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Post by knowles on Sept 10, 2015 1:54:15 GMT
Punditry, commentary and co-commentary should be completely removed. 90 minutes of the game with crowd noise and that's it. They can stick 15 mins of adverts on at half-time if they wish. Nice idea, but can you imagine the dull silence when they come to televise Arsenal?
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Post by knowles on Sept 9, 2015 23:20:31 GMT
Arguably the worst Irish side of my lifetime haven't come close to qualifying for any tournament. Why's that? Namely because they are a team of plodders who simply aren't good enough, the epitome of Jon Walters if ever there was one. Just to be picky...didn't Ireland qualify for Euro 2012? (admittedly they were pretty shite though!)
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Post by knowles on Sept 9, 2015 12:35:47 GMT
"Scotland’s defeats to Georgia and Scotland give the Irish real hope of securing a play-off berth, although their two remaining games are against Germany and Poland." I put that in to test that someone actually read the whole article... Amended now!
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Post by knowles on Sept 9, 2015 2:35:24 GMT
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Post by knowles on Sept 9, 2015 2:13:18 GMT
Cameron penalty incident...
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Post by knowles on Sept 8, 2015 23:34:03 GMT
Another note about Walters' international career- he now has the same amount of Irish caps as former Stoke loanee Keith Andrews and Phil Babb...
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Post by knowles on Sept 8, 2015 23:10:54 GMT
Isn't it 3? Swear I counted KJ as having 10 whilst playing for us, Walters has 7. I may have counted wrong mind! Kenwyne scored one goal for T&T a few weeks after his final game on loan with us (first spell at the club). I don't think that counts towards his records, although could be wrong...
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Post by knowles on Sept 8, 2015 8:03:47 GMT
Nice one, Super Jonny Walters! He's now just two goals from being Stoke's record international goalscorer. Walters is also one appearance shy of picking up 36 caps whilst at Stoke- the same number Gordon Banks achieved whilst in the Potteries.
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Post by knowles on Sept 7, 2015 7:42:44 GMT
I agree with a few of the above comments. Taking the foot off the pedal may well be a reason for the Pulis sides having a poorer second half of the season, redstriper. And yes, cheeesfreeex, little cup distraction under Hughes has probably made it easier for him to solely focus on the league (although the fact Pulis' best second half of the season was when we reached the FA Cup Final partly shatters that theory). So...I'm going with Gods conclusion- very little can be made from it, although I think it's an interesting look back at how we have got on since promotion. Ultimately, every season is different.
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Post by knowles on Sept 7, 2015 7:05:44 GMT
The latest ex-Stokie round-up is up! Begovic won one and lost one...the match they won against Andorra saw Bosnia & Herzegovina have 89% of possession! Various other ex-Stokies were in action too, including a debut for a former youth player at Chelmsford City.
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Post by knowles on Sept 7, 2015 2:55:26 GMT
I'd like to know what the benefit of it is.
Does the top green card earner receive something at the end of the season? A box of chocolates?
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Post by knowles on Sept 7, 2015 1:58:34 GMT
I don't recall a charity match to be honest, LGH87, but having a quick search you are right! He played 12 games for Stoke.
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Post by knowles on Sept 6, 2015 23:55:10 GMT
You may be surprised to learn that Gislason sadly died from cancer a few years ago. I remember Gavin Ward giving him a clip around the ear at Colchester once!
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Post by knowles on Sept 6, 2015 10:25:40 GMT
I agree nutterpotter, and seeing as they were playing Namibia they could afford to rest a player with a knock. Hopefully he flies back to England before their friendly with South Africa.
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Post by knowles on Sept 6, 2015 10:23:43 GMT
13 yellows that day, I think.
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Post by knowles on Sept 6, 2015 9:15:53 GMT
August has finished, so I thought I'd investigate Stoke's record per month in the Premier League. The good news is that things tend to improve as the season goes on... Hope you enjoy the stats.
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Post by knowles on Sept 6, 2015 9:04:00 GMT
Did anyone pick up on Diouf being injured?
He didn't play against Namibia (original article updated) and this is what his coach said, thanks to dodgy Google translate:
"The withdrawal of Mame Biram Diouf is confirmed, unfortunately. Anyway I think we have something to make up for the absence of Mame Biram. He wanted to play but we do not want to take any risks with him. We will not want his club to hit us. They trusted us and in return we have to make the player in good condition."
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Post by knowles on Sept 6, 2015 8:46:14 GMT
Did we end up 9 vs 10 against Coventry a few years back? Never seen a ref lose his head as much as in that game. We ended with nine (Thomas and Gunnarsson sent off), but don't think Coventry had anyone sent off. It was Steve Banks' debut for Stoke that day and Andy Hall was the idiot in black.
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Post by knowles on Sept 4, 2015 14:33:29 GMT
Bachmann and Teixeira are certainties to at least try and loan out.
Haugaard with a recall clause would be excellent for us and him.
I'd keep everyone else just incase of injury, to be honest.
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Post by knowles on Sept 4, 2015 10:44:13 GMT
I had a look through our record with reduced numbers in the Premier League. We've had 26 red cards since promotion in 2008, and Saturday was the second time we've been reduced to 9 men. I hope you enjoy my findings.
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Post by knowles on Sept 4, 2015 5:04:42 GMT
More U21 appearances? A loan? or can you feature in the Cups if you'e not Prem squad registered? Yes, he can play in the cups.
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Post by knowles on Sept 4, 2015 3:36:46 GMT
TASKTIME.... please find out which team has finished highest in each of the major European leagues with the lowest expenditure. Expenditure being transfer fees and wages as well. EG in the Prem I last season I guess it would be Swansea. Christ! I think that would take months to compile! I'll have to sit on that for now. Stoke's monthly record is keeping me occupied for the moment...
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Post by knowles on Sept 4, 2015 2:39:21 GMT
Slight update to the article.
Senegal are playing a friendly against South Africa next Tuesday. It's unclear at present whether Senegal are using the same squad as they are for the AFCON qualifier, but I'm taking a punt they are! Senegal's coach is former Stoke trialist Aliou Cisse. He played for our reserves at Sheffield Wednesday in the 2006-07 season.
Also, huge trouble for Netherlands after their loss to Iceland last night. Afellay spent 90 minutes getting splinters in his arse. Latvia's last minute equaliser in Turkey could be big in the context of the group though.
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Post by knowles on Sept 3, 2015 13:50:07 GMT
I went tonight and must admit that if Australia really wanted to they could have scored 20. Bangladesh looked like they're more suited to sitting on the bench for the Dog & Duck. Their keeper made a couple of decent saves in fairness.
Good turnout in Perth.
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Post by knowles on Sept 3, 2015 6:50:35 GMT
Shaqiri didn't make it in then... Not even as a sub! Shaqiri and Begovic are both on the bench.
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Post by knowles on Sept 3, 2015 6:49:19 GMT
A nice summary. Can always look it up elsewhere but ideally, it would have been useful to have dates and times too. Thanks for the advice. The article has now been updated
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Post by knowles on Sept 3, 2015 6:11:31 GMT
Hope it goes well- great quartet of guests.
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Post by knowles on Sept 3, 2015 5:51:29 GMT
I feel very happy about the window, as outlined here. As the article says: 'One slight regret the management team may have is not strengthening the defensive midfield position'.
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Post by knowles on Sept 3, 2015 5:26:45 GMT
Signed in 2010 for the youth side @sidlittlesballbag.
Made his senior football debut in arguably Nantwich's biggest ever match, away to MK Dons in the FA Cup (2011).
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Post by knowles on Sept 3, 2015 5:15:02 GMT
Who the frig is Ryan Brunt? Great work by the way. Brunt was a youngster we signed from Bristol City. He suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury which curtailed his progress, but had a few loan spells whilst with us- notably at Tranmere and Leyton Orient. He's just 22 so still time for him to progress up the leagues, although he's not a regular starter for Plymouth at the moment. Hope that helps.
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