Aw Tim Henman. He's part of all that is great in UK sport. Nearly good enough so seen as a humble loser. It's also why Hamilton isn't liked so much. He has the arrogance of a born winner.
I can't work out how some people are predicting a thrashing by a team that is a mere 9 points above us, a gap that would have surely been less (or even non-existent) had Silva been any sort of decent human being/had Gracia been appointed sooner. All things taken into account (our better players coming back from injury, our new brand of defence-aware football, Arsenals flaws as both a football team and as a football club plus their distraction of European football) I'm confident that if there's a thrashing to be handed out, we won't be on the wrong end of it.
In order to avoid taking about football... this had me thinking about the Johnny 7 toy gun that was the 'must have' Xmas present in, I guess, about 1968. What was the toy craze that defined your childhood?
In my experience only spoilt posh kids got a Johnny 7. But to answer your question, definitely Scalextric.
Indeed. Had it not been for those 2 stupid, stupid last minute capitulations against Swansea and Palace, which I would put my house on us seeing out with Gracia in charge, we would be playing to go level on points.
Yeah, I never got a Johnny 7. Nor did Kevin in the Undertones song. Did have Scalextric though. (Still got a set in the loft)
Because back in the 60's, 70's and 80's West Ham played scintillating football that entertained the country, whilst Burnley were knocking around the lower leagues. That difference in footballing pedigree should have been the crucial factor when these two teams met in 2018, and the fact that it wasn't is a proper eyebrow raiser.
Yep. Fine with a thread naturally meandering off course but bored of all this "look at us, we're so zany we'll talk about anything other than the match" ********. Put it in another section of the forum.
You'd like that wouldn't you? It's the way it is here, it if it wasn't the way it was then it wouldn't be the way it is! Couldn't think of anything more boring than a forum taking itself too seriously and a moderator saying "look guys, I know we all love a chat but let's really focus on the game here"
Thanks, Lawro. Burnley were Champions in the 60s while West Ham have never even finished as high as we have.
Not sure you've understood my point old bean. I've no problem with threads going off on an interesting (or even not that interesting) tangent when it just happens in the course of a discussion. I don't like the forced nature of the "Name something blah blah blah..." which just results in a list of posts. Still, the forum is nothing if not democratic so if people like it, I can't wait to see what mundanity we come up with next week. What you will see less of though, is some of the people that make interesting points about the football posting less as it's just lost in a sea of nonsense.
Yes, to this degree, but we've never been a 'list team and scoreline' forum, because we are hopefully self aware enough to think 'why should anybody give a monkey's what I think the line up should/will be?' Unlike most other inferior forums.
Pre-match it is all empty speculation, so so what? Post/during match is football focused. As it should be.
Think I agree. No offence to who started it but I take more interest when a thread naturally develops and seems to allow for more discussion of the actual football as well Everyone listing their most favouritist sports person in a forced way wasn’t that interesting. And results in lists that are as interesting as other forums listing starting 11s. Maybe it’s just that particular topic. And feels forced in a kind of zany bring a root vegetable to an away game kind of way. But it is the way it is
I don't think the only choice is between posting boring line up/score predictions or random non-football stuff, is it? Don't you think lists of favourite holiday destinations are equally dull? Can we not just do football chat on a football thread and, if people want to talk about their favourite cars or misty-eyed memories of their time at the grammar school, they start a thread in the many non-football bits of the forum?
I can't be bothered to check whether this is true as it's only Burnley. What matters is our perception of the respective club's success and pedigree, and that is undeniably firmly in West Ham's favour.
Not often I disagree with you, or Steve Leo for that matter, but while you acknowledge predicting line ups and results is boring for a pre match thread, how else are you going to essentially keep said thread on track? What else is to discuss before kick off in a purely football matchday thread? That all said, the OPs aren't a patch on what they have been (although presumably you didn't like the local architecture feature either, being non football). I agree there is a correlation between poorer OPs and the subsequent guff.
Hearing reports that Troy has asked for a wheelbarrow to be kept pitch side for his celebration if he scores today.
What is the situation with Europa league spots again? I’ve got a few Arsenal supporting mates and none of them want to be in the Europa league again. I’ve got a feeling that 7th will qualify? So either way they’ll have a big job to NOT qualify for it again. Obviously they want to win it to get CL, but if they don’t hopefully they plan to be that bad in the league that they don’t qualify.
The mix is a good thing though! Okay it might be over egged occasionally but I think it actually adds to the discussion
I obviously didn't care enough to talk about this before others did, so that should give a bit of a hint about how strongly I (don't) feel about this. But others have given an opinion and I just wanted to agree with them. It's all about personal taste I guess. I thought the long-winded super-serious match preview posts were boring, so rarely ever read them. The piss takey ones are much better. The architecture thing is sometimes funny and never dominates the thread that follows, so I've no fuss with that. As for 'what else is to discuss before kick off in a purely football matchday thread' - don't ask me, just look back at the many over the last few seasons. If some of those went off topic it clearly wasn't enough to make me notice it. But this very recent trend is taking over everything. It's probably just because people are bored with the season petering out into nothing again. We're playing largely the same teams every season with nothing at stake, I suppose it'll just carry on.
Two match day threads then! One for the crazies and one slightly more refined and sensible thread, just agree to keep each thread to its own style. I quite like the off-topic meandering, if it’s above my head or I’m not interested, I’ll ignore it. Same goes for if I’m not interested in reading a particular football post. I think the two can exist in one thread. I often enjoy the opening posts that poke fun at the opposition and are sometimes padded out with blatant untruths! So this morning I’m still feeling quietly confident of our chances. Maybe it’s due to our recent results against them and that Arsenal seem more beatable than on previous meetings but it’s still not going to be easy so our team will have to be on top of their game. We’ll need to start strong and get the Arsenal fans on their back.
It's been going on for yonks. Socks was at the beginning of the season and I seem to remember tangential being our matchday modus operandi when I first joined this forum in Sept. 2014. However, I'd agree that the most interesting side topics are those that develop naturally (like the guns/toys ones that have just come out of Elton's choice of t-shirts and weaponry) as opposed to favourite sports/sportspeople which is somewhat contrived and does indeed run the danger of providing material which is equally as boring as endless speculation on team lists and formations. GoBE is right though. All the tangential stuff is simply a bit of pre-match entertainment. The post-match stuff is all about match analysis and where we went right or wrong. On the quality of o.ps. Why don't we simply all chip in so we can pay Clive to do them all? I've heard he's prepared to work for the minimum wage.
