Ken has recently asked that the In2Views I had previously posted e available in the new format.
Werder has kindly agreed that he is able to transfer the data so it can be read by all Diasborians.
I am still in contact with quite a lot of the current and ex Boro players and whilst it isn’t prudent to ask players whose wages are paid by the club to be forthright our past players have no such inhibition!
I intend to post a new series of In2Views as with hindsight a lot of the questions were a bit stilted and formulaic in their approach. Probably I was still a bit overawed at actually talking to my heroes who had become my friends. I shall change the format to include some better questions and if anyone has any pertinent questions or anything they would like me to ask then please let me know.
My first In2View in the new format will be with Gary Gill whom I have know for some time and he has kindly agreed to do an In2View. Let’s remember he was a key player for Boro and also worked in recruitment but was working to instructions!
OFB
@andy-r: Me too, Bob. Always liked those interviews.
Absolutely Bob. Please do more if you possibly can.
OFB, More please. Would you like some questions from the floor, that is from the Diasboreans? Perhaps a bit more unpredictable but different.
UTB,
John
I know Gary Gill, too. It was Ali Browlee that introduced me to Gary when visiting Rockcliffe.
I have met Gary a few times - once in Helsinki when he was scouting over here.
His wife, Helen has a nice restaurant called Chadwicks Inn Maltby, too. That restaurant was recommended by AV, I have been there a few times now. So all the best wishes to their family.
My question to Gary would be what he is doing now for living. Also how is his son doing generally as well as football wise.
I think Gary played in Sweden during his career. And I saw him first time in the classy match at Hartlepool in 1986. A wondeful person, our Gary.
Up the Boro!
Mrs OFB and I go to Chadwicks often and my youngest son and wife bought me a dinner voucher for us for a Xmas present.
I see Gary most Sundays as his son plays in the same football team as my youngest grandson. So we usually stand and have a chat. We often talk about wine and sherry as he found out that I lived near Jerez in Spain for two years.
A really nice couple and Helen organises all the money and subs for the team. Gary is working full time at the restaurant these days and his son is due to join a football academy when he leaves school in July.
All will be revealed in the In2View!
OFB
Bob,
I really enjoyed the interviews, and would very much appreciate more if you have the time to do them.
I don't have any particular questions, but while I think it is useful to have a set of pre-determined questions as a kind of fail-safe, I think you would enjoy it more if you improvised more with follow-up questions based on what your subject says. More like a conversation based around your key issues. This could well lead you into interesting areas that you hadn't foreseen. A looser structure might well produce more material for you to handle, but this needn't necessarily involve more work, since you could simply select what you consider to be the most interesting material. Hope this helps.
I'd be interested if you asked Gary about "the ones that didn't make it". Who were the players who seemed destined for stardom and then didn't make it. Why did they fail and what do academies do to prepare them for that failure which comes to a lot of the kids who sign up.
There was a rumour from Gary’s playing days that he broke his leg and was told by the physio to “run it off”. I’d love to know if that was true and if so Gary’s account of it.
Beyond that, any insight into the recruitment process would be very interesting.
Fully agree with Len though, Bob - don’t worry too much about the questions. Go in with four or five that are relevant to the interviewee and see where the conversation takes you. Whatever you come back with will he gratefully received and enjoyed.
Did you ever get to interview John Craggs?
I tried four times to get Craggsy but he is a very shy man and doesn’t like talking about himself not like some of our current footballers !
OFB
Great response thanks.
Ive been in touch yesterday with a few of ex Boro players and the following have said today that they would love to contribute.
Neil Cox
Peter Brine
Billy Ashcroft
Terry Cochrane
Others to follow
OFB
@original-fat-bob: I was bought a voucher for Chadwick's Inn and went there with Mrs Dormo a couple of months ago for a meal. I have to say that it was excellent.
As promised I've been busy working on making access to all of OFB's In2views and Doug Diaries on Diasboro.club - You can now access them all through a new In2views page available through the main menu (Home - Forum - Articles - Contact - Login) If you click on the 'Articles' submenu arrow, you will see a 'In2views' option to click on. The page is...
https://diasboro.club/the-diasboro-in2views/
As usual it was more complicated than I envisaged as the old Wordpress.com code used on the previous site didn't import properly and all the links were missing - plus a few images. There were also all the articles since Steve Vickers that weren't previously included.
Anyway, I've spent the day sorting it all out and have completely re-coded the page and added some quick-link lists of all the In2views and Doug's Diaries to make it easier to navigate. You can also just scroll down that page with a photo and summary of each one and just click on them.
So that's plently of great reading there to keep you all busy for quite a while - I even stumbled across some of my old articles, which I couldn't even remember what I'd written - I guess providing easy access to them and all the other content is now on my to-do list too!
Enjoy the In2views - they're a great read...
btw Let me know if you spot anything that's missing, as while I've tried to check everything as I went there's usually always something!
@werdermouth Thanks for all the work you do for us. If the Meet Up happens and you can make it, I reckon we all owe you a beer.
If we all buy him one, he won't be driving back afterwards!
Excellen work, Werder. Yes, we have a lot of material here and all interesting, indeed.
Happy to have the blog, especially so with the current pandemic. Up the Boro!
I hope to see him next month - Im conimg home for the Derby game