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polpolpol

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  1. The prom queen sash on their shirts is endlessly amusing.
  2. polpolpol

    Athletico Mince

    Bob is great. What I think makes him great is that sense of anger that underpins much of what he does. All too often anger in comedy manifests as a trite assault on some political figurehead (c.f. every panel show on tv). However, with Bob the attack isn't against the symptom (the political) but the ground of the genesis of these symptoms - the societies in which they flourish. Underneath his work you find a constant despair at the pettiness, vanity, and avarice that plagues the human condition. The psychoanalyst Lacan called this standpoint the discourse of analyst, the ability to see beyond the system by which ephemeral meaning is created and assigned by society. Occupying the position of the analyst is characterised by a cruel, cynical type of humour that often borders on condescension, and a sort of disdain for the desires of others (the structure of which the analyst has some insight into, though they remain opaque for others), whenever they are made explicit. I think you can see this in a lot of Bob’s work, and particularly in Mince.
  3. If you scroll down a bit you find irrefusable bargains like these slightly soiled gems: https://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/2015-16-newcastle-staff-worn-training-shirt-excellent-322749.html We seem to be the only club that has dumped so many of its own used items on the resale market (I guess most clubs give stuff like this away).
  4. Sorry if old news - an example of classic Ashley penny pinching, selling-off all these old (used) player and coach kits. https://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/premiership-clubs/newcastle.html?limit=100&p=3
  5. 'Over' on Saudi booking points. Let's hope Russian hackers have influenced the ref.
  6. Skybet picked the wrong the games for the Soccer Sturday price boosts today - must have lost a lot.
  7. http://www.atimes.com/article/china-cools-foreign-football-investments/ "China cools on foreign football investments Country's foreign exchange head is latest to question Chinese acquisitions of mainly European football clubs, suggests they are a cover for moving assets out."
  8. Two interesting offers at William Hill: Leverkusen And Leipzig Both To Win And All 4 Teams To Score - Was 17/1 now 20/1 Money Back Treble - Burnley v Man Utd , Arsenal v M City And Lpool v Crystal Palace 9/1 10+ Goals, 35+ Corners And 14+ Cards - 90 Minutes Only MIN 10 GBP STAKE to qualify for free bet promo. All 3 correct = winner. Any two correct = 20 GBP free bet. Any one correct = 10 GBP free
  9. Monaco & Leicester & Madrid treble, dem odds...
  10. There are some interesting prices on 'over' goals in the Juve-Bayern game; I'm sure Juventus will try and keep it tight, but whether they can do that against Munich is another thing entirely.
  11. He clearly believes what he's saying in the interview - the words and the body language are perfectly synchronized, and that's not something you could be quickly trained to do. Looking up when he's remembering; when he's talking about finances he's pushing his hands forward; nodding nodding nodding about winning something. There's even something of a proud smirk on his face when he's obviously fantasizing about actually winning something and being vindicated, and again when he mentions the Champions League. At the end he's indicating distance when he says he won't appoint the manager. Of course, he could be totally deluded to a level where he even cons himself ...
  12. Gone for over on goals at both full time and half time in the Bundesliga games today, anticipating end of season madness.
  13. http://i61.tinypic.com/24xgyyp.jpg
  14. Hooray - the voice of reason. Honestly, the utter negativity on this board worries me. Posters wanting us to get relegated? Like the WTF. No deal at all. How is it possible to be this f***ing thick? You want to stay in the PL achieving nothing whatsoever for the next 30 years? We'll lets get relegated then - it will fix all of our problems in a heartbeat. No one's said that and continuing to frame the issue in such a way is ridiculous. If you accept that Ashley's primary, almost sole motivation as NUFC owner is profit maximization (because that should be clear to everyone by this point), it logically follows that he would have less interest in holding on to a club that's failing to earn him money. Relegation would undoubtedly put a major dent in his pocketbook: the disparity in wealth between the PL and Championship is ridiculous. Of course it could backfire and we could "do a Leeds" (which is really not a legitimate reason to be worried about relegation considering the completely different circumstances surrounding Leeds and today's Newcastle). But holding fast where we are, ambition-less and content to simply exist as a PL team and nothing more, is clearly not ever going to force Ashley to reconsider his ownership of the club. Can't speak for others, but I have trouble accepting that tbh. The only thing I feel I know about Ashley is that he will categorically not be putting any more of his own money into the club and has been running it solely on that aim since his first year (not even sure he gives a toss about the piddling profits we now make). Getting relegated won't hurt him much personally or in the pocket, it'll just knock the club back into more cost cutting. If he's not motivated by maximizing profit and he's not motivated by competing, why the hell does he even bother owning the club? Why the hell would anyone bother owning a football club if not for one of those reasons? He bought it for fun. Fun stopped. As long as it doesn't cost him anything (which it wont bar a potential sale value drop), and nobody is willing to take it off his hands, he can just sit back and use it to flog SD for nothing. I'm more hopeful that he starts getting some enjoyment from it again than I am of him getting upset by things like relegation hurting paltry profits and fucking off. And that hope is negligible at best. This is the nut, what does Ashley want with the club? If it isn't for fun anymore, why is he attending the games? He's a billionaire, it is not as if he only goes because he bought the season ticket and doesn't want to waste it - Jesus, the mind boggles at all the things you could do on a Saturday afternoon with unlimited cash that would be better than watching turgid football – it's clearly time that is his limited resource, not money... so, why spend it to go and watch a business break even? Here are three things which I'm pretty sure are true about Ashley (though I don't have the inclination to dig out the exact quotes): 1. Ashley loves football, and is long-time fan of the game. He thinks he is something of an expert. (I think this came up when he bought the club) 2. Ashley loves to apply an insurgent business model, and has a history of doing things his own way rather than following industry conventions. 3. Ashley has a fairly active role in the club. He likes to get involved behind the scenes. (I think this came up around the time of Houghton's sacking). Take these three things and his frequent attendance at the games, which shows a libidinal investment in the club, and it becomes clear that he's basically playing Football-Manger-at-a-distance. However, what he's done is come up within his own rules of the game, so he no longer has the same objectives (winning things) that most people would have. Instead, the 'fun' he gets from the club operating/remaining within three parameters: Don't invest/lose any money Don't get relegated Don't do things according to the 'old boys rules' None of these limit conditions can really be surpassed by traditional forms of protest – the TV money takes away the fiscal levers, waiting for relegation isn't a strategy, and the third, highlighting his operating against convention, this is the most dangerous. Why? Because opposition and conflict acts as a intensifier for Ashley; what gets him hard is the idea that he's doing it his way and winning (according to his criteria), in this case despite the fans, or the experts in the press or in 'the game' saying he's wrong, that he needs to go to a traditional model. This leaves quite a tricky problem because beyond the fact that he can't be forced out, the harder people push in a certain direction, the more fun it is for him: laughing at the bedsheets and the hysterical fans; the horse-punching plebs; all of the ex-pros saying it isn't done like that; journalists up in loquacious arms about an institution whose spirit ebbs away. His libidinal position is that he is still playing 'the game' of running the club and loving it, just at a distance from the city. What needs to be done is to break that spell and to at least make it boring for him, and to preferably make it embarrassing for him. [1] Maxim: Ashley = Mediocrity. His regime isn't the end of the world, its just pathetic. A really bad attempt. Liken him to a little boy playing with toy soldiers and pretending he's a great general. Infantilise his neediness. [2] Strip away all pretence that Ashley isn't direct responsible for all decisions made at the club. Attribute agency to him regarding everything that happens. Not to lay blame with Carver, the players, Lee Charnley . . . none of the placeholders he's appointed. Every failure, every defeat is finally his fault, and to ridicule him because of it. [3] Change the dynamic from Fans Vs Ashley to Fans exposing Ashley. Don't pull the other end of the rope and make it a contest, just see him for what he is. A wierdo running a mediocre football club as a strange ego-trip. Laugh at him, shame him, emphasis the shabbiness of the whole set-up. Tl;dr: Pathos: Ashley as a figure of fun rather than a Machiavellian mastermind.
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