Leeds Ram

The club can remove anyone for any reason barring illegal discrimination as it is their property and they are the ones selling the tickets. Instead of criminalising, I should have said penalising I guess. I don't believe such bans are particularly effective nor do I believe that they should be imposed. Like I said though I'm a bit closer to a free speech absolutist and people usually disagree with me on the topic. Not really minded to discuss it on a match day thread in much detail.

If we measured what you could chant at football games by what employees legally would have to tolerate at work you wouldn't hear 90% of the chants or remarks which are made at football. I agree it's really grim behaviour but it being grim isn't sufficient reason to criminalise a behaviour. I'm really cautious about bringing overt morality into speech laws though and recognise not everyone is the same. I think it should be seen as socially more shameful than it is and some form of pressure should occur when that type of chanting is going on. The whole sex offender chant is a wider issue than just as well as I've heard plenty of other clubs do it at other players who have no criminal record or allegations either.

On the issue of the away fans I'm not really sure much of this can be policed at all. Moaning about people chucking beer in the concourse, or it being overly full as people are singing good and bad chants is fine but the club can't be expected to do anything about that realistically. I wouldn't want them to be doing anything about it either if I'm totally honest as it's not their place to criminalise or regulate that kind of behaviour. Same with the chants about Sharp, yes they're oafish and offensive but they're not criminal and I don't think they should be either. Standing is a different matter. It strikes me as obvious that clubs should have a large section for safe standing and a section with seating for those who don't wish/cannot stand. That way if people stood in the seating areas you could have a 3 strike policy before a season's ban was put in place. That seems easy to police and a real effective action can occur as a consequence of poor behaviour. I go semi-regularly to away games and have only been to Blackburn so far this year but that was a perfectly lovely trip. I didn't have a problem with where I was and it was all good. Then again, at Peterborough in the past or other trips I've seen the oafish elements who are plain rude, obnoxious, and probably not interested in the football at all. As my partner has ASD, I carefully regulate which games she goes to as over the years I've got a sense of when issues will emerge. So, I choose grounds with large concourses, multiple exit routes, and places where we won't have to take a packed train full of yobs with the emotional consideration of a damp sponge. Unfortunately, football like any other hobby will attract an element of this crowd, with its emphasis on drink and away days maybe it will be a disproportionate number. Apart from the club regularly trying to cultivate a more welcoming fan culture I'm not sure what they could really do about this though. With most of this crowd (unfortunately, I know a couple of people from my old school who are part of this) a show of real force does work. I've seen it on the train when they push and push police until they get the handcuffs and notebook out they suddenly start pleading and behave themselves. It's all a bit pathetic and I had a little chuckle to myself. So maybe if the police/stewards did kick out a couple for misbehaving that would affect some of the mob. But again, if it's merely for rude/inconsiderate behaviour I'm not sure I'd want that kind of policing in the first place.

Players have boxed themselves in at the elite level with ridiculous salary demands. What they get paid probably isn't that far off what a CEO of a Wall Street firm annually once you consider their bonus packages, sponsorships, free cars, free clothes and watches etc. If that's the wage then I'm sorry but those CEO's on average work around 16 hours a day and do it 6 1/2 days a week. They give their life for their job and just like football miss significant events due to work. My uni mate worked on a trading floor for a couple of years before he got burned out and said most people have 5-10 years, earn a bunch of money and then retire early because they struggle to maintain that pace. It is crucifying and generally people do earn what they make in that kind of industry. It strikes me that some footballers want to be in a category all of their own. They want to make obscene amounts of money without the hardships that should go with it. Reminds me of when Jordan Henderson was crying over everyone judging him for being the money-obsessed p**** he is by choosing to go to Saudi Arabia until he came crawling back. There's a simple solution- players accept a more reasonable salary package and clubs can ease off on the scheduling. Of course, they won't do that they want to have their cake and eat it too. On working conditions, the players are given the best treatment money can buy. They have world-class medical teams travel first class for away trips, and the game has been adapted to become increasingly unfriendly to actions that can harm them. The issue is the amount of playing time which again is related directly to their pay. When the playing staff come out and accept at 60% reduction in wages in return for halving the number of games I'll stand right behind them. Until that time, they can either accept they need to earn their wages or find a new profession. When I was a teaching fellow at my old institution I was contracted for 38 hours a week but more often than not I'd be doing 50-60 hours, I didn't even have time to take annual leave so I've ended up cashing my time in. I'd have to move regularly between answering student concerns, getting contacted by student support about mental health, writing reference letters, go do a lecture, write up a bit of my book, submit an abstract, sit in on meetings about policy, and have meetings with students about their performance. I also found the time to write regularly for magazines at weekends and in the evenings. I got paid a good (not amazing) salary for this and had no job security beyond my year contract. I've just accepted another short term contract to go back as I've got nothing else lined up. I wouldn't go on strike because that's the nature of the job. I know what I signed up for. The players at this level know what they've signed up for and with full knowledge of the demands place on them have decided to do it. Could it be better? Yes. Could they sort this out quickly by accepting a more reasonable wage? Yes Will they do that? I highly doubt it.

Loved the first half and thought at times we went through them like a knife through butter. If Ozoh hadn't have gone off it would have been 2 or 3-0 i think. Osbourne didn't look great but i guess that can happen and we looked gassed out after 70 minutes. But crowd stuck with them, we dug in and looked comfortable. Cardiff look prime relegation fodder tbh. I thought they were playing walking football with no energy, passion or tempo. They don't have the quality to play the way they want to and ultimately despite having a lot of the ball did f*** all with it. I thought it was interesting how their fans also still seemed to think we were terrible and it's a game they should have won. Similar thoughts by Bristol so maybe us being such underdogs is going to really help us get a grip in the division

Thanks. My mum says that I'm in a bit of a grey area as am overqualified for a lot of positions but not experienced enough for a lot of stuff in the private sector which puts me a little in between a rock and a hard place. But hopefully it'll all work out.

Thanks. I've got a good shot at a post-doc opportunity at Oxford as the lead likes my research but it's still a relatively long shot. If not I've got potentially some teaching lined up at Leeds for at least a semester to cover rent and they owe me 2k back pay as well. That and some savings fingers crossed it'll all be okay.

Thanks for the advice Tyler, I really appreciate it. I'll definitely try to work on this! I really wish you look as well with your job hunt 🙂

Thanks Anag 🙂

still not found a job. Had three interviews and it seemed in every one my PhD was seen as a problem as in how i'd fit in an office environment. Just feel so s*** and crying most days atm

Used to play a lot of FM. Now it's generally 5-10 hours every fortnight but if i ever had a week where i had nothing to do I'd quickly get a lot of hours on it. My current save I went from buxton getting them into the conference and 1 game away from league 2 (lost to giant Wrexham 4-0 in the playoff final) then moved to carlisle as they refused to go professional. Took carlisle to the championship, Left them 14th at Christmas and took over a flailing derby who were fighting relegation in 21st. Finished 12th, axed a lot of the overpaid dross and bringing in Scandinavian players on the cheap.

Am off to this one as it's the day before my birthday. Hope to see a similar performance to what was served up against Bristol City. I'd drop Laing just because of international duty and use him for the last 30 to give us a bit of pace in behind late on. I'm quite excited given how we played in the last game against Bristol. COYR

I know too and it wouldn't be in Saudi with blood money.

Don't agree with this as you can totally fault them. It's not like they're earning 40-50k a year and asking for a bump up. He'd easily be on 50-60k at Brentford and if he'd have forced a move to a bigger english club be on 80-100k as well. All he's done here is knacker whatever chance he had at an international career after this. Pretty appalling behaviour given Brentford stuck by him after all the betting scandals. There's a fair few studies which show happiness in relation to income tails off after 80k a year anyway so it's not like you're magically going to become happier once you go from earning 60k a week to 500k a week. All he's doing is helping sports wash a vile dictatorship by playing football no-one will give a damn about and wreck his career in the process. Whoever is advising him is an idiot tbh.

finished Stoneyard Devotional by charlotte wood, one of the favourites for the Booker, and it was beautiful. Highly recommend a read! Just started Mark Haddon's new series of short stories, his first release for some years following his heart attack and long covid. Hope they live up to his last great work! Also read metapolitics by Alan Badiou which I'd recommend avoiding and why read mill today by John Skorupski which was a delightful short work for experts and layman alike.