egg

Bidding

Yep, that was my take on it. It was a nothing storyline, and they could have done so much more with it - Flynn coming back and having another crack at Duke, or whatever. Duke himself was a poor character, and badly cast.

Wave

It's you that went off on a Wood and Romeu tangent. It was a strange point which completely overlooked that Baz has been crap throughout most of his time here. I commented on what you said, so I'm not sure why you're banging on to me about crisp packet wrists etc. The 2 years ago Vs Kelvin in 2012 comparison is desperate. He's shit. I don't understand the unwillingness to just accept that and move on, but each to their own.

Yep. What makes it even better is Charles waiting for the bobble to go out of the pass. He'd have hit it earlier if not. Phenomenal goal.

So Baz would have been brilliant if Wood and Romeu weren't in the team? Right you are. I know football fans will never agree on everything, but it should be universally acknowledged that Baz was a disaster and has finally been upgraded.

I love these Aussie takes. Always bang on: 'Thank You For Your Attention to This Matter: A Senile Man Declares Economic War on Planet Earth Let me get this straight because I'm about to book a trip to a different gene pool. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Oil is $108 a barrel. Gas in the US has jumped 93 cents a gallon in 3 weeks. The global economy is bleeding from every artery. And this senile fucking game show host just posted on Truth Social, at 7:44pm on a Saturday night from his golf resort, that he's going to blow up Iran's power plants. All of them. Starting with the biggest one first. "Thank you for your attention to this matter." Like it's a fucking strata notice about bins. Let's talk about what this drooling strategist apparently doesn't understand. Iran has roughly 400 power plants. You know what runs on power? Refineries. Pumping stations. Pipeline infrastructure. The entire oil and gas production chain that produces around 3 million barrels a day for the global market. You want the Strait open so oil flows again? Fantastic. So your plan is to destroy the infrastructure that PRODUCES the oil that flows through the Strait? That's like burning down the brewery because the pub's closed. Even if Iran surrenders tomorrow. Even if they open Hormuz by Monday morning and wave through every tanker with a little flag and a complimentary baklava. You've just told the world you're going to flatten the energy grid of OPEC's third largest producer. Rebuilding a power plant takes 3 to 5 years minimum. Refineries without power don't refine. Wells without power don't pump. You're not just talking about a temporary disruption. You're talking about removing millions of barrels of production capacity from the global market for the better part of a decade. Oil won't go back to $70. It won't go back to $90. You've just baked in $100+ oil for years. Maybe permanently. And that's before we talk about the retaliation Iran just promised. They've already said if their energy infrastructure gets hit, every US-linked energy asset, desalination plant and IT system in the Gulf gets targeted. Saudi Aramco. Qatari LNG terminals. UAE refineries. The entire energy architecture of the Middle East, up in smoke. This isn't a military strategy. This is a 79 year old man with a phone and a Diet Coke threatening to set the global economy on fire because nobody will do what he says. Winston Churchill studied maps. He agonised over Gallipoli for the rest of his life because he understood what it meant to get it wrong. Truman dropped the bomb and then couldn't sleep. MacArthur, for all his ego, understood supply lines, logistics, the difference between destroying an enemy and destroying yourself in the process. This bloke can't find Iran on a map. He thinks "strategic" is a brand of vodka. Friday he said the war was winding down. Friday night. "Getting very close to meeting our objectives." Twenty four hours later he's threatening to plunge 90 million civilians into darkness and crash the global energy market for a generation. And the sign off. The fucking sign off. "Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP." Mate. You're threatening to commit what most of the planet would consider a war crime against civilian infrastructure, and you've formatted it like a letter from your accountant. The man who said "we don't even use the Strait" is now threatening to blow up the entire energy grid of a sovereign nation because the Strait isn't open. The man who promised cheap gas is presiding over the fastest fuel price spike in American history. The man who said the war was won is now issuing 48 hour ultimatums from a beach club in Palm Beach. This isn't 4D chess. This isn't even checkers. This is a toddler flipping the board because he's losing and screaming that he won. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Australia has about 50 seconds of fuel reserves left. We refine almost nothing domestically. Our entire economy runs on imported diesel. And the bloke with his finger on the button just threatened to make the global oil crisis permanent. But sure. Thank you for your attention to this matter. We're all paying fucking attention now.'

I don't think it'll be that close, but the Charlton and West Brom draws will make a difference one way or another.

And Morgan and Meghoma in the under 20's.

It's not happening. The FA cup run, as great as it is, means we'll be playing catch up with game on top of game. I'd have laughed if someone told me 6th was a possibility when Tonda came in, and I'd be delighted with that.

We watched it this evening. Really underwhelmed - too many characters missing, and Duke wasn't strong enough for me. Decent soundtrack though.

Stand

Yep, 8 off with 21 to play off. We may regret a few lost leads come the end of the season.

I think Azaz will play inside left ish in possession, and hold the left side out of possession. A sort of 4132/442

Yep. Looks like an old skool big/small combination to me.

I've given myself 30 lashes mate.

Brilliant until series 4, but 5 was so so, and 6 really tailed off. I'm hoping the film will be good, but got breaking bad movie vibes.

Whilst the generals are undoubtedly bright people, they're only as good as their instructions. It seems as clear as day that Trump doesn't seem clear on his objectives, and you can't have a clear plan when you have vague objectives.

Empty

And before I go out to enjoy this beautiful day, a damning indictment from a 3 star French general. Worth a read. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ad4GJrWER/

The latest Aussie take: 'THE DUMBEST EMPIRE IN HISTORY How a man with no plan, no clue, and no conscience broke the global economy and then posted "winding down" That's the phrase. "Winding down." Posted on Truth Social at 2 in the fucking afternoon like a bloke who just Googled "how to end a war" and picked the first result that wasn't Wikipedia. Three weeks ago this spray-tanned fuckwit launched the largest military operation since Iraq. No congressional vote. No coalition. No fucking plan. Just vibes, a Fox News green light, and the emotional regulation of a toddler who's just been told the Maccas ice cream machine is broken. He told us Iran's nuclear program was "obliterated" back in June. His words. Then eight months later he starts a full-scale war to destroy the thing he already destroyed. Which one is it, Donald? Did you lie then or are you lying now? Actually don't bother. The answer is both. It's always both. And now, three weeks into a war that's closed the Strait of Hormuz, sent oil to $112 a barrel, pushed gas up a dollar a gallon in 30 days, and triggered the biggest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, this weapons-grade fucking moron posts that he's "winding down." While putting 5,000 more Marines on a boat from San Diego. That's like dousing your house in petrol, chucking a match through the window, and telling the neighbours you're thinking about updating the curtains. But first. Stop scrolling. This part matters. 168 little girls. Aged 7 to 12. Sitting in class in Minab. First morning of the war. Parents got panicked calls to come get their kids. Some were already there. Others were still driving. They didn't make it. A Tomahawk cruise missile hit the building. The roof collapsed on the children. Then they hit it again. And again. Triple tapped. A girls' primary school. 168 girls and 14 teachers dead while parents clawed through concrete with their bare hands. And this mass-murdering sack of shit stood in front of cameras and blamed Iran. His own Pentagon found the US was responsible. They used targeting data that hadn't been updated since 2016. Any analyst with Google Earth could have checked. But Hegseth had already set the tone: "No stupid rules of engagement." "Death and destruction from the sky all day long." "We are punching them while they are down, which is exactly how it should be." UNICEF confirmed 180 children killed. Human Rights Watch called it a war crime. Amnesty called it a war crime. And now he's just gonna wind it down. Post on social media and stroll away. Those 168 tiny coffins don't even register. Now. The plan. The strategy. The endgame. There isn't one. Senator Chris Murphy walked out of a classified briefing and said: "The war will end when Donald Trump wakes up and thinks he's tired of talking about the war." And when Trump was asked when it'd be over? "When I feel it. Feel it in my bones." His bones. His fucking bones. The exit strategy for a war that killed 168 schoolgirls is the skeletal system of a 79-year-old man who lives on Big Macs, Diet Coke, and his own bullshit. And Speaker Mike Johnson defended this with, and I swear this is real: "His bones are informed by the intelligence." That is an actual quote from an actual elected official in 2026. We are being governed by a ouija board in a suit. Dumbledore's Army with nuclear codes and a body count of children. Sources from classified briefings told The Intercept: "The administration doesn't have a clue. They do not have an actual, real rationale, endgame, or plan for the aftermath of this." The Pentagon "significantly underestimated" Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. The most predictable military response in 40 years of strategic analysis. That's like invading Russia in winter and going "fuck me, it's cold." The German Chancellor flew to Washington, asked Trump what the plan was, flew home and told reporters there is "clearly no joint plan." Translated into Australian: "This cunt has no idea what he's doing and we're all fucked." Now here's the part they don't want you to understand. This isn't going to be over when the bombs stop. You can't rebuild refineries overnight. Qatar says 5 years to repair its LNG export capacity. Goldman Sachs says oil above $100 through 2027. Trump's own Energy Department says gas won't drop below $3 a gallon until end of 2027 at the earliest. The IEA says months or years to restore flows. Years. Not weeks. Years. Gas was $2.93 a month ago. It's $3.91 today. And it is not coming back. Steel and concrete do not give a fuck about your Truth Social post, Donald. Refineries don't watch Fox News. The laws of physics don't bend because a 79-year-old narcissist needs a win before the midterms. Every dollar above what you were paying last month. That's Trump's war. Every grocery bill. Every diesel fill. Every family at the kitchen table working out what to cut. That is directly, specifically, undeniably the fault of Donald J. Fucking Trump and the 77 million oxygen thieves who voted for him. Three times. His net approval on the economy is minus 29. The lowest in the history of this polling series. Lower than COVID. Only 27 percent approve of his handling of gas prices. That's not a poll. That's a fucking obituary. He is a complete and unmitigated level 10 grand master fucking moron who has blundered arse-first into the largest energy crisis in a generation, killed hundreds of children, and is now posting "winding down" like a kid who's knocked over the Christmas tree and is slowly backing out of the room hoping nobody noticed. We noticed, Donald. The whole fucking world noticed. And 168 families in Minab who will set an empty place at the table every night for the rest of their lives fucking noticed. Welcome to the consequences of being the dumbest empire in history, brought to you by the most dangerous man who ever held public office. You earned this. Every last fucking cent of it. Every last tiny coffin'

The latest Aussie take: ' THE DUMBEST EMPIRE IN HISTORY How a man with no plan, no clue, and no conscience broke the global economy and then posted "winding down" That's the phrase. "Winding down." Posted on Truth Social at 2 in the fucking afternoon like a bloke who just Googled "how to end a war" and picked the first result that wasn't Wikipedia. Three weeks ago this spray-tanned fuckwit launched the largest military operation since Iraq. No congressional vote. No coalition. No fucking plan. Just vibes, a Fox News green light, and the emotional regulation of a toddler who's just been told the Maccas ice cream machine is broken. He told us Iran's nuclear program was "obliterated" back in June. His words. Then eight months later he starts a full-scale war to destroy the thing he already destroyed. Which one is it, Donald? Did you lie then or are you lying now? Actually don't bother. The answer is both. It's always both. And now, three weeks into a war that's closed the Strait of Hormuz, sent oil to $112 a barrel, pushed gas up a dollar a gallon in 30 days, and triggered the biggest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, this weapons-grade fucking moron posts that he's "winding down." While putting 5,000 more Marines on a boat from San Diego. That's like dousing your house in petrol, chucking a match through the window, and telling the neighbours you're thinking about updating the curtains. But first. Stop scrolling. This part matters. 168 little girls. Aged 7 to 12. Sitting in class in Minab. First morning of the war. Parents got panicked calls to come get their kids. Some were already there. Others were still driving. They didn't make it. A Tomahawk cruise missile hit the building. The roof collapsed on the children. Then they hit it again. And again. Triple tapped. A girls' primary school. 168 girls and 14 teachers dead while parents clawed through concrete with their bare hands. And this mass-murdering sack of shit stood in front of cameras and blamed Iran. His own Pentagon found the US was responsible. They used targeting data that hadn't been updated since 2016. Any analyst with Google Earth could have checked. But Hegseth had already set the tone: "No stupid rules of engagement." "Death and destruction from the sky all day long." "We are punching them while they are down, which is exactly how it should be." UNICEF confirmed 180 children killed. Human Rights Watch called it a war crime. Amnesty called it a war crime. And now he's just gonna wind it down. Post on social media and stroll away. Those 168 tiny coffins don't even register. Now. The plan. The strategy. The endgame. There isn't one. Senator Chris Murphy walked out of a classified briefing and said: "The war will end when Donald Trump wakes up and thinks he's tired of talking about the war." And when Trump was asked when it'd be over? "When I feel it. Feel it in my bones." His bones. His fucking bones. The exit strategy for a war that killed 168 schoolgirls is the skeletal system of a 79-year-old man who lives on Big Macs, Diet Coke, and his own bullshit. And Speaker Mike Johnson defended this with, and I swear this is real: "His bones are informed by the intelligence." That is an actual quote from an actual elected official in 2026. We are being governed by a ouija board in a suit. Dumbledore's Army with nuclear codes and a body count of children. Sources from classified briefings told The Intercept: "The administration doesn't have a clue. They do not have an actual, real rationale, endgame, or plan for the aftermath of this." The Pentagon "significantly underestimated" Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. The most predictable military response in 40 years of strategic analysis. That's like invading Russia in winter and going "fuck me, it's cold." The German Chancellor flew to Washington, asked Trump what the plan was, flew home and told reporters there is "clearly no joint plan." Translated into Australian: "This cunt has no idea what he's doing and we're all fucked." Now here's the part they don't want you to understand. This isn't going to be over when the bombs stop. You can't rebuild refineries overnight. Qatar says 5 years to repair its LNG export capacity. Goldman Sachs says oil above $100 through 2027. Trump's own Energy Department says gas won't drop below $3 a gallon until end of 2027 at the earliest. The IEA says months or years to restore flows. Years. Not weeks. Years. Gas was $2.93 a month ago. It's $3.91 today. And it is not coming back. Steel and concrete do not give a fuck about your Truth Social post, Donald. Refineries don't watch Fox News. The laws of physics don't bend because a 79-year-old narcissist needs a win before the midterms. Every dollar above what you were paying last month. That's Trump's war. Every grocery bill. Every diesel fill. Every family at the kitchen table working out what to cut. That is directly, specifically, undeniably the fault of Donald J. Fucking Trump and the 77 million oxygen thieves who voted for him. Three times. His net approval on the economy is minus 29. The lowest in the history of this polling series. Lower than COVID. Only 27 percent approve of his handling of gas prices. That's not a poll. That's a fucking obituary. He is a complete and unmitigated level 10 grand master fucking moron who has blundered arse-first into the largest energy crisis in a generation, killed hundreds of children, and is now posting "winding down" like a kid who's knocked over the Christmas tree and is slowly backing out of the room hoping nobody noticed. We noticed, Donald. The whole fucking world noticed. And 168 families in Minab who will set an empty place at the table every night for the rest of their lives fucking noticed. Welcome to the consequences of being the dumbest empire in history, brought to you by the most dangerous man who ever held public office. You earned this. Every last fucking cent of it. Every last tiny coffin'

Unless they fired a missile that was going to fall half way, they have missiles that go that far.

You're missing a treat mate, unless gangster stuff really isn't your thing. What staggers me is that the BBC tucked it away on BBC2 for the first 4 seasons.

Yep. They don't need oil or gas, will make a fortune out of inflated prices, China are choked, Israel have enjoyed themselves and have an excuse to smash up Lebanon (then steal the bottom half), Iran has fallen out with it's mates, his mate Putin can sell oil again, Europe are a bit fucked, he's got an excuse to bail from NATO, etc. There's no improvement for the Iranian people, and no removal of the Iranian uranium, but that was never the issue. Whether he really wanted regime change I'm unsure, but they were never going to achieve it, and I suspect even he knew that. Oh, and the world economy has gone to shit.