[Gurnelista]

It’s not just the tedious football. It’s been the manner of it, the way it came about – the repeated signing of weak players, the revolving door of managers, the stubbornness of the chairman, the broken promises, and above all, the falling out with the club’s most important asset – the fans.

And, there seems to be no end in sight.

[Gurnelista]

anoldiron wrote:

I think naivety applies to a number of the players, they know they aren’t getting new contracts apparently but they aren’t exactly putting themselves in the shop window with their pitiful performances.
I expect their agents will be telling them they can get better clubs but in reality those we release will finish up in non league or part time.

Disputes over contracts – haven’t we been here before? Remember a few seasons back how performances suddenly went off the boil after ‘words were had’ when Swann allegedly refused to discuss contracts during a decisive time in the promotion push.
And now rumours are circulating that contract offers have been withdrawn just as performances have gone from bad to worse.
Coincidence?

3 users thanked author for this post.

inspector, Deereyme66, alcazar

[Gurnelista]

Yes. According to the rumour machine it’ll be all change next season, except Prawn has said the budget will be smaller, so everything will be the same.

[Gurnelista]

Too true.

I mean, football becoming all about money and not about ‘the fans’, shock horror…..

Johnson, Dowden, Prince William… and countless others, all seeking to be associated with a popular cause and pleased to be talking about something other than the dreadful state of the economy, Covid, royal rifts etc. etc.

So where were they when the Prem was born, when ordinary fans got priced out of games, and when Prem teams decided to become global brands which gave preference to visiting business people from Shanghai or Dubai, instead of ordinary fans who lived round the corner? Who cared, as they got richer and clubs like SUFC got poorer, footballing inequality growing exponentially?

Answer, none of them, they didn’t give a flying fig because they tacitly agreed with free markets and football, and clubs behaving like big corporations. Hypocrisy by the shedload.

The best book I’ve seen on this was from published back in 2008. It’s this:

[Gurnelista]

What about the Scunny Bunny? Is he going too?

He could play centre midfield and do a better job than some.

[Gurnelista]

Good post NI.

We shouldn’t forget the role of the ‘selection committee’ at GP, which must carry the can for wasting so much money on inadequate players.

I have no idea what role Swann junior has in this, but the very idea that a lad in his 20s might be experienced enough to know and recognize in others the attributes which go towards making a suitable player for a club like ours, is really beyond belief.

That’s because it’s not just a question of a footballer’s skill, but also has to do with their character and temperament, and whether they can respond to the kind of management style in place at the time.

And that’s why managers are keen to make these decisions for themselves. It’s also why – despite the odd success – someone so young and comparatively inexperienced is ill-qualified to make such important decisions on behalf of the club.

2 users thanked author for this post.

SODIron, inspector

[Gurnelista]

Desperate marketing!

[Gurnelista]

UTI99 needs to realize that it’s the club who has transformed fans into customers.

Ability to pay has become more important than loyalty and commitment.

Swann’s response to the elderly season ticket holder is perfect example, with decades of loyalty dismissed as irrelevant. His response was ‘fine, if he’s not happy, then he should stop going.’

But that, UTI99, is not how you grow the fan base. It is not how you develop fans of the brand, fans who these days have a limitless choice of entertainment.

Saying that fans’ attitudes “stink”, doesn’t help either. It just enrages supporters, and has the potential to be another ‘morongate’ moment which divides fans and club even further.

Really, if Swann junior did Business Studies at uni, dad should be asking for his money back.

6 users thanked author for this post.

alcazar, Northumbiron, IRONINTHEBLOOD, inspector, Ironawe, Iron-awe

[Gurnelista]

All true, and knocking the elderly season ticket holder who said it would be his last season, was a particularly cheap shot.

The chairman claims everyone’s been ‘working so hard’ and blames Covid, but as other say above, this is the same at all clubs, yet their fans haven’t had to put up with dismal performances season after season.

As has been said before, it’s not just the league position, it’s the repeatedly dull performances which are driving fans away, coupled with management that doesn’t seem to give a fig about the fans.

3 users thanked author for this post.

inspector, IRONINTHEBLOOD, alcazar

[Gurnelista]

lesgeo wrote:

As ‘resident expert’ – I reckon Tom is, by head and shoulders, the best we’ve ever had. He tells it like it is. I, for one, really appreciate that.
Knowing more than a little about commentating, I rate Mike the best that Humberside has had.

Yes, the Brexit commentary was unforgettable, Les. You certainly told it like it is!

As resident expert on absolutely nothing, I think it must be very difficult to find experienced ex-players who are able to inform, educate and entertain the listeners in the BBC tradition. But a football audience naturally wants names they know, hence we get people like Newey and co.

Tom Newey is pretty flat and dull in his delivery. As Ferrite says, the seeking out of controversy is tedious at times – it’s as if he’s been told ‘argue with the decisions Tom, the listeners like an argument!’.

As for the others, well, it’s local radio, and at SUFC (and the Cods) this season it must have been a nightmare for the commentary teams. They try hard, and Mike White isn’t bad but at times drifts into Alan Partridge territory.

Resident expert Mrs Gurn once listened in and thought it was a comedy sketch!

[Gurnelista]

Jack Charlton wouldn’t have stood for it. The doc showed he was keen on attacking, entertaining football, and providing craic for the fans.

Keane wasn’t keen on Charlton tho’, or Mick McCarthy, at least according to this ‘Keanologist’…

http://www.soccer-ireland.com/saipan/roy-keane-jack-charlton.htm

[Gurnelista]

Except about Irish politics! He seemed quite adamant he wouldn’t talk about that.

I thought he might say something about Roy Keane, but again, ‘nada’. Maybe they fell out.

[Gurnelista]

I can log in, alas, it only tells me how to build my own website! No sign of any place to place an avatar.

[Gurnelista]

Thanks to MM and NI – I’ll give it a go later.

[Gurnelista]

Quite unlike anyone else.

[Gurnelista]

mistertonmick wrote:

only McGahey missing and he is back in full training, hoping for a win, but this is Scunthorpe United so expect the unexpected.

MM – I have a query about avatars which Northumbiron suggested you could help with: how can I create one? I tried drag n drop but the computer said ‘no’, the pic wouldn’t stick.
Is it only possible by using the URL of an image?? Any ideas?

Maybe a separate thread on this would work best.

[Gurnelista]

How does the saying go – ‘One swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day’…

Let’s not get complacent. It was a good 3 points and a reasonable show against the liverless Cods, but there has to be a lot more of the same to ensure survival.

2 users thanked author for this post.

IRONINTHEBLOOD, ironking

[Gurnelista]

Sounds out of his depth and clutching at straws. He signs a manager with no management experience, and approves his decision to hire Swann junior, who also has no experience, but ‘has a plan to get the club into the Championship’. Yet, he can’t put his finger on why performances have been so poor.

I’m sure he means well, but I really don’t think he’s able to see the error of his ways, and while he’s surrounded by ‘yes men’, nobody will tell him.

Should he go? Got to be careful what you wish for in these straitened times, as has often been said. Some would say it couldn’t get any worse, tho’.

1 user thanked author for this post.

inspector

[Gurnelista]

So Alcy, will you refuse a vaccination?

[Gurnelista]

Well said, DM. Free speech has its limits.

So, you won’t bother getting vaccinated, Alcy?

[Gurnelista]

Sometimes it’s just down to bad luck, but that’s not the case here.

Years of poor chairmanship and mismanagement have now left the club in a corner. No money for managerial pay offs, and even if there were, it’s a club few managers would want to take on. Plus, with so little time or money to develop a settled, confident team capable of escaping relegation, even fewer managers would be capable of succeeding.

It’s not even a club anyone would want to buy, currently.

It feels like we’re on death row, at the end of the line, and facing the inevitable with little chance of appeal.

[Gurnelista]

It’s also shows how fake news works, Bill.

Some people will read the racist post and think it’s true, even though there’s no evidence for it, and even tho’ it appeared on an unedited football messageboard from someone they’ve never met!

They want to believe it, because it confirms their prejudices.

Racists, for example, know there are a lot of gullible readers on boards, chat rooms, Facebook, etc … so they use these platforms to prey on their prejudices.

It’s the new way to spread very damaging lies and propaganda. You can take as many identities as you like, say pretty much anything about anything, and if you tie a political scarf to it, even better – Brexit, BLM, immigration, Covid, anti-vax… etc., you’ve seen it all.

What do you think, Bill?

[Gurnelista]

Classic piece of disinformation.

This is another of your Frankenstein’s monsters, Jonathan and Justles. Don’t be surprised if they turn on their creator next.

[Gurnelista]

JC – nobody’s saying you need to be careful or apologetic about wanting improvements. Improvements are what we all want.

I also have no idea if things will change in the summer but NI has pointed out that things will be unlikely to change until then, and his reasons why. You might disagree and have other reasons, of course.

I don’t know either if things will change in the summer, or if anyone will be interested in buying Swann out now, but given the hardships everyone’s currently facing, the money the club is currently losing, the need for a new ground, and the fact that SUFC not a ‘sleeping giant’ with an interesting history, or in an area with great potential to build up a big following, it isn’t currently a very attractive proposition to many investors, wealthy or otherwise.

[Gurnelista]

Well yes, he agrees, but I think he’s saying it won’t happen until summer, and why.

It’s probably true that it’s the worst Iron side, certainly in memory, if not in history, but we should be careful what we wish for in terms of ownership. As has been said elsewhere, who would buy the club, currently?

How does that old joke go? WHat’s the quickest way to become a millionaire? Start with a billion and buy a football club. It’s never been truer.

[Gurnelista]

A comprehensive analysis, IA. A lot of fans have felt driven away, that’s for sure. How is it possible to keep supporting, week in week out, when players come and go, managers come and go, those who do play don’t seem bothered, performances nose-dive and the club seems not just to lose matches, but also a sense of its own identity.
My lad and I have had more than a few wobbles. There’s a sense that we haven’t left the club, it’s more like the club has left us.

[Gurnelista]

Indeed, that’s been my experience too, MK.

We now have an intervention from Wesley Finesword QC – a BAME barrister, Muslim, and one of Pepperills finest – as he takes the floor to address the court.

Ladies and gentlemen, here we are, on the precipice of the worst economic crisis in history, with 500 deaths per day, millions suffering through unemployment and debt, businesses closing forever, rising insecurity, poverty and concomitant illness, as Justles comes on IB in support of one of the vilest politicians and political parties ever to attempt entry into Westminster.

And, that may be all well and good in a social forum, as are your usual pre-occupations with nation, race and religion.

But, what is at issue, is that you solicited Bru-ers trust. You impressed upon the laymen of this locality your former positions as a magistrate and teacher, in order to emphasise your credibility.

Yet, is it not the truth that you set out to groom readers for personal gain? Long ago you failed to mention you had abandoned ideas about education, enlightenment and the church, in favour of the ignorance and hate spread by UKIP and the far-right, as the family jumped into bed with Nigel.

And there’s more. Time after time, we bore witness to some of the most crackpot propaganda ever seen on the Bru, which actually enjoined readers to ‘pass it on to everyone’. Evidence the following:

#63085
June 20, 2016 8.25 pm

“Please, please take ten minutes of your time to read this – and then send to everyone on your email list, and place it on Facebook – requesting others to do the same. I spent a very long time researching all of this! Lesgeo.”

Support Brexit because….

“Attempts to claim major job losses are baseless.”
“Firms leaving the UK after Brexit – evidence not given”
“WTO rules prevent them from isolating us”
“The EU is not called the Evil Empire for nothing”
“Europol’s powers are unlimited… greater than those of the Gestapo.”

Coming from a former magistrate and teacher, it must be true – is that not the case, ladies and gentlemen?

Alas it couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s just another self-published work of sub-standard fiction, perhaps even ghost-written by Jonnie.

Meanwhile, millions of women, men and their families, like those on Bru, were trying to do the right thing – working hard and bringing up their kids up to tell the truth, even tho’ they see many powerful individuals lying and getting away with it, time and time again. We put our kids through university hoping they get a decent job, only to find they’re saddled with thousands of pounds of debt, can’t afford the basics like a house or pension, while being condemned to a life of insecurity in the gig economy, one now blighted by the catastrophic consequences of Brexit. And if they are foreign of accent, face or race, the disadvantage is multiplied, due in no small part to the rise of the far right and the public face of Farage and his party acolytes.

Ladies and gentlemen, as the world struggles to unite against the common problems of racism, disease, economic and environmental collapse, UKIP will go down in history as one of the nastiest and most incompetent parties ever to flirt with power. Is there any wonder Jonathan dare not speak its name in his Twitter profile? These days he’s beyond ashamed, and rightly so.

So, to sum up, you and yours might not suffer greatly in this recession, but if you have it within your soul, just spare a thought for those who actually will. God, there are some confessions need making. Y recuerde – A cada cerdo le llega su San Martín.

[Gurnelista]

LK if you look above you can see a link in my post to an article about who the net contributors are. It’s not as clear-cut as you suggest. It costs each of us about £100 a year. Now who knew that?

And how many more times does it need saying that Brexiters really should get hold of the facts? In this case, the current mess of Brexit will wake people up in other EU countries to the ridiculous fantasies of their far-right factions.

Moreover, there are many countries who want to join the EU but can’t, because they don’t meet the convergence criteria.

BI – you still haven’t mentioned any benefits. Come on, fill your boots, we’re out now, and where are they? Come on, give us just one.

The point is that all this was totally unnecessary. Why? Because no deal is possible which was better than the deal we already had.

[Gurnelista]

cassidystash wrote:

The masses knew what they were voting for!! I don’t think so. They voted leave to stop immigration with no thought (or knowledge) of other possible consequences. Still to meet a leave voter who doesn’t give that as their prime reason.

Too true Cass. There’s no doubt a huge majority did vote to stop people coming over here to mend things, clean things, and to work in our NHS and care homes to look after our families & friends in return for a pittance. As a basically powerless group with few friends in the media or politics they were an easy target, and presented as ‘the problem’, rather than the reality of failed Tory economics and austerity.

BPG – you’ve clearly forgotten that most of the foreign-owned sections of the mass media – the Telegraph, Times, Sun as well as the Mail and Express – were all pro-leave, as are Fox and Sky news. That’s about ¾ of the readership, maybe more, plus television. There was also a likely criminal campaign by Farage, and a very sly one conducted through social media, whereby lies from apparently reliable sources were were freely spread around. All this benefitted those who would not only not suffer, but would profit from selling their media to a gullible public, as well as those who could actually make money from a Britain in decline, like Rees-Mogg.

https://www.channel4.com/press/news/brexiteer-jacob-rees-mogg-estimated-have-earnt-ps7m-investments-referendum-according

Here on Bru, you had Les and co. feeding their propaganda to those who knew no better, and now millions will suffer the consequences. I don’t blame those who were taken in. But, I do blame those who lied with the full knowledge of what they were doing.

Justles – instead of shamefully stealing around this board in a disguise as convincing as Grayson Perry’s ‘Claire’, come clean and recognize the only ‘deep-seated fundamental rift’ is between the reality and the rhetoric, and what this means for millions of people. It’s not smart to pose as ‘what-me-worry?’ and pontificate as if mid-fiddle, while Rome burns. It may not matter to you, but teachers are meant to educate – you and Jonathan should never be let near a classroom again.

BI –The usual empty bluster. Tell us what the benefits are, and why they are worth the even greater catastrophic damage about to be visited upon the UK economy. Whatever happened to ‘cake and eat it’, ‘sunny uplands’, ‘easiest deal in history’??

[Gurnelista]

Gurn’s point about “EU players” should have read “Players within the EU”. Good to know somebody’s still reading this column after all the compliments flying around. But whatever happens re. Bosman, it’ll be totally irrelevant to the daily lives of 99.9% of Scunthorpians.

More relevant will be that, under the Tories, Brexit is likely to lead to more shortages, exploitation, unemployment, crumbling public services, longer waiting times for hospitals and GPs, more boarded-up shops, more failing businesses, and even more people leaving the area.

As usual, it will be ‘ordinary people’ who bear the brunt, as they get sicker, weaker and poorer, particularly in towns like Scunny.

Yet, the whole Brexit exercise has been based on soundbites, fantasies and downright lies. It’s been like an illegal advertising campaign for a non-existent product, which has left the ‘leavers’ in love with an idea or fantasy, rather than anything tangible which would improve their daily lives.

That’s why, when Brexiters are asked for their reasons, most say exactly what AWG and others have said on here, with ‘arguments’ which aren’t supported by the facts at all. That’s because it’s hard to deny the power of the charlatan who has gained your trust / confidence. Once he has gained that, he has control over you for many years, since to break free is to admit you’ve been had. It’s like with strong religion.

True, the argument for ‘remain’ wasn’t made effectively. It’s always harder to defend the status quo. You could tell everyone about the advantages of membership, but if others can show that the UK pays in more than it gets back, even just £100, and circulate a lie about an immigrant accordion player getting benefits to repair to his bellows, it makes for shocking headlines in the populist sections of the media, the twitter trolls are mobilized to punch down even harder on their keyboards, while the Greek chorus on here pipes up with renewed vigour.

So, in the end, we should blame the liars for their deceit and cunning, not the lied to. Show some compassion for the conned, and all that. It’s Xmas after all.

[Author]

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