Rousseau

The World Cup is almost here!

 

 

Here are our first set of fixtures:

 

Russia vs Saudi Arabia (Group A) 

Egypt vs Uruguay (Group A) 

 

Morocco vs Iran (Group B)

Portugal vs Spain (Group B) 

 

France vs Australia (Group C)

Peru vs Denmark (Group C)

 

Argentina vs Iceland (Group D) 

Croatia vs Nigeria (Group D)

Costa Rica vs Serbia (Group E)

Brazil vs Switzerland (Group E)

 

Germany vs Mexico (Group F)

Sweden vs South Korea (Group F)

 

Belgium vs Panama (Group G)

Tunisia vs England (Group G)

 

Colombia vs Japan (Group H)

Poland vs Senegal (Group H)

 

Remember to highlight which one of these matches you would like to apply your Joker card to, with "joker" next to it, or a "*". 

There was a story in one of them (don't care enough to find out) about McGregor reacting to being given a green ball by a referee.

 

This humorous clip had been doing the rounds on Twitter the day before.

 

How is that journalism?

13 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

No bother. Some hardened soul like me or ian will C&P the article soon enough, to spare you the trouble and the DR, Sun et al some clicks ...

6 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

If you move your cursor over the link, it will tell you: Scottish Sun.

That's what I did. 

 

I was on my way to clicking when I saw the where it went. 

 

I then gave a quick shudder and moved my cursor away. 

4 minutes ago, buster. said:

Rousseau on a Monday morning with Ted's savoury sausages.

 

This post will self destruct in 15 minutes..................

I almost clicked them before I realised where they went...

 

Perhaps make it clear, @RTB2004, what your source is -- I don't want to click on an unsavoury links... 

19 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

That’s it, my dummy is ooot the pram

 

20 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

 

 

36 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

Aaaaaaaarghhh my gif won’t paste

 

36 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

 

Right-click > Copy image address > paste (as plain text).

 

Simples. 

 

1 hour ago, Unicorn said:

Frankly, my dear, I don’t gif a damn.

Just when you get your hopes up... 

12 minutes ago, trublusince1982 said:

YouTube vids he seems to be playing DM more than CB

Transfermarkt has him playing CB and DM equally. 

 

At least he can pass!

 

A physical presence with passing ability is what we need!

1 hour ago, ranger_syntax said:

 

 

You have to up your game. It can't just be a random dancing guy, you have to slip in an apt cultural reference.

 

 

6ft 4 1/2... 

 

@Tannochsidebear beat me to it -- Who's Ant Middleton? I've seen his book mentioned on Twitter, but I'm like...

 

 

 

3 minutes ago, buster. said:

Rumours from an influential and futuristic right-wing think-tank suggest there are moves to put a tax on the excessive use of unacceptable GIFs.

That sounds Left-wing, to me... 

Theoretically, exploring the Scandinavian leagues has always sounded appealing. 

 

Then again, I'm still burned from Karl Svensson...  

14 hours ago, ranger_syntax said:

Performance related pay: 

 

25 mile radius to discourage players from signing:

 

When every post of R_S' now includes gifs...

 

25 minutes ago, craig said:

I agree.  But if we can bring in some high quality loans to help improve our starting XI then I am for it, at least short term.  As long as we don't have massive loan fees like Celtic did with Musonda.

But Real Madrid wanted him...  

I like this concept. 

 

I wonder how far it'll go?

47 minutes ago, craig said:

No, he is 16.  He signed for Chelsea on his 16th birthday last year.  I read an interview with him where he said training with Fabregas was like a dream come true as he tries to model himself on Fabregas.

Ah, right. 

 

I based my opinion -- that Gerrard wouldn't have made a difference in him staying -- on the assumption that he wouldn't have been ready for first-team football, or even training with the first-team.

 

I'm still not sure Gerrard's appointment would've made a difference. Do you?

 

(I don't think he made a wrong decision in moving: it's a step forward for the lad.)

26 minutes ago, craig said:

I highly doubt that is true.  Gilmour had already been training with the first team under Caixinha and has already been training with the Chelsea first team - why would we think that under Gerrard he wouldn't be training with the first team ?

 

As for him leaving for the money - that was a sizeable part of the equation, but it wasn't the only part.  Have it on good authority that he was very much struggling with his decision and that this was at a time when he already knew what was on offer at Chelsea.

Was he? I didn't know that. I thought he was still too young. 

5 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

I might try this.

51 minutes ago, TheUKCrazyhorse said:

Easy to say with hindsight, but I can't help wondering if Stevie G had been in charge when Gilmour was here - instead of Caixinha - if his presence would've been enough to persuade Billy to stay here.

He went for the money. I doubt Steven Gerrard's presence would've made any difference. He wouldn't have been working with him for a few years anyway. 

I'm hopeful. His leadership ability is well-known, and will be a big thing for us, in terms of group unity and drive.

 

I never thought he was ever tactically astute per se as a player; the changing of a game was always based on his leadership, doing something extraordinary -- we can't rely on our group of players doing something extraordinary to turn a game! However, he may have an appreciation of what the team needs. I do think if Gerrard was in charge in that last Old Firm game when we were a man up, he'd have changed things to take advantage of that. 

 

In fact, @ian1964's video post the other day had a discussion on just that scenario for the U18s, when twice his team were down to 10-men (against Man Utd), he manged to get his team in front in the first game, with Man Utd only equalising in the last minute, then winning the second game. Twice down to 10-men, twice, and not only not capitulating, but turning it around. 

 

Another thing from that video was that Gerrard was apparently missing that 'winning', competitive element with the U18s. With the youths it's sometimes more about the performance aspect -- which he did well with, I believe, playing decent football -- than with winning -- quite rightly, I suppose. But, that winning mentality is one thing we can be very excited about. It's something we've been lacking. 

 

The backroom staff is my main cause for optimism. He's brought in all the pieces of the puzzle that he lacks. The tactical, technical, performance elements, and Gary Mc for experience. 

 

We've also taken away the transfer bureaucracy, with the DoF, allowing all of these coaches and Gerrard himself to focus entirely on what they are good at. 

1 hour ago, Ser Barristan Selmy said:

Will it be a topic for each game? I don't think that will work. Probably best doing one topic for all of the group games.

I'll be releasing the fixtures for each match day, where every team plays once. I think it'll take a week to get through the first set of fixtures?

 

I think you suggested that 2 years ago when we did the the Euro 2016 prediction league. 

33 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

Having a thread mixed with rumours and signings will only result in cluttering up threads, IMO , best to keep the rumours & signings separate! but then what do I no? best let the high heid yins decide!

I actually agree; a separate thread for deals would allow us the space to discuss it.