Consigliere

Old man, stop yelling at clouds!

Ha! I'm going to get to Friday Night Lights eventually as well. Haven't done a rewatch since its original run but that was another fun series.

I'm not well versed on this topic so have refrained from commenting. What I will say though is that conservatives have generally tended to be on the wrong side of history when it comes to social issues. A lot of the rhetoric against trans people has mirrored the rhetoric that conservatives used against gay people back in the day so be careful about parroting conservative talking points. About trans women in sports. I'd leave that up to the governing bodies rather than legislators. Governing bodies of each sporting discipline should determine whether an individual possesses an unfair advantage based on evolving scientific study. Legislators otoh are mostly just going to pander to the whims of their voter base. From my own experience, South Africa tends to be a fairly conservative country socially but I'm glad that LGBT rights are constitutionally protected - in fact, in May 1996 South Africa became the first jurisdiction in the world to provide constitutional protection to LGBT people. LGBT people have a right to exist and participate in society the same as everyone else.

Just finished rewatching The Shield for the first time since its original run (Blu-ray version which looks great btw and retains the grainy documentary feel but with better colours and sound). What a great series. Absolutely nailed the landing and remains one of the best ever finales of a series. Definitely deserves recognition among the greatest series ever although it does seem to be overlooked among the general populace - I'd rate it above Breaking Bad easily. The only weak season is season 6 which may be a result of the writers strike back then. eta. next up is a first time rewatch of Justified.

It does seem draconian (threatening to cancel the staff Christmas party) but it should also be noted that standards have slipped at United in all aspects of the business, including hygiene standards. Recall that the club recently lost their 5-star rating (downgraded to 1-star after an inspection by Trafford council) for serving undercooked chicken. The article in the Athletic also mentioned that Ratcliffe was not pleased with the condition of the U18 and U21 dressing rooms in addition to the IT department saying that it reflects poorly on the club when they host visitors, young player's parents, new players and the media. He's not wrong in that.

Bayern might as well take whatever Real Madrid is offering for Davies. He's been fucking rubbish for two seasons straight. He's either stagnated and been found out or he's simply not interested in playing for Bayern anymore. The latter would be an unprofessional dick move.

I wouldn't write Spurs off getting something against City though. They've caused City problems in the past few seasons including this one. Just like how Chelsea have been largely shit this season but somehow gave City a run for their money in all 3 games this season. Horses for courses and all that.

It's only right and proper for the tractor boys to be playing in the farmer's league.

And Birmingham City has paid the ultimate price for their moronic decision to sack Eustace.

Lenders to 777 Partners Allege Fraud, Double-Pledging in Suit.

Ipswich heading up unless something drastic happens. Back-to-back promotions. McKenna has done a fantastic job there.

The results were not all that great initially. Arteta took over in December 2019 with Arsenal in 10th place. They finished the season 8th but won the FA Cup which banked some credit for Arteta. The next season they finished 8th again and the season after that they finished 5th - were looking good for a 4th place finish but ended the season poorly and lost out to Spurs. There's no guarantee that Ange could do similar for Spurs but it'd be foolish to not give him the chance. This season looks to be ending in a bit of disappointment for Spurs since they've had the lightest fixture list compared to the teams around them but Ange has also radically change the style of play to something a lot more exciting while losing the club's most influential player.

Pretty annoying that Cobra Kai will be releasing in three parts months apart though.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/apple-confirms-bug-that-is-keeping-some-iphone-alarms-from-sounding/

Mourinho in. eta. I think Thiago Motta would be a good choice. He seems to be another very promising young manager. Dunno if Bayern would consider him though if they are still insistent that their manger must be able to speak German.

Yeah, that looked like a clear push by Mendes on Fullkrug. The VAR should be sending the ref to the monitor for that.

That was a good half for Dortmund. Probably should be leading by more than just the one goal.

Typical Real Madrid. Under the cosh for the first 20 minutes but they get themselves in front.

In a bid to solve the injury problems they've suffered this season, Brighton have moved to recruit Frankfurt's Head of Medical, Prof. Florian Pfab, and have agreed to pay Frankfurt around €250k in compensation. Apparently Frankfurt have been one of the teams with the fewest muscle injuries under Prof. Pfab's watch.

This doesn't narrow the gap to any meaningful degree though. At the end of the day, these rules are there to ensure financial sustainability and have nothing to do with attempting to level the playing field. Oh, and just to clarify: the anchoring ratio will be tied to broadcasting revenue specifically and not gross revenue of the bottom club's earnings. So if the big spenders want a higher cap then they need to send more broadcasting money to the lowest earners. It doesn't even need to be a generous amount since even a 5 million increase will probably add 25-30 million to the cap.

Squad cost rules ties spending to the revenues of individual clubs while the anchoring rule fixes a ceiling on that spending. It's also worth noting that the ratio of spending compared to the bottom club's earnings had not been agreed yet. To the point I originally responded to: there's nothing to suggest that the new anchoring rule would allow smaller clubs to spend more money since PSR will still be in place next season and the squad cost rules replacing PSR in 2025/2026.

I don't think this will be the case. Clubs will still have to comply with the upcoming squad cost rules which will replace PSR from 2025/2026 which limits clubs to spending a maximum of 85% of their total revenue on wages, transfer payments and agents’ fees - many of the smaller clubs wage/revenue ratios alone are already close to or over that limit. For clubs competing in European competitions, they will have to comply with even stricter squad cost rules (80% next season and 70% after that).

Putting aside the spursy comments, Spurs were unlucky to lose that. They were the better side overall but a combination of poor finishing and the ref screwing them cost them a win.