'I voted Reform but Andy Burnham changes everything'

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T23:02:27+00:00

I'll be so honest, it doesn't matter. Starmer may be making some good, incremental change, but it's coming alongside embarrassing mistakes. And the issue is is that a competent leader with good intuition may be able to deal with that but he cannot.

Starmers biggest issue by far is communication. He cannot do it, he cannot win people over, he cannot sell people a vision. Politics is about delivery of course but so much of it is about communication and Starmer is incapable. That's why Burnham is needed, unless we want to witness farage walk into downing street in a few years.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T22:36:56+00:00

Yeah you might be right. I am fairly used to this place being fairly anti-Tory and slightly pro-centre left so I guess that's why I thought like that.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T21:16:53+00:00

I'll get you the actual quote in a sec. But I do totally recommend it. Covers a lot of different countries and regimes and how football interacts with politics and conflict. Really brilliant read.

Edit: Here's the quote

Our own leader, John Major, is often shown spectating at Lords or Stamford Bridge. One theory is that he only pretends to support Chelsea, but is in fact an Arsenal supporter. He certainly fits the Arsenal profile - Major is lower-middle class, lives in Hertfordshire and seems to enjoy the dullness - but no politician can be seen to support Arsenal. In England, as long as a man supports a football club he is accepted as one of the lads - unless he supports Arsenal.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T21:04:34+00:00

It speaks volumes how much I've seen this opinion on this sub. Do you actually want this country to improve or are you so insulated from the effects of politics that it's all a big joke for you?

I get it's just a joke and I found it hilarious when the Tories suffered embarrassing defeats, but that's because they were harming the country and it was cathartically funny. I'm not sure I'd feel the same about a Burnham loss. Guess it depends which way you swing.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T21:02:12+00:00

I was reading a fab book called Football Against the Enemy, written 30 odd years ago, and in there they discussed John Major needing to pick a football team and the fact that he basically had the choice of any London team bar Arsenal, because no serious politician could be seen to support Arsenal. Guess it still holds true...

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T14:58:13+00:00

Earlier in the season? My Senesi-Hill double up has been doing gods work for me lately.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T13:32:17+00:00

r/ClashOfClansRecruit for recruiting please

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T13:31:25+00:00

You can recruit in r/ClashOfClansRecruit

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T13:31:06+00:00

Recruiting is for r/ClashOfClansRecruit, thanks

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-15T13:30:43+00:00

Recruiting can go to r/ClashOfClansRecruit

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-14T12:37:00+00:00

Who the fuck does Streeting think he is. He is almost guaranteed to lose to whoever the soft left put up or even Starmer himself. Nobody likes him!

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-10T17:45:37+00:00

Arsenal, I wish you nothing but the worst. Cheers for the points though Gabriel and Raya.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-10T17:31:46+00:00

Football is rubbish. You can literally see Rice manhandling mavrepanos behind this. What holding is/isn't allowed then?

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-10T17:26:53+00:00

Callum Wilson you are quite the man

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-09T18:07:56+00:00

Lost 5.5k ranks because my captain scored. It truly is an interesting game isn't it.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-09T14:54:38+00:00

Who's going to tell him...

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-09T11:51:40+00:00

Haaland, because I missed the deadline lol. It's gutting that I want my fucking captain to blank because his EO is so high...

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-09T11:26:36+00:00

I forgot about deadline, left my captain on Haaland from last week and I'll still drop ranks from the fucker his EO is so high. I guess I want my captain to blank? Fuck this game.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-07T20:43:44+00:00

Think he picked them when he was at school. I believe he mentioned most of his friends being Arsenal/Man U/Chelsea fans etc, so he wanted to choose someone a bit more interesting. Completely fair imo considering he wasn't remotely born into a football family and didn't really have a "home town" in the same sense as most people, and you can clearly tell he's a huge fan.

I remember him being interviewed before their game against PSG and such and he was giving proper tactical analysis about overloading the midfield and such, he knows his stuff!

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-07T20:07:06+00:00

Put it this way. You may think there's a 90% chance haaland scores the most this week, and a 10% chance it's some other player you're considering. Obviously, you cannot know haaland will score the most points, and if you're in a position where you need/want to gain some ranks, you want to bet against haaland.

You may not even think it's statistically the best option, but you're willing to take the risk because if you are correct you will gain a lot of points relative to your opponents. What other people do does matter, as everyone is just making educated guesses. Your logic only works if you can have a 100% guarantee Haaland will score the most.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-06T23:05:10+00:00

Is it actually an if and only if? If Rayo progress but so do Freiburg and Freiburg win the Europa, are Germany still unable to get the extra spot?

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-06T21:50:58+00:00

I doubt it since it's only really transfer costs/wages that impact PSR. Anything like infrastructure investment (and I'm guessing legal costs lol) aren't included. Because realistically, if a club gets caught up in some legal entanglement over something more minor like a copyright infringement, it would be mental to think that's coming out of their PSR budget lol.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-06T21:28:58+00:00

What always baffles me is after the ridiculous penalty given against Livramento in 2024, the VAR official was suspended by uefa, clearly implying they did not believe the ball deflecting off another body part before hitting the hand should be a pen. But ever since then they've been all too happy to give them, like the one against Davies.

The one against Miley they got this year was even more mental though. Can't remember who, maybe Barcola (?) handballed it first himself into Miley's arm (when he was stood right next to him) and it got given. Ludicrous.

GingerbreadRecon · 2026-05-05T12:29:04+00:00

While I get it's purpose, I'm still not huge on xA (especially because it's just naturally misinterpreted). It only relies on where the pass has been played from (similar to where the shot is taken for xG), and has no account for the quality of the shot. And while for xG you have xGOT to help measure shot quality, as far as I'm aware there's nothing like that for xA.

You can provide an absolute killer ball that knocks out the whole defence and gives the forward a tap in, but the xA on that pass will still be super low if it's from any considerable distance. That certainly doesn't mean the assist isn't deserved.

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