RandoEFC

I don't think it was the Mail but one of the main newspapers ran a front page a day or two back where the big headline was about Priti Patel being well hard and sending migrant boats back to France, with a massive picture of Emma Raducanu, the Canadian-born daughter of a Romanian man and a Chinese woman, right next to it. Of course, they will happily claim her as British as long as she's successful, while perpetuating their general cynicism towards immigrants unironically. All you can do is sigh. She's had such a ridiculous tournament. Playing three extra matches to come through qualifying meaning she has won 9 consecutive matches, and she hasn't even lost a set yet. I watched the highlights this morning and she really is an excellent player. The way she moves around the court, her range of defensive shots and ability at the net. Stuff like that is usually what the female game is lacking compared to the men but she's got it all in her locker. Really impressed.

Insane run by Raducanu even by women's tennis standards.

Emma Raducanu (the 18 year old British girl who got to the 4th round of Wimbledon) on the brink of the US Open semi finals .

Williamson is an absolutely horrifically disaster who is broadly despised and derided by everyone from the teaching unions to Conservative party members. The worst man you could have in charge of education in a time like the one we've been through. It's not like any of this wasn't known before he was appointed either. He was fired from Theresa May's cabinet for leaking information while he was the minister for defence mere weeks before Johnson became Prime Minister. None of this is a surprise. He's an absolutely dim man.

Yeah I have nothing major against Djokovic although there are fewer reasons to like him compared to Federer and Nadal. The breaking Covid regulations last year and some weird anti-vax comments in the past year haven't helped but he's largely a decent guy. I didn't want him to overtake the other two in slams either but nobody can say he hasn't earned his place at the top. He's the best player across the different surfaces and he's done it in probably the most difficult era in terms of competition. I'd never say he doesn't deserve it. Outside of the big picture of the GOAT/most slams context though, it's just that the same guys have been dominating since I started watching the sport and now it's fizzled down to just one. A calendar grand slam is a great achievement for the individual but it doesn't say much for how competitive the sport is. I'm just fascinated to see how the next generation of tennis looks without the big three but the wait seems to be endless because Djokovic just keeps going again and again.

Medvedev is a bit servebotty really isn't he. Plenty of other facets to his game but that's the big difference between them from what I've seen in this set. And yes, anyone who can cause an upset against Djokovic would be sound.

I don't actually pay much attention these days but I finished my race on the F1 game and saw your post and went shit, Murray vs Tsitsipas in the first round and Murray's winning? And turned it on just in time to watch him lose the 4th and 5th.

Grand slam tennis is a nightmare because you watch a match it could end up being anything between 2 and 5 hours long. Especially the US Open because the matches start late evening our time and it's easy to watch it and hope for a reasonably short match and get sucked in to the 1am shift.

You can give yourself hand jobs to be fair. You can arguably do the rest yourself too depending on how motivated you are.

It looks like a quiet deadline day for us. Rondon appears to be coming in as a backup for Calvert-Lewin in a move that would once have outraged our fanbase but is now accepted as can't be worse than Tosun/Kean/King who have been the main competition for the last 3 seasons. Backup left back Niels Nkounkou has gone out to Standard Liege on loan leaving Fabian Delph and Ben Godfrey as our only cover for Lucas Digne. Not brilliant. We are also yet to sign a right back to compete with Coleman unless Arteta budges on Maitland-Niles. If we go into the season with Coleman and Kenny as our options (again) then that isn't great. We also seem to want another wide player even though I think we're relatively well equipped in midfield and attack. With Gray, Townshend, Iwobi, Gordon and Richarlison I'm not too upset if we don't get another winger. The full back areas are the concern, as it stands we'll be relying on luck to keep us from injury problems in those areas.

I don't know if it was mentioned in the other commentary but apparently in a recent match Tsitsipas was facing Zverev and he went for a lengthy toilet break, taking his bag with him and Zverev got up and said to the chair umpire that he's getting coached by text. Tsitsipas' Dad and coach was in the box on his phone. Coaching during the match isn't allowed in men's tennis so if that accusation was accurate it would have been cheating. Nobody can really prove it either way though. With Murray though it's hard to tell whether he turned it into a grievance because we all know by now he feeds off that sort of negative energy for better or worse, or whether it's something that's common knowledge or broadly speculated upon by the players. I don't watch enough tennis these days to really know. What I will say is that Murray along with most tennis players over the years has a firm sense of honesty and sportsmanship so if he thinks someone is crossing the line from gamesmanship into something a bit less honourable it's going to piss him off. We've seen the same with Federer in the past who is less vocal on court but gets visibly pissed off. Still, he has to be pleased with how he played. What he's already done coming back with a metal hip is a notable achievement and while the chances of him winning another big tournament are realistically gone, if he can get back in the top 20 or so in the world again it would be quite incredible and if you can seeded in say the top 16 you never know how a draw might open up.in front of you. I think Murray probably needs to play more tournaments outside of the majors to achieve that though and I'm not sure if that's his priority or whether it's advisable for his physical condition.

This is the best I've seen Murray play in ages. Shame about the brutal first round draw but that's what happens when you aren't seeded.

Pretty sure Ricciardo has a contract at McLaren. Tsunoda probably gets another year. Giovinazzi is very meh and I can see Ferrari trying to get Ilott, Schwartzman or even Mick Schumacher into that seat instead. Williams probably only let Latifi go if they can get another driver to replace him who brings some money. Red Bull seem to have started sniffing around for a seat to get Albon back on the grid. I'd be surprised if he went back to Alpha Tauri in place of Tsunoda but he might be in the mix to partner Bottas at Alfa Romeo or one of the Williams seats. Hopefully Mazepin gets replaced by literally anyone but I don't think there will be a huge clamour for that seat so he'll probably end up staying.

Seems an odd move for Arteta to stonewall the loan to Everton for him when he barely gets a game and Chambers is apparently ahead of him at right back. Coleman is our only right back apart from Jonjoe Kenny who we've been trying to sell/loan out for the last couple of seasons. It's a really good opportunity for the player and you can't blame him for wanting to go and get some game time at a decent side. The only thing that makes sense really is if Arteta is that dead set on strengthening a team he sees as a rival. It's not the first time that he's struck me as being needlessly stubborn almost to make a point of a relatively minor matter. Maitland-Niles has been very direct with that Instagram post. As much as I sympathise with his situation, I'm not a fan of that sort of airing your dirty laundry in public. It's slowly starting to get more common from players now. Agents starting to realise that it's actually a minor tool in their armoury when they want to force a move. Publicly announcing you're unhappy through social media and thus reducing your value to your current club. It's unprofessional and a bit grubby in my opinion.

Chelsea still managed to sign Kovacic and Pulisic using loopholes the window they were "banned" from signing players, if I remember correctly. And the second point isn't true, because of Financial fair play.

I know you don't want to hear it and it's not even wishful thinking on my part because I'm sick of the three "money is no object" clubs in the Premier League but it's hard to see how Liverpool remain competitive with them in the long term. Klopp and Edwards have both done an exceptional job in the transfer market and with the players brought in, but they won't be around forever. Unlike Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea who can just bounce back and try again with another £200m every 6 months, a bad transfer window or the wrong managerial appointment after Klopp could set Liverpool back for more than a single season and it would be incredibly difficult to build back with another series of signings with such a good hit rate like they managed with the current squad. If they can keep getting more or less everything right in the long run then fair play, but it's hard to imagine that the financial gap can be bridged by clever management indefinitely. I'm not even saying this as an Everton fan who wants to see this either. Right now it just feels like those three clubs are moving to a level propped up by Financial 'Fair' Play that will become unassailable even for a team like Liverpool and I think that's just shite.

Jesus fuck. Drops of rain causing chaos at Eau Rouge in W Series qualifying. All drivers okay apparently.

I've been dead inside to this sort of thing since the year the Bahrain GP went ahead behind closed doors during the civil war, and when they showed no footage of the Force India cars in qualifying (and vitally, their sponsors) because they "boycotted" one of the practice sessions for safety reasons after a team member got involved in some sort of incident outside the circuit, daring to allow the sport to be seen in a negative light. You can't really blame the drivers. What are they to do about it? It isn't their job either. Starting any sort of movement to raise awareness is already more than they "have" to do and it's more than what was being done 5 years ago. Be grateful for the progress at least, no matter how small and belated it might be.

Surely you've got something lined up. I'd forgotten about AFCON being a thing but the scenario described does seem problematic.

I'm off the Isle of Man today for the first time since October 2019. Just wandering around some of my favourite spots in Liverpool while I wait for my hotel check in to open later on. Even in the rain, a special and beautiful city.

I'm no expert on the Middle East but I understand enough to be thoroughly disappointed in the West at large and particularly Biden and the US.

Yet another well managed episode of Everton FC. Well done everyone.

The lateral flow tests aren't very reliable for negatives apparently. If you've only got "a bit" of Covid, either in the incubation period or during recovery, they miss positive cases that the PCR tests pick up. Doesn't really change the situation though, annoying for him.

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