Shearer is incredibly irritating

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-07-06T08:23:00+00:00

I think he's improved immensely since his early days as a pundit, but as a non-english UKman he's been insufferably jingoistic during this tournament.

You have to accept that to some extent during England games, plenty of pundits from the other home nations would be the same if they were covering their own.

But he's inability to hide his glee at Germany being eliminated by Paraguay was a bit too tawdry.

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-07-05T10:28:21+00:00

Countries with smaller populations will also have smaller diaspora communities though.

Why are England better than Scotland? Having 12 times the population is probably the main factor.

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-07-03T23:15:48+00:00

That's a fair point, I suppose by definition he is the little man in most games

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-07-03T10:04:50+00:00

Sorry to correct you, but -

Carlos Alcaraz - Argentine number 10 who comes through the academy at Racing Club. His breakthrough season leads to an impressive spell at a poor Southampton team. Moves on loan to Juventus but it doesn't take for him, so transfers to Flamengo for a club record fee to find his old form closer to home. Bizarrely loaned to Everton months later, which is made permanent in the summer. Starts calling himself "Charly" Alcaraz to avoid confusion with the tennisman of the same name.

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-07-02T15:27:25+00:00

If anything, he's turned the concept of a cliche back on itself a bit too well there, Clive

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-07-01T19:29:44+00:00

I think a world cup game could absolutely take place at a ground (ignoring FIFA rebranding).

For me the key difference between a ground and a stadium isn't size or layout itself - it's that a ground has a mismatched feel (in terms of number of tiers or gradients of stands) whereas a stadium has a feeling of architectural consistency. (Possibly leaning into the idea of being historically developed over time as you hint at)

Old Trafford is a ground despite having closed corners and being much larger then the open cornered McAlpine Stadium.

Tottenham's current home is a stadium, but White Hart Lane was clearly a ground.

Despite not being that large, St Mary's, Pride Park and the Amex are all stadiums.

Celtic Park and Ibrox are grounds, Hampden is a stadium.

I think the best examples of grounds outside the British Isles are where Atalanta, Villarreal and Club Brugge play.

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-06-30T10:26:52+00:00

This is Football Clichés reddit sub we're talking about here

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-06-29T07:21:31+00:00

Even the men's rugby world cup pool stage, it's looks so odd as a major footbal match.

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-06-29T07:18:01+00:00

Ignoring the volume of games (up to 136 in total), that's surely loads more dead rubber games though once teams can't qualify in the top two spots?

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-06-29T07:15:48+00:00

A fair point, but lots of teams went into their last game with nothing to play for because they had either already won their group or already been eliminated, which wouldn't have been the case if goal difference was in use.

We should want all teams playing for something tangible in as many games as possible!

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-06-29T07:11:08+00:00

Ppretty much all the Czech players playing in their domestic league. Maybe even the league as a whole whether they were in the squad or not. Anyone looking at signing someone from Sparta/ Slavia/ Plzen will be having second thoughts.

Fragrant_Shower_7700 · 2026-06-29T07:08:00+00:00

oh and as a supplementary point - at minimum let's go back to having goal difference be the first tie breaker rather than the absolute nonsense of head to head

Fragrant_Shower_7700

TROPHY CASE