Smiley Culture

I’m not saying it is money laundering but from the very, very basic training I’ve had on it over the years, it’s something I’d be flagging up to those who actually work in AML as a bit dodgy. It fits the profile. Big sum(s) of money, all happening very, very quickly and it seems that the “new” owners are the same people as the old owners, if rumours are to be believed. I’m tired of slagging off the Football League though. We’ve known for years that their due diligence was worthless and nothing has ever changed and this won’t see a change either. This is what the Football League are known for and this one absolutely stinks but heads won’t roll.

Same as normal, most international breaks we have now have two games, so keep it as is but have them spread out a bit more, if possible.

Didn’t say that, or certainly didn’t mean that. I’d have the four we have now (March, September, October, November) spread evenly across the year, maybe March, June, September, November.

The start of the season is quite congested if you’re a Premier League club. Between the start of the season, where you want to start off on the front foot, you’ve also got three international breaks in as many months to deal with, potentially European Football to contend with if you’re lucky and the League Cup. It’s no surprise that it falls so far down the list of priorities and sees so much rotation in starting XI’s. You then think of fans. They’ve likely laid out a load of money for a season ticket a couple of months before and quite possibly bought some form of new merchandise for themselves or their kid(s). Throw in the possibility of paying for some European home games if your club is in Europe and has that opt out ticketing scheme. It’s an expensive time as a fan and then when you consider the League Cup campaign starts around September-October, when you’ve just got kids back to school, have quite possibly not long since paid off your summer holiday and have to look forward to Christmas and the money required for that, it’s little wonder that a game against a lower league club doesn’t whet the appetite. I can see the merits of letting the sides playing in Europe forgo the competition and I’ve championed that before but I’m not sure you’re going to see much more of an uptake for tickets for West Ham v Morecambe than you would under it’s current format. I don’t particularly like three International breaks in as many months. The league season seems stuttered and doesn’t feel like it really gets going because as soon as you feel a bit of momentum, you end up with a week off so that players can go and play, largely, meaningless qualifiers, especially from an England point of view, where our qualifying record is ridiculous but upon further inspection, it’s bound to be against San Marino, Lithuania and the like. I’d rather see International breaks spaced out evenly over the course of a calendar year but I can see two sides to that. It benefits club football but probably harms the support of the national side. It’s probably inevitable that we scrap it, really. We’re the only one of the five major leagues in Europe that has a second cup competition, I think, so I can’t see it lasting another ten years. I can’t see the competition surviving if it was purely for clubs outside the Premier League either, you’d just see Championship managers treating it as the League Cup is treated now and it would go down the pan further.

Don’t like either Feyenoord or Iceland, tbh.

A very decent counter attacking performance from West Ham there. Soaked up a load of pressure, defended well and broke well when they had the ball and Antonio, for a bloke whose clearly not a striker, let alone a lone one, had a blinder of a game. Chelsea’s defence is very poor. They’ve conceded as many as Brighton (15th) and are the second worst in the top half for goals against with Burnley conceding just one more. Also looks as though Lampard is struggling a bit in terms of organising a side away from home. Again, defensively, they’re bad. Worst in the top half for goals against, they’re only better than Villa, Everton, Newcastle and Norwich and they’ve conceded one more than Bournemouth. Even at Derby he wasn’t great away from home. Won only 7 and conceded more than they scored. Think they definitely need Werner. They’ve only got Abraham that’s in double figures for goals this season.

Bournemouth are woeful.

Didn’t see this coming. Not even aware of any issues, like the publicised ones at Charlton, for example. Seems strange that the points deduction is dependent on final League finishing, rather than immediately.

Chelsea to score 2+ goals (vs West Ham) - 8/13. Chelsea have scored two goals in 9/14 away games and West Ham have conceded two goals in 9/14 at home. Chelsea are also only behind Leicester and City in terms of shots on target away from home, too.

It’s some achievement from Lee Bowyer and Charlton if they stay up. Three owners in a season, at least two of them who had no place in football, a tiny budget, a raft of injuries around November-December that decimated the team and forced them to play kids and Lyle Taylor, their top scorer, deciding that he didn’t want to play another 2-3 games for the clubs, choosing to run down his contract. I really rate Bowyer as a manager. I thought he was going to be one of those bubble bursts once they’re appointed permanently types but he’s done superbly there.

Travel - How very clichè, I know. Spoke of a Cannes-Nice-Monaco trip over 3/4 days with my girlfriend. Her best mate is living in Sydney at the minute, so she mentioned going there to see her, which lit my eyes up but I think we’ve got different ideas for that trip. She wants to do the sights and that, which, I wouldn’t mind but I’d be going to cram in as many games of Rugby League as physically possible. Sport - I’ve started a little savings pot for 2021 already. I was supposed to be going to watch England v someone in the Cricket but my brother in law has switched the tickets to a game next summer, I will try and get tickets to the London games in the NFL again, I’ve booked hotels for a weekend watching Rugby League in Newcastle in May next year and we have a Rugby League World Cup on top of normal events, so it’s going to be a costly year. Wouldn’t mind a trip to Europe to watch Football of some kind as well but that might be ambitious. Exercise - Lockdown hasn’t been kind to me. I’m heavier than I ever have been, which still isn’t a lot as I’m quite tall and have always been quite thin but I imagine my fitness is through the floor and I’ve not been living the healthiest lifestyle in terms of diet. Will probably run a bit. I know I can start this now and I will tomorrow but when normality resumes, I will need to keep it up.

Leeds v Luton was your classic “Lay Leeds” bet. Never change Leeds United.

Commentators and pundits generally talk complete rubbish in general, not just with unconscious racial bias. Everywhere is a tough place to go, that’s my favourite, it’s a translation of “I haven’t researched any of this”.

Awful. Proper relegation of a shirt.

Not commentary per se, but Souness would blame COVID on Pogba if he could. I reckon if you were that sad and went over it, he’s made a load of unconscious racist comments over the years.