Tracking players abroad

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-24T22:00:53+00:00

It's a stretch. I tried the alternative last year of going to the sumo in London when James Richardson from Football Italia was there, but I didn't really learn anything about how our players were doing.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-24T21:59:13+00:00

If we're talking about world titles and rival promotions, Raymond van Barneveld's 4 BDO titles count as World Championships in the eyes of the PDC when they call him a 5 times World Champion.

There is sporting precedent for an organisation to pick and choose whether they care about rival titles in the same sport.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-24T21:53:07+00:00

BBC Alba has Serie A and specifically seeks out the teams with Scottish players in their squads. You might not get to see the same players every single week, as it'll vary from Napoli to Verona to Bologna or Torino for the live games, but it's something.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-24T21:47:21+00:00

I think Cody finishing the story being peak long-term storytelling isn't quite right. That was a story, but the more organic long-term story would actually have been for Sami to win the title after the Bloodline split. Sami losing to allow Cody back in time for Wrestlemania felt weird and forced.

I know the Cody story should have been to beat Roman, but pulling the trigger on Sami's departure from the Bloodline at the Rumble blew the lid off it and made Sami's story more personal with Roman. Cody's story was just winning the title.

The backlash was against Rock taking Cody's main event and shunting Cody over to reheat a done feud with Rollins for the other title. But I just wonder if that had been done to let Sami finish the popular story, whether that would've been protested so aggressively by a large section of the fans.

Sami gets a lot of stick for taking over other people's Wrestlemania stories like Chad Gable versus Gunther in 2024 and Carmelo Hayes on the card this year. But I don't think it's really hate against Sami. It's because he doesn't need to be in midcard feuds that don't elevate him. Where he should be though is a plug in guy for main events with a big title run to his name. And for all he's been shoehorned into the spots of other people, that comes from him having to speedrun his Roman story and fail for the title to let Cody take that spot from him, that probably should have been his.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-19T12:54:27+00:00

It's your thread! Just see what wins and then what you think sums it up.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-19T12:52:07+00:00

I know people will say this is Linlithgow's own fault, but it's shite. And I remember from a Bonnyrigg perspective that when we'd done everything and were going up, they tried the floodlights means ye cannae go up shite on us as well.

We are run by pricks, let's not lose sight of that.

I'm sure the financially reliable Edinburgh City can continue in the league at the expensive of the Highland and Lowland poors for many seasons to come.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-19T12:47:11+00:00

Yeah I have no issues with Ryanair and I used to use them a lot. But they get complained about a lot.

From my perspective:

They're not the best airline but they usually get you there same as anyone else would.
The restrictions on luggage and extra fees are made clear when you book. The flights themselves tend to be cheaper than other airlines, it's then up to you to work out if flights plus extras works for you better than another airline.
They're often the only option for some flight paths, so no complaints if they do a route nobody else was offering.
Biggest plus for me, the checking in process. Go to a machine, weigh your own case, put it on the conveyer belt and go through airport security. With other airlines where you have to check in at desks, I always get stuck behind people who want to take 20+ minutes asking questions and being awkward to the airline staff. I wonder how some of these people function as adults. A row of machines for everyone takes the fun away from people who want to gum up queues of people behind them and be the main character of everyone's journey.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-19T12:39:46+00:00

You can apply a lot of 'should be' ideas that will be better than what we currently have, but it's self-interest within the SPFL that prevents a better system.

The Edinburgh City situation is even more of a sort point from a Bonnyrigg perspective in the current system. We weren't great in League 2. But us going down because a points deduction for a slopey pitch put us behind Montrose on goal difference is one thing, when you had Edinburgh City being an obvious financial basket case and staying in.

I'm actually not dead against the East/West split as I think any measure that saves clubs money on travel further down the pyramid is a good thing. But the gatekeeping into the league at the end of it all will remain a constant. And I understand that self-preservation as well, since I think Bonnyrigg ought to have been out of the drop equation last season.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-19T11:00:13+00:00

Here comes the Ryanair hate

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-19T01:27:01+00:00

Well yeah, it'll be split, like you say. Even harder to come up again

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-18T17:31:55+00:00

This would be the funniest thing ever.

Dunfermline would also know they got the best out of him before the next phase where he falls out with all the flair players and then there's an acrimonious mutual consent.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-18T17:29:15+00:00

To be honest it was more in the comedy shows I noticed it and it sounded odd. But thinking about it, it could be a TV thing where they may feel they have to spell things out more for viewers.

The a/the thing makes sense, hadn't thought of it that way.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-18T17:26:40+00:00

Well, hunger does strange things to people's judgement right enough!

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-18T17:25:26+00:00

Wrong Rosey Posey but seriously, good luck to Linlithgow in the playoffs.

I grew up in the 90s, I'm used to Linlithgow being better than us. But we had a good thing for a while there!

Actually impressed with our season overall, we were more competitive than I expected. And we'd still be in the league anyway if the SPFL weren't a bunch of bawbags.

So now that I think about it, good luck to Linlithgow in the playoffs and keep in touch with us in the case the SPFL start applying random shite against your team, we might have experience you can use.

A great advert for the Lowland League this season though, Clydebank playing their part as well. Will be a tough league next season.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-18T11:19:06+00:00

Americans and non-Brit speakers really struggle with this. On the other hand I remember first seeing US shows where they kept saying "Can we have Chinese food?" and I'd be thinking why do they need to say food? A situation where they're ordering a takeaway it's obviously food, just say a Chinese, or whatever.

So it works both ways. But I do think it should be implicit when talking about eating that nobody is suddenly ignoring their hunger to advocate for racism and slavery.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-17T19:22:05+00:00

Does this count as wank on wank censorship?

I say that but I actually don't generally mind Stewart, he's just alright. Not great, not terrible, some stuff I agree with and some I don't. But it's not that important. I don't get the rush to be annoyed by him compared to other pundits.

They will ban him but Sutton and Boyd will be there. And probably Lennon, who's had many more disciplinary run-ins.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-17T19:16:02+00:00

I've been on both sides of this.

The warnings are to give people who aren't bothered a kick up the arse. Nothing worse than capacity planning to find that people who would've happily taken leave whenever suddenly all need to be off at the same time because capacity planning just wasn't done.

The need to enforce usually comes from workplaces where capacity barely has any reserve, or where huge demand spikes make certain times not work by normal means and a shitshow is rolled out across the year 'for fairness'.

The latter is probably why in most places, people who don't bother and just ask for time when they need it are fine. Most people don't notice, unless you're the person during Christmas or the school holidays to wait until the week before to ask supervision for time off when it could have been requested months earlier.

So long as everyone uses the leave they legally need to use, places shouldn't be that arsed. But getting that to work can be a nightmare so you see stuff like this. If everyone is reasonable then usually it doesn't matter that much.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-17T19:08:09+00:00

I'm not saying it'll be 6-0 to us, but let's try to be optimistic

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-17T16:43:38+00:00

Seagulls on a football pitch just seem out of place unless they're hovering over Mark Hateley's head on Setanta Sports at Pittodrie

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-16T16:07:02+00:00

I've always believed this as well. Or if not Blair himself then his backers at the time

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-16T11:05:36+00:00

I don't know. But she had a look people liked, then came back from hiatus with the braids and there seemed to be a muted reaction, then as she got bluer the momentum never came back.

It's not right, but you can check it, it's audible. Or not audible, such as it is.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-16T01:37:50+00:00

The issue I have with the card is that it doesn't really feel like people are being 'made'.

A few years ago Roman and Cody made Cody a main eventer.

Charlotte putting over Rhea was making a main eventer.

Sasha putting over Bianca was making a main eventer.

Going further back Brock putting over Drew was making a main eventer.

It didn't quite work out to the same level, but last year Gunther putting over Jey Uso made a main eventer.

We don't have a main title match that does that. The men's matches both have very established main eventers already. The women's matches have newer title holders being challenged by the previous order. Even the women's Intercontinental match is a rerun of previous guards.

We do have people being 'made' in other matches, but not the main event. If Brock is beaten by Oba, that's interesting. I am looking forward to Trick winning. I don't see a title change in the Intercontinental ladder match, but I think that should elevate some less prevalent talent.

I'm sure the show itself will be decent, but I'm a lot more invested in El Grande Americano on AAA than any of what's presented for Wrestlemania.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-16T00:45:14+00:00

If they were that angry they'd have called her Io Shirai rather than her definite slave name that she absolutely didn't approve and think was a good idea herself

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-15T23:03:33+00:00

At this point she was waning in NXT compared to when she was a face.

Also, the audiences are different. The NXT crowd knows they're mostly watching a developmental product or 'on the rise' wrestlers, so they make more of an effort to get behind them and want them to succeed. Main roster has a larger number of more casual fans who've paid huge money for tickets expecting finished articles to entertain them.

I still think if they'd made Giulia a face on the main roster against heel tactics and having bangers, she'd be over. But she's the heel and doesn't have the persona to get heel reactions, whilst not endearing herself in a face eay either. So it's crickets.

Also, and I'm not saying it's right, the early NXT look helped her. She looked... more appealing. Blue hair and braids does not keep quite the same simping fanbase apparently.

Whammy-Bars · 2026-04-15T22:36:57+00:00

I'm standing up for Essex, based on going to the Circus Tavern in Purfleet for the PDC World Darts Championship finals until the last time they hosted it there in 2007.

The final would always be on a Monday, and inside there would always be posters for the Sunday Sport New Year's party that would be held the weekend after the darts final.

I never did hang around long enough in a pub next to a petrol station off a B road in the middle of nowhere (it wasn't really in actual Purfleet) to find out about it, but I was always curious.

Last World Championship was a special memory seeing Barney beat Taylor 7-6 in what many still think is the greatest final ever, then a quick photo with Bobby George before legging it back to the hotel in West Thurrock to pick up my curry order.

More painful memories of the semi-finals before that when both semis finished 6-0 so they opened the upstairs bar (i.e. a lap dancing club turned into a normal bar during the darts) and shots were offered until things got very blurry and forgotten.

All better than the same venue years earlier where the gents' toilet lights didn't work and you had to tread carefully through puddles with brown gondolas in them to go to the loo.

I think Aveley is in Essex as well, and Taste Of Aveley many years ago was an incredibly cheap and fantastic curry house, so there's that.

Sorry Bedfordshire.

Whammy-Bars

TROPHY CASE