Lord Duckhunter

That was pretty much my policy. The more obnoxious the kid or set of parents, the less they got. Including my own son and his team. My mate was a cricket umpire and he told me about an incident he had during a game. He’d turned down 2 LBW appeals from the same bowler who was giving him stick and moaning about him to the other players loudly, finally the batsman misses one and the stumps went flying. The bowler turns round and says to my mate, “that’s one even you can’t give not out”, my mate said back “wanna bet” before raising his arm sideways and shouting “no ball”.

What makes you think that? Do you really believe we’ll go for a British manager in his late 50’s who has managed a few premier league clubs?

Roy Keane telling it as it is with Liverpool again. Said he’s fed up with hearing about their “problems”, if the centre halves are worried about Sheffield Utd they shouldn’t be at Liverpool, and their forwards are so good, it shouldn’t matter who is in goal.

Shaw is talking pony. The var doesn’t advise whether it’s a pen or not, just advise the ref to look at it. The ultimate decision is with the ref and fair play to him, he stuck to his guns. Do you really believe the ref told Maguire that, because I don’t.

I’m not disagreeing. However, can you see modern politicians implementing a policy that affects BAME & undocumented immigrants a lot more than whitey? Once it becomes apparent the the vast majority of anti Vacers aren’t David Icke like loons, but in fact the BAME community & immigrants, can you see this flying, because I can’t.

I used to referee my nippers home games from U12 to U16, I used to get loads of abuse from parents and sometimes the kids. I can see why it would put people off. It was horrendous sometimes. I always used to take a fuck you attitude and give decisions against the most abusive ones. I remember one game when our side were hanging on for a win, the opposition were pressing and the ball went off for a throw in. My nippers manger deliberately let the ball run under his foot and down the hill to waste time. I thought “fuck you” and played about an an extra 5 minutes . After the game I was having a well earnt pint in the bar and he said “where did you get that injury time from” ? I told him, “I added extra on because you acted like a dick”. I once told an opposition parent to “fuck off” and got reported to the FA. There was a big investigation, but I just bullshitted and said I never did. The complainants club got fined for failing to control their patents. Yes I lied to the FA, but the bloke called me a cheat (which I wasn’t) so they were fair game in my opinion. I didn’t give much of a fick, because I knew I was doing my best, I can see why refs are considered arrogant, because you have to be. Any self doubt and it’ll kill you, and that was just nippers.

You can’t have referees whistling whilst the wall is still being lined up, there’d be mayhem. If the restart is going to be on the whistle you have to be reasonable and allow the defensive team to set. That’s why he panicked and blew the second time, he knew he fucked up. The problem was the panicked second whistle made the situation even worse. He lost control of the situation, he was puddled.

If he allows it to be taken quickly, then yes. However, once he’s indicated the restart will be on his whistle, he has to allow the defending team to be set. The error was he didn’t check the keeper was ready before blowing his whistle. He then panicked when he realised he wasn’t, and blew it again to stop play.

I went to a dozen away games and every single home one. As Turkish has pointed out, home games aren’t particularly any better than Puels. 9-0, Bournemouth, 2-0 up against Wolves, Chelsea, Newcastle, Burnley all woeful. This season at home hasn’t exactly been laugh a minute. Spurs, 2-0 up against Utd, West Ham, Wolves, Arsenal. Still he did cry against Liverpool, who were in such form they drew with West Brom & lost to Burnley & Brighton around the same time.

More excuses. Firstly, this Ralph knows what he is trying to do, whereas Puel didn’t is just pony. Just because you didn’t like what Puel was trying to do, doesn’t mean he didn’t have a plan and a style he wanted us to play. Tactically he was miles ahead of what we’ve seen so far this year, particularly defensively as that really has been a shitshow lately. Secondly, if we lack the players to play a certain style, why on earth are we playing it. Poch wanted us to press in his first few games, but when we started to look dodgy he changed slightly. He only went back into after he signed Victor the following summer. Being inflexible is not a strength in football management. Thirdly, he’s had pretty much the same backing as the previous 3 managers, basically not a lot. However, there’s no slack cut to them. For the avoidance of any doubt, nobody wants Claude Puel as manager instead of Ralph, some of us just want them judged fairly. Puel shit, Ralph good is just lazy pony, based on nothing but liking the personality of one, and not liking the other. Based on cold hard facts Puel did a better job, let’s hope this time next year the reverse is true.

More excuses. This bloke could get us relegated and some of you will lick his fucking feet. This side is not much different to the one Puel had once VvD got injured. Keepers are similar. Both had Bertrand. KWP or Cedric, not much in it. Centre halves-Yoshida & Stephens or Vesty & Bednarek. I think we know which pairing you’d choose. JWP & OR, in both sides. Armstrong or Davies, pretty equal. Redmond, both. Ings or Gabbi, I’d say Ings, but pretty similar. Tadic or Walcot/Djeneppo. Tadic every day of the week. Who from Puels side would get into the present side, Tadic & VvD defo, and he was missing VvD from Jan onwards. Are the others very much different? Of course they’re not. If you forget about Puel, were Mark Hughes’ or Pelligrinos sides any better than this one? Not really. This pony that Ralph has somehow been dealt a horrendous hand, is just that, pony. He’s got pretty much the same hand as the past 3 managers were dealt and at the moment he’s playing it worse that Puel, slightly better than Hughes and a lot better than Pelligrino. In the grand scheme of things, he’s been pretty fucking average. But he cries when we beat Liverpool, so thats ok.

Fuck me, that Woodgate is doing a tremendous job at Boscombe considering their net spend the past 55 years.

I think we’ve jumped the shark now......

Not good enough at the time we let him go, the fact he is now, says more about Bertrand’s appalling 3 months, than Targett’s ability.

Without Grealish as well.

Shambles. There’s 2 things the ref can do. Allow a quick one with out a whistle (tough if the defending team aren’t ready), or tell everyone the kick will be on the whistle. Once you’ve insisted the kick is taken on your whistle, you have to allow the defending team time to get set. He obviously assumed the keeper was set & ready without actually checking he was. He then shat himself when he realised he wasn’t and the kick had been taken, so blew the whistle again. To me the VAR could have bailed him out a little . There were players offside, that at a stretch could have been in the keepers vision. VAR could have told him this and given him a way of disallowing the goal, without looking like a complete twat (only looking mildly twatish).

Targett lucky to not receive second yellow there.

It doesn’t seem right to me that having suffered lockdown to protect the over 60’s, nippers will now be banned from pubs, clubs, international travel, cinemas because we haven’t got down to vaccinating them. Once the whole adult population has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, then there’s a discussion to be had. Personally, with the BAME community , women up the duff & illegal immigrants high up the list on non Vaxers, I can’t see this pinko government going for vaccine passports as government policy. What I can see them doing is allowing companies to insist on a negative test that day or proof of vaccine. The hassle of obtaining a negative test result over and over, will mean vaccine passport by the back door. Not Government policy, but a nod and a wink. I can also see them insisting certain professions have one (as I believe they do with hepatitis already) but that Plimlico plank maybe on a sticky wicket if he’s saying a blanket no jab/no job. Again, the way round this would be daily negative test, or proof of vaccine.

This is not true. Burnley,West Ham, Wolves, Crystal Palace & Brighton all had a lower net spend.

How many more years are we going to blame Les Reed. One thing for sure, he wasn’t getting the praise when we were top of the league. Now there’s a slump, it’s his fault.

If he name was Ralph Higgins and he was an ex centre half from Barnsley, I bet people wouldn’t be quite so enthralled by his football and tactical nous. Some people are still spitting feathers about a somewhat boring man that gave us a decent season. A season that included some great performances, some boring ones and some unlucky ones. We certainly didn’t have the absolute shit shows that we’ve had to endure this season. Hopefully Ralph will match Claude and take us to a final. Fingers crossed he’ll match Hughes and get us to a semi final. But if we go out to Boscombe, what then? How will his performances be measured? I’m sure some on here will find weird and wonderful ways to big him up.

After the January Puel had Jack Stephens and Yoshida as centre halves. Bertrand, Pied and Cedric as full backs. JWP, OR and Steve Davies, JRod, Long, Gabbi, Redmond and Tadic. He had to use Josh Simms and McQueen and had a very young PEH. Is that really any better than we’ve got now. I’d say only Tadic would get in this side, maybe Steve Davies. That lot managed to win a semi final and win 6 of their last remaining 13 games. They also never got stuffed 9. And we never looked a complete shambles as we have done at times this season. My opinion has always been the same regarding Claude. He did a good job in difficult circumstances, whilst I wasn’t 100% sure of him, he deserved another season. He suffered a raw deal from most supporters, including the unbelievable claim that points matter more than places (a calculation which means Liverpool’s runners up had a better season than Arsenals invincible’s). Under him we were the 8th best team in the country, and with the squad we had that’s a pretty good return. Puels achievements are derided and he’s lumped in with Pelligrino and Hughes, he deserves better than that. This blokes achievements have been exaggerated big time. 11th is par for us, unless he does something in the cup, this looks like it’s going to be another bang average return this season.

It’s points now, not league position, solely because that one particular fact backs up your opinion. I don’t particularly care how many points a team gets, just where they finish. I haven’t a clue how many points Lawrie got us, just that we finished second. Do you think West Ham fans will care if they get into the top four this season with less points than normally achieves that. Will they say that Moyes achievement “looked better than it was”. Course not, nobody does. Only people performing mental gymnastics to justify an opinion,do. Strange from a bloke dealing in facts. The fact is, had Puel been in charge with the same record as Ralph, you’d have your pitchfork out.

If you’re using facts, I hope you’re not trying to say he’s done better than Claude did. God knows what you’d do if Ralph managed to get us to 8th and a cup final from here, probably propose a statue and freedom of the city.