VinceNoir

David Silva has retired. I’d say that he’s my favourite ever non-Leicester player along with Bergkamp. In his prime he was an absolute joy to watch and seemed like a model professional as well. What a player.

Thought I’d give it a go today as the kids are out. **** me it’s a dull sport nowadays

What a hit!

Incredible tennis this. Hardly any unforced errors at the moment

The latest season is good. Mostly classic Sunny setups and not as many concept episodes as previous seasons, which have been a bit hit and miss. The show will never reach the heights of season 3-8 but they’re still capable of knocking it out of the park. I think the podcast has helped them realise what works and what they enjoy doing.

You’ve already got a very good reply to this but thought I’d chip in too. You don’t need to, but I’d recommend playing BOTW first. Story is pretty much irrelevant in Zelda games, but in terms of gameplay, TOTK for me is miles ahead. So if you play that, love it, and decide to check out BOTW, it will feel somewhat like playing an early beta version of TOTK. No disrespect to BOTW there, it’s truly excellent in its own right. But in a world where TOTK exists, certain things from BOTW feel quite flat. But if you play BOTW first and decide to move onto TOTK, it will feel like a natural step forward and an excellent upgrade. Whatever you go for, have fun. Both games are genuinely outstanding.

Anyone up to speed with the newest Always Sunny? Just seen the gang goes bowling and it just proved to me that it’s still by far the funniest show on tv despite being well into its 16th season. So so good

Yeah, I understand. For me, the magic of BOTW was exploring. Discovering the shrines, finding the towers, slowly progressing to the point that the guardians were a walk in the park. It made me forget the shallow dungeons and bosses completely. I absolutely loved it and as I wrote before, I felt I was on a real adventure from start to finish. It took me back to how I felt playing the old classics. That’s why it’s my favourite first playthrough of any game ever. But the things you mention is also why I’ve never replayed it, because once the magic of discovery is over, that’s pretty much it. Dungeons aren’t replayable, bosses neither. A lot of the things you say about OOT and TP, I’m completely on board with. I’m smiling reading it because I had the exact same experience with my brother. Along with the fact that the games are just objectively top-class, those experiences mean that they’ll always hold a special place in my heart. No matter how big or beautiful game they create - even if they were to go back to classic Zelda formula - nothing will ever rival my experience with OOT, because it came at a time and an age that made it so much more magical. I remember the feeling it gave you when you first entered a dungeon, finding a key that you’d been missing forever, discovering the dungeon’s item (fvck me the spinner was cool!!!), encountering a boss room and waiting for them to appear. It was just completely amazing gaming experiences. WW and TP built on that within a relatively short time period and it was great (although I’ve never quite understood the hype of WW). I think every new Zelda going forward will be based on the BOTW/TOTK formula. I can’t see any natural way you can go back. However, maybe we could see smaller teams working on “classic” Zeldas? I’d definitely be on board with that.

About 125 hours into Tears of the Kingdom now. I've done the four regional phenomena, but holding off on completing the main story until I've done the rest that I want to do, such as find the shrines and lightroots and complete the side quests. Playing 2-3 hours every night at the moment and really enjoying it. But I'm still unsure whether my experience with it tops my experience with BOTW. In many ways, TOTK is objectively a better game. I can totally see that. The creativity, world, story, dungeons, bosses, enemy variety, shrines, difficulty level, quality of life, everything is better. You can absolutely tell that BOTW walked so TOTK could fly. But in terms of how I feel playing it, I think BOTW hit me in a way that TOTK is yet to do. Exploring this Hyrule, this "new" kind of Zelda for the first time in BOTW left me in awe. It was just staggering. In TOTK, the surface is very similar and exploring hasn't filled me with the same level of joy, especially since the caves, sky islands and depths feel a bit tiresome and repetitive after a while. As I said, I'm really enjoying it and I will absolutely miss it when I finish it. But BOTW just took over my life. I felt like I was on an adventure. TOTK hasn't given me that feeling. I'm very aware that this is probably because I have two young boys to take up most of my time, so when I switch on the game in the evening, my brain is fully switched off and I can't be arsed to think of the game I'm playing as anything other than a video game Still a 10/10, though. Aonuma is one crazy genius.

I know he’s a former player now but Maddison comes to mind. Some, including myself, see him as one of the best players we’ve ever had in the PL era and a great ambassador for the club during a highly successful era in our history. Others dislike him for basically everything that’s happened since the World Cup. Of our current crop, I guess it’s probably KDH.

Nice one. He speaks well but you could tell he grew tired of some of the shit questions. “Can the players come and speak to you?” Jesus christ…

Really gutted to see him leave for a club like Spurs. It’s obviously a few steps up, but it wasn’t long ago I genuinely thought he had it in him to go to the very top. I’ve never understood the hate he gets on here, although I put a lot of it down to a couple of recent incidents which ultimately contributed in our relegation. And although I won’t blame him for the backpass and the penalty miss, the social media spat with Tanner was a pretty stupid and unnecessary thing to do and just put on display the complacency running through the entire club. Over the course of the five years, though, he’s been an incredible servant to us and a great ambassador for the club. He always spoke highly of us and he seemed to develop a genuine affection for us. He’s one of the few players I’ll take a genuine interest in after leaving us (the last was Mahrez) and even though a lot of people on here have a weird obsession with Spurs, I hope he has a solid career there. Good luck, Madders.

Surely at this point they’d be better off holding MP4 and have if as a launch title for the next system. Hopefully along with Mario odyssey 2. Can’t believe they’ve never made a sequel for that, it was right there

All the suggested chants (apart from the car one) are cute but, let’s face it, it’ll end up being one of the following two: ohhh enzo maresca (seven nation army) the ranieri one

Lovely kit that although the sponsor ruins it. Very Denmark 86 as well

Hope the terrible car chant dies. If we’re gonna go short and shit we may as well just adapt the big dan amartey chant enzo mareeeeesca hes our fuchin manager

Since everyone is lauding VK for his statement a few weeks back, here's another interview with him. This time from Danish media bold.dk: https://bold.dk/fodbold/nyheder/victor-kristiansen-abner-op-om-turbulent-tid-i-leicester-det-har-vaeret-hardt Google Translate is often a bit shit, so I've translated the gist of it for you: On moving to Leicester: "In general, it's been an amazing step for my career and one I felt like I was waiting for. It's been six months of learning a lot about football, how to play at the highest level week after week, but I've also learned a lot about myself. Experiencing the contrast from cycling and walking to training to all of a sudden being on my own in England. It's been a learning experience for me." On contrast between playing for a title-chasing team and a team fighting relegation: "Being in a relegation fight during a turbulent time for the players, manager and club was extremely difficult. I didn't really know how to handle it. So that was pretty tough, but now that it's happened, I think I can use that experience to shape myself moving forward. On why that experience was so tough: "I've played for one club my entire life. This "FCK DNA" that we talk about over here is deeply rooted in me. Principles, how to pass, where to run and all that. It's all something I know like the back of my hand. Suddenly, I'm somewhere else and I have to find not only myself but also my team mates. When you come to a club in which the pressure is on, 7-8 players are running out of contract and a manager gets the sack, there's a lot of uncertainty around the place. And then I arrived as a young Dane that didn't know enough about the team or how my team mates play. That was tough. On attending FCK's trophy celebration (VK got a medal as he played half the season there): "It was kind of weird going from relegation with Leicester to suddenly celebrating a league title with FCK. In the weeks leading up to it, it got quite intense. I'd been benched for a few matches and all of a sudden didn't feel as valuable as when I first arrived. As I said, that was pretty tough, but it was also a new challenge for me." On how he felt celebrating with FCK given what he'd experienced with Leicester: "It wasn't easy. You have to show respect for Leicester, so that's what I tried to do. At the same time, I wanted to be happy for me former team mates and coaches. But at the same time show respect and humility towards my current employer." On whether he will stay with Leicester in The Championship next season: "Yes, that's the plan right now. After all, The Championship isn't that ****ing bad for a 20-year-old. 46 matches, a bunch of cup competition and either getting called up to the national team or the U21's. I'm looking forward to it. Of course, when I moved, I was sold on the idea of playing in the Premier League, but as I've said before, you can't dwell on whether you will go down or not. You have to grab your chance and strike while the iron is hot. That's what I did when I moved to Leicester. I'm sure that in 10 years, when I'm looking back on my career - hopefully after having returned to FC Copenhagen - I'll be happy with the choices I made."

This is something no one on our board seems to possess so I guess that's why they turned to Esteban

Wow, unbelievable effort. How are you finding it compared to BOTW? I know you weren't the biggest fan of that game.

Just think that we could've attracted Emery if we binned off Rodgers when we should have... sigh

Apologies if posted elsewhere already but I like this attitude from a young player that's only been here for six months. He's raw but I can see him being an excellent asset for us in the Championship.

Was it as dull as this when Merc were on top? I genuinely don’t remember but I don’t think I’ve ever been as uninterested in F1 as I am now

About 60 hours in now. A few of my main takeaways: The abilities are so fun to use. Each and every one of them is just delightful. I can’t see myself ever going back to Botw after this. I mean, cryonis was a bit shit wasn’t it? The enemy variety is great. So many different types of enemies, both above and below the ground. It’s just brilliant. Some of them scare the absolute shit out of me too - especially the gloom hands. Dungeons are good, but will we ever reach the heights of previous Zelda titles? I’ve only completed two, but I think I get what they’re all about. I think I’ve come to accept that Zelda dungeons have changed and it’s hard to see how the linear nature of huge dungeons from previous Zelda games will work in this new open world format. But while the dungeons themselves aren’t amazing, the journey to each of them is just mesmerising. I’ve been to the Rito, Goron and Zora dungeons and getting there is just epic - and I never use that word The map is great. It’s so huge that it at times feels overwhelming, but they’ve designed it in such a way that there are no empty areas. You’re always interested in taking small steps until you’ve eventually travelled quite far. And although it’s the same Hyrule, the surface doesn’t feel the same as BOTW. In fact, it just makes it more interesting to explore the differences. The depths are eerie but so much fun to explore and often you get rewarded with great loot or cool boss battles so that’s an incentive to explore. Sky islands, on the other hand, I find a bit underwhelming. It’s always been the main thing they marketed about this game, it’s the key visual on the box, it’s where we start the game. But I find a lot of these islands a bit dull to be honest. The tutorial one was brilliant, as are the series of islands leading up to dungeons, but many of the others feel a bit flat in my opinion. I enjoy building stuff to travel between them but I often find that the reward waiting isn’t worth it and that’s a shame. Boss fights are top class. Thank god they’ve not done another series of blights. Even in the overworld there’s plenty of boss variety and it’s so cool stumbling across bosses after 50 hours of play that you didn’t even know were in the game. Still yet to defeat a Gleeok though Shrines are so much fun. They’re probably my favourite part of the game so far. Ties in quite well with my point about the abilities as using them in shrines is just a blast. I’ll solve a puzzle, go online and see others solve it in 10 different ways. It’s just excellent game design rewarding the player for being inventive and not restricting them to one fixed solution. Major props for dropping all the tedious combat shrines, replacing them with the excellent proving grounds and some actual combat tutorials. Really cool. All in all, absolutely loving it so far. BOTW was my favourite first playthrough of any game, but not my favourite game. This has the potential to become both. My main issue is that I have two little ones, so I can’t play as much as I want to

Sponsor on that Wednesday shirt

Haha that looked so shit but it’s a great goal tbf