Gordon Sharrock interview by Iles AUDIO

Sluffy wrote:

I don't recall him saying anything about it specifically but if you listen around the 25 minute mark, Sharrock talked about how the Gartside regime tried to keep him from doing his job, namely in his (and most everybody else's belief) that ALL that goes should be made known to the fans, whilst in the real world companies of which BWFC Ltd is one, simply don't run that way because it would be financial suicide to them if they did!

He also talked about Allardyce's ambition to take us into the Champions League when we were third in the Premier League in January but (the club) Gartside didn't meet his ambition and would not bring in more signings at that time and there was friction between the two - listen around the 31 minute mark.

Thanks, Sluffy. It sounds exactly like the 'head in the clouds' stuff I would have expected. One man's ambition is another's vainglorious egomania.

Actually we were only narrowly in third place for two days before taking a beating by Liverpool on 1 January 2007. It only served to emphasise the gulf in financial clout.

Anything of interest about the 1999 regime change, how much the Reebok (and other assets cost), who paid for it all and funded years of overspending in the ultimately failed attempt to establish BWFC as a Premiership club?

Ten Bobsworth wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

I don't recall him saying anything about it specifically but if you listen around the 25 minute mark, Sharrock talked about how the Gartside regime tried to keep him from doing his job, namely in his (and most everybody else's belief) that ALL that goes on should be made known to the fans, whilst in the real world companies of which BWFC Ltd is one, simply don't run that way because it would be financial suicide to them if they did!

He also talked about Allardyce's ambition to take us into the Champions League when we were third in the Premier League in January but (the club) Gartside didn't meet his ambition and would not bring in more signings at that time and there was friction between the two - listen around the 31 minute mark.

Thanks, Sluffy. It sounds exactly like the 'head in the clouds' stuff I would have expected. One man's ambition is another's vainglorious egomania.

Anything of interest about the 1999 regime change, how much the Reebok (and other assets cost), who paid for it all and funded years of overspending in the ultimately failed attempt to establish BWFC as a Premiership club?

Don't recall him saying much if anything about those things and of course we all know who paid for the Reebok as Marc Iles has already wrote about in the paper telling us all!

Sluffy wrote:

Don't recall him saying much if anything about those things and of course we all know who paid for the Reebok as Marc Iles has already wrote about in the paper telling us all!

A bit of an odd paradox, don't you think? Shorrock believed that the fans were entitled to know what was going on yet some of the most significant events in the club's history were ignored, glossed over or misrepresented by the Bolton News. 

I still think that Iles' unfortunate 'misapprehension' is strongly related to attitudes that prevailed when he arrived at the BN and have changed little since.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

Don't recall him saying much if anything about those things and of course we all know who paid for the Reebok as Marc Iles has already wrote about in the paper telling us all!

A bit of an odd paradox, don't you think? Shorrock believed that the fans were entitled to know what was going on yet some of the most significant events in the club's history were ignored, glossed over or misrepresented by the Bolton News. 

I still think that Iles' unfortunate 'misapprehension' is strongly related to attitudes that prevailed when he arrived at the BN and have changed little since.

What was even more paradoxical I found was that he said early in his interview as to when the £1m investment on signings of Cantello, Clement and McNab by Ian Greaves that in effect was a massive failure that it had so much of a financial effect on the club for years to come that led directly to our decline to the old fourth division.  So I would have thought he would be better placed than most by understanding this, have thus more of an understanding not to want the same thing to happen when financial pressures fell on the club again due to the building a relocation costs to a new stadium (and yet again when Allardyce wanted to bet the future of the club on us competing regularly in the Champions League).

You'd think if he understood cause and effect from one example he could relate it to future events too?  

Obviously not!

I've never been one to believe all that is written in the papers but sadly in my opinion that healthy scientism seems to have been widely lost on the social media generation where people seem somehow to believe what they read on there without question?

If I made a film about lizards morphing into human beings who are devil worshipping paedophiles and cast Donald Trump as the superhero to save the world then people would just laugh at the absurdity and stupidity of it all but millions believe it to be so because some random twitter account called QAnon tweeted such stuff there's millions of people who do!!!

Christ I even had one woman (who works in an accounts office by the way) in my street telling me she believed in it only the other month!

I just repeated back to her did she really believe Trump was actually protecting the world from lizard devil worshipping paedophiles, and when she said 'yes' I made some polite excuse and left - and have avoided her as best I can ever since!

Either I've gone barking mad or the world has!

There's just too many people willing to believe anything that's put in front of them without question particularly if it is from someone they seem to trust implicitly such as Iles!

Just the way it is now, reason seems to have gone out of the window.

Talking about Nietzsche earlier, one could even liken what is going on with social media as the the 'slave morality' in the 'master, slave' relationship - namely how those not in power subverts and manipulates the system to bring those in power (the masters) down - but the paradox is that those in 'power' of the slaves become the new 'masters' and those out of power begins to subvert and manipulate to take power for themselves, and so on.

People believed utter shit about Anderson hoping to bring him down, Trump used the distrust of the Washington elite represented by Hilary Clinton to win the presidency, with his catch phrase 'make America great again'.  Johnson won the Brexit referendum by the popularist slogan 'take back control', and so on.

It's all a never ending game but people just can't see it.

I doubt most ever will.

Sharrock I guess thought he had some power in manipulating the club to do what he thought was right by using the press to bring about the changes he wanted to see from the club.  Iles I don't think was so Machiavellian or as smart as Sharrock but was influenced by his drinking buddies such as Holdsworth, the ST and players such as Wheater to join in with the hatred towards Anderson and magnify it at stoke it up through his position as a social media influencer - and it worked!

It's blindingly obvious to me why Iles is kept at arms length from the club, and Sharrock before him, since the move to the Reebok and it's certainly no coincidence that successive Chairmen and owners of the club from Hargreaves right through to Sharron Brittan.

Yet still people believe every word of Iles implicitly!

We get what we deserve I guess.


PS, are you deliberately misspelling Sharrock's name or is there a joke there that I'm missing?

Shorrock means moron. Apparently. Although I'm not really into these modern terms. Unlike young Bob.

boltonbonce wrote:Shorrock means moron. Apparently. Although I'm not really into these modern terms. Unlike young Bob.

Thanks, a word I've never heard of before.

I like your avatar picture, how did you order them, a pair of baguette's size nines?

Sluffy wrote:

Thanks, a word I've never heard of before.

I like your avatar picture, how did you order them, a pair of baguette's size nines?

I don't think I'd be eating them after my plates had been in them. God knows what they could do with a French stick.

boltonbonce wrote:Shorrock means moron. Apparently. Although I'm not really into these modern terms. Unlike young Bob.

I didn't know that, Boncey. The misspelling was simply forgetfulness that his name was Sharrock not Shorrock.

I never thought him a moron. More as someone with a personal grudge or allegiance, probably dating from around the 1999 regime change, that would not serve the best interests of BWFC. 

Iles isn't a moron either imo but is someone who allows personal prejudices to get in the way of objective scrutiny and competent reporting. There seems to be no end of journos like that.

Btw did you take up the offer on the labrador? Its a clever dog that can turn a couple of baguettes into a pair of slippers.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:
I didn't know that, Boncey. The misspelling was simply forgetfulness that his name was Sharrock not Shorrock.

I never thought him a moron. More as someone with a personal grudge or allegiance, probably dating from around the 1999 regime change, that would not serve the best interests of BWFC. 

Iles isn't a moron either imo but is someone who allows personal prejudices to get in the way of objective scrutiny and competent reporting. There seems to be no end of journos like that.

Btw did you take up the offer on the labrador? Its a clever dog that can turn a couple of baguettes into a pair of slippers.

No Labrador sadly. I'd been warned brown labs are bonkers, so gave it a miss. Since found a good home though.
As my last dog was a Springer, I should be used to bonkers dogs, but I suppose I'm getting too old to handle it.