ariotofmyown

Very tense last night. Not the free flowing expansive football we would all like to see but it was a semi and nothing else matters bar the result. The Danes came for the 1-0 and IMO almost anti football with their rolling around. It seemed at 1-1 they were happy to go to pens. 
 
Got in at 01:30 and I’m only local compared to most. Wembley has to be the shittest ground ever to get in and out of. Harder getting out and into the station. We’ve probably all got COVID now. Sardines does not cover it. 
 
Just waiting to hear about tickets for Sunday. Fingers crossed. Last night was great in the ground. Was with a load from Bolton and Palace (I hate Palace). Great night but we will need to be better against the Italians. Foden must start. 
 

Looking back on when we first met,
I cannot explain and I cannot forget,
Southgate you're the one,
You still turn me on,
Footballs coming home again.
(Repeat until Sunday teatime).

I didn’t take England’s chances seriously because I knew the media were making too much of us beating a mediocre group, Germany and Ukraine, whilst Italy were outplaying the mighty Belgium and overcoming a classy Spain team.
But the thing is, we’re in the final without really hitting the heights. Our best players have scarcely played. 
Our manager has stayed calm and resisted the knee jerk selections we would all have made.
Suddenly we’re 90 minutes away. Italy were lucky against Spain and looked tired come the end. 
I have always thought Italy would win it but tonight I thought we managed the game well. There was no panic when we went behind and no panic when we went ahead.
 I think this could be a very special weekend.

Just finished watching it myself - I always have to pop out at 9:30pm so record the match, avoid the result and watch it 'live' when I get back.  
My immediate reactions are that we bossed the last 15 mins of normal time and despite the soft penalty felt the result, I felt, was inevitable.  After taking the lead we completely controlled the match to the point with about 5 mins left Denmark barely touched the ball - yes they were down to 10 men by then but it was still a confident display ?
Southgate is keeping up his run of getting every major decision right, taking Grealish off could have come back to haunt him.  I felt mount was unlucky to go off as well, his set pieces are much better than Foden's who keeps hitting the first man.  
Looking forwards to the final now, although its going to be a lot tougher than what we've faced so far - but its a one off match so COME ON ENGLAND!!!
EDIT: 
Having seen the penalty again, Schmeicel will be having a sleepless night about that - so close to smothering it and not giving Kane the chance of the rebound, but the pressure was mounting tbh, a goal was coming regardless.

Lemme guess, Denmark deserved better, we were lucky, not a penalty, shouldn't have taken Grealish off....
If you can't enjoy this I feel sorry for you. 
Denmark created very little and scored from soft free kick. It wasn't a penalty but the one on Kane was. Sterling Still shutting people up! Grealish off and we still created a great chance and it was a walk in the park at the end
Denmark ain't bad but they were never winning that. Didn't do anything like enough 

Denmark are ranked 10th in the World - above Germany, and will stay there by getting to the last 4 of this competition. You're never going to completely control a game against opponents of such quality. 
We were better than them. We dominated for large periods against a very good team. We should be proud of that performance. 

Ha, thank you all. Kept a bit of a diary.
Got beers in the fridge and not felt like touching one at all ?
Tues 29th, Day 1
Very minor cough, once or twice an hour, lateral flow test taken to be safe, negative. Cough got worse overnight kept me up.
Wed 30th, Day 2
Didn’t feel too bad, a bad dry cough though, sore throat. Tested positive on lateral flow.
Thurs 1st, Day 3
Real bad cough, feel a bit ugh, did a PCR test at home (Leanne couldn’t face driving, also tested positive). Bed sheets soaking in morning.
Fri 2nd, Day 4
Cough not so bad, can feel it breaking up, but feel absolutely whacked, no energy at all. Bed sheets soaking again. Did another lateral flow, went positive in seconds.
Sat 3rd, Day 5
Pretty much the same as yesterday, although coughing now really hurts, almost like I’ve bruised my throat or something. 
(Haven’t lost smell or taste at any stage)

Grealish coming off is the biggest non-story ever

Grealish coming off is the biggest non-story ever

On the subject of face masks - My mum is 90 and was in hospital for a week last August with pneumonia despite our very best efforts to isolate her. My Father-in-law has just come out of hospital today after having a second operation for lung cancer. That is why I will continue to wear a face mask in the future. If others continue to wear face masks in supermarkets and on public transport or any other places it will protect more vulnerable people. It's not just about protecting you, it's about protecting us all!!

Not sure where I read it, but average age of bar and pub staff is about 30.
I think that classifies as young people. I hope it does anyway.
Rings true of personal experience as well. 
 
 

Work life balance.. Hmmm. As an employer, I’m laughing really. With technology nowadays I can see who is logged on and when. Some are good at managing their time, other not so much. People are starting work earlier and finishing later. They feel it’s expected of them but their homes are their homes. I am now having trouble getting people to log off. 
What used to be a 2 min conversation with someone in the office, is now a 30 min Teams call. The days are getting longer because things take longer. I am now starting to question the whole working from home thing. I was pro a hybrid version previously but now I think there should be a clear break between work and home. Most are not really set up to work from home anyway.. perched on a kitchen top or using the dressing table is really not acceptable.. People with a study or any sort of home office dedicated space, okay I can see it. Shut the door and crack on.
Home working will evolve I’m sure, just not sure about it now.

There was less bile in there than when I tried to drink 3 pints of beer in 5 minutes and chucked it all back up almost unchanged.

Yea i mean i still doubt (m)any younger folk will die because of it, but don't rule out long term health issues. 
I think the government bet too big on AZ vaccine and a couple of others which haven't got approval yet. This has lead to only a minor trickle of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines unfortunately meaning big hold ups. I'm sure they thought earlier on in the vaccination programme they'd have been able to hit that last date. If you look at the latest vaccine data from Europe, some countries have nearly caught up as their supply has been more consistent. 
the gov probably think that if they were to delay reopening further, it would have little impact but might push some infections coinciding with increase in flu cases in autumn which wouldnt be helpful either. Difficult decision. 

I may not be a scout, but I believe I'm a very good judge of player in our academy. Over the past 10 years or so I can only recall being wrong about 2 players 'making it' in our first team - Callum Ball and Brad Foster - and there's still time for my call on Foster to be proven right. Well, I guess you can add Whittaker to the list too. From as far back as the Rowett season I identified Knight as a player who would make an impact on the first team (he was 16/17 at the time). Most people hadn't even heard his name until the end of the 18/19 season when he appeared in the playoff squads.
 
You don't like the comparison with Reading, despite their squad fighting relegation for the majority of the previous season (they only made 5 signings that summer, 3 on loan and 1 from L1).. so here's one with a Derby side which made a late challenge for top 6 2 seasons ago. Only 5 gaps, so chuck in a 6th summer signing in wherever you see fit.

People take him seriously ?

Works for the prime minister.....

One jab has shown to be quite ineffective though. I know people whove been infected and got quite ill after one vaccine. The new variant is much more evasive. That's why you can't get a certificate until you've got two. 
Its been bookable to 8 weeks for about 3 weeks - it isn't new news, but boris needed to say something positive about dose spacing as its a long time. 

I don't know if it is close to flu or not. I do agree that potentially it isn't helpful for the media to keep quoting the numbers on the daily, particularly as they fluctuate day to day anyway but keeping the data there for all to see is important. The data collection and provision is very good and detailed. 
On your second point, I know a few younger people whove been impacted badly by covid and the range of illness they've had varied from a couple of days with no energy watching telly to being quite ill, months without taste and smell. Anecdotally friends of friends been hospitalised for pneumonia and because oxygen levels have dropped too low.
I don't like being told that because the odds are more in my favour, the very real risk of bad illness is completely fine to take in my case. Feels like we've had to give up a lot of freedoms but we don't even get the opportunity to be properly protected before 'letting it rip. '
It is clear that almost everyone will get covid now... I can't see how cases will go down until mid August. 
Anyway I am a bit hypocritical because I almost certainly will be taking some advantage of the changes in regulations... If venues can remain open with the amount of self isolation required.. 

 

When I became depressed I was horrified at how little control my brain had over my body! My imagination ran wild and I really started to sweat the small, insignificant and perceived stuff. I become affected by anything which normally I might laugh off as small stuff. My heart raced, the adrenaline pumped, I felt sick with worry and I tried so hard to use my brain to reason my way through the crisis, but it just doesn't work that way. Anyone who has had no contact with mental illness has no idea what it is like and only those of us who have experienced it for ourselves can understand what sufferers are going through. CBT is excellent, especially in the case of trauma. Where depression is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain then tablets to correct that imbalance can help enormously. Sometimes these tablets have side effects but sometimes they only last for a while until your body adapts to them. (For me, it was yawning!) Side effects don't affect everyone and may be milder in some people. Don't think you're going to get everything listed!
Tablets were the answer for me, but be patient because they can take as long as 4 weeks to kick in. But when they do they can make such a difference if they are the right ones for you. If not go back to the doctor and keep going back until you feel better and I really hope that you feel better soon!

I suspect I might not be the only one to see little by the way of bile and vitriol within Tyler’s post. He was expressing his opinion in a civil way, and I agree with his thought pattern.  

Fair enough on your opinion, my opinion is that Mel Morris spent £200 million of his own money supporting various managers wants and unfortunately most of that has been spent on average players with little sell on reality which results in our situation. All of that is a big shame which has been sprinkled with some bad luck at just the wrong moments but we are where we are.

I’m presuming you are asking for a friend and not yourself because I don’t think you’re a gloomster at all. I actually find your posts quite amusing. I did say doomster!! Gloomster is ok.?
I have no issue with anyone being glass half empty as long as their opinions demonstrate some sort of logic or humour, but bloody hell there are some depressing posters on here who post either nothing positive ever, or post that impending doom is around the corner based off nothing but hysteria on Twitter or sensationalist media click bait, and sometimes it’s not even that they just love a drama. 

 

I've seen a few people using the variant/mutation idea as a reason to maintain restrictions. Their theory being that the more cases we have, the more chance the virus has to mutate 
Whilst that latter point is true - I'm pretty sure that the behaviour of virus mutation is usually towards easier transmission/replication and not towards becoming more deadly

If the member of staff is wearing a mask or the shop still asks people to wear a mask then I will happily wear a mask. 
The vulnerable will be taking lots of precautions, especially as cases are increasing. I don’t think we need to worry about bumping into them in packed bars at the moment.
With common colds etc again it depends on who you are hanging around with, I wouldn’t visit a vulnerable person whilst I was ill. I think the argument that people should wear masks whilst ill and in confined spaces with others has some merit to it.