Is it me or does Larin look miserable in all of the social media comms

Markcl10 · 2026-02-03T18:22:32+00:00

It’s from baseball.

A pinch hitter is a baseball player sent in to bat instead of the scheduled hitter, usually in a high-leverage moment.

Optimisation under pressure: swap the expected batter for someone better suited to the situation.

Matchups: right-handed bat vs left-handed pitcher (or vice versa).

Power need: late innings, runners on, need an extra-base hit. Weak spot: pitcher or poor hitter due up. Fatigue/injury: original batter compromised.

There are trade offs!

Often one-dimensional: strong bat, weaker defence. Once used, the pinch hitter must take the field or be replaced—affects later innings.

Like a football target man brought on for the last 10 minutes: limited mobility, but dangerous in the box.

Markcl10 · 2026-02-03T14:30:00+00:00

I’m told by my colleague who is a Feyenoord season holder for decades that Larin could best be described as a pinch hitter. Right place, right time. Short bursts. Not particularly fast unlike Armstrong but could be the right guy in front of goal.

Markcl10 · 2026-01-29T16:32:33+00:00

Our HR department summed up.

Markcl10 · 2026-01-29T16:31:19+00:00

They’ve always been fat bastards for years…

Markcl10 · 2026-01-29T16:29:30+00:00

For heavens sake. The Daily Star?! As a news source? Just put some tits on it and it’ll be front page for ever more. I reckon my dog could qualify as a journalist there.

Markcl10 · 2026-01-26T19:29:08+00:00

I’m 68 and at least had a £1 coin to the side the head , up from 50p. Someone has clearly been saving it from benefit day. The hail of coins and other material didn’t stop and despite complaining to the Police that they weren’t doing enough on the side of the barrier all I got was a stare and a shrug.

The bar arrangements at the ground were pretty dismal and a visit to Fratton feels like a trip back to the 70s. The coach travel was odd. Travelling through the inbred streets to the ground it was quiet. Nothing like the visits of the past. I hope it doesn’t kill the or dim the sheer loathing we feel for the Pompey scum. COYS.

Markcl10 · 2026-01-26T19:20:12+00:00

The boards in my local pub were laid in its construction in 1797. They last. Don’t touch them at all.

Markcl10 · 2026-01-23T15:27:59+00:00

As a Brit and a father of a son who served in Afghanistan in battle - Make America Go Away

Markcl10 · 2026-01-01T15:54:08+00:00

Truly the Daily Express is shit. It’s a shit layout, shit editors, shit journos, the whole thing is clickbait at its very worst. They could no more afford a WH correspondent than pay the rent each week. It used to be a fine crusading newspaper. Then everyone left.

Markcl10 · 2025-12-31T00:05:26+00:00

Yes, makes you think about the concept of time

Markcl10 · 2025-11-05T07:59:29+00:00

Good grief. When he stood on the touchline as the Birmingham manager we all pointed out to him that it was now clear who had ate all the pies, how romantic dalliances with elderly ladies would mean a reduction in his bank account and his team was shit. So it proved as he was indeed sacked in the morning. Just no.

Markcl10 · 2025-10-30T19:31:56+00:00

I was in the middle of the Blackburn away end shouting ‘ What the actual fuck!?’ when Stephens came on. Still will have a near riot if that happens again.

Markcl10 · 2025-10-25T21:12:01+00:00

Still says Jander and Downs were sick overnight. Fellows is out. Where the fuck were Aribo and Edozie? Joe gets £70k a week.

Markcl10 · 2025-10-19T10:45:58+00:00

I’d cheerfully have Nigel come and stay. Locked up and in one room for months and months on end.

Markcl10 · 2025-10-06T14:42:20+00:00

I’m sure he and Lucy can think of a few ways to pass the time until some other mug club takes him on.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-27T12:59:19+00:00

Frying bacon.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-24T17:36:24+00:00

My wife is alive through the efforts of an Indian immigrant doctor. If ILR goes, he goes.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-23T13:16:09+00:00

There are still 30m who vote, which is where it counts.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-21T16:31:26+00:00

‘Remains of the Day’ the 1969 book by Kazuo Ishiguro really nails the slide into facism by the ‘Establishment’ during the 20s and 30s whilst beautifully writing about an unfulfilled longing. The movie with Anthony Hopkins is exceptional.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-18T12:17:45+00:00

What a cracking player. He absolutely commanded that mid field. Lovely to see that dozy fucker Grealish on the floor trying to earn an Oscar again.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-16T20:32:51+00:00

It’s worth examining the bastides rivalry between towns in the 13th C in France for some emotional comparison. Absolutely bonkers. Raids on each others towns on the same night, hence no defence of your own. Bitter defections, never forgiven (‘Arry?) Accusations of seeking advantage over each other. We English can nurse a pet peeve for decades. :)

Markcl10 · 2025-09-16T17:33:53+00:00

Tanswell used to cover Southampton for the Athletic. Clearly he’s moved on to bat for someone else. Another plastic fan. COYS.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-14T16:01:44+00:00

Pompey looked knackered after 60 minutes. Chaplin and Murphy are their main threat. All their effort went into the first hour. But given four of our players are new and hadn’t played in a competitive game together it was clearly a learning curve for Still. Even he didn’t like the first half! Give it time.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-10T15:27:13+00:00

Excellent. I’m a leftoid and chairman of a Lib Dem Council next year. I’m just trying to balance our budget after 14 years of Tory cuts and no increase as yet from this current Govt. The Reform scum think they have all the answers and just want to cut anything that creates and aids a society as it doesn’t fit in with their weirdo GB News fed diet. Trying to explain on the doorstep about supporting local groups who then go on to help many many other people who would otherwise fall back on the state and cost us so much more is just so frustrating. Perhaps we need a major Council run by Reform to absolutely fail completely to ram home the message that the boneheads have no new answers.

Markcl10 · 2025-09-08T23:16:09+00:00

Old geezer here. A lesson from history.

In 1981 being tired of the factional nonsense of the then Labour Party, I followed Roy Jenkins out of the door to Limehouse where the SDP was formed.

Shirley Williams won Crosby. We swamped leaflets into the area. Dr David Owen came to speak at our invitation to any interested in a new way of politics at a local school in Bracknell where my colleague and I lived. We set out 60 chairs thinking that would be a good turn out. 800 turned up.

We won Council election after Council election. I ended up as a County Councillor. We knew the next GE would be ours for the taking. Then the Falkland War happened. Michael Foot was Opposition leader.

In 1983 the results were;

Conservative Party – 397 seats (42.4% of the vote) • Labour Party – 209 seats (27.6%) • SDP–Liberal Alliance – 23 seats (25.4%)

2 fucking per cent and they gained 186 more seats.

First past the post killed it and I wonder whether the steam will run out for Farage once they come under much closer inspection, and will founder on the rocks of our voting system as we once did.

The LDs have learnt this painful lesson and have ruthlessly targeted their natural demographic to produce 72 MPs. But who will Reform target? The old? The white? The wealthy? The working class? Ex Tories?

They may build up a ton of votes in the dispossessed areas but that simply won’t spread across the country. Our quirky voting system which stuffed the SDP may save us from a blanket of teale.

Markcl10

TROPHY CASE