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Post by spitthedog on Apr 27, 2024 13:04:33 GMT
I saw a bit of an old game the other day with some eye-watering tackles going in, and I realised I’d completely forgotten that the done thing back then was to *not* show that you were hurt, under any circumstances. Blokes were getting absolutely scythed and smashed all over the place, and immediately springing to their feet and jogging straight off, often clearly trying to disguise a limp. Just struck me how that bit of unspoken protocol among players has completely reversed. Once - not actually very long ago - it was a sign of weakness to show you’d been hurt after a “reducer”. Now you have to squeal and writhe like a stuck pig at the slightest brush. There has been a huge cultural change in the game. It's normal now for players to actually scream when another players foot makes any kind of contact before rolling around on the ground regardless of the extent of the contact. Any contact with the face, similar kind of farce. You notice this more in non-league football these days just because you can usually hear everything thats going on. It's really sad that it has reached grassroots level. This is also usually accompanied by teammates raising their arms in unison and screaming towards the officials, as if they are being subjected to some kind of earth shattering injustice. These are all recently introduced antics that are a real put off. I also don't like it when people and pundits describe this as just 'part of the game', as if we should accept it. We really shouldn't.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 27, 2024 12:54:32 GMT
Fuck knows something along the lines of playing attractive passing football and finishing in the lowest 3rd of the top flight or getting relegated as they always used to do apart from one season when they had MacAvennie and Cottee Here's a fact : Geoff Hurst 3 highest league finishes were all with Stoke West Ham were Southern League and div 3 South fodder until the 60's pretty much Massively over rate themselves There is a big fan base there which was important pre Premier League when income was utterly reliant on gate receipts Like Sunderland fans they don't appear to realise that having a big fan base doesn't make you a big club Moyes is the best manager they have had for decades so naturally they want rid His football is shit to watch. Some people think the game should be enjoyable. How dare they In my experience winning football games tends to be more entertaining than losing them, but maybe I'm just out of touch.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 27, 2024 12:27:13 GMT
What are West Ham fans on, in wanting to get rid of Moyes? Absolute nuts. Who do they think they are? If someone had said to them at the start of the season with 3 games to go you will be above Newcastle and Chelsea and 2 points behind Man Utd would they be saying they should get rid then? Doesn't play 'The West Ham way' what is that then?.....losing with eloquence?
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 27, 2024 12:23:17 GMT
What are West Ham fans on, in wanting to get rid of Moyes? Absolute nuts. Who do they think they are?
If someone had said to them at the start of the season with 3 games to go you will be above Newcastle and Chelsea and 2 points behind Man Utd would they be saying they should get rid then?
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 26, 2024 15:30:37 GMT
Oxford and Swindon have won that cup and we’re the bigger shock. I know. I hope they do a bit better with their research for tipping winners.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 26, 2024 13:10:01 GMT
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 26, 2024 9:13:12 GMT
They were definitely considered by the media to be hot favourites on the day, and we were definitely thought of as the underdogs from what I recall. This seemed to be based more on reputation and the fact that we were thought of as unfashionable club rather than results on the pitch. Wouldn't you say? Though I suppose Chelsea had recently won the FA Cup and the Cup Winners Cup which had raised their profile too. Looking forward to your next post. They were so cocky in the final. Hollins tried to score by attempting to lob Banksie from the kick off. Looking back at the final, Alan Hudson was their best player by a mile.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 26, 2024 9:08:57 GMT
If we buy a new player there is a chance they will turn out below par or not be what we want or need and end up with another disappointment. Campbell has had an extended time with the club and never been what we need and has left us frustrated and he has to share the blame for where we are as he has played in many positions under many Managers and never delivered or taken the opportunity to be a legend at Stoke. In all his games has he bèen hailed a hero? Scored hat tricks? Terrified the opposition? No, so his time is done, we know he is not a prolific striker or even mediocre so get rid and spend our money and efforts on a young or developing striker that runs on to the pitch with sone fire in their belly Tend to agree but this young hungry player term gets over used on here but no one seems to know who they are. The championship can be tough for young talent, is ok scoring goals in an U21 side for fun but no so easy against an experienced centre back at this level as Delap found out when he tried to tangle with them week after week. Agreed, who are these? and where are these? You would think that Ennis would fit well into this category and the jury is definitely out on that one. It's very rare for young up and coming talents to hit the ground running in the Championship. The only 2 players who scored more than 20 in this Division this season are aged 28 and 27. The youngest players in the top 20 goalscorers (scored 12 or more) are aged 22 That is Summerville who has now spent 4 years at Leeds (a long term investment when they bought him) with this his first season of scoring goals, and Philogene who we know has taken 3/4 years to acclimatise to the Championship and had only scored 5 goals at this level before this season.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 25, 2024 22:18:11 GMT
This Saturday’s 50 years ago edition will suggest that it was Chelsea who were awful in those days and we were much better than them. They were definitely considered by the media to be hot favourites on the day, and we were definitely thought of as the underdogs from what I recall. This seemed to be based more on reputation and the fact that we were thought of as unfashionable club rather than results on the pitch. Wouldn't you say? Though I suppose Chelsea had recently won the FA Cup and the Cup Winners Cup which had raised their profile too. Looking forward to your next post.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 25, 2024 21:56:14 GMT
More awful refereeing decisions in the Man City game, all of them against Brighton.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 25, 2024 14:58:28 GMT
Hope folk are enjoying their for and against debates but is there any evidence of truth in this story/rumour?
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 25, 2024 8:38:34 GMT
Last week spent 3 days working in North London, stayed over for a day to visit the British Museum, lots of 2nd hand book shops and the British Library and discovered some really nice parks I hadn't previously visited.
Great resources and very enjoyable. Amazingly no murders or muggings encountered. Must have been my lucky day!
Only thing I would say is still feels like too much car pollution and I wouldn't drink the tap water.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 25, 2024 8:13:05 GMT
Noticed Manure were given a penalty on 61 minutes. Same old story, United in trouble at old trafford after an hour against a "lesser" team ?... give them a soft penalty at the first opportunity, it happens so often the bookies won't even quote on it. Coventry got a soft penalty against them when behind Any team would have been awarded that same penalty in the Final I think, as they are generally consistently given when the ball is careering towards the goal and stopped by a player's arm as was the case, but the one last night is a clear OT homer pen. No way the away team get awarded a pen if reversed. Clear dive from Maguire and the ref is standing right behind. Is there contact? Minimal, as there is on 99% of corners, usually much more than in this case.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 25, 2024 7:48:20 GMT
Noticed Manure were given a penalty on 61 minutes. Same old story, United in trouble at old trafford after an hour against a "lesser" team ?... give them a soft penalty at the first opportunity, it happens so often the bookies won't even quote on it. Soft? I would call it dodgy as f***. Maguire clearly dived and the contact between the players was what you normally get from any corner. No way that Sheffield Utd would be awarded a pen in the reverse scenario. Biased, flawed reffing again imo.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 25, 2024 7:43:10 GMT
I see Eddie Howe has blamed their defeat last night on the fact that they had a 10 day break since their last game. These PL managers complain when they have 'too many' games and then complain when they don't!
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 24, 2024 21:27:24 GMT
Really happy about this. I think he will turn a corner in his career with us next season. He's a good player.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 24, 2024 10:10:06 GMT
Some of the videos posted on here are clearly just put together by groomers whose sole objective is to cause public disorder and division, usually aimed at young impressionable types. To see it posted by adults on here is disheartening to say the least. To base one's opinions about anything from these is just nuts and sometimes harming.
I wouldn't trust anything posted on Twitter/X and similar platforms tbh, its just unfiltered, reactionary, distorted, toxic fodder which aims to undermine attempts to create any sort of cohesive society.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 24, 2024 9:37:47 GMT
Defend 'terrorist sympathisers' for what exactly and when knype? What orders did the police ignore? So there was not trouble at the Pro-Hamas protest? not peace march by the way! The police treated the crowds different yesterday than the Pro Hamas You attended both?
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 24, 2024 9:06:16 GMT
Very sad news. I had the good fortune to meet him many years ago.
A dying breed of politicians with genuine human values, fighting for real social justice, and putting these principles before their own self interests and career ambitions. Sadly, I just don’t see these kind of people in politics these days.
RIP
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 23, 2024 21:55:34 GMT
Let’s not get carried away. This result has no bearing on Saturday at all. We could sneak it. We could get a draw. We could easily lose by 4 or 5. This is Stoke. And this league is mental. ....and you can never predict how teams react to such results. There is no pressure on them now, but that isn't always good for the opposition either. You would imagine their manager will want them to go into the Play-Offs with a bit of confidence and a bit of form under their belts
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 23:27:52 GMT
I have given up predicting how a result will affect someone’s next game or mindset etc. A team could be demoralised after 15 straight defeats and come back from a trip to Kazakhstan with a delayed flight diverted to the wrong airport and they’ll still spank us next match. Apart from any Kazakhstan distractions, many a time when teams don't need to win, they are more relaxed and actually play more fluently, so its totally beyond any kind of assumptions
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 18:41:52 GMT
Take your first paragraph. Reverse it and your absolutely right. They use dodgy angles, never precisely when the ball is kicked. The lines are like my 3 year old has drew them with a marker pen. It's a fucking shambles and I guarantee we are in the midst of widespread corruption. Its fucking baffling people have one ounce of defense for it. That Scotland goal above is a prime example of screwing a lower team to the benefit of a larger one. On no planet would Spain have had that goal disallowed. Until its done by an independent body with over 100s of cameras proving factually its off. They can fuck right off None of this has any actual basis in evidence though, they're just flimsy accusations. It *is* done by an independent body and they *do* use multiple cameras and angles - the semi-automated version coming in next year monitors every player at something like 27 points on their body and the ball has a sensor which sends a signal 500 times a second to monitor its movement. And for every decision favouring a big team there's one that goes against them - there was even one in the same bloody game the other day - VAR could easily have overturned the Coventry penalty but that's being glossed over in favour of the conspiracy, which apparently you can "guarantee" is afoot... I'm not a huge fan of it and there are serious questions about the way it's applied, but this isn't one of them The ‘conspiracy’ and the VAR implementation issues are two completely different debates and should not be mixed up here. I personally don’t think there is much evidence of a bias, but the implementation is just amateurish and seems to have completely overlooked some important aspects of the game . The use of freeze frames and slow mo is just one example of how VAR completely distorts the reality. The drawn offside line does not seem reliable. It cannot be with the weird angles that are used, and the way VAR is implemented is so badly inconsistent amongst officials which tells us that there is actually more subjectivity in its use compared to when decisions were made by on field officials. This is not to mention the way it undermines the match day experience.There are so many issues with it as well as the fact that the fans who are actually at the games detest it. I’m not against it if used properly but it simply is very difficult, if not impossible, to apply to many parts of this game based on the evidence so far.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 15:10:04 GMT
It was always going to ruin the game ' however we should never forget that prior to VAR pundits, players, managers and some fans were whinging after every decision they didn't like that we needed to make more use of technology. Well now we do and they're still fucking whingeing. Thats because the authorities are so incompetent when it comes to applying the bloody technology. They have not thought about its application in any real detail in their rush to get it implemented. So many aspects of it are badly thought out. Don't get me started on the use of still shots and slow-mo on challenges when making decisions on 'sending offs'
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 13:27:39 GMT
I have very mixed feelings about VAR and I can see both sides… however one thing nobody has ever explained is how it supposedly benefits the big clubs, or even just attacking teams, as someone suggested earlier on. They’re just as likely to be on the wrong end of a marginal decision as benefit from one, I don’t understand what the argument is supposed to be Not sure if still are but Brighton had benefitted the most from VAR until last season at least Folk focus on the big club decisions more The way that this was calculated (i.e. who benefited from VAR) itself was questionable I seem to remember. It was quite selective in its use of data.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 13:04:21 GMT
Absolutely miles onside. Both staggering and sickening. Also shows how dysfunctional and inaccurate those lines are that they draw from random angles and use to make decisions. How many other VAR offside goals have been legitimate? This has to be a nail in the coffin for the way it is currently operated. The whole thing has not been thought out at all.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 9:34:06 GMT
They still favor the bigger team, only they now do it with the help of technology. But it all comes back to the decision timing. It's much easier to accept a decision made by one man thet it decided in milliseconds than waiting several minutes for a decision that's no better. VAR has raised expectations without raising the competency of the referees. As someone else says, within a few years we'll have a result being annulled because of a close VAR call, either by the courts or by by the corrupt CAS. Did the handball favour the big team? Huge call and not a pen for me It has to be a pen, the ball is heading towards the goal and the hand stops it is its tracks. Also didn't the ref give it?.... so it would have been almost impossible for VAR to overturn that.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 9:31:27 GMT
You're either offside or you're not If you start giving the benefit, where do you draw the line ( no joke intended) Thats not true when the evidence presented is so inconclusive and ambiguous. There are so many questions over how this was applied. Whether the line used is accurate (I don't think it is) and the angle used distorts the reality (the angle and its application is not reliable) Why the photo used for decision making is not consistent with when the ball is actually kicked. The lino decided it wasn't offside so that seems alot more dependable in this case. at least he was actually more in line with play. VAR wasn't.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 9:23:57 GMT
The 3rd was a nailed on penalty, I don't think the other two were........ If any of those 3 were v Manchester City or arsenal etc the ref is sent to the monitor mate Lets not kid ourselves 100% mate.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 9:22:49 GMT
It’s not VAR that’s the problem…. It’s the ones who operate it.. it should be brilliant for ‘clear and obvious decisions’….. if offside isn’t obvious, it’s deemed as level so any advantage goes to attacking team, who still have to score….. Its inconceivable that anyone could look at that and conclude that it is definitely offside. I have looked at it so many times now (not just for 5 minutes) and I just cant see how they came to that conclusion which some kind of influence.
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Post by spitthedog on Apr 22, 2024 7:47:19 GMT
Coventry fans will be looking at that VAR line for the rest of their lives thinking ‘Really?’
Absolutely not clear evidence of offside there. More questions than answers.
They were basically robbed.
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