Signing of the season?

So one of the most exciting days of the season is over, and Jim White's excitable gossip-hungry clone can go back into suspended animation until next year. Yet spending is down nearly 70% versus last year's January deadline, where Torres and Carroll dominated the headlines.

Coventry City's Alex Nimely celebrates scoring their second goal of their terrific win against Middlesborough

Every week, my brother places an accumulator on various Football League results, only a few quid, but enough to make it fairly interesting. To this date, he has never won.

Nottingham Forest fans read on, for we are very pleased to welcome back Glen Wilson, steward of Doncaster Rovers' Popular STAND Fanzine and late of award winning blog, Viva Rovers. Here Glen provides us with an insight into Sean O'Driscoll, recently installed in a supporting role to Steve Cotterill at the City Ground.

One of this website's latest followers on Twitter, Simeon F. W. Pickup states his interests as ‘Reading FC, Atheism, Labour. In that order.' Although Ed Miliband's negligible impact on the polls may have something to do with his party being relegated behind Brian McDermott and Richard Dawkins in Simeon's thinking, I did read this as tongue in cheek.

To look closely at the associated regulations is to acknowledge the Football League's existing loan system as nothing less than a free for all. ‘Temporary loan transfer' is the umbrella heading which comprises the following three types of move permissible under the current system: • ‘Standard Loans' (half or full season in length and arranged during the two transfer windows); • ‘Emergency Loans' (28-93 days in length and arranged both within the two transfer windows and during fixed periods outside these dates); • ‘Youth Loans' (identical to ‘Emergency Loans' but applies to scholars or new professionals on a work experience-type.

El-Hadji Diouf signs new Doncaster deal

El-Hadji Diouf has agreed an 18-month contract extension with Doncaster, boss Dean Saunders has revealed. He initially joined on a three-month loan.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-23 16:32:58 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Preston have appointed Peter Ridsdale as their new Chairman of Football which, given that the man collects clubs in financial difficulties like Panini stickers, is a strange move. Here are five men who have done a worse job, and may well be the only ones: 5) Ken Richardson Doncaster Hired two gangsters to burn [.

So, the English Premier League will not be staging that dreaded 39th game overseas any time soon, which perhaps allows some of those grassroots fans to be thankful for something while they see the rest of their game being taken away. Chief executive Richard Scudamore certainly wanted to distance himself not only from his own failed idea but also from Scottish Premier League chief Neil Doncaster's idea of taking the Old Firm abroad, which could be taken as simply a throw-away comment or a cheeky notice to Mr.

80 million quid.
Not be sniffed at. Five years of stability at a time of economic uncertainty.
So well done to the SPL on the signing of their new TV deal?
Not exactly.
£16 million a season (that's the figure being widely reported) for 60 live games. 30 games a season on ESPN and 30 more, Old Firm jamborees included, on Sky.

Big day for our veterans, past and present. Remember them. Big day, also, for Frank Lampard who was named England captain for tomorrow's friendly against Spain at Wembley.

It will be Super Frank's second time captaining his country. Congratulations, my friend.

Leading man

Elsewhere on a Friday:

Chelsea manager André Villas-Boas charged with improper conduct
Via The Telegraph

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas could incur a touchline ban after being charged by the Football Association over his allegation that referee Chris Foy gave Queens Park Rangers preferential treatment during Chelsea's fractious 1-0 defeat at Loftus Road last month.

Phil Ascough has contributed a number of excellent pieces to The Two Unfortunates over recent months. Here, the author of Kissing the Badge attempts to get his head round the worst kept secret in this week's football league: I guess we'll find out some time today - possibly by the time you read this - whether Hull City need a new manager.

Confessions of a Football Reporter...another Biggs at Large By Alan Biggs Published by Vertical Editions, August 2011 £12.99 ISBN: 9781904091516 In the second of three book reviews we should be publishing this week, we welcome back Ian Rands of A United View on Football. Ian was lucky enough recently to secure an interview with football journalist Alan Biggs - the BBC's go-to guy for South

Never forget Billy's bravery.. but remember the name of kid Mason

I know Billy Sharp and he is a big character. Even so, no-one could have expected him to play for Doncaster on Tuesday, just 72 hours after the tragic death of his two-day-old baby. As a dad, it brought a tear to my eye.

It seems club programmes in the SPL might be about to endure a rather brutal re-invention.
The league, in its new found spirit of consultation, is canvassing opinion on the future of individual club programmes.
The endgame might see the disappearance of programmes as we know them and the advent of a league-wide SPL matchday magazine.

Doncaster's Billy Sharp showed great strength in playing last night, just two days after his two day Son died and his 15th minute "Volley from Heaven" was a tribute to his Son.
His revealing of a t-shirt reading "That for you Son" just as emotional as the minutes silence held before kick-off.

This Sunday sees Sheffield Utd and Sheffield Wednesday battle it out for bragging rights in the Steel City derby. But, for Blades and Owls fans who retain enough of a sense of perspective to be able to take a step back, there won't be much to brag about, regardless of the outcome. After all, the clash will be played out in the third tier of English football.

Just 10 games into the season the cull of managerial staff across the Championship has already begun.
But, is it too early?
Steve McClaren's resignation has come as no shock bearing in mind the state Nottingham Forest find themselves in at the moment. But ask a Forest fan how they feel about his exit and they will likely tell you the same thing my Forest fan friend @ibrahimmustapha: 'His heart's not been it for weeks so it was the right thing for him to go, but the problem runs much deeper than just needing a new manager'.

I've got to admit, when we signed young Dan Gosling from Everton (On a free) I was very happy. A young creative English player whose career seemed on the up. However after reading the Daily Fail's article this morning, I'm dismayed to see he might be off to Doncaster. Dan Gosling, where did it all [.

Jonjo Shelvey has thanks Liverpool teammate Charlie Adam for his advice after impressing on loan debut for Blackpool.
The England youth international described his first appearance for the Tangerines as 'perfect' after scoring from distance with a free kick in a 5-0 romp against Bristol City.
Ian Holloway has reportedly been tracking the teenager for some time, and Shelvey admits the short-term move came about after conversations with Scottish international Adam, who was Blackpool captain for their Npower Championship promotion and subsequent relegation last term.

A look at the list of players that have decided to procure the services of Willie McKay as an agent makes interesting reading. Few from a roster that includes Henri Camara, Joey Barton, Amdy Faye and Charles N'Zogbia have been shy of entering into contract disputes and the subject of today's study, Pascal Chimbonda is no exception - the Guadeloupe born defender having joined Doncaster Rovers on

As a fan of a Non-League side it's very rare that I have anyone to talk to about the team I support. I completely understand why some people will have little or nothing to say about the Non-League but what really gets on my nerves is when I hear people writing it off as being a poor level of football.

Weekend Betting – Chelsea, Man City at bigger odds than you would imagine is a post from: Just Football

Arsenal Vs Liverpool Saturday 1245 Sky Sports

Arsenal and Liverpool began the season with draws they could have no complaint about. They have shared the spoils ten times in their last 23 meetings including six of the last eight.

Sam Allardyce was blowing bubbles of joy as he celebrated his first victory as West Ham boss, but there was a sense of relief at the final whistle after the Hammers survived a late onslaught from the home side. "Doncaster threw everything at us towards the finish but I was well pleased with the resilience of our defence," admitted Allardyce.

With the division in general overviewed by Ian yesterday, it's time for the final of the three official twohundredpercent Football League pre-season previews. For those that haven't seen the other previews, we've gone about them slightly differently this season. With the transfer window affecting some managers psychologically to the point that they build their team by the end of the transfer window, rather than the start of the season, predicting how it all ends up before teams have finalised their squads is tricky.

With the division in general overviewed by Ian yesterday, it's time for the final of the three official twohundredpercent Football League pre-season previews. For those that haven't seen the other previews, we've gone about them slightly differently this season. With the transfer window affecting some managers psychologically to the point that they build their team by the end of the transfer window, rather than the start of the season, predicting how it all ends up before teams have finalised their squads is tricky.

Saturday Fox Soccer has Liverpool - Valencia at 12:30pm. ESPN has the Barcelona - Club America friendly at 4pm. Ligue 1 on Fox Soccer: PSG - Lorient at 3pm. Championship on Fox Soccer Plus has Brighton - Doncaster at 10am and Southampton - Leeds United at 12pm. Under-20's on ESPNU: Australia - Spain at 6pm and Saudi Arabia - Nigeria at 9pm.

Who's Looking Good?

Leicester: Having massively overhauled the squad during the summer, signing no less than nine players, including the marquee signings of Kasper Schmeichel, David Nugent, Michael Johnson, Neil Danns and Paul Konchesky should give the Foxes the quality needed to reach the Premiership for the first time since 2002.

Liverpool Ladies boss Robbie Johnson says his players must apply themselves if they are to win their first league game of the season.
The Reds, who are without a win in 10 attempts, host Doncaster on Wednesday.
"What our players have to do is apply themselves," Reds boss Johnson told BBC Radio Merseyside.

We are now nearly five years removed from discussions about the Scottish Premier League expanding with an SPL2 division, sparking a war of words with Scottish Football League officials keen on retaining their say in how Scottish football would operate going forward. Since then, that plan collected a bit of dust that was kicked up regularly as calls were made for some sort of reorganization to the game in order to see the clubs be more competitive and more of them stable financially.

Given that Leicester shipped six and four goals against Portsmouth and Norwich respectively prior to Sven's appointment last season, it's perhaps no surprise that the Swede has since ring fenced much of his not inconsiderable budget for shoring up the Foxes' defence. Sol Bamba, Ben Mee, Kyle Naughton and Patrick van Aanholt were each brought in by Eriksson last term as Leicester's new owners

Skysports.com understands a number of clubs are chasing Liverpool defender Stephen Darby.
Doncaster and League One trio Rochdale, MK Dons and Oldham are all thought to have enquired about the full-back's availability.
The quartet are waiting to see if Liverpool would be prepared to loan him out again or even consider selling the former youth team captain.

When Mick Jagger and Keith Richards kicked around the lyrics and arrangement for "You Can't Always Get What You Want," neither likely found their inspiration from Scotsmen knocking a ball about. The chorus, however, summarizes somewhat the spot where some clubs from the SPL find themselves as the 2011/12 season approaches and stadium personnel would not be faulted for including the song during opening warm-ups.

First a caveat - it's a starry age for the blogosphere and this award was voted for by the 7 or 8 people who most regularly post at The Two Unfortunates. So, if your blog or website didn't get a mention this time, it's not because we don't think you're great. Last year's winner BHaPPY continues to excel and it was particularly heartening to see the return of the mighty SmogBlog.

Ipswich have not received any firm bids for teenage striker Connor Wickham, according to manager Paul Jewell.
Liverpool and Sunderland are among a list of clubs in recent weeks to have been linked with the 18-year-old, who is currently away with Stuart Pearce's England Under-21 squad at the European Championships in Denmark.

Here, in the second piece posted in our evolving Conversations series, Glen Wilson of that gold-standard webzine Viva Rovers tells us where he thinks it went wrong for Doncaster this season and talks about his thoughts in regards to the state of football in South Yorkshire and the way things are going in the Football League blogosphere.

Game One
Date: Friday Mar 25 2011 19.45
Ground: Kinsley Playing Fields
Comp: Central Midlands League Supreme Division
Match: Kinsley Boys 1 Harworth Colliery Institute 0 HT: 0-0

ATT: 237
Additional: Entrance £3.00, Programme £1.00

Kinsley Playing Fields in pictures

Ground Statistics (marks out of ten, maximum 40)
Character 5, Structures/Terracing 3, Hospitality 5, Backdrop/Scenery or aesthetics for larger stadiums 5
Total 18

This was my first official 'groundhopping' event.

Game One
Date: Friday Mar 25 2011 19.45
Ground: Kinsley Playing Fields
Comp: Central Midlands League Supreme Division
Match: Kinsley Boys 1 Harworth Colliery Institute 0 HT: 0-0

ATT: 237
Additional: Entrance £3.00, Programme £1.00

Kinsley Playing Fields in pictures

Ground Statistics (marks out of ten, maximum 40)
Character 5, Structures/Terracing 3, Hospitality 5, Backdrop/Scenery or aesthetics for larger stadiums 5
Total 18

This was my first official 'groundhopping' event.

A leadership entirely out of touch with the needs of the consumer.
A belligerent refusal to listen to any sort of reason.
An arrogant belief that it doesn't matter how badly you build it, they'll come anyway. Because, hey, that's what they've always done.
A fixation with how things are done "down south" with no apparent realisation that Scotland's experience and England's experience no longer bear direct comparison.

The SPL's dream of a ten team top league seems ever further away after Dundee United's board confirmed their decision to vote against the proposal.
United chairman Stephen Thompson said:
"We had a board meeting today and as far as we're concerned we're unconvinced that this is the way forward for Scottish football.

Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller He got hair down to his knee Got to be a joker he just do what he please
Beware. The SPL's very own old flattop fool hoves into view once more.
Neil Doncaster has been keeping a low profile of late, consumed as we have been with summits and spats, songs and suspensions.