roboto

Warne is a former fitness coach, so I’m sure he’ll have a good idea about what he wants or is looking for from a fitness coach. Did he have a dedicated fitness coach at Rotherham? Or did he look after that aspect himself?

Right. I'm going to have a go at answering some of these!

14 hours ago, Loughborough Ram said:

Sometimes, there are things in the game that really p*ss me off about football. Here are just a few to kick this off but feel free to add to it.

 

Referees have decided that tactical fouls aren't automatically a booking.

Players have reinvented socks, making holes absolutely essential.

There is no such thing as a foul throw anymore.

Nicknames on the backs of shirts.

Nobody is ever given a penalty for wrestling at corners.

Half time takes over 20 minutes.

Offside is only given when the ball gets close to the goal, never on the halfway line where the offside actually occurred.

 

Referees follow the updated rules each season and it takes a while for any minor changes to become commonplace and understood. The lower down the pyramid you go, the worse the standard of officiating gets. Our refs this season have been all kinds of rubbish, but I don't think refs are making up their own rules about tactical fouls.

Holes in socks. Does this really p*ss you off? There are actual good reasons for players to adapt their kit to aid performance or help reduce fatigue and/or injury. Almost all players will have their own grip socks taped under the main club sock. The only reason to keep the team sock is for the colours.

There are still foul throws and I think there was even one caught in the world cup final (or semi-final) and the other team got awarded the throw-in after.

Should we just go back down to no names on the back of shirts? Nothing wrong with players being able to choose if they like. They are their own brand these days. Brazilian players have been known by their nicknames for decades. Imagine making a chant for Edson Arantes do Nascimento!

Penalties are given for fouls at corners, but often the attacking team are also guilty so it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Again, refereeing further down the pyramid isn't as good as the elite levels.

With the speed of service at away end bars, I'm quite thankful for longer half time breaks tbh.

Your offside remark is also a bit wrong. I've seen numerous times this season offside decisions well up the pitch. Doesn't really matter though when it usually results in a quick free kick taken to keep possession around midfield/defence.

14 hours ago, Phoenix said:

Pink boots

Carefully choreographed but naff goal celebration routines

Alice bands

Time added on to time added on

Garibaldi red shirts

What's wrong with pink boots? You'll love the next adidas release in January ? There are tons of colour choices available and some more garish than others. Let players express themselves.

I do agree with the goal celebration thing. The brazil ones in the world cup were pretty cringe. Especially when the manager got involved.

Alice bands. Keep the hair out of the players face. Not everyone walks around with a short back and sides these days.

Would rather have time added on to time added on especially if some terrible time wasting has been occurring. You should be able to see the match out without taking forever to get the ball back in play.

Agree on the red shirts...

6 hours ago, Dimmu said:

Corruption
FIFA, UEFA, FA's, EFL etc.
Money laundering
Sportswashing
Human trafficking
Some fans behaviour
VAR
Players and owners lack of class and sportmanship
And soooo much more.

Yeah, I'm done with "professional" football.

Agree with all your points, but that's not all of professional football. Thankfully.

6 hours ago, InstaRam said:

Getting a corner in the 85th minute with a one goal lead and taking it short to waste time defending the corner. Absolutley zero entertainment value and show a lack of confidence. Love it when the team doing that concede in the end though!   

Just a bit of gamesmanship. Better than overplaying and losing on the break. Could've helped us in the past if we'd been better at ball retention and getting it to the corners.

5 hours ago, TimRam said:

The same teams in the Premiership always winning ('big' six). Are their fans bored yet? Glad Newcastle are bucking the trend.

Newcastle? Oh yeah, they're so plucky with their Saudi oil money... Big six is becoming more of a myth. One or two of them seem to be having an off season every season, allowing other entries into the top rungs. While the premier league is dominated by money, it will be hard for any other team to get involved. Arsenal are doing great this year and are possibly the lowest net spenders of the "big six"

4 hours ago, Chellaston Ram said:

Using towels at throw ins

Deliberate time wasting at goal kicks and throw ins.

Yes to both of these, but it doesn't make me hate football

4 hours ago, Ewe Ram said:

Commentators saying ‘he’s won a free kick’ or ‘he’s won the penalty’.  
 

What do you want them to say? It's quicker and easier to understand than the defending team "conceding a free kick"

All in all, I think some of you are getting annoyed by some of the smaller details too much. The game is evolving over time and not all change is bad. To say you hate football because of some of these things is a bit of an over reaction methinks. There's still plenty of great things in the beautiful game.

Can't believe some people think Cosgrove is better than Didzy...

Also, the point would be that Bielik is miles better than Cosgrove, so the deal looks even worse in that case. Birmingham won't want to give us any money. I'm not even sure they have any unless Bellingham moves in January and they get a big sell on fee.

11 minutes ago, Srg said:

Warne already discussed evaluating loans. Expect him to be going back to West Ham and an outfielder to come in.

Got a feeling we might be able to make this a free transfer if West Ham don't need him any longer and they don't see him progressing with them. Which would mean we have competition for Wildsmith and a loan spot available in the squad.

29 minutes ago, richinspain said:

I would assume that debt free means that we aren't in arrears. I don't think that we will have paid his full fee (however much it is) yet.

Could it also be that the player value in the books is at a higher value than the amount we still need to pay to Arsenal?

His first hat-trick was all right foot finishes. His second hat-trick, all left foot.

Looking forward to his hat-trick of headers later in the season.

Imagine what that nice Ashley fella could've done to us...

I think DRS had its benefits when the cars couldn’t follow each other close enough for more than a few corners (or max a couple of laps) without ruining their tyre strategy. Now we have ground effect and the cars can run closer it makes sense to remove DRS or reduce how often it can be used on tracks where there are plenty of overtake options.

Iñigo Idiakez ??????

about time!

@Diegonew match thread time?

23 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

If we don't lose, does @lukerobinshave to start the next match thread? Has @Diegoflown off to Qatar and forgotten to do this first?

Away fan sabotaging the match thread... 

9 minutes ago, David said:

Bigger balls than the FA

could've cropped out the gammy foot... ? 

4 minutes ago, David said:

So, after threatening players with a booking as they enter the pitch, the FA has bottled it in a non alcohol bottle of course.

 

FIFA need to get their head out of the sand...

It would've been nice if these football associations were brave enough to test the water. I still imagine it is possible for the captains to wear the One Love armband if they want to, and deal with the repercussions. Did Neuer get booked during Euro 2020 for wearing the armband? No.

It would be some statement if Kane wore the armband and the referee was lenient enough to let it slide.

12 minutes ago, ilkleyram said:

But there’s no film of who actually provided the sample, just film of someone, allegedly, swapping the bottles. Your assumption is that it was the same person. I’m glad you know the origin of the sample because I don’t and neither (and this was my point) does the goalie. Nor does he know whether the sample was produced 3 months ago or 3 minutes before the swap. Nor does he know what it contains. He’s right to be concerned until he knows differently. Slim chance is not zero.

The point about the ethnicity of the local population - as someone who actually lives in the area - was to make the point that a significant proportion of the local population have strong connections with and travel regularly to and from an area of high risk. Three of my friends are currently in pakistan visiting their families 

Otherwise I’m glad we agree.

 

I assume we can agree that there is a higher chance that the man in the film making the swap has a higher chance of providing the contents of the bottle than a random person from Bradford, regardless of their ethnicity or their recent travel history.

The point I was trying to make is that it doesn’t matter who did it and what their background is. There is always a small risk of infection with exchange of bodily fluids. The main issue is that someone has done it and they deserve a lifetime ban regardless of any illness that may or may not be caused by their actions.

First rigged moment of the World Cup so far… offside? Can’t see it on the replays…

1 hour ago, ilkleyram said:

About 5 miles from Guiseley is Bradford which has a large (25% ish of the total) population of Pakistanis.  Pakistan is a country with a known incidence of Typhoid which can spread through contact with urine.  Should the distributor of this urine have typhoid, would a lifetime ban be inappropriate then?  And how would Tony Thompson know?

There's 'bantz' and name calling of goalies ('you fat barsteward' etc etc) and then there's behaviour beyond any level of acceptability

Not sure why you’re pointing out the population demographic of Bradford in this when there is a video of a white guy switching the bottles available in this thread. Plus, a resident of Bradford is surely more likely to go and watch Bradford City than go and support Guiseley and contaminate an opponents water bottle.

I did some research. Typhoid, if untreated, rarely lasts longer than 3 months as an infection. There are only about 300 confirmed cases in the UK each year, mostly from those who have travelled out to areas susceptible to high infection rates. Only 2-5% of those who contract the disease will carry it longer than 3 months. I think we can call the chances of the Warrington goalie contracting typhoid from this rather slim.

It is still an abhorrent thing to do and I hope they catch the idiot who thought it was an acceptable thing to do.

14 minutes ago, Blondest Goat said:

Why?  You don't have to watch it.

Scenes from @Gerry Daly's house:

2 hours ago, NC--RAM said:

I'll whisper this as i have family in Lee on the solent (pretty close to pompey as the crow flies) but has anyone noticed that P.F.C's ground name  backwards is NOTT ARF KRAP.?

When did they change the name to Park Fratton?

58 minutes ago, Carlin said:

I forgot about those players, who are very good players at this level.

When you add those to the squad, you look extremely strong.

You'll certainly be top 6.

 

You've gone and jinxed it now. Cheers...

32 minutes ago, Ram a lamb a ding dong said:

We would never have won 5-0 under Liam. They would be too busy tippy tappy back and forth.

You can't beat a good old fashioned lump up field into space to turn the defence

To be fair to our tactics, we were hardly "lumping" the ball upfield.

We would pass it around and from time to time Cashin did hit a long pass that generally found its target. McGoldrick had some great cross field and diagonal passes that put us into great situations and Bird played some tasty low through balls from midfield (highlight being the pass to Didzy for the Osula goal).

For those that don't want to listen to Piers fuelling all the classic journalistic tropes to get the juicy one liners from him, he actually says "He finished in his thirties" not turkeys...

Dobbin with a @magicman finish!!!! What a strike

2 hours ago, David said:

Bellingham, Trent AA, Trippier, Foden, Maddison, Wilson…..and Mount, Saka borderline.

They are up there as key players in their respective teams.

I don't think Trent is as important to Liverpool as he was when he has been in form. If anything he's been a liability defensively this season. Trippier and Walker should be ahead of him if all players are fit and available on current form.

Agree with others you pick out, but would say Saka is more than borderline at Arsenal. He is the player that can make things happen when things aren't going there way, for me, he is the most exciting player in the England squad. I've seen him enough times live these last couple of seasons (eldest son is an Arsenal fan (I know, but we live in North London and Derby are his second team)) to know that he can be the main man for England too. It's hard to believe he's so young still when you see him boss a PL game like he does.

I would also add that Pickford and Pope are key players in their teams and we have good options in goal, even Ramsdale is an outstanding option for a 3rd choice keeper.

Not in the England squad. Again... ?

Southgate sticking with out of form and injured players. Really disappointing, but expected.

How Coady, Maguire and Trent all continue to be selected is beyond me.

Phillips and Henderson in midfield too.

I hope the team that do well, but I also hope that the next England manager is someone progressive that can give fair chances to those that are playing to the best of their abilities only to be overlooked for the teachers pets. Clean slate needed after the tournament.