Exiled in Toronto Mk2

20 mins of flattering to deceive, then Pears offers Bannon a simple lob into an empty net and they realise they can win this. Miller abject, Hedges invisible, the front two punchless…I think Weds are right, they can win this.

Could do a lot worse than repeat the chicken stunt then run a pic of it with a mostly empty Ewood in the background alongside the original which had a full Ewood background, with a simple message along the lines of “The chicken farmers are still here, the fans aren’t” or “15 years of chicken shit” Agree on your second point.

Looking at it dispassionately, there’s only two things which have broken through in my opinion. The first was the chicken on the pitch: it was highly relevant, took the piss out of the owners, was very difficult to achieve, and consequently was splashed on all the nationals’ back pages. I think that one stunt alone was responsible for virtually all the awareness of us being owned by clueless Indian chicken farmers. The second was the snowball, as it changed the behaviour of the owners by making it personal to them. Again, it was newsworthy, a visceral display of fan anger, and bloody difficult to pull off. I think every fan would agree nothing has improved in 15 years, but the linkage from that to an “official” call for a boycott getting traction is too weak, and ignores concerns of currently attending fans. There’s no compelling answer to “who will pay the bills then”, or recognition of the money that has been put in, which weakens the persuasiveness of the boycotters. Bottom line in my mind is we have an absentee landlord issue: the asset is being badly maintained / run down, the locals they employ are useless or worse, they live far away, and are too rich to care. There’s really only two ways of getting neglectful absentee landlords out: if they continually break the law or if someone pays over the odds for the asset. They aren’t doing the former (as far as we know) and we don’t seem to have the latter. if the only thing we can do right now is keep the issue alive, then it needs something in the league of the chicken or the snowball IMO.

Good Boxing Day fare, end-to-end stuff. We’ve had way more possession high up the pitch than usual due to Hendriksson being really involved and good play down both flanks as Boro are quite narrow. Ohashi was terrible when put through, all 3 touches were abysmal, the first two making him take a zig-zag route then a scuffed shot.

That’s because social media isn’t representative. It’s the only connection to the club for fans who live abroad / far away / have found other things to spend their money on, so those groups are over-represented on here. The fans I personally know who go mostly have never posted on here, or know/care it exists. And critiquing the tactics isn’t the same as “opposed to change”.

15 years of increasing apathy, worst first half season at home in history, two games abandoned are all far more compelling causes of crap attendance.

All of those responses, in the minds of the people making them, are completely rational. Telling people to ignore what they think and act based on what someone else thinks was never going to be well received. It’s fundamentally bad strategy to call for something you can’t deliver, as not delivering it makes the Coalition look unrepresentative and ineffective.

Good job 14 years was spent chasing them out then. Venky’s “man on the ground” makes him just an employee of them, of which they have thousands. I just don’t understand how him deciding to eff off (v unlikely IMO) will lead to a collapse of the Venky regime. You only get so many chances to get the attention and motivation of the average fan, and I can’t see many being arsed about a bloke they’ve never heard of.

How so? Why will him going be any different to Kean, Agnew, Shaw, Singh, Waggott going, all of whom have had Out after their names.

Good win, sorely needed. Litherland had two first time shots and made the keeper work for both, which is more than most of our players can do. Fortuitous second goal but without Ohashi’s running I doubt the mistake would’ve happened. When was the last time 3 academy lads made league debuts in the same game?

That’s more like it: a compelling fact-based argument that everyone can get behind.

If the Coalition were interested in pursuing a bottom-up strategy I’d be more than happy to lend a wordsmithing hand, but I see no evidence as yet that they are.

I don’t think anyone knows what they care about, and what will make them want to sell. I’m fairly certain they won’t care about a five-minute slot on Rock FM or Radio Lancashire. Publicity isn’t an end in itself, especially in today’s 24-hr news cycle. However, it is a fact that there is a wide spread of opinions within the fan base about the owners and the desirability or not of getting rid of them. Personally, I think the Coalition’s efforts would be better directed first finding common ground across the majority of the fan base before calling for anything. A game-changer would be then getting a credible buyer on board, but easier said than done.

Having thought about this some more, I’m afraid to say I think it’s the wrong strategy being pursued in the wrong way. Calling for a boycott sounds great to the fans already boycotting, but to the fans who aren’t, there’s nothing in the letter to make them consider doing so. 1) It’s directed to the wrong audience - it’s a letter to the owners, not the attending fans. 2) “The Coalition” calling for a boycott is a long way from Red Robbo calling out the lads at Longbridge. They are by no means widely accepted as the voice of the majority. 3) There is no argument, persuasion or rationale in the letter as to why a boycott will change anything. 4) It’s too long, repetitious and reads like it was written by a committee (no doubt it was). It’s not exactly the Gettysburg Address or the “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” of the French Revolution. When the ground isn’t empty against Watford, all that will have been achieved is a further loss in credibility.

I’d like to be proven wrong but I can’t help thinking a change in strategy is needed. Every call to action over the last 15 years has demanded maximalist action, be it a march in the pissing rain, invading the pitch or a match boycott sometime weeks away when 15,000 are boycotting every game already. The fact is that most fans just aren’t that invested beyond the 90 mins. So, rather than a few hundred fans at best taking some action that frankly is not supported by anything like a majority of fans, why not look for something that a) demands little or no effort, and b) is something that virtually all fans can get on board with. A simple online petition that anyone can click in a couple of seconds and worded so that no-one can disagree with it. There has to be some common ground between fans like Chaddy and Glen Mullen, find that and get 30,000 signatures. Then it can’t be dismissed as a minority with an agenda. You can initiate getting the law of the land changed if you get enough people to sign the right petition.