shen

I couldn't believe the stats - something like 25 shots, half on target and only conceding 1. Surely on that basis alone the goalie deserves to be player of the week!

I said it feels entitled and whiny, yes. Nothing personal towards you or others expressing this view. I can fully accept that the aesthetics of the football on display is a subjective matter. Within the context I described, it seems to be nitpicking when this is really not what the team or new manager needs.

You are of course entitled to your opinion and I completely understand if some people are not entertained by the style of football. It does irk a bit however given out recent plight under Rodgers that Maresca is already being asked (after just 4 months of the season gone!) to provide great entertainment value, when a lot were fearful we wouldn't even be making a serious push for promotion. Surely it is far, far more important in the short term to establish a rapport and trust with the players, revitalise the squad, put a solid tactical foundation in place and get results (and promotion) before we should even consider how entertaining it is. I would like to point out that we have also seen some exquisite moves and even goals already, which we really could not have expected after such a short period of time. So it's not like it's been uneventful or there hasn't been some promise shown. I know this will not make it more entertaining for you and the critics of the style, but I would encourage to maybe think a bit about the bigger picture here. It feels quite whiny and entitled to have a go at the aesthetics at this point.

Dear me, we need to alert all football coaches! That is quite some insight. I imagine teams would stop playing out from the back if they realised this

That's way too close to a real experience I had 😅

It's tongue in cheek. On a Leicester forum, using the Kane example is surely needless. Unless you've been living under a rock, I suppose. But also to poke fun again at his lack of trophies compared to our club.

I mean, Leicester have won four trophies since he left. How many has Kane won?

Only Red Bull would be so arrogant to think they could actually pull it off though

Well we don't quite know. Maybe Red Bull can prize away Alonso from AM - someone who can give Max a challenge but also keep it clean. Drugovich probably gets promoted if that hapoens - doubt they'd go for Checo? Then there's Sargeant's seat still open. Probably between him and Vesti?

Which seats are up for grabs next year? Will anyone from F2 or Indycar possibly get a seat? Pourchaire, Drugovich, Vesti? Apart from Sargeant, is any seat really available? Does Perez get the boot?

Just found out Bloodstock released this a few weeks ago. Absolutely incredible sounding Meshuggah gig from start to finish. Hard to believe these guys are pushing 60

He's talented, for sure, and is carving out his niche. It get's a bit much for me and it's not what I usually gravitate to musically, but I'm definitely giving him a listen.

I'm still honestly in awe of the one time we had Frappart as ref in Europe (was it Zorya?) I remember a lot praised her on here and just as many belittled it or doused the replies with comments that insinuated the opinions were biased because of her gender. He literally dived in for a rather needless tackle on the halfway line moments after his goal. Fortunately he got the ball, but surely that was not the right decision.

He may have looked lethargic or unfocused, but it's a bit of a leap to conclude he doesn't give a shit. His style has never looked like an all-action type.

Bit rude to call you a C'nut just for that.

There's still a play-off after this. Surely going into that with confidence and some good results will give you a good chance at prevailing.

What a shit couple of days/results. None of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova or Montenegro able to pull off a shock. Add to that a dreadful game from Denmark against a poor NI side.

Bit of an attitude on this kid. Let's just say he didn't take it well that he was snubbed for the Swedish NT this time around.

I point to my previous post. There are many examples now of unfancied sides qualifying or at least making a very good fist of it. I feel it speaks volumes that qualification is far more challenging for the B-tier teams (i.e. Sweden, Poland, Czechia, Denmark, Serbia, Ukraine etc) than it ever has been, and that every tournament over the past ten years or so one or more A-tier nations struggle too (see Italy '18, '22 and this time, Netherlands '16, '18). This is despite the fact the number of qualification places have steadily increased over the years. Even if you look at Gibraltar, their record since joining the qualis has improved year on year. They started with an average GD per match of -5,4 in 2016, which became -4,4 in 2018, -3,5 in 2020, -3,9 in 2022 and currently -5 for 2024. If you take away the freak result against France (and it was a freak result, even for them), they were on course for their best campaign yet with an average of -3 GD per game. Considering they've only been playing competitively for 7 years, that is a staggering improvement where they've almost halved their negative GD. Even better, San Marino, perennial whipping boys, are desperately close to their best ever campaign GD-wise (currently on -3 per match). They need only to lose by less than 6 goals to achieve this. I'm not saying any of these two will ever qualify, but they certainly have the potential to make things uncomfortable even for bigger sides (as the latter proved recently against Denmark).

I mean, does it really shock or surprise anybody, this behaviour? All these major sporting organizations are cut from the same moneygrabbing cloth. Sport is CLEARLY second or third priority every time.

Which is probably why any litigation claims will ultimately fail. The whatifs and buts and the almost endless compensation loops means it's not realistic to expect anything but a sporting punishment in the form of points deduction, relegation, transfer sanctions or maybe just fines that would/should go to grassroots football or to the EFL, whose clubs are increasingly on the edge of bankruptcy.

As fantastic as our club's achievements have been, it's not exactly been squeaky clean either. To be fair, very few of the top clubs have been, so you can argue the degree of our misdemeanor is minor compared to others. But let's not be holier than thou and instead ask that punishment is more consistently and systematically assigned (looking at you Chelsea and Man City et al).

Hamilton et al that have been speaking out about these tracks have been told to shut up and get on with things. Some of the rules imposed post 2021 seem oddly targeted (i.e. the jewelry one). Verstapppen will only speak out until he's put back in his place.

I think results like Azerbaijan beating Sweden 3-0 (one worldie goal as well), Kazakhstan very much in the hunt to qualify as well as Moldova - all of whom have been really poor for many years - together with the improved nations like Armenia, Albania, Georgia, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia etc shows that it is a competitive playing field. Obviously you have nations that just cannot improve to that level, but even San Marino caused Denmark problems and Malta, Liechtenstein, Andorra have been pulling off some decent upsets in my lifetime. But I'm sure you'll get your wish at some point, as there cannot be much commercial interest in broadcasting these games.