JoetheRam

1 hour ago, David said:

Whilst it shouldn’t be a major issue, this should have been announced prior to ticket sales, not say you will sell then 48hrs from kick off reverse the decision. Elon Musk running the show out there?

Only for general admission fans though. Still available in corporate areas.

They don't even bother hiding it anymore.

21 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

We should certainly continue to look at both sides of the argument.

I imagine this is going to be a great world cup for anyone who loves international football AND hates gay people

Can the two not be separated?

1 hour ago, SSD said:

Had a Saxo for just under a year. £700. Bought it off an older lady, expecting it to be cared for. She must have ragged it around. The car was a absolute scrapheap on wheels. Driving down the motorway it was like Russian roulette, no idea if you'd make it to the other side or in a puff of smoke. A friend wanted to buy it but I couldn't do it, I said you're better off going on a bus than driving this pile of dirt.

Reminds me of the "OLO - One Lady Owner" tag often applied to used car ads under some pretense that such a label might indicate a car in good condition.

In my experience that means it's mostly been driven short distances and sat on the driveway for extended periods, top gear has never been used, speed bumps have been barrelled over, servicing has only been carried out when there's stuff leaking from underneath, the paint on the offside is scratched to s*** because it's been driven too close to the kerb, wiper blades are original and the interior has been used as a bin for 95% of it's life.

My mate once had a car that the boot didn't lock and you could use a spoon to start in the absence of a key. Either that or a Dodge Caravan are the worst cars I've experienced.

14 minutes ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

See, when you choose to define "performance" as "results" regardless of the opposition, you surface EXACTLY the same points. So we're saying the same things. 

But then choose to disregard them in order to be able to give Gareth Southgate a label of "achievement". 

He's no better - but no worse than what we've had before. The progress of the England team through tournaments is hugely correlated to the "luck of the draw", not to the perceived brilliance of the team which is always exposed as false. 

Turn the question on it's head - when was the last time an England tournament performance genuinely exceeded expectations? 

Fair point on first two paragraphs, although I wouldn't say he's achieved anything unless we win something. My point was in counter to Bris' assertion that we hadn't outperformed the 02-06 side, who despite massive talent never got close to success.

Sven had great players at his disposal but did nothing with them. Southgate has a team with good attackers and full backs but poor defenders. With the players he has at his disposal, if Sven's biennial quarter-final exit is the yardstick, Southgate has out-performed him twice.

Luck of the draw? Some in 2018 granted, but Croatia, Scotland, Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine and Denmark is at least par for the course surely?

In answer to your last question - Euro 2020, Nations League and World Cup 2018 have all exceeded expectations for me - I had us down for last 16 in 2018, knocked out in the group in Nations League and out in the quarters at the Euros.

Maybe you rate our players too highly if you expect better than a final and a couple of semi's (tee-hee)? 

And despite everything I've just written, I don't have high hopes for this world cup, and think it's time someone else had a go in charge.

1 hour ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

They haven't "performed" better. They happen to have reached later stages of tournaments only because they have had draws that avoided stronger teams earlier on. 

And how is performance measured? Results. And Southgate has got us further than we did in 2002 where we lost to the first decent team we played, 2004 we looked pretty good to be fair, despite blowing a 1-0 lead and a good performance against France before losing to the next decent team we played on Pens and in 2006 we were crap, scraping past Trinidad and Tobago in the last 10 mins, and Paraguay by an own goal before drawing to an average Sweden and nicking a 1-0 against Ecuador. Again losing to the first decent team we played on Pens.

Look, I'm not oblivious to Southgate's shortcomings but to suggest he hasn't done any better than Sven (who had a way better defence to play with) doesn't seem right to me.

Would I count Southgate as successful? No. But have England achieved good results at tournaments under him? Yes.

1 hour ago, Rammy03 said:

Exactly. So why does Southgate get so much criticism?

Because he doesn't do exactly what the media and fans want him to do? Don't know. I was critical of him for drawing the Euro final for sure, and losing against Croatia the way we did was poor.

I don't know enough about the players to comment really as I don't watch them for their clubs but I guess he's a bit 'negative' considering our defensive players aren't as good as our forward players and we'd all love to see them unshackled and allowed to play with freedom that they seem to not be allowed under him.

2 hours ago, Bris Vegas said:

I think we have a number of decent wide players but would you say any of our other players are better than what we had around 2002-06?

Back then we had far better defenders in Ferdinand, Campbell and Terry.

Ashley Cole in a league of his own.

Midfield is no comparison with Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard and even Carrick who is probably comparable to Rice.

Goalkeepers… Not sure. Rooney and Kane are different players but both world class standard.

i think the only areas which this team has better options is at right-back and wide attackers.

But I don’t think those positions will influence the team enough to outperform the 2002-06 sides.

They equally beat the mediocre sides but came up short against top class opposition (on penalties mainly).

 

They already have. Twice.

30 minutes ago, alanmarklewis said:

Whilst I don't agree with their actions, at least they're doing something. What are we all doing?

Scoring points on a football forum. 

It might work, you never know...

On 05/11/2022 at 23:53, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

What is the Emirates Cup? Are we in that? I hope not, we have the FA cup and League Cup this week which is more than enough.

One of them foreign pre-season trophies isn't it? Where Arsenal, Lyon, Hamburg and New York Red Bulls play each other to decide who has the most fans in China or something.

8 hours ago, Rammy03 said:

Oh right so he can sub him on just before a penalty shootout and go into it cold, that worked last time didn't it...

Doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do.

Having a guy who converts 96% of all his penalties on the pitch, cold or not (are they not allowed to warm up then?) would seem to me to give you a better chance than whoever else we've taken in his place, unless it's Nathan Ellington.

Overall though the squad pretty much picks itself and people he's left out aren't going to be the reason England don't win it.

Well I'm ready for it.

All the moralising is nearly over (not that there's anything wrong with that, just it's a boring story that's been told since their bid was successful and I've had a guts full of it) and the games can be the story. A distraction from real life, which we all need every now and then.

Not having watched anyone other than the odd England and Derby match in the last 4 years I have no idea who any of the players are, who is any good and what the rules even are when it comes to VAR and offsides etc. Feel like 8 year old me all over again.

Can't wait to watch Switzerland v Cameroon at 10am.

Hoping for an aesthetically pleasing selection of kits, the odd controversy (usually the Dutch or French), the roundest ball ever made and some memorable moments.

A European v South American nation in the final would be ideal.

Of course it should be in summer but if it all goes tits up we'll just say this wasn't an official one, not part of the franchise and move on to the next circus in 4 years.

Don't care about the pubs because watching England in a pub is the worst experience one can live through.

RIP the 32 team format.

On 05/11/2022 at 09:18, DE6RAM said:

Bay City Rollers on tour.

The Gentlemen (2019), well the first 20 minutes, which was the most boring film opening I've ever seen. No idea what Hugh Grant was jabbering on about to some guy in a nice Magnet designed kitchen, and the premise laid out by McConaughey's character was ludicrous so gave up as I realised I've already seen Mr Richie make this exact film at least twice before. 

Turned off and watched Spike Lee's Inside Man (2006) which isn't great but at least something happens in it.

3 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

haggis or hashish?  ?‍♂️      ?

 

50/50.

Which would improve both tbf.

2 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

If this is going to be just DCFC based then we can move it to the main forum? Probably safer to keep it Rams-based eh?

I particularly like that you can request pictures in the style of famous artists

Derby County scoring a goal by Cezanne you say? No problem

 

The addition of an artists name is fantastic.

Here's Edward Hopper's vision of us winning the European Cup.

This is both amazing, and terrifying at the same time.

2 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

There is a difference between having my views challenged and immediately realising that he's a grifter talking rubbish

You yourself said "Shouldn't need to take guesses" and then followed it up with "Especially as a lot of people are guessing that the excess deaths are due to the vaccine"

Which is the thrust of his video - he's guessing that it's due to the vaccines and trying to encourage others to get angry about his guess

On that basis - you should have switched it off too as you admit - we shouldn't be guessing? There is an official inquiry

 

For what it's worth I don't think he did actually guess that it's due to vaccines in that video. He was just presenting the information in a way that could easily be interpreted as "ooh there's more unexpected deaths now than on average during Covid", without explaining what else it could be (it could be vaccines, but it's probably not), leading to people with a pre-disposition of thinking it must be the vaccines to think their case now has this as evidence to support their position. If I could be bothered I would look up the stats for a myriad of other diseases and causes of death that have risen and posit an opinion as to why the increase is nothing to do with vaccines, but my lunch break is only half an hour long.

He was, and is heavy on suggestion, leading people up the garden path to add 2+2 and nudging them in the direction of 5.

He'll probably make loads of money doing so too.

People made up their minds on Covid long ago and it's a waste of time discussing it thinking anyone will change their opinions now.

3 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Shouldn't need to take guesses, all of the things that you note should be pretty quantifiable, hence why I and others are questioning where the experts, who were quoting excess deaths on a daily basis thoughout the pandemic, are not doing the same now?

Especially as a lot of people are guessing that the excess deaths are due to the vaccine. You'd think experts would be keen to provide evidence to prove otherwise. 

Probably just not as sexy a story for the media to sell tbh. I'm sure the experts are continuing to investigate and drawing up conclusions right now. Just not being stuck in front of a camera to talk about it.

Covid was a new and shiny thing, talking about populations getting fatter causing more heart disease isn't really news to anyone.

35 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Spot on, the silence is deafening. 

Whats happened to all of the medical experts who told us granny killers to get a jab?

Why are they no longer around to explain these excess deaths?

Now that, according to Dr John's graphs, Covid doesn't seem to be a direct factor in excess deaths (guessing those jabs really did work after all) I'd put a few guesses at the door of suicides, "old age" type stuff due to the heat we had in the summer, you should probably factor in the NHS being exhausted from the pandemic and having no staff so patients are dying waiting for operations that had been put off, probably gonna be an increase over winter as the oldies freeze due to no heating... could be anything really. There tends to be more deaths than expected when the economy is poor too.

15 minutes ago, Reggie Greenwood said:

The same BBC that has Conservative Party Doner and advisor Richard Sharp as it’s Chairman ? 

Sounds like it might just about be balanced afterall.

Swarfega.

Consider not paying the fee every year because I think I don't use it (as an under 35) then remind myself there's at least 4 hours every week dedicated to this stupid third division club plus TMS, World Cup/Euros, MoTD, FA Cup...

For 43p a day I think it's good value and I can tolerate Lineker being "woke" and "socialist" on Twitter or something whilst earning 10% of what Ant or Dec do. Especially when I remember they employed rabid right wingers like David Dimbleby, him what did Mastermind, and Andrew Neil for about 150 years combined, and I didn't mind them.

This thread is scary.

Science getting hijacked and infected by the toxic politics and culture of our time is such a tragedy.

Somewhere Boy on C4 is decent light(ish) drama.

Eight half hour episodes.

Everton, purely to kick them out of the league they were instrumental in setting up.