The remainder of our squad either couldn't arrange a party, or more likely would injure themselves trying to damage property. We shouldn't have let the Crown jewels go.
Surely he just needs to give it the condescending “don’t you use debt when you run YOUR business? It’s simply good husbandry”. Any investor will have the chequebook in seconds?
Two excellent finishes by Bradshaw and good running for the tap-in. Shame he's never played in Belgium.
Absolute disaster of an evening. Pollock looked way out of his depth and once he made that mistake we were never going to recover from that. Losing Louza potentially long term is a huge blow as he's the key to our midfield functioning . Kayembe just isn't up to the task. Was even wporse than Blackpool, but along similar lines we had plenty of posession second half, but considering the talent we have up front, created precious little. Not looking forward to Sunday. At least maybe Cathcart could return, but could be well beaten if they play like that again.
Interesting. Though Bermondsey, Rotherhite, New Cross and Deptford are gentrifying rapidly, so it won't be long before they are comparable to the likes of Dulwich (if they aren't already). Even dumps like Lewisham and Catford are unaffordable for most people now!
I don't believe Bilic is any part of the problem. He knows what needs to be done - look at his cv. Whether or not he will be given the time and/or the player resources are problems, however.
You'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel for him. Great player, proud professional left to try and shape something out of a mess of pottage that masquerades as a professional football club.
If we lose and play crap on Sunday, Bilic will be gone. No way will Gino stand for 3 losses in five games for a "promotion capable side". I don't think letting Edwards go would of made a huge difference. Players' seem to turn up when feel like it - regardless of manager, opposition, fan outcry or owner expectancy. We are stuck in mud until the three weeds are killed before we can bloom.
They are, but they also have a lot of social housing stock. I think the Labour councils at least (if not the Conservative) see the need to protect that housing, as you cannot have a functioning city without bin collectors, hairdressers, railway workers, nurses, midwives, school TAs etc. etc. Besides, people forget London is a very big place. In that just South Bermondsey alone, not the whole of Bermondsey, but South Bermondsey, where The Den is located, has a population of 18,000. The size of a small town. And SB is far from being gentrified (yet!). I think little pockets will always remain, for the reasons outlined above. But yes, the local area and therefore Millwall's support has been impacted. Many people do not realise that between the wars Millwall were one of best supported clubs in the country. This remained, despite eroding year on year, right into the 1960s. The docklands community surrounding the ground providing a huge and passionate support, despite the club playing Second and Third Division (South) football. Millwall would often attract 25,000 most games and 30-40,000 for big/interesting league games (e.g. 45,000 coming to see Tommy Lawton's Notts County, despite it being a dead rubber of a game for Millwall by that point). For big FA Cup games, up to 50,000 used to try and squeeze in. Even Millwall Blues v Millwall Reds pre season matches attracted 15-20,000. Millwall were often able to buy players from top flight clubs before the war, but thanks to only one promotion place being up for grabs, somehow missed out in various unfortunate ways (usually poor away record - nothing changes!!). I am pretty certain that if Millwall had achieved promotion to the top flight when the docks were thriving, as looked likely in the late 1930s (what with some top quality players bought), then the club would have gone on to be the SE London equivalent to West Ham United (spit). Instead, The Den was hit by a German bomb and then suffered further fire damage. Insurance companies were not really paying out after the war and so Millwall ended up with an aged squad and huge repair bills for the ground (we had to groundshare at The Valley for a bit). Millwall had missed their chance. So, by the time the London docks were being wound down and hooliganism was rife in the late 1970s, crowds had dwindled down to 5-8,000 on average. Many moving out to Greater London boroughs like Bexley and Bromley, as well as Essex and Kent. However, that old community of support is still out there floating about... see the 49,000 that went to support Millwall play Wigan in Auto-Windscreens Final or a similar number for a League One Play-off Final v Scunthorope United. I actually think that whilst the traditional local community is getting squeezed etc. that actually, Millwall's local following is building up again. It will never go back to the days of the docks thriving, but it's healthy enough. We are regularly averaging over 13,000 a season now, which may seem poor to some, but is pretty good considering everything above and the fact we are a short tube ride away from the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham and Spurs. And that we have only ever played two seasons of top flight football, and that was 32 years ago now. Indeed, if you manage to leave South Bermondsey station, you will see a lot of home fans streaming back towards Rotherhithe, which, along with Bermondsey, is still a big Millwall stronghold in this ever changing city.
The only way this season gets redeemed in any way is if Bilic is kept on and has a number of players of sufficient quality (mostly defenders, midfielders and strikers) ready and waiting at the start of the transfer window. Obviously we'll limp to the transfer window with another manager and end up with a centre back from KV Kortrijk on a free and a full back from Charleroi for treble his market value.
As for the game... Watford looked to have some players that are great players (in attack/midfield) individually, but not really functioning as a team. Plus, to be fair (hear me out!), you did have a lot of injuries to your defence and if any club at this level can take advantage of that it is us!
As an "outsider", did you see anything about Watford that caused you to worry during the game or that offered potential? Our team sheet can look quite impressive in parts (though less so to those that see those players play), but we are a total mess. I left on 65 minutes, so didn't see a large part of the game. That's the first time since I started going in 1990 I've left more than a minute or two before the end - this time, I took nearly 20 minutes off.
You say that but a squeaky 1-0 win on Sunday and our muppet fans will be back shovelling coal into the boiler of HMS PTL, until we lose again. I take no notice of the flip floppers. Those who remain positive even when we lose or negative even when we win are those who are looking beyond game to game reaction.
Absolutely correct as we had Captain Calamity marshalling the troops, Daniel Line-itus on the goal line, a rookie next to the Capt. and a jobbing MF at RB. When Louza had to come off I don't understand why the experienced Gaspar didn't come on with the instructions to look after Pollock, not to bomb on etc, and Gosling to move into MF ?.
As another aside to this... even gentrified, New Cross, Bermondsey and Deptford retain an inner-city feel about them, that the more suburn Crystal Palace, Dulwich etc will never have. If you walk from The Den up to Bermondsey Wall (15 minutes away) and look out, you will see some of the great sights of London... you can then walk back to London Bridge taking in the Globe, the Tate, the London Eye etc. It's inner city London. It may not be as rough and as ready as it once was (but you can still find those areas, trust me), but it isn't anything like the bland suburn sprawl of Croydon, for example. That could be any other suburban sprawl in this country.
Found our kit for next season. It's a voilet colour - like "shrinking voilets" which is a perfect analogy for our team at the moment.
This is not untrue. But we've been saying for ages that the reserve members of the squad are not up to it. Any club should be better prepared for injuries, which are inevitable. Plus, Watford didn't look like they knew what they were doing, whereas Millwall did. Bilic has really got his work cut out.