Level of honesty on the Official Site

[seany t]

You can't win eh?

Last year, there we were, all moaning that the Club rarely let us know what was going on with potential signings and getting more and more frustrated at the apparent lack of interest in joining our beloved side (even though we all knew this almost certainly wasn't the case behind the scenes)

But so far this summer the OS has been the polar opposite, telling us the agents' thoughts, the player acquisition status and what Brush had for breakfast. I've noticed however that there has been a subtle undercurrent of criticism regarding it spread throughout the topics posted here.

What do people think? A deliberate attempt to be more open with the fans? A commendable good thing / potentially bad thing? Ultimately not of great importance with the level of media intrusion in the Sports sector nowadays?

Just wondered what you all felt...

 

[seany t]

Alternatively, did anyone see that girls **** on page 42 of that free Sports paper?

 

[choggy]

Something strange happens to football fans in the summer...starved of their traditional saturday afternoon pilgrimage to mecca they all start to panic and wonder how on earth they're going to survive until August. Trivial things start to take on epic proportions...missing out on potential transfer signing are portents that the world will end and stories about the club heard from 'a mate of a mate of this guy I met on the pub once...' become hard facts.

It'll be alright in August. Promise.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Something strange happens to football fans in the summer...starved of their traditional saturday afternoon pilgrimage to mecca they all start to panic and wonder how on earth they're going to survive until August. Trivial things start to take on epic proportions...missing out on potential transfer signing are portents that the world will end and stories about the club heard from 'a mate of a mate of this guy I met on the pub once...' become hard facts.

It'll be alright in August. Promise.

..and how the bloody hell did we survive in pre internet days?:confused:

 

[seany t]

Something strange happens to football fans in the summer...starved of their traditional saturday afternoon pilgrimage to mecca they all start to panic and wonder how on earth they're going to survive until August. Trivial things start to take on epic proportions...missing out on potential transfer signing are portents that the world will end and stories about the club heard from 'a mate of a mate of this guy I met on the pub once...' become hard facts.

It'll be alright in August. Promise.

I'll hold you to this!

Yeah, it's a bit depressing though, for example, how forward I'm looking to what will no doubt be a truly dire game this evening. I'm reading Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch at the moment too, which is making me feel good in that there are others out there like me, yet somewhat disappointed at myself simultaneously.

And I'm by no means a football nut like some of you folks.

What I was meaning more by my initial post was "is it risky giving too much away on your site", or does it really not matter - if a player is going to come, they're going to come...

 

[choggy]

Pre-internet days were spent endlessly checking Ceefax to see such earth-shattering news as 'Southend have signed xxxx from yyyy for an undisclosed sum'. A little two-liner like that on teletext would send a fan into raptures for days on end.

 

[londonblue]

Something strange happens to football fans in the summer...starved of their traditional saturday afternoon pilgrimage to mecca they all start to panic and wonder how on earth they're going to survive until August. Trivial things start to take on epic proportions...missing out on potential transfer signing are portents that the world will end and stories about the club heard from 'a mate of a mate of this guy I met on the pub once...' become hard facts.

It'll be alright in August. Promise.

Yeah, but the transfer window doesn't close until September, :(

 

[fbm]

What I was meaning more by my initial post was "is it risky giving too much away on your site", or does it really not matter - if a player is going to come, they're going to come...

Well, last year we gave nothing away and still didn't get many players to join. Add to this the grief the club got for staying silent and they lost all round.

This year there may well be a different tack - keep the fans informed so at least they're happy - or not, as the case may be. I doubt it will have any major effect on whether a player joins or not. But at least some fans will have their appetite sated by knowing that things are happening, although some of them (as ably demonstrated so far) then get the knives out as T&B are obviously useless at negotiating and they were sooooo much better at it on Championship Manager where we not only persuaded the likes of Henry, Gerrard and Terry to sign but we also got a £120m sponsorship deal with Pepsi and then won the Champions League but still had Maher as skipper and Flahavan as goalie...

<sigh>

 

[Hazey]

I like the fact we are kept aware of whats going on at the club these days, makes you feel more part of it if that makes sense.

 

[Andy_S]

I like the newswire buzzing with excitement about signings, although it is obviously slightly tedious that it appears on the Echo's site first and then just gets pasted on to the Official Site. I don't suppose there is a way round it though.