep-deprived, at Peckham Rye railway station, setting off for Exeter for the first game of the season. I have no expectations of the game, or the season for that matter, but still I've this nagging sense of excitement. I'm glad I haven't outgrown it.

And now I bother to read this thread and see a sea of Tisdale up there. Good or bad omen? I hope he wears something fetching today.
(Also we're playing Bristol Rovers today and before this fixture I'd often have a quiet word with Martin Skidmore... Funny the times you find yourself missing people. The start of the season often makes me oddly sentimental, as does a hangover. RIP Martin.)

already regretting backing charlton on my accumulator :/

yeah and bolton :/

how fucking slow is david wheater jesus

this was premiership thinking that got me into this mess tbh, the fuck was i thinking backing the vastly superior footballing side

very nice goal. darren pratley yaya-esque

coupon torn up before 3pm, good stuff

barton and henry show confirmed

rob green you joke of a man

BBC website up to its usual high technical standard. Apparently Jackett's elected to play with 10 men.

lol Dale Jennings straight red after about 6 minutes on the pitch for Barnsley

Newport killing it

aaaand Yeovil go 1 up

Leeds with the late winner :/

i'll take a point and a clean sheet at Preston tbh

see you didnt mention the leeds scorer...?

deserved win for us today, although we rode our luck not to lose if that makes sense. hoilett was miraculously in shape and motm, aj looked sharp, faurlin put a great shift in. defence was still shonky and henry (who wasnt awful but hardly any good either) shouldve been punished twice for losing the ball dicking around on the edge of the box or thereabouts. sticks in the craw to see barton playing but he worked hard and many of his deliveries i grudgingly have to admit were a cut above this level

think i may have underestimated blackpool

Found myself standing next to a pair of (respectfully quiet) Gas in our end; turned out that observing their pain as the minutes dragged away substantially enhanced my enjoyment of a deserved but narrow victory.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach 6m
#SWFC boss Dave Jones' post-match rant lasted 17 minutes. He is livid.

ah shit Murphy scored the winner for Leeds? TV was all over the place tbh, the teleprinter was knackered

Oh wonderful, Joey has an alice band.

Imagining an alternate reality where Chris Kirkland managed to stay in one piece in his 20s. He looks to have played a blinder if these highlights are anything to go on.

manish taking advantage of first dibs at the bbc wardrobe i see

Nice biz from Kermorgant there.

charlton defence glued to the floor for both grabban goals

wonder what pratley's fave tv show is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t58gN2Sdlck

"very big power in the market" says mngmnt dychhhhe of bolton

Dougie Freedman - what's his hing?

EARLY SHIRT ASSESSMENTS: Birmingham's semi-classy, Millwall's awful, not entirely sure what's going on with Boro.

mcdermott looking delighted as usual

ours are the best shirts we've had for... 17 years? (make of that what you will)

clem, dyche and mcdermott make me think i'm still watching midweek reeves & mortimer repeats

^^ bites like Luis

We've just signed one of Coventry's best players for nothing - a roistering, gallivanting 'flair merchant' who'll bag seven golazos a season - it's not like we're at the bottom of the food chain here! *clutches straws; Poyet icon*

Town were after him as well, like we could have persuaded a young European player to the dutty northern provinces after he has already suffered the dispiriting horror of Coventry. Oh and he is a Belgian as well...

Cathcart snubbed us for Watford and some young Man utd CB said no thanks to a loan. Robins is having a very frustrating summer. The chairman has run roughshod over his back room team, sacking some of MR's mates and replacing them with his people. He won't get much leeway next season despite operating on an FFP friendly budget. Middlesbro are after Clayton who is on the last year of his contract. Vaughan will not play more than 10 games because his knee is completely fucked beyond even modern medical science. So much doom right now that I know a good season is imminent <:-|

Jesus have the Bosecombe scum signed Callum Wilson for £3million ? Lallana money in effect, but still hope these these cunts fail. Nothing worse than a shitty, pretentious League 2 club with an oligarch.

didn't know Bournemouth were on the hate list now, I shall have to see this year's updated versh

Blackpool have 25 days to build a squad, pre-season frendlies in Spain cancelled because they only have 8 players.

The Tangerines currently have a squad of just eight players – David Perkins, Gary MacKenzie, Steve Davies, Bobby Grant, Sergei Zenjov, Tom Barkhuizen, Tony McMahon and Charles Dunne – none of which are Goalkeepers.

27 players in total have departed Bloomfield Road over the summer including last season’s player of the year Matt Gilks.

Chairman Karl Oyston explained in a statement that “The manager (Jose Riga) has taken the decision – and I agree with the decision – to cancel the pre-season tour so that our time is better served to try and get some of the player deals that we’ve been trying to get over the line for some time across the line.

“Our time will be far better spent preparing here than going over to Spain” he added.

just start a new game and pick a different team imo

just order an eight seater taxi and start phoning up clubs "are you lecking out tonight?"

I think Town started the season with 7 players post administration, back in 2003. But that was in L2 and some of the old lags we signed worked their arses off in a promotion season. At Championship level there are a lot of overrated players with rotten attitudes who have an unrealistic sense of what they are worth. In a market where some clubs are working within FFP restrictions and others are banging all their parachute money on the roulette table, signing players can be such a convoluted process for the clubs not paying big money.

"lecking" is an awesome variant on "larking" btw, sounds completely different down our end

It has just got worse for Blackpool, Riga has walked out now so it is 8 players and no manager.

Oysten treats the club like they used to treat those unfortunate Donkey's on the beach.

jesus christ unfit to run a club much?

Weird thing is, looking at the Guardian article about the Championship clubs' collective debt in 2012-13, Blackpool are actually fiscally very healthy by second-tier standards - http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/22/club-by-club-guide-championship-finances-2012-2013. It's just, well... eight players. And no keeper. And their form at the back end of last season was genuinely horrifying. But still, wages at 53% of turnover!

don't you have to have a registered squad of at least 15 players before the beginning of the season tho?

There is no excuse for Blackpool to be in this state because 53% of turnover wages added to all the prem money and parachute payments, means that Oysten is an asset stripper. There was a point where prudence was mentioned, but that has no credibility any more.

that's an open secret

i know. But it is still shocking, even for a leeching parasite custodian of a football club to sit back while a club falls apart this badly.

might be brutally fitting, though. blackpool being maybe the Realest England of all places

still horrifying, obv, and not what anyone deserves

Perhaps also worth remembering that, when they went up, Blackpool's ground did only have three stands. I think during their Premier League stay they also got outbid for Brett Pitman by Bristol City.

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the glamour of professional football

TEAM: Trialist, Waddington, Trialist, Perkins, McMahon (C), Dunne, Zenjov, Trialist, Trialist, Grant, Trialist.
SUBS: Barkhuizen, Trialist, Highan, Telford, Moulden, Gregory, Trialist.

Blackpool manager Jose Riga calmed immediate concerns about his future by turning up to watch their 4-0 friendly win at non-league Penrith on Saturday.
Riga faced the likelihood of the sack had he failed to appear at the match following a turbulent pre-season.

The club has only eight contracted players because of a transfer stand-off between Riga and chairman Karl Oyston.
Riga is reportedly refusing to sign players until the chairman agrees to bring in three key targets.

Sky Sports News actually had a reporter at that match yesterday, lolled when I saw the score.

Apparently SSN had a reporter at St Johnstone vs York City yesterday, where we played effectively our youth side plus a couple of trialists and first teasers needing game time against what appeared to be York's first team. 0-0, though York should have won by 5 or 6.

yeah they did have one there too, commitment above and beyond

After a very quiet summer in which we missed out on various targets, re-signed Pelts and the keeper from Coventry, now we are being linked with Richie Wellens. Wooo! let's start daring to fucking dream!

Derby's big summer signing George Thorne has done in his cruciate ligament in a friendly and will be out all season. Very harsh on the kid because it is his 2nd cruciate injury in 2 years. I suppose anything that weakens a promotion rival team that are likely to put four past you, should be taken as the cheerless benefit it is.

We signed a player! Conor Coady from Liverpool. The caveat being that we signed him at the expense of Clayton going to the smoggies for a couple of mill, genuinely hope they fail this season, along with about half of the division ●～*