Leaderboard

Our minister of justice saw fit to call everyone who didn't comply with corona rules lowlifes and then had a wedding with like a hundred guests where he hugged and shook hands with everyone. There is tons of photographic evidence of this. Take a wild guess as to whether he got fined and/or was relieved of his responsibilities.

Snitches get stitches.

Making Shakshuka tomorrow. I love it and eat it almost twice a month at least. And the on Saturday I'll try my hands on a proper authentic Bolognese that has to cook 3-4 hours. Sick of that canned stuff that has too much sugar in it. Pics may follow if I manage to dish it up nicely.

I think that’s just football now, It’s all ’ don’t get it twisted..’ ’ the streets remember..’ These people should be nowhere near football.

I know nothing about Freiburg, but he's a very good player. He could've gone to one of the top clubs in France, he was linked to Napoli and Villarreal before, I think he'll be a big success in Germany.

He's a brilliant player, I really hope Freiburg will be a good choice for him.

Well, I did a thing today. Hope it goes through as the banking questions weren't aren't as clear for what we use here in the States.

My daughter was telling me a boy at school stole crayons. This was my exact response, which she then repeated and followed it up with our famous fist bump...... Then my wife found out what I'd done and now I'm going to need stitches

I used to love pasta, but don't tolerate it well anymore, either When I eat it, then usually alla puttanesca. Love that... Never made my own pasta either, unless Spätzle counts

Love shakshuka, but sadly I don't tolerate eggs anymore The Bolognese sounds nice, looking forward to the pics! I never buy the canned stuff, it just doesn't taste good... It's pretty easy to make a decent meat sauce at home, even without doing it the proper long way. I just sautee some onion, carrot and celery, add ground beef, seasoning, passata, tomato pulp, and let it all simmer... Add a glass of wine if I happen to have any, which is not usually the case. Obviously not authentic, but pretty damn good and simple!

Cooked some chicken fajitas last night with some peppers. Quite simple but turned out good. Gave it some Indian spice too of course. Nice.

Everytime I log on to post in Mafia the thread is locked!

I would probably agree with you about the Newcastle spend but would be interested to see what the total was for them that period compared to others?? It might have been more a case of Keegan bringing who he wanted and money was no object rather than it being a hideous amount for each player... Just googled it, they spent a total of 34Mill on players half of which went on Shearer alone in 94/95 and that was 20 odd years ago. By comparison we spent 5.5Mill on players the same season so yea, could be argued that both them and Blackburn were all about throwing cash about to win things from sugar daddies long before the likes of Chelsea/City were doing it... We just did the same thing only our sugar daddies were bigger than theirs...

Didn't Blackburn do the City/Chelsea/PSG thing first though? I think a big part of the soul in English football died when clubs broke the league off from the Football League. It opened the door to over commercialisation of the sport and globalism made the league and the clubs in it rich as fuck. I don't think there's any stop to the soul further dying in European football unless there's some sort of global salary cap imposed in football. But then how do you enforce a global salary cap? If it's a universal cap... rich clubs are going to hate that idea. If the cap accounts for different leagues and the revenue coming in and out of those leagues... maybe it does something, but chances are that will further stratify European leagues where the gaps between the "big leagues" and the rest of Europe just grows. At this point, I'm not sure there is any saving the soul of football. We just have to hope that there's enough outrage against the idea of things like a super league. But even if there is outrage, I doubt it stops people like UEFA and FIFA... because I think the UEFA Nations League and FIFA's expansion of the Club World Cup are two things that nobody asked for and I'm not really sure anyone wants (although... sure some people like the Nations League as it's basically just dressed up those pointless mid-season international friendlies into something that appears more palatable). So I'm sure if those at the top say "it's time for a super league" we might be shit out of luck.

This is just wrong, clubs like Man City and Chelsea are a symptom of the problem. Association Football is brutally capitalistic and has been long before the oil clubs took over, the revolution of English football with the Premier League gave big time investors the green light. Man Utd made their riches from foreign fans through merchandising, they were so good at it they opened the door to what a Premier League side could achieve off the pitch. If there was adequate regulations in place that prevented financial doping this wouldn't be an issue, something similar to the American sports which ironically resemble communism more than anything. Man City and Chelsea are not the cancers, they didn't ruin the game, they're just a pair of lumps and pains in a testicle.

Yeah but never like this. And these new ones are the worst.

There are enough clubs that do without investors, though.

I guess so. I explained ti to nudge briefly Been doing research, and narrowed it down to essentially 3-4 teams. Took out Freiburg because of their niche atmosphere, and honestly I like them, but never really could get excited about them. Took out Schalke despite their strong American ties, and then eliminated Union are they are a bit too 'hip' for my liking. And then I researched Augsburg, and rather enjoy their climb to the Bundesliga and their attempt at becoming a mainstay. I sent them a research and they ended up emailing me in length about their excitement for my interest in Augsburg. I asked to see if they had an English membership form, and they did and sent it to me, and I said alright..they are in Bavaria, which is one of my favorite regions, great beer, great kits, and so I have my German membership

No wonder new buildings are in shit condition. All the workers are fucking high

Loved that film and I think I will give it a bash this afternoon on this laptop with headphones on while the wife is watching her bloody Don't Tell The Bride shite about picking wedding dresses.

Don't be so harsh on yourself!

Some observations from the 1st half of the Girona friendly: - Araújo and Trincão are good, they will be important for Barcelona this season; - Coutinho looks impressive in the pressing, the Bayern loan after all might have done him good, he is stronger physically and more commited to his defensive obligations as well; - Front three without Suárez is much more athletic and pacy; - Messi... seems happy? ; - Koeman has a much better idea of what he wants from this team than Setién; - Playing with this motivation and hunger, Barça can definitely fight for La Liga. @Carnivore Chris

Using hyperbole and pretending that people are asking for Mbappe and Sancho and spending hundreds of millions when literally nobody is even close to saying that only serves to undermine your own argument and is why you end up calling each other spoilt brats or dickheads. There's a fair debate to be had from both sides so I don't see why you have to make out that expecting just a couple of signings to add depth is in any way equivalent to playing Football Manager or FIFA with unlimited money switched on. It's basic stuff. Even if you already have the best team in the world, all of them are another year older and it's normal for clubs to refresh the squad because any team can always improve. If you stand still while everyone else improves their squad then eventually they overtake you. If the finances don't work then fair enough, make that point without pretending that the other person is saying something they aren't. Bad luck to Liverpool for finally fighting their way back to the top at a time where the global pandemic is messing with the finances of clubs who are still trying to live within their means. Not everyone can do a Man Utd and be shite for far too long then get back to the pinnacle just in time to be the biggest benefactors of huge swathes of money suddenly being poured into the sport. I think the concerns raised about Origi are fair enough. Unless he can play like prime Drogba against teams other than Everton and Barcelona then you should be looking to bring in a fee for him and put that towards another option in the front line. Minamino needs time to settle in and work with the team. Klopp has made loads of signings that have taken 12 or even 18 months to come into their own then been absolutely quality. He might well be the latest one of those. Then again, he's come from the Austrian league so it's not like he has a proven track record of stepping into the first team of a team competing at the highest level. I'm a bit fuzzy on the timelines but Lovren and Lallana both left this summer didn't they? Fair enough if you've got young players who are as good as those but it's not the same as having someone experienced to step in who is a known quantity. Thiago would clearly be a quality signing but depth in midfield isn't really an issue for Liverpool with Henderson, Fabinho, Milner, Wijnaldum, Chamberlain, Jones in there already. He is a different type of player though and you could free up Fabinho as an emergency centre back if you got him in. You can't rest on your laurels. Key injuries kill you if they come at the wrong time. You got knocked out of the Champions League last season because Alisson was injured and your second choice goalkeeper wasn't up to standard at that level. Comparisons to other teams aren't always helpful and yeah, backup goalkeeper is always one of the trickiest positions in the squad to get right, but if you had a Sergio Romero or a Willy Caballero instead of Adrian, you could have stayed in contention for another European Cup that night. It could come at any time with Van Dijk or Salah or Mane if you don't have the right cover. You don't have to be a spoilt FIFA armchair fan or think you could do a better job than Jurgen Klopp to point that out. I think it's absolutely fair enough based on what the team has achieved in the last two seasons to not be worried, but there are rational arguments to support you if you reckon that Liverpool haven't done enough to improve the squad this window. The only thing I disagree with is acting as if people who take the opposite stance to you are being ridiculous. Not every debate has to have a clear consensus. Sadly, because it's the internet, it's easy to forget that.