sadoldgit

It was a refreshing change to see a Southgate team playing attacking football and scoring goals, even if it was against a very poor opposition. He still managed to betray his real feelings by starting his interview by talking about the goals conceded. You won 6-2 Gareth, nobody gives a shit about a last minute penalty. Keep out scoring the opposition, win the cup and nobody will give a toss that Maguire lost his man in the box. Wales will clearly play out of their skins against us because that will be the equivalent to their final, but we are so much better than them or the USA and I hope that he doesn’t revert to type. We should sail through this group. We look so much better when we are on the front foot.

Perhaps they would have been high up the pitch pressing for a winner anyway? Who knows, if it hadn’t have been given we might have scored 3 more? The fact remains that we won the match 4-2 and the officials were happy that it was kosher. The same happened in the Argentina game. We can whinge about the Hand of God all day long and perhaps the result would have been completely different if it hadn’t been given, who knows? It really doesn’t matter. Both goals were given and the rest is history.

Right on cue Batman, as ever. Yet again you spectacularly miss the point. Who do “we” think “we” are? We are the descendants of a nation that forged a massive empire and sent people like you to keep Johnny Foreigner in line. You of all people should understand that we have the moral upper hand in these matters, after all, it is our job to civilise these savages isn’t it? Isn’t that what you signed up for when you served Queen and County 🫡🇬🇧? As you well know, racism in football was never going to end overnight through footballers taking a knee but that doesn’t mean it was a worthless exercise. The whole point was to raise the issue and keep in as a main focus, which it did. The same with Harry Kane wearing a rainbow armband. Again no one believes that it will change the Qatari position on gay rights overnight, but it is one small step in the right direction. Change does not happen with inertia. Change takes time. If the anti woke brigade had their way nothing would ever change but the posters like you would have nothing to kick off against. Posters like you (who infect Twitter like locusts) think they are being clever, but are, sadly, also part of the problem. You trivialise these issues by focussing the narrative on the way that you chose to frame it. Try looking beyond an action as an opportunity to ridicule and piss take for a change.

Gutted at the result. I was assured by those ITK that Qatar had paid off Ecuador to ensure they would start with a win so I bet my mortgage on it. Off to buy a tent tomorrow. I did have a side bet about snide comments about knee taking and rainbow armbands, so maybe all is not lost 🌈

On what Planet are people like Braverman and Patel Blairites? They and Raab and Williamson are far more comfortable in a pair of jackboots and are about as liberal as Attila the Hun.

Surely you would be one of the first to know? If it does die, where are you going to find stuff to post on here?

You beat me to it. I think Jenkins ran about 3/4 of the length of the pitch too?Wonderful goal. I seem to remember Jimmy Greaves going down easily in the box for their equaliser. Tommy Jenkins went on a similarly mazy run in another match but was brought down in the box for a penalty.

It is related because the guy was saying he would be happy to pay stupid money for a basic food item than rejoin the EU. I think the expression I am looking for is cutting off your nose to spite your face. I’m still waiting for someone to explain the everyday benefits of Brexit to me but I am sure an explosion in the cost of living isn’t one of them.

I am due to meet a couple of old school/football team buddies on Saturday. I have know them both for 58 years. One lives in Southend and the other just outside Oxford. Not seen the for a while due to the lockdown etc. I have managed to avoid the dreaded virus all the way through the pandemic but have felt a bit rough this week so took a test this evening - Sod’s law, it is positive 😩

As much as I admire the sentiment, Murdoch wields too much power outside of his own country. He sees himself as a kingmaker and with so many media outlets across the world has far too much influence for one man, especially when that influence is used for what is best for Rupert Murdoch. Having said that, hell hath no fury like a Donald scorned and I’m looking forward to the fall out between Trump and Murdoch.

I agree. We just didn’t have the depth in the squad to maintain that high intensity game for any length of time. Ralph clearly thought he was getting a striker in the summer, God knows what happened there but the lack of a consistent goalscorer and the loss of Lavia did for him. I feel gutted for him that he went out on a low but think that most people will remember him fondly and wish him well for the future. Nathan Jones has a tough job ahead of him but interviews well and obviously has plenty of self belief. I admire his optimism in saying that he can turn Che into a consistent scorer. As many have said before me, if we don’t find a quality goalscorer in January the second half of the season will be an uphill struggle. Let’s hope that Tino and KWP are both fit for the restart too. Farewell Ralph and thanks for your hard work and dedication to the club over the last 4 years.

But then you didn’t rate Pelle either did you? 🤭

I read a quote from a guy yesterday who said that he would rather pay £5.00 for a loaf of bread than rejoin the EU. Little wonder that we are where we are. The way things are going he might get his wish sooner than imagined.

If you haven’t been persuaded yet that Donald Trump has a 100% Narcissistic Personality Disorder then I suggest you watch the recent interview where he says that if a Republican candidate wins it is down to him and if they lost it had nothing to do with him whatsoever. He wasn’t joking. It is staggering to see that there are still relatively intelligent grown ups who still buy this shit.

We all know that politicians go out of their way not to answer questions but it was interesting to hear Matt Hancock talk about the process last night. It even has a name, the “pivot.” Perhaps now he has let the cat out of the bag, perhaps politicians can be directly called out for “pivoting” and made to answer the question put to them, not the one they chose to answer. This isn’t a game. We deserve better from our public servants.

Fair points but it isn’t easy operating on three posts a day. At least it gives Duckie some respite though 😉

The puppies quote was a glib, tongue in cheek response for which I apologise. My point is though that yes, there are things to be happy about and there is plenty to be thankful for, but that doesn’t alter the fact that things are shit at the moment. As I type there is a report that we could be facing the longest recession in history. It doesn’t depress me. What does depress me is the fact that so many people are accepting of the situation or continue to enable those who are responsible for the mess we are in. Of course the world will not change because of a few 6th form level posts on a football forum. But at the same time, why should those who support and enable those who cause this crap get a free ride? I see more and more people stick their heads up above the parapet on social media forums and hear more speak out against what is going on on radio phone ins. The tide seems to be turning and if those who take a few minutes out of their day to speak up for change help in some small measure to speed up the process then that is good enough for me. I have long since given up on the usual WUMs and trolls, but there are plenty of people who just read threads who might just consider voting differently in the next election.

Why “repurpose” farmland when you could use it for its natural purpose, providing food? There are enough brownfield sites to provide 70% of our housing needs. There are two new developments going up near us. The prices start at over £430k. How is that affordable housing? No one wants them in the village they are being built in. The local school is full. The local doctor’s surgery is swamped. The local hospital can’t cope. The local roads cannot deal with the extra traffic. What happened to the idea of levelling up? To me that doesn’t mean concreting over the SE of England. There seems to be little thought out into where these developments go. They are just hoovering up the farmland, building where they like to meet government targets and leaving details like the effects of hundreds more people suddenly appearing in villages to work themselves out later. Yes there are some positive stories around, but we cannot ignore the myriad of issues which are currently effecting us and our children. I have taken a few examples of things that no longer work, but if I had the time and space there would be a lot more. I was born 9 years after the end of WW2. As I keep boring my kids with, there was still sugar rationing here in 1954. I’ve lived through good times, average times and bad times, this is currently a bad time and it is not going to change by looking at pictures of puppies. it is easy to blame the Tories and Brexit for much of the malaise, but the problems go deeper than that. What allowed this to happen in the first place? When the effects of Covid kicked in there was a great deal of talk about changing the way we live our lives. That has been quickly kicked to the curb by events and most people are just now trying to get through the week. Nothing has changed. We still need to examine the way we live and the systems we use to live our lives. One of the reasons that government has failed the population so spectacularly is the huge majority they have. Throw in some corrupt, incompetent politicians and you have the recipe for a perfect storm. No accountability. No shame. No consideration for anybody but themselves and nothing we can do about it until the next election in 2 years time. The police chief from Herts was taking about the arrest of the LBC journalist on the radio yesterday. He actually suggested that it would be better if the media didn’t report these protests!! Where have we heard that before? We have water companies pouring thousand of gallons of untreated sewage into the rivers and seas because the fines are cheaper than spending money on upgrading their operating systems. Where ever you look things are unfit for purpose; transport, education, healthcare, governance of local authorities etc. Yes, my point is that the country has been badly run for some time and the last wheel had finally fallen off. What do we do about it? We can start by admitting it and then have those difficult conversations about how we go about deciding what the solutions are. As Orwell said, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We need an electoral system that relects the amount of votes cast throughout the country. We need proper accountability so that any ruling party cannot get away with breaking rules and policing itself. We need greater devolutuon so that more decision making happens around the country and not just in London. We need a grown up conversation about the effects of Brexit and what we are going to do to deal with them but we need to start by agreeing that the country is broken and in urgent need of fixing. Yes, it is depressing, more so because it is reality and not some cooked up conspiracy theory. Anyone with children should be very concerned about the state of this country (and the world) right now. We need change, and not just a change of government.

Still plenty of brown field sites that could be developed but it is cheaper to build on green field sites. I see the Herts Police have finally offered a half hearted and begrudged sounding apology to Charlotte Lynch. He sounded very much like he had been told to make the statement. Civil Servants have now voted to strike. Happy days.

It’s one thing to come down hard on protesters, but why should that include law abiding people going about their daily business? Not only is it becoming harder to protest in this country (which is not illegal) but they seem happy to scoop bystanders up in their net too. There has been a distinct change in this country over the last few years and it seems that those in power feel it is okay to rip up the rule book and do what they want. The same has been happening in the US since Trump became President. What’s the old saying? A dead fish rots from its head downwards. Power is being abused on a daily basis and it is getting worse. More and more planning permission is being granted to build on what used to be Green Belt land. There are plans to build thousands of new homes on Folkestone race course which will also swallow up a lot of surrounding farmland, yet the local hospital and doctors surgeries are already swamped and there are no plans to expand either or to improve the infrastructure. But yeah, let’s not whinge and just let things go to the dogs eh?

Today the big talking point on LBC was the arrest of their reporter who, despite showing the police officers her press card, was arrested and detained for 7 hours for just doing her job and reporting on a climate change protest. A number of other journalists have previously been arrested under similar circumstances. Despite promising to bring integrity back to government, our latest PM has given top jobs to someone who has only just lost her position for leaking official documents and another person who is a serial bully and has already been sacked from 2 cabinet jobs. Gallons of sewage are being poured into our rivers and seas. Nurses have just voted to strike. Good luck if you want to get a doctors appointment quickly. Schools are reporting a dire shortage of teachers and teaching assistants. Waiting lists in the NHS are off the scale. WTF is happening to this country? We have had a succession of PMs and cabinets who couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery. The Met, supposedly the flagship police force in the country, is an embarrassment and other forces seem to be following suit. We seem to be moving closer and closer to becoming a police state the more they become incompetent and ineffective. The current PM doesn’t give a shit about climate change and only pitched up in Egypt because he didn’t want to be upstaged by Boris Johnson. The most depressing thing is that there seems to be absolutely no sign of things improving. If anything they look to be getting even worse.

He had one good shot but other than that looked like a poor man’s Sam Gallagher. Poor match overall but Stoke looked the better team. Luton worked hard but lacked any quality anywhere. They had a couple of chances that were finished in Che’esque style. Okay, it was only one match and perhaps it doesn’t reflect the way Luton usually play, but there was certainly no sign there of anything to get excited about from our prospective new manager. Watching him chew his fingers was not a good sign. As has been said, if he does come here his arms will be stumps by the Spring.

If he does end up coming here I hope that he has a word with the big fella upstairs about getting his son in as a keeper, if only to hear a commentator say at last, “Jesus saves” when our goal is under attack. Again, could be complete bollix but read elsewhere that Jones was a second choice behind the Argentina guy so, if true, perhaps he turned us down?

Christ, you are so obsessed by Trump that you would play him up front?

The not getting a striker in during the summer was strange. I could understand them busting a gut to get Delap in if he was the answer to our goal scoring problems but it seems they wasted their time on someone who can no longer even start for Stoke. 1 goal out of 5 against on Saturday against 4 goals out of 4 says it all. You can’t compete in this league if you can’t put the ball in the net. I don’t think we have a bad squad but as has been said over and over, we made a big mistake in not finding an adequate replacement for Ings. Che’s finishing has not improved and Adam A hasn’t been able to step up to the EPL standard. The new guy will have the same problems if we fail to invest in improving our firepower in January. Wishing Ralph all the best for the future. He isn’t a bad manager and probably should have found himself a club with the money to match his ambitions and ability.