Fierce_LiNk

Thanks for all of the birthday messages, everyone. Yesterday was niiice. I took a cake into work and was pleasantly surprised to find that one of my good friends there had also bought me the exact same cake. The kids loved it, of course. DOUBLE CAKE TIIIME. I received a box of chocolates and a chocolate football boot from my class. Hnnnggggg. Can't wait to eeat eet. The day itself was long and knackering. We had a meeting after work which seemed to go on forever. Ine and I went out for an indian last night (the food of my people, lols)...sooo bluddy good. Could have cried whilst eating my peshwari naan. I must have worked hard this week or something because I was falling asleep by about 10 and I only got back from work about an hour ago and feel so tired again, too. Not sure if feelsoldman or feelstiredfromworkingtoohardman. Ine also got me this: The 100ml version. It was one of my favourite smells whilst living in Brighton and I associate that smell with being there. Hngggggggg.

I'm in for the cup.

I feel your pain. Squatted about a week or so ago and felt fine. Tried squatting a few days ago and the hip flexor wouldn't have it. Feelsbadman. On the plus side, it hasn't stopped me doing anything else. Only squatting. Deadlifting/stiff legged deadlifts are all good. It's only squatting that it doesn't like. Even then, I think I may have caught it on a bad day. Sucks, though.

Aside from Joe Hart protesting half-heartedly and Vincent Kompany going to the assistant referee (who already seemed to make the decision before then), it didn't seem like the City players were protesting all that much. They didn't hound the officials, at least from what I saw. I agree though that the refs bottled it. Your focus should be on the ball, but you also need to be aware of what's around you. Not saying that Joe Hart was aware of the player standing in front of him, as he didn't seem to see him until the ball was already in the goal. However, personally, I'd be a little distracted if somebody was stood fairly close by in an offside position, whether or not they had touched the ball. This didn't seem to be much of an issue in the past and it's only when these rules started to be tinkered with that we get scenarios like this. It's all well and good having the rules saying one thing, but it's completely and utterly meaningless unless they're enforced correctly...which they weren't today.

It's soft, but there's at least one of those types of penalties given every week for different teams in different leagues. Again, down to the officiating. The standard these days is very poor. Not saying the players are totally blameless, because they're not making it easy for them. However, the fact that nothing has been done to sort out this "going-down-softly" bollocks is shiiiite. Why did football seem so much better when we were kids? Hardly any diving, no refereeing bullshit, none of this offside nonsense, no twitter and all that crap.

Right, I've just seen the disallowed goal. It's a right mess and the problem is that over the years nobody has really come out and clarified when somebody is "interfering" with play. In my opinion, if I was a goalkeeper and somebody was standing in an offside position (for example, if I were on the front post and the player was on the back post in an offside position), I would still be "aware" that they were there...so, to me, they would be interfering, because the simple fact is that they are there. However, according to the rules (and depending on which official you talk to) it probably wouldn't be offside. Basically, the rules are shit and nobody knows what they're doing. Why can't we just go back to before and say that if somebody is in an offside position, they are offside and no goals are given? So much easier to referee that way.

I haven't checked the incident, but I'll say this: The fact that so many fans and players are up in arms about this is because the rules aren't transparent. When you're playing a game, everybody needs to know the rules by which their playing, otherwise you have anarchy and wrong decisions are being made. The fact that the rules have changed over the years and have become unnecessarily complicated just adds to it. Keep it simple. There's no transparency and you have nobody left in the game (referees and players) who know the rules. It shouldn't be this way.

There was a definite improvement when I was watching our game yesterday. The first half was a bit drab, but even then we were playing decent football. Second half was one of the best halves we've played all season. Quick passing, good movement, getting men behind the ball. We looked like we were playing with confidence. The team-sheet at the start didn't give me tremendous hope because, again, we put Kagawa out wide. But, about 30 mins in, he was in the number 10 role with Januzaj out wide, who pinging the balls in like he's been playing there all his life. We had players in the right positions...and we looked so much better. Fletcher didn't really get an awful lot of recognition, but he looked great in midfield. Will hopefully give Cleverley some competition and force him to improve if he wants a look in. Januzaj, Kagawa and Welbeck's link up play was great to watch. Even without the win, the general play was far better than the last 3 or so games. More of this please!

That was probably my favourite season. Excellent fun. The humour in the threads also made the game more enjoyable.

If you look carefully towards the grassy knoll, there's actually a second horse involved.

This is awkward. Happy Birthday, N-E.

I think this is my first post in this thread. Don't think I've posted at all this season. I'll be entering my team for the Champions League competition thing that we have next season, but I'll be calling it a day after that. (only staying to make the numbers easier for next season) The magic disappeared at some point last season and it hasn't come back. Even when I've been winning games, it didn't at any point feel exciting or worthwhile. It's a shame. Training/Playing with a young team in particular is a very long and tedious process. If anyone wants to take over the DRAGOOOOO mantle, let me know. It's a good team and there are some good younger players.

I absolutely loathe glasses and dislike wearing them. They, to me, are a barrier. Sometimes I feel that I am looking through the world through somebody else's eyes when wearing them. I only wear them for driving and playing games. In the past, I used contact lenses for a year but found them (at the time) pretty expensive and irritating to put in. I'm tempted to give them a second crack and see how I get on. Sunglasses are one of my absolute pet hates, especially how people in this country will use them as a fashion accessory. It looks ridiculous to see people wearing sunglasses in areas where you are IN THE SHADE or indoors...or even those stupid oversized glasses that women wear that make you look like some kind of BrundleFly/Bono cross-breed. Edit: Loooool, just read @Dr\. bob's post...great minds, eh? (I read the opening post and hit reply straight away)

I'd agree with most of that. We need a massive performance today. I'm hoping we turn up and put a big shift in. Cmaaaaan. I'm so mixed about the whole Thomas Hitzlsperger news. It's...sad that a player needs to come out and "admit" that they are gay. It almost implies that they've committed some sort of crime and are revealing to the world that they themselves are coming to terms with it. The other aspect is that it isn't the world's business to know his sexuality. It doesn't and shouldn't change his contributions on the field and it shouldn't change the fan's attitudes towards him. On the other hand, I do understand that somebody needed to fire the first shot and pave the way for others to "come out", therefore eradicating the problem. Still, I guess it's part of the world we live in, the 21st Century where every aspect of your life is made available to the public, whether you agree to it or not. Whatever happened to decency and letting the professionals just do their thing?

This has all of the right ingredients to go completely tits up. End well, this will not. I wouldn't bother, brah. You're asking for trouble.

Think I might take the plunge and get myself a smart phone. If anything, for tracking my diet and making sure that I'm eating the right stuff. I feel that I'm almost becoming a bit stagnated on the cut. Hmm. I think I over stretched yesterday before squatting. My hips didn't want to do it. Reading up on it, opinion seems to be divided over whether or not you should stretch before lifting. I normally just do lighter versions of the exercise before lifting, but some say to stretch and others say completely different things. Hmm. Also, I love Stiff Legged Deadlifts. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Nice one. That bad, eh? I've never really played one so I don't know if it's my type of game. I hear it gets really repetitive. AC4 seems to be dropping in price pretty quickly, so may opt for that at some point.

I couldn't agree with you more. A question to those of you who are in the know: There was talk of an attachment that would improve the battery life of the Wii U. What is it? Is it available in Europe? I guess I could just plug it in, but I get a wee bit annoyed by wires getting in the way. Also also, not sure if this one should be in the eShop thread, but I've already started sooo...Nano Assault for Wii U. Worth it at the current price of about 7 quid? I'm not one to get eShop titles, so I know little about it. Finally, last I saw, Assassins Creed 3 was 7 quid on eShop, too. Any decent? I've never bothered playing any of the games...can't tell if it's my thing or not. Might get Deus Ex instead.

We joke about this, but that's almost what it's about by playing him - beating records. I love the guy for all he has done, but we can't deny the fact that for the past few years, every time he got a game, it was to the detriment of somebody else coming up through the ranks. It's great to see him keep going, but it's going to keep hurting us long term. Fuck no, the last thing we want to do is rely solely on him or just use him as the basis for every single thing that we do. We shouldn't become one dimensional. We did this in the latter days of Ruud Van Nistelrooy and we were much better off afterwards when he moved on. It just allowed us to play better football without going about things in just one way. We need to incorporate him and others, the other intelligent players who aren't afraid and can play football.

That's why we need to at least try and give the likes of Zaha a game. At the moment, we can't physically play any worse, so why not just give these players a go and create for the future. Playing players like Giggs doesn't solve the short term or the long term. It's pointless and it's using up space for youngsters who we NEED to impress. We've got Swansea at home on Saturday, then Chelsea away, before playing Sunderland again in the cup. Realistically, given the way we're playing, we could lose all three. We've already lost against Swansea at home, we couldn't beat Chelsea at home and we lost to Sunderland tonight.

He's not really helping himself though. His body language when we went behind twice was very negative and he just looks very lost. If you were playing and one nil down and you looked towards the sidelines, would you be inspired or feel confident? Can't believe we didn't at least try and put Kagawa in the number 10 role behind Welbeck and put Januzaj wide. Not sure what the logic was behind playing Giggs. It's almost like every other game this season that we've played. We play in exactly the same way, regardless of whether we're winning or losing. Even in the 93rd minute and losing, we still do the same thing...pass the ball around in midfield, back into defence, into midfield and create nothing. The passing worries the shit out of me, as does the defending. The only plus I can think of tonight is that Januzaj looked brilliant, again. Regardless of where he plays, he seems up for every game. Thank fuck we got him on a long term deal.

What's the deal with the 5-1 in those Spurs pictures? Not sure what to feel. No joke, Ine just came into the room from the kitchen (no sexist) and asked me in a veeeeery sympathetic tone of voice, "what's the score?" "0-0...but we'll concede in a minute." "Yeah, I was wondering if that other team had scored yet." Inevitably, we concede about two minutes later.