Spike

I always lose interest after round 1. That is where all action is, everyone is hyped up and going hard on the ice; by the end of round 1 the teams are already worn out. Though I have been watching, Tampa have depth that can score, Dallas has depth that can score, but the main difference is that Tampa's stars are producing but Dallas' aren't. Seguin is a joke, and Benn is finished. A one legged Stamkos is more reliable. Dallas have have a top five defensive core but defence only prevents losing, rarely do they win cups (except in the dead puck era). Dallas also lacks the monster d-man to absorb all the really hard minutes; players like Keith, Doughty, Carlsson, Pietrangelo, Chara, Letang (winners the last ten years) Have you noticed how often the players are falling over? The ice must be in really bad shape. On another note, if one googles 'nhl stanley cup winners' Adam Burish is listed as the winner for 2010

have some respect

So it is a little difficult to explain but in English speaking media there is this stereotype of the 'effeminate German accent'. I'm not sure it actually exists but essentially it's used in character comedy and breaking it down it sounds like the opposite to the other stereotypical 'angry, harsh, German accent'. It essentially sounds like a limp-wristed effeminate flamboyant man (never portrayed as female) but I digress; the point is Werner sounds like this stereotype when he speaks English.

My body refuses to vomit so my hangovers can be quite brutal in the sense that I can never get that sweet chunder relief

1. You're probably right. 2. I didn't say that. I said in the 1974 World Cup the only foreigners representing English teams were Scottish. 3. Who gives a fuck what Greece did? This is England,, and I sincerely doubt England will ever do what Greece did because if it were so easy every year a team like Greece would win, that is why you are brining it up because it's unusual. England don't have the talent nor the cultural mindset for that. It could happen but I wouldn't bet a cent on it. 4. Point being that it was more likely for an Englishmen from one city to represent another and make another city their home because it was a more likely career path (if that makes sense, having trouble disseminating that thought). Do you think Henderson feels like he represent the locality more than Shaqiri? Liverpool and Sunderland are both English, so that makes more sense than some Albanian from Switzerland.

@Dr. Gonzo Also another thing I want to add, it makes more sense for successful South-Americans to immigrate to Europe than vice-versa right? Outside of the usual Europeans escaping for a new life in the new world, why wouldn't anyone trade an unstable military dictatorship that is liable to be overthrown by the CIA for a stable military dictatorship that probably won't throw you out of a helicopter. Probably better Franco than Pinochet. Also the proliferation of cheaper and more available air travel, etc, yadda yadada

1. What is the end goal? Man City want to win everything. What do Leeds want? Surely the want to win everything as well but you don't fight fire with fire...it might be a different shade but it is still the same colour. 2. It started more in the 80s. Very, very infrequent until then. But think about it, it makes more sense for an Argentine with Italian parents to play in Italy than England right? Just like it makes more sense for an Irishmen or an Australian to play in England than Spain. The occasional superstar might have moved by now it is typical of teams to be made up nearly entirely of foreigners, in a lot countries too. Three players from the Dutch 1974 squad were not playing in the Netherlands, one in Spain, and the other two...in a Dutch speaking country; Belgium. The only foreigners playing in England weren't even really foreigners, Scottish players. 3. So? That was last tournament and the semis aren't winning. Greece has nothing to do with England. Can you honestly look at me and say that the cultural state of English football, English media and expectation, and say outside of a extraordinary circumstances that England can win an international tournament? Your country cares more about taking photos of the footballers at the pub than the actual World Cup. 4. Yeah that ties in with my point from the second. It's a more logical career path for a player like Jordan Henderson to move from Sunderland to Liverpool, than Sunderland to Lazio. Think about it, until the proliferation of huge money in certain countries and certain clubs international player movement wasn't common, and it was the usual suspects, in 1985 would you suspect Ian Rush being replaced by a Brazilian? Or Stevie Nichols by a Ghanain or Dutchmen?

I don't mean it that way though. Just that the only reason English football is the way it is; is because of the money, regardless of it being Jack Walker, Ken Bates investing in electric fencing, or a foreign billionaire. Walker had a more sincere reason to invest in Blackburn the effect is still the same, the only reason they players were at Blackburn was because of the money, not because of Blackburns quality of living, or their history of putting together winning teams. Sure it's a more logical career decision for a player like Alan Shearer to join Blackburn, than Real Madrid, but the same wouldn't be true for a foreign player right? Why would a French player choose Walker's Blackburn over say a team like Marseille or Bordeaux? Money, not only does that mean one less chance for a local or British player but it has also damaged the quality of Ligue 1.

I think you lot need to be more critical and aware of it. Yeah you can say that the owners of Leeds and and Manchester City act a little differently in terms of financing but is it really that different? Let's not pretend these clubs are being represented by local men. Who does Liverpool have for instance? Trent Alexander-Arnold and who else? It is fantastic that he is playing so well and is able to represent Liverpool, that is what a bloke likes to see but let's not pretend that players like Virgil van Dyke and Sergio Aguero are in England for anything but money and success. In the 70s why would Sergio Aguero be in England and not a team like River Plate or at a stretch one of the Spanish clubs? Why would Virgil van Dyke be in England and not Ajax or Feyenoord? The competition wouldn't be much different and I'd imagine the monetary gain would be similar as well. England will never win an international trophy because the talent pool is neglected at the highest level for international 'ready made' players. Except for extraordinary talent or circumstances British players don't particularly have much chance playing for the competitive teams. It's all about money and only ever will be. You could say that the clubs are meant to represent the people that support it, but how can you when the players don't?

Some bloody weird arguments in this thread. All the English teams spend absolutely astronomical amounts of money whether it comes from investment or sponsors, and you'd have to go far down the pyramid to find a sincere grassroots club. Wolverhampton just threw 40,000,000 at a Portuguese teenager for crying out loud! Liverpool bankrolled by a American sporting conglomerate... that is terrible stuff really; a conglomerate? How sterile. Not as a bad as a Russian gangster or an oppressive/authoritarian/whatever sovereign state; but I don't think it's really productive talking about if you'd prefer a kick to the left nut or the right nut. Thai retail, Chinese gambling, Italian television businessmen, NFL franchises, Sheffield is owned by a Saudi, a dodgy Sports Shop in Tyne, Egyptian billionaires, Everton is owned by steel and energy, a fucking pornograher owns half of West Ham.. and it goes on. Have you blokes looked at who owns these clubs? Chelsea and Manchester are just the posterboys of a much larger issue that covers Premier League top to bottom. Who is actually British owned and not by a billionaire? Burnley... Every team buys success, it is the nature of the sport. The cat may have been skinned differently but it;s still skinned.

Does Jericho still pose with cans of Monster Energy?

He has always been thicker

Sounds like something Yoda would say

That is just being at the academy though that doesn't mean fandom. Iniesta grew up as a Madrid fan for instance

'Childhood club' is generally nonsense, I've thought. How do we know that Gotze didn't support Bayern when he was 7? Besides his family is from Bavaria (I think...)

Germans have no emotion and understand that is is business as usual. Nothing personall.

Hindsight is 20/20 but you'd think that they'd know a little better when it's players in the academy.

Slojo Ojo Mojo Jojo?

I like to imagine there is a transcendental dimension that goes beyond the physical and that is the last infinite frontier and that plugging into it would zero individual consciousness. Or maybe not

I think we should all put aside our differences and laugh at Stuttgart for selling or releasing all of these players too early Bernd Leno Serge Gnabry Timo Werner Antonio Rudiger Joshua Kimmich Thilo Kehrer Sebastian Rudy

I don't approve of how what happened to a lot of Indigenous people is retroactively Australia's fault (Australia did do a lot of wrong but not before it existed) and no fault is given to the British. I've never seen anything but a condescending colonial attitude from the British government towards Australia in 119 years of existence, and it's reflected today in cultural attitudes. The Rudd government took responsibility for the Stolen Generation in 2008 and directly addressed that what happened was wrong and on behalf of those perpetuated those crimes apologised on national television. My favourite is post WW1 the British government expected Australia to pay interest on a 'debt' accrued from Australia joining Britain's war, strictly purchasing weapons from the British to aid the British war-economy, and dying for the British. The debt would have resulted in Australia's economy collapsing and caused a near civil war to erupt from tension between the NSW government and the federal government. I'd say 3% of the male population of Australia being a casualty in a foreign war is debt paid. Cannon fodder and a purse to pinch from, that is the British legacy.

I'm not paying an offensive amount of money for a degree that is worthless in an economy that has people with Bachelor's working at retail.

You know that is demonstrably false and that is all the Libs do and will ever do.

I know nothing about Wollongong, I imagine it is just Toowoomba on the NSW coast.