Phil Parkinson’s social media strategy is to completely opt out and he advises his players to do the same! How old fashioned! “Do I read it? No I don’t at all. Any manager or player going on social media is foolish. In all honesty, people don’t go on social media to say positive things. I have a rule myself, throughout all my managerial career and at the back end of my playing career when messageboards and the likes started to come in that I’ve never ever gone on it. The people at the club keep me informed of anything relevant I need to know when it comes to speaking to the press. I advise my players the same, to stay off it. Whether they listen or not, I don’t know. But they should block it all out and concentrate on what they do in training and in 90 minutes on a Saturday. It’s got to have an impact on their lives. Any person going to work, if they get criticised how they do their job and it’s a constant thing going on in the back of their mind, it’s going to affect you if you work on a building site or office if you are constantly being fed negative feedback. For the players and staff it’s best to keep away from it, like I said it’s important the people at the club monitor it so we know.’’
Ahead of the Gillingham game, it looks like Charlie Wyke and Marc McNulty will finally return. Parkinson said: “To have that time without a game has been good. The lads had the weekend off and trained up to the weekend, which I felt was important. We had a good few days on the training ground and I’ve been pleased with the team and how the injured players have looked when they came back. Charlie and Marc have trained this week, with no reaction which is great news for us. Goochy is coming closer which is positive and it’s good to have a couple of strikers back in training. The physio is pleased with Goochy and we hope he’s back training next week or so. Charlie is important, I didn’t manage him at Bradford and not worked with him before but we tried to sign him at Bolton when he left Bradford. He can hold the ball up, has good awareness about him. Running-wise he’s in good shape and we need options at the top of the pitch. As a manager you look at situations and we need that firepower and options to change it around and Charlie and Sparky (McNulty) help that.’’
