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both channels had to open with this stance to justify their presenters/pundits being out there in the first place the hour leading up to the opening game on the BBC was some of the most pathetic television ever seen ....an hour long nauseating preach-athon.... with the ubiquitos Alex Scott determined to make it about herself , as usual they can't possibly keep that up for 3 weeks, theres only so much re treading on old ground you can keep doing regarding human rights, LGBT , they can do. If the BBC keep this up and continue to tip toe around their agenda and tread carefully on their political correctness, they will will just eat themselves up we get it, we know.....we dont need it every day. sooner or later they will just concentrate on presenting the football, results like Saudi Arabia's today will shift that focus

Good Lord, Saudi Arabia take the lead.

I’m going to get a lot of stick for this but here goes! Qatar should never have been awarded this tournament and it was alleged corruption that got them this tournament, no doubt, Is anyone else getting a little fed up with everyone on the TV focusing on political agendas rather than just accepting that it’s the host countries right to make its laws, we don’t have to like it, but who are we to say how they should be living? My standards and way of life say they’re wrong, my belief is it’s wrong but I fully respect the laws and culture of Qatar and if we don’t like it then don’t go, boycott the World Cup, no one forced the TV companies to send their high paid pundits to go! We were all aware of what was coming and as I say I believe their culture is wrong in its archaic beliefs but I fully respect the laws of their land. Can we move on from this constant need to be political and just focus on the World Cup and the game of football.

I watched the game live here in Oman, I’ve never heard a commentator like the Arab guy today! He went absolutely mad when Saudi scored their goals but best of all was, once Saudi were winning and Argentina were attacking all he could say was 5hit, 5hit, 5hit 🤣🤣🤣

Feels like one now!🤣

Or surprised.

I imagine that there will be fair few current Tory MPs who will prefer to step down rather than risk the total humiliation by ballot box that they so richly deserve.

Most of the people elected to the Commons aren't good enough politicians to be elected as MPs.

I've detected Uruguay will host the 2030 World Cup after reading this cool thing about the next game Mexico v Poland "Stadium 974 which is set to be the first-ever temporary venue to host a World Cup contest. The venue is made from 974 recycled shipping containers and will be used to host matches throughout the tournament before being dismantled and transported to be rebuilt in Maldonado, Uruguay to host games for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, providing the country's joint bid proves successful."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63710986 Article on why there is so much injury time. Improved monitoring of wasted time after 2018. Part of drive to ensure there is actually 90mins of football and no wasted time.

I couldn't disagree more. We sacked probably the best head coach we will have in my lifetime based upon the expectation that we should be surviving in the Premier League. If 5th in the Championship after a run of 2 wins in 10 is 'par' then expectations are certainly significantly lower for Smith than they were for Farke. Really, though, it's not so much about league position as it is about progress. By any objective measure Smith has taken us backwards. Farke had a plan which he diligently worked at instilling throughout the playing squad. We could all see what he was trying to achieve and, by this stage in his second season, it was delivering both results and entertainment. With Smith we have none of those things. He's only just stopped trying to play 4-3-3 but still hasn't fixed the fundamental defensive deficiencies in midfield, aside from a couple of games where we stopped the rot. And, such is the scattergun approach, none of us know who will be playing in what system. Ultimately the club either gets promoted this season or releases half the squad and attempts to rebuild. When we got promoted with our record points total two seasons ago, the latter scenario was unthinkable. To go from that high to the current incoherent dross is a significant failure. So, no, expectations are not 'too high' at all.

Those good spells are what we're capable of. Just need to make those spells longer.👍 There's also the point that since the pandemic people have moaned non stop about all kinds of stuff. Count your blessings and cheer up! Exactly this cheer up. Thank your lucky stars your not supporting Argentina .🤣👍🤫. 🇧🇷 ok👍

It's arrogance really. A lot of fans expect us to win the league at a canter. It's disrespectful to the other teams. If you look back you'll see many of the same people claimed exactly the same things under Farke. Until we were winning and went top. Winning football is always viewed as good football. If not then it's never criticised. The football has been in and out. Pragmatic with good spells but no more than 20/30 mins per game. Those good spells are what we're capable of. Just need to make those spells longer. There's also the point that since the pandemic people have moaned non stop about all kinds of stuff. Count your blessings and cheer up! 😂

In the Masterclasses we talked about the very finest defenders seeing danger half a second later than others. This might appear counter-intuitive at first glance - indeed many may have referred to Ferdinand as ‘casual’ in the early days - though it isn’t. Mark Attanasio and his team MUST be good at this, or they would not survive and flourish in the niche ‘alternative’ financial sector they are in (as described above). Thus - in a sporting sense - scale ‘traditional’ financial institutions may be characterised as ‘safety-first, back-of-row-z’ defenders. Taking no chances, though not being very progressive with the ball either. Thinking only of defending, rather than ‘defending is also attacking’ as Guardiola has said. This is where the high yield gains are. In the margins. Panning for gold in the juicy rejects bins of the large traditional international finance companies. The key point is that Mark Attanasio asks ‘what is risk?’ for a living. He - and his company - have finer antennae than others, they react later to financial risk and data than others, sort through it even more forensically. See where others panicked a little too soon. My guess is that he has seen something similar at Norwich. That - for not a huge amount more money - he can take reasonable risks that have decent odds on producing attractive yields in a sporting sense. Of course perhaps in a financial sense somewhere further down the line (if you are a trustee it is not who you sell to, it is who they sell to). In our terms, only a Buendia, a Skipp and an Eriksen away from attractive success. He likes those odds. Two schools of thought I suppose. Shame Delia couldn’t get lucky and make it work at the top level. And wish he had been here sooner. Parma @PurpleCanary @shefcanary @essex canary @BigFish @Petriix @GMF

Chuck in Simeone's theatrics and a prefectly good goal by Sol Campbell ruled out in '98....and we still owe them F*ck 'em

All the Saudi fans will be celebrating now and going on the lash....

Saudi Arabia to win the World Cup as it's been written. That the winning country gets all the Budweiser that they cannot sell in Qatar.

Parma, I had noticed that, without being certain what to make of it in relation to NCFC, apart from reinforcing my previously stated view that you don't stay successful in the US finance sector generally if you're a soft touch. I did come across this recently in what it only the FT's second reference to Attanasio (the first dating back to 2009): “US investors have a fundamental thesis that European football is undervalued commercially”, said Tim Bridge, lead partner of the sports business group at Deloitte, adding that teams in smaller leagues come at a price many find “quite compelling”. Last month Mark Attanasio, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, purchased a minority stake in Norwich City, a second-tier English club..."

Good team performance by the underdogs, reminds me of the old FA cup days when the minnows beat the giants!

Not sure about his Hindi or Bengali but do remember his grasp of gobbledygook being first-class.

I wasn’t watching but I’m taking a break from work to watch the rest of this. I’m never keen on Argentina , it will be amusing if they can’t rescue this but realistically they probably will. also puts yesterday’s win by England in perspective.

Saudi's haven't read the script.

Fair comments. I also hoped Sergeant would shine but in the event he was kept pretty quiet by the Wales defence, which shows that playing him as a central striker won't be a panacea. He did play a role in the goal by a clever pass with his chest, and had that effort at the near post but that was about it.

Yes - I think Labour has been saying that for many decades. Not quite sure what it has directly to do with Brexit since we have a huge labour shortage for jobs that it appears no Brexit Brits want to do. I suppose AI and robots will help - just seen WBB comment arrive above which I guess say much the same so I'll stop here.

Yep Swindle you told us the British needed the jobs ‘ British jobs for British workers ‘ you and Farage cried. But you lied, the British don’t want said jobs. Consequently we threw out the European workers and are replacing them with twice as many from Asia, Africa and the America’s, I have no problem with that but ask the question, what was the point of kicking out our European friends that were doing a great job. Personally at the end of my NHS contract I would happily have gone into the care sector, but you have destroyed that and unlike our European friends I am not happy to work for £9.49 an hour reduced to £8.00 once you take into account your pension payment.

Do you think that LYB is right that this is Starmer's ultimate aim? And will we have to call his military arm "Starmtroopers"???

Slowly turning Swindo into a Labour voter.

Something extraordinary just happened

Is this all top flight or just PL I'll have a go at PL... Daryl Sutch Rob Ullathorne Piere Lees - Melou Milo Rashica Johann Elmander Ben Gibson Colin Woodthorpe Billy Gilmour Mathias Normann Mike Sheron If it's all top flight then far too many to list 😃

Max Blumenthal is an apologist for various dictators and has regularly denied and downplayed numerous horrendous incidents, such as chemical attacks in Syria and concentration camps in Xinjiang. If you have any doubts about what kind of character he is, here you can find him openly mocking Syrian civilians for trying to do something, anything, to try and not die from regime chemical attacks And if you still find yourself thinking that despite him being an obvious Kremlin shill, he might still have something useful to say, here he is claiming that the Ukrainian military was "vanquished" and that Ukraine was now "Russia's frontiers". On February 26th. So, if you're nodding along to his absurd suggestions that russian-speaking Ukrainians, like Zelenskiyy, are being brutally supressed following the liberation of Kherson, then you are, with no due respect, a ****ing moron.

I think the majority of us can understand Labour's position on brexit at the moment. It's not a likeable position but it is the most sensible. They can't give the rabid brexiters and papers any ammo to reopen the old wounds, of which they are desperate for, so letting it play out this way is for the best. It'll be a slow and long route back to a semblance of sensible governance so any remain supporters getting upset at this need to calm down and think a bit.

Excellent example of what our club has to deal with from the fanbase. I'm surprised Webber can be bothered to give as much as 90%

**** gives interview to another ****. Shock horror.

I would suggest that Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe breaking cover made this a when, not an if. A golden opportunity to cash in the win. The Glazers haven’t looked too eager, though ‘Ronaldo blah…rebuilding job blah….football changing blah’ offers them a sweet window. Parma

Probably end up at Newcastle on £500,000 + a week

Are you IpS*** in disguise ??

There's an enormous difference between bullying and giving someone a bollocking.

Even if he did view sports ventures as a bit of fun, it would be very unusual if he changed his modus operandi for his hobby from that of the day job. Everyone has the expectation that what has worked before, will work again. I suspect @Parma Ham's gone mouldy is correct and he is seen something cheap in City that has a low risk downside but a lucrative or enjoyable upside.

finally...a referee having the b*llocks to make his own decision and not be swayed by people sitting in a booth

Trump said the USA would have won if he was President. By at least three touchdowns.

Er, except that the score was 2-1 so that basically does mean England were beaten by the cheating hand of God goal. A brilliant individual goal still only counts as one goal.

OK, let's play a nice game of Spot The Stone-Age Sh*thole. Pretty sure that was when Argentina was under a military junta over 40 years ago. Some corruption issues nowadays, but they've made a heck of a lot of progress since that junta got chucked. Argentina: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom House As opposed to the Khashoggi case and LGBTQ issues in Saudi Arabia right now - which are just the tips of the iceberg. Saudi Arabia: Freedom in the World 2022 Country Report | Freedom House

Tyldesley's commentry was cringeworthy and I had to turn it off for a moment (but then you lost the atmosphere) and I wanted the 'home nation' to win. I have no affinity to US teams of whatever sport. Yet I wanted Sarge to shine. Wales couldn't have played a worse 45 minutes and I did think the substitution was inspired because they changed their whole approach just by that one change! They were outfought in the middle so decided to adapt. I think they just look for heroes to hang on to. This is the end of the line internationally for Bale so I'm trying to enjoy it. His legs had gone at the end but there was a clip of him shouting "I know it's hard but you've got to keep going" to one of his colleagues. He has done enough damage even to us in his time. He is a quiet sort, unusual for such a 'star' and has little ego. That warms me more to him. The England match should be interesting because it will be a different dynamic. Iran/Wales I expect to be tasty. Hoping both England and Wales get through.

Was going to say, we didn't pay much for him and got plenty more back.

He's created more than Nunez this season. He passes successfully more often than Nunez or Sara. He makes more tackles than Sara and Gibbs. He makes more interceptions than Nunez, Hayden, Gibbs and Sara per game. These are stats, not misconceptions because you can't see past your pre-determined nonsense opinion based on nothing. I'm giving you facts. You are demonstrably wrong in pretty much every single thing you said above.

It would be somewhat wasted on you, so no. The fact he is a starter isn't his fault and certainly at this level he is more than capable and has proven it in two title winning seasons. This season there isn't another Central Midfielder who's managed to perform at his defensive level alongside also having a goal and a couple of assists. That both Farke and Smith rate him would normally be enough but... I have no problem with him moving to Scotland in the summer and I think it would be good for him to start afresh away from the nonsense peddled by a section of our fanbase. At least it only seems restricted to the PinkUn as recently we've had Kenny's name sung in the stands a couple of times.

Yeah despite having much more financial resources than us over the past 15 years they've never really been close to our level and even when they were, we disposed of them in a play off semi final. And now after 4 attempts they MIGHT finally escape the third tier (where our board made decisions which resulted in going up at first attempt) and posters think they are on the way up and a stick to beat the club with 😅😅😅 It's absolutely priceless.

Your wish is my command... (apart from any sexual ones)

Woah Parma. Now if we have passed a turning point, and if Smith can get us promoted, perhaps Smith & Jones can bow out with dignity, hand over to Mark & Co. and the new era can take off unburdened. Wouldn't that be great? Long straws perhaps, but perfectly graspable if we pull together?