RandoEFC

The whole left right thing is tiresome now. We're in a weird place in society where very few people would use the term left wing or right wing to describe themselves because somehow both of them come with some sort of stigma. Probably because politicians and journalists from both "sides" use the opposite to them as some sort of unspeakable insult when they're in an argument with someone from the other "side". Clearly, my views fall more towards the left on most matters but I would find it ridiculous if someone called me "left wing" because now it seems like that (and "right wing") has connotations of some sort of rabid extremism where it has to define your entire belief system. Like I couldn't be "left wing" but also think the government are right to scrap this law where they're automatically releasing known terrorists halfway through their sentence. Strange world we live in. I'd have thought after millennia of evolution it would be considered pretty normal for people to be capable of making their mind up on individual issues given all of the information but instead it just seems to be pick a side and blindly support/criticise whatever your leaders/the other team's leaders do, as loud as you can of course, and regardless of whether you actually know anything of what you speak.

Update after five rounds as Lucas extends his lead over nudge from 1 point to 3, Eco moves into joint 2nd and Bluewolf's Ligue 1 victory edges him into the chasing pack of dark horses. 1. @Lucas - 21 points 2. @nudge / @Eco - 18 points 3. @Tommy - 15 points 4. @Bluewolf - 14 points 5. @Michael - 13 points 6. @Teso dos Bichos / @Storts - 11 points 7. @RandoEFC / @DeadLinesman / @Stan - 9 points 8. @Dan - 8 points 9. @JOSHBRFC - 7 points 10. @...Dan / @Rucksackfranzose / @Mel81x - 5 points 11. @SchalkeUK / @CaaC (John) / @Azeem - 4 points 12. @Viva la FCB - 3 points 13. @Batard - 2 points 14. @Pyfish - 1 point

It's not a popular opinion but Djokovic is the best all round player of the big three and if he'd managed to sort his head out at the top level a couple of years earlier he'd comfortably have a higher slam count than Roger and Rafa. He might well end up beating them anyway.

Does the fifth set go to a tie break nowadays? Preferred the marathon 5th sets we used to get to be honest.

Nope, I've just liked Thiem since he was ranked down in the 50s and was just emerging. And it's about time that the likes of him and Zverev and Medvedev say "enough's enough" to the old guard.

Yep.

Does nobody else have a feeling of absolute liberation now? The Tory-Leave coalition has well and truly won the argument and given the power to do things exactly the way they want. There will always be that small minority who will refuse to admit they're wrong and blame brown or Polish people for their lives getting worse but for the majority that have two brain cells to rub together it would be totally clear who is responsible for what's happened to them if Brexit is as bad for the country as most experts think it will be.

I am an introvert but I also enjoy socialising. I think it's alright to have times in your life where you enjoy your own company more than that of other people. I'm going through one of those phases right now where work is taking up a whole lot of my energy and most evenings I'm content to sit and watch Netflix and do whatever little jobs need doing without really speaking to anyone. I do get lonely though if I let my life get taken over by that urge. I'm lucky enough to have quite a lot of friends, including family, from different groups despite not being particularly outgoing.

Please merge with Man Utd discussion thread if necessary.

I can't remember the exact injury but it was some combination of a break and a dislocation. I think the dislocation made it look like one of those proper snapped in two leg injuries but actually dislocation looks horrible without being too long to fix.

Crazy fast recovery.

Many players, including all of the top three, fired a blank in Round 4 (La Liga). Tommy and Storts take advantage to become outsiders for the overall title while Stan finally gets on the board in style with a 5 point haul. As a result, last year's champion, Viva La FCB, is one of three players sat joint bottom with just a single point from four rounds. New Standings: 1. @Lucas - 17 points 2. @nudge - 16 points 3. @Eco - 14 points 4. @Teso dos Bichos / @Storts / @Tommy - 11 points 5. @Michael - 9 points 6. @Bluewolf - 8 points 7. @JOSHBRFC - 7 points 8. @RandoEFC / @DeadLinesman / @...Dan / @Rucksackfranzose / @Stan - 5 points 9. @Dan / @SchalkeUK / @CaaC (John) - 4 points 10. @Azeem / @Batard - 2 points 11. @Mel81x / @Viva la FCB / @Pyfish - 1 point

I don't particularly want to turn 27 next week.

Surely Pogba should be the new captain?

Absolute wet wipe.

While I obviously want things with the stadium to go well, the Usmanov deal seems to be dodgy as fuck. This isn't my area of expertise so I'll happily stand corrected but surely there isn't many other cases where someone's paid £30m up front just to get the first option on later paying more money for the naming rights of the stadium. Stinks of us trying to work around FFP moves by getting the money, or parts of it, in at a certain time. I've also learned more about Usmanov's background in recent weeks and it doesn't make for a pretty picture. It would be hypocritical of me to slate City for their ownership and the human rights issues in the background there, and then feel perfectly comfortable with a dodgy Eastern European businessman who has clearly been involved with some dodgy people in the past bankrolling my club which I still believe stands for something more genuine. I'm not comfortable with it really. His involvement seems inevitable but I'd rather it was a background involvement.

I think if you swapped Grealish and Maddison over, Aston Villa would suffer an awful lot more than Leicester.

We signed a young lad. Think others were in for him. Also, lol at this:

Incompetence from Iran but the US aren't blameless either. These things can happen when you engage in posturing like this. Imagine if you were some sort of alien race watching our planet, you'd think we were absolutely insane.

Grealish and Maddison should certainly be in the squad. With Kane out, Rashford will probably play as the central striker which opens up a gap on the left side for either Sancho to enter the front three or possibly Grealish coming in off the left. The former is probably more likely given that he's already got some experience but I think it's really important to see both Grealish and Maddison get some minutes. If there's a three man midfield you've obviously got Henderson in there, I don't see why you couldn't play Maddison or Grealish in a midfield three. Who else is there? Barkley has surely lost his place finally, but I suppose Alli could be back in contention for a start after his recent form. I've not seen anyone touting Choudhury to get in the side for the Euros personally but I can't think of that many alternatives. Delph was in one of the recent England squads so if that's how hard up we are for midfielders then there's no reason why Choudhury couldn't be in contention. It will be interesting to see which English strikers may get an opportunity with Kane out injured. Rashford will clearly be the first choice, you'd have to say Ings has made himself a shoe-in. Abraham has done enough to keep his place. After that, I wonder if Callum Wilson, who has been in fairly modest form, will be recalled, or whether Calvert-Lewin could get a first call-up, or whether Southgate will opt to call up a more flexible forward that can play as the non-central part of the front three, but he already has that in Rashford really.

@Rab if we get significantly over the target amount, how much of an impact does that have on the future of the site?

I know we can only speculate, but seriously how the fuck does that happen? They fired about 14 missiles? Even if they were all in the sky at once, the chances of one of them randomly meeting a plane in midair seem negligible, surely? And wouldn't the Iranian military give a "heads up" to any airports that are anywhere near the firing line that they should hang on a minute because there's going to be a bunch of missiles in the air? I'm about as far from an expert as you can be in this matter, but it seems to me to be really hard to explain this. Did an inexperienced Iranian soldier panic or just really fuck up and accidentally aim for and take out this plane? Answers on a postcard...