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Post by ted1965 on Mar 23, 2009 12:10:26 GMT
I felt the need to reply, not because of anger but a desire to show how crude and vulger I am.
Dear Mr Alexander,
It would seem you have misunderstood what real football is all about, yes there maybe a little vulgarity amongst the passion but there always has been or have you not attended many games in person over the years. I suggest you turn up the sound on the television more often and actually listen to the chants.
I would guess that you were one of those journalists who considered Stoke a blight on the Premiership when they won promotion last May. That their crude style both on the field and off would somehow sully the pristine world of the purists.
That same Premiership where so called role models abuse referees throughout the game, act like petulant schoolboys, throw themselves to the floor and then imitate a fish flapping around gasping for air in a catch net and then are astonished when a referee actually has the nerve to do his job fairly and send them off. I would ask did you see any of this at the Britannia on Saturday, no of course not. What you witnessed was a side using every opportunity to compete, has competing become a crime now. I wasn’t aware we had finally taken all fair minded competition out of football altogether. Where the top managers whine and complain constantly about decisions that should have been given for them yet somehow become blinded by the light from their own backsides when asked about misdemeanours of their own players or decisions which blatantly favoured them. I take it you find this world a much rosier place. I would rather follow a side who yes maybe rugged in it’s approach but who don’t go in for the hysterical histrionics of the so called purists.
As for the so called crude vulgar supporters you so easily malign have you forgotten what real passion is like. The love of your club and the desire to make a difference from the terraces, to make your own players feel inches taller and to make the opposition shrink. It’s called passionate support of your club, yes it can get a little vociferous at times, sorry if that hurt your delicate eardrums with luck you’ll be sent to Emirates or Old Trafford next time where they are more refined and appreciate the new code of only supporting the side when a goal is scored and then returning to the crossword and caviar till something else happens. The difference for me is we have real supporters, ones who have been starved of success for a long time and who intend to show their appreciation and support of their heroes efforts because we know how fleeting success can be. If that’s a crime in the new Premiership world then sadly it’s a doomed. Football is a passionate game, one which makes the blood boil one moment and the heart leap the next the moment they take real supporters out of football then it will die a thousand deaths in front of self indulgent imbeciles who simply want to be part of an experience instead of living a game on the edge of triumph and disaster, we care what happens to our club, it’s not just a status symbol it’s a lifelong passion.
As for Delilah being a Philistine, well she also brought down the mighty Sampson just as we have done with 8 so called Sampson’s at the fortress Britannia and long may we continue to do so. I will be a Philistine every home game if it means we’re not a conceited bunch of cheats supported by people who didn’t know the offside trap from an off road four wheeler a few years ago.
A happy Philistine, crude inarticulate to the last drop of red and white blood, must go now as my knuckles are dragging the floor and it's giving me a migraine.
Ted.
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Post by euan ouzami on Mar 23, 2009 12:18:22 GMT
Re: Jeremy Alexander's thoroughly impartial summary of Stoke City's match with Middlesbrough at the weekend. Delilah certainly was a Philistine, but the protagonist was incurably invidious and jealous. Ring any bells? Classy post... ;D ;D
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Post by thepremierbanksy on Mar 23, 2009 12:24:28 GMT
The reality is that we were pretty terrible on saturday, especially in the passing stakes - we could barely put two passes together in the first half, so I doubt there are any particularly complimentary match reports anywhere and rightly so. (I read the one in the observer yesterday, sister paper of the guardian, which was actually a very good representation of the match.)
Where this fellow sets himself apart as a piss poor journo is firstly his dig at Shawcross - professional footballers leave FT education as the first available opportunity and don't have the benefit of a journalism masters like Jez here. He might play in front of tens of thousands every weekend, but it's hardly surprising that a 21 year old lad might get a bit nervous when a microphone is stuck in front of him post-match, especially considering the adrenaline which must have been racing around his system - hardly surprising that he doesn't come across particularly eloquent.
Second is the repeated mention of our apparently "abusive" fans. A couple of not particularly loud chants of "wanker" hardly ranks up there with for example the sol Campbell chant of spurs fans or indeed a hell of a lot of the chants that go on at football matches. Boro players got a bit of stick when they went to take corners - there's not a ground in the country where that doesn't go on. I don't really see what he's so outraged at one not particularly offensive swear word - i read just as bad language regularly in the paper he writes for.
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Post by LDE76 on Mar 23, 2009 12:30:41 GMT
Had anyone at The Guardian heard of football before 1992? My guess is that this oaf is just pissed off because he had no say in being transferred from his previous role of Pretentious-shit-currently-on-display-at-the-Tate-Modern correspondent.
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goal_poster
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Post by goal_poster on Mar 23, 2009 12:44:57 GMT
Although it really pisses me off that this bloke can get away with penning such biased, factually incorrect drivel, the thing that really upset me was his despicable cheap shot at the outstanding Ryan Shawcross. Footballers are paid to play football and not for their interview techniques. I'm pretty sure that Ryan wasn't obliged to do the interview but he agreed to it nevertheless. I'd like to see how Mr. Alexander performs when having a microphone shoved in his face after 94 mins of physical & mental exertion. He really should be utterly ashamed of himself at stooping to such a low level just because he doesn't like our team, style of football, city, people, weather, accents, passion, etc.......
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Post by stokebill on Mar 23, 2009 12:55:29 GMT
"the thing that really upset me was his despicable cheap shot at the outstanding Ryan Shawcross. Footballers are paid to play football and not for their interview techniques. I'm pretty sure that Ryan wasn't obliged to do the interview but he agreed to it nevertheless. I'd like to see how Mr. Alexander performs when having a microphone shoved in his face after 94 mins of physical & mental exertion. He really should be utterly ashamed of himself at stooping to such a low level just because he doesn't like our team"
That is the part that disappointed me too, totally uncalled for. It was obviously an attempt to further illustrate that we are all (all 28,000 + 11) a bunch of inarticulate knuckle-draggers. I'd like to see Alexander play at centre half in a Premier League game and then read a Ryan Shawcross report on the match.
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Post by Linx on Mar 23, 2009 13:04:42 GMT
Yes, I've noticed how every other crowd's chants are models of politeness and etiquette. It comes to something when your crowd's chants get criticised for vulgarity! I thought that was what football chants were all about.
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Post by PotteringThrough on Mar 23, 2009 13:06:45 GMT
Nothing like giving credit where its due!
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Post by rorymscfc on Mar 23, 2009 13:26:56 GMT
I think perhaps Mr Alexander might have a point with regard to Ryan though to be fair, although since he's been with us less than 2 seasons, perhaps we are not to blame for this?
Maybe Mr Alexander should direct his snide comments at the club where Ryan spent his early formative years and where he undoubtedly received a degree of training in the art of dealing with the media. Where was that again? Oh yes, Manchester United!
I'm sure Sir Alex would welcome any comments from a 2 bob hack regarding how his club prepare young players for a life in professional football...
RoryM
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Post by sheikhmomo on Mar 23, 2009 14:22:02 GMT
How embarrassing it is when someone overreaches themselves intellectually and is exposed as being an ignoramus by a bunch of 'philistines'. I keenly look forward to his next effort.
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Post by jezzascfc on Mar 23, 2009 14:30:53 GMT
Some Stokies are called Jeremy too! Other than that, this bloke is a gimp of the highest order who simply trots out the gloryhunting media's party line about our club without any attempt to understand the football world in which we operate and what a magnificent achievement it will be if Stoke City survive in the top flight this season. I think all of us would love to see our team play total carpet football, but one only has to look at the Baggies to see how this will fail catastrophically without the multi-million pound superstars the top teams have at their disposal to perform it. I will be travelling thousands of miles again at Easter (last time v Pompey) to scream myself hoarse in supporting my team v Newcastle standing united with the best supporters in the land in roaring on the most honest and hard working players in the Premiership to survival. Up yours the Grauniad.
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Post by stokebill on Mar 23, 2009 14:41:49 GMT
The most honest and hard working players in the Premiership they certainly are, Jezza.
I would have thought that this fact might have been underlined in red by the national press by now. Its no mean feat in a league whose teams have recently brushed aside Europe's elite largely by playing at a far higher tempo.
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Post by wizzardofdribble on Mar 23, 2009 14:47:56 GMT
I'm sure the 100,000 Social Workers that buy the Guardian don't even read the sports pages ;D They only buy it on wednesdays for the jobs...
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Post by spartanstokie on Mar 23, 2009 15:01:33 GMT
Agree crap artical
but the photographer is a local lad dave thompson from Alsager top bloke and sound stoke fan
WELL DONE TOMMO
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Post by ipswichpotter on Mar 23, 2009 15:29:52 GMT
Hypocrite - v pompey he said:
'Stoke find themselves down among the laughing stocks, company they do not deserve. They may be limited but they have organisation and boundless spirit which make them a different proposition from Derby last season. Peter Mandelson said on Friday that the state of Britain called for "all hands to the pump". Stoke prefer feet, though they do have Rory Delap with his huge low-slung throw-ins. They are the Premier League's true Olympians - running faster, jumping higher, throwing farther than anyone. They challenge resilience in a particular way'
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Post by surreystokie on Mar 23, 2009 16:44:41 GMT
Ted, I earlier responded for the same reason, as follows.
Mr Alexander,
As a lifelong football supporter, I read with some bewilderment and no little sadness, your match report on the Stoke City v 'Boro game. Bewilderment because, as a regular Guardian reader, your unkind comments on the post-match interview with young Ryan Shawcross, showed little concern for your newspaper's declared adherence to having the interests of the "working "classes" at heart. Indeed you seem to despise them and I cannot imagine the effect of football player interviews on your too easily tortured soul.
Surely football connoisseurs are aware that the majority of players talk eloquently, largely with their feet, or, as so admirably shown by Ryan, with their heads, too. Thus is the lack of correlation between verbal fluency and sporting talent irrelevant.
Should you prefer the eloquence and supposed intellectual capacity, as exemplified by the articulate and "upstanding" public servants who regularly figure on your newspaper's front pages, for having got this country into its present mess, then I make no apologies for being at odds with you.
Tony Pulis must be a great irritation to those who understandably hate his largely negative tactics and the lack of world class talent in his teams, at this level. May I therefore suggest that the former is the result of the latter, as is belatedly being appreciated my many of his erstwhile detractors, both in the media and in the stands at the Brittania Stadium. A club does not necessarily play the football it admires but rather that which is dictated by its squad's lack of experiecce at the highest level and the resultant financial deprivation.
As for the remainder of the bile and rancour heaped upon my club, suffice to say that we are delighted to have a stadium where supporters reflect well on a passion-inducing sporting event, rather than one which is more beffiting of Covent Garden.
I trust that you will return, again, without prejudice in tow, and with a better understanding of what Stokies are all about. And why we are so inherently proud of it.
Yours in sport, etc
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Post by bayernoatcake on Mar 23, 2009 16:50:07 GMT
Here was me thinking Fuller was fouled to buggery and not protected by the ref. I now stand corrected! As I do too on me thinking Boro played wank football
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Post by lancer on Mar 23, 2009 16:55:55 GMT
Quite true, John Locke. The bloke clearly knows eff all about football. But then again, he does write for the Guardian, doesn't he.
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Post by mermaidsal on Mar 23, 2009 19:13:08 GMT
Had anyone at The Guardian heard of football before 1992? My guess is that this oaf is just pissed off because he had no say in being transferred from his previous role of Pretentious-shit-currently-on-display-at-the-Tate-Modern correspondent. ;D ;D And pretty accurate too, he really is a supercilious prat. Glad he wasn't sitting anywhere near me talking like that.
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Post by jacka118 on Mar 23, 2009 19:40:18 GMT
They don't have a clue
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2009 20:03:31 GMT
right, i begin. we are stoke!! the truth of the matter is, we cannot afford these namby pamby passer's of the ball, because the greed of the top clubs has ruled out any chance of that. the money men run football, and if they don't like getting a kick up the jacksy every now and again they can get stu--ed!what chance would we have of signing the likes of gerrard, rooney, ronaldo, vidic and such like? none whatsoever. so we have to compete. these lads, to a man have done their level best to make sure stoke stay in the premier league. these pillocks don't like it, so to them i say go and get f-cked!this is a working class game,and always will be in my book. so come on stoke keep up the good work, and keep people like this reporter sick as parrots. goooaaarrrrnnnn stoke. p.s. we have as much right to be in this league as anyone.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2009 20:29:15 GMT
seems like i've had one post removed(a reply to this post)they just don't like the truth do they.we cannot afford the likes of rooney, ronaldo, lampard etc:so we make do with what we've got. i'm loving the fact that we're upsetting the apple cart, lomg may it continue. let's see if they remove this one!!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2009 20:52:03 GMT
goooaaarrrnnnn stoke!!
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Post by altair on Mar 23, 2009 21:34:37 GMT
Been a Guardian reader for over 30 years, but this piece has incensed me. I just had to reply to this poisonous little reptile.
Mr Alexander,
Sorry that you seemed not to enjoy your visit to the Britannia Stadium on Saturday. Perhaps your oatcakes were rather simple fare compared to the prawn sandwiches that you are so obviously used to. As a Stoke supporter in his 50's I remember with pride and affection the wonderful teams built by the great Tony Waddington. People remember Stan Matthews, but the 1975 vintage of Shilton, Smith, Hudson, Salmons, Geenhoff, Ritchie and Conroy regularly played allcomers off the Victoria Ground. What a pity you chose not to reflect on this. I suspect that, like most connected with the Premier League, you would much prefer no relegation and promotion, so that the cosy elite can, like Middlesbrough, continue to hoover up shedloads of dosh to waste on over-paid, over-priced continental wasters without fear of the consequences if they get it wrong. And the sports hacks can wallow in ever more cosy relationships with the Southgates of this world. Poor little lambs.
Unfortunately for you and Southgate and co., it's no longer possible for teams like Stoke to build teams in the way Waddington once did. Premier League players are content to wallow in the reserves like pigs in a fur-lined trough rather than move to the Potteries. So what do we do? Do we sign light weight tippy-tappy good-looking players who would be footballed off the park by teams who have had the benefit of untold wealth for years (like Middlesbrough)? Or do we fight, fight and fight again to upset this cosy cartel until we have banked enough cash and gained enough credibility to play how you would like us to play? There used to be a time when the British loved an underdog, but if this dog bites then hacks like you go crying to Mummy. More power to Tony Pulis’s elbow, and if we are upsetting the likes of you then we are definitely doing something right.
The next time that you come to the Britannia, please make yourself know to us. We will give you a very warm welcome indeed. And by the way, it was a very cheap shot to malign Ryan Shawcross like that - very cheap indeed. I see that the England set-up has recognised his ability. Maybe they know a thing or two about football.
Yours etc.
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sbstoke66
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Post by sbstoke66 on Mar 23, 2009 21:36:49 GMT
seems like i've had one post removed(a reply to this post)they just don't like the truth do they.we cannot afford the likes of rooney, ronaldo, lampard etc:so we make do with what we've got. i'm loving the fact that we're upsetting the apple cart, lomg may it continue. let's see if they remove this one!! Bang on Sir. We haven't got the quality but bags of passion and commitment which will see us stay up. When we do we will attract better players and slowly build a talented squad. Until then we'll do whatever it takes to stay up. C'mon Stoke!!
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Post by scfcrmagic on Mar 23, 2009 21:58:23 GMT
A quote for the little gob shite from the Guardian
It's not the critic that counts Press On - No matter what they say to you
It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt "Punching above my weight i know but who cares " Eddys Mum
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Post by Lightwood on Mar 23, 2009 22:10:31 GMT
where can I see all the replies on their website?
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Post by sheikhmomo on Mar 23, 2009 22:55:22 GMT
Has this pompous cretin deigned any 'philistines' with a reply yet?
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Post by OldStokie on Mar 23, 2009 22:57:43 GMT
Excellent, Seymour. In fact I thought your contribution the best amongst many good replies. Perhaps you should become a 'hack'? Alexander exemplifies no part of our society: he is a self serving egoist who thinks condescension is wit. I could add one letter and change another in the last word of the last sentence and that would describe him well. There, see what I did, Jeremy? I swore without swearing. I doubt you would have the nous to do that. I'm not sure where you were educated, but they did a very poor job. All good journos know that the overuse of metaphors is down to a basic lack of knowledge of their own language: I can't think of the proper words to write, so I'll use a metaphor. It's not good form. In fact, it's downright lazy journalism. And that, squire, is exactly what you are. But you're more than that; you're a mealy mouthed person. No one with an ounce of decency would stoop to demean a player because he doesn't have the gift of communication. Ryan Shawcross is a footballer, not an orator. Considering you have (supposedly) just watched a game of football where that player has excelled, then surely that is the matter you should be concentrating on? If you choose to dwell on the young man's inability to 'tork properly', then that shows exactly what your mindset is. And there can be nothing worse than a journalist who sets out to cover a story with preconceived ideas. It goes against the grain of the finest professions one can be associated with: the bastions of freedom: a seeker of truth. In your case, you're a fucking twat and a waste of space. That last sentence is fully deserving of you. You may not like it, but that's all you're worth, and it's language we thick sods up here reserve for idiots like you. Now fuck off! OS.
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Post by clactonpotter on Mar 23, 2009 22:58:09 GMT
True,Delilah was a Philistine , but her story is also an 'allegorical description of the Triumph of Love.' More than apt for SCFC.
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