I haven't seen anyone giving any ITK any abuse on here. Saw someone wishing it was a bit less cryptic when it came.
The recent criticism of Bob has been his use of people's initials and daft codewords, as if MI5 are monitoring the forum. If Bob's happy to post things about KS/KLD/Sartori he should be willing to stand up for what he's saying.
Haway man, no one is disputing that Bob hears stuff so why should we put him on ignore, it’s a message board to discuss stuff that people are posting, not to break the enigma code Even Bob will understand that
I love what the "ITK" folk bring to this forum. Its all the better for it. You just have to take it for what it is, honest people passing on what they honestly believe to be true. Doesn't mean it will end up happening, for all sorts of reasons. Where I get frustrated is when people pass off their opinions as the gospel truth and then get defensive when debated with on their opinion.
You can easily tell who are WUMs and who aren’t. Bob isn’t, IMO, people are just asking him not to talk in riddles and I don’t see the issue with that. A lot of us are at work sneaking on here, we haven’t got time to work out wtf are people talking about. People always want to get offended on someone else’s behalf. Bob is big enough and ugly enough to look after himself.
There are lots of people on this forum who have links to either people at SAFC or the wider world of professional football. All of whom will get some interesting information from time to time. On the rare occasions that I've heard stuff (and only once about SAFC) it's been pretty clear that it's not for public consumption. My concern is, if this information is so sensitive it has to be 'encoded' then it must be that either the club or the individuals involved don't want it widely known. Either that or its being embellished.
Precisely. If people shouldn't be annoyed at someone's opinions the poster shouldn't be annoyed if they're questioned. To be fair Bob recently claimed Sartori was buying another club, fact. Only weeks later it appears he certainly isn't. KLD was supposedly on the verge of selling the club, days before the announcements of stadium changes and improvements. If Bob knows what's actually happening why didn't he know about all the stadium changes, kit suppliers, club shop, etc? These facts/rumours aren't good for the club or the fans imo.
The whole ITK thing bores me like. If people post something that they’ve allegedly heard, then I take it with a pinch of salt. It may come true or it may not. I’ll await club confirmation on appointments/signings, everything else is just speculation and isn’t to be completely relied on.
My sense is that if you are genuinely an employee of a club, and really have sensitive info, any passing on of that to anyone outside of the circle of colleagues entitled to it is misconduct in itself. Nobody should be naieve enough to think whatever is said in a non confidential space will be kept confidential. The modern world isnt like that. I spend a lot of my working life in genuinely confidential meetings and forums and it is made clear to us before and after. If players or club officials are talking to or in front of Joe Public about club business then I appreciate the sharing to be honest. If the club dont like it, crack down on the employee. Another of my theories is clubs, ours included, use folk to leak news and get a temperature check. I am sure club employeed look around the internet to see what sort of reactions certain rumours are getting. Mind you, must have had an internet outage the 2 or 3 days before Beale
I don't know. I think in some circumstances betrayals of personal trust can lead to leaks. Everybody needs to let off steam and sometimes says too much to someone they think they can trust. Personally, I'm not that keen on it although there are a handful of people I'd take notice of. I think rumours posted online aren't always helpful. I mean, 95% of Sunderland supporters who can access the Internet (there are maybe still a couple of fellas hiding in forests in Burma who are wondering when they'll next find out how Bobby Gurney and the lads are getting on) believe that the next coach is going to be Still or Maric. But if its not, there are going to be a lot of very disappointed people and I wouldn’t like it if that led to another Michael Beale situation. I also think that we've seen evidence of personal animosities creeping into 'itk' information and that can lead to other people developing an unfair or not wholly accurate picture of figures associated with the club.