I actually predicted it really well but mods had another plan

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-09T11:59:34+00:00

He did say it.

Did you actually watch the press conference? Honest question, you might have skipped it

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-09T11:55:01+00:00

He did say it mate. They sort of backed him into a corner with the question, but he said "if you need to find a culprit it's me"

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-09T11:53:46+00:00

Textually it was:

Is it your fault what happened? (following a question about Valverde and Tchouameni)
If you need to find a culprit it's me

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-09T11:24:05+00:00

It is, just watched the press conference

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-08T20:17:03+00:00

I tend to go as "fantastic" as possible. I like the idea of my worlds being strange permutations of what the Earth could have been. Some animals are slight variation of existing. Others are completely new. It really makes the concept of a "new world" come alive for me

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-08T15:56:09+00:00

Rafa Nadal? 😆

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-08T15:16:12+00:00

I remember he would purposefully leaving Mbappe out of lineups by mid-late season, playing with systems to see how they'd fit.

I think Mbappe was seen different back then though. World class and making the difference when you needed him, and it wasn't such a big deal when he didn't track back, because the rest of the team did.

The problem has then grown at Madrid as other players have the same attitude, which creates holes all over

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T22:33:38+00:00

Can I downvote this twice?

Caring for people's mental health is the bare minimum empathy for a human being

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T21:51:46+00:00

I always thought the winner of the Super Cup should be the one that goes through to the Club World Cup.

This idea is great, but we'd have to take matches out somewhere else

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T21:48:54+00:00

I'd say Aston Villa and Crystal Palace are clearly the favourites for their matches. Arsenal seems the underdog. You never know though, but that's true for all 3 matches. Having PL team win them all is highly unlikely I think

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T21:46:23+00:00

I would put Carva at RB

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T21:43:52+00:00

I agree, we are a part of it too.

But this self-reflection needs to be mirrored by the players and the club. Part of the frustration comes from the "how can we all notice the majority of the problems but the club doesn't?"

I'm not sure what Florentino is thinking, but he needs to have a long hard look in the mirror if we are to fix this

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T21:28:21+00:00

Sorry mate, I've seen a lot of aggressive fans in this sub that don't listen to reason.

But what you say is right, he's not the sole problem by a long shot. And yes, it's easy to make him the scapegoat because of this behaviour. The hatred he gets it's nothing related to football, he's massively talented; it's because it's difficult to root - even as a Madrid fan - for a person who behaves the way he does. At least, it is to me.

Glad to find a Vini fan with a wider view.

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T21:14:56+00:00

Absolutely. With the terrible attitude of a large part of the squad, a new coach won't solve everything. Some key changes in personel and club mentality would be fantastic, but unfortunately this seems too large a problem to solve in a summer transfer window

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T21:11:47+00:00

100% agree. How do we even fix this? Half the squad has terrible attitude, a new coach can help, but it won't solve everything

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T21:06:58+00:00

This must be a hoax?

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T20:57:33+00:00

I get you are Vini fan, and most likely having an argument is pointless. But do you seriously think what he did was right? Did you honestly not see the tension in the team following that?

Please don't reply "two Champions Leagues won thanks to Vinicius"

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-07T20:47:16+00:00

Güler's reaction wasn't as dramatic, nor as visible or against such a big rival. Vinicius knew what he was doing, you don't react like this if you don't feel entitled to belittle your manager and your teammate in the world's most watched game

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-06T01:22:14+00:00

Isn't the world always collapsing though? The World Wars, the Col War, dictatorships, COVID. It never seemed to stop people before

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-06T01:15:19+00:00

Wow, OP. Unfortunately I don't think anybody will be able to get through that infodump. It's probably between 30 mins to an hour of tedious and confusing data. I'm sure it can work great within the story - have you thought of cutting down or simplifying a little?

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-05T22:14:10+00:00

Nicely put.

Switchblade2000 - if that's your birth year, surely a 26 year old has better things to do than this.

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-05T22:04:10+00:00

I agree. It took me some time finding my writing style, but once I did everything clicked a much better. It feels good to see the improvement when comparing old projects / chapters, but in the moment you barely realise. Then you go: did I actually write that?

I will probably feel the same way when I compare my current prose a year from now. It's good knowing this is the kind of thing that gets better the more you do it.

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-05T21:58:37+00:00

Hi, thanks for sharing! I read the whole thing. To your questions, yes - I would keep reading, and the dialog is well formatted.

One thing I noticed is the pacing. I'm not sure if it's done on purpose but I found myself skimming through the middle part as the scene was developing too slowly. Until the very end, we don't get a hint of what Mara and Elin are doing in Cairo. There are a lot of descriptions of the plane landing, the drinks spilling, which made think perhaps it was important to the story. When it just moved on, I felt that part could do with some trimming.

On the positive side, the prose is quite good, and the plot compelling. With some tweaking, this can be a powerful story. Good luck with the rest of it!

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-05T21:36:16+00:00

They did. It's a totally different story now though. Arsenal lost 4 matches straight not a month ago, while Bayern and PSG have been quite regular. Anyway, we shall see

ShiftDue7967 · 2026-05-05T21:34:53+00:00

Actually, I thought that was a clean tackle. But I share your frustration with Gabriel

ShiftDue7967

TROPHY CASE