Found

Hi, Reading fan here.

You appear to have lost a boring tosser by the name of Ten Bobsworth as he has appeared dazed and confused on our forum, HobNob Anyone? Could please come and collect him as he appears to have dementia and we're not a nursing home.

Cheers and all the best for the rest of the season

wtf?

Wonderful

Bedtime reading for anyone interested

https://hobnob.royals.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=191074

From Despair To Where? wrote:Hi, Reading fan here.

You appear to have lost a boring tosser by the name of Ten Bobsworth as he has appeared dazed and confused on our forum, HobNob Anyone? Could please come and collect him as he appears to have dementia and we're not a nursing home.

Cheers and all the best for the rest of the season

Whatever you do mate don't mention Dale Vince (Forest Green Rovers owner) to him!!!



Seriously, all the best with your financial predicament - we've been there ourselves and it wasn't pleasant.

Hope things turn out better for you as soon as they possibly can.

As for Bob, he is very knowledgeable about finding his way around company accounts and it may be in your interests to tolerate him the best you can whilst you are in the financial mire that you are, as he can (if he has a mind to), give you an insight of the money side of things.

He seems to be on some sort of mission to let the world know Ken Anderson (former Bolton owner) wasn't as bad as nearly everyone else believed him to be and that Eddie Davies (previous Bolton owner who sold the club to Anderson and Dean Holdsworth (former Bolton player) was vilified by the journalist David Conn.

He's actually right on both accounts but can't seem to grasp that nobody but he cares about it - why would we???

As you may guess he isn't popular on here and was threatened and banned on a rival Bolton Wanderers forum that the club has.

I'm one of those who he's told that I hadn't got my 'thinking head on' or my 'listening ears'

I told him that maybe I hadn't but I did have my 'ban a member finger' on and 'I knew which button to press' with it, and I think he got the hint!

For the record he isn't banned with us but I did tell him if he didn't like the way I ran the site to go and play someplace else.

Sorry if you've had to suffer because of it!

It’s Dean Holdsworth Sluffy. You seem to have David Conn on your mind.

karlypants wrote:It’s Dean Holdsworth Sluffy. You seem to have David Conn on your mind.

Sorry, corrected now.

Thanks.

Sluffy wrote:

Whatever you do mate don't mention Dale Vince (Forest Green Rovers owner) to him!!!



Seriously, all the best with your financial predicament - we've been there ourselves and it wasn't pleasant.

Hope things turn out better for you as soon as they possibly can.

As for Bob, he is very knowledgeable about finding his way around company accounts and it may be in your interests to tolerate him the best you can whilst you are in the financial mire that you are, as he can (if he has a mind to), give you an insight of the money side of things.

He seems to be on some sort of mission to let the world know Ken Anderson (former Bolton owner) wasn't as bad as nearly everyone else believed him to be and that Eddie Davies (previous Bolton owner who sold the club to Anderson and Dean Holdsworth (former Bolton player) was vilified by the journalist David Conn.

He's actually right on both accounts but can't seem to grasp that nobody but he cares about it - why would we???

As you may guess he isn't popular on here and was threatened and banned on a rival Bolton Wanderers forum that the club has.

I'm one of those who he's told that I hadn't got my 'thinking head on' or my 'listening ears'

I told him that maybe I hadn't but I did have my 'ban a member finger' on and 'I knew which button to press' with it, and I think he got the hint!

For the record he isn't banned with us but I did tell him if he didn't like the way I ran the site to go and play someplace else.

Sorry if you've had to suffer because of it!

We've had the Dale Vince rant but we're not interested. It's irrelevant to our situation. It came out of the blue so we all thought he'd had a breakdown. Our only "link" to Anderson is that he's allegedly advising one of the allegedly interested parties but, as you say, we're apparently all thick for not wanting to endlessly hear about him. He's like a spambot

As for our situation, we're hopeful rather than expectant that it will be resolved. Our owner seems intent on doing nothing, be it funding the club or selling up. He's already transferred the stadium and training ground out of club ownership and now trying to sell off the best players so he's trying to hold any prospective buyers to ransom. We know the buck stops with the club, or more specifically the owner and a sizeable section of the fanbase have been sceptical from day one; giving up PL contracts in the Championship, spending millions on un-necessary players, most of whom are represented by Kia Joorabchian who's "advising" him,  so we're not looking for sympathy in that regard, we're just pissed off that 5 years on from yourselves and Bury, the EFL are still no closer to getting to grips with dealing with shit owners and this will keep happening somewhere until they do. Football is incapable of regulating itself. Cheers for the best wishes.

Has Bob mentioned Olive Oyl yet?

Sluffy wrote:

karlypants wrote:It’s Dean Holdsworth Sluffy. You seem to have David Conn on your mind.

Sorry, corrected now.

Thanks.

I never realised Dean had a twin brother called David.

Having looked the pair up, David Holdsworth signed for Bolton too in 2002 but didn't feature in a competitive game for us.

boltonbonce wrote:Has Bob mentioned Olive Oyl yet?

To be honest, I've resorted to putting him on ignore so his posts are blanked out.

Unfortunately our board admin has gone AWOL and none of our mods have banning privileges.

From Despair To Where? wrote:We've had the Dale Vince rant but we're not interested. It's irrelevant to our situation. It came out of the blue so we all thought he'd had a breakdown. Our only "link" to Anderson is that he's allegedly advising one of the allegedly interested parties but, as you say, we're apparently all thick for not wanting to endlessly hear about him. He's like a spambot

As for our situation, we're hopeful rather than expectant that it will be resolved. Our owner seems intent on doing nothing, be it funding the club or selling up. He's already transferred the stadium and training ground out of club ownership and now trying to sell off the best players so he's trying to hold any prospective buyers to ransom. We know the buck stops with the club, or more specifically the owner and a sizeable section of the fanbase have been sceptical from day one; giving up PL contracts in the Championship, spending millions on un-necessary players, most of whom are represented by Kia Joorabchian who's "advising" him,  so we're not looking for sympathy in that regard, we're just pissed off that 5 years on from yourselves and Bury, the EFL are still no closer to getting to grips with dealing with shit owners and this will keep happening somewhere until they do. Football is incapable of regulating itself. Cheers for the best wishes.

Thanks mate for all the background stuff.

I have actually followed your plight from a distance somewhat, because I've got a sort of professional background vaguely related to such things (I was a company secretary many moons ago, I'm long since retired) and also because Bolton went through similar stuff ourselves, so to some sort of extent I can see the situation from both sides of the fence - and from your reply you seem to have a solid understand what's going on too.

The only think I can add to what you've said is that it really is difficult for the EFL (or anyone else) to actually prove that someone is an unfit and unproperly person to own a company? All they can do in reality is to make any potential new owner show that their funding is from legitimate means - and if it is, then there's really not much they can do stop a club being sold to the various 'shady' characters.

For instance do we really believe Newcastle's 'owners' are shall we say fully in tune with western values..?

Do we really think the PL had the money and firepower to take them on in a court of law if they had firmly told them 'no' - look at how Man City's owners lawyers run rings around the PL in respect to their couple of hundred or so financial breeches (or how many there actually are) lodged against them?

Just look how quickly Everton were dealt with in contrast for instance - albeit both cases aren't like for like.

I don't know what the answer is, if indeed an answer actually exists - look at Wigan's position (the one before the last one!) where a Chinese (or maybe Honk Kong person - some country around there - no disrespect to anyone intended) where the owner bought the club put £20m or so into it from his own wealth and then for some reason known only to himself decided to simply and suddenly liquidate the club!

The owner was persuaded to put it into Administration (which was a prolonged agony for the Wigan fans) instead and eventually it was bought by some Qatari (I think it was?) who then promptly did more or less the same thing, putting in £20m or so of personal money then simply all but walking away from the club.

How can the EFL or anyone else prevent such things from happening in the future when money seems no object to the owner of a club and where £20m, £30m, or even hundred's of millions are inconsequential to them?

In theory I suppose the answer lies in community ownership - I believe the German league works this way (although I've not looked into the model) but how do you turn the likes of Newcastle, Man City, Man United, Chelsea etc from billionaire owners to the likes of Fred and Ethel and the Crowther's from across the road?

I just think that is wishful thinking from those who don't understand things from the other side of the fence to that of being a fan, point of view.

Anyway I've whittled on enough, I suspect you have some hard times ahead of you and that you probably knew most of what I've just said above.

I'm sorry that it is a Bolton fan (Bob) that is adding an unnecessary irritant to your already heavy burden but fingers crossed you come out of all this intact on the other side and for what it is worth Wigan (twice) and Derby have both managed to pull through recently, when all looked lost for them.

Keep the faith.

Most of our fanbase realise that, in it's current form, the owners and director's test is really only a financial snapshot at the time and in no way could predict what was going to happen.

I think the way forward is independent regulation with a licence to compete, renewable every year. I also think there needs to be limits to how much debt owners can leverage against a club and there needs to be the power to oust rogue owners but that needs a law change. I'd go as far as having independent ratification of all transfers in. We came out of a soft embargo and immediately spent £12m on Lucas João and George Puscas as the club was flush with cash when the owner sold the ground to himself for £27m in order to satisfy FFP.  Meanwhile, we had 1 senior fullback. The reaction at the time was wtf and it's proved to be just another calamitous decision. We really shouldn't have been allowed to make those signings. It's a fanciful wishlist, I know, but football would be better for it. 

As I said, we don't want sympathy, we don't care about embargoes, point deductions, relegation, we want our club to survive and lessens to be learnt so that it doesn't happen again. It's relatively fresh in the memory that we finished 8th in the Premier League with a team that cost half a Sone Aluko.

From Despair To Where? wrote:Most of our fanbase realise that, in it's current form, the owners and director's test is really only a financial snapshot at the time and in no way could predict what was going to happen.

I think the way forward is independent regulation with a licence to compete, renewable every year. I also think there needs to be limits to how much debt owners can leverage against a club and there needs to be the power to oust rogue owners but that needs a law change. I'd go as far as having independent ratification of all transfers in. We came out of a soft embargo and immediately spent £12m on Lucas João and George Puscas as the club was flush with cash when the owner sold the ground to himself for £27m in order to satisfy FFP.  Meanwhile, we had 1 senior fullback. The reaction at the time was wtf and it's proved to be just another calamitous decision. We really shouldn't have been allowed to make those signings. It's a fanciful wishlist, I know, but football would be better for it. 

As I said, we don't want sympathy, we don't care about embargoes, point deductions, relegation, we want our club to survive and lessens to be learnt so that it doesn't happen again. It's relatively fresh in the memory that we finished 8th in the Premier League with a team that cost half a Sone Aluko.

It's hard to see that happening as football is basically run as a members club and I suspect all members need to agree such momentous changes or face rafts of legal challenges - as per the articles of association that they have all signed up to.

Maybe an alternative might be a 'American' model where there is a total wages cap and players are 'picked' on a yearly draft where the worst team has the first pick - type thing - but I can't see it happening either.

I know you aren't looking for sympathy but any true fan does feel sorry for teams that fall into such predicaments as yours, ours, Wigan's Derby, etc, etc, have.

We don't pity you, we are just sad football has come to this.

Can I be one of the first to congratulate Sluffy on gaining the affection of his new-found friend. He might be a potty-mouthed, pea-brained pillock but I don’t suppose that will bother Sluffy too much.
I do hope they will be happy together.

I’ve been taking a well-earned break from the Nuthouse and interestingly, to me at least,
finding small indications of intelligent life in Reading. They are only embryonic tbh but even the smallest encouragement is something worthwhile.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:Can I be one of the first to congratulate Sluffy on gaining the affection of his new-found friend. He might be a potty-mouthed, pea-brained pillock but I don’t suppose that will bother Sluffy too much.
I do hope they will be happy together.

I’ve been taking a well-earned break from the Nuthouse and interestingly, to me at least,
finding small indications of intelligent life in Reading. They are only embryonic tbh but even the smallest encouragement is something worthwhile.

Thanks Bob but I don't love anyone on the internet, nor do I hate anyone either, you are all just random people to me, and I treat you all the same.

Well I suppose that isn't exactly true as I laugh at some more than others, I laugh at the ones who take it all so seriously it becomes part of their real life's, and the ones who are obsessive, the ones who say and act in a way they never would dare to do so to your face, the ones who feel the need to lie, the ones who attention seek and the ones who are clearly nutjobs and cranks.

The ones who are in denial, the ones with clear mental health problems, the ones who crave attention, the ones who are trapped in the past, and the ones who can't see that football is only a game.

I can even laugh at myself, Bob, which I very much suspect is something you are unable to do to yourself?

Happy New Year to you (and Mrs B) and I'm pleased that you are enjoying your rest from here.

It's the internet Bob, it isn't real life.

Sluffy wrote:

Thanks Bob but I don't love anyone on the internet, nor do I hate anyone either, you are all just random people to me, and I treat you all the same.

Well I suppose that isn't exactly true as I laugh at some more than others, I laugh at the ones who take it all so seriously it becomes part of their real life's, and the ones who are obsessive, the ones who say and act in a way they never would dare to do so to your face, the ones who feel the need to lie, the ones who attention seek and the ones who are clearly nutjobs and cranks.

The ones who are in denial, the ones with clear mental health problems, the ones who crave attention, the ones who are trapped in the past, and the ones who can't see that football is only a game.

I can even laugh at myself, Bob, which I very much suspect is something you are unable to do to yourself?

Happy New Year to you (and Mrs B) and I'm pleased that you are enjoying your rest from here.

It's the internet Bob, it isn't real life.

Crikey Sluffy, I’m not sure there are enough contributors on this forum to fit all those categories you’ve named and actually only one person I can think of who could probably fulfil most if not all of them themselves and that’s you!!

Whitesince63 wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

Thanks Bob but I don't love anyone on the internet, nor do I hate anyone either, you are all just random people to me, and I treat you all the same.

Well I suppose that isn't exactly true as I laugh at some more than others, I laugh at the ones who take it all so seriously it becomes part of their real life's, and the ones who are obsessive, the ones who say and act in a way they never would dare to do so to your face, the ones who feel the need to lie, the ones who attention seek and the ones who are clearly nutjobs and cranks.

The ones who are in denial, the ones with clear mental health problems, the ones who crave attention, the ones who are trapped in the past, and the ones who can't see that football is only a game.

I can even laugh at myself, Bob, which I very much suspect is something you are unable to do to yourself?

Happy New Year to you (and Mrs B) and I'm pleased that you are enjoying your rest from here.

It's the internet Bob, it isn't real life.

Crikey Sluffy, I’m not sure there are enough contributors on this forum to fit all those categories you’ve named and actually only one person I can think of who could probably fulfil most if not all of them themselves and that’s you!!

Maybe I can, who knows?

Sluffy wrote:

Thanks Bob but I don't love anyone on the internet, nor do I hate anyone either, you are all just random people to me, and I treat you all the same.

Well I suppose that isn't exactly true as I laugh at some more than others, I laugh at the ones who take it all so seriously it becomes part of their real life's, and the ones who are obsessive, the ones who say and act in a way they never would dare to do so to your face, the ones who feel the need to lie, the ones who attention seek and the ones who are clearly nutjobs and cranks.

The ones who are in denial, the ones with clear mental health problems, the ones who crave attention, the ones who are trapped in the past, and the ones who can't see that football is only a game.

I can even laugh at myself, Bob, which I very much suspect is something you are unable to do to yourself?

Happy New Year to you (and Mrs B) and I'm pleased that you are enjoying your rest from here.

It's the internet Bob, it isn't real life.

You could tell your PBP friend (that's the pea-brained pillock not the other PBP) that its only a game.
He seems to take it quite seriously. 

OK its not quite the Post Office scandal but you don't (or you shouldn't) forget what's gone on. That ain't smart in my book; it ain't smart at all. 

Quick-fire Maguire hasn't forgotten either but he was too dim to get it nearly right in the first place, wasn't he? He'd be overtasked to run a beetle drive, if you ask me.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

Thanks Bob but I don't love anyone on the internet, nor do I hate anyone either, you are all just random people to me, and I treat you all the same.

Well I suppose that isn't exactly true as I laugh at some more than others, I laugh at the ones who take it all so seriously it becomes part of their real life's, and the ones who are obsessive, the ones who say and act in a way they never would dare to do so to your face, the ones who feel the need to lie, the ones who attention seek and the ones who are clearly nutjobs and cranks.

The ones who are in denial, the ones with clear mental health problems, the ones who crave attention, the ones who are trapped in the past, and the ones who can't see that football is only a game.

I can even laugh at myself, Bob, which I very much suspect is something you are unable to do to yourself?

Happy New Year to you (and Mrs B) and I'm pleased that you are enjoying your rest from here.

It's the internet Bob, it isn't real life.

You could tell your PBP friend (that's the pea-brained pillock not the other PBP) that its only a game.
He seems to take it quite seriously. 

OK its not quite the Post Office scandal but you don't (or you shouldn't) forget what's gone on. That ain't smart in my book; it ain't smart at all. 

Quick-fire Maguire hasn't forgotten either but he was too dim to get it nearly right in the first place, wasn't he? He'd be overtasked to run a beetle drive, if you ask me.

I could do lots of things Bob, but I'm not going to trouble myself trying to convince random grown men on the internet (or anywhere else for that matter) that the game of football is in fact nothing more than a 'game' - indeed the clue is in its description and indeed its terminology.

It's not a religion, or greater than life or death (or whatever it was that Shankly once quipped), it is indeed a game - nothing more, nothing less.

If people want deify it and make it their God, then that's up to them.

It is still only a game no matter what they think (it puts me in mind of that old nursery story, The Emperor's New Clothes - where people are somehow in denial of reality?).

I've no idea of what you are talking about in your second paragraph - do you mean your mission in life to correct the mass misconception of Anderson's custodianship at BWFC?

If so then I refer you to my theme above - it is only a game.

I can't find the relevance of something that you (and you alone) perceive to be so important to seemingly devote your later years of your life championing, which, when all said and done, is solely connected to a game???

I don't care about the 1963 tiddlywink scandal, or the 1949 hopscotch debacle, nor do I care if some of our most dim-witted, Neanderthal fans still think Kenny Anderson is still one of life's biggest wankers.

Why would I?

Why indeed do you???

God my life is pretty sad but someone put me out of my misery if it ever stoops that low as to care about such inane and irrelevant pedantry.

As for Kieran Maguire, he's the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind - very, very few football fans seem to know the first thing about financial accounts so Maguire has in effect cornered the market in respect of football finances analysis and opinion - who else is there for to media to ask?

I think of Maguire as I do with Wikipedia, a good place to start from but the information contained therein not to be trusted without checking it out for myself first.

If others put their faith in Maguires every word, then that's up to them.

Other than that Bob, have a nice day.