InigoPatinkin

"Qatar won't benefit from the World Cup" is one of the oddest, least rooted-in-reality takes I've ever seen on here.

It's a long read, but one well worth it.

Goalkeepers in shootouts are the real difference makers, if both goalkeepers are pretty poor at saving penalties then it pretty much is a lottery because pressure makes people make mistakes. As soon as one of the keepers is a good penalty saver the pressure on one team ramps right up and not only does having a keeper more likely to save one come into play, but the extra pressure causes worse and worse penalties. If Rashford's penalty in the Euros is a couple of inches to the right instead of hitting the post then the pressure on Saka and Sancho is way less and their chances of scoring go right up.

If there's some sensible feature in a product that cost money and only has human welfare benefits it's a pretty safe bet that there was some controversy or argument over it at some point.

I think they're all pretty literal and mean the same thing right? They're just reverse chronological repetitions of the same argument (someone partakes in something they aren't entirely happy about because society makes it really hard to avoid, vocalises that issue and then gets shot down by the man in the orange shirt for hypocrisy). The car one specifically is just about the hoo-har around car safety in the 40's/50's I think.

He's spot on though, your argument is literally this meme # Don't be the guy in the orange shirt Rebs

I haven't missed it though, although I should say I 'boycotted' the World Cup because I didn't want to be involved with it on a personal level rather than as some kind of sacrificial act. Whatever incidental power (almost nothing, tbf) it has is because I'm not going to show up on the viewing figures or have been counted watching any of the adverts etc. and how good or bad the football is really doesn't really change that. I've missed loads of great football over the years, I'm sure I'll miss a lot more (especially stuff that doesn't involve Angel Di Maria scoring/winning ). If anything it's been a useful experience. It was leaked today, on the day of the final, that one of the Glazers met with the Saudi/Qatari governments about a sale of Man Utd and I've spent the last month and a half slowly becoming more and more certain that if that does happen I could just walk away from it all and it wouldn't leave some big blank hole in my life that I'd struggle to fill. I've realised my love for football isn't totally unconditional, and I'm slowly starting to think that's healthy.

One can, many do. I'm not supporting a club owned by a sportswashing state with a terrible human rights record though.

Nope, and that's why we need rules banning them.

And yeah, they are ****ing awful. You know it, I know it, we all know it. The existence of something worse doesn't make them "not so bad".

Find me a single time I've ever said I'd rather have the club in the hands of a state rather than the Glazers. In fact I've said the opposite multiple times on here.

0/64, I hope I get to watch a few more PL games before Man Utd is bought by the Qatari's and football is ruined forever.

I don't think you need to I've had absolutely zero pangs to watch it this year. The final could have been the second half of Space Jam for all it matters.

I think Gary might have done a few lines in his honour.

Ah that's okay, as long as he's not torn anything again.

Any news on this? What happened?

By the sounds of it you'll be cheering on one of their teams some time early in the new year, so this isn't a difficult request.

Same, you lot are a fairly entertaining bunch after all

"However, a report emerged on Friday suggesting White had been involved in a disagreement with Holland at a team meeting over a failure to recall data relating to his personal statistics." What does that even mean?

The way it was worded doesn't sound like tactical briefings though, much more socialising/wind down/team bonding on an evening. I would certainly hope they're slightly more structured at a World Cup than "sit around in the evening and watch the TV broadcast" since that would be next to useless. Obviously it's different if it was 'required', but 4 weeks of being at work from morning training all the way though to 11pm or whatever time the last games in Qatar finished sounds horrible if you don't really enjoy watching football anyway, I wouldn't blame him. But as I said, the way it's worded definitely seems like it was more a socialising thing, "player refuses to turn up to tactical briefings" would be a much bigger story.

Kind of mad from either party that it was allowed to get to that stage, on a personal level surely there must have been some kind of compromise which kept White involved without making him sit through every match.

Edit: The FIFA naturalisation rules are 2 years, so I assume most countries apply their own naturalisation rules? There's usually a bit of an unspoken rule about not taking the **** with it though, which is why stuff like the Diego Costa switch was scorned so much.

Doesn't that (playing devils advocate) also apply to players though? If someone like De Gea or Lloris has lived here for most of their adult life. What about Haaland? He was actually born here so it's even more arguable, his dad lived here for ages, he now works here and lives here, would it be fair if both parties just decided he was now English and it was all okay? If you want to stick with uncapped what about Fofana or ASM? They'd certainly make nice additions to the England squad. I get where it's coming from for sure, but international sport is inherently a bit jingoistic and "exempt" from the liberal globalist outlook I think most of us here support in virtually every other aspect of life. There's probably some theory about international sports being a healthy outlet for that kind of emotion but lord knows I'm not clever enough to make it. I'd feel much better about the Qatar would Cup if I thought it was averting WW3

Yeah Caddick's parents were English, he was born, raised, went to school and played in the youth teams for NZ though. Less like Stokes who moved here as a young kid, anyone who spends their formative years in Cockermouth has my sympathy.

Caddick was more than good enough to get into any of the HZ teams of his era and was a mainstay of England's attack for ages. Lamb you can overlook because of SA's situation at the time maybe. And for the smaller nations it's literally their best ever players in a couple of cases.