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@davman "I cannot see things changing unless the spending rules change, which they won't or the PL supports the EFL, which it won't. The most galling thing for me isn't that Liverpool, Chel***, Man U, Man C, Arsenal, etc. don't care, but that your lot and all other "little clubs" seem to have forgotten where they have come from and won't support the EFL just in case one of the other clubs takes their place. Whilst they have, they'll keep and f**k everyone else... "
How exactly have Bees and the other little 'uns forgotten "where they have come from"? (Genuine question)
Obviously I can't speak for the others, but as regards Bees, owner Matthew Benham is on the record as acknowledging that it would only take one bad/unlucky season to see them relegated again - he certainly doesn't discount that possibility, even if our three seasons to date have been safe enough.
In which case, it would surely be in his own interests to keep the EFL strong?
Besides which, it would take a 2/3rds majority (i.e. 14 clubs) to vote through any major change to the financial settlement between the PL and EFL, meaning that so long as the Big Six stick together (they will), then they only need to persuade a Villa or a Newcastle to join them (they will, too) and there's nothing the other "little clubs" can do.
Re Luton, I imagine they saw promotion to the PL as an unexpected bonus, and are now using the windfall to help fund their new stadium.
For even if they go down again, the stadium can help secure the club's future over the long term.
P.S. Luton were in the old First Division during its last season and voted for the new PL . Then they got relegated and had to wait 30-odd years to play in it! They were eventually the 51st club to play in the Prem, Brentford having been the 50th.
As for Salah, his stats prove he's unquestionably a great player - and that's without playing for a top national team, like eg Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe etc.
Only thing I'd add is that style-wise, Salah possibly doesn't excite quite so much as more flamboyant players, hence reservations about his worth?
Re. competitiveness, we forget that back in the day when the (old) First Division was 22 clubs, there were fewer European places and only two teams got relegated, there was a whole raft of mid-table clubs who had little or nothing to play for during the last third of the season. This must have led to a lot of mediocre games.
Second, we could solve a lot of problems by reducing the PL to 18 clubs, as originally envisaged, while distributing the money teams 19 and 20 would normally get (£250m p.a.?) throughout the EFL instead (though excluding those clubs which have parachute money).
All tickets for Away fans in the PL are capped at £30, and have been for some time. While some clubs (I think) reduce it further for Concessions, though usually only by a couple of quid.
One of the few things decent about PL ticketing etc, especially since it must properly piss off the likes of Ratcliffe, Brady and Levy etc.
Madrí lager has never been brewed in Spain, let alone Madrid. In fact four years ago, Madrí didn’t even exist. Yet today, this faux Spanish lager is sold in a quarter of British pubs, which makes it one of the fastest-growing beers of all time.
While ‘Madrí’ is the historic name for Madrid, which is peculiar for a beer brewed in Tadcaster – or Tada as the Anglo-Saxon mead-drinkers called it - with the brand being owned and produced by American/Canadian brewing giants Molson Coors.
(Thanks to Chris McPhail of 'The Spectator' for the above)
On this question of tallest buildings etc, Wiki has this (I know, I know): "The earliest structures now known to be the tallest in the world were the Egyptian pyramids: the Great Pyramid of Giza, at an original height of 146.5 m (481 ft), was the tallest structure in the world for over 3,800 years, until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in 1311. From then until the completion of the Washington Monument (capped in 1884) the world's tallest structures were churches or cathedrals. Later, the Eiffel Tower and, still later, some radio masts and television towers, were the world's tallest structures."
Meanwhile, I once visited Lincoln Cathedral with a group of friends and I mentioned to one of them, an Architecture student, how amazing it was that they could build so well back then.
He pointed out that the old buildings we see still standing are often the second or third attempt, fourth even, the earlier attempts having fallen down, or needing to be rebuilt.
Meanwhile getting back to the Great Pyramid etc, not a lot of people know that with 200+ examples, Sudan has more pyramids than anywhere else in the world (Egypt has 138).
If that's directed at me, you'll note that I agree it deserved a red card. But my point was that by using his arm the way he did, it was more reckless than had he used his elbow, which would have been malicious.
But both get red carded these days, so McLean can't complain imo.
My view isn't really very different from that eg of QPR fans RBlock, Blue Castello and The Chef (page 2), so why don't you play the ball, rather than the man?
If you were trying eg to force open a jammed door, would you keep your arms straight while hitting it with your elbow, or bend your arm to concentrate the impact at the point of contact i.e. elbow itself?
As I say, it seemed more to me like an attempt to ward off a challenge which went wrong, than a deliberate attempt to stick one on him.
But if you see it differently, then fair enough.
Anyhow, to show how the game has changed over the years, this assault by Ben Thatcher on Pedro Mendes was seen by the ref and only received a yellow card!
While I genuinely don't think there was enough force, either in McLean's action, or Morgan's approach run, to see Morgan react as if poleaxed.
But as I said, the way the rules work these days, had the ref seen it, it would have been a red card, so whatever you think about the length of the ban etc, McLean/Norwich can have no complaints about being caught out.
Looking at it from my pov, I accept that these things incur a red card these days, and if McLean has "previous", then that would explain the ban being for 4 games.
That said, I genuinely don't think he was attempting to "take out" the QPR player, rather as 'RBlock' says, it was much more likely a simple attempt to ward off the run.
While I absolutely hate it when a player goes down as if poleaxed, when contact has been minimal, as looks to have been the case here. This is made worse when a player clutches his face after having been hit somewhere else on the body, in the knowledge that any contact to the head will automatically receive a red card if seen by the ref. For this is not just cheating an opponent, but also the ref and the spirit of the game generally. (Btw, I say that when it's a Bees player, too, since it's a blight on the whole game)
Finally, I don't see the relevance in this case of the QPR player being a youngster, since I doubt very much whether McLean even knew who it was he was blocking, never mind that it was a kid.
And yes, it was v.small - a room basically (though not what you might call "roomy")
While El Metro was, I think, an early Pub/Tapas Bar - served appropriately small plates I imagine. Google shows this from 2010: "El Metro II (that's a Roman 'two', not a double 'L', and number I is in Fulham) has been going since 1988 when it replaced a pub called the Doctor's Dilemma, and is literally a couple of metres from the ticket barrier at Hammersmith Metropolitan Line station. It is sometimes billed as a Spanish restaurant but it's really more a Spanish theme pub with Spanish beer, tapas, and used to have lambada dancing on a Friday night." https://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/35/35952/El_Metro_ll/Hammersmith
After it closed, it might have become a hair salon? Anyway, I assume the unit still exists -probably a heel bar/key cutter or somesuch .
There are some absolute crackers there - I loved the "Guinness History of the Cinema", while "The Bricklayer" drinking a bottle from a goblet was an unusual take.
As for "The Army Game", the voices were an obvious rip-off of the Goons characters.
I once knew one old boy (Irish) who only ever drank his Guinness from bottles. Used to call a pint bottle a "sergeant", for some unknown reason, which I think my be be a term used in the north of Ireland, where he was from?
Anyhow, I'd bet that this current Xmas scare story is a just a (no cost) ruse to keep Guinness in the headlines.
As somebody said earlier, their promotion/marketing is excellent.
P.S. Does anyone remember "The Doctor's Dilemma" pub in Hammersmith Tube Station (H&C Line entrance)? I was in there once and a more dank and dingy hole you couldn't find anywhere, even by Hammersmith's then pre-gentrified standards. Anyhow, it was during a weekday and there were only 4 or 5 punters in, all Irish I'd guess. Thing is, iirc they only had five(?) beer taps - something like four serving Guinness and the fifth lager (just in case a very lost tourist wandered in?) Never seen anything like that place.
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