Ponz
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Everything posted by Ponz
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Not a boyhood fan as far as I'm aware so that's an arbitrary distinction. The CL fixation is overblown in my view. No club is guaranteed more than 12 months of CL football at a time so a player considering a 4-5 year contract will look at the long-term ambition and direction of the club as the main determining factor. I don't believe Stewart Downing is the best calibre winger we can attract with stable and ambitious owners, the prospect of linking up with Gerrard and Suarez and being managed by Kenny Dalglish.
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Suarez?
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I can't imagine Nadal bursting into tears while Federer accepts a trophy or putting on a pompous Nike-themed outfit after an epic Wimbledon final. They're both tremendous athletes but Nadal exudes vastly more class as a person.
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Correct.
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70 point season since Kenny took over despite losing Torres, Gerrard barely playing and several youngsters throw in at the deep end. Can't ask for much more than that.
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John Lewis sell relatively complex luxury goods, which necessitates hiring skilled and trained employees with a stake in the business. Tesco are a bog standard retailer whose competitive advantage derives from price rather than quality. There's nothing sinister about the latter applying a very different business model to the former. As for Spain, their youth unemployment rate is so high because labour laws make it prohibitively expensive to hire graduates on permanent contracts (thereby protecting unionised incumbents).
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We were missing Gerrard, Meireles, Agger and Kelly (three of whom have been absent for most of Kenny's tenure). We've still outperformed both Spurs and City by 10 points since he took over. The squad does need significant strengthening but to say that we're along way from competing for the top 4 is a little defeatist, IMO.
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Disappointed to lose but happy to be fucking off the Europa league. Shit teams in shit countries on shit pitches on a shit night of the week for shit money. Enjoy it, Harry.
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I wish The Rock would buy some of our shares. Baconface: I think that Refereeing decision was... Rock: IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!!!
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Desperate news. He didn't win as many majors as others but belongs in the same bracket as Nicklaus and Palmer for impact on the sport. Wonderful and unique player and person.
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That applies to the whole developed world. However, we entered 2007/08 with the third largest structural deficit out of 28 OECD countries (behind only Hungary & Greece).
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History is irrelevant to the debate. On that logic, City finishing in mid-table could be labelled a great achievement for Mancini. Spurs have outspent us by £10m per season since 2006.
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We were in Europe until 6 weeks ago, have a vastly thinner squad than they do and had Roy fucking Hodgson as our manager for over half the season. Spurs fans should be mortified that we'll probably finish ahead of them.
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They came 5th in 05/06 and 06/07 (Villa came 16th and 11th respectively in those seasons). It only appears that he's worked miracles because Ramos provided him with an artificially low starting position in 08/09. They've had a top 6 squad and budget for at least the past 5 years.
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Spot on.
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Jobcentres 'tricking' people out of benefits to cut costs
Ponz replied to JER's topic in GF - General Forum
A quick Google search establishes that the UK has 8.6 million registered disabled people and 6 million ppeople claiming benefits. Thus, the above figures amount to 0.23% and 1.25% of the respective populations. That hardly supports the ruthless slash and burn campaign alledged by the Guardian. -
They didn't pay any of it with higher taxes. They borrowed and lumped the debt on future generations.
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I agree completely with this. What I find mystifying is that the left thinks the answer is bigger government and more regulation. Regulation is always co-opted by big business at the expense of entrepreneurs and society at large. The solution to crony capitalism is to establish a genuine free market (i.e no bailouts ever), not to create more incentives and opportunity for politicians and business to collude. Socialism and corporatocracy are synonyms, not antonyms.
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Giving it to Kenny mid-season would draw attention to their initial doubts about him. Waiting until the summer allows them to cite opposition to any permanent decision before then and pretend that they had confidence in Dalglish all along..
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You have the causation back to front. Our 04/05 success was a massive wake up call to United in terms of their expectations as well as their tactical approach to European games. Same is true of Arsenal in the first case but Wenger's failure to similarly adapt his tactics explains why they continually stumble at crucial moments. Again, Chelsea's record is poor relative to the money they've spent so the comparison is moot.
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The massive whoppers you produce whenever Rafa comes up never cease to amaze. How did the "superior financial stature" of the PL help him transform a squad including Biscan, Traore, Mellor, Pongolle, Smicer, Kewell, Baros and Cisse into European Cup winners? The total cost of our starting eleven in Istanbul (roughly £45 million) was less than 25% of Chelsea's net transfer spending in 03/04 and 04/05 alone (£207 million). Yes, we made some decent investments between 04/05 and the asset strippers' arrival but those merely built on the confidence and tactical superiority that Rafa had already instilled in our European campaigns. Rafa has major flaws as a manager but to suggest that his extraordinary achivements in Europe were somehow a "reflection of the times" is nothing short of insane. Why is it so hard for you to accept even the most self-evident points in his favour? One final in seven to show for £350 million net spend is pathetic. And their supposed trailblazing semi-final run in 2003 culminated in being turned over by relegation/bankruptcy threatened Monaco.
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His close control is as good as anyone in English football. I don't think he'll necessarily be a prolific goal scorer for us as he seems quite fond of dropping deep/wide but could well surpass Torres on total goals/assists. Appears to be that rare breed of top striker who thrives on parternships rather than viewing them as a nuisance.
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Rafael's was a blatant letter-of-the-law sending off that Dowd bottled. Carra's merely cancelled it out. Fuck them.
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Brilliant performance. Shame Arsenal are nailed on to bottle it as this United squad will be the worst ever to win the PL.