Burning Gold

Proper Brexit stuff, this. We're talking about a trained referee with the benefit of replays, slow-motion, alternative angles, tech to allow him to measure offsides, and several assistants. But it's just "some other fella's opinion"

I'm with you on this. If anyone watched the Man United game on the weekend, they would've seen the explanation of how VAR works at the moment with contact fouls. Basically, the on-field referee tells the video assistant referee what he thinks has happened, and the VAR will only overturn the decision if the pictures don't match the referee's account. But I guarantee the description is getting lost in translation every time. Even if a referee is mistaken on what's happened, there's no way to describe an incident with enough precision to allow the VAR to definitively decide he's got it wrong as opposed to just having a different interpretation of the incredibly vague rules. Only the on-field referee genuinely knows what he thinks has happened, so only he can say whether he's got that wrong (we'll save the chat about what the rules are and whether they're being correctly applied for another day). Let the referees review their own decisions live and I guarantee we'll see a lot more overturned. Obviously keep having their performances independently assessed afterwards

Anderson's ruled out for the rest of the Ashes, and a few seem to be suggesting that might be it for his England career. It's a massive blow to lose him for the series, but I'm going to be devastated if this is it and we never see him and Archer bowl together. It's Suarez and Torres all over again

Italy's not particularly diverse, is it? To be fair, I think those countries are better, just not good enough

I'm something of an outsider, so correct me if I'm wrong, but American sports don't seem to inspire the kind of visceral hatred football does. As @Dan's said, people will do anything for attention or a reaction, and in the heat of the moment they go to the worst thing they can think of. The one that'll hurt. I have no doubt there are genuine racists among them, but I also believe a lot of what you see is idiots digging into the depths of depravity because they fucking loathe the opposition. Something of a hangover from the hooliganism of the 70s and 80s perhaps. Also, it seems to me that overt racism in America is a lot more heavily condemned (because of the history of the country), so people are far less likely to 'just go there'.

I can't remember it being used in the league games, to be honest. In the Super Cup it was broadly fine apart from that aberration of a penalty Chelsea got. It was a contact foul again, which is where the rules are probably the most vague, so no real surprise it's getting them wrong.

Pretty sure you're wumming with the bold bit, but this "the attacker was only slightly offside so it should've stood" stuff is the stupidest criticism of VAR I've ever heard. Saw it a lot in the Women's World Cup and seen a bit more of it now the new season's started, and I'm constantly stunned that people are able to put it forward with a straight face. The handball thing is the rule being applied correctly. It's not handball by either player because it's not deliberate, unnatural position, etc., but it becomes handball by the City player as soon as Jesus scores. Again, stupid rule, but VAR's not the enemy on this one. The penalty... yeah, it looked a pen to me. I don't think I've seen a non-award of a penalty for a foul (not handball) being overturned by VAR, so I'm curious to see what it would take. How bad would it have to be?

Not sure how it's possible to become CEO of two of the biggest brands in the world (in their respective fields) without the basic intelligence to figure out how to post a Twitter thread, but apparently it is. Anyway, Peter Moore's been tweeting about the copyright controversy

It is a dick move, but I think this is all being overplayed a bit. Firstly, teams like FCUM and AFC Liverpool are as plastic as it gets and absolutely don't need defending. City of Liverpool are a slightly different beast in that they're not a direct spin-off of a bigger club, but I remain skeptical. Secondly, unless I've missed something, I really don't see this affecting those local businesses all that much given that barely any (if any at all) of their merchandise says Liverpool on it anyway.

It's not as simple as letting him go, you'd have to find someone to buy him and no one's going to match the wages he's on at Liverpool I disagree with the part in bold on two counts. First, I always thought he was at his best (by quite a distance) when he came back into the team after being dropped, which is almost the exact opposite of a confidence player. And secondly, the way we get the best out of him is by keeping him as far away from the pitch as possible

Barcelona have started their usual shit then. This will be the big saga next summer, but I can't see Salah wanting to make the step down for a few years yet.

That is a phenomenal innings from Carlos Brathwaite. Glad he got his 100 at least, but I had a funny feeling he wasn't going to get them over the line for the win when he pumped his fist and kissed his bat to celebrate.

San Francisco is the place I've felt the most unsafe in the world. The touristy/cultural areas are great, and there are some incredible places nearby, but there are parts of the city itself I'd avoid like the plague

I honestly think India should be disappointed with this total. With the start they had, and only being 2 down after 43 overs, they should be well into the 300s, looking at something like 370. Still think they'll win, mind, but they should be out of sight.

The fear wasn't that he's injury prone, it's that when that knee does go, it'll be the end of his career. I'm not a medical professional, so I don't know whether that's a legitimate fear, but what needs to be put to bed is this "he hasn't been injured yet" stuff. I'm a little hesitant beccause of the league he plays in as well as the injury, but it's got to the stage that anyone Klopp and Edwards like is more than good enough for me. All for it if we can get him for a small fee on a short deal

I'm curious as to who's using this argument because it's patently false. Close games are relatively rare in one day cricket, whereas you often see T20 games come down to the last over or two. The advantage 50 over cricket has is that there's far more of the nuance and subtlety that makes cricket cricket while keeping the games to a digestible length.

I know you're not, but plenty of others are offering it as one. You just happened to be the one who posted it on here. Sean Cox is alive, by the way. Suffered some serious damage, but he's alive

I've read this a few times and, to be honest, I'm really struggling to see how "Oh it's not about this one lad who got beaten up at the footy, it's about these other guys who got beaten up at the footy" is seen as an acceptable justification

I think you're spot on and I'll add 8. Completely losing trust in the loyalty and judgement Tyrion and Varys, who often tempered her murderous urges, particularly later on and even with regards to her approach to taking Kings Landing. I personally thought it was a really good episode because of Dany's turn. Best of the season. It's the kind of twist that shocks you to your core. Game of Thrones has always done that so well and they've conspicuously not done it this season up until this point. On another note, I'm not really one for big battle scenes, but they've been shit this season after being built up quite a lot. You want me to believe the Golden Company wouldn't or couldn't assemble defences and set traps in that maze of a city? Get fucked

Not sure why you're surprised. You can't play for a club with those owners without a severely dysfunctional conscience.

Huh? This is where I thought you meant Benjen But yeah, we can agree it's bullshit that that wight wasn't able to get out. I assumed he was chained up, but he wasn't when the lid was popped off

I assume you mean Benjen? He's only half undead because of some shit the children of the forest pulled, which obviously they didn't do with all the bodies in the crypt.

I don't think they can be considered "little gripes" when they affect the core of the plot. Everyone in the crypt should be dead; Sansa, Tyrion, Missandei, et al. (and fingers pointed from all directions at whoever had the idea to shelter them there). Davos should probably be dead along with a handful of other major characters as well. Those would've been moments to pull on the heartstrings, not Theon getting the redemptive death everyone saw coming several episodes ago. They would've been moments to really throw a spanner in the works and leave you thinking "what the fuck happens now?" for a week; something Game of Thrones has previously done better than any show I've seen. Instead, everyone who matters is still inexplicably alive and well. For an episode that was billed as "about to make the red wedding look like a rehearsal dinner" it was rather predictable and incredibly inconsequential.