Interesting article in the Gazette on Grant Hall especially the bit where Warnock has managed him previously! Sounds to me reading between the lines that Warnock knows exactly what he is getting.
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/last-season-numbers-grant-hall-18700635
Big game at Wembley today, both teams have vastly differing reasons to win. The oldest League club regaining its status, or a club becoming the youngest.
Here is a list of points deductions this century that I can recall, although don’t shoot the messenger if I’ve forgotten some as I’m now in my summer mode of cricket, golf and the continuation of the Rugby League season from today:-
2000/01 CHESTERFIELD 9 for breach of transfer regulations and falsifying gate receipts.
2002/03 BOSTON 4 for contractual irregularities.
2004/05 CAMBRIDGE and WREXHAM 10 for going into administration.
2005/06 ROTHERHAM 10 for going into administration.
2006/07 BOSTON and LEEDS 10 for going into administration. BURY 1 for playing an unregistered player.
2007/08 LEEDS a further 15 over insolvency rules. BOURNEMOUTH, LUTON and ROTHERHAM again 10 for going into administration.
2008/09 LUTON 20 for failing insolvency rules and a further 10 over payments to agents. BOURNEMOUTH and ROTHERHAM 17 for breaking administration rules. CRYSTAL PALACE 1 for using an ineligible player. STOCKPORT and SOUTHAMPTON 10 for going into administration, the latter though with effect from the following season.
2009/10 PORTSMOUTH 9 for going into administration, yet CRYSTAL PALACE 10 for the same offence (apparently different rules apply to Premier League clubs as they play fewer matches). HARTLEPOOL 3 for using an ineligible player (presumably for a match they won).
2010/11 PLYMOUTH 10 for going into administration. HEREFORD 3 and TORQUAY 1 for using ineligible players.
2011/12 PORT VALE and PORTSMOUTH 10 for going into administration, the latter though with effect from the following season.
2013/14 COVENTRY 10 for going into administration. WIMBLEDON 3 for using an ineligible player.
2014/15 ROTHERHAM 3 for using an ineligible player.
2015/16 BURY 3 for using an ineligible player.
2018/19 BIRMINGHAM 9 for financial irregularities. BOLTON 12 for going into administration, but effective from the following season.
2019/20 BURY expelled for financial irregularities. MACCLESFIELD 13 in total for delays in payment of players’ wages. WIGAN 12 for going into administration. SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 12 for financial irregularities to apply next season.
Of course there have been many more in the previous century, notably SWINDON in 1990 having beaten Sunderland 1-0 in the 2nd Division playoff final denied promotion for financial irregularities and Sunderland promoted. Both ARSENAL and MANCHESTER UTD being each deducted 1 point in November 1990 following a mass brawl between the 2 clubs, TOTTENHAM in June 1994 deducted 12 points (reduced to 6 on appeal) and expulsion from participation in the following seasons FA Cup for making illegal payments to players yet on a second appeal having the revised 6 point deduction annulled and the club being reinstated for the following seasons FA Cup, BRIGHON deducted 2 points for a pitch invasion of fans in December 1996, and not forgetting MIDDLESBROUGH’s 3 point deduction in January 1997 for refusing to fulfil a fixture through injuries and illness against Blackburn in the previous month. Talk about double standards referring to Spurs and Boro. And also the whole episode of the ownership of Carlos Tevez and the illegality of his playing for West Ham with no points deducted which resulted in Sheffield United being relegated in 2007. There were other situations too many to recall, but I’m only referring to those that I can remember, so apologies if I’ve omitted some.
@ken That West Ham were fined £5.5M rather than being punished by a points deduction is something that to this day I believe to be down to cronyism. The FA's love in with Hurst/Moore/Brooking etc. versus an unfashionable Northern Club for me tipped the balance when it came to the decision. Unfortunately little has changed with both the impartiality and integrity of the games governing bodies.
Imagine if SG had to pay a £5.5M fine instead of those three points being deducted and as for the Spurs appeal being successful just rubs salt into the wound. That said it beggared belief that we didn't turn up at Blackburn even if it was with kids.
@original-fat-bob I haven't seen the movie but will look out for it. His story is certainly light years away from today's pampered prima donnas.
So latest news
Friend and Johnson will be offered new contracts and are in discussions with MFC
Terms are reduced but both are wanted by the club.
A good source but no I’m not going to say where from.
Our new signing is highly rated as a leader apparently and good chance he will be made captain
OFB
When I heard about the purchase of Grant Hall I wondered if some folk thought it was another establishment for Steve Gibson to acquire as an hotel!
Jonathan Woodgate still in talks with Boro management and has not been blamed for the slide into the relegation zone. Quote to me “ he wasn’t really given a fair chance” unquote
so make if it what you will folks
OFB
Yes, and should then have returned to his occupation, just like any other criminal, for example a business man, or perhaps a writer, or a political, or a lord. We cannot have one law for a citizen and another for someone we do not like. One still remembers the player who committed the same crime as Johnson, went to prison, did his time, and tried to resume his life as a footballer. Cue more horror, and petitions and appeals, and outrage. Then his appeal succeeded, and he regained his life, minus three years. I did not notice any apologies or regrets from the nutters.
As I have noted on here before, the look and shape of that final was a complete disgrace, boring was too kind a word. Arsenal are one of the lesser clubs now, but bluffing it as a big club.in reality they defended like dogs and prayed for a break, think Burnley, and about as interesting to watch.
Loved the brutal 'we have signed x player', the world of football must have had some fun at our expense over the years. " we'll let you know in six weeks". Or, 'we have three other clubs to consult', or ' his wife must speak to her parents, and they are on Safari'
Interesting to note our new signing was on the radar before Neil Warnock managed to swing the deal as Grant rated his former manager and respected him.
Heard nothing about our three signings last summer other than a shrug of the shoulders so read into that what you will !
OFB
Interesting to note our new signing was on the radar before Neil Warnock managed to swing the deal as Grant rated his former manager and respected him.
Heard nothing about our three signings last summer other than a shrug of the shoulders so read into that what you will !
OFB
Interested to hear your thoughts on the three lads signed last summer, Bob. Who do you think wanted them if not the usual group?
PS thanks for these continued little snippets from inside the club. Always a fascinating treat to read and a big plus for the blog in general.
Congratulations to Harrogate Town on gaining promotion to League 2, a nice Yorkshire Day present for their fans albeit one day late.
I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's cup-final in spite of the weirdness of their being no crowd. Great skill and enterprising football from both sides, and a whole flurry of chances at both ends before Chelsea's early goal which was executed with consummate skill. Arsenal came back well and thoroughly deserved their equaliser.
I don't hold any loyalty to either team-far from it- but I don't recall enjoying the first half of the Cup Final so much for many a long year. Normally the opening stages are sterile as teams want to feel each other out and play cautiously so as to give nothing away. So I thought the openness and ebb and flow of the game, and the willingness of both teams to play classic pressing, passing and attacking football was a great credit to both young managers, and a far cry from what we have been watching here for the past few years, and seem destined to continue to have to tolerate into the foreseeable future in "the hot bed of football".
The second half could scarcely live up to the quality of the first half in the August heat, but the winning goal was a classic, well worthy of winning any match.
Being a Boro fan, actually getting some pleasure from watching football was something of a novel experience this season, so I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon. Nothing at stake for me .Just the pleasure of watching a fine game between two teams playing the game in the right way.
Re the Cup Final, I think it is easier for teams to play fast fluid football without the pressure that the crowd brings to these occasions. Players tend to be more instinctive and aren’t worried about the jeering they would normally receive if something they had tried didn’t come off.
I’d be interested to know From your contacts
a) whether Browne is considered to be a good prospect for MFC as he seems the type of player that NW has worked with in the past. &
b) which of the young group from the Academy and ex-loan are considered to be close to Championship-ready.
UTB
You may well be right on Dijksteel, Bob, but i suspect it might not be as a defender.
I saw him earlier this season at Blackburn, and he lost us the game. He was continually out of position, got the ball stuck under his feet in dangerous positions, and capped it all off by sticking his hand up in the air when there was no danger and giving away a penalty, which proved to be the only goal of the game.
And that was only in the first half. The very definition of a nightmare.
He didn't appear for the second, nor for much of the rest of the season.
When he did it was largely for home games where he looked comfortable in going forward, and even took the eye with some athletic runs. But for me his positional play still looked suspect. He reminded me a bit of Cyrus Christie: dangerous going forward but suspect when defending. Personally I'm old fashioned enough to believe that the first duty of full backs is to defend; anything else is a bonus.
I was surprised when Warnock selected Dijksteel for the Millwall game, but he must have done well in training and he had a good game. He produced some good runs going forward, but against Cardiff his problematic defending really came home to roost. The second decisive goal when Murphy was given a clear run on goal was universally and rightly derided as "schoolboy defending", and poor old Dijksteel was right at the heart of it, standing by the centre circle and leaving his left winger completely unattended.
I'm not sure, as with Woodgate, that it's fair to blame the lad. He didn't pick himself. Apparently Charlton converted him to a full back just a few months before we bought him. He might well have it in him to be an attacking midfielder. Who knows? He has a certain quality of balance and pace, but seems to lack that sixth sense in snuffing out danger that all natural defenders have to possess.
I suspect that much the same may be true of Coulsen and Spence.
As for Bola, forget it. He looks like an irremediable case.
In general the three "hidden gems" signed last summer look now like anything but bargains.
As ever our recruitment team have much to answer for.
Congratulations to Harrogate Town on gaining promotion to League 2, a nice Yorkshire Day present for their fans albeit one day late.
They are now seeking an alternative venue to play their Home games due to them having an artificial pitch. Their last turfed pitch was like a ploughed field as soon as Autumn set in, it made Derby's old Baseball ground look like a bowling green. When they had their artificial grass pitch installed they played a few games at Doncaster during the conversion process which seems a very long distance away and they struggled to attract any fans.
York would surely make the most sense given that its also just a very short train ride away. I wonder why they didn't share with York previously unless the ageing Bootham Crescent no longer met EFL requirements. York are meant to be moving to the new Community Stadium in Monks Cross (which will be shared with the Rugby League team) which I imagine if opened in time with the necessary permits would be the simplest solution. Failing that could they play at the Darlington Arena?
@lenmasterman I think Dijksteel (like the other two signings) had a difficult task coming into a side with a rookie Manager and rookie coaches. He has looked the best of the three but Browne may function better under the wisdom of Warnock who I imagine will insist on a far more structured and organised approach with his players, their requirements and positioning.
That brings me back to Dijksteel. He looks a big strong lad who has a fair bit of ball control and the physical ability to get challenges in. With a more settled and disciplined team shape I think he could make it at RB but I also think he could be a formidable midfield destroyer in front of of the CB's. In that respect he could become another JOM (at his pre Boro peak) which would be a very good result.
Marvin Johnson is not seen as a left back but more of a wing back of left hand side player.
OFB
@lenmasterman it’s not so much the recruitment team at fault Len as the financial restrictions that were imposed on them by management having to take a sizeable chunk out of the operating budget for other priorities
OFB
@lenmasterman I was talking to a member of the MFC recruitment team yesterday and seemed quite upbeat about the future