Interpolic

Just that one last night.

Had a Norwich fan and a Man Utd fan tell me they think the ban's extremely harsh this morning.

Had no idea Drenthe played for Reading.

Really? I can. Other managers have stuff to play for. And also the possibility they'll lose their job.

Aye, definitely. Might stick a bit on Remy FGS and 2-1 at 33/1.

It's probably not worth the hassle tbh.

With today's morale-boosting news it's inevitable.

Look at the win predictions flooding in. I'll update that Emo table again soon btw, maybe on Sunday.

Soz like, obvious jokes are obvious.

GW 30: Hull 1-3 Man City Everton 2-0 Cardiff Fulham 1-2 Newcastle Southampton 1-0 Norwich Stoke 0-0 West Ham Sunderland 1-0 Crystal Palace Swansea 2-1 West Brom A.Villa 0-2 Chelsea Man Utd 1-2 Liverpool Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal

Scarily close. Both victims were blasted in the face. And neither has a leg to stand on lol

Good source?

How much are tickets? Might pop along on my lunch break.

Your mate said so: You realise that "claiming that we field 'exactly' the same number of key players" and saying "we rested players to about the same extent as other clubs" are not the same? How in the name of utter fuck can you put those two phrases right next to each other in your post and then claim to have made any kind of point? You're avoiding the point by bickering about wording/semantics yet again. To me "If we rested players to about the same extent as other clubs (which we did)" means that you're saying we do it to the same degree as other clubs, give or take. Forget about the word "exact". You were saying any difference is negligible at best, therefore we should move on and consider other factors, or in other words "then what is it that we did differently to bring it about?" I'm not arguing about considering other factors, I'm not denying they exist but to just flippantly palm off team selection on the basis that all clubs do it "to the same extent" is rubbish and doesn't seem to be reflected in results.

Hope the decision is delayed tbh, or else he won't give me a wave at Fulham on Saturday.

This cunt been sacked punished yet?

Exactly. We're talking about exits to Stevenage, Brighton and Cardiff here FFS. And as previously stated it didn't seem to affect our ability to get to quarters, semis and finals in the 10 years previous.

Your mate said so: Your other mate keeps on saying we treat the cups exactly the same as every other club, despite recent results suggesting the contrary. You haven't read my post properly, I've made it clear that I realise it's not as straightforward as team selection. Our top 4 or 5 players do seem to repeatedly miss cup ties though, which can't help. I must have dreamt 2 FA Cup finals, an FA Cup semi final, a UEFA cup semi final, and a few other quarter finals in the 10 years before Ashley bought the club. 19 Premier League teams that have done better than us in the cups, and various Football League clubs. Why? Many on here are arguing that it's because we in fact do not treat the cups the same as every other club, we treat them with less respect (in terms of team selection, tactics, mentality, effort, etc) than any other club and this is reflected in our results. The only alternative reason I've seen from any of you is "the pressure that comes our way through being by far the biggest club not to have won any trophies for such a long period" which, although a novel one, is laughable. As if any of our players give a fuck about that when they're getting smashed by Brighton or Stevenage.

Since this post we beat Leeds at home, so it's gone up to 12 wins in 7 seasons, 10 of those against lower league sides. Our record against premier league sides (who are all resting players to the same level as we are of course) is: P12 W2 D1 L9 Translated to league form over a season = 22 pts Yeah. We try just as hard as everyone else. Also I'm not sure how people can say we rest exactly the same amount of key players as every other club. There's no actual proof for this, it's simply finger-in-the-air stuff. If there's proof, post it. And before Sergeant Smug comes along to simplify the argument and act like everyone in the world but him is a fucking div, I'm aware other clubs rest players. How do you know they rest the same amount as us? Do they rest their top 3 or 4 players / only goal threats? Do their players pick up mysterious injuries in the lead up to cup ties? Do you know any of this for sure or is it finger-in-the-air? That's not to say that there aren't indeed a multitude of factors contributing to cup success/failure, including but not limited to team selection. However the mentality comes from the top and filters its way down into team selections, tactics and motivation. 7 seasons of unmitigated failure in the cups should tell you that, during which time countless "inferior" clubs to us have made a decent fist of winning one. That's why people were pointing at results over the course of 7 whole seasons vs other clubs as an indication of how seriously we take the cups, it's a far sounder means of judging the situation than just going "All teams rest players in the cups, they all rest exactly the same amount of players as us, so what's going on? Must be luck, (lack of) strength of the reserves, etc". TLDR: Team selection's been at fault, so has loads of other stuff. The bottom line is that our cup performances under Ashley have been unacceptable, even compared against all of those other clubs who apparently treat them exactly the same as us. We seem to treat the cups with more contempt than any other club as there's no money in them and this is reflected in the facts, i.e. the results.

Obsessed, neesy.

Sunderland who just got to a final and Wigan, the FA Cup holders and this year's semi-finalists. The error isn't owning up to it, it's having that mindset in the first place. You've got a huge list of clubs up there that have quite clearly taken it more seriously than us.

http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Jerry-Seinfeld-No-Thanks-and-Leave.gif

What have I said that means that? My point is that many clubs prioritise the league over the cup, and many clubs find Europa a hassle they could do without. This is still a fact. BTW if it was up to me we would prioritise the FA Cup over everything. Is it just a coincidence then that (as per Wullie's post above) we have performed worse in the cups than all 19 other Premier League clubs over the last 7 seasons? That's very difficult to answer. We are worse than some of those teams, so that accounts for some of them. The others, I don't know enough about all the lineups, events of the match and anything else to say. The sample size is very small for it to be analysed just on numbers. I'm not seeking to explain away all out bad results. I'm saying our priorities are similar to a lot of clubs. IMO it's a problem with the structure of English football rather than us specifically. And as I said, as a fan I disagree with our priorities as I'm desperate to win a trophy. What about the numerous ones that we're better than? Or the many Football League clubs that have done well, many of whom will have had their own aims for the season including promotion, escaping relegation, etc? 7 years is too small a sample mind, we'll have to wait until Ashley's been in charge 30 or 40 years to be sure.

What have I said that means that? My point is that many clubs prioritise the league over the cup, and many clubs find Europa a hassle they could do without. This is still a fact. BTW if it was up to me we would prioritise the FA Cup over everything. Is it just a coincidence then that (as per Wullie's post above) we have performed worse in the cups than all 19 other Premier League clubs over the last 7 seasons?

Welcome to IanWorld, where absolutely fucking everything is a coincidence!