bovril

For a big club West Ham are consistently garbage and the fans have been forced to accept an awful stadium not even in their home manor.

Would be good if it's also the year we start to see Europe taking independence from the American empire seriously.

I think one of the problems is that criticism of some fans who let's say 'back the lads' often becomes really cringey and culture war-y, like "happy clappers with their flasks" type stuff. Lots of virtue signalling. Just puts people off from totally getting on board and solidifies divides. Symptomatic of society where instead of simply blaming people in power making terrible decisions, they make it about other groups of people who are behaving in what they think is an unacceptable way. Reminds me of Covid and the finger pointing at "selfish" people who went to the beach. For me it's just instinctive. I'm not going to get ChatGPT to write me a twee post on supporting Leicester that sounds like something Mike Skinner or a Sky Sports advertising exec might write. But going to watch Leicester operates at a different level; I cannot get passionate watching my local non league club or whatever, I have no great desire to watch other clubs' games on anything other than the tele. I want to go and watch Leicester and I want to try and make a noise because a) it's fun and b) there is a sense of pride especially with away support (feel like it's a losing battle at the moment but still). And when Fatawu scores against WBA or Vestergaard against Wrexham I will cheer because it's a reflex action, but whatever feel free to tell me "you're the problem". So yeah **** KP and all that but also keep in mind that the preachy virtue signalling puts people off.

Funny really that we got promoted back to the top flight the season after Taylor and the season after Rodgers. And certainly in 03/04 we should never have gone down.

no, he was even worse

France do big tournaments well. Unmatchable vibe as we saw in Paris last year and back in 1998.

Grobyfox1990 on foxestalk.co.uk:

I'd suggest you are luckily not on many mailing list because I get loads from pubs and restaurants. I understand why they do it, they'll be promoting the occasion of course because it's good for their business but realise some people might not want to see it for whatever reason. Genuinely one of the least offensive bits of promotional mail I get.

Allowing people to opt out of correspondence for any reason is surely good no? What's wrong with it?

If you're talking worst in terms of ability, not worst in terms of damage to the club, I'd say: Cifuentes, who was bafflingly bad. Taylor Cooper or RvN, although time may prove us wrong on Ruud Allen McLintock

Do the jaunt anyway! Unmissable part of the world.

We have this silliness every Christmas, Mother's Day, etc. It's a good initiative and perfectly logical. And if it's not relevant to you then great, it literally takes a second to delete.

So would I. I think Taylor, McLintock and Pleat would probably be lock ins for a top 5 still. Then there'll be plenty of debate about more recent managers who either a) weren't here very long, b) weren't totally to blame for the mess or c) had some success with us at the start

Balkan world cup would be good just preferably without the Croats.

Would probably be my two choices. Chile as a more esoteric pick. A Levantine World Cup encompassing Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt would be great but would probably end up in open warfare, which to be fair would add a touch of spiciness to the proceedings.

I wonder who'd win this now. I think some of the names in the poll might not even be top 5 now.

apart from any of the home nations would you most like to host a future World Cup?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/13/dual-nationals-denied-entry-to-uk-british-passport-border-control As expected this is going to be a huge headache for thousands

It forces people into decisions and plans they wouldn't normally have to think about which increases stress and tensions in relationships. Now you see what's happening in America with legal migrants not leaving the house without carrying their full documents just in case and you worry that's coming to Europe, certainly here in Britain. We took a lot for granted.

A bit like the country in the general - failure to adapt and a series of extremely bad decisions.

Connections Puzzle #978 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪

There is definitely a lot of revisionism. Often from people who (rightly) resent KP pushing the narrative that we were a nothing club prior to their arriving. We went from winning cups, playing in Europe and beating United and Liverpool away to struggling to stay in the 2nd tier in a very short period of time.

Because it's cup weekend and it might lighten the mood Apart from the very obvious: 2-2 v Chelsea (1997) - a bit of needle as ever vs Chelsea, great fightback and on live TV. Could've won the FA cup that season. 3-2 vs Tottenham (2006) - another great comeback on live TV, and much needed in the middle of a terrible league season. 1-0 vs Bournemouth (2024) - great win to get into the 1/4 finals and felt like a real renaissance after the misery of 22/23.