Twist

Match is set up nicely for a Lauren James redemption arc.

Just now, stokeriño said:

England in this game thus far has triggered some dormant part of my brain which, in a standard no doubt set by the men's team over an aggregate of the past few decades, thinks "yep, this is what a typical England performance looks like".

It definitely feels like we're watching the Spain and England men's teams play in 2010 or thereabouts.

England's first touch in the opposition half has been really poor so far. Good number of times where a good first touch would open up a quick opportunity but they have to spend a few seconds recovering the ball and the gaps close up. Russo in particular has had a few poor touches.

That said, it's an okay performance so far just Spain have been the clear better team.

Frustrating to see Lucy Bronze make zero effort to get back and help cover the gaps created.

22 hours ago, Naitch said:

I absolutely agree that any permanent Hall departure needs to include a sell-on clause, I'm just not sure that selling him directly to a big money club who will most likely only get stronger, meaning he'll have to live up to his full potential for the move to be worthwhile (and certainly won't need to recoup his transfer fee if he does flop).

Livramento going to Southampton and then moving to a bigger club is a good example of what would seem to be more beneficial, to all parties involved really.

Regardless, keeping Hall to potentially fill gaps left by Cucurella and Gallagher next year (if they even last that long) would be my preference.

EDIT - Apparently Hall to Newcastle is confirmed as a loan with obligation to buy.

£30m+ for an 18 year old with the grand total of 9 PL appearances is already very good business even if a sell on clause is never activated. Especially given the club will likely be doing all they can to balance the books in the short term.

53 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

Grim

 

 

So the decision making process is 'can we get away with it?' as opposed to 'is it right to bring him back?'.

About right.

1 hour ago, FLiam said:

Jurrien Timber confirmed to have torn his ACL, likely to be out for season.

Absolutely gutted for him. 

Elsewhere, Manchester United are reportedly bringing Mason Greenwood back into the fold.

They've walked this back again but in their statement put a stress on prioritising the victim's opinions and feelings about his return. Which is absolutely right.

Pretty sure she's just had his child though so assuming she's fine him with returning to the fold. Not sure how the rest of the club might feel about it though, let alone the rest of the league and campaign groups.

It's coming home.

13 hours ago, Lineker said:

 

Congrats to Chelsea on their first signing of the 2025 summer transfer window.

7 hours ago, Skummy said:

There's a lot around the stats that I think has been historically misunderstood - in the early days of EWR I remember someone thinking that the "Speed" stat literally meant how fast a wrestler was, and there were countless arguments along the lines of "Kane just did a Hurracanrana, increase his Speed stat", because people were interpreting it in terms of a pretty narrow list of moves or characteristics, rather than "how good is this wrestler at performing in a speed-based match".

But then you're left to interpret what a "speed-based", "brawl-based" or "technical-based" match is, and, in TEW, when "brawling" becomes "hardcore", where "Puro" comes in, and where "flashiness" comes in - what does a wrestler with really good aerial skills but zero "flash" look like? Some of it is a lot more intuitive than others. One of the reasons I've never got on with GM Mode in WWE games is that a lot of these things are very narrowly defined and rigidly constrained - certain "styles" of wrestler work well together and others don't, and certain matches are only going to work for a certain style; but there's no reason two brawlers can't have a great Ladder match, it would just look very different to a ladder match between two high-flyers.

I think anything that moves away from just mimicking EWR/TEW's approach to stats is a good thing in terms of making other games stand out, and offer something different. I'm not sure if the balance is right here - perhaps Wrestling Skill, Entertainment and Psychology are a little too broad, and Agenting being a skill in its own right feels unnecessary, and also a bit of a cheat code in a way; I'd rather have to take a gamble on whether someone's likely to be a good agent based on the balance of their other stats, and it's unlikely that someone with a really strong grasp of Psychology and Skill could also have low stats as an Agent, in my opinion.

To the list of stats above, I would maybe consider breaking out "Entertainment" into some sub-categories, though that might be broken down elsewhere. I'd want Consistency added, and I've been arguing for a while that TEW should have a Creativity stat, so would like that included here as well. 

 

I've not seen enough from this game yet to make me want to play it, and I think it is still maybe using the language of EWR and TEW a little too much to feel like it has enough of its own identity to stand out for me, but I'm keeping an eye on it all the same.

With regard to 'agenting', the way the game is set up you don't select an agent for each match (at least that I've seen, I might have missed it but I don't think I have).

Instead you hire workers as 'Staff' and their agenting skill contributes to the backstage morale in the company. So you'll get a boost for having staff members with high agenting skill.

23 minutes ago, Lineker said:

 

I didn't clock which newspaper that was at the top of article and by the end thought to myself 'sounds like a Rupert Murdoch kind of dickhead'.

Picked up by ESPN and others now. He hasn't travelled to SF and the Rays are investigating.

26 minutes ago, FLiam said:

Kylian Mbappé is expected to sign a new contract at PSG until 2025. 

I assume that'll have release fee in for next summer.

I've bought it and it's a fun little game. Scenarios on Workshop are limited at the moment but enjoyable none the less. Been playing as AWA in the 88 mod and it's been fun.

Harry Kane going to be rocking Bayern's version of the old Arsenal away kit today.

We are top of the league, I said we are top the league!

Got to take these moments while you can 😆

6 minutes ago, damhausen said:

Going to be very, very hard to keep this kind of play up when there's the midweek Champions League fixtures and potentially deep Cup runs. Squad depth doesn't feel like it's completely there yet, but this is a fantastic performance.

Lack of centre back cover will make me nervous if we don't get anyone in. Two injuries and you've got Jamal Lascelles starting.

Beautiful Italian man.

2 hours ago, FestiveJack said:

Supercups don't count.

They do today.

2 hours ago, Malenko said:

I don't know if it's true because I haven't seen an official announcement but apparently, according to a German newspaper, he's on the squad facing RB Leipzig for the German supercup later today?

Kane winning a trophy within 24 hours of leaving Spurs sounds about right.

If England go through the atmosphere for the semi final is going to be wild.

1 hour ago, King Ellis said:

Looking forward to the social media announcements being like

 

Having now watched the actual Kane announcement video I'm so disappointed it wasn't a video of wrestling Kane with Harry Kane's face chokeslamming people with various clubs badges over their faces.

Australia knock out France!

Surely Bayern aren't pushing this hard, for this long unless they have assurances from the player he'll join?

Saw a few quotes on the BBC from the Newcastle documentary starting tomorrow and I suspect I won't be able to watch it. Dismissive of human rights issues, etc.