New WSC with some footballers* on the front

[Capybara]

It arrived at 10 this morning. It's only a matter of time before it actually arrives in month-on-the-front - 2. I've barely started on last (this) month's. It has the usual season guide with my lot predicted to finish top. Yeah, right. There's also a piece about the club's spat with the local newspaper and the restrictions placed on a couple of journalists from the publication.

* one each from Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City. I haven't clue.

[Patrick Thistle]

I'm intrigued to see who they got to write the Shrewsbury predictions this time. I hope it's Nick.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I'm intrigued to see who they got to write the Shrewsbury predictions this time. I hope it's Nick.

Glyn Price, apparently.

For those desperate to know, it's Morata, Lukaku and Kyle Walker on the front.

[Patrick Thistle]

Yes I've just seen that, having got home to a pile of post. Glyn's one of the fanzine editors.

Shrewsbury predicted to finish 24th. Seems to chime with every other prediction going around.

[Patrick Thistle]

Ooh new mini feature. Classic kits.

[NickSTFU]

I'm intrigued to see who they got to write the Shrewsbury predictions this time. I hope it's Nick.

I can barely read let alone write.

[delicatemoth]

Still not here. How long should I give it, do you think?

[imp]

Arrived in Germany a couple of days back. Don't normally bother with the season preview because I start to glaze over after a while, but have belatedly realised the way to enjoy it is to browse the clubs you're interested in, look at the cartoons, then browse randomly the clubs you're less interested in. I'm sure you're all duly gobsmacked by this incredible discovery. You're welcome.

[Duncan Gardner]

Disappointed at no Irish League preview. I'm going 1 Linfield 2 Crusaders 3 Cliftonville.

[imp]

Very good read this month - especially enjoyed Huw Richards on Swansea, the Manc MOTM, and Jonathan Miller on Scott Parker. The whole Strasbourg story passed me by too. A lively letters page, and then this clanger in the very last sentence on the final page: "After two seasons at the Mile High Stadium, the Denver Dynamos relocated to become the Minnesota Kicks. There hasn't been a professional team in the city since." Right enough, if you discount the existence of the Colorado Rapids for the past 21 years.

[N est à?]

How will your team do?
If the new signings turn out to be good players, and gel well with the better players already there, then I suppose the play-offs aren't out of the question.
If your club was any past or present official of the Trump administration, who would it be?
It would have to be Anthony Scaramucci, as most of our managers last about as long in the job.

[delicatemoth]

Huw Richards' article is excellent, especially the para starting "Just as Leicester's title...", but the references to John Terry are baffling. What does he have to do with Swansea?

[Paul S]

I think the refusal to ask MK Dons any questions in the pre-season supplement is petty and shows the magazine in a very poor light. I agreed with the boycott for the first few years but not now. There are children who have grown up in Milton Keynes for whom it is their local club and won't know the history. I think it's getting vindictive.

[delicatemoth]

How many seasons in a row have you said that now?

[Paul S]

Quite a few now.

<insert winkey smiley thing>

[Satchmo Distel]

WSC's readership is from the generation that took the franchising as a very deep insult and understandably refuses to let that go. When that generation passes, the policy might seem petty to the next one, but by then I think the magazine will have lost a lot of its original purpose, if it even still exists outside of a niche subscriber base.

[delicatemoth]

Paul, WSC doesn't indulge in petty digs or aim insults at the franchise, it simply ignores it, refuses to recognise its validity. You are suggesting that the franchise has some moral right to appear in WSC's season preview, as if it were a journal of record. If this were an official league publication your point might have some validity, but it is perfectly within WSC's rights to cover whatever it wants to. It would "show the magazine in a very poor light" if it printed pictures of young supporters with captions saying "Look at these brainwashed zombies" or something. Your argument really holds no water.

[Sean of the Shed]

Fuck MK Dons and every cunt who enters that stadium.

[Patrick Thistle]

Huw Richards' article is excellent, especially the para starting "Just as Leicester's title...", but the references to John Terry are baffling. What does he have to do with Swansea?

I presumed JT was going to sign for them at some point. Maybe.

Tbh that was a nothing article really. I didn't learn anything from it.

[imp]

I think the refusal to ask MK Dons any questions in the pre-season supplement is petty and shows the magazine in a very poor light. I agreed with the boycott for the first few years but not now. There are children who have grown up in Milton Keynes for whom it is their local club and won't know the history. I think it's getting vindictive.

Paul's annual confirmation that WSC must still be doing the right thing. I'm sure someone will take the trouble to write a whiney letter too.

[Satchmo Distel]

One of the book reviews (where the author attends four matches) reads like a first year Sociology essay where the student stumbles through the topic and you emerge none the wiser about how the book frames and conveys its subject.