If anyone has an hour and a quarter and needs an answer to a lot of society's problems, watch the Tim Lovejoy video below. He is talking to an ex undercover drug cop who has seen the light.
This is about the new Billy Bonds Stand at the London Stadium. This is not about whether Billy Bonds deserves a stand named after him, he is a fantastic servant of the club and no doubt he does, and since he hasn't played in many years I wonder why they didn't name a stand at Upton Park after him? My question is just this, which is how do West Ham get to name a stand at the London Stadium when they are just tenants. When it comes to costs and security etc, they are very quick to point out none of this is to do with them, and we all know what a ridiculously paltry sum they pay for being there (or the taxpayer subsidising them to be more accurate), so where do the naming rights come in? Indeed, if they can name a stand can they name the whole stadium?
Maybe we should suddenly decide to name a stand at Wembley after a player whose name is fitting for such an stadium Paolo Tramezzani Stand anyone?
Exactly the thoughts I had. Can't imagine my landlords allowing me to formally name a house I was letting. Particularly not if I was behind on the rent and in dispute with them
Probably an informal change of name only - invalid when it becomes an Athletics stadium. Not sure the average Usain Bolt fan will have heard of Billy. That is unless Bonds is paying £30m a year for it?
Any of their signage has to be removed for other events - a bit like us at Wembley (Please, please, please let us be finished with that place). I can't imagine how gutting it must be to have committed your future to somewhere worse than Wembley. They certainly have no permanent rights on naming anything.
Well lets hope we are all not flat as a pancake tonight. You know, being Spurs, we'll be 4-0 down with a minute to play and whoosh, Kane, back of the net, and go through on an away goal. We never do things the easy way.
Are we being too hard on referees? https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ridiculous-refereeing-obsession-why-hell-would-you-bother
It's a good point. Mistakes happen. I would hope that we all get that. It's the feeling that games are being officiated to an agenda that irks me. A red card offence should be the same in the first or last minute but it isn't. Referees give the impression that they're there to ensure the product is satisfactory and that certain results come about
Yes of course we are, in just about every match the referee will get the vast majority of their decisions correct, and they will also make mistakes that are easy to pick up on when you see the 'event' from 5 different angles and have time to consider that. The ref will see it once in real time and make their decision instantly and to a certain extent that is why VAR is now a significant step forward. However they also need to get the big decisions correct and apply the laws of the game consistently. This is where we as fans have the most issues and if refs are making mistakes then the PGMOL have to address this. If we take Anthony Taylors performance on Saturday as an example - I don't believe that he is a bad ref, but on Saturday he was inconsistent and in most peoples eyes he got big decisions wrong. The ref last night was superb and in all honesty I think that our Champions League matches have in general been refereed better than our domestic ones, and that is a concern, refs like Clattenburg, Oliver and Dean seem to believe that they are part of the entertainment, the best refs are those who just get on with their jobs, Andre Marriner is currently probably the best in the prem for this reason.
The officiating in both of last night's games was excellent. As is their wont, the Germans and RM were throwing themselves to the ground and rolling around in fake agony after every tackle, they got nowhere with it, for once. I would like Antony Taylor to watch a re-run of his performance in the NLD straight after seeing last night's officiating. There's a lot to improve upon.
Peter Beardley is no longer employed by Newcastle following allegations of bullying and racism.......It's okay Peter, I hear Chelsea are hiring.....
