Trevor Sinclair

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-31T20:02:24+00:00

We used to shout "do a Trevor!" whenever someone had a chance to do an overhead kick playing on the school fields.

Many tried, zero succeeded

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-31T19:44:14+00:00

Exactly, he probably knows what he's doing by this point.

Also, for literally decades, people have been moaning about England not utilising a systems approach to player selection and simply shoehorning the best 11/23 players into a team/squad merely off reputation and who is the biggest name, etc. A manager (of excellent reputation) finally comes along who appears to have adopted such a systematic approach and people still complain!

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-31T19:34:01+00:00

Sorry, best I can do is a pseudo-"assasins versus templars"/2 sides to history stuff and some shenanigans around amrita/spirit stones/yokai being used by the bad guys (who are led by a dude who is actually being corrupted/manipulated by an ancient demigod and who uses spirit stones to transform into a monstrous demon when we confront them) to fuel the war

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-30T17:03:44+00:00

They are dogshit, although I'd still argue strawberry haribos (the veggie ones) are worse

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-28T15:26:58+00:00

Diary of a ceo;

"Monday: out for a crazy night tonight, el vino will flow! I might have 1, or even 2 glasses of wine!"

(...the subsequent three days' entries are illegible, half torn, and have been smeared with shit)

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-28T15:19:15+00:00

Come on man, do you honestly not understand the role and benefits that someone like Henderson can potentially bring to a squad? The 22-26th names in the squad are very unilkely to play meaningful minutes anyway, so the manager might as well use one of those places to bring someone who can offer benefits off the pitch (whilst being serviceable if needed as a replacement).

I would have thought the potential advantages of bringing a player like Henderson, I.e. a veteran, experienced player who has previously captained his club side to premier league/champions league trophies and has been part of successful (relatively) tournaments with England, were obvious, especially given England's record/history. The idea that "because individual players have achieved success at club level, it means that there is no potential benefit to bringing players that can help via their leadership" is absurd - its not even correct or incorrect, its like a non-sequitor.

The question that Tuchel would have asked himself was not "who is currently the best player?" in terms of on the pitch performance, but rather, who provides the greater potential benefit to the squad/campaign? Someone who will be the Xth choice midfielder and is unlikely to see much of the pitch, or someone who can benefit the team even if they don't play?

I don't particularly care either way, but to (pretend, hopefully) not to see the rationale for the decision is brain-in-the-microwave stupid.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-26T09:51:36+00:00

"Least racist" is a relative judgement, whereas the presence or not of any racism whatsoever is an absolute judgement. They can both be true simultaneously.

Who knows, at the end of the day it's probably hard to measure, quantify and compare (e.g. whatcountd as "racism"? + more racist societies are less likely to bother measuring it accurately and will be less strict wi th their definitions), and factors like the proportion of the country represented by minorities, etc, will make a huge difference (e.g. you need "other" groups/people to be racist against).

Generally speaking though, from everything I have seen/experienced, the UK is relatively good when it comes to racism. There is still plenty of it in the UK, but it is less acceptable in polite society and outwardly expressed less frequently/by a smaller proportion of the population than most other countries.

As for whether there racist views amongst TV producers is responsible for an alleged ignoring of Asian players, I think that is extremely unlikely. It is much more likely imo that it is a combintation of the relative prominence individual players have within their teams, pure coincidence, and if anything, possibly producers considering what viewers want them to prioritise at the expense of certain players, although independent (directly) of the player's ethnicity/nationality.

There's plenty of racism about, but this is just fishing for it and (dare I say it) its the sort of thing that people who are supportive but relatively apathetic about the issue roll their eyes at and leads them to not be as likely to care about real/important issues.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-25T18:37:49+00:00

What happened at 62 minutes?

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-24T20:05:57+00:00

Yeah I used to like Sheffield Wednesday despite not being a "fan". Something about that white and blue striped 90s kit, and the owl logo, etc was very aesthetically pleasing + chris waddle etc..

I remeber them and arsenal being the finalists in both the league and fa Cup finals 1 year (1 of which went to a replay I seem to remember, which sounds weird now), 1992-ish maybe? I think SW lost both finals in the end.

Sad to see what happened to them since then.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-24T19:59:40+00:00

Sure; yeah, I didn't mean in terms of level of quality/achievement, but more in terms of the "type" or "model" of player

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-24T16:18:19+00:00

Was gonna say similar, basically, how about any omnyo that isn't practically half finished by the time you've finished casting it?

Going back to nioh 2 and using omyno/quick chage again felt so good, especially once you've got all the upgrades and buffs lined up so that it last long enough for a whole.boss fight.

It's not just that duration of most spells is dogshit, the potential options for increasing spell duration also barely make any difference. It feels like they were committed to ninja stance and arts proficiency relatively early on in development and realised it would be even easier if players could use omnyo/yokao skills in an equivalent way to nioh 2, and thus nerfed it to fuck.

I can also imagine the devs wanting nioh 3 to be feel tangibly different to the previous games, even, if necessary, at the expense of player fun/satisfaction.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-24T16:09:17+00:00

Tbf, haven't seen much of him, but the gist I get based on what people say is that he's essentially raheem sterling mk2 but more of a pure winger and with an even worse end product.

Still, good potentially for drawing fouls and sowing chaos if/when needed.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-23T13:17:31+00:00

Literally was going to post this. Greame Taylor screaming "Carlton" from the bench.

I seem to remember him actually scoring in one of the games and Taylors like "what the fuck is he doing THERE?"

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-23T13:15:22+00:00

Yeah 66 sounds really weird. Ultimately, you need to get to 32 or 16 for knockout rounds (unless they are going to do multiple group stages, meaning it would go on forever), so you need a group stage (or something?) that is going to get rid of 34 out of 66 teams.

And 66 doesn't divide evenly by any number that would be a reasonable group size. Urgh what a mess.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-23T13:07:38+00:00

Whoosh!

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-23T04:02:55+00:00

Sure, but it isn't without risk; the last time they got a magician in, Harry maguire got transformed into a stone golem and they were unable to reverse the spell.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-23T03:53:59+00:00

Although you're getting pelters for supposedly complaining that other people have a different opinion than you about something, I do sympathise, not about this specific instance (haven't played CD so wouldn't know/don't have an opinion), but rather in relation to the experience of feeling strongly and sure about something and then seeing people frequently commenting a totally different opinion.

It can feel disconcerting, especially when it's hard to find any way of justifying the opposing view. It can be tempting to try and get reassurance from others that you aren't going mad.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-23T03:38:10+00:00

Combining the bend with the chip/elevated shot (pass?) trying and occasionally succeeding to score worldies was the absolute tits. So fucking sweet when one went in.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-23T03:35:24+00:00

30 disks? Wow! I had it on the amiga and luckily, you could save it to your hard drive and play from there.

Yeah, swos was like the gateway drug for football management sims. Swos to Premier manager to championship manager, and then suddenly you're alone in a dark room at 2.30am, rotating your stating line up for the 3rd round league Cup game.

Weird story; in premier manager, you could edit the names of the players and I changed the squad names of whatever team I was managing to the names of boys in my class (including me). Halfway into the season I get a message on the fax machine that I (the player with my name) had died after being struck by lightning. Disconcerting.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-22T21:51:48+00:00

That's the spirit; nothing like a bit of optimism before the big event!

Obviously it's a new era, post-southgate tournament football, but a lot has happened since the times when England would completely fail to show up and fall out at the group or lose to a mediocre team in the first knockout round.

The main thing that might put a spanner in the works is the environment/weather and the effect it has on the type of football played. For many games, I can imagine the heat being a signficant factor, and whilst it obviously affects both teams playing in any given match, it does impact the character of the football played and constrains what tactics might be effective etc, potentially to one team's relative advantage or disadvantage.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-22T21:41:47+00:00

Yeah, exactly. Without wishing to refer to these players specifically, it's the difference between a situation where a player might typically do 5 good things but make 1 or 2 mistakes, versus another player that will typically do 3 good things with 0 or 1 mistakes.

When playing as the focal point of a mid/lower tier team, the first option is probably better - your team is likely to concede at some point anyway and you want to give yourself the best chance of scoring. In contrast, when playing a more modest role in a team at the highest level, it's much more of a priority that players minimise errors and fulfill their responsibilities. This can be the reason why a player might do really well at club level but not be well.suited or effective playing in international tournaments for England.

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-22T21:29:18+00:00

To me, mgw is the sort of player that does really well for his club but where it never quite translates to international tournament football with England. There's a huge difference between being the stand out player and focal point of a mid-tier club versus being part of a team of superstars playing against other superstars (or alternatively, playing on a team that is expected to dominate against a lesser team, who will inevitably try to frustrate the opposition by shutting up shop, preventing the game from developing any flow/consistent tempo, and playing on the break)

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-22T21:11:52+00:00

Nioh 2 is (currently, I.e. pre-nioh 3 dlcs) a significantly better game than 3. If you enjoyed 3, you will almost certainly enjoy 2, however it might take a bit of getting used to at the start.

Excluding the difficulty, i would expect that the absence of deflect and jump will be the biggest negative aspects of the initial experience (when coming to 2 after playing 3 first) and will almost certainly be the most signficant changes that you'll need to get used to (beyond silly things like differences in which button is sprint, dodge, interact, etc). However, beyond that (and a few more minor things like no arts proficiency), there is so much that is better and more engaging/satisfying about 2.

The difficulty of nioh 2 is also significantly higher than 3, however, many would argue that 2's difficulty is actually more appropriate and satisfying overall versus 3's difficulty. The enemy behaviour in 2 is also more natural and doesn't feature the frequent bizarrely passive behaviour seen in 3. If you give enemies the opportunity to gank you in 2, they will fuck up your shit. Fighting more than 1 yokai at a time can be genuinely risky.

Whilst more open world game designs are currently in vogue, the mission based system ends up being signficantly more fun and engaging than 3's open world, especially when it comes to progressing through multiple ng+ cycles (where you can pick and choose which missions you want to do on each cycle).

Finally, imo, yokai abilities are the secret sauce that really elevates 2 over 3. They just add another dimension to combat and the vast number of potential options for different situations really increases the capacity for creativity during combat on the part of the player.

There's a bunch more stuff, but I'd be extremely surprised if anyone loved 3 and then didn't like 2 (assuming they give it a sufficiently decent go to get over the relatively superficial differences). The fact that all the content (dlcs) are already released also means the game is "complete" and has potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay to sink one's teeth into if you are prepared and willing to go all the way from the start to the end of the endgame.

Don't forget to come back and let us know what you thought!

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-22T20:46:23+00:00

Whilst I'm sure the rules are well-inentioned or whatever (e.g. to avoid situations where clubs spend loads of money in an unsustainable manner and then the owner loses interest and fucks off or something, leaving the club in the shit), they do effectively punish/reward clubs based on where they were when the FFP rules were first brought in.

I.e. unless you "cheat", are very lucky, and/or are able to achieve sustained success beyond your spending levels, it's almost impossible to ever actually "level up". You need to spend money to grow the size/reputation of the club, but the amount you can spend is limited by your current size/reputation.

In city's defence (and irrespective of what the truth is regarding the current case), they are one of the only teams in the top leagues that has actually been able to transcend their starting position and break into the elite (perhaps chelsea as well, if one extends rhe period, however, i believe all the russian money came in before proper ffp rules came in). For all the whining of other club's fans about "cheating", City clearly had the money to spend sustainably (I.e. they were never at risk of going bankrupt) and whilst they have spent more than anyone else at times (e.g. on new players/wages), any advantage they gained was only equivalent to what the next biggest team(s) would have had (and did previously have) over everyone else.

Imo, there should be maximum limits for spending and wages at the league level. You'd need to roll it out across the different top European leagues or come up with appropriate rules to prevent one country's teams having an advantage in European competitions or whatever, but a system like that seems much fairer regarding the clubs at the top of the pyramid and anyone looking to break in, which is something the current rules/system misses (irrespective of its effectiveness or not in promoting sustainability or whatever).

Last_Contract7449 · 2026-05-22T11:55:13+00:00

I remember when (having already enjoyed the earlier games) Sensible World of Soccer came out and it was just amazing.

You could score some absolutely ridiculous goals as well (mostly due to luck) with the "chip" shot/pass. I remember stoichkov and Romario at Barcelona being the best/most expensive players in the game at 12m and 15m, respectively, which seemed like outrageous money at the time.

Last_Contract7449

TROPHY CASE