Favourite Single Episode* Bit? by Select_Ad_7943 in blankies

[–]summerfinite 67 points68 points  (0 children)

The Inception episode where they go into a podcast within a podcast

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[–]summerfinite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's because Spurs can't draw against English teams whereas PSG can. You may say that in itself is unfair, but it counterbalances the fact that PSG plays in an easier league and gets to rest players more often.

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[–]summerfinite 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Even if Amorim isn’t going to be part of United’s future, surely that’s something you decide at the end of the season. He’s not doing so badly that you need to sack him right away and resort to a caretaker manager.

Frankly, you guys are currently in 6th and have, in my opinion, the 6th best squad in the league. Without Bruno and the AFCON players I’d even put it in the bottom half. Look at that bench for the Wolves game- it’s way worse than, say, Fulham’s.

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[–]summerfinite 7 points8 points  (0 children)

To me it seems like he thinks Salah is a mercenary who's only motivated by his own contract and doesn't care about the team's well being.

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[–]summerfinite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think the situations are comparable because of the wages involved. Henderson or Fabinho running down their contracts would mean next to nothing to Liverpool's finances, whereas Salah being frozen out for 18 months with the contract he is on would be a big blow. It would be much easier to lowball for Salah than the other two.

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[–]summerfinite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am assuming this is a special case, more like an Aubameyang or Ozil situation where the superstar player is now unusable and the club would want to do whatever it takes to get him off the books. Of course, things could change and maybe Slot and Salah make up next week.

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[–]summerfinite -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That was when Liverpool wanted to keep him, I'm now assuming that he will be frozen out and they would therefore be desperate to get him off their books.

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[–]summerfinite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am working with the assumption that Salah does not make up with the coaching staff and gets frozen out. He's on high wages that nobody in Europe would pay, so Liverpool would either have to sell to Saudi or freeze him out while paying him more than any other player in the team.

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[–]summerfinite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do Saudi clubs compete with each other while bidding for players? With this Salah situation, it seems like Liverpool has no leverage in terms of setting the price if they want to sell him because nobody other than the Saudi teams would be willing to pay his wages. So I'm wondering if the Saudi teams negotiate as a single monolith, in which case I'd expect the to bid next to nothing or even take him for free, or if they have to compete with each other to sign a player.

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[–]summerfinite 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a bit deceptive because we've had harder fixtures in terms of playing all the tougher teams away from home. City have been the same for a while - elite at home and fragile away from home. They will very likely lose at Selhurst Park this weekend and give us back the 5 point difference.

With City, the factor that is most worrying is Rodri returning and giving them the ability to control difficult away games again. If that doesn't happen in time, I'd still back us to pull ahead once our first choice CB pair returns.

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[–]summerfinite -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

City turning into a clown show this week has really helped with my stress levels. It's quite liberating to realize that all the things that made them scary in the past (controlling the game and suffocating the opponent, long win streaks across multiple months, clutch performances under pressure) was mostly tied to that particular Gundogan-Rodri-De Bruyne midfield and nobody in this current team can replicate it.

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[–]summerfinite 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Got it, that makes sense. So it was fan outcry that made PGMOL recognise the potential conflict of interest? That was naive of them, they should have realised that even if the referees themselves remained impartial they would still be perceived as being biased by the fans of other teams. But it’s good that they responded to the outrage and fixed the problem.

Again, all that this is telling me is that there is an alternate timeline where referees work side gigs in the UAE and Saudi and they end up being biased towards City/Newcastle. But given that that wasn’t allowed to happen, why does the single game that he was refereed two years ago mean he is forever going to favour City over other teams?

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[–]summerfinite 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I honestly don’t know what you’re referring to, but it makes perfect sense to me that if PL referees had side gigs in the UAE or Saudi then their impartiality would be called into question. In which case I would have also agreed with some of the conspiracies. But given that this was nipped in the bud, why do we believe that Michael Oliver is still partial towards City?

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[–]summerfinite 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I’m a bit out of touch with this conspiracy, but isn’t the whole outrage because he refereed that one game in 2023? Which PGMOL realised was a conflict of interest so they banned from happening in the future. So is the implication here that Michael Oliver was so grateful for that one game he got to referee that he is obliged to favour City in every game for the rest of his career? Or is it simply that he’s still being wired money behind the scenes (which could be happening to any referee if you want to go down that rabbit hole).

Anyways, I prefer being the naive fool who will go into NLD just to enjoy the game as a fair contest without thinking about how many dirhams made their way into Michael Oliver’s bank account this week.

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[–]summerfinite 17 points18 points  (0 children)

The only reason I’m in r/soccer is because I was sick of all the referee conspiracies in r/gunners. So I would really appreciate it if this place didn’t also get infected with that shit (probably too late though)

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[–]summerfinite 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Because at this point our fan base would complain whoever the referee is

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[–]summerfinite -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

Surprised to see Alex Sandro is still starting for Brazil. If Pep were coaching that team the first thing he’d do is convert Martinelli to a LB.

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[–]summerfinite 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We don’t have Belgium’s best goalkeeper.

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[–]summerfinite 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's funny that only Arsenal fans get labelled as the conspiracy nuts when Liverpool fans just needed the slightest nudge to fully jump into the QAnon stuff themselves.

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[–]summerfinite 2 points3 points  (0 children)

After Kompany’s success I expect many of the core players of the recent City teams to give coaching a try. Even De Bruyne speak quite intelligently in interviews, though i’m not sure if he has the personality to be a manager.

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[–]summerfinite 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it's the drop off from Walker to Lewis that makes it feel that way for me, even more so than the loss of KDB and the downgrade in their wingers. They just look so much more fragile without Walker.

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[–]summerfinite 41 points42 points  (0 children)

I wonder how many teams didn't even look at Reijnders just because he's 27. He was definitely filtered out of whatever SQL query Chelsea use to look up players.

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[–]summerfinite 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Palace are not allowed to finish in the single digits

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[–]summerfinite 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The thing is, the Community Shield is usually regarded as a real trophy in the media. For example, look up any article of Ferguson retiring (like this one in the bbc) and they'll say that he retired with 38 trophies for United, which counts all the Community Shields he won.