One Game at a Time:
Too Posh to Push? (A) February 25th
The end of February comes with what could have been our final ever visit to London Road, a ground which has some history for Argyle and its fans. Those of a certain ilk still hark back to the days when pitch invasions were simply the inevitable by product of wholescale town occupations by a Green Army that had more in common with a Putinesque blitzkrieg than a Saturday which, if not spent on a coach halfway across the country, would be spent in the urbane company of the late great Dickie Davies on ITVâs World of Sport, or the urbane and sophisticated cross dressing cokehead, Frank Bough, on Grandstand.
If those were simpler times for football fans, and are seen through the tinted lens of memory by those who lived through them, then the future is surely now represented by a more civilised experience for fans, no less passionate and hungry for success, but equally less willing to be treated as second class citizens, or even cattle, simply because their entertainment of choice involves twenty two (to thirty two including subs) men chasing a pigs bladder around a field until the Germans (or Argyle) win on penalties. At least in 1975 the only flares you saw were bad fashion choices.
Posh have had that recent taste of success, spending the previous season in the Championship before succumbing to gravity and plummeting from whence they came in the manner of their pre-Posh nickname the Brickies, which reflected the large brick industry in the area. Whilst the Posh nickname for a number of years was used by the press in a derogatory manner, the one advantage it did have over their preceding nickname was it was unlikely to have resulted in legal action from Posh Spice. Maybe Brooklyn, although that really would have been the Beckhams coming after Peterborough through thick and thin.
Posh have had a challenging season so far, although having won as many as they have lost and drawn, remain in that twilight zone of being close enough to see the Play Off opportunity, but too inconsistent to actually spend any time in serious contention. Certainly, they will have a say in the title race as all three main contenders have still to play them, plus they have trips to Derby and Barnsley. Argyle will be hoping to meet the version of side that played Bolton recently, which meekly surrendered five nil at home. Posh are one of the other two sides to have taken three points from the Wendies this season, admittedly after the title elect side were reduced to ten men, although given the persecution complex being exhibited by the Owls fans expect a legal challenge to that result any day now. They also eliminated Argyle from the League Cup at Home Park, although that result was reversed a few days later when a much-changed home side won two nil.
All that took place under four times in charge manager Grant McCann, whereas in keeping with the revolving door managerial selection policy favoured by Chairman Darragh McAnthony, the club selection policy is now handled by four times in charge Darren Ferguson. The seeming job share is probably no bad thing for McAnthony, as he has plenty of other issues to keep him occupied, not the least of which is the escape from London Road, and the poetically names adjoining Cripple Sidings Lane, and the completion of the proposed new Stadium at the nearby Embankment. Originally scheduled for completion in time for this season, the move has been complicated by, amongst other things, demands from the council for additional payments.
In the interim, McAnthony and his co-owners have been embroiled in various side issues, including the fact that their choice of Chief Executive was cited and blocked by the FA before he could take up his appointment, and a spat between the co-owners who joined McAnthony to build (and own) the new stadium which was supposed to have led to them falling out. McAnthony denies this has any direct consequence for the project, although the two other owners stopped following each other on Twitter, so how much more serious could it get?
McAnthony also sought to calm the fans fears regarding the fact that the ground would no longer be owned by the club, claiming that the club would always have somewhere to play, and therefore there was nothing to worry about. I am sure the appointment of the new Independent Regulator will be greeted with open arms by the Posh board.
That said the owners have invested in safe standing, making them the first league club to do so, a consequence of their falling out of the Championship where all seaters are the rule. In truth the principle they are operating under for the new stadium echoes that of our own board, where the Maslow Needs Hierarchy of football clubs is turned on its head. Although their reaction to the proposed siting of the new stadium was described by Norman Thompson, co-owner, as âtepidâ, and âwrong for the City and the Universityâ, who are proposed to be a major user of the new facility, the club, having cut their Championship cloth down to League One strictures, are now back in negotiations. This undoubted spanner in the development works no doubt accounts for some of the in-board tensions. With planning delays and subsequent financing costs having increased post covid, the new stadium, with the football club, according to the co-owners, the least important element of the business given that they only use the facility for thirty to forty days a year, compared to function rooms which can be generating cash for closer to three hundred days.
Assuming the club can resolve their council-based issues the stadium, based on the Ferencvaros ground complex in Hungary, will undoubtedly change the financial model for Posh. As for said ground financing, a successful 2.5-million-pound bond was closed in just over a week.
The club also will expect to continue the successful âdevelop and sellâpolicy that over the years has brought rich rewards to the club. Even the non-relegation of Brentford from the Premier League brought a one-million-pound silver lining to the club as part of the add-ons from the Ivan Toney sale. I wouldnât like to bet on their not being other sweeteners still to come from that deal, but I am sure Ivan might.
The January transfer window saw the traditional last-minute flurry of activity from Posh DOF Barry Fry. Out went Joe Taylor to Luton (but not namesake Jack to Yipswichâs increasingly expensive play off campaign). Also heading off was returned striker Jack Marriott, seduced by the bright lights and unlimited cough sweets of Fleetwood. In his place arrived a classic Posh purchase. Kabongo Tshimanga, mooted as an Argyle target a couple of seasons back, and a recent acquisition hope of Championship Birmingham City until he failed a medical, joined. Whether this is as a partner to, or a long-term replacement for Johnson Clarke-Harris remains to be seen.
Likely to be seen is defender Ronnie Edwards, touted whilst Ferguson was last in charge as a multi-million-pound player, and one who Manchester United were advised to snap up by er, Darrenâs old man Sir Alex. He is still there, as is, for now ex Argyle loanee Kell Watts, although Kell has played a paltry seven times this season.
As for Argyle, a midweek shoot-out victory for them in the Pizza Pot, where Callum Burton proved not only does have some bottle but also that said bottle was instrumental in his saving three pens on the spin, means a trip to Wembley, not Wembury in April.
A goalless draw with the awkward squad of Fleetwood, where, as against Cheltenham, the home side dominated but could not bulge the net as often as they could or should have, means the League grind goes on, of matching the results of temporary leaders Wednesday, and of the remorseless chasing pack, still at armâs length, but with still a third of the season to run.
Still, but for Matt Butchers unfortunately timed run across the Cheltenham keeper, we might have seen a powerful new scoring weapon in our set piece armoury, the Mayor flicked header. Given how the Wendies are still banging on about the ghost VAR decision at Hillsborough that ârobbedâ them of their second goal it was a shame Danny wasnât able to enjoy that all too rare moment. A header.
I also want to play tribute to the voice of football, John Motson. I once had the pleasure of having dinner with both him and David Ginola, and he was an absolute encyclopedia of football knowledge. He was complimentary about the passion of Argyle fans, and recalled his commentating in 1979, when he first used the phrase âWhat drama here!â when Brian Bason scored to put Argyle ahead for the second time in a must win or draw fixture for Swansea to gain promotion.
The second time he used the same phrase was a week later, to describe Manchester Unitedâs comeback second goal in the Cup Final against Arsenal, shortly before the Alan Sunderland winner.
I think he got it right the first time.
COYG!!
Too Posh to Push? (A) February 25th
The end of February comes with what could have been our final ever visit to London Road, a ground which has some history for Argyle and its fans. Those of a certain ilk still hark back to the days when pitch invasions were simply the inevitable by product of wholescale town occupations by a Green Army that had more in common with a Putinesque blitzkrieg than a Saturday which, if not spent on a coach halfway across the country, would be spent in the urbane company of the late great Dickie Davies on ITVâs World of Sport, or the urbane and sophisticated cross dressing cokehead, Frank Bough, on Grandstand.
If those were simpler times for football fans, and are seen through the tinted lens of memory by those who lived through them, then the future is surely now represented by a more civilised experience for fans, no less passionate and hungry for success, but equally less willing to be treated as second class citizens, or even cattle, simply because their entertainment of choice involves twenty two (to thirty two including subs) men chasing a pigs bladder around a field until the Germans (or Argyle) win on penalties. At least in 1975 the only flares you saw were bad fashion choices.
Posh have had that recent taste of success, spending the previous season in the Championship before succumbing to gravity and plummeting from whence they came in the manner of their pre-Posh nickname the Brickies, which reflected the large brick industry in the area. Whilst the Posh nickname for a number of years was used by the press in a derogatory manner, the one advantage it did have over their preceding nickname was it was unlikely to have resulted in legal action from Posh Spice. Maybe Brooklyn, although that really would have been the Beckhams coming after Peterborough through thick and thin.
Posh have had a challenging season so far, although having won as many as they have lost and drawn, remain in that twilight zone of being close enough to see the Play Off opportunity, but too inconsistent to actually spend any time in serious contention. Certainly, they will have a say in the title race as all three main contenders have still to play them, plus they have trips to Derby and Barnsley. Argyle will be hoping to meet the version of side that played Bolton recently, which meekly surrendered five nil at home. Posh are one of the other two sides to have taken three points from the Wendies this season, admittedly after the title elect side were reduced to ten men, although given the persecution complex being exhibited by the Owls fans expect a legal challenge to that result any day now. They also eliminated Argyle from the League Cup at Home Park, although that result was reversed a few days later when a much-changed home side won two nil.
All that took place under four times in charge manager Grant McCann, whereas in keeping with the revolving door managerial selection policy favoured by Chairman Darragh McAnthony, the club selection policy is now handled by four times in charge Darren Ferguson. The seeming job share is probably no bad thing for McAnthony, as he has plenty of other issues to keep him occupied, not the least of which is the escape from London Road, and the poetically names adjoining Cripple Sidings Lane, and the completion of the proposed new Stadium at the nearby Embankment. Originally scheduled for completion in time for this season, the move has been complicated by, amongst other things, demands from the council for additional payments.
In the interim, McAnthony and his co-owners have been embroiled in various side issues, including the fact that their choice of Chief Executive was cited and blocked by the FA before he could take up his appointment, and a spat between the co-owners who joined McAnthony to build (and own) the new stadium which was supposed to have led to them falling out. McAnthony denies this has any direct consequence for the project, although the two other owners stopped following each other on Twitter, so how much more serious could it get?
McAnthony also sought to calm the fans fears regarding the fact that the ground would no longer be owned by the club, claiming that the club would always have somewhere to play, and therefore there was nothing to worry about. I am sure the appointment of the new Independent Regulator will be greeted with open arms by the Posh board.
That said the owners have invested in safe standing, making them the first league club to do so, a consequence of their falling out of the Championship where all seaters are the rule. In truth the principle they are operating under for the new stadium echoes that of our own board, where the Maslow Needs Hierarchy of football clubs is turned on its head. Although their reaction to the proposed siting of the new stadium was described by Norman Thompson, co-owner, as âtepidâ, and âwrong for the City and the Universityâ, who are proposed to be a major user of the new facility, the club, having cut their Championship cloth down to League One strictures, are now back in negotiations. This undoubted spanner in the development works no doubt accounts for some of the in-board tensions. With planning delays and subsequent financing costs having increased post covid, the new stadium, with the football club, according to the co-owners, the least important element of the business given that they only use the facility for thirty to forty days a year, compared to function rooms which can be generating cash for closer to three hundred days.
Assuming the club can resolve their council-based issues the stadium, based on the Ferencvaros ground complex in Hungary, will undoubtedly change the financial model for Posh. As for said ground financing, a successful 2.5-million-pound bond was closed in just over a week.
The club also will expect to continue the successful âdevelop and sellâpolicy that over the years has brought rich rewards to the club. Even the non-relegation of Brentford from the Premier League brought a one-million-pound silver lining to the club as part of the add-ons from the Ivan Toney sale. I wouldnât like to bet on their not being other sweeteners still to come from that deal, but I am sure Ivan might.
The January transfer window saw the traditional last-minute flurry of activity from Posh DOF Barry Fry. Out went Joe Taylor to Luton (but not namesake Jack to Yipswichâs increasingly expensive play off campaign). Also heading off was returned striker Jack Marriott, seduced by the bright lights and unlimited cough sweets of Fleetwood. In his place arrived a classic Posh purchase. Kabongo Tshimanga, mooted as an Argyle target a couple of seasons back, and a recent acquisition hope of Championship Birmingham City until he failed a medical, joined. Whether this is as a partner to, or a long-term replacement for Johnson Clarke-Harris remains to be seen.
Likely to be seen is defender Ronnie Edwards, touted whilst Ferguson was last in charge as a multi-million-pound player, and one who Manchester United were advised to snap up by er, Darrenâs old man Sir Alex. He is still there, as is, for now ex Argyle loanee Kell Watts, although Kell has played a paltry seven times this season.
As for Argyle, a midweek shoot-out victory for them in the Pizza Pot, where Callum Burton proved not only does have some bottle but also that said bottle was instrumental in his saving three pens on the spin, means a trip to Wembley, not Wembury in April.
A goalless draw with the awkward squad of Fleetwood, where, as against Cheltenham, the home side dominated but could not bulge the net as often as they could or should have, means the League grind goes on, of matching the results of temporary leaders Wednesday, and of the remorseless chasing pack, still at armâs length, but with still a third of the season to run.
Still, but for Matt Butchers unfortunately timed run across the Cheltenham keeper, we might have seen a powerful new scoring weapon in our set piece armoury, the Mayor flicked header. Given how the Wendies are still banging on about the ghost VAR decision at Hillsborough that ârobbedâ them of their second goal it was a shame Danny wasnât able to enjoy that all too rare moment. A header.
I also want to play tribute to the voice of football, John Motson. I once had the pleasure of having dinner with both him and David Ginola, and he was an absolute encyclopedia of football knowledge. He was complimentary about the passion of Argyle fans, and recalled his commentating in 1979, when he first used the phrase âWhat drama here!â when Brian Bason scored to put Argyle ahead for the second time in a must win or draw fixture for Swansea to gain promotion.
The second time he used the same phrase was a week later, to describe Manchester Unitedâs comeback second goal in the Cup Final against Arsenal, shortly before the Alan Sunderland winner.
I think he got it right the first time.
COYG!!
