|
Post by blackpoolred on May 26, 2024 21:19:20 GMT
Needs to be fairer:
Let 4th and 5th play-off in a one game affair - team that finishes 4th gets to play at home - winner plays the team that finished 3rd, either at Wembley or at the home venue of the team that finished 3rd - not rocket science, nobody wants to play another 3 games at the end of a gruelling season and the team that finishes 3rd gets absolutely bollox all for their efforts - zero common sense, but it is football so it wont change
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on May 26, 2024 20:40:23 GMT
Ladies and gentleman. We have a Scotland fan😉 Scotland will get knocked out without scoring too many goals - hope they don't, but that is why I went for 4 against - think they will be quite tight at the back and may get to the last 16 as a result
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on May 26, 2024 20:06:15 GMT
Always support the home nations and would be delighted if Wales, Scotland, Ireland(either EIRE or NI) won something in Nogger or Ruga, don't give a shite what they think of us.
It's England, if I am honest, I have trouble getting behind, just in the footie - normally detest all the overrated/overpaid players and hate the fans, total embarrassment in the last Euros - was anybody proud of the fans with the way we acted before and after the last euro final?
And then there is the 2 world wars, 1 world cup, RAF shot the German planes down - absolute feckin cringe.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on May 26, 2024 19:51:48 GMT
Who will win the tournament? Who will be top scorer? How far will England get? How many will Scotland concede? Germany Mbappe Last 16 4
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on May 23, 2024 13:01:57 GMT
Terminated my subscription to Sky in 2011, same time I packed in buying a season ticket at Stoke. Football is a crap package these days and has been getting worse year on year for ages: tip tapy passing out from the back, diving players, appalling role models who cheat to win, incredible amount of time wasting - as soon as your team go 1-0 down we can expect a player from the opposing side to need medical attention for 10 mins and now we have VAR at the top level. In short it is an awful package, games on the whole are turgid to watch - although that might just be a Stoke thing. At top level same few teams winning absolutely everything because they have money - who wants to watch City putting 5 past everybody they play, is there any point to watching a Man City - Burnley game, just not a competitive match(pointless). My opinion of Sky is that they are managing to polish a turd and managing to convince people to watch something that is plain shite - the talking before and after are often more entertaining than the main event, but I personally don't think it is Sky killing live football - more the game itself. If I had the choice to watch Aerosmith live or on Sky I would choose live every time, we all know everything is normally better when live, but not football anymore. And lets not get started on the match day experience where clubs treat fans like it is a privilege to watch a live game and where we have to have memberships and logins or have to wait on a phone for ages, tickets are expensive, parking normally a problem everywhere, food/drink expensive. They have lost sight of the fact it is a spectator sport and that the experience should be an enjoyable one both on and off the pitch Bit of a moanfest that Thought you said you were getting a seaon ticket? No - to season ticket What part of the moanfest did you disagree with?
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on May 22, 2024 23:09:08 GMT
Terminated my subscription to Sky in 2011, same time I packed in buying a season ticket at Stoke. Football is a crap package these days and has been getting worse year on year for ages: tip tapy passing out from the back, diving players, appalling role models who cheat to win, incredible amount of time wasting - as soon as your team go 1-0 down we can expect a player from the opposing side to need medical attention for 10 mins and now we have VAR at the top level. In short it is an awful package, games on the whole are turgid to watch - although that might just be a Stoke thing. At top level same few teams winning absolutely everything because they have money - who wants to watch City putting 5 past everybody they play, is there any point to watching a Man City - Burnley game, just not a competitive match(pointless). My opinion of Sky is that they are managing to polish a turd and managing to convince people to watch something that is plain shite - the talking before and after are often more entertaining than the main event, but I personally don't think it is Sky killing live football - more the game itself. If I had the choice to watch Aerosmith live or on Sky I would choose live every time, we all know everything is normally better when live, but not football anymore. And lets not get started on the match day experience where clubs treat fans like it is a privilege to watch a live game and where we have to have memberships and logins or have to wait on a phone for ages, tickets are expensive, parking normally a problem everywhere, food/drink expensive. They have lost sight of the fact it is a spectator sport and that the experience should be an enjoyable one both on and off the pitch Do you go to Stoke games? I go to the games I can when/if I have time and have the motivation. I would probably go to more if I could just pay at the gate and stand - as I sometimes find myself getting a bit of spare time on the day of a match that I possibly didn't think I would have at the start of that day, but cant be arsed spending time checking for seating/tickets - when I need to be setting off in the car(live 90 miles away). That said, I can't remember too many times in recent history where I have enjoyed a game or the experience - and am normally muttering to myself never again on the jog down the hill to my car - one day It might be never again
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on May 22, 2024 21:56:37 GMT
Terminated my subscription to Sky in 2011, same time I packed in buying a season ticket at Stoke.
Football is a crap package these days and has been getting worse year on year for ages: tip tapy passing out from the back, diving players, appalling role models who cheat to win, incredible amount of time wasting - as soon as your team go 1-0 down we can expect a player from the opposing side to need medical attention for 10 mins and now we have VAR at the top level.
In short it is an awful package, games on the whole are turgid to watch - although that might just be a Stoke thing. At top level same few teams winning absolutely everything because they have money - who wants to watch City putting 5 past everybody they play, is there any point to watching a Man City - Burnley game, just not a competitive match(pointless).
My opinion of Sky is that they are managing to polish a turd and managing to convince people to watch something that is plain shite - the talking before and after are often more entertaining than the main event, but I personally don't think it is Sky killing live football - more the game itself. If I had the choice to watch Aerosmith live or on Sky I would choose live every time, we all know everything is normally better when live, but not football anymore.
And lets not get started on the match day experience where clubs treat fans like it is a privilege to watch a live game and where we have to have memberships and logins or have to wait on a phone for ages, tickets are expensive, parking normally a problem everywhere, food/drink expensive. They have lost sight of the fact it is a spectator sport and that the experience should be an enjoyable one both on and off the pitch
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on May 3, 2024 22:15:30 GMT
I don't think there will be as many ins and outs this summer as we think. That said if we want to challenge top half we need to add some quality.
Below are the possible keepers for me, but I think we may hold on to more.
Bonham Iverson Hoever Junior McNally Wilmott Gooch Bae Campbell Baker Laurent Pearson Cundle Thompson
Thought Thompson had some solid games for us and possibly his best season, also liked Cundle toward the end of the season, his intelligent run and calmly slotted away goal against Sheff Wed was something we have not seen enough of at Stoke over the last couple of seasons. Love to see at least 1 flag ship central defender come in, if not 2, but I would keep McNally and Wilmot, both still young and McNally in particular could benefit by having a quality central defender around him. Issue with Wilmot is every time he starts to hit form he seems to get injured and then is back at square one and needing game time to get up-to-speed, but still young and a decent defender at this level for me - and we obviously need a couple of left-sided defenders and Ricardo mk2 up front.
Personally would like to see JC go and the club be taken in an entirely different direction, but on a positive note I am have some optimism around JW being one of Coates better appointments, I think we are going to get some interesting signings and characters this summer and maybe a lot of interesting stuff going on in the background - the days of players eating what they want, having extra time off and coasting might well be over.
SS lacks experience, but has just about done enough to give him the pre-season - modest chap, seems to have the backing of the players and seems really passionate about his task - played some half decent stuff under him, but had some absolute shockers also.
If we do have to pull the trigger on SS then the biggest problem we have, by far, at our club, in my opinion, is the guy in charge of making the replacement.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 27, 2024 20:24:45 GMT
In a perverse way I can't help but feel we needed this season to finally shock the club to spring in to action, Blackburn away was a pivotal moment where everybody's goodwill evaporated, since then and with the arrival of SJW there's been a unity between the players and those of us in the stands which has been missing for a good decade. Hopefully onwards and upwards now as one club 👊 How is this different to any of the other 7 or 8 seasons that have gone before though. There should have been numerous wake up calls for our owners previously. Will we start next season with not a solitary viable left-back at the club and an unbalanced squad which lacks competition and quality, particularly in defensive areas, will we be sitting here this time next year with yet another British no-hoper manager in charge(which we will probably have to google to find out who they are) and be struggling in the bottom half of the table once again, will we have yet another bizarre window to follow the umpteen that have preceded - maybe not with the appointment of JW, but you can't blame people for suffering from inertia and just expecting all the bizarre goings on at our club to continue for as long as the current owners are still pulling the strings. In the 21st century where the margins between success and failure are minimal and success can be found in the finer details - it can't be acceptable to have owners that cut out 95% of the managerial market and refuse to employ someone just because the lump of mud they were shat out on - is not part of the UK - it is unacceptable. JC may have made his first decent decision in a long while in appointing JW - and he needs to step back and let him get on with everything to do with the footballing side of things - including hiring and firing managers - wont happen though, so if things are going to change I think we need a change at the very top, but I have been saying this for the last few seasons now and I could probably copy this response and use it again next year.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 22, 2024 22:16:55 GMT
Hear a lot of negative comments on here about female commentators and pundits but I have to say that Pien (currently doing Middlesbrough v Leeds right now) is as good as any male commentator (no reason why not btw). Think she’s got a great future and will soon be doing premier league and better She’s decent but if they’re shit they’re shit aren’t they? No male bias here, Carragher, Redknapp, etc get slagged off all the time. Can people not critique female pundits? They can but a lot of the male pundits are woeful and it is not highlighted in the same way - I know you have just mentioned a few names, but cant remember many posts on here re how bad Redknapp and Carragher are - or seeing too much about them on SM. However, poor female punditry is brought up on a regular basis, almost highlighted on a daily basis these days and wherever you look on SM - you do have to wonder why it is ok for men to be shite at something but totally unacceptable for a woman to be crap at the same thing - and why people like Barton have to single the women out but, strangely, he has never been as passionate at singling out the raft of rank mediocrity that we all have to endure when it comes to male pundits. When it comes to football, there is a little bit of a chauvinistic boys club going on, unlike other sports, where some men don't appreciate or value the opinions of the females or in Barton's case don't think they are qualified to comment on the gods that play the male version of the game. Personally, I see double standards - I have watched and played footie for over 50 years and talk about it every day with my male friends, in that time I can't recall many conversations about how crap male commentators were, occasionally the odd he gets on my tits(remember Hugh Johns), a few times they mentioned the good ones they loved(Motty) but very few passionate conversations about it - however I get it in the ear all the time about females being rubbish(some of them are shocking), but not all of them, and the ones that are excellent - well, they are just described as decent aren't they
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 20, 2024 21:36:31 GMT
I do think the Udders have gone after their drubbing today and conceding that penalty in the 10th minute of extra time last week and I think Brum will beat them next week. If Wednesday do pull off another famous win tomoz and Brum do beat the Udders then it will be game on again and quite possible 50pts will not be enough. A lot of things have got to go against us though, but it is Stoke and we will be made to suffer - and it will probably go to the last game
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 20, 2024 20:03:13 GMT
To be fair, if we had played awful and won 1-0 I would have still given him 10, result was everything.
But we got a brilliant performance and an amazing result also - that is now the standard we expect to see on a consistent basis
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 20, 2024 16:55:06 GMT
It will be in our hands on the last day even if all the results go against us. Blackburn win tomorrow and we can all breathe again and enjoy the last 2 games
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 17, 2024 23:17:44 GMT
Average wage in the ladies prem last year was just over £40k a year, compared to 60k a week for the men's prem.
Women's footie is now getting regular coverage on Sky, BBC and the Champions League is becoming a big lucrative event. Chelski are in the Semi-Finals of the CL and the money for reaching the semi-final will easily cover their wage bill alone.
The top teams are getting a few games in the main stadiums and Arsenal, for instance, have filled the emirates.
The top women's teams with revenue from tele, relatively low wage bill and especially those who finish in the top 4 and have a crack at Europe will be making a profit(unlike the men) - especially now with attendances also rising for most of the teams
If Stoke were to go full-time professional and offer a 25 player squad a living wage - say 30k a year - that would cost £750,000, which if they were playing in the prem would get back off TV coverage alone, even before attendances, All money invested in the women's team gets written off against FFP.
Stoke are tier 3 at the moment and so with little revenue coming in apart from attendances the club would have to probably invest a few million quid to get to the prem, once reached they could quite easily be making a profit and pretty sure a tribal town like Stoke would get behind their team should they get to an FA cup final at Wembley.
Villa, Leicester and Birmingham have all been knocking around the prem for a while, so once again looks like we are miles behind the curve - unless we are now considered a second tier midlands club, we know the men are, but for a little investment the women don't have to be.
JW is supposed to be across the club from top to bottom so be interesting to see what he proposes, he seemed quite keen on getting the women's team up and running and mentioned them in his recent interview.
Why not throw a few million quid at it and give it a go, with the money the Coaates family have it would not be impossible to compete at the very top level of the game in England and Europe, for the women, and in doing so could stand to make a profit at the same time
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 17, 2024 21:50:07 GMT
Think people are just suffering from inertia.
We know if we scrape through and survive nothing will change and we will be back here next year - just rinse and repeat year on year - getting tedious for people.
Lets not forget it is also supposed to be entertaining, sitting there knowing we are more than likely going to fire a blank or fail to win and where watching paint dry is more entertaining - is not going to get people flocking in.
And for a big game like this we don't actually know whether our players are going to be up for it or not, just depends whether Mars is in Uranus or not - as to which team we see on the day.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 16, 2024 21:54:10 GMT
I like the sound of this, but have we got cheerleaders that could do it on a cold Tuesday night, come to think of it could we find 2 people that want to kiss each other on a cold Tuesday night, might need some WD40 to prize them apart I would also need to take my teeth just in case, wouldn't want to disappoint Bill who sits next to me. Hopefully we’re not advocating bringing back the City Slickers!! The thought of 15,000 blokes watching a bunch of 13 year old girls in leotards is still one that screams “only Stoke”, but then again it was 40 odd years ago. My personal favourite would be to reintroduce the old ball boy entrance routine. They all ran into the centre circle at the start of the game, gave a wave to the crowd and then split off and each ran to their section of the pitch - just like watching the Red Arrows!! The ball boy routine is very British though - don't forget we are now the 51st state - so it would have to be a version of the Dallas(Stoke) Cowboys - which would hopefully be some attractive women and not a dozen fat bearded clay pigeon shooters from Burslem, enough about the women of Burslem. Also 1 hour half-time entertainment attracting the like of Taylor Swift, although if JC is still here it would have to be cheap, hopeless and British - are PJ & Duncan still going
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 15, 2024 22:36:21 GMT
We need get someone like Bill Gates buy the club. He’d build some barmy state of the art stadium jam packed with technology. Granted it would run on windows 11 so probably crash often but still. We’d have screens everywhere, kiss cam, proper cheerleaders, Xboxes in every concourse. Light shows, the team would be built of pure stats created in excel, we wouldn’t even need a manager, just some data entry guys spewing out of PowerPoint presentations to the immaculately crafted squad. Would be like moneyball but far more technical. I like the sound of this, but have we got cheerleaders that could do it on a cold Tuesday night, come to think of it could we find 2 people that want to kiss each other on a cold Tuesday night, might need some WD40 to prize them apart I would also need to take my teeth just in case, wouldn't want to disappoint Bill who sits next to me.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 15, 2024 22:10:16 GMT
Hate to break it to you mate.... Haha! Sorry it’s been a long day!! What you have not told them is that Stoke are getting awarded a 5pt start. Awarded to JC for going above and beyond in his relentless loyalty to British no-hoper managers.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 15, 2024 20:34:54 GMT
In another 4 years he will be eligible to play for Stoke
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 15, 2024 20:32:05 GMT
Always thought Coady was a woeful player - Souttar might be worth a punt, he was awful in the prem and has not featured for Leicester much this season either. Possible that no prem/top half championship sides will fancy him now - strikes me as a player that would happily just warm the bench and take his pay cheque though. I think Souttar coming back could be a distinct possibility, unless Rangers want him. Might have to be on loan if we did want him as they’ll want a chunk of their money back you’d think. Might just cut their loses and accept a low bid - just to get rid of him and free up a squad place.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 15, 2024 20:30:05 GMT
Always thought Coady was a woeful player - Souttar might be worth a punt, he was awful in the prem and has not featured for Leicester much this season either. Possible that no prem/top half championship sides will fancy him now - strikes me as a player that would happily just warm the bench and take his pay cheque though. Same again would have to be on loan plus we'd have a season of Bayern insisting he can't playing a back 4 Either would be a coup, we are way down the pecking order now Not sure about Coady - he is very loud and we could probably do with a bit of that - but personally always thought he was a shocking footballer and can't imagine he has got any better with age. If the club show a bit of genuine ambition and sign a few flagship players who knows who could be tempted to come and join us - got to try and make ourselves an attractive proposition once again - easier said than done. Also, got to stay in this division first
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 15, 2024 18:29:41 GMT
There was a rumour circulating a week or so ago that Conor Coady will be coming here next season if we stay up. I have no concrete info. Always thought Coady was a woeful player - Souttar might be worth a punt, he was awful in the prem and has not featured for Leicester much this season either. Possible that no prem/top half championship sides will fancy him now - strikes me as a player that would happily just warm the bench and take his pay cheque though.
|
|
|
Cundle
Apr 13, 2024 22:05:53 GMT
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 13, 2024 22:05:53 GMT
Not really the time for him to come here and he has struggled, manager has done the right thing to limit his time and bring him on from the bench.
Looks keen and has great stats - so possibly one for the future
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 13, 2024 22:00:28 GMT
On current form we look spent, low on confidence and don't look like we have another win in us, but if we are going to win one this looks our best chance, manager knows a lot about them and we are at home with a crowd that will be up for it.
They are a poor team as are we, but it is about desire next week and who wants it the most, players/formations are mostly irrelevant, more about picking 11 players who are switched on, brave and up for it.
If we lose and he comes off the pitch and says the players looked a little flat and lost all the battles etc, etc - then that is not good enough when they have had 7 days rest and given who our manager is we should be more prepared than them on how to attack this game.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 11, 2024 20:49:13 GMT
The performance was utter shite given the enormity of the game, but given the conditions and how much they gave in the last game and it was 2nd game in a few days you can excuse them being slightly flat, but we created next to nothing going forward, meanwhile at the back the first goal conceded was similar to the Norwich game, where everybody in the team had a different memo to one member of our playing staff - another one marked utterly bizarre defending at this level, as for their 3rd goal, not sure what McNally was doing, but it wasn't defending and then we had Thompson doing an impression of a statue to complete the comedy of shiteness- he can't be let anywhere near defence in the remaining games.
No excuses now, we need players to switch on for every game/minute from 1 to 90 - No gifting teams goals and all players to be 100% drilled/organised and no fecking square pegs unless absolutely needed.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 11, 2024 19:22:26 GMT
I don't think we have much chance on Sat - players look spent.
Should be looking for all 3pts against Plymouth with a 7 day rest and prep, that is a massive game for us and we have to be favourites given our manager knows quite a lot about that team and the crowd will be the twelve man and up for it.
A point against 2 teams who have nothing to play for should be achievable also - don't get 4 points from these fixtures then we deserve to go down
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 10, 2024 21:34:29 GMT
I do think the Sheff Wed manager is managing to polish a turd there ATM and think he will do our inexperienced manager like a kipper on Saturday.
You never know with footie, but another confidence zapping performance tonight, it will be 3rd game in a week against Wednesday, second on the road - and of the 8 teams around us in the league that is 6 defeats and 1 draw on the road, most of them beating us at a canter.
We get a break before the home game against Plymouth and I am pinning my hopes on that one, crowd will be up for it, manager will know everything about them and then we will have 2 games against teams with nothing to play for, so hopefully can get to that 50pt mark - would take a point now against Wednesday if offered.
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 8, 2024 22:02:57 GMT
Loved him as a player, he is a rottweiler character who wont take any prisoners or accept half measures from anybody, despite how polite he looks and talks in his interviews - he is the right appointment at this moment in time for a club that has been suffering from inertia for too long. Step up or move on should be the mantra for everybody at this club at the moment - and I think JW is the man to drive that message forward. McNally mentioned in one of his interviews, a few weeks ago, that he thought the club had slept walked into the relegation fight, which when you contemplate those words is not a good look for our club, basically meaning players were not switched on and giving heart, nerve and sinew for the cause, at all times, is how I read that - I think that will be a thing of the past under JW, as will days off, slack training, players not knowing what is expected of them, poor diet and players returning from pre-season over weight etc He will install a different a different DNA at the club or will at least try to, which I hope extends to politely telling JC where he is going wrong when needed also
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 7, 2024 16:12:02 GMT
We will win on Wednesday and again on Saturday. Our problem this season has been that we had too many players coming to the club at the same time and it's been difficult for the managers to get it right. SS seems to be getting a grips with it now. Wish I had your confidence. Agreed when you look at these 2 games they look like great opportunities for some points. However, we are one of 9 teams who will fill those last 2 relegation slots, that is 8 teams and us - and of those 8 teams we have played 6 of them, so far, on their own patch and have lost 5 and drawn 1. Swansea and Wednesday the last 2 of these 8 teams left for us to play. I said earlier I would be happy with 2 draws here, but would like to think we could win one of them, but I also know we could lose both of these given our form against these type of teams. Our form, on the road, against these sort of teams has to improve at some point, lets hope we are sitting here next week with our safety guaranteed, but this is Stoke and I can't see us rocking up winning these 2 games at a canter and making it easy for us - we will be made to suffer - it's in our pledge of allegiance
|
|
|
Post by blackpoolred on Apr 7, 2024 9:41:31 GMT
Type of games we always lose in the past, Blackburn were in freefall when we visited them and we lost 3-1, still there only win at home this year. Seem to have a bit more about us at the moment though, but personally be happy if we can avoid defeat in this one and the next one and pick up what would be a couple of useful points. Signed our most negative fan
|
|