[Lord Snooty]

West Bromwich Albion v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday March 11th - 15:00 ko
at The Hawthorns

Huddersfield Town travel to West Bromwich to the Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon for game number five of the second coming of the lord, Neil Warnock.

He's trying his best is the old lad, but if we can't get six points from two home matches with Coventry and Bristol City, not even score a goal, it's looking like this time around, Colin ain't gonna be our saviour. But we live in hope!

This week, he'll be up against a coach who this time last year was sat in the same office, supping cups of tea in the same swivel chair. That is, of course, Carlos Corberán. In fact it was this weekend, twelve months ago, that we played this fixture, a Friday night Sky spectacular at the Hawthorns where Carlos's boys ran the Baggies ragged (before they had five minutes of excitement at the end and actually earned themselves a point), in a really one sided encounter.

Colin has no new injury worries apart from Danny Ward, who the boss said came off black n blue after the first half against Brizzle Titty on Tuesday night. Scottish Highlands is out with a broken hand and so sadly, the Town fans will have to find yet another scapegoat, following this season's previous scrapecoats of Danny Schofield, Phil Hodgkinson, Leigh Bromby, Dean Hoyle, Mark Fotheringham, Matt Lowton and Ryan Schofield, if things go wrong again. My money's on it being Josh Ruffels.

Here's what old Warners had to say on Thursday morning to the throng of reporters, hanging off his every word. Not watched it myself yet, so don't know if there are any gems in there this week or whether that Sky Sports microphone is still popping it's head up.

As for the Baggies, Carlos has been picking a young goalkeeper ahead of a much more experienced custodian, much like we were doing until the poor young Aussie, Nicholas Bilokapic, shipped in eight goals in two matches. They have 21 year old Josh Griffiths in between the sticks, after Carlos recalled him from a loan spell at Portsmouth. He's keeping David Button on the bench.

They have ex Millwall star, Jedward Wallace, who scored twice in the game at our place earlier in the season. And in midfield, the satirical author and Lilliput international John Swift, who played for Reading against us at Wembley. By 'eck, that seems a long time ago now.

Ah well. You never know. If only we could score a goal.

Old Mr Copynpaste has been out again, so apologies if you've read most of this before. There are some new bits though.


Tickets:
Adults - £25
65s and over - £20
20-25 year olds - £15
17-19 year olds – £10
Under 17s - £5

Disabled supporters should pay £15, with a companion ticket free of charge.

Official coach travel is available for this fixture, costing £19 per person. Coaches will depart from St Andrew’s Road car park at 10.45am on match day.

A brief history of West Bromwich Albion: formed in 1878 as West Bromwich Strollers, apparently because you had to walk all the way to Wednesbury to buy a football. The name didn't stick and they became the Albion shortly after.

They played in local leagues and entered the national FA Cup in 1883/84. They made it all the way to the Final in 1886, losing to Blackburn Rovers and again in the following year, being beaten by Aston Villa. Then in 1888 they only went and won it. They beat Preston North End in the Final 2-1, with goals from George Woodhall and Jem Bayliss.

Later that year, they became one of the twelve founder members of the Football League. Four years later, in 1892, they won the Cup for a second time, beating Villa 3-0 this time. Jack Reynolds, Sammy Nicholls and Alfred Geddes scoring the goals in the last Final to be played at the Kennington Oval. They met Villa for a third time in the Final in 1895, but the Villains won it then. Albion moved into the Hawthorns in 1900, but suffered their first relegation in the same season. However, they boing boinged back up straight away, winning the Second Division championship.

In 1896, a young boy called Fred Everiss joined the staff of the football club. Then in 1902, in what would be an unbelievable situation nowadays, as a 19 year old, he was given the job of manager/secretary. An outrageous appointment? Well, he kept the job for 46 years, making him the longest serving manager in Football League history.

Everiss's first bit of glory was that 2nd division title just mentioned and they were top of the First Division for a while in the next season, before fading to finish 7th. The following season, they got relegated again. No yo-yo this time though, staying in Div 2 for a while, but then winning the championship once more in 1911. They followed that in the next season with another FA Cup Final, losing to Barnsley in the Final, after a replay. The first Final was played on the 20th of April 1912 at Crystal Palace, just five days after the sinking of the Titanic. The match finished 0-0 and so both teams traipsed up to Brammall Lane, where the Tykes triumphed 1-0. The gate receipts for the match of £2615, were donated to the Titanic Disaster Fund.

Albion were still in the First Division when the war broke out. Post war, they won their one and only Football League title in 1919/20, winning it by a massive 9 points (only 2 pts for a win then) from runners up Burnley. They also beat Spurs to win the Charity Shield. They almost won another title in 1924/25, but fell two points short of Huddersfield Town, who were winning their second title and would go on to be the first team to win three in a row.

Success didn't last though and the club were relegated in 1927. They came back again in 1931, finishing as runners up to Everton. They also won the Cup again, beating local rivals Birmingham City in their first visit to Wembley Stadium. William "Ginger" Richardson scored both the Albion's goals in a 2-1 victory. Earlier in the season, Ginger had scored 4 goals in 5 minutes against West Ham, a record that still stands to this day. Another record that still stands is that they are so far the only team to win promotion and the FA Cup in the same season. 

They lost another Cup Final in 1935, this time against Sheffield Wednesday. That man Ginger (named as such officially to avoid confusion with a team mate with the same name) scored a club record 39 goals in the 35/36 season, but by the start of WWII, the Baggies had been relegated and with the 39/40 season abandoned after just three games, they couldn't get back up.

After 46 years in the job (as secretary/manager), Everiss retired, moving upstairs onto the Board of Directors. He left with a great record. The only Albion manager to win the League, also three promotions from Div 2 (twice as champions), one FA Cup and two runners up and also the 1920 Charity Shield. Sadly though, three years into his retirement, he died in 1951, aged 68.

Jack Smith took over the managerial reigns in 1948 and won promotion straight away. He'd left by the time the Baggies next won silverware. It was Vic Buckingham in charge of the 1954 FA Cup winning side, that also finished runners up in the league, behind Wolves but a couple of points above 3rd placed Huddersfield Town. The Cup Final win was against Preston and Ronnie Allen scored a couple, with Frank Griffin getting the late winner to make it 3-2.

Allen scored a hat trick in the Charity Shield, played at Molineux against Wolves. The match finished as a 4-4 draw, with the Baggies coming back from 2-4 down. The Shield was shared, in those pre penalty shoot out days. Albion continued to be one of the top sides of the 50s with three consecutive top 5 finishes, but then Buckingham left for Ajax and the club started a decline.

Not a dramatic decline though. They had a cracking League Cup record in the 60s, winning it in '66 and being runners up in '67 and also in 1970. The win in 1966 was against the famous West Ham side who would soon win the World Cup for England. Albion won it 5-3 on aggregate, winning the 2nd leg 4-1 at the Hawthorns, after losing the first 1-2.

The following season was the first League Cup Final to be played at Wembley and the Baggies cocked up big style, being beaten 3-2 by 3rd division side QPR. This was after they were 2-0 up at half time as well. Jimmy Hagan had been the boss for these League Cup Finals, but the 67/68 season saw Alan Ashman take over and he led them back to Wembley for the FA Cup Final.

The opponents for the Final were Everton and after a goal less 90 minutes, Jeff Astle scored the only goal of the game, becoming the first player to score in every round. He became the first player to score in the finals of the FA Cup and the League Cup, when he scored in the 1970 League Cup Final defeat to Man City and also finished that season as the league's leading scorer.

Tony Brown matched that feat in the next season, but in 1973 the Baggies got relegated, ending their longest consecutive top flight run of 24 years. Don Howe was manager then, but he was replaced by Johnny Giles (Leeds and Eire) as player/manager and he got them back up in 1976. He didn't hang around long though and was replaced by their former star player, Ronnie Allen.

However, Baggies legend or not, he didn't last long, with disagreements with the Board being a problem, he left after five months for the lure of the money in the Middle East. His replacement was an up and coming new manager, who had just gotten Cambridge Utd promoted from Division 4. His name was Ron Atkinson. He brought with him, full back Brendon Batson. West Brom already had two black players, Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis in the side, in a time when racism was rife in the game and with Batson's addition to the team, Big Ron christened them the Three Degrees. Such was the popularity of these three and their legendary status in the game and the fight against racism, a statue of them was made many years later and now stands outside Costa Coffee in the New Square Shopping Centre. Sadly, only Batson was still alive to see it. Here's a picture of the statue......Nice, innit?

Anyway.....Big Ron got them to their highest League finish for 20 years, finishing 3rd in 78/79, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. They reached the quarter finals, losing to Red Star Belgrade. In that season they won 5-3 at Old Trafford, being the last team to have scored five away at Man Utd, before Liverpool did it last season.

Albion under Atkinson were one of those teams that neutral fans loved for their style of football. However, Cunningham was transferred to Real Madrid for a club record fee and despite 3rd and 4th finishes in the league and a couple of FA Cup semi finals, Ron didn't think he was getting the backing he deserved and so when Man Utd came calling, he fecked off to Old Trafford in 1981.

Ronnie Allen returned and the Board allowed Big Ron to steal star player Bryan Robson, the Baggies struggled and had to win their last match of the season to stay up. Those neutral fans were all cheering the Albion on again and there were celebrations all over the country as they beat Leeds United 2-0, not just to stay up but also to relegate the White Shite instead. 

The struggles continued though and at the end of 1985/86, they were relegated to the 2nd division with the worst record in the club's history, only 24 points. Ex Villa boss Ron Saunders was in charge and the Board kept faith with him, but soon lost patience and re-appointed Ron Atkinson. Love the Rons there, don't they?

However, it didn't work out for Big Ron this time and by 1989, with Bobby Gould in charge, they slumped to the Third Division for the first time in their history. They had a couple of seasons at the 3rd level and with Argentinian ace, Ossie Ardiles at the helm for the second of those, they won promotion back up with a Wembley win in the Play Offs. They beat Port Vale 3-0 with goals from Andy Hunt, Nicky Reid and ex Town player Kevin Donovan.

They didn't do much in the next few years, but then made it to the Play Offs in 2001, losing to Bolton in the semis. Gary Megson was now in the manager's seat and he did manage to get them up in the next season, as runners up to Man City, for a first crack at what by now was the Premier League. It only lasted one season as they came straight back down. They boing boinged again though, going straight back up again and did manage to avoid relegation. They did get relegated in the next one though. Proper yo-yo club!

Back into the Play Offs again. Losing to Derby at Wembley, after beating Wolves in the semis. Tony Mowbray was now the boss and he got them back to Wembley in the following season, for an FA Cup semi final, which they lost to Portsmouth. Not to worry though, as they finished the season as champions of the Championship and had a third go at the Premier League.

Straight back down again. Oh and boing boing back up again, this time with Roberto di Matteo in charge. He lasted until February in the next season, to be replaced by Roy Hodgson, who got them into the top half of the Prima Donna League. They managed to stay up for 8 seasons, and with Steve Clarke at the helm in 2012/13, an 8th placed finish gave them their highest finish of the new era of overpaid, over hyped football as we know it today.

Town joined them in this super duper footballing premiership, land of milk and money in 2017 and did the double over them, helping send them back down to the Championship. They made it to the Play Offs again, but got beat by Aston Villa. Undeterred, they went up in 2020, as runners up to the BellEnders, but once again, came straight back down and here we are, meeting up again in the Championship.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 31 wins to West Brom's 26, with 19 draws.

Our paths didn't cross for many years in this century, but since we did meet up again when we won promotion to the Premier League, we have had the upper hand. We've won four times and only lost once to the Baggies in that time. The two games we played in the PL were both Town victories, with the legend Rajiv van La Parra being the star player. He scored in a 1-0 home win and then opened the scoring at their place, with Steve Mounie adding a second in a 2-1 win.

Their only win came in our first meeting back in the Championship. They beat us 4-2 at the Hawthorns, after Lewis O'Brien had scored his first Town goal to open the scoring. Matt Phillips equalised, but we went in to the interval with a 2-1 lead after Karlan Grant scored. But they went and scored three times in the second half.

We got our own back towards the end of that season though, goals from Chris Willock and Emile Smith Rowe giving us a 2-1 win that condemned the Baggies to another season of Championship football. Well it would've done if Brentford hadn't gone into the meltdown which allowed them to sneak up as runners up to the bums from Bellend Road.

They came back down again after just one season and it was the Terriers on top again last season. We beat them 1-0 at home with an early goal from Danel Sinani, but then in the away game, we cocked up a 2-0 lead. Dimwit Town head coach Carlos Corberan was outsmarted by the brilliant, experienced Baggies boss, Steve Bruce. We led through two goals by Danny Ward, but then Bruce brung on Andy Carroll and it changed the game. Karlan Grant scored against his old team from the penalty spot and Carroll equalised a minute later. They should've won it but Grant missed a sitter late on.

This season, after getting shut of Corberan, we had Danny Schofield in charge. They still had the genius Bruce. Town stormed into a first half lead through Tino Anjorin, in one of the few games he's turned up to between injury spells. But the Throstles came back again and two goals from Jedward Wallace denied Danny a second win as Town manager.

So what new tricks are going on down Jack Halfords Lane? Managed nowadays by Carlos "Judas" Corberán, the former assistant of Marcelo Bielsa.

He was born in Cheste, in the comarca of Hoya de Buñol in the Valencian Community in Spain, in 1983. He will be celebrating his 40th birthday next month. No doubt Marcelo Bielsa, such a big influence on his career will be wishing him well that day.

Having played for Valencia reserves as a goalkeeper, he decided to quit his playing career at the age of 23 to take up coaching. Quitting early will become a mark of his footballing life.

He hadn't met Marcelo Bielsa yet, but after a few months as fitness coach at Valencia, he quit that job to take on a similar role with a Saudi Arabian club in 2012. He quit that job after a year to go back to Spain with AD Alcorcón, but soon quit that job to go to Saudi Arabia for another year.

In November 2016, he quit that job to move to Cyprus where he had his first Head Coach role at another club I've never heard of. But still Marcelo Bielsa, the man who would have such a massive influence on his coaching style, hadn't come into his life.

Less than two months into this job, he was on the move again. He didn't quit this one though, he was sacked. Not out of work for long though, he was taken on by another Cypriot club I've never heard of. And he quit that job after five months.

He quit to come to England and a chance to coach the under 23s team of the Champions of Europe. Marcelo Bielsa, the man who had such an influence on his coaching style wasn't the man to appoint him. That particular Jack Duckworth lookalike hadn't yet arrived at Bellend Road and Carlos was doing alright with his own coaching style as he and Danny Schofield coached the u23s to the Professional Development League title.

And so that was when new BellEnders boss Marcelo Bielsa decided to promote him to the first team bench. Initially Carlos was in charge of looking after the bucket which Marcelo Bielsa liked to sit on, but as time went on and Leeds ended up winning promotion, dopey Huddersfield Town director of football, Leigh Bromby somehow got the idea that this graduate of the Marcelo Bielsa school of pigeon english would make a good Head Coach at the Millers Oils High Perfomance Complex.

What a dumb idea that turned out to be. Replacing the popular Cowley brothers, his first season at Huddersfield was disastrous, culminating with a 7-0 defeat at Norwich, which should've ended up with him getting the sack, but somehow ended up with him getting a contract extension for the next season.

The football being played was utter tosh, but for one reason or another, positive results started coming along. The main reason being the fact that Carlos had spent half a season sat quite near Marcelo Bielsa. Or so the commentators at Sky Sports would tell us every time the Terriers were featured on there.

Then, after taking the Town to Wembley for the Play Offs, he quit again to go manage another unknown club in Greece. That didn't last long and he was sacked after six games. Obviously the Greeks didn't know how much Carlos had been influenced by the genius Marcelo Bielsa.

But luckily for him, somebody who knew all about Marcelo Bielsa and what a great coach he was, was the head of recruitment at West Bromwich Albion, who were looking for somebody to replace the legendary Steve Bruce as Head Coach at the Boilerman Stadium. Bruce had taken the Baggies to within 18 places of a Play Off spot before he was harshly dismissed, but Carlos endeared himself to the Throstles faithful by inspiring his team to beat National League side Chesterfield in an FA Cup 3rd round replay.

The West Brom board were so grateful for the extra cash earned by making it to the 4th round that they offered Carlos a contract extension, which he eagerly signed.

Here's hoping he hasn't quit before I get around to posting this.

Tuesday's line up at home to Wigan:

33 Josh Griffiths - 21 year old keeper, recalled from loan at Pompey.
2 Darnell Furlong - Defender, only scored 4 goals, one of them against us in 2019.
15 Erik Pieters - Dutch defender, ex Stoke and Burnley.
3 Conor Townsend - Ex Scunny left back.
4 Dara O'Shea - Irish international defender.
14 Jayson Molumby - Irish international midfielder.
35 Okay Yokuşlu - Turkey international midfielder.
17 Jedward Wallace - Only scored 5 times for WBA, two of them against us.
19 John Swift - Ex Reading midfielder.
22 Marc Albrighton - Elderly wing back with a Premier League winners medal.
12 Daryl Dike - Big American lad, scored aginst us for Barnsley.

Subs:
1 David Button - Elderly keeper, ex Brentford and Fulham.
6 Semi Ajayi - Got detatched from Arsenal and came to WBA via Rotherham.
20 Adam Reach - For the stars! Ex Wendy midfielder.
25 Nathaniel Chalobah - Elder brother of ar Trev.
29 Taylor Gardner-Hickman - 21 year old, been a Baggie since the age of 7.
32 Jovan Malcolm - 20 year old striker, still to make his league debut.
40 Modou Faal - 20 year old Gambian striker, still to make his league debut.

Club connections: How many of these do you remember?

West Bromwich in popular culture: A surprising West Bromwich celebrity name is the famous Irish lead singer of the famously Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott. So famously Irish was he that a statue of him was erected in Dublin after his death. But he was actually born in Hallam Hospital in West Bromwich, and christened at St Edward's Church, Selly Park.

His mum was from Dublin and his dad was from British Guiana. They had met in Birmingham, but dad had left for London before mum knew she was preggers with Phil. Mum and Phil moved to Manchester, but when the lad suffered racism at school, she sent him to stay with his grandparents in Dublin at the age of eight. Thankfully, he had a happy childhood there and was a popular lad and so apart from being born there, Phil wasn't much of a West Bromwich resident. He could probably have come on Sportsbabble and be known as Baggie_Phil if he were still alive, but tragically, he isn't. Anyway, he was a Man Utd fan and friend of George Best.

Sadly, he was also a heroin addict and and this led to his premature death in 1986 at the age of 36. He left us with some fantastic recordings. Here's probably the most famous one that gets played at both the John Smith's and the Boilerman Arena......



Two pals who were often shown on tv sat next to each other at Baggies games are Frank Skinner and Adrian Chiles. Frank, of course was host of Fantasy Football League in the 90s (with David Baddiel), where his love for West Bromwich Albion became rather obvious. So much so that he had his Baggies idol, Jeff Astle on the show, usually closing each episode with Jeff Astle Sings. And a much better singer he is than Lee Trundle.



Chiles, on the other hand, has the perfect face for radio. But that never stopped tv executives giving him jobs on the telly, notably The One Show and presenting ITV's football coverage for five years in the 2010s. If anybody wonders which footy team he follows, he has a stained glass West Bromwich Albion crest above his door.

There is a Kirklees/West Brom connection. The recently deceased Betty Boothroyd was born in Dewsbury and was MP for West Bromwich in 1973/74 and then for West Browmwich West between 1974 and 1992. She was then Speaker of the House of Commons up until 2000, when she retired. Absolutely no idea if she ever went to the Hawthorns, but I would imagine during all that time as MP she probably would've. Before all that though, she was a famous dancer, lining up with the Tiller Girls.

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 0-0 Bristol C
Town 0-4 Coventry
Burnley 4-0 Town
Town 2-1 Birmingham
Stoke 3-0 Town
Wigan 1-0 Town

West Brom 1-0 Wigan
Hull 2-0 West Brom
West Brom 2-0 Middlesbrough
Watford 3-2 West Brom
West Brom 1-1 Blackburn
Birmingham 2-0 West Brom

Town are 23rd in the Championship table with 32 points. West Brom are 9th with 51.

Leading scorers:

Woof Woofs:
Jordan Rhodes (6)
Danny Ward (3)

Boing Boings:
Brandon Thomas-Asante (7)
Daryl Dike (6)
Jedward Wallace (5)
Karlan Grant (5)




Anagrams: all of which are mentioned in this article.

1. Barron Coracles
   
2. Rik Deadly
   
3. Decoy Farley
   
4. Clear Skinned
   
5. Horny Goods
   
6. Arises Soiled
   
7. Leonard Flash
   
8. Barny Osborn
   
9. Therese The Edger
   
10. Scilly Gerrie
    

[talkSAFT]

Great read, Snooty.
You deserve a point pint for that.
May the best Team win (Albion being 'the best Team' )

[4evaabaggie]

Snooty, first time I have read one of your write ups, wow, you have two much time on your hands, but a great great read, as an older baggie, having lived thorough the 70's golden age for the Albion, great football, a great team, they deserved silverware, nothing new there for me but certainly stirred some memories. Especially the relegating of the lilywhites, who then rioted and trashed the Hawthorns. One key fact you missed but you are forgiven, in our first successful promotion to the greed league (2002) we overturned an eleven point deficit behind the dirty dingles in March to grab second, push Wolves into the playoffs where they bottled it ... What a way to win promotion.
Many thanks ... Here's to a good game and a baggies win.

[theo_luddite]

Nice 1 Snoots.

No. 1 is Careless Corbs,
No. 3 is good old Del Boy Facey.

The Town

[BaggieSteve]

Snooty, I think you have taken the match preview to a new level! Absolutely brilliant

[jjamez]

2 is daryl dike

5 is roy hodgson

6 is ossie ardilles

8 is bryan robson

[theo_luddite]

The way things are going, Saturday night's guest presenters of Match of the Day could be ....



Wrighty, Shearer and Alex Scott have all told the BBC to do one so far for their attitude to Gary Line Aker's comments.

---

Sports presenters clearly have no place in the lives of our piss poor politicians that are supposed to be a Government, not an elected dictatorship, who haven't realised that yet (the politicians), and further apologies if I'm hijacking the thread M'lud.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/202...of-the-day

but they aren't even stopping at our Gary, they are even piling in on our David, Mr. BBC himself

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/m...lash-fears

Pathetic.

Anyway, back to the football ... when do we kick off again?

Tickets for away fans turning up as a results of a rash late decision (or that bought them on line a tad late), can be bought on the day at the away end ticket office - but you'll need cash, whatever that looks like these days - or you can pay in good old honest plastic at the main ticket office further up the East side of the stadium near Bomber Browns statue, which might be where you also have to pick up your on-line tickets.

That's their Tony Brown, not our Malcolm Brown, to avoid confusion.

[Lord Snooty]

Thanks to theo for this link to Corbs's comments......

https://www.wba.co.uk/news/carlos-corber...-being-key

Carlos Corberán insists he’s prepared for Albion’s next game in the same way as he normally would despite it being against his former employers Huddersfield Town.

The Baggies take on the Terriers at The Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon where they’ll be targeting a tenth home win in their last 11 matches in all competitions in front of their own supporters.

Huddersfield, the team trying to stop the Baggies from achieving that, were managed by Corberán between July 2020 and July 2022.

The Spaniard led Town to the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final last season before departing the club shortly after their narrow defeat to Nottingham Forest at Wembley.

Carlos stressed how grateful he feels to be part of “Huddersfield’s history”, but also stated just how “focused” he is on delivering another three points for the Albion this weekend.

He said: “If I’m being honest I’m expecting to feel the same emotion I do in any other game because I am very focused on the things that happen in the 90 minutes on the pitch.

“I have been analysing the opponent as I would normally do and I’m focused on our performance and trying to get three points.

“It’s true that I was there for two years and I am very grateful to be part of the history of Huddersfield.

“Of course, we’re going to come up against a lot of people I know there such as players and the staff, but we are focused and we are preparing for a game of football which we want to win and that makes you forget about everything else.

“My full focus is on the things that I can control which is how we perform on Saturday.

“In this moment in the season, I think the determination to go for the game is the key.

“For me, when you play against teams in this position in the table at this time of the season, they are very dangerous and combative.

“They know that every game is a final for them. Our motivation has to be higher than theirs because we need those three points.

“Every time you pick up three points it’s key. Winning football games can move you into a better position in the table and sometimes you can find more motivation from being in a better position.

“But for us, I want our motivation to always be to give the best that we can for ourselves, for the club and for our fans.

“We cannot be more motivated to win games based on our position. I want us to always have the same motivation to win any game regardless of the situation because this is what this club deserves.”

[Amelia Chaffinch]

I've been waiting for someone to bring down the government. However, I've been surprised to find it's Gary Lineker leading the charge. Credit where it's due, though, I'm behind him all the way.

[theo_luddite]

Marcus Rashford got pelters for calling the bastards out last season.
His form suffered as a result of all the shit that went his way on social media, orchestrated by them in charge but standing a few steps further back so they didn't get lit up in the headlines.

Why does it have to be our high profile (whether they are your favourites or not) sports personalities calling them out for this?
Isn't this what our so called "free" press are supposed to do?