LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: THE CHAMPIONSHIP
Few people can lift the altruistic, benevolent haze of Paris 2024 on a Monday morning quite like Peter Ridsdale, a man who would give Buzz Killington a run for his money in the Vibe Olympics, but the managerial merry-go-round waits for no Football Man. One might think the chairman blamed for bringing Leeds United to its knees in the 2000s – who once spent club money on tropical goldfish to swim around a tank in his Elland Road office – wouldn’t be at the sharp end of Football Decisions in 2024. But Ridsdale, at Preston since December 2011, has wasted no time in encouraging manager Ryan Lowe out of a door marked ‘Sling ya Hook’ just one game into the new Championship season. And by wasting no time, Football Daily means that Ridsdale has seemingly wasted quite a lot of time – a full pre-season and a summer of recruitment and planning to be precise – before Lowe’s exit materialised.
It should be said that Lowe and Preston had a stinking end to last season, in which all hopes of a surprise playoff place evaporated with a run of five straight defeats, during which precisely zero goals were scored. But it’s strange that a narrow loss to recently relegated Sheffield United on the opening day of the new campaign – easily one of the best teams in the Championship – was the straw that broke the camel’s back, even if Ridsdale insists the decision was mutual. Lowe’s team played rather well against the Blades, only to concede through a wildly deflected strike and a goalkeeping howler. Not really things that a manager can control, but that’s football, folks!
Ridsdale sacked a manager at the very start of the season back in September 2011 during a previous tenure at Plymouth Argyle, where he was parachuted in to save the – you guessed it – financially ravaged Devon club. The fact that only a few weeks previously, Peter Reid had dipped into his own pocket to pay Argyle’s heating bill and auctioned off his 1986 FA Cup runners-up medal to help members of staff who, like him, had been left unpaid by the club’s financial problems, didn’t seem to count in favour of the manager, with Reid given his marching orders after a poor start to the League Two season. If that seems a little unfair, Ridsdale was arguably vindicated with relegation from the Football League later avoided that season by two points. You can’t argue that Ridsdale gets results. We can’t say if they are good or bad, but results they are.
And so, good luck to the next manager at Deepdale. Yes, you might have a relentless fixture list, a crushingly competitive and chaotic division to play in, sizeable expectations not unrelated to the Sir Tom Finney-shaped statue you have to walk past every day on your way to work and just two weeks until the wood is shoved firmly into t’hole of the transfer window, but at least there is the opportunity to work under director Ridsdale, who has just named Ched Evans as part of a three-man team that will oversee Preston’s matches against Sunderland and Swansea City this week. That’s football, folks!
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Be sure to join Will Unwin from 8pm BST for hot Championship MBM coverage of Luton Town 2-1 Burnley at Kenilworth Road.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I appreciate small things much more than I did … to wake up and feel good, to be alive, I appreciate it much more than I did a year ago or 10 years ago” – Sven-Göran Eriksson talks to Simon Hattenstone about his terminal illness, scandal, and why he feels sorry for the next England manager.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
It’s good to see in advance of the first game of the season, Sheffield Wednesday spent the first weekend of the Championship passive-aggressively warning fans with the official statement that ‘although we cannot prevent supporters from wearing counterfeit shirts away from Hillsborough, we do respectfully request that such products are not displayed inside the stadium. Anyone found to be wearing a fake shirt inside Hillsborough could be asked to leave, with information passed on to the relevant parties’. Now, as a law-abiding citizen, I am of course always willing to adhere to such things. However, I would also like an open and honest explanation of why an official replica shirt of a team that hasn’t played in the top division for 24 years and has only won one trophy in 99 years costs £77 without use of the terms ‘we’re’, ‘ripping’, ‘you’, ‘suckers’ and ‘off’” – Noble Francis.
I don’t know what astronomers have done to upset you – were you big Pluto fans, perhaps? – but fair play for winding them up in tribute to the ultimate wind-up merchant, Pepe, by referring to Johannes Kepler as an astrologer (Friday’s Football Daily). Having looked at the stars, I predict 1,057 letters from furious telescope botherers” – David Madden (and 1,056 furious telescope botherers).
Seeing Tim Ream’s transfer to Charlotte from Fulham (and especially Trevor Wastell’s email on Friday) has naturally prompted me to write in regarding the options for Fulham-to-Charlotte travel. Prospective travellers will undoubtedly be pleased to see a wide range of flights from Heathrow, direct (via American Airlines) or one-stops, to see Ream at his new home” – Anthony Donnelly.
As a long-time Poppies supporter, I was overjoyed to see you reference us in Friday’s Memory Lane section (full email edition). I well remember the friar, he carried a clanging bell and would ring it as he wandered around the touchline at Kettering. Needless to say, he wasn’t very Christian at times” – Giordy Salvi.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Giordy Salvi. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
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