Bedred31

Qatar- no real pluses for me, save the 4 live games in a day challenge.

SJ de Luz was twinned with Weston S Mare! We had annual exchanges when at was at school in Churchill in the 70’s. Absolute carnage. They were brown skinned, well dressed and smoked French cigarettes in a way that was hopelessly cool. We were pasty, shabby farmers. Practically ever girl in our part of N Somerset lost her virginity to a Basque. We hated them, frankly, and when I learnt a little about regional politics I pledged lifetime loyalty to the Spanish monarchy and Real Madrid.

So do I. Then for England v Albania the tickets were stolen in the post and getting them reissued was a major hassle.

Can’t you only print once? I cocked up printing an England ticket once- forgot to shrink to page- and that was that. It wouldn’t re-print. Had the massive hassle of having to go to the Wembley ticket office several hours before kick off, where they re issued the tickets with a new barcode. The problem with e-tickets delivered via an app- as at the Euros- is that if the Wi-Fi can’t cope ( which it can’t at Wembley), the stewards know that genuine ticket holders can’t activate properly, leading to them having to assume that anyone with an image on their phone has a legit ticket.

If it’s like the Euro final last summer, there will be thousands- if not tens of thousands- of ticketless fans trying to get in. Presumably the French authorities aren’t coping and the French police, who could start a punch up at a children’s party, will be making things worse. But the primary problem will be scousers trying to get in without tickets. I’m pretty defensive when it comes to English fans- I’ve been England home and away since 1981- but this is now becoming a very English thing and a very English problem.

Pictures of fans in tears at Anfield! Bloody snowflakes- these ‘super fans’ have celebrated more silverware in the last 7 days than I’ve had in 52 years of supporting City.

Why would you want to take on the Germans in a shoot out?

NP is big on attitude and personality. Very big. I don’t think he’d sign a player if he wasn’t sure about his motivation.

After Somerset lost their first three games of the season, I decided to spend the summer offline in the garden.

Pep can’t seem to get a team set up properly for big, one off games. No way should City have lost to Chelsea last year. No way should they have lost to a RM who were behind between minute 4 of the first leg and minute 90 of the second leg. And how does a top top side concede 6 goals to this RM.

Working in London with numerous Gooners I get invited to the Emirates a lot. After the game the bars and food out outlets remain open. A lot of people stay for a couple of pints, watch footy on the concourse screens and dodge the queues at the tube. Whenever I leave Wembley, with everything locked up, I think why, when 45 mins in the bar would be preferable to 30 mins waiting to get into Wembley Park. Staggering departure is best for everyone. Keeping stuff open at the Gate would always generate more income than costs, so why does the club not do it? Is it the police requiring fans to leave promptly.

Great result and a great end of season run. Well done NP. Will boost my (admittedly fragile) morale through the summer. Crazy season- 17th place, scored the same or more than the teams in 4th, 5th and 6th, conceded 6 more than the club at the bottom. Not going to require Statto to tell us where the money/ improvement is needed.

Ran into the 80’s - remember one to York in about 84? Rarely stopped in the actual station. Can recall climbing out onto remote freight sidings and clambering over tracks, flanked by police, to get out. Getting back onto train without the height of a platform could be iffy too. Generally good fun, though- they used to go for hours without stopping.

Currently on a family visit to Brading Roman villa (Isle of Wight). Last time I was here I returned to the car to discover that Steve Coppell had unexpectedly resigned. Going in now and will check back in about 2 hours…

I think NP asks a lot of his players and many ( perhaps most) just aren’t programmed to cope or respond, regardless of motivation. His management strategy really depends on the ability to trade these players out and replace them with players whose personality he can trust. This may not require huge amounts of money, as he has a record of discovering footballing ‘sleepers’. But it does demand ins and outs. If, as with City at present, volume player turnover is effectively impossible, then I think his methodology is undermined fatally.

If you can’t afford to buy players and refuse to utilise the loan market, then you’ve left yourselves very few options- free transfers basically. MacGregors article today notes that an on the cheap strategy can be successful, but generally it depends on good free transfers and careful use of the loan market.( Also worth pointing out in articles like this that success is the exception not the norm- generally spending no money in football leads to relegation). I like and support NP personally- his likely replacement is the stuff of nightmares- but I can’t see him being here come September.

And now milk up by 50%,apparently. Having grown up in N Somerset where there are more black and white cows than people, this is a particular bummer.

Having experienced numerous relegations since 1972, avoiding it this season is fantastic, frankly. Always easier to stay up than win promotion. Next season could well be worse, so try and appreciate what we’ve got now.

We had a young, inexperienced unproven manager and showered him with transfer funds. We’ve got an older, experienced and sometime proven manager, and not given him a penny. I get the frustration, really, but if we keep whinging and gunning for NP, this is only going one way- to a young, inexperienced and unproven manager with no money to spend.

Even with basic, well below average defending, this team could be challenging. I don’t think today is a parachute payment thing- it’s a bizarre side that can score against the best but can’t defend against the under 10’s thing.

9500 fans go wild …

To be fair, the ‘new bag policy’ - which I agree is ridiculous- has been in place for at least a year now, and every ticket holder is sent at least 2 emails beforehand ( including the day before the match) as a reminder. And the instructions don’t suggest using the bag drop, which is really only a fallback. Inconvenient, as I go straight from work, and more about saving money on stewarding than genuine security ( now with, for the first time, airport style metal detectors, I noticed), but fans can’t really say they were not warned.

BGas for gas- Eon for electricity. I live in the East of England. Current prediction for year is over £3k each and this doesn’t take into account further likely rises in October. I think you may be surprised how much yours will actually be by years end. Eon incidentally now bill monthly ( as I refuse to give a DD)- you have 7 days to pay, then excess charges apply! Again, I think many of us don’t yet appreciate how bad this is going to get. Think your 2020 totals x 5 and you won’t be far off.

Verification Terminee - so much sexier than Check Over.

I never presume on peoples means- for some this will seam good value, others will find the prices impossibly high, no matter their commitment to the City. But I gather that a World Cup Final cat 1 ticket will cost more than £1600, so it could be worse!