Carl Sagan

Six and half thousand people died to build the stadia for this tournament that will be torn down once it's over - once some balls have been kicked across some grass. I couldn't care less about beer being served at matches or wearing rainbow armbands or not, but 6,500 people are dead. Many more were exploited and lived in misery.

England should have boycotted the tournament. All the pundits should have refused to go. None of the pundits cares about raising awareness as much as they care about lining their pockets and raising their profiles at the expense of vast numbers of dead people. 

You would think the least the entirety of the football world could do would be to come together and mourn the lost, wear black armbands, remember them before every.single.match. But then they might draw attention to the beautiful game not being quite so lovely or so lucrative once people truly lifted the veneer.

Such a shame. The Academy really is struggling results wise. Let's hope it's paving the way for another golden generation to come through and, this time, we can make better use of them. Or just a single potential superstar - oh for another Giles Barnes!

What's missed here is that the goalie was punished for going after the fan, but in a very limited way, squirting the liquid at him. I feel it's a completely understandable and quite measured and the sending off should be rescinded. What a vile act by the perpetrator.

5 hours ago, Gaspode said:

Looked a penalty to me - as did the Maguire wrestling in the first half - how the same VAR official can come to different decisions for the two incidents is baffling.....

For theirs it was a clear and significant shirt tug holding him back from the header. No question it was a pen.

For ours, while Maguire was probably wrestled to the ground he's a big lad and was wrestling back and had an arm all around the defender, so it could be argued he'd created the situation and gone down looking for the penalty. Absolutely no need and, as a result, the VAR officials couldn't give the pen. We've got to be cleverer in those situations.

Just now, David said:

Was only £270 cash out or something I heard. That's a lot of money to walk away from when I'm guessing he must have stuck a lot on 

Wow at that stage in proceedings I was presuming around £800 or something. That is interesting. You're right it's always so tempting to hang in there, waiting for the update to offer you more. I'm grateful Sky nowadays has their "pay out if the margin gets to 2 goals" option.

11 minutes ago, David said:

Guy in the pub had a bet on 6-1, was on for £1250.....last kick of the game, jeeez, his mates are ribbing him and I want to cuddle him ?

Gotta cash out when that 6th goal goes in. 

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

10 minutes ago, sage said:

So we should take a booking every game as the game starts?

Maybe we can find another way. 

Of course we should. If they're not prepared to do that, it was meaningless virtue signalling all along. Either you believe in your cause and are prepared to suffer the consequences, or you weren't really that bothered.

4 minutes ago, SSD said:

Maguire getting wrestled at a corner. I see the VAR stance has changed since the last World Cup

Maguire also had his arm wrapped around the defender so it's easy for them to say "six of one...". To get a penalty in  that situation you need to keep your hands off the opponent.

12 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

The lawyers are looking into FIFA's 'yellow card' stance.

The other side of the coin is the risk of alienating fans if players did get booked. See the 'moral outrage' over a bit of money-shredding!

Why would you have lawyers looking into it? If you get booked for it, then it draws worldwide attention to your signalling, which is surely the whole point of you doing it?

3 hours ago, angieram said:

Wildsmith spent a lot of years hanging around at Sheffield Wednesday getting little to no football.

I don't think he'll be keen to go back to that quickly, tbh. 

As for being number three at a Premier League club, that's a job for a 35 year old.

Exactly this. You can see he's loving finally playing his football, even more than I'm enjoying watching him. He's not about to give that up to go and warm the bench somewhere.

31 minutes ago, sage said:

bottled it? would you have preferred Kane to get booked every game, plus if he was substituted and passed the armband on, then that person would be booked

A "principled moral stance" is baseless if it doesn't cost you anything to do it.

1 hour ago, David said:

Oh I don't doubt that's the claim, Lineker covering himself and the corporation that pays him millions a year, including to go and stay in a 6 star Qatar Hotel for a month.

But it's drivel. It's very much Lineker and the BBC making a point and not letting the people watch the ceremony. Yes, those technically minded might have been able to stream it. I note Lineker doesn't feel strongly enough to make a stand and decide not to go and not to take the (vast amounts of money). For all of these people it's do as I say, as long as I make sure I'm all right jack. 

2 minutes ago, David said:

Turns out, Qatar moved the start time of the ceremony just a few weeks ago, by which point the BBC had already committed the slot to the Women’s Premier League game. 

The ceremony was available on the red button and iPlayer. 

Yes of course that's the reason! 

4 hours ago, David said:

BBC have boycotted the opening ceremony, not showing it whilst talking about human rights issues. Causing a stir on Twitter

I'd love FIFA and Qatar to (maybe accidentally on purpose) boycott the coverage of the BBC feed for tomorrow's England game. Maybe pulling out a few strategic wires so it doesn't transmit here. 

On 18/11/2022 at 14:33, Crewton said:

I've been listening to this during the week "Dear Harry Kane". It's pretty good. 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001f4xs?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Thanks - powerful, miserable stuff.  I'll tweet it out. 

Instead of rainbow armbands, I feel the whole team should be wearing black armbands for the 6,500 workers who've died building the stadia. And during the warmup our players should take their own minute's silence. What a terrible thing that's happened, but it doesn't seem to be the media's focus. 

Playing this World Cup feels somewhat like still going ahead and playing the European Cup Final after Heysel. 

17 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Wildsmith

Smith   Rooney   Cashin   Forsyth   Sibley

Mendez-Laing   Bird   Hourihane   Dobbin

Collins

 

Subs: Loach, Oduroh, Stearman, Barkhuizen, Tommo, McGoldrick, Osula  

If Roberts ain't fit I suspect you're right in terms of what it will be, but I'd have Stearman into defence, Fozzy at LWB and Sibs in midfield instead of Hourihane.

Top video of Dobbin's strike fron behind the goal 

Odd selection when Oduroh is on the bench. I don't get it.

3 hours ago, DRBee said:

You don't rate Hourihan's corners then?

Do you?  It can be hard to tell sometimes if a reply is serious or a joke (sorry)!

Being serious, Sibley's corners are far more effective. And there was a time when Bird took a decent corner too.

5 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

A big thank you fir tour comments, which I read from time to time while not driving!

It id a weird feeling living off scraps of information, but great when the goals go in.

I thought about getting the commentary via Rams TV, but there is no apparent way of paying for the subscription on the DCFC phone app! ?

OMG it's a terrible app. Somehow I have subscribed to the commentary via RamsTV, so must have done it on the website. On match day, I open the app to get the commentary and after random selections eventually it takes me off the app and onto the website to play it, while the website says, "the experience is much better in the app". Yet the app doesn't even have the experience! So I feel your pain.

Meanwhile, does @Diegoknow we have a game on Tuesday? 

When Cashin is back for the next game, we'll see where Warne stands. For me there's nothing Conor does that isn't done better by younger, more energetic midfielders. Playing 4-4-2 with everyone fir I would have a midfield pair of Knight and Sibley. With Knight injured I would probably have Bird and Sibley but you could make a case for Hourihane instead of Bird. With Warne's high-tempo game, Conor looks at the point where he should be on the bench getting a few minutes here and there, and advising the younger players behind the scenes.

Probably merits its own thread. Another attempt:

He went to Cardiff,

He took them to the Prem.

He came to Derby,

He'll do the same again.

Tearing up the league

And this is why we sang

His name's Nathaniel

Nathaniel Mendez Laing'

Really hope we don't play a back three and put Sibley at LWB again, despite doing well there at Anfield. We need his attacking mindset and threat in midfield for this. Osula disappointed at Anfield but was also out of position as left midfield, and I think it makes much more sense to play Dobbin there. Cashin suspended. Guessing Barks, Chester, Davies are out. And from the post-Liverpool comments it sounds as if Knight won't be ready either.

Wildsmith

Smith   Stearman   Forsyth   Roberts

Mendez-Laing     Bird     Sibley     Dobbin

Collins   McGoldrick

Subs: Loach, Oduroh, Rooney, Thompson, Hourihane,  Osula, Nunn