bovril

British politics is just different ways of punishing people for the appalling macroeconomic decisions the country has made in the last decade or so.

Haven't been for a few years and I heard the cask selection is not quite as good as it used to be, but it's a beautiful old bar.

I quite fancy going to Molineux for the first time.

Very true. Like I said the structure is totally different so it's hard to compare. But it's a pretty poor reflection on modern elite football that treading water in the top league is seen as a higher priority than winning cups, just for financial reasons.

I suppose it comes down to what is the point of competing if not to win something. One thing I like about American sporting culture is there is the expectation that every club, with a few years of good decisions, can compete for a title. Obviously association football is structured very ddifferently but it is quite absurd really that many clubs are expected to prioritise basically finishing midtable over competing to win a trophy at the end of the season.

Three Judges and State Bar are also good. I like Tennents on Byers Road just because I met Mark McGhee and Neil Lennon there.

#WhenTaken #385 (18.03.2025) I scored 842/1000🏅 1️⃣📍517 km - 🗓️1 yrs - 🥇184/200 2️⃣📍1.1K km - 🗓️4 yrs - 🥈163/200 3️⃣📍545 km - 🗓️1 yrs - 🥇183/200 4️⃣📍2.8K km - 🗓️9 yrs - 🥈129/200 5️⃣📍294 km - 🗓️6 yrs - 🥇183/200 https://whentaken.com

You have a point

Not to diminish what Pearson did from 2008-10 but the only player from that period who was still there during the glory years was King, and he didn't start that many games in the title winning season. So no, the core was not there pre Vichai.

"He's not dead he just has a pulled hamstring"

I think some people have bought too much into the "we were in League 1 once" meme. Nobody is saying it makes it ok, just that for a lot of fans the highs of winning a trophy are far above any kind of Premier League stability as experienced by the clubs you've listed. Each to their own but the cup finals we've won are not just "days out" for me. It's the whole point of professional sport - to win something. I also strongly disagree with your last sentence and I reckon a few Palace fans would too.

I romanticise that period but in the 90s I think we had one of the best home atmospheres for the time.

It was 540 years ago, time to let go

Plot twist - they reinstated the goal music at the start of the year but we just haven't realized yet.

The trophies more than anything sustain you during the barren years. When we were terrible in the 2000s the league cup wins were always what I looked back on most misty-eyed, especially 1997 and Walsh walking up the steps at Hillsborough. Some of the famous Premier League wins against e.g. Liverpool, Man United and Tottenham were great, but it's not quite the same.

I seriously doubt West Ham fans have forgotten winning the Conference League considering it's their only trophy in nearly half a century.

94/95 we weren't abysmal but just a bit naive and inexperienced at that level. Played some good football at times if I remember correctly. One thing O'Neill did the following season was toughen us up a bit and made us far readier for top flight football, even though in the short term that led to us slipping a little in Division One.

Do we think fans are starting to take cups more seriously? Talking to Newcastle supporters this weekend reminds me of West Ham fans in 2023. I think the chance to win something trumps success in the Premier League, even top four. I'm so lucky to have seen Leicester win four trophies in my lifetime and I would not swap that for any kind of long term stability even if it involved challenging for Champions League qualification.

So pissed off. These performances are a total disgrace and at the very least someone should be coming out and apologising to the fans. At the very least.

#WhenTaken #384 (17.03.2025) I scored 888/1000🏆 1️⃣📍3.9K km - 🗓️6 yrs - 🥉124/200 2️⃣📍860 m - 🗓️7 yrs - 🥇191/200 3️⃣📍695 m - 🗓️6 yrs - 🥇193/200 4️⃣📍111 km - 🗓️2 yrs - 🥇193/200 5️⃣📍213 km - 🗓️5 yrs - 🥇187/200 https://whentaken.com

We are shit. The Premier League is shit. 'Elite' English football is shit.

It's disgraceful from professional footballers. Absolutely unacceptable.

Very embarrassing for a professional coach

All I want from this season now is Vardy to get to 200 and even that is now looking unlikely

Might not be a bad thing purely from a fans point of view.