Smiley Culture

I don’t think Southgate’s comments are that bad. TAA’s form did drop (as did Liverpool’s as a collective) and he has taken steps in the right direction and is/has regained form. He has also picked players on form in the past and he’s done so here again. 

TAA has played 89 (EIGHTY NINE) games since the start of 19/20 and 46 since football resumed in June. I know he’s a young lad but it’s San Marino, Albania and Poland. We can get by without him, we know what he’s about and how he plays and while he’s in good form, we’ve got options in that position elsewhere. 

2 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

Only need to go back a week to see how the police were fine with Rangers fans celebrating them winning the league, yet holding a vigil for a young girl isn't allowed. As I said, the details surrounding what happened just make me all the more gobsmacked. 

Apples and oranges stuff, this. 

It was a random attack, which is all the more frightening given he was a police officer. Silly dick has rented a car in his own name and using his own mobile number and been caught on CCTV of a bus, apparently, talking to her and her then getting in the car. Exposed himself twice the same day, too, over in Kent. 

50 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

The European championship would be better with 32 teams than 24.

The main issue with the European championship was defensive play because of teams trying to finish third in the group. If they had 32 teams they could stop that.

For me teams with less quality can still produce entertaining games so the issue was the style more than the lack of quality. I mean I've seen football league games more entertaining than champions league finals before.

@Smiley Culture   @Mpache   thoughts?

By the way the reason I'm tagging you two  is because I cannot see anyone else even considering agreeing with me

I think it will ultimately happen. 

I didn’t think 2016 was particularly bad. I didn’t think it was one of the better Euros we’ve had, mind.

47 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

I think the issue with the europa league is the teams in it.

It has fifth placed teams in the top 4 leagues, then 4th placed teams, from the leagues just below that, teams that finished third in the champions league group stages etc.

When you had the cup winners cup,  and the UEFA cup with 2nd place teams from the top leagues it had more prestige. I would actually like to win it even if it doesn't qualify us for the champions league but without champions league qualification it is like the league cup unfortunately.  I still want to win it. But it's not a priority and I wouldn't want to risk key players for it. 

I would prefer it if the conference league was used for smaller nations. I would like to see a European competition for smaller  nations. However there isnt enough money in it so unlikely to happen.

I think the Conference one is unnecessary, I agree there. I was hoping it was going to see European Football turned slightly into the Nations League in the sense that the Conference would be for teams with a lower co-efficient or from a country with a lower co-efficient and then the winner of that gets into the Europa League, which would stay roughly where it is (I’d like to see it drop to 32 teams and no “second bite” for Champions League teams) and the winner of that qualifies for the Champions League. 

I quite like the Europa League. It often has a better spread of clubs than the Champions League and puts some teams on a pedestal that they wouldn’t ordinarily get. 

2 minutes ago, Tommy said:

A few months ago I read a survey what men would do if women didn't exist for a day and vice versa. While men usually answered silly stuff, woman mostly replied stuff like "feel safer", "wear something else", "stay out later" etc. Sad really. 

That, sadly, doesn’t surprise me. 

2 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

You would advise against most people, male or female, walking home alone in the dark if they could avoid it, but the point is that women have to take a lot more precaution than men when they shouldn't have to. The problem is with this message is that blokes who aren't ever going to cause anyone any harm are both the ones who will take that message seriously, whilst also not being the ones that really need to hear it. Let's be optimistic and choose to believe that there are some fundamentally good men out there who just don't understand how their behaviour can intimidate women at times who can learn lessons from the discussion around this incident and change their behaviour accordingly. I do think there's value in what one or two people have suggested which is that if you find yourself walking behind or towards a woman on her own, especially at night, then cross the road where possible so that she doesn't have to worry about it. That doesn't cost much and can make a small difference in terms of the stress for them. We as men can't control or alter the behaviour of our peers much of the time, we can influence a small group of friends at best and the sons many of us raise by setting a good example, but beyond that we can still listen, reflect on our behaviour and adjust accordingly if we can, as tempting as it is to shrug it off in the knowledge that we would never actually harm or intentionally intimidate a woman ourselves.

The really disappointing and upsetting thing is, this woman did all the right things. Stuck to well lit main roads and wore bright colours, perhaps unintentionally, but nevertheless this seemingly isn’t enough of a deterrent and there’s been some really open exchanges on social media of women’s experiences with men intimidating them or much worse. 

It saddens me that plenty of football fans see European Football as some sort of hindrance and treat the Europa League and soon, the Conference League, with contempt. 

Body parts found in the hunt for this woman. Terribly sad. 

7 hours ago, Stan said:

This sounds messed up.

Missing woman in South East of England. A serving Met Officer has been arrested in connection with her disappearance

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56342465

 

They must have found a body or he’s admitted killing her. 

46 minutes ago, Pyfish said:

There's now talk of North and South resuming but merged together for those that want to complete the season.

It’s a proper basket case at that level and the National League. I’ll be surprised if someone doesn’t go bust in that National League. 

Much further down, the Essex Senior League is going to run a competition during April and May for clubs, so I may have football to watch live, should crowds be allowed. 

As great as it would be, it should be held (even partly) in Uruguay. 

Remember when we were going to change the forum up and you would have had an allocation of coins to “spend”? 

National League North and South have voted null and void on their season. Can see everything else below it going the same way. 

6 hours ago, Dan said:

It would be a hilarious failure. It would be full of teams who have the majority of their fanbases support them because they win all the time - how would they deal with being the also-rans? Just imagine say, Arsenal, get put into it and they continue operating how they are now, they're never getting out of the bottom 5 in that situation. Are all the worldwide Arsenal fans, who this is blatantly aimed at, going to stick with it?

The perfect thread for this but my unpopular opinion is that I actually don't think we'll see it happen any time soon. I think the majority of proposals made are deliberately awful-sounding and just a bargaining tool for the top clubs to get greedier with TV money and the structuring of the Champions League. There'll be a compromise, which is rubbish, but not quite the European Super League. I think they know how awful it would be in practice.

We won’t get a complete breakaway. Though I think we will get a revamped Champions League, quite possibly this ten game one with Swiss chess style fixtures. We’re already moving towards a closed shop elite tournament anyway, IMO. With this third European competition starting next season you could have the elite competition for the handpicked elite and still have two European competitions for the paupers of football.

Part of me would really like to see what would happen in a “European Super League”. It would be so interesting to see how teams faired across a 38 game season, ala the Premier League. 

Anthony Martial, again (I think?). United will condemn it but they’ll continue to use social media and they’ll lob Martial out there on Thursday night. 

And the unlucky winner today is...Yan Dhanda. 

Yet more racism this weekend, it seems. I’ve seen the statements, we’ll see the condemnation and we’ll brush it under the carpet and forget it for a few days, expecting the victims to get back out there in a few days to play again and put themselves at risk of more abuse. Tiresome now. 

Just now, DeadLinesman said:

By Southampton or United ‘fans’? Genuine question.

No idea. The BBC article doesn’t suggest who it come from. 

The young lad sent-off for Southampton, the latest target, I see. 

Rashford the latest target. The Merry-go-round continues. 

38 minutes ago, Steve Bruce Almighty said:

To be honest what are fans and football authorities supposed to do beyond condemning and promoting anti-racism?

Condemnation is our obvious power and it is a power. Don't underestimate how social media firms will be squirming when they're under the spotlight for housing racists.

There's no quick fix.

In light of the sheer amount of racial abuse that has been highlighted this week (yes, I get that it’s a snowball effect once one has been highlighted in the press), I don’t think there should be any Premier League games this weekend. A statement condemning it and taking a knee has been done. Countless times. It’s changed nothing. A proper protest in this manner about what’s gone on this week reverberates around the planet far quicker and far better than a media graduates three paragraph statement or taking the knee. 

It’s not a quick fix but I think a line needs to be drawn and this behaviour and the institutions housing these people attacked head on.