There are some points on here I agree with whilst others I think are just aiming at the easy targets because they are big. I don't agree with the notion that the foreign investments are bad and that they get bored and leave them in trouble. For all the vitriol aimed at Abramovich he has delivered a heck of alot of silverware to a club which was bought by Ken Bates for a pound when in financial trouble. If it wasn't for the foreign investment Man U would have won even more in my mind, become even more dominant which I think is wholly against the interests of football in this country. Long term, Man U have a staggering advantage financially over everyone else, I have no objection to people wanting to even things out. With regards to Sky I don't see it as being there fault at all, if anything the FA should have introduced a wages to income cap a long time ago and perhaps borrowings becoming more of a responsibility for the individuals investing i.e. if a club has 20 million of income available through wages then the investor assigns his own personal money which he remains responsible for, not through the clubs. What has become imbalanced is that the money gained through success is now viewed more importantly than the success itself. I remember a discussion last year about Birmingham who won the League Cup and were relegated, I was quite suprised at the vast majority who preferred being in the Premiership than actually winning (for us) a notable trophy. I don't personally get this as cup trophies don't come around very often certainly not as often as top flight football. We know Premiership football will not last forever for us, but a trophy is a permanent part of history.
I'm astonished that you found out what Starlight tasted like - I was told that it tasted worse than piss and less strong. Please don't tell me that you ever tasted more than one pint of Red Barrel or I will be truly shocked as I had you down as a bloke with impeccable taste!!!
Good thread. Ignored it for a few days as I was still recovering from seeing a picture of you know who.
My drinking habits as a 16 year old were based totally around income. As an apprentice printer at Jarrolds I started on £2 13s 10d. By the time I'd given Mum a couple of bob, kept money back for bus fares and ***s and crispy cheese rolls in the Coach and Horses at lunch time, Watneys Starlight or Mild was all I could afford if I wanted quantity not quality. As I went through the years and the wages went up, I progressed to Lambs Navy Rum chased down with Guinness and Cider. What the hell would that lot cost me now?
The only time in my life I got completely ratarsed - 2 days off work - was over 40 years ago with Navy Rum being the culprit. Even now I feel sick if I smell it. I never have gone down the Guinness path but do like a pint of proper scrumpy or perry - next time you are in Norwich try the White Lion in Oak Street - and I have to agree that when you are young you do drink things that in later life you look back on with disdain. As the man said - you should try everything in life once apart from incest and Morris Dancing!!!
When I first started imbibing, it was an Ind Coope pub in Essex (Double Diamond/John Bull, anyone ) and a brown and bitter was 16.5 new pence !! That equates to 6 pints and change from a quid In Southwold recently, I was paying at least £3.70 for all things Adnams - which given their monopoly of the town's pubs grated on me a tad
Interesting how the thread has mutated from "The imminent death of Scottish football" to drinking copious quantities of alcohol. Am I the only person that can see a link between the two
The worst I've ever paid was in Paris last year. I just finished the marathon there and was willing to murder for a pint. First bar part the finish line Mrs Redruth and I sat down for a beer.The equivalent of £24 for a pint and a half of Gwynis as the barman called it. Don't they know we liberated it from the big earning Germans?
As a youngster I used to drink pints of fizzy gnat's .. Ben Trueman ale, light and bitter, pint of 'twos' and occasionally a Mann's Brown ale. .........anyone remember 'Stingo' ? P.S. I see that Mann's Brown is now being sold again in some supermarkets, 2.8% vol ! I'm sure it was much stronger than that years ago ?
Do you remember when they realised that if Watneys Special mild was 0.2% weaker it could be sold to children? Apart from the obvious things like family and friends few things are dearer to me than NCFC but my love for PROPER beer is one of them. I still wake up at nights from the nightmare of the 1970's when you could only get cask beer at 4 places in Norwich - The Wild Man which sold Tolly Cobbold, the Hotels Norwich and Nelson who sold Adnams and the Maids Head Hotel who sold Greene King. All the rest was keg including the major monstrocities of Tartan, Worthington E, Ben Truman and anything that came out of the Watney chemical plants. At least once a week I used to drive to the Red Lion in Cromer for a really good pint of Adnams and every Sunday we went to Lowestoft or Southwold for the same reason. Thank God for CAMRA - which I joined shortly after its formation - and thank God for the scene that exists today. I have not drunk a pint of Keg beer in the last 30 years and have probably only drunk a total of 2 pints of mass produced UK lager in my life. I would rather drink a soft drink instead of lager or keg beer. I know it is all a matter of taste but I wouldn't even wash my feet in Fosters, Carling, Carlsburg etc. I drink far too much but at least all of it is proper British Cask Ale consumed in a good friendly British Pub. Here endeth the first lesson!!
Finances dictate that I can't afford to drink in a pub anymore, but there are some really good bottled beers about. If you shop around there are deals to be had. i.e. Morrisons were selling four bottles of Hobgoblin 5.2% vol for four quid until recently Oh, and better mention it's 0-0 at half-time
We don't agree on much but I'm 100% with you on this. I was out on Saturday night at a party in a pub on the coast, went to the bar to get a drink, all I could see on the pumps was Lager, so I asked about Bitter, yes we've got that the girl said and picked up a pint glass in readyness! What is it I asked 'John Smiths smooth' came the reply!!!!!!!!! FFS since when has that ****e been classed as Bitter or Beer, settled for a single malt instead!!
I also joined Camra in the mid 1970s to try and help arrest the 'trend' of fizzy, tasteless, overpriced keg beer brands - and I have to say what a magnificent job they have done over the years. From being a beer desert in the U.K, we who live in Norfolk are now some of the luckiest in the country if the following is still accurate:- (From the 'Visit Norfolk' website) (I'm liking this "beer exchange" thread, maybe Dave the rave could make it a sticky so we can exchange tales of guest ales, new brews etc?. Just a thought.)
I see the school boy (Stirling) at Liverpool who's played about 5 games in their first team and has now been called up for England, has been offered an increase in his pay from £2000 a week, to £20,000 a week, he has of course turned that down and is asking for £50,000 a week. <****ingbigbulgingeyeballs> Can someone quantify that please??????
£50 K a week equates to £1250 per hr-based on a 40 hr week.!!!! I don't want to keep harping on about the same thing (previous threads etc), but these sort of wages are immoral,and a kick in the danglies for every hardworking person in the country. I really cannot wait till it all goes "tits up" and SKY,Abramovich etc withdraw their money,which will certainly happen in the next few years,and the overpaid, under achievers are bought back to reality,like the rest of us. Rant over (I think)
But footballers don't 'work' a 40 hour week do they ? At a guess they train 4 hours a day monday to friday, play for approx 2 hours at the weekend, (if the're picked for the team), then have either the Saturday or Sunday off = 22 hours PW That's £2272.73p per hour before tax ! Oh hang on a mo, they might be required to work another 2 hours a week if there's a midweek fixture. But as the likes of Arsene Wenger will tell you, they do get soo tired sometimes
Two games a week,maybe they should spend 40 hrs on a production line. I think we should pay them overtime (11/2 for Sat and midweek and x2 for Sunday ) As Cashley Cole said "I was flabbergasted and nearly crashed the car when it came on the radio that Arsenal had only offered me 75K a week"
This boy is 17 years old, most kids of his age are on Minimum wage if their lucky!!! £20,000 per week makes him a millionaire straight away, why would he need any more money?? I see he's now tweeted to say it's not true, [B]"they"[/B] have decided to wait until he's 18!!!!!!!!
Wait till he is 18 ??????? oh that's OK then. The boy will be a man,and be able to appreciate it -i don't think.
Just simple economics. Most of us have skills and abilities that many others have equally and for which supply exceeds demand. If we price ourselves too highly, there are many others who will be glad to take our place and who will do equally well. A minority of people have talents, skills and abilities which few others can equal, and if demand for those exceeds supply, as in professional sports (among other industries, including music and entertainment), you can set a far higher price for your services. Is that a problem?
