Smiley Culture

The fume when a historically shit national team continues to be shit baffles me. I usually watch an England game when there is a tournament on and wonder why I'm wasting my life watching that shit and again, I've done it. Played like that, football is shit. It's bad enough to watch on tele as it is but that is woeful.

Can't believe The Simpsons predicted this as well. Mad all the things they've predicted over the years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM09Ym5-ees

Wrexham already play 23 games a season in another country, I’m not sure if he they want more. In all seriousness, what an absurd idea.

We're in an era where "OMG I love a crime documentary" is a widely held character trait for the basic, white UK person aged between 18-35 and as such, plenty of these people think they therefore have the education and ability to "solve" crimes and there's plenty of stuff on social media around this case and plenty of rumours and allegations being passed off as genuine by these people based off of anonymous Facebook comments. People are searching for controversy and micro-analysing every little thing on this "case". I also think people want news stories to be "more interesting" or put better, more dramatic than they sometimes are. Not everything is a Harlan Coben Netflix drama but these people try and make it such. Take that Nicola Bulley case last year, there was plenty of rumours and allegations around that and all it ended up being was a woman drowning in a body of water, rather than some of the suggestions online. I feel like this is similar. There's some wild theories about this out there.

I know there were many of us at one point who were using Football Index a few years ago (what a period, having an interest in Guingamp vs Toulouse on a Friday night) and a few that got burnt by their incompetence and dodgy behaviour. I see StocksFC is the latest "Football Stock Market" in that space and there appears to be similarities to FI. Anyone using it?

What are we saying then? Dehydration in the mountains? Drugged out of his skull and ended up down a ravine? Or are we on the "this is a bit mad, there's definitely things not adding up" train of thought?

A few thoughts from me: - That was played at the pace and intensity of an early July friendly. I fully expect to see a game of a similar standard and quality in a couple of weeks time at a local ground to me. - Both sides were awful. As much as the English media meltdown has confirmed the sky is falling, Denmark were awful, too, which given their squad should make them as ashamed of their performance as England. - That is just eleven blokes slung on a pitch in the hope that something happens and they manage to win a game of football. It's a throwback to the 'golden generation' when you'd see a load of names slung on to the pitch with no tactics or tactical nous employed. It's bordering on some of the shite you see on social media from the FIFA generation where they just sling a load of people on a pitch and claim its a great XI. Alexander-Arnold is not a midfielder, he's just been shoehorned onto the pitch so he gets a game. His best asset is getting balls into the box from wide, so playing him centrally is nonsense. - England will go out to an organised team. They don't have to have big names, if someone has a decent tactical plan and sticks to their game, they'll probably beat England.

Morning...

Are we supposed to feel sorry for Chelsea being successful and having to play football games after last night’s weekly Tuchel moan?

Delightful that lad with the phone is clearly raging.

I maybe worded it wrong but I think it’s make or break with the fans, the threat of relegation is an aside to that right now and while unlikely, you look appalling at times and there’s a chance, however, slim that you get sucked into it if Newcastle can manage to throw enough blood money around and some shit sticks between now and whenever the season eventually ends. I think another appointment like this, a short-term appointment with no real plan to it and more ambling along and finishing in positions that the fans think is beneath the squad they have and I think the pressure on Moshiri really ramps up, new stadium or not. The bloke comes across to me, a complete neutral, as that stereotypical “rich man with a toy to play with till he gets bored”. The constant changes and flitting between working with DoF’s and working with different DoF’s every year and the contrast in the appointments made at managerial level (Silva who’d had a good month at Watford, Ancelotti who’s a massive name, Allardyce to keep you up, Koeman who looked to be up and coming and Benitez, a fella championed for Newcastle not being complete shit but still being pretty shit) and their styles and philosophies just looks like the workings of an irrational, knee jerk buffoon without any discernible plan. More of the same and I don’t see how your fans don’t really turn on him, if many haven’t already. I like Dyche but he doesn’t suit the “Everton way” and the style that Everton fans want to see as the very basis of the club. Not many names on the SkyBet list scream that to me, either. An untested foreign manager is a risk but that doesn’t mean it can’t work. Those who’ve worked in the Premier League in recent years don’t really scream that sort of thing either.

It’s a real make or break appointment for Everton, this one. If Newcastle can sign some players and actually pretend to be a semi-competent football team for long enough and Moshiri does a Moshiri again, they’re in genuine trouble this season, let alone next season. They need an appointment to get fans back on their side but appointing and inexperienced former player in Ferguson or Rooney isn’t the way to go to do that.

The names in the bookies list are pretty shit. Rooney makes sense for Rooney but not for Everton. He gets out of Derby with his credibility sky high and no relegation on his CV but he shouldn’t be getting a Premier League job, even till the end of the end of the season, this quickly. Nuno’s more of the same as Benitez, then you’ve got the Martinez’s and Bilic’s who are only there because of their links to Everton.

Said it countless times, how is he still in a job? I’m just surprised there isn’t massive protests about this. If we were French, London would be burnt to the ground. I couldn’t imagine how angry I’d feel had we not continued visiting my Mrs’ Dad in his final months. As a caveat to that, we weren’t even going outside for months on end so we felt safe to see him.

They cynic in me says twelve games in forty three days (up to 2nd January), of which eight were in December and you were due to play three games in a week, starting with Chelsea, then Arsenal and Shrewsbury. That’s not to say twelve games in forty three days won’t cause a certain amount of fatigue and injuries, mind. Enough to get a game called off though, I’m not sure. Liverpool now have four games before the “winter break” then five games before a gap (currently) between 19th Feb and 5th March (you’d think the Leeds game will go in here somewhere).

It’s nothing to do with Liverpool, they’re just the current ones using this to get games canned. It’s also that your manager is a proper whinging dickhead and I’m fed up of him complaining about the treatment of multimillionaires being asked to play two games of football in four days, Burnley having an advantage because they don’t have as many internationals as Liverpool (I mean, he’s free to take a job in League Two, they have none), shouting about clouds and whatever nonsense he decides to come out with that particular week. The whole “injury crisis” that seems to have suddenly hit every club sets the cynic in me off, too. Now the precedent has been set, do we now postpone games when clubs have genuine injuries to a number of players, a bit like when Liverpool were making footballers up to play in defence last year or whenever that was? The irony isn’t lost on me. Whinging Jurgen is still pocketing coin every month from John Henry (as is Tuchel and Pep from their chairmen, I must add), one of the blokes behind the comical Super League and he’s the one who’s made and continues to make his name in a competition that’s going to a Swiss chess style format in two years, where Champions League group games will be increased from six to ten. Where’s the bed wetting for that, like there is with the weekly Jurgen rants? Managers coming to England and then going off about the Christmas schedule is beyond tiresome now. It’s been that way since people were shitting in a hole in their back garden, it’s not a shock anymore and it’s beyond boring that managers of clubs are coming here and booting off about one of the few footballing traditions we have in this country that aren’t to do with beer or lukewarm pies. People don’t tend to moan as much when they play Wednesday-Saturday, I don’t get why we can’t do similar at Christmas without the theatrics we get. If we can’t ask and expect footballers to play football twice in a few days a couple of times a year and can’t ask Premier League clubs, those who have incredible facilities (James Maddison’s TikTok made Leicester’s training ground look like a five star spa to mere peasants like us) and the best in the business surrounding them, to field squads based on having ridiculous amounts of professionals to their advantage, what’s the point, anyway? Its nothing to do with Liverpool as a club but they’re the ones making the biggest fuss (at present) and it’s in the news, so they’re getting it. Just as Tuchel should have prior and whenever Pep brings up wanking himself silly about Spain allowing B teams into their league structure, it needs calling out for bullshit. Ultimately, I struggle to believe Liverpool cannot name 14 players. It’s not ideal, it’s not a particular good look for them and the League Cup takes a bit more of a battering than it already gets but there needs to be some common sense somewhere.

Liverpool have the best part of 50 professional players on their books, with at least 5 currently out on loan. No one has mentioned the plethora of academy kids they have too. That’s straw clutching and you’re well aware of it.

Teams dictating when they’ll play despite having 50+ professional players who have access to the best facilities and staff, is a precedent that’s been set already and frankly, it’s pathetic that we’re here. The rules above state Liverpool need 14 players, they’ll have that, make ‘em play.

Genuinely, if Liverpool don’t have 14 professionals out of the 50 odd they have, I’m not buying it at all.

Funnily enough I’ve been looking there. Can’t see it.

Fixed it for you. The bloke is a gargantuan bellend.

I’d be interested where you’ve seen that.

They can’t. Or they certainly shouldn’t. The round dates are scheduled well before a ball is kicked and shouldn’t be moved.

There’s a week between the First Leg and Second. Liverpool play Shrewsbury on Sunday and are due to play Arsenal on Thursday so there’s not really time at all.

Yeah they fucked Leyton Orient off when they had Covid vs Spurs last year so it’s a final appearance for Arsenal, for me but the precedent has been set so just let the 2021/22 season end in 2045 and let teams decide when they want to play.