leffe186

How come Bobby Sands gets to be corporeal but Big Jock doesn’t?

Your record at Man City is spectacularly bad. You last won there over ten years ago, previous to that you last won back in 2000, although obviously both teams have been out of the Premier League at times since then. Still, an awful record. We have won once at Chelsea in the last 36 years.

Fuller version. Watch for the incredible guitar solo at the end:

Well that’s fucking great. “Temu World In Motion”

Posted this before, and I can‘t comment on now with VAR etc, but when I lived in Scotland 20+ years ago it was the most I ever watched the SPL consistently. I was shocked at how much smaller teams got away with against Celtic, at least. Refs were wildly permissive of systematic and pretty egregious fouling. It isn’t a great surprise to me that some Old Firm fans complain about the refs.

They didn’t throw it. They were forced to make a couple of changes d/t injury, rested a couple because of the semi but ultimately just played right into RDZ’s hands. We got lucky.

I’m very much not convinced, and neither are Spurs fans in general. We never get anything at Chelsea, and in fact things there generally go incredibly badly in all sorts of ways. We’re also struggling horribly at home. I think we need you to get at least a draw. I fully expect Leeds to roll over and let West Ham tickle their bellies - funnily enough, more so than yourselves. If you beat West Ham (please) then we only need a point, and if that happens I think we might do that at Chelsea. I don’t think we’re going to win either game. You saw the problems against Leeds. They’re a solid team in really good form, yet we were the better side for an hour. Not massively so - they were dangerous on the break - but Richarlison should have put them away. RDZ has done a brilliant job but he’s come up against the limiting factor - the remaining fit players. Where Farke can bring on a player in any position he wants to change the game, RDZ is very limited and ended up having to wait at least 25 minutes too long to make a change. Farke brings on a dynamic attacker and an experienced footballer dangerous on the break in Gnonto and Longstaff. You saw the impact they made. RDZ clearly needed to bring players on who can hold the ball and slow the game down, but he only has one, who’s not played all season. In the 81st minute he brings on a young player still recovering from injury, then he finally gets to play Maddison. Again, you saw the difference he made, but even 20 minutes was considered too long. Supposedly Richarlison barely trained all week and was clearly running on fumes. He’s not the only one. If we don’t have the game won an hour in then we’re screwed. Leeds should really have won it after that. Look at the West Ham game. They Nuno it for an hour, then when the game opens up they bring on Pablo and then Callum Wilson. If we can give Maddison some time with a match in the balance we’ve got a chance. I think it’s a coin flip. If you win I’d back us to get the point we need. If you draw I think we need to beat Everton but there’s a chance West Hsm blow it against Leeds. If you lose I think we’re gone.

Wouldn’t the flip side be that they only lost to Southampton in the last five minutes of 2 legs and ET, so any advantage Southampton might have gained by spying could have actually tipped the balance?

Can’t help but feel you’re ploughing a lonely furrow here, @Paullow

I think if we win even a draw basically send them down. We’d be miles ahead on goal difference.

Urgh. I think we were split down the middle. A lot of people are confident that we’ll get a win or two in the last couple of games and so wanted a draw. A lot, like me, just want to make sure we have the best possible chance to stay up, which meant a West Ham loss. I’m not confident at all in us getting even one win at home, however well we played against Villa. And frankly, I am too old for this shit. I couldn’t watch, for all sorts of reasons. Not least because Arsenal can be horrible to watch. I hope and pray we stay up, obviously, and if this is the deciding match both ways then I’m ok with it. Because it highlighted what Arsenal are - a nervous and twitchy club that has decided gamesmanship, exploiting referees and set pieces are the best way to win. When it came down to it I realized n following the BBC text that actually I wasn’t too fussed either way, I just didn’t want West Ham to win. They nearly did. I was glad when Arsenal scored just because it meant West Ham wouldn’t get a late winner. When West Ham equalized I was kinda happy too. Just…this might be the best of both worlds. We get a West Ham loss but Arsenal won in a shitty way that highlights their essential shittiness. I’m sure their fans don’t care. I do. That’s enough.

Stick another asterisk on that title, lads

Glad to be back, Keefaz?

Been like that for a while. I guess Rangers had the opportunity to get the toxicity out of their system early on in the season. Glad Mikey Moore is doing so well now.

It’s just another aspect of the system that massively favours the big clubs. There is an argument that it might have contributed to the breadth and depth of talent we have as a country by giving more youngsters the opportunity to have a higher level of competition and coaching, but I feel uncomfortable about having such a huge amount of youngsters on loan throughout the pyramid. I guess I’d rather have it than the Spanish or German system where (presuming they still do this, I’m not as engaged as I was) big clubs have reserve teams in the lower division. There’s always going to be a trade-off. I guess the first red line I want to be drawn is to outlaw proper feeder clubs like in the BlueCo system.

Yeah it’s always been the case, like, for decades. Notts Forest is just easier to say, and nobody outside Nottingham gave the slightest shit. Of course when we all realized Forest fans did we were happy to not comply. I don’t know the history but Spurscommunity has been autocorrecting “Notts” to “Nottingham” for a while. Really annoying, because we’ve been loaning kids to Notts County for a couple of years now.

Tbf he appears to be a caricature of a movie baddie.

Feels like this will have been a factor in Iraola’s decision.

Oh I agree, it’s open to question. But you’re using the wrong Kane timeline for your argument. You need to ask what would have happened if he’d stayed at Spurs without being loaned out and getting the experience at Orient etc. Maybe he’d have got a few games coming on as sub, maybe we’d have sold him to somebody else. The elephant in the room is whether the loan system should exist at all, and honestly I’d rather it didn’t.

You just know Maguire’s guffs are agricultural.

Different horses for different courses. You could argue that it was critical in the development of the best English player of the last decade and more. Saliba isn’t what he is now without being allowed to continue his development on loan. It’s an inexact science, but you’d struggle to argue that it never works.

Aren’t Chelsea on some kind of restriction vis-a-vis sales?

It’s one of the reasons Arteta does what he does. At this level it doesn’t matter who you are, it’s hard to break down a well- parked bus. We’re probably about to see a World Cup full of it. One option is to maximise set-pieces and gamesmanship.

Basically a mad scramble for that 8th place presuming Brentford lose today.

Got it, cheers.