Fierce_LiNk

Thank you everyone for your kind words and support. We held his funeral today. We've had lots of visitors and he had a lot of people who turned up today to say goodbye. Tiring and emotional.

My Dad died this morning.

Well, I got this one wrong. When he was appointed, it seemed like a good, sensible decision. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked. There's no shame in that, it takes a very, very good manager to be able to take charge of a top club and be successful. I was sure a few months back that he would turn it around, but the performances have been getting worse. Ever since we lost at home to West Brom, and then Everton and Newcastle, he's been up against it. I'm disappointed, because I thought he'd be up for it, but that hasn't been the case.

If they don't want him to continue in the long term, why delay the inevitable? Yesterday's match was our last "big" match of the season. United have done very badly against the top 6 or 7 teams all season and yesterday's match seems to have been the final straw. Yesterday's defeat also made it mathematically impossible to finish in the top 4, so I wonder if he had something in his contract about this.

It seems like this is the end for him as manager. I'm sad because I wanted this to work out, but the performance this year haven't been up to scratch. The players need to take the blame too, as they haven't performed as they should have. It's clear though that they're not playing for him and they're not responding to the tactics and style of play that he is employing. Yesterday's game seems to be the last straw. It should have been a blue-print for how the team would be playing next season. For me, a lot of the support waned after the terrible losses to Liverpool and City at home. We were dreadful in both games. Two of our biggest rivals.

You dun goof'd, brah. I genuinely laughed at that. That means you've never played as Reyn or Riki?! Sheeeeeeeeet.

That makes no sense. What does however much a player earns have to do with a manager's decision to substitute him? Rooney had a bad game today, but he's been one of our only players this season who has actually played with some balls. Whether somebody earns one pound or one million per week, if they're not playing well, they should be subbed by the manager. Everybody has a bad game sooner or later. Taking him off for a more attacking player isn't shameful, football is a squad game and everyone has a part to play. We spent millions on Fellaini and he didn't play today. So, why is it one rule for one and not for another? If they're not playing well, they should be subbed or shouldn't be starting. Taking Rooney off for Hernandez would have been a sensible move. There's no ulterior motive to it, because there's a good chance that Rooney would play better in the next game anyway (fitness depending) based on how he's played this season. It actually says more about the manager and coaching staff. No matter how good or bad that person plays, they stay on. If that was Ashley Young playing badly out there, he'd have been hauled off. It would have shown that Moyes had some guts to actually substitute a big player and go with what he thought was the right move. He didn't do that.

Honestly, part of me is surprised that he is still here. There hasn't been enough of an improvement this season since the start and we've played very badly against the teams in the top 8 or so. We've got something like 6 out of 36 points against the top 6. At Old Trafford, we've lost and drawn more games than we've won. It's dire. I know Brendan Rodgers finished fairly low with Liverpool last year and now they're up there competing for the title, but Rodgers already proved at Swansea that he was dynamic enough to play exciting football. Moyes doesn't have that same ability, he's too rigid, especially against the bigger teams. What's even worse is that we're not even defensively solid. I'm surprised that he didn't go after the Liverpool game, so that makes me think we're stuck with him until at least the start of next season. I want to see this work out because nobody wants him to fail, but the football (particularly against the teams in the top half) is shocking. Has to be seen to be believed.

Another terrible performance, another loss. Moyes doesn't sub Rooney under ANY situation. He was awful today and should have been subbed, simple. Instead, we ended up taking off Jonny Evans, bringing Valencia on at right back and pushing Chris Smalling into central defence. Then, we had Hernandez on for Nani and moved Mata to the wing, just so Rooney could play behind Hernadez. Then, to top it off, we take Kagawa off to put Welbeck on the wing. All we had to do was take off Rooney for Hernandez, one substitution and somebody could then make the runs behind Everton's defence. Rooney spent more time by the halfway line than he did in the box today. Dire. Nonsensical substitutions, shit tactics, shit gameplan, shit everything. He's an absolute coward for not having the balls to take off a big name. Even if we lose, a little fight would be nice to see. He's the equivalent of Tobey Maguire in Spiderman 3, an absolute fucking sissy.

I can't remember if I used Melia or not. The one character who I think is an absolute must for ANY big fight is Sharla/BigTitsMcKee. Her healing properties make her an essential. Going into any big battle without her is suicide, imo, and you'll get battered in next to no time. Go quest for a bit, raise your level to about 76/77, go back and you'll do it no problem. It is a hard boss, though, so don't get discouraged.

This is all part of some very bad dream. :p Liverpool can't win the title, at least not when I'm alive! Fuuuuark. Feel a bit sick, brah. On another note: Mourinho is a twat for having all of the money in the world and not buying a striker. I have no sympathy for the man if Chelsea blow it (which I think they have). Same goes for Pellegrini, that squad has massively underachieved this season. Can't say that there's been a better team than Liverpool all year, so credit where it's due.

We've good Dreamcast and N64 appreciate threads, but what about our old friend the GameCube? I've spent the morning playing F Zero GX. I can't believe it. How is it possible for it to look just as amazing or just as fast and fluid as it did years ago? It really is a fantastic technical achievement. I've been in awe of it this morning. So beautiful. I can't think of a single better racer on a Nintendo system. ExciteTruck was incredible, but GX is on a different level. Mario Kart (any of them) can't even touch this. I've been using my trust Wavebird...hnnnnnngggggggg. Why were the GameCube controller wires so abnormally short?! I've ordered some controller extension cables, meaning we can now play Melee, GX and anything else for that matter in bed, on a Sunday morning.

That's a nice little story, aha. I have a similar one, but about ISS2 (I think it was) on the GameCube and my cousin. He would regularly come over to our house as he only lived across the road. ISS2 wasn't that great a game, but (for some reason) my brothers, my cousin and I couldn't stop playing it. We played it to death. One time, he came over and we were having a nice little friendly game. Bam, 1-0 to him. 2-0. 3-0. He eventually made it to about 5-1 and was looking a bit smug about it. I'm not sure if he even said anything, but I completely lost it and told him to fuck off. :o:o So, he quickly left, smirking whilst doing so. I'm pretty sure he came over the next day like nothing happened. Anyway, being in a somewhat retro mood, I've started looking at the Gamecube again. Or, rather, the Gamecube functionality on the Wii. After getting the Wii U, I've moved the Wii into the bedroom. Ine was playing Eternal Darkness for the first time last night and this morning I was playing F Zero GX. F Zero GX is surely the greatest racer of all time. There is nothing better.

Pick eet up, brah. Do eet. Space Channel 5 and Jet Set Radio are heeeere. I spent the morning playing F Zero GX and only had time for around half an hour on Jet Set, but...wow, such game, so graphics, much fun. Loving it so far. So pretty.

I spent my whole morning/afternoon playing ReVolt and Soul Caliber for the Dreamcast. Both amazing games. Soul Caliber is so special, though. Something else entirely. One of my favourite memories of high school was my Russian Maths Teacher bringing in his SEGA Dreamcast in one of our last lessons before Christmas as a treat. With it, he brought in Soul Caliber. We had a little tournament that day and there were gasps and cheers of excitement when I pulled off a massive move as Asteroth. Theeen, when I eventually picked up a Dreamcast some years later, one of my best friends and I played best of 100/101 matches on Soul Caliber straight (3 rounds per fight, winning one fight gave you a point). We were tied at 49-49, then he won the final two to make it 51-49. Unbelievable. Supreme game. 10/10.

I'd argue that the N64/PSX/Saturn era paved the way for the eras that followed it. Without the likes of Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye, Tekken, Gran Turismo, Smash Bros. the previous generations would be much poor for it. It's a very influential era for gaming. Not sure if it's my favourite, but I respect deeply what that era did. I agree with you about the NES era though, I can live without that quite easily. The combination of SNES/Megadrive though is something else. God-tier gaming.

The rumble pak is the greatest attachment of all time. Clipping that pak into the controller and playing Lylat Wars for the first time blew me the fuark away. Genuinely one of those "oh shiiii-" moments. I remember having to call my brothers and parents from the next room, having to show them how awesome it was. The water effects on Lylat Wars blew me away, too. That's another thing I love about the previous generations; the graphical enhancements were so obvious. We can say what we like about not being "graphics whores" or whatever, or that it's "more about the gameplay", but who in their right mind didn't ejaculate all over their carpet when booting up Lylat Wars or Rogue Leader or Wave Race Blue Storm for the first time.

- Gamecube controller extension cable x 2 (£3) - Dreamcast controller extension cable (about £4) - Space channel 5 (£5) - Jet Set Radio (about £6) Also bought some headphones to use with my guitar amp. Bought a guitar to usb cable. A new guitar strap. An attachment to go on my acoustic, so that I can actually use the strap on it. Wohoooo.

Local multiplayer isn't the same anymore. It peaked towards the middle of the GameCube era for me, but was insanely good during the N64 period. Having your childhood friends around, playing Goldeneye, Mario Kart, WWF No Mercy. Oh myyy. I miss cartridges, big time. The loading times were amazing. Put in something like Streets of Rage...play it right away. The times were so much simple then. Saving directly onto the cartridge, not having to worry about memory card space or downloading extra data, or patches or shit. It was easy. Disc based systems seem to have waaaaaay more problems, imo. Faulty lasers, discs getting scratched, etc. Unlockables within the game. I don't know how prevalent this is now, but DLC seems to have ruined this slightly. Rather than play the game to get the extra stuff, you download the data instead. I also feel that games are slightly looked down on these days if you actually have to spend hours on them to unlock extra characters and levels, but that might just be my own personal feeling.

The soundtrack is bitchin'. I'm having a rave right now in my bedroom. Fuuuuuuuuck, this game is potential god-tier. Why haven't I been hearing people rave about this game before? Dat track editor. I just made the greatest of all time (goat) track. It had pipes, bridges, sharp fucking corners and everything, brahs. Amazing, amazing game. That soundtrack. Fuaaaaark. Hnnnnngggggg.

inB4 Star Trek: The Next Generation, lawl. Which videogaming generation was your favourite? I quite enjoyed the Wii, but I wouldn't say that the generation as a whole captivated me, but maybe that's because I didn't experience enough on the PS3/360 to truly love that era. Possibly the same with the GameCube era, although I'm picking up some Dreamcast games now and I'm suddenly remembering that it was a particularly awesome time for gaming. However, for me, the greatest of all time era has to be...the one before it. SNES/Megadrive combo. So many great games. The side scrollers. Streets of Raaaage, Super Mario World. The racers, Super Hang On, hnnngggg. Personally, that's the era I remember the most and where I really loved gaming. Closely followed by the era of the Cube. Edit: Oh shiiiiii- Forgot the N64 era. Hmm.

I'm playing on my Samsung 26 inch LCD telly in the bedroom. It was stated as being HD Ready when I bought it. Games look fine to me, but I'm also short sighted and can live with games looking a bit dated. I did own a Wii, after all. Ha...

Oh shiiiii- My controller extension cable came today. I've been sat on my bed for the last two hours playing Crazy Taxi and motherfucking REVOLT. Shit, why didn't anybody tell me Revolt was awesome?! I had a hidden gem all this time. It also has a Track Editor, hnnnnggggggg. Tomorrow morning = wake up early, play dreamcast games and eating easter eggs.

There's no one thing that is to blame, but rather a combination of different things that has led us to this stage. What concerns me is the amount of new owners, take-overs, consortiums and so forth that seem to be changing every week. It's not just relevant for the top leagues, but rather the lower leagues, too. It's a huge problem. The idea seems to be that if somebody has some money, that automatically qualifies them to run a football club. It most certainly does not. The clubs aren't being run by good business people, let alone good football people. Yes, inflated wages are a part of the problem. Yes, blowing tons of money on transfers is part of the problem. The same with bad owners who don't have a clue how to run the club. A combination of all of these things result in what we see now; clubs going bust or struggling immensely with debt. Whatever procedures are in place that allow people to come in and buy football clubs/take ownership are clearly badly designed, easily abused and/or not fit for purpose. More needs to be done at that level. Transfer caps and wage limits concern me, for a multitude of reasons. There will need to be some sort of consistency across the ENTIRE WORLD because if Billy Bollocks isn't being offered a lot of money to play in one country, it'll just lead to them staying well clear. On the one hand, we (the FA, fans, players, media, managers, chairmen) love promoting the Premier League and England as a football country, claiming it to be the best in the world, the Premier League to be the best league, etc; but on the other hand, we need these foreign, expensive players to make that happen. Unless there are tons of young, English talent that is there to replace it, and I mean world class quality talent. The tipping point has already come and gone, there's no way you'll be able to attract talent such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Eden Hazard, Luis Suarez to the Premier League if they can get better deals elsewhere.