Editor's Note And Letters: 12/05/15

Are you pretty nifty with a biro? Why not use it to draw us a picture? We’ve got three t-shirts from the lovely people at Art of Football and we’re going to give them away. All you have to do is to scribble a picture of your unlikely football hero onto a scrap of paper, take a picture and send it into us. All the details you need are here.

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Iain Macintosh

BURNLEY FAN LEFT UNCONVINCED BY BURNLEY

Appreciated the thoughtful piece on Burnley’s progress as a club, but there is a lot of frustration among fans about what is perceived to have been a wasted opportunity.

The club struggled to bring in their main targets last summer and the transfer strategy badly failed. The fact one player left and nobody arrived in January when we were so desperately short of cover in key areas speaks a lot about Burnley’s preparedness, or lack of it, off the pitch. Neither of the two strikers we signed has scored a single league goal – that’s a damning fact.

A lot of the time it has felt like the club simply does not know how to act like a Premier League club, even after two seasons in the top flight in the last few years. We’re still playing at it, enjoying the ride, taking in the sights, loving the prawn sandwiches, forgetting that the aim is surely to become established at that level rather than make up the numbers for a year.

Yes, it’s true that important progress is (at long last) being made with the club’s infrastructure but Burnley were not that far away on the pitch this season and a bit more investment in the right players, with more decisiveness shown from the recruitment and negotiation team, might have made all the difference.

I’m fairly confident about our chances of coming back up next year – depending on which players can be retained and if Sean Dyche is still around – but looking at the dross that makes up the bottom third of the Premier League I can’t help but think we could and should have been better than at least three other teams with more of a push.

After the last time we were relegated from the Premier League one of the club’s directors, Brendan Flood, confessed that he felt we had been too “cautious”. I fear we have made the same mistake again.

Jamie Smith

NEWCASTLE FAN PROVIDES EPIC POEM

In deciding to comment

On the reign of Mike Ashley

I’m seriously unable

To rant and write rashly

Though when I consider

The state of our nation

I confess that this

Is my first inclination.

I know we’ve been duped

I’m aware we’ve been had

But not everything

Ashley’s done has been bad…

Some say he’s a bandit

All pillage and looting

But the club stands sound

On a financial footing

For the sake of balance

And being fair

I say the former’s been elusive

Like the silverware

I’m struggling now…

Without more evidence

That’s the sum total of

Benign influence

Like when it all started

Some drinks with the lads

Bonhomie and marvellous

Everyone said

But my grandparents told me

Of this politician

Who came north to steal votes

A Tory magician

He wore a flat cap

To talk to the nation

But got run out of town

For patronisation

I must say that Michael

Reminds me of that

Not a man of the people

More…. fiscal twat

If this slanders or slurs

Then I beg my pardon

But only cash…

Seems to give him a hard on

(Sorry, one other

May make him erect

An appendage or stadium

Labelled ‘Sports Direct’)

A genius we’re told

Of sportswear and fashion

You’re an amalgam of deserts

When it comes to passion

Our pride in our side

Completely diminished

We feed on the scraps

While your wallet’s replenished

He deserves a desperate grisly (fate)

Without mercy or reprieve

Like the ones we’d reserve

For certain referees

(Say the one who disallowed

TIOTE V CITY!

I’d pop rivet the bastard

To a plank without pity)

A financial wiz,

Pecuniary genius

His atrocities range

From the crass to the heinous

Cheap labour in sweat shops

From poor folk in Thailand

Morally dubious?

His cash takes the high ground

Has he no idea

How much it hurts

Little kids with ‘WONGA’

Scribbled over their shirts?

He’s stuffed fat with billions

A venal eclipse

Where football’s concerned

You wouldn’t send him for chips

It’s not new for Geordies

To be held in contempt

For loving their club

An ‘immune sacrament’

To let downs and failure

And finishing second

For sixty long years

To the gods we have beckoned

BUT….We’ve danced in the streets

Cried on the telly

Had top entertainers

Turn legs into jelly

Made our own hay from football

Had fun, and enjoyed it….

Along you come with your cash

And destroy it

So fuck it if the cabinet’s empty

Millions still pour through the gate

But how long if our only ambition

Is money…and heaven can wait?

Scared stiff of Shearer

Dismissive of Keegan

Contemptuous of all

The folk and the region

Who say

“Hey Mr Ashley…we’ve all got your handle

You’re a spiritless void

A cultural vandal.”

Peter Sanderson

Splendid! Have you got a poem you’d like to share with us? Or an opinion? Or a stream of abuse that you’ve been desperately trying to force into a comments box that doesn’t exist? Write to us: [email protected]

Editor’s Note And Letters: 12/05/15

4.4 (88.33%) 12 votes

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