HawkMan

It amazes me people still seriously think London has any future for TGG. As a born and bred Londoner I can tell you there is zilch interest and never will be. London has a dozen or so football league clubs plus more semi professional clubs outside the league getting good support. London is also tribalised into football areas. People who have no interest in the game still.think of London as divided into football areas. Heard people discuss where they live such as ," Barking ? , that's West Ham innit?" I was recently in Edgeware on a bus and heard football being discussed and I slipped into wondering to myself, " Edgeware mmm? Tottenham or Arsenal area don't know" In cricket too there's a little bit of this tribalism, not much but it's there. East London that's Essex, West, Middlesex, South ,Surrey . The concept of a London wide team where all Londoners get behind is just alien. Isn't there a London Basketball team though? Yeah MASSIVE aren't they I don't think. Perez obviously realises that London is a no go for RL. I'm sorry but it's TRUE. Thirty years of trying and gates of 2000. Even RU clubs have not much presence. Newcastle looks very promising for the game and Coventry too. Perhaps the West country might be an area to look at, Bristol maybe.

Makes perfect sense to me holding the launch in Liverpool, not as if anything else is happening on the sporting front to distract people in that city. ?

I meant that for RL fans going on the tour be ready to hear all about Spurs throughout the tour. It was fun though. The highlight at the end was sitting in the seat the Spurs manager sits to give press briefings and get your picture taken. When it's developed you get the Spurs manager superimposed seated next to you. A nice memento.

Not sure Sky showing this game means anything, equally I don't think Sky showing football tonight on Sky Sports Action is a portent of anything either. Doesn't football have enough bl###y channels.

I've been on the stadium tour, amazing place, the tour is a bit football centric, but that's ok. Here is what to expect.

What would happen if Manchester United bought out Salford RL club, changed the name to Manchester United RL and brought it into the United family for marketing and branding, would attendance figures alter radically? Would Salford fans be comfortable with this?

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No not most soccer clubs, my brother is on a waiting list for season tickets at Chelsea, most Premier league matches are chock full every match. If you mean lower league levels, then yes they are struggling to fill stadia. Salford has the unenviable problem of having MASSIVE football clubs on their doorstep, I think they do quite well attendance wise considering everything. Wigan's loss of fans is more of a worry, they are still ahead of Wigan Athletic on attendances but only just.

A possible solution to the P+R / growth of the game conundrum. Why not stop P+R for three years, allow teams to grow, nurture academy talent without fear of the cliff edge and then resume p+r after that. The Championship could be kept alive by having the points gained in season 1 of no promotion and of seasons 2+3 tallied up at the end of season 3, and whoever has the highest points total for the three seasons of no p+r gets promoted. Likewise in SL whoever has the lowest points total tallied up after three years of no relegation gets the chop. If you've been the worst over three years you deserve to be relegated.

Very good point. I've often wondered if SL teams sharing stadia or towns/cities with Premiership teams affects attendance figures. Did the Warriors figures drop when the Latics were in the Prem ? Or Hull FC or HKR. If the Elland Road mob get promoted will the Rhinos see a drop ? Possibly if they both have games on Sunday afternoon.

Actually a lot of soccer fans do have a favourite team in another sport, just not RL. In my youth I used to watch Essex play in the 40 over Sunday league cricket, BTW a great tournament, the number of West Ham fans there were astonishing . At The Oval it was Crystal Palace and Chelsea fans. At Headingley there were plenty of Leeds United fans etc. Today at Test and ODI matches you see soccer club banners, such as Manchester United barmy army. Cricket got there first for footy fans , of course copious booze consumption makes the cricket more appealing.

I don't think football has too many problems frankly. Petulant players ,some gobby unpleasant fans, yes, but in a crowd of say 40000 you'll get more of those then in a crowd of 8000 say. But none of this has stopped the spread of soccer. What countries do not have a professional soccer league? Not many, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc as cricket is king, India does have a football version of IPL. I can't think.of anymore. RL would love to have footy's " problems " Or would it? Is it better to be global but driven by greed or small but true to its roots of decency and respect.

I know Catalans have issues with French tv rights, but couldn't Sky have paid a one off fee to show this game ? It'll definitely have been a ratings winner. If Lionel Messi suddenly signed for Man United next week I'm sure Sky would pay to show his debut even if it's an outside of contract game. Is Sky prohibited from producing Les Cats home games.

Oh the delicious irony ! If there was anything positive out of Folau's signing it was publicity and people would be interested in seeing him debut if only to hope he fails, and it's not on TV. You couldn't make it up. We know Union would love to keep League down, and those running our game are doing a great job of mismanaging it, it's almost as if the top brass of the RFL are closet Uni.........no let's not go down that road.

C'mon guys give Merson a break. He's battled personal demons and come through the other side, and he's always entertaining. If RL had such a well known personable character we'd be in better shape as far as general recognition with the public. Typical Mersonism; " Liverpool leading 2-1, but City's Sterling headers it against the beans and toast and taps in the rebound so it's now Desmond "

Getting the ball out, as Jimmy Hill used to say, Will Liverpool go the whole season undefeated? Will Leicester stay in the top four? Will Solskjaer be United manager next season? Will Leeds balls it up again? I think, No, Yes, Yes, and Yes

Talking of palindromes: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama

There's a really nice pub in the west of London that always has a SL match on one of their screens on Thursday or Friday evenings. Not been there at weekend though. The Black Bull in Victoria Road Ruislip, nearest station Ruislip Gardens. Good luck finding any pub on Sunday showing the games, particularly in North London, Arsenal and Tottenham are both on Sky this Sunday.

Brilliant! The new season is upon us, the media is actually doing a decent job of promoting SL, there's real interest in Wolfpack, SBW, great publicity, so much to look forward to, THEN BANG! TGG shoots itself in the foot again. Oh well, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I did say this is for fun. But there's a serious point, people do get confused, in the business world if a product isn't reaching the required number of customers a name change is an option, ie Marathon to Snickers. It's 100% certain in 2021 when the world cup starts some folks will be puzzled, they'll wonder why there's a WC when the last was in 2019 in Japan. Some may even start watching thinking they'll see line outs and contested scrums. I'm not for one moment saying I want a name change and throw a hundred years of history under the bus, but marketing strategists will tell you name changing is a valuable tool.

The new season is upon us soon, so here's a silly idea to bow out the close season. My brother is pretty sports savvy, regular Arsenal watcher, good golfer, plays off a low handicap, laps up the Olympics and Tennis and watches Yawnion, well okay he's got his faults! But he had NO IDEA what RL was. He actually thought Union meant international competition and Rugby league was Union club matches. The public do get confused with union and league, I regularly come across this, we may all do. It's the word " Rugby" in both sports. Nobody confuses Basketball and Netball and they're similar sports. But supposing Netball was NEVER called that, but called British Basketball, right from its inception, yep British Basketball, what confusion what reign now. " Basketball ? Sorry pal do you mean American or that British game" So here's a question could TGG benefit from a total split from Union, even NAMEWISE, call it something else, nobody would ever confuse the two again. This is just a bit of fun, it'll never happen, but what would you call TGG ? It's not easy to think of something, I've thought long and hard and come up with POWERBALL. Any ideas ?

I've had varificals for about twenty years, once you get used to them they'll be fine. You may have to position them on your nose in a position you're not used to. They shouldn't go to far to the top of your nose, so position them in such a way that you don't need to move your head to see different distances. If this is happening then you're wearing them wrongly. My tip is to stand about three to four feet away from something that you can view at eye level, maybe a particular shelf on bookcase, adjust the position of the specs so the wording on the books is clear. Another idea is to stand in a darkened room and look across at a distance of four to five feet at an LED clock, adjusting the specs until the numbers are clear with no blurring, this is the position that the glasses should be on your nose. Also of course never tilt your head upwards to look at distance because you'll then be looking through the bottom of the lenses, which is for reading only.

This appointment says more about Mourinho than Tottenham. His people must have put feelers out about Bayern, Real or other potential giants, and got nothing back. His reputation definitely damaged after United, despite winning two mediocre trophies. So now Tottenham is his best bet. If he waited a month or so I think Emery might be gone, and that would be better for him.

Agreed, I'm 59 and this is the worst Man U team I can remember, not counting obviously the relegation team of 72 I think it was. It's absolutely bloody hilarious! What they really need is Roy Keane as manager, but please DON'T TAKE OUR POCHETTINO.

As a Tottenham fan, I'm fearing the worst after Man Utd defeat. How long will Ole last? Will Pochetino go.if Solskaer is sacked.? 900 million spent since Sir Alex left!! How do you spend that amount and end up.with such dross.