I Need A Word With You, And You Specifically
We're going to do the fun stuff now!
*This is a post about Substack and subscribers and subscribers to this substack. Not 2000 words on why Ange Postecolgu’s badly-fitting suit jackets are secretly the reason Spurs can’t press. Please adjust expectations accordingly.*
On the 22nd of April 1995, at the New Meadow in Shrewsbury, Neil Warnock got his Huddersfield Town side in from one of the wettest first halves of football ever seen, and gave them this…
“We’ve got 3000 in the stands awa’ there getting pissed on! We’ve got to have that much passion!!”
I mention this because 87 Minutes has now swelled to the same size as that away allocation, which is arguably the only thing more mad than Warnock gets that afternoon over the fact “nobody’s putting a fuckin’ ‘ed in!” That “passion” element is unrelated.
But to business. The idea with this substack is that I actually write about the things people want me to write about, rather than just the absurdities that occur to me while skimming Match of the Day. So finally, lovingly, we’re going to be using that feature for the paid subs.
We’re calling it The Pitch Meeting - which, yes, was a placeholder name on the part of myself and BackPage that neither party has been able to suggest an improvement on - and they’re starting this week.
The premise is painfully simple. Paid subscribers get access to an exclusive chat thread where we’ll knock about article ideas as well as just general football patter. Once a month, I’ll take an idea from the chat, flesh it out into a full article, and it’ll be live to read here on Substack. FUN.
As well as this chat thread just being a Nice Place™ for Good Footballing Discourse™ we might even have the odd bit of video content in there, as well as some work stuff from me that I think is too good to waste on twitter. Like who the nicest-smelling player I’ve ever met is, or a scathing review of the catering in some press area. Think of it as a WhatsApp group you’d have with your actual mates, just with a cynical capitalist caveat.
The chat starts this week. Paid subs get access to it, a say in what we write, and other fun little treats. Hopefully see you there!
Paid sub? You need the Substack app to get the most out of the chat and other features. It’s really easy to use and actually a nicer user experience.
Is there a tier where I can pay you to throw stale chicken sandwiches at me, or is that tempting you too far from journalism towards football dominatrix?