Old Shuck

Right, they've had a day off cancelled and we've gone for wingbacks-McCallum and Stacey with three at the back. Kenny & Gibbs as the midfield two. Front three of Sainz-Onel-Rowe (who is being tapped up by Chris Wilder) for a game at Swansea, 3-0 up at half time, Onel didn't like playing centrally & said so, but scored two; Sainz with a header too! Held on to win 3-1. Gabby and Nunez on the bench but there'll be lots of like for like changes in the games to come. Up to 10th & bottom of the table Coventry at home next, might be in the play off places if we win that. Along come Norwich? Screenshots very welcome-I am notoriously diabolical at this game although as per an earlier thread, delegating staff to most of the day to day tasks is helping.

I'm having a torrid time! 2-0 up at Plymouth Argyle, lost 3-2., three goals in the last five minutes. Lost 2-0 at home to Leicester City, never seen such a one sided game in any version of FM, Callum Doyle was like Maldini out there. My 4-2-3-1 formation isn't working, played 4-4-bloody 2 at home to Birmingham, scraped a 1-0 win, thanks to Duffy scoring from a corner. A choice of Van Hooijdonk or Barnes up front, Sarge out for the season-its enough to make you weep. Best player has been Gibbs by a mile!

I loved Shoot! There hasn't been a football magazine to touch it for me, not on a weekly basis anyway. They had the same 'star writers' every week-Alan Ball was one, Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner. Focus was a Shoot! 'thing', much copied since-players were asked 'Most Difficult Opponent' (Frank Worthington famously put 'my ex-wife'), 'Favourite Food' (invariably steak and chips) and 'Favourite Musicians' - lots of room for George Benson as I recall, dressing rooms must have been full of his laid back pop at the time. And yes, the famous League Ladders- I'd take out all the teams and put them back at random for every season over a period of time, somehow Norwich still always ended up being relegated!

Someone oncecsaid, Billy Connoly possibly, that the National Anthem should be the signature tune from The Archers. Yes to that! England? I Vow To Thee My Country is used at the Commonwealth Games for England.

I'll give WSC another go. I used to like 90 Minutes which was a weekly in the mid 90's. Paul Hawksbee, who I believe is on TalkSport, was the editor. 442 was good in its very early days but soon became footballs equivalent of Cosmopolitan ( 'We go inside Messi's house' etc).

Reading's old ground, Elm Park, Tuesday night in the cold and rain in about 1996. The 'facilities' in the away end were....well, I chose not to. David Rocastle the only glimmer of light that night.

Shoot! magazine had a weekly feature called You Are The Ref. Scenarios shown in diagrams, you had to provide the answer as to what the ref should do. Thus dog on the pitch, crossbar breaks, ball bursts, centre half's shirt is ripped etc etc. Got that magazine every week for years. Is there a half decent weekly football magazine out there these days....which isn't focused entirely on the big names, clubs and leagues?

And so it continues..... Now it's 'Declan Rice should never play for England again because he didn't celebrate his goal'. To paraphrase Kenny Everett, please can someone round up all the Mail loving seething and frothing gammons, put them in a field and bomb the bastards.....but make sure its a good old fashioned British bomb with a Union Jack on it that whistles 'Rule Britannia' as it falls through the sky.....

Bobby Robson wanted to sign him for Ipswich before he'd barely played any games for us. Great man marker and a very technically adept player-possibly a little ahead of his time in the otherwise blood and thunder football of that time. RIP.

I'm surprised Powell hasn't said singing it should be compulsory. He'll probably want Carsley flown out to Rwanda by tomorrow...

Jeff Powell? Move on, nothing to see here...

Thankyou. Utter legend! That's my weekend gone. Question-am not, nor have ever been, the best at the game-what is the best formation for us at the start? I'm looking at 4-2-3-1 & maybe not bringing in that many players in the first window, see what we've got, game wise. I was a slave to 4-4-2 for many years and will always be grateful to some of the players who I signed, time and time again in various versions of the game- Kasper Hämäläinen, Patrik Lomski, Gabriel Torje and Michael Duff amongst them!

Dodgy pitch as well, good work!

Echoes of Russell Martin and Farke? Russ was probably our most influential and keenest voice at Colney & inn the dressing room at the time, maybe GH assumed the alpha-male role in time and is now feeling questioned by someone who is only a little older than him...

Thankyou Sir, I stand, gratefully, corrected...