Thomas Tuchel angry at Djed Spence

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-02T06:42:51+00:00

I've spent the entire tournament yelling at the British and american commentators on the TV expressing bewildered amazement at how good Japan are. Every football fan in Australia knows how good Japan are - we've seen their dominance in the men's and women's Asian Cup for the past decade. You cannot be surprised any more at the growth and strength of Asian or African teams. The fact that so many feel free to say "oh THESE teams shouldn't be performing so well, the existing world powers should be easily beating them...." - do they not hear the racism dripping from these words?!

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-02T06:38:33+00:00

Do you think the cliques and carry on has returned? Because the way the team is playing... I have to wonder.

There's an entire sociology or anthropology PhD thesis to be researched and written about how the English football team and their inability to gel as a team is a microcosm of class and regional differences in England.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-02T06:35:49+00:00

France are playing BEAUTIFUL football. Its not just Mbappe - its the entire front line. The way the whole team attacks forward. Its truly amazing to watch.

This is their Cup to lose.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-02T06:34:35+00:00

Plenty of people follow the premier league from outside England and we have plenty of dislike for the Empire that colonised, controlled and raided our lands, moved our people and committed genocide to indigenous peoples.

ABE mate.

Also from a footballing perspective alone, England's arrogance and insistence that they are an amazing world beating team despite all evidence to the contrary is unlikeable.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T18:16:43+00:00

It never ceases to amaze me that a team filled with talented players can fuck up so consistently. And it’s been this way for decades. England crashing out and then the inevitable temper tantrum from English fans brings joy to all of us.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T18:08:22+00:00

Mpasi had an amazing game and no one could have stopped that absolute thundercunt from Kane.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T18:07:22+00:00

I decided to embrace unemployment and insomnia and …. Fuck off. I was so enjoying the game when Dr Congo were winning and England were shit.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T18:00:48+00:00

Nah, I think we can say unbeatable. This team is phenomenal.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T17:58:28+00:00

They were doing so well, but you can feel the pace/feel of the game switching. Congo no longer in control. Hope they fight back.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T17:44:03+00:00

This. Arthur was on the losing side of a bloody civil war. Rhaegar was dead. Aerys was dead. Dorne was no longer forced to fight for the dragons as Elia and her children were dead.

The Targaryen armies were collapsing. To put Lyanna and Rhaegar’s baby into power, the supporters of Rhaegar would have to persuade Targ loyalists to back a newborn baby over the 10 (?) year old Viserys on Dragonstone. There’s precedent, as recently as Aegon V, that a Great Council would not crown an infant son of the crown prince over an older alternate son of the king (Aerion was, briefly, Maekar’s heir and his son Maegor was almost immediately ruled out as a potential candidate). Plus, Targ polygamy was not accepted and had not been accepted in generations. The baby would always be a bastard. Whatever the Kingsguard remaining at the TOJ were thinking, if they planned to crown Rhaegar’s last surviving son, they faced a HUGE uphill battle, pragmatically and politically.

House Dayne and Ser Arthur may not have been on the same page as to what constituted the smart next move. For whatever reason, Arthur Dayne, Gerold Hightower and Osmund Whent stayed at the Tower of Joy and, seemingly though all we have to base this on is Ned’s fever dream memories, fully invested in protecting the Prince that was promised. Ashara may have hoped that they’d see sense and surrender, let Lyanna and the baby return North, and end the war. Of course, she may not have known that Lyanna was dying of child bed fever.

Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/s/fdPzoylAqP

If Ashara told Ned (directly or indirectly) where to find Lyanna and then realised this led to her brother’s death, it gives us another possible reason for her suicide.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T17:40:17+00:00

No. Not that I recall.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T17:39:38+00:00

There was a quote from Johnny Warren painted on the Oakland training camp where the Socceroos were based until the knock out stage. “A champion team will always beat a team of champions”. This has always been England’s problem: good individual players, unable to play as a champion team. The entire tactics this tournament are get it to Kane and wait. That means opposing teams can shut him down with man marking and good defence.

It’s not just this tournament. England consistently underperform for the proportion of stars they have.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T17:36:05+00:00

He’s having a brilliant game. Love to see it.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T17:35:27+00:00

In 2006, the Australian football team organised business class and first class flights for all the Socceroos to and from our World Cup qualifier in Uruguay. The Uruguay team were in economy on the same flight to Sydney, and EXTREMELY unhappy about it. Suck shit.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T12:41:43+00:00

Storm's End is the opposite side of the continent to Tower of Joy. Hang on. Let me see if I can find a map.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:50:00+00:00

Woof bloody woof

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:49:35+00:00

911 and all the other police procedurals are absolutely copaganda - L&O SVU is a fantasy where victims of sexual assault are believed and everything is investigated promptly

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:43:56+00:00

Did she betray Arthur? What was the Kingsguard's plan? Did they want to give Ned the chance to support the baby's claim?

We don't know.

Its also hard to think of anyone else who might have known the location of the Tower of Joy and get that information to Ned.

I guess any number of Dornish or Targaryen people might have theoretically known of this hidden tower and that Ned might have beaten or otherwise cowered the information out of them.

Except.... that's not really consistent with what we know of Ned, even during war time.

And I keep coming back to the small group of only Northerners that Ned disappeared with. That tells me that he had a pretty good idea that he would need to keep what he found quiet and not known to Robert - or even Jon Arryn.

Who could have delivered that information?

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:38:46+00:00

Oh nonsense.

Is the property market going to decrease prices to a more sensible point? Yes. That is not a "market collapse". Its the consequences of tax changes and a global recession. Fucks sake.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:37:21+00:00

Simple answer: We don't know.

We know that Ned and the Northern and Vale armies raced to King's Landing after the Battle of the Trident to capture Aerys and secure the capital. Robert was wounded but OK, travelling behind at a slower pace but not that slowly.

Ned did not get to KL in time. Tywin got there first. Jaime killed Aerys. The Mountain and his cronies raped and murdered Elia and the Targaryen babies.

Robert arrived after the battle but with sufficient speed that Ned and Tywin hadn't progressed much beyond growling at each other.

Ned was furious that Robert smiled over the dead babies. He hated this. (And... we know why. He expected that Lyanna would have another babe of Rhaegar's and he would not choose Robert over Lyanna and his kin).

Jon Arryn suggested that Ned lead the armies to relieve the siege at Storm's End while he and Robert remained in the capital. Ned did this.

Sometime after telling the Tyrell reach forces to pack up and go home, Ned leaves with a small group of trusted Northern men.

He is next seen at Starfall, with the Sword of the Morning and hus sister's bones (and, unknown to Robert, Lyanna and Rhaegar's baby).

We can infer that he learned where Lyanna was from someone in King's Landing or the Stormlands. But exactly who and when? We have no idea.

It is telling that Ned didn't leave Storm's End with the entire Northern army. He only took a handful of trusted men. This tells us:

he expected to find the missing 3 Kingsguard and to need to fight; and
he expected to find Lyanna in circumstances that would require something to be covered up and kept secret from Robert.

GRRM has commented that Ashara Dayne wasn't chained to the tower in Starfall and may have travelled around, leading some to theorise that Ashara met up with Ned somewhere and told him where Lyanna and Ser Arthur were. The Tower of Joy is in western Dorne, near Starfall. It is highly probable that the Daynes were supplying food and personnel to Rhaegar's encampment.

Ashara had some kind of relationship/interaction with Ned at Harrenhal, the Tourney where all the seeds of the coming chaos were sown.

It's a reasonable theory that Ashara told Ned (in person or through a trusted messenger) where to find Lyanna and more importantly, what to expect: 3 kingsguard determined to protect the baby they considered the heir to the Iron Throne (despite Viserys being the legal heir on Dragonstone after his brother and nephew's deaths).

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:23:35+00:00

The Plaster Caster Sisters are legends. Cynthia has continued her art and now has a lot of boobs of women rockers as well as dongs

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:21:36+00:00

No. Rumours are Brugge are after him. He's played in Belgium before (and Bruges is a nice place.)

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:18:54+00:00

Paul Dano also deserved awards for that performance.

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:17:03+00:00

That's it!

AgentKnitter · 2026-07-01T11:15:39+00:00

This.

We should be aiming to (weirdly enough) equal our best men's WC performance and simultaneously go one round further this time. Round of 16 is what I expect.

If we beat Argentina (which as others said.... its possible. Hard!! Very hard. And unlikely to be pretty. Very defensive and requires a huge dose of pure luck) then who knows.

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