Inverted

Stuff like the Rashford comments further reinforce the feeling that ETH isn't actually about discipline and is more just about arbitrarily creating conflict for his own sake - trying to look authoritative, trying to make the players look worse, trying to create an impression that he's in control, whatever.

If you're going to play reactive long-ball football you might as well get a manager who's good at it.

Betting on your own team's games is a fairly severe case, you would think. I fully sympathise but it feels somewhat unfair/cynical if a gambling addiction gets you a half or more reduction in your penalty. The point of addictions being diagnosable illnesses is to enable people to correct their behaviour and confront the consequences, not dodge them.

One of the downsides of him being a short, moaning-faced git with tattoos and pigeon shit hair is that if someone says "he's a woman beater" my instinctive reaction is "of course". I'm conscious that if the authorities took this approach, about 30% of the population of Brazil would be in jail, but it's good enough for me.

Just finished Middlemarch - a massive read but excellent writing. A very pleasant surprise, had never read any Eliot before. Now onto this:

Just finished the first and now onto the second.

I'm about a third through and it's easily taken the top spot for most violent book I've ever read. Even more than The Road, which I thought would be hard to beat. Comeplling stuff though.

In terms of competence/effort it is possibly the most a team has ever deserved to be relegated. But having one of the best coaches in the world for a few games and a team with multiple elite players in almost every position has just about been enough to brute-force their way to survival.

I get that Mount isn't the most exciting signing but I think he could be excellent in a midfield 3 for Liverpool. Managers seem to love him, he's presuambly very receptive to tactical instruction and willing to do his bit off the ball. His play style seems to suit how Klopp has been trying to use Henderson and Elliot as kind of roaming #8s who get up and down and in and out of wide areas, except with more legs + ball control than Henderson and more experience + athleticism than Elliot. Plus I guess he could sort of be cover for LW, but Liverpool seem to have loads of forwards anyway.

I've read Siddartha, and Narziss und Goldmund, in English, but I'm reading this in German. Not read a book in German for quite a long time so this will likely take me a while.

So far I would say I'm more impressed by it than I really enjoy it. It's interesting more than captivating, I would say.

Most of the way through this. A good introduction to a period of history I didn't know too much about.

Very good so far. Even before it gets to the Mexican War or the Civil War I'm finding it a page-turner.

There does seem to be a weird trend amongst footballers of "sharing" women between them. There seems to be a select group of women within each footballers network who basically are the go-to for casual sex. You would think that as an impossibly rich and physically fit young man it would be easy enough to find an age-appropriate girl on their own without having her borderline pimped-out to you by a mate.

Idk, to m mind could easily play a guy like Rice as a holder and have a duo like Mount and Bellignham or Bellingham or anyone else ahead of him. As for a progressive defense, they have possibly the most creative RB in Europe and a semi-regular goalscorer in Ben Chillwell. John Stones is a proven CB in a possession system and Tomori is one of the fastest defenders out there as well as being technically solid. The only thing is, it would require a strong commitment to a progressive system and a degree of balls to play these players as opposed the usual suspects.

As of today I'm officially a solicitor. Only took the 8 years.

Me and the girlfriend are booked in for a two-week holiday in August. One week in Munich and then a week in Strasbourg.