ponsaelius

Basically a pay rise rather than a genuine extension in contract length. I'm fine with that.

Yup. Much better in the cut and thrust of a game with the chance to get forward. Struggles as the deepest midfielder getting the ball from the back four and being required to set the tempo.

Former French Sunderland defender Valentin Roberge at the back for Cyprus too

Italy could play a team of Serie B players and still wouldn't lose to England. Their record, even in friendlies, is awful.

With global warning there's a pretty good chance a lot of potential host countries will not be viable for summer tournaments going forward.

Didn't realise there was no warm up games before the WC. I mean with the schedule, obviously makes sense, just never thought about it. Gonna be such a weird tournament.

End the season IMO.

Was a bit frustrating how little he went looking for the ball considering the lack of service. Thought that was a huge part of his game but he never got going really.

Bit toys out of the pram but already a bit bored by this season. Already feels massively like a transition season where we're nailed on for midtable. Just hoping we can have a good go at the cup competitions tbh. We're in an awkward position now where teams are coming to SJP and treating us like a big club and looking to frustrate to get a draw. But we still have an Ashley squad in terms of attacking options so are easily held at arm's length. Today was the first really bad result Eddie's had since the Watford and Cambridge debacles.

That was hilarious ?

I'd prefer they stayed away from anything remotely political to be honest. A message in support and tribute to a dead monarch is undoubtedly a political position - it's ridiculous to suggest that it isn't. I'd be the same if they started making other political statements like many ultras groups do (left leaning, right leaning, anything). It works for some clubs and cultures where the politics is fundamentally ingrained into the fan culture or the history of the club - but WF has always been entirely about the club and the players only. It is a misstep to move away from that.

To be honest that is kind of akin to saying Go is a worldwide global game because over a billion people in China know it and tens of millions play it. I like cricket but it's not a fundamentally global sport in terms of appeal IMO - its participation is basically a direct overlay of former British colonisation. There just happens to be over a billion people in those 4 countries that resulted from the Raj. Basketball has a more global spread, and even when it's not the most popular sport there is a lot of cases where it is in the top 3-4 sports played in that country or at least has some footing. Cricket by comparison has no footing whatsoever in lots of countries outside of small expat communities. This is similar to football's appeal - although again a distant 2nd place.

I'm all for dunking on US sports and culture but tbf to basketball it's the one US sport that is genuinely international with high participation globally. The US are miles ahead obviously but have had their noses busted at the Olympics in the past and European basketball is a pretty good standard. After football it's definitely the most genuinely global team sport - just an extremely distant 2nd place.

Weird that this has not been confirmed by the way. Work permit?

They have like, people have already moved on. The idea of games being off 2-3 days later just looks ridiculous now.

Again the injury thing hardly helps. We're going to get injuries all season, moreso now they'll be cramming rearranged fixtures into the midweeks of the calendar.

Yeah they've fucked up massively. Everything else is going on as normal.

The fact the rugby is going ahead has absolutely sent me west like, I'm fuming

We will now have to play two midweek games next year that we wouldn't have. Our squad is already stretched. The idea that this will benefit us seems fanciful considering we're already in an injury crisis because of the congested fixture list.

Absolute joke mind. Return train tickets gonna go completely to waste. That isn't some small expense that I can justify just pissing away either. And if I want to go to the re-arranged fixture to make use of the ticket I've bought, which will probably be midweek, that's gonna be more train tickets, a hotel and probably two days of annual leave used up. Can accept cancellations for things like train strikes, or bomb scares, or global pandemics - but cancelling it for a completely unrelated event is really irritating. Especially when we're all expected to continue going to work.

Agree mind. It's an absolute joke if they get postponed. I don't see what it benefits.

I'll be fizzing because I'll have to write off train tickets I've bought. It'll almost certainly be moved to a midweek too so probably wouldn't be able to make the re-arranged game.

He’s obviously not good but we’re needing to sign a free agent goalie at 24 hours notice. He’s about as good as you could physically hope for.

Think the final squad gets registered next couple of days (before this weekends game). Quick Google says last year's were registered on 10th September.

Unreal faith in Mark Gillespie.