Dr. Gonzo

You know maybe he wouldn't get pissed off at you all the time if you weren't calling for him to be banned all the time. I think it's pretty clear that @Teso dos Bichos has mellowed out a lot over the past year. And yeah, sometimes I don't always get on with him and we argue here on the forum. But he's also capable of being hilarious and he definitely adds character to the forum. He's definitely got personality. I don't see why you're always calling for him to be banned. If you don't like his posts, you can put him on ignore & then choose to not see them. If you don't like constantly arguing with him... just don't constantly argue with him?

I have never wanted automation more after living with VAR before. If all referees could be made unemployed that’s just such a massive advancement for humanity as well as the sport. But we’d need significant advances in AI technology

I just think referees are idiots and shouldn’t be given more tools to be bad at their jobs. They should be replaced by computers ASAP. But I don’t think VAR is as bad as dictators

Tbh I think less of people that like VAR

Well everyone else in England hates us. So I feel really really really good. I hope we win the league and people fucking cry

It's weird they listed Divinity 2, but not Divinity: Original Sin (which is a really good game, I never played the sequel though)

Social media brings out the worst in people - go look at any footballer's twitter account and look at the comments of their latest tweet. You'll find tons of insane abuse.

I think the current side is better than the title winning side. I don't know if they'll win the title, but they're already certainly in contention only 8 points behind with most of the season to go. Think they've got a decent chance tbh, if Slave Trader FC drop more points before January and they spend Abu Dhabi's GDP on new defenders & assuming we drop points soon, which I think is likely considering the fixture congestion we're facing, they should be right in the mix. Might actually be another perfect storm for them tbh.

Lol what? There’s a general election coming up that decides our Brexit future. How in the fuck else are Labour and Lib Dems supposed to “stop the Tories” if we aren’t looking at this in the context of this upcoming election? What the fuck is the point he’s making?

Lib Dems have flat out said they won’t form a coalition with Labour though. It’s just not as simple as saying they SHOULD work together, the party leadership on both sides has to make that possible first. Until that happens voters need to absolutely consider the political realities facing them.

Apparently we're contemplating having 2 teams go out on the same day in two different competitions to manage the fixture pileup. If that League Cup side isn't just the U23s... I think it's a mistake and we should just pull out of the competition. Although binning off an actual competition for some FIFA created bullshit that only started in 2000 seems wrong... but there's actual money to be won in the CWC, so it's obviously going to be more of a priority to the club.

I like how they're using fear of "breaking up the UK" when the union's probably more fractured and likely to break up if Tories go ahead with Brexit.

Other than KOTOR 1 & 2 (without suggesting shite that's super heavy on fantasy elements), I don't know if I can suggest anything that's similar. But here's a few good games that aren't taxing on any computer. 1.) Papers, Please - you play the role of a customs agent checking passports. It sounds stupid, but it's a great game. 2.) Fallout 1/2 - these are more similar to Jade Empire in that they're RPGs; but that's about where the similarity ends. They're not easy games and they're VERY dated lol, but once you figure out wtf is going on - quality games. 3.) The Baldurs Gate games - classic RPGs. Warning: fantasy elements present.

I genuinely believe that he would rather remain than anything over anything than a hard Brexit. If Brexit happens, he's not really politically relevant anymore. But if we get a hard Brexit, he's probably willing to cash in all his political capital for... cash. So I think with No Hard Brexit, he'd much rather remain and keep running as an anti-EU MEP and just waste everyone's time and steal a salary from the EU for doing absolutely nothing. He made similar comments after May's deal as well. But Lib Dems have said they're not going to form a coalition with Labour as long as Corbyn's the leader - it's incredibly unlikely that Corbyn won't be the Labour leader by the election. They'll either form a coalition or force a hung parliament - neither of which really resolves any issues. I don't know why you're calling this unadulterated lies - it's the political reality of the Lib Dems. They're not going to win a majourity, the best chance they have of doing anything meaningful politically is forming a government through a coalition... and they've written off forming a coalition with the big party that isn't gung-ho for Brexit. Note how they haven't ruled out forming a coalition with the Tories. The electorate ignoring political realities is what got into this fucking mess - we'd all do well if they could avoid doing the same thing twice. You can't say "you have no idea what the future holds" and just hope for the best. That's literally how we got into this mess - people made projections about what Brexit would actually mean for the UK and they were rubbished with statements like "this is just hypothetical speculation, it doesn't account for x, y and z. PrOjEcT fEaR." It'd be much better if voters took a look at the actual political reality and voted based off the likely outcomes of what would happen. Remain voters should ask themselves: 1.) should I trust a conservative government to fix a decade of problems brought on by a conservative government? After they've answered that then: 2.) should I trust a party that will have to form a coalition to have any meaningful political capital, but has ruled out working with the party that's proposed a measure that would actually provide a mechanism for the UK to remain - but hasn't ruled out working with the same party they worked with last time as they sold out their beliefs? 3.) since No Deal is unlikely, should we vote for the party that's proposing the people get another say between: a.) a soft Brexit with one of the shite deals we've already negotiated, or possibly another shit soft Brexit deal a new government might negotiate & b.) remaining. And it's especially important because it's not just Tories that are going to lose voters to the Brexit party. There are loads of traditional labour voters that feel betrayed by Labour for "not respecting democracy" in respecting the referendum where people voted for the status quo or an undefined variable - and they just don't care that it's shaping out to be a pretty shit variable. They're people that feel left behind by Westminster entirely and want to see change from the top down - even if it hurts them, because they think all politicians have let them down. I personally don't think there's much hope though - the best hope is a Labour led government brings us a second referendum. It's not a likely outcome.

Yeah got forbid I don't trust a party that's shown it doesn't have strong ideological beliefs and then turn around and get in bed with the Tories and betray those beliefs. Why on earth would anyone trust them now? Just because they appear the most committed to ensuring we remain? We already know where they stand on Labour. They want support so they can form a coalition with the Tories - they'll go through with Brexit at the end of the day if that's what it takes them to cling to some semblance of power. Fuck em.

Lib Dems might get some attacks from the press - but they won't be fighting the media anywhere near as much as Labour. For all the complaints about "lefty journalists" the press loves to give Labour and Corbyn a hard time - Tories and even further to the right always get the kid gloves treatment. But Lib Dems are really just the watered down version of Tories - and let's not forget their stance is "WE WANT TO REMAIN (unless that means we make a coalition with Corbyn's labour!)." There's no doubt in my mind that if it was between forming a coalition that would result in Corbyn as PM but the UK remaining in the EU, or forming a coalition with the Tories and leaving with BoJo the Clown's deal... Swinson would be all aboard Brexit. Ideological backbone is NOT a Lib Dem strongsuit. Falling in line with Tories is though.

Weird when Theresa May comes across as not as out of touch as some of her colleagues

That's just a product of the leveraged buyout. It'd be much worse if they weren't actually spending money or making any effort on the pitch and essentially just asset stripping the club - but nobody in the world can say that's the case. https://www.transferleague.co.uk/premier-league-last-five-seasons/transfer-league-tables/premier-league-table-last-five-seasons - that's second most amount of money spent, second highest net spend in the last 5 seasons. Only one club in the league wouldn't want to have that kind of investment into their side on the pitch... and that's Slave Trader FC. United aren't shit because of the Glazers, the Glazers are just bastards for doing a leveraged takeover. But it's not like they've stopped the club from spending huge amounts of money to be successful in recent years. The problem is that hasn't been any vision or plan, meanwhile the football on the pitch is about as appealing as having to lick a turd. Really the biggest problem the Glazers have had in this regard is that they haven't really addressed the incompetence that's led them to this point.

They should just disown the United fan

Apparently the Dutch kid we signed is partnering Gomez in defense tonight

Wait do you not want to see Iwobi starting? Or Sigurdsson back in at #10? Or both?

With Klopp he inherited a side that was absolute fucking crap and nowhere near as bad as you were ever under Wenger. But in his first season (which was a mid-season manager swap, which is never easy imo) we might not have always gotten the results we wanted... but the on pitch performances were SO MUCH BETTER than the shite Rodgers was serving us. And then after that season, it's just been gradual improvement to get us to where we are now. Like you say, you can stomach not consistently getting results if you're seeing improvement on the pitch. But if you're getting poor results and poor performances... like we're seeing this year from Emery it becomes much tougher to say "yeah, give him more time - he just needs more time to make it right." He's still got the rest of the season to turn performances and results around... but the way he sets Arsenal up to play despite your side's obvious strengths in attack and obvious weaknesses at the back make me think it's unlikely he's going to have any big tactical revelation.

Being a sporting director in Brazil is IMO a bit different to being sporting director at a European club - when Brazilian clubs sign Brazilians/other South Americans they're not necessarily looking for the same qualities as what European clubs, particularly those the size of Arsenal, are looking for when they sign players from Brazil/elsewhere. The sporting directors in Brazil are more like hunters (I guess miners is the better example) looking for rough stones they can cut up to make gemstones. A sporting director at a club like Arsenal's job is to look at the various gemstones and determine which ones he can bring in for a fair price that'll either be precious gemstones (those obviously class players) or... that will glisten the right way under the floodlights of the stadium (those players that fit in with the system that the sporting director/manager have built). Honestly looking at your transfers over the last two seasons, it's hard to tell how good of a job Edu has done in his role. There's been some good signings, some good signings on paper that haven't quite panned out, and some bad signings. It's really hard to tell though when you've got a manager that's struggled - because it'll make everyone, even the good players, look worse.

Honestly, I think whoever was going to come in after Wenger was going to have a hard time. Yeah, Wenger went stale and clearly lost his touch - but he's probably Arsenal's best manager ever, he's a club legend and also a legend to English football. I don't think Emery's a bad manager - but I also don't think he's the right manager to kick Arsenal onto the next level. He might take them far in cups, but once you get to the final that's always a bit of a crapshoot in most cases. I also question whether Arsenal fans are patient enough to allow their next manager to build a side. Because when you look at Arsenal in the last years under Wenger, it does seem as though they lost their identity. When you look at Emery's Arsenal in most cases... they don't play with a cohesive identity. I mean... it doesn't help that Emery's been a bit shit tactically in the league. It will take time for a new manager to stamp his impression on the side and give them some character. But just because I don't know if Arsenal fans are patient enough to wait... doesn't mean I think they need to be patient here with Emery. I think the on-pitch performances (not the results, just the performances), especially from this season, are not what I'd say indicate that this is the man for a long term project. I think first things first, though, Arsenal need to bring in a sporting director with a track record of some success at some other club in Europe.

Anytime Woodward speaks, all he does is string a load of corporate buzzwords together into a sentence to explain how things are good for Manchester United. Never understood how the Glazers haven’t said “Right, nice buzzwords but what about the constant regression since we’ve lost the guy who was here for decades?”