Rival watch

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
littleDinosaurLuke said:
Mata's onside goal being disallowed and Ledley elbowing the ball away for a corner in the box not worthy of comment in this narrative then?

The ref was diabolical. End of.
Click to expand...
Seeing as Rojo should've got a red in the first half for the third game in a row, not so much.
He might've had a **** game, but it would've been a very different one if he'd have made that initial decision.
Getting away with three dismissals on the bounce is a bit much, really.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spurlock
vimhawk said:
What does Rojo have to do in order to get sent off? Second time in three matches he hasn't walked, and the one in between he doesn't get a pen awarded against him. Sometimes it seems there's a memo sent to refs to tell them to avoid major punishment against certain players, like Costa earlier in the season who should have had two reds in successive matches. And the pundits (because it's too much for their brain to comprehend) trot out the usual cliches like it all evens out over the season which is complete bollocks as these wrong decisions impact on the whole season.
Click to expand...
Perhaps refs and such like know the rules and treat men like men?
 
vimhawk said:
What does Rojo have to do in order to get sent off? Second time in three matches he hasn't walked, and the one in between he doesn't get a pen awarded against him. Sometimes it seems there's a memo sent to refs to tell them to avoid major punishment against certain players, like Costa earlier in the season who should have had two reds in successive matches. And the pundits (because it's too much for their brain to comprehend) trot out the usual cliches like it all evens out over the season which is complete bollocks as these wrong decisions impact on the whole season.
Click to expand...

Commit a red card offence <ok>
 
O.Spurcat said:
To the owners of Birmingham City.... <doh>. <doh>. <doh>.
Click to expand...

WTF! Makes you thankful that we are not owned by a bunch of clueless business men looking for a toy to play with. There are problems with Enic and Uncle Joe but at least he is hands off on the football side. Gary Rowett in at somewhere like Hull or Blackburn by the end of the season?

Where Aston Villa go, Birmingham's clueless new foreign owners follow. "Let's hire a Italian ex-player who everybody know but who's manager record is not exactly glittering. I mean who is Gary Rowett? Derby Forest? Birmingham County? Who are these clubs? Playing for Chelsea and Italy will obviously make you a better manager! Just look at that well run club down the road.... ummmm.... Aston Martin! Great club! We should be like them and celebrate their success. They hired an Italian manager who played for Chelsea. He's doing great...... Ummmmm what? Who's Steve Bruce?"

Now watch them go and derail Brighton on Saturday..... Grrrr! :angry:
 
bigsmithy9 said:
I must admit,Bodinki,that young lady looks absolutely sparkling,but what she's got to do with Spurs.....I haven't worked that out yet.Must be my age!
Click to expand...
Nothing to do with football mate. (I'm a Chelsea fan btw).
Just like having a hottie in my sig :)
 
So some Chinese club set to make Sanchez the highest paid player in the world (or perhaps a story started by his agent). Regardless of this specific story I was wondering if anyone had seen a proper journalistic type article (shock horror) about how the Chinese teams are paying for their ludicrously overblown wage bills? If a player's wages are too high for one of the European leagues then how the hell can a Chinese team afford them? It's not like they have massive turnstile or sponsorship income is it? Or is the Chinese league some kind of giant government money laundering scheme? Just surprised that whenever these massive wages are mentioned I've never heard anyone comment on where the Chinese money comes from (though others may have of course).
 
I think most teams are backed by local government who are ploughing money (where this is coming from I don't know but China does have some pretty hefty cash reserves because it's a dictatorship and they can basically do whatever the hell they want) into them as a means of promoting the city. These clubs have become a status symbol for the location. I suppose they are trying to create a brand along the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Barcelona (say 'Barcelona' and what immediately springs to mind? Football, Que? and singing "Barcelona!" in a operatic voice while wearing a dodgy moustache).

This seems to be what the Chinese are trying to do for their cities like Shanghai (though both George Harrison and Ed Harcourt have already written songs about Shanghai but haven't stuck in peoples minds quite like "Barcelona!")
 
NotSoMightyEastbourneBoro said:
I think most teams are backed by local government who are ploughing money (where this is coming from I don't know but China does have some pretty hefty cash reserves because it's a dictatorship and they can basically do whatever the hell they want) into them as a means of promoting the city. These clubs have become a status symbol for the location. I suppose they are trying to create a brand along the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Barcelona (say 'Barcelona' and what immediately springs to mind? Football, Que? and singing "Barcelona!" in a operatic voice while wearing a dodgy moustache).
Click to expand...

So they give it to footballers whilst the rest of the population have been wearing the same shirt and hat for decades.

Hope that league implodes.
 
NotSoMightyEastbourneBoro said:
I think most teams are backed by local government who are ploughing money (where this is coming from I don't know but China does have some pretty hefty cash reserves because it's a dictatorship and they can basically do whatever the hell they want) into them as a means of promoting the city. These clubs have become a status symbol for the location. I suppose they are trying to create a brand along the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Barcelona (say 'Barcelona' and what immediately springs to mind? Football, Que? and singing "Barcelona!" in a operatic voice while wearing a dodgy moustache).

This seems to be what the Chinese are trying to do for their cities like Shanghai (though both George Harrison and Ed Harcourt have already written songs about Shanghai but haven't stuck in peoples minds quite like "Barcelona!")
Click to expand...

But largely because every Western country has spent the past 30-40 years outsourcing industries of every description to the Chinese who, being a 'gently communist' country, can pay its vast workforce peanuts and pocket the profit. It is one of the few things Trump has ever said that I largely agree with. As of last count, the US is $1.2 trillion in debt to the Chinese government. The American consumer gets cheap cars, radios, computers and phones while places like Detroit wallow in abject poverty. There's a very interesting documentary on YouTube about the 'ghost cities of China' - huge model cities constructed at the cost of billions with no-one living in them. China is the political equivalent of Manchester United: too much money to know what to do with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spurlock
Citizen Kane said:
But largely because every Western country has spent the past 30-40 years outsourcing industries of every description to the Chinese who, being a 'gently communist' country, can pay its vast workforce peanuts and pocket the profit. It is one of the few things Trump has ever said that I largely agree with. As of last count, the US is $1.2 trillion in debt to the Chinese government. The American consumer gets cheap cars, radios, computers and phones while places like Detroit wallow in abject poverty. There's a very interesting documentary on YouTube about the 'ghost cities of China' - huge model cities constructed at the cost of billions with no-one living in them. China is the political equivalent of Manchester United: too much money to know what to do with it.
Click to expand...

Quite. It is how they are able to commit what is pretty much what is economic warfare against the rest of the world (though this is pretty self defeating in the long run as the world won't have any money to buy their cheap resources and products eventually). They have flooded the market with cheap steel because they can undercut everybody else by slashing costs (paying peanuts, little to no Health or Safety for workforce or environment, etc) and then even sell it on at a loss sometimes just because they can. And the public don't really care as long as they get their cheap TV's, Phones (well, as long as it isn't an iPhone which is made for 20p a unit in a Chinese Factory Camp and flogged on for £400+) and flashing, automated reindeer displays.

But Trump doesn't have a leg to stand on as most of his merchandising crap is made in China anyway and he has used Chinese steel in many of his developments.
 
China will come unstuck when robotic automation takes hold shortly. The people may work for peanuts but robots work for less

They're like the middle East oil kings, who also know their cash cow won't last forever. Diversify or die

Health and safety is not as bad as we think in China. When I worked for the engineering side of npower, we made the Chinese replace an asbestos roof and fix sloppy practices before they were given multimillion pound contracts. They welcomed the improvements
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back