Kill Cricket

Other ex-Wanderers to have played for them include Issiah Rankin. Also Midfield-General-And-Cruyff-Of-The-Championship, Darren Pratley, played for them.

Mind you, cancelling Christmas sounds like a fucking good idea.

That was what I thought - although I didn't go to Leeds. Remind me of the comments on here after it - were they universally upbeat? Anyway, I'm sorry for adding a note of realism to everybody's joyful mood. As Lennon himself pointed out, we don't get any points for playing well (and we weren't _that_ great - too many misplaced passes, too much giving the ball away.) And given that the people in charge don't seem to want/be able to fork out for a striker (as shown by the complete lack of attempt at signing Jutkiewitz), I don't see there's much scope for Lennon to improve things.

Same shit, new box. We knocked it around nicely without creating any chances - didn't look like scoring, and it took a fluke from the edge of the box to get us on the scoresheet. Defence was dreadful. I seem to remember we used to have a manager who talked about controlling the game without possession - Charlron did that brilliantly tonight . Could have played until next week and not scored. I think people put far too much faith in the. "Cult of the manager". Simply changing that makes no difference.

Greater Manchester was an administrative area, created in 1974 and abolished in 1986. "The new county boundaries are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change despite the different names adopted by the new administrative counties.” Government statement issued on 1st April 1974 and printed in the Times newspaper This was later confirmed: “I can confirm that the Government still stand by this statement,.…that the local authority areas and boundaries introduced in April 1974 do not alter the traditional boundaries of counties. The 1974 arrangements are entirely administrative, and need not affect long-standing loyalties and affinities.” Michael Portillo MP, Minister of State for Local Government – 11th July 1990 So Bolton (and, if you're interested, Wigan, Salford, Manchester, Liverpool and so on...) are all in Lancashire. For further info: http://www.forl.co.uk/

But they were great

I notice that George McCartney was released by West Ham at the end of last season - currently a free agent. I wonder if Lennon could persuade McCartney to join him here?

A quick question, if anybody knows. Has Gartside taken over as CEO (as well as chairman) after Allan Duckworth left? We don't seem to have a CEO listed on the staff page of the website.

Mike Watkinson's available: http://www.lccc.co.uk/lccc/mike-watkinson-steps-role/ Successful (Championship winner!), Wanderers fan (so knows/understands the club), loads of years experience. There you go - it has to be. Watkinson in!

Good job we sacked Freedman, eh? Everything's ok now. Well done everybody

You see, this is the problem. It had probably reached the point where it had become untenable. I've tried to defend Freedman at times, but even before kick-off on Wednesday, his team selection made me think "WTF?" Having said that, I can't understand all the optimism - simply changing the manager isn't going to help unless the new man is someone who has a definite plan for the future and is backed (both with money and time) to implement it. And I don't see that happening. So there'll be an appointment - possibly from within, on the cheap, possibly someone currently unemployed but "sergeant-majorish" - the popular opinion being that we've got to go for someone with the opposite characteristics to the last man (happens with England managers as well...) Billy Davies or whoever. They may well get a few results initially, but they'll start to dismantle Freedman's set-up and implement their own. And that'll take a couple of years, by which time, they will have gone past their honeymoon period and people will want them sacked. Rinse and repeat forever... But the attitude seems to be "Things are bad - SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! Doesn't matter what - just do something..."

And this is what I mean about naivete. It has to be the right man, yes. But they need to have a vision for how to proceed, the players and staff need to buy into it, and, above all, they need to be backed. Simply thinking that because Freedman's gone everything is fine is silly. And simply thinking we can put in "the right man" and carry on as before is staggeringly naive. But hey - the bad guy's gone, the good guys have won and the next messiah is riding over the horizon on a horse. Is than John Beck, I see...? He'd be cheaper than Mixu Paatelainen anyway.

So there's no money now. There'll be even less than none when we've paid off Freedman (and Flemming and Lawrence? Presumably...) So no new signings. Not even small children from West Ham. Then when we win under the new manager, it can be immediately traced to him, rather than to reversion to the mean (which is what it really is). Then, when things go badly, the new man can say it's all Freedman's fault, and he needs time to build his own team. But there's no money, so he'll have to make do with second-best, loans and the like. Then things start to go badly and people start grumbling. And in 2-3 years time we're back here all over again. New man sacked, even newer man in place. Does anyone ever get bored of this?

There seems to be an awful lot of naivete on here that things will now improve. I just hope that the disappointment that the next chap - whoever he is - won't sprinkle magic fairy dust over and transport us back to the Premier League doesn't spill over into wanting him sacked after a few months. It probably will, though. People often don't learn.

Can we get on with booing the new man, now? Boo - Freedman's left and we're still in the bottom three. Rubbish. Whoever's about to be appointed out. Etc.

I'm pretty sure you were there. I know I was and I try to forget it. My sister was down - Munich Tom was trying to get off with her in the pub afterwards. But I think you were....

Not wanting to be a killjoy or whatever, but this sounds to me like Coyle's version of Allardyce's "I could have bought that world-class player for 75p and a pack of fags" stories. I remain sceptical...

Perfect replacement for Kevin Davies, then...

Saxon drugs 'n' rock'n'roll... Yeah.

See, this is another reason why Millwall fans are odd - we also got Branagan from you, and yet you all think Davison was better. No. I'm sorry, but no. He wasn't...

Mixu Paatelainen. He ticks all the boxes - Wanderers legend. Experienced manager. Fashionably foreign. If he's not up for it, then David Cross. Wanderers legend. Has a good beard - or did in the 80s. He may have got rid of it by now. Otherwise John Beck. I believe he's one of the country's great overachieving managers: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8dea91a8-481d-11e1-b1b4-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2t7V8Wm00

Sack everybody. Demolish the Reebok. Build a big spaceship. Fly to the moon, sit on a huge golden throne in the middle of the Sea Of Tranquility and declare myself king of space. I think that's everything covered.

Hmm. If Fulham go down, then that's the last of the three teams that we went up with. Sad, really, since that year we stayed up was the first time since the Premier League had formed that all three promoted teams (us, Blackburn and Fulham) all stayed up. Sic transit gloria mundi, as the Latins say. For those that don't speak Latin - Gloria Mundy was the sister of the former Look Northwest presnter, John Mundy. She was famous for puking in the back of vans.

An exciting, end-to-end game of fast, free-flowing Barcelona style football that will be enjoyed not only by both sets of fans, but any neutrals watching, and will leave Sky's reporters purring with pleasure over the skill, talent, effort and sheer footballing beauty on show. Wanderers 0 - 1 Bournemouth (Trotter o.g.)

I'm just a glory hunter. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at it.