Nelson

20 hours ago, Chris2K said:

One time my research task was "make three Excellent throws in a row". It was binned shortly after I'd finished hysterically laughing.

You would have got a Larvitar from that!

On 20/07/2018 at 14:41, Adam es Tranquilo said:

Difference is he put that money in to save his local club from financial ruin and hasn't bankrolled them up the leagues since. They operate pretty modestly and hugely overachieved by winning promotion from League Two last season. They will still have one of the smallest budgets in League One this season regardless of Holt's personal wealth because he runs the club in a way where it can be sustainable whether he's there or not, which is the same thing Doncaster's very wealthy ownership team do and I wouldn't have it any other way because I have faith that when they leave, my club will still be able to function. If the Class of 92/Peter Lim got bored of their little Salford side project next week, that club that has existed for decades will be in big, big trouble.

The irony of Gary Neville trying to claim the owner of Accrington Stanley wants franchised football. Until ten years ago Salford had never ventured further than the North West Counties League, played in orange & black and bore no resemblance to the Man Utd tribute act they now are. I'm all for well off people helping their local clubs to survive and compete* but now they've got close to the promised land of the Football League they are chucking ridiculous amounts of money at it and I don't disagree with Andy Holt at all.

They are outspending the majority of the Scottish Premier League and buying players from League One clubs paying them more money in the process. That is not sustainable or fair to the competition, he waffled on to that Select Committee the other day about grassroots football but his actions at Salford belie that attitude. How will clubs like Bromley, Boreham Wood and Solihull feel rocking up to Salford for a league game this season and feeling like they may as well not bother because their opponents are playing with resources worth the rest of the division combined?

 

*Not to mention the Class of 92 have just picked the club nearest to Man Utd that had basically the least amount of history and structure with which to craft their vanity project. The Nevilles are lifelong Bury fans, Scholes the same with Oldham and Peter Lim as far as I can tell is just one of Gary's mates who happens to have billions in the bank.

Northern Premier League First Division North 😛

They went up one in 2004 when the Conference was re-structured.

You could say the same about Man City, Chelsea, Wolves and quite a few clubs in the Premier League and I'm sure there's a few in the Football League too that are bank rolled. The difference at Salford, they're not just investing millions into the playing squad. They've re-built the stadium pretty much from scratch, they spent a huge amount on the Academy '92, started multiple under age teams and I believe they're planning a women's team. Basically, they've spent their own money getting more local kids playing football but want the senior club at a decent level to give these kids something real to strive for. A lot of that determination for the kids would go if they were still playing in the 8th tier and if not and had the potential, they'd be snapped up by someone else.

10 minutes ago, MDK said:

FA Cup winners

No problem! Then win the Europa League the following season and then the Champions League the season after that whilst still being a non-League club.

So, how do we think Leyton Orient will do this season? 😉

34 minutes ago, Adam es Tranquilo said:

Because it creates a completely uneven playing field in the league, quite simply.

None of the Class of 92 gave the slightest of shits about Salford City FC before despite having all this money. I'm tired of seeing clubs come from nowhere purely because someone waltzes in one day and decides to chuck a load of money at it for a quick fix.

I'm clearly in the minority on here with this one so fair enough. I don't think the constant BBC wankfest over it has helped my opinion mind.

You're right, they probably didn't give a shit before. I don't think though it's just about the club. It's about creating something for the community and they have done that. The club is just the centrepiece of what they're doing.

13 hours ago, Adam es Tranquilo said:

Salford have signed Danny Lloyd from Peterborough. He scored 13 goals for them last season and is getting a pay rise. So just for anyone who was wondering why I do not want to see them succeed, this is why. They're spending money way over the normal amount for that division and I will never back clubs who try to buy success. Apparently they were paying Danny Webber over a grand a week when they were in the Northern Premier!

But they have the money though so why not? Why sign mediocre players and sit of a load of cash? They're spending a load on youth development with the Academy 92 but you're not going to get results from that instantly.

52 minutes ago, Baddar said:

TNS won the 2nd leg 4-0 last night. 😕

Damn, great effort!
I think they go down to the Europa League 2nd qualifying round now.

1 hour ago, Moses Julep said:

I would not like to be arrested for anything but I especially wouldn’t want to be arrested for something in Russia, like that’s a country where you’re on your best behaviour. 

I think for some England fans, punching a horse 3 times is their best behaviour.

That would explain it! But yeah, it still is!

Something I've been wondering recently as they've been showing the 1990 World Cup semi final against West Germany a lot recently is that the England fans were all waving Union Jack flags and that was the norm before that. It seems the there was a sudden switch to the St Georges Cross at Euro 96. Does anyone know why? Was it planned? I've heard it was because it was in England, but so was the 1966 World Cup and I've also heard it's because we were in the same group as Scotland but we played Scotland loads of times before that.

14 hours ago, Colombaddar said:

Celtic 3-0 up. Piece of piss. 

Good luck to TNS tonight. They're away at the Macedonian champions.

Unfortunately TNS went down 5-0.

I'm an isolated Pokemon Go player too so any legendary Pokemon I have are via research tasks so I have all the Gen 1 legendary ones including Mew, but not Mewtwo.

Anyway, my code is 9212 5860 5478

I guess this can go in here, Salford City vs Fleetwood Town in a pre-season friendly live on BT Sports tonight so if Brazil vs Belgium doesn't go into extra time, we can watch the 2nd half.

40 minutes ago, PanamAdam said:

I sincerely hope they get relegated, but it probably won't happen.

That's a bit harsh. I know they've put in a lot of money but they've also built the ground up and started Academy 92. Salford's growth has done a lot for kids in this area.

I'm just hoping they all get along and have a nice time.

21 minutes ago, DFF said:

How do we think Salford will do this year? 

I don't see any reason why they shouldn't at least be making the playoffs.

Opening day fixtures

Saturday, 4 August

Kick-offs 15:00 BST unless stated

• Salford City v Leyton Orient (12:30 BST on BT Sport)
• AFC Fylde v Bromley
• Aldershot Town v Barnet
• Barrow v Havant & Waterlooville
• Boreham Wood v Dagenham & Redbridge
• Braintree Town v FC Halifax Town
• Dover Athletic v Wrexham
• Eastleigh v Solihull Moors
• Ebbsfleet United v Chesterfield
• Harrogate Town v Sutton United
• Maidenhead United v Gateshead
• Maidstone United v Hartlepool United

In my Bangor City save, we played our last game at Nantporth before moving to our new stadium, The <my real name> Arena. After that game, I played "Leave the Memories Alone". 😢

1 minute ago, metalman said:

Agree with the Irish guy. I can’t stand English football fans. The obsession with the Second World War, the obsession with the Falklands War, the obsession with singing about the IRA, the dreadful tattoos, the tendency to “invade” local squares, the compete lack of respect or interest in the cities, cultures and countries that they “invade”, the big angry potato faces, the obsession with throwing furniture at people, the obsession with the empire, the songs about Brexit, the arrogance, the narcissism.

Fresh from taking part in the free Tommy Robinson rally in London, they popped over to Volgograd and did a few pro-maxi gestures, had the arrogance to decide that after beating two shit teams they better finish second because it makes it easier to get to the final so they can continue singing about wars and telling Europe to fuck off for a few games more.

This isn’t a British thing: this doesn’t happen at Scotland and Wales games. It’s an English thing.

I don’t have anything against the team. Southgate seems like a nice fellow. As do most of the players. But I’m looking forward to them shitting the bed against Colombia.

Over the last couple of months, we've started referring to these people as "gammons".

3 minutes ago, Liam Mk2 said:

There is no World Cup today.

What on earth do I do?

I think we all have to sit in a dark corner and wait.

Or watch season 2 of GLOW?!

11 hours ago, Official Collyombia said:

I doubled down my Argentina to win the tournament bet, got 20/1 before kick off. 

Is he wearing a watch on all 3 arms?

9 hours ago, Switzerlineker said:

They've released a patch.

Not sure what's been fixed yet.

Just an update to their privacy policy apparently to be compliant with GDPR, nothing more

23 minutes ago, Matt said:

Seems pretty dumb given that there's always a shit load of empty seats. So all those day trippers have to buy a membership first?

The empty seats in league games anyway are usual season ticket holders who don't make the match. There's well over 50,000 season ticket holders.

Yep! Usually they allow non-members to buy tickets for League Cup games and early rounds of the FA Cup although these tickets cost more than for members.

18 hours ago, Colombaddar said:

I'd imagine it'll be harder as it's opening day. You can become a member and then "apply" for 4 matches of your choosing, and hopefully get them that way - but that's not to say BOTH of you will get them. It's a tad annoying.

And more so if you want to sit next to each other. I remember when my mate and I used to go regularly and just to make sure we got tickets, sometimes we were in a different stand. Always spotted each other though and then commenced via sign language to call each other a "wanker".

He's no Rusev but...