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Just finished this and was a struggle. Unfortunately there's just too much to cover to be able to do any justice to the content. At some points it was almost like 'this fella was born then started a war then got killed. Moving on'. I mean, what? So something different up next, and a book form one of my faves, David Baldacci. It's a bit different from his usual thrillers though. It's called One Summer and not sure if I'm going to enjoy this one. We'll soon see.

It's always sad to see these clubs fold. Would love to know how they got into the situation they did.

I'm hoping we can get a game on this weekend. We haven't been able to play a home game since the beginning of the month. If the rain holds off we should be good, especially with the wind we're getting which helps remove the surface water. It'll be two weeks since a game on Saturday. I'm going stir crazy.

20 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

Every club is somehow immoral now behind the scenes, all businesses before clubs these days. Man City and PSG transcend to a new level though given how much of a propaganda PR machine they are to show the corrupt regimes that prop them both up in a more positive light worldwide.

Now what's unpopular about this?

On 05/03/2019 at 11:30, The Artful Dodger said:

Each dynasty needs its founding hero. That's what Busby and Shankly are to their clubs.

No argument there, just do not agree that what has happened to both clubs would never have happened if not for these people.

On 19/02/2019 at 13:21, Salford Kel said:

Sir Matt Busby is the greatest United manager just as Bill Shankly is the greatest Liverpool manager. Without them what came later would never have happened

So my unpopular opinion to those who believe this is it's a load of old tosh.

Recently finished with Hitman and got bored quite quickly. It's a bit too slow paced for me. Still have Hitman 2 to play, so have mixed feelings about that now.

I'm nearly finished with Spider-Man, which I was a little disappointed with after the hype it got. Looks great though.

I never got the fuss about God Of War. For me one of the most overrated games ever.

9 hours ago, Lucas said:

If you love mockumentories, I'd recommend.

If you love a mockumentary then you'll love After The Screaming Stops.

Wow. Caballero plays and Chelsea win. I was sure that after comments made in here that should have surely been a 10-0 Spurs win. 

The standard is higher, but not higher than we are capable of. The big difference though is consistency and key positions. For instance our wide right player is courted by almost all of top teams in our division, and the next two above. We really struggled in goal though at the start of the season [although I feel we've resolved that now] and we have no goal scorer. There are also issues outside of the club that we are having to deal with at the moment which are having a huge impact on everything. We also have no playing budget, so we were alway going to struggle there.

4 hours ago, Cicero said:

That part in bold, is solely down to the players being unmotivated with Sarri's tactics. A large chunk of these players are too limited to thrive in his system. When things go wrong, they will blame the manager. We've seen it before. This isn't something Sarri can override and expect success. Mourinho and Conte both failed on that matter and their stubbornness cost them their job. For the sake of Sarri's job, which entirely falls on making top 4, I can't see how adding fuel to the fire will be more beneficial than to put this in the past and adapt his style to suit the players at his disposal (like we saw against City) and keep moral high. 

Make no mistake, come the summer, I want these degenerates gone. If the board back the same under performers instead of Sarri and his targets, then there is a justifiable cause for Sarri to simply walk away.

We'll jusy have to disagree then. They're not pulling up an trees with Kepa playing, so not much is changing as far as Chelsea results go if he is forced to miss a couple of games.

So Newbury Forest got dicked at the weekend. We lost 4-0 to White Ensign. Now there are a couple of things to take into consideration. First is league position. They're challenging for the title and promotion and we're looking to avoid relegation. So this wasn't a game that we likely to get anything out of. Second is the pitch. This is the smallest pitch ever. I'm talking 9 metres short of meeting the required length [don't know the width but that is too narrow as well], and was the bobbliest one we've played to date. If you know the local non-league football in our area then you'll no how bad it must have been when I say that it was worse than The Spotted Dog. Even taking these points into consideration the performance from Forest was poor. From the moment they turned up they was moaning. The pitch is crap, the changing room is crap, the warm up is crap, as soon as there was a miscontrolled pass of a wayward shot it was crap. It was poor. But that's over now, so next up is a massive bottom of the table clash with Fire United on Saturday at the Terence Macmillan Stadium in Plaistow [another atheltics stadium. Wonderful]. Fire are one point above us but have played three more games. So all to play for.

12 hours ago, Cicero said:

Right. A real opportunity to show who's boss to a team filled with players who are notoriously known for reacting bad to authority. That'll save Sarri his job. 

Reacting on emotion and throwing your toys out the pram, is nonsense. Why should Sarri bench him for an vastly inferior keeper in Caballero? Not only that, by why would he do that at the risk of damaging the team's moral? Sarri's job is on the line if we don't finish Top 4 or Win the Europa. Why would he make his job harder? Would it not make sense to put this behind us, build off of the performance against City and prepare for Spurs tomorrow night? 

Again. It's evident this team has an abundance of players who feel they are above the club. Sarri needs to do what he can do secure Top 4 to save his job. We will then see who the club will truly back. The players or the manager. 

And Sarri just letting the players do what they like, ignore his instructions and decisions, and show complete disrespect for him will save him his job right? On it's own this instrance obviously doesn't address the issue of a team of petulant players, but it should be one of a number of things Sarri is doing to instill discipline and respect from them all. I completely agree with you about how "reacting on emotion and throwing your toys out the pram" is nonsense. This is exactly how Kepa acted. So in this instance specifically Sarri has an opportunity to show all the players that there is a real consequence to them when they show ill discpline and lack of respect. Fining a week's wages to somebody who earns the ridiculous amount of money that Kepa does is a complete nonsense. It's a token action and will have no positive effect whatsoever. What it does do though is exacerbate the ongoing story of Sarri having no real control of his players. It also continues to show the players themselves [the perceived better ones at least] that they can continue to pretty much do what they like.

5 hours ago, Cicero said:

He is instrumental for us. His distribution is essential in our system. Far from a top keeper, however he is fairly reliable in net. 

Caballero has no distribution and is suspect in net. There is a reason he hardly even features in the cup games. His only saving grace is his ability to read players from the penalty spot. 

You honestly think it would be in the best interest of the club for Sarri to throw his toys out the pram and bench him for a month? In that month, we have Spurs + Wolves at home, and Everton away. We need to be getting 9/9 points and having Caballero in net for those fixtures will handicap us and will ultimately make Sarri's job harder. 

What Kepa did wasn't right. He's been fined a weeks wages and the situation has been taken care of. IMO things are being blown out of proportion. Kepa isn't one to down tools or show a shite mentality. He wanted to finish off his first ever cup final.

Player power is an issue, but one that shouldn't be dealt with right now. Sarri has realised it's best to move on from this vs bench Kepa at the risk of the entire team moral being dropped given Sarri is yet again showing authority. Top 4 or Europa makes our season. 

Come the summer, we will truly know who the board will back. Will they drop the under performers in favor of Sarri's targets? Or Will they offer new contracts to the same ageing under performers, notoriously known for downing tools? If the latter, I fear for the future of this club. 

 

To suggest that it’s been dealt with is a nonsense. As is the suggestion that it wasn’t that big a deal, because all the player wanted to do was to see out his first ever cup final. All that as been determined for certain is that Kepa is a petulant person with little if not any respect for the authority of his manager. Sarri has shown that he has no backbone and will let you get away with whatever as along as you’re deemed to be one of the squad’s better players. Here was a real opportunity for him to show the whole squad who the boss is, and he bottled it.

2 minutes ago, True Blue said:

Kepa fined a week wages apologized to Sarri and his team mates. Sarri said all is well and merry now so this means Kepa starts on Wednesday.

The Chelsea way.

Disappointed with that. I was hoping Sarri would show a bit of backbone and also drop him from some games. Not unexpected though.

11 minutes ago, Stan said:

Been inspired to read recently, heard a lot of good things from various people about this, medical background or not...

Was a great but thought provoking read. In between fits of laughter was the realisation/reality of the way health professionals are expected to work in sometimes ridiculous situations, with inadequate resources, and outrageous working hours. The ending. Well I'll just leave you to find out about that.

3 hours ago, Rab said:

The best advice is just; eat less, do more.

I've lost 7 lbs myself over the last 3 weeks and literally all I've done is cut down how much I am eating and walking more. I'm still eating shite, just less of it.

Depending on your weight, a 30 minute brisk walk every day will burn between 200 and 300 calories. Combine that with eating one less mars bar per day and that's a deficit of 500 calories compared to what you'd usually be. 1lb equates to around 3500 calories, so a 500 deficit per day will mean the loss of 1lbs a week.

I think you're math is wrong Rab. As all Mars bars up in your neck of the woods are deep fried your one Mars equates to 7 gazillion calories which will explain your recent good weight loss. For those of us who just straight up eat it out of the wrapper [no batter here thank you very much] the impact is not as large. Your premise is correct though.

3 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

I can't watch suits without thinking of Rab.

I can’t watch Suits without thinking how I’d like to absolutely ruin Sarah Rafferty.

1 minute ago, CaaC - John said:

I am on day 439 without puffing a lung buster, I have saved £5.917.17 in dosh, I have 'Life Regained' 100d 10hrs 26 min. and counting, and have not touched 13,149.3 cigarettes since Dec 7th, 2017.

Well done John. Keep it up.

5 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

Saw you were playing Sawbo. I’ve never got over there for a game either actually. Good win that. 

Yeah the result was nice, but with friendly games unless it’s an absolute drubbing the result is a bit insignificant with the changes that both teams will be making. Sawbo stuck their First Team out though so it was a good challenge, and most importantly was our performance which was great. We’ve a big game away to White Ensign next weekend. They’re challenging for the title so won’t be easy. They also play on a ridiculously small pitch [the league had a mare there as it is never big enough].

 Newbury Forest had a good day yesterday. We played Sawbridgeworth Town away in a friendly and got a great chance to look at a few new players. As well as a couple of seasoned ‘pros’ who could be great additions to the squad if they can be convinced to stick around, we had two kids from our college programme who were extremely impressive. Another clean sheet is always nice too. 

Love Gary Oldman, but even he wasn’t enough to make me enjoy this. 

Watched Darkest Hour last night, and gotta say that after all the plaudits it received I was extremely bored with it.

Can the West Ham badge be updated please?

1 hour ago, CaaC - John said:

Thank fuck it wasn't Rashford.

Absolutely. Doing me well in my fantasy team at the minute.