rocket_scientist

I've never used either Ladrokes or Willie Hills online for many years, mainly cos their odds weren't competitive. The only times we get suspensions in the cash out option normally is when something material is happening in the game e.g. penalty, dangerous free kick, possible red card etc. I've noticed after 42.5 minutes the cash out disappears on bets with HT/FT and I think in the last minute or so of matches.

Correct. I can't get my head around how anybody with even a quarter of a brain could argue otherwise. Of course I try, to understand how their pathetic critical thinking capacity got so warped and I even try to imagine the motivations of the people planting such misinformation to any thick gullible cunt. The only argument I can come up with is this; If you cash out for £100 instead of waiting for £150 and invest that £100 on the outcome of the in-play market, you won't get back £150. Obviously. Say you have 2 legs of a treble up and the third is 2-1 up in a tight match with 20 minutes to go. Your £20 stake might be worth £100 cash out now but if you cash out and invest £100 now, in-play, you'll only get £130 or £133 (if the odds were 3/10 or 1/3). But that's not even relevant either. It's not about current odds of an in-play speculation. It's only about cashing in a past speculation for profit rather than risking the loss. That judgement rests purely with the punter, although I've never heard of suspended cash-outs, certainly not on the websites I use the most.

A guy in our local cashed out a £5 sixfold tonight for £517.26. If he had not, he would've lost a fiver as MK Dons conceded in the 94th minute. Remind me how the cash out function favours the bookies?

Just an observation from the outside; You keep on posting about the limitations of the manager, 100% correctly and yet you sing "one Derek McInnes" on the terraces? This paradox doesn't square with me. What the fuck is the position of the AFC support?

Not sure I understand your post KFP? Nobody in their right mind gives a fuck about what others on a fitba forum think of them, including me who's never been of a "right mind", as determined and defined by the pack. It's good to mix eggs with cashew nuts marinated in lime. Not enough are prepared to try. Being of (a very) simple mind, I just want to know what the plan is? I have no fucking idea when it comes to AFC, an institution I once loved and spilt blood for.

Now that the league is over after two games (rather than 7 last season), what are your hopes and dreams?

These are the opening lyrics to Chequeless Reckless; A sell-out is someone who becomes a hypocrite in the name of money An idiot is someone who lets their education do all of their thinking A phony is someone who demands respect for the principles they effect A dilettante is someone who can't tell the difference between fashion and style Charisma is exquisite manipulation And money is a sandpit of the soul That should guarantee that the majority won't be interested. My fav Fontaine's D.C. track currently.

Given the ridiculous sum Leicester got for Maguire, fuck knows what value big CB's can go for. During the World Cup, Maguire was a serious prospect for a big money transfer. Given the whole season he's had since, I would have estimated that his worth was about a third now compared to then and there's no way his value was a quarter of a billion.

1. One of the slides I made up when doing coach presentations - teaching teachers how to teach basically - has only "Facts v. Opinions" on it. The points you "totally agree" with weren't my opinions. They are facts and I say that's it very important to be able to distinguish between the two. Potential hazard areas include dealing with the stupid and the insecure. The thick cunts aren't able to get such a simple point and have convinced themselves that what they believe to be true is fact, even though there is no data to prove their opinion, often long-held in many cases. The insecure, detesting their own limitations as they do, are desperate to trip up their teachers, particularly when he's from another country and quite obviously doesn't like most of them. They're jealous and envious that their "lecturer" has courage in his convictions and are resentful because he doesn't kiss their sorry ass nor do I make any pretence in this regard. Everyone has weaknesses, one of mine is that I can't pretend and I don't want to be no salesman. 2. That was an interesting addition however. Not being qualified to comment - not having seen either - I'm pleased to hear that AFC might have FINALLY stopped trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

The reason Shinnie picked up a stupid amount of yellows wasn't because he's a dirty player. It wasn't even that he was so committed, his only redeeming quality (in midfield). His disciplinary record was shocking because his timing and his football brain is considerably below average. He couldn't match his passion with the same skill level.

I saw the first half but was working during the second so only looked up intermittently, usually when the commentator got excited. Cocu played at the highest level and has already been successful in his managerial career. He will be wondering why the fuck Lampard signed this dud, and it may well have been Max raving about him wot swung it for the inexperienced first-year manager. I'm not surprised he put on a 16 year old. That's good management, to encourage youth and throw them in the deep end. He will have seen more in the kid than he has with the barely average Shinnie.

I watched a bit of the Huddersfield Derby match last night, more out of interest to see how Derby would perform post-"Lamps", plus I'd seen Huddersfield last season and thought they were hard done by in an absolute thrashing (and I liked their fans). Derby were slick, quick in mind, fit as fuck and very good at getting it under instant control. There's no room in there for the likes of Shinnie who ticks none of these boxes.

It's not a case of "not fitting" into a style of play. It's more to do with the fact he's not a very good footballer. The easiest way to determine a player's technical ability is to hit firm passes at close range to them and just observe. This exposes both their speed of mind (reactions) and their speed of feet (ability to control). On both counts, Graeme Shinnie would be found wanting. He was a good left back who should never have been shoehorned into midfield. He's got great heart and that made him adequate in a shite league but he can't compete with proper footballers. He's too thick and doesn't have the basic skill set to make it at that level.

Going to see this band in Brixton. One of the best new bands this century. As usual, Radio 6 over the past few months introduced me to them.

I don't see Shinnie as having improved under McInnes and I was aghast when he was moved from LB. He always had heart and dig, he was never that effective as a midfielder and wasn't a great provider as he lacked creative vision let alone execution but was reasonably successfully deployed there only to paper over the cracks of McInnes's very poor recruitment (of creative players). McLean was infuriating UNTIL he signed a pre-contract for Norwich and it must have been self-motivation rather than anything the manager did to explain his vastly improved performances. On the contrary, he was murder and lazy for many months before his last 5. McGinn was at his best when he scored 9 goals in 10 games, including for his country (v. Portugal I believe). I remember at St Mirren when we heard Clangers screaming from the other end of the pitch at McGinn, as he once again lost the ball and put in yet another abject shift. McGinn has only had flashes of great football over the years and they've been so rare and almost non-existent in his final months before he left and the whole time he's been back. Hayes did what good footballers normally do, he did improve with age and experience. Considine was misused by McInnes and it was only last season when Cons went public and said that he wasn't a LB. Considine was a great prospect in the last decade and whilst he's been a great servant, he's limited and I can't accept that the manager has improved him. Lewis is a great keeper but McInnes spent years plodding on with Clangers so he's hardly qualified to add value to the goalkeeping function! Logan was FAR superior in his first year. It has only been only time that he has regressed badly, under McInnes. That's as obvious an example as Greg Stewart. Cosgrove is just a donkey who had a flash of competence in the middle of last season and as for Rooney, he was consistent in what he did, before and after McInnes. We will never agree because you don't want to believe that he is as limited a manager as I know that he is, despite us agreeing on the following: -

The bottom line is that McKenna is the biggest asset at the club. That much we can all agree on. Given his age and natural attributes, he's the only AFC footballer that can be sold for any decent return. Ambitious clubs don't try and sell their best assets. Rather, they build teams around their best talents and strive for actually winning things but as we know, our chairman is on a different path. Whatever money the chairman does cash him in for, it's not going to be £5m+ because he's not that good and whatever the reason - management, environment, player himself - he's not improved from his first six months.

I didn't say that Robertson was comparable to McKenna, obviously, as they're poles apart in quality and don't even perform in the same roles. There was a post comparing Tierney and McKenna's value. I didn't even go into that comparison/argument but I took the Tierney example to compare with Robertson to highlight the value of environment in a players development and performances. We disagree that McKenna has regressed, or perhaps we don't when you say he might have "very marginally" and that's fine but would you admit that many footballers at AFC have performed worse and gone backwards under McInnes, even if we don't/might agree that McKenna is one of them?

Is your optimism and false hopes blinding you to reality? Do you feel uncomfortable that the club you invest much time and money in won't give you a worthy return? Are you in denial about the agenda of the chairman and the quality of personnel he's employed in the "football side of the business", not that I know of any other "sides"? Haven't you noticed the dwindling interest in the NE towards AFC? Don't you see the consistency in the regression of the performances over the last 2/3 years and even if you did, what's changed to reverse this trend? When you wrote "numerous poor games and a temporary dip in form as you'd expect from a youngster", that doesn't sound like a footballer who has NOT regressed. In fact, temporary dips in form is not what we would expect, ever, from a hungry talented footballer learning his craft where greater experience is exponentially more beneficial in his first few weeks and months. There is no question that from his debut at Fir Park to the screamer he scored at Pittodrie from 85 yards, McKenna was infinitely better than he's been last season. Somethings going awry, whether you care to admit it or not.

One crucial aspect in player performance and development is environment. Unless you work with high level athletes and coaches, this won't necessarily be understood or appreciated but Tierney is an interesting example. Andy Robertson is his direct competitor for Left Back for Scotland so a comparison between the two can illustrate the point; There is no doubt that KT was a brilliant teenager and an exciting prospect, arguably more so than AR at the same age. But where KT stayed at Celtic, AR took a circuitous route to the European Champions where he established himself last season as a regular and a key man. As of right now, I would pick AR for the national team all day every day over KT. It's not just my opinion that KT has plateaued or perhaps even regressed in the last 12-18 months. The Celtic regulars tell me this too. But consider the motivation levels he'll be experiencing; playing for a team who wins everything and who faced zero realistic challenge for the past three years, where's the incentive to improve? AR on the other hand benefited from working under one of the best coaches in the world and with a squad of superb footballers day in, day out. With Tierney moving to Arsenal, this is his opportunity to prove if he's as good as his early promise and whereas he is facing the stiffest of tests - the quality of opponent in the EFL being the best in the world - it will be the quality of the environment around him that will be the biggest influence in whether he makes it or not. I can't see Emery developing KT into a better footballer than AR but it's going to be interesting to see it unfold. McKenna on the other hand won't get a move to an EPL club because any scout worth his onions watching him for two consecutive games will see that he's not good enough, handicapped by poor decision-making and being prone to big errors as he is, something that his manager and the AFC environment have failed to address, assuming they even know his weaknesses, which isn't a given.

This was quality. https://brexitcentral.com/some-more-friendly-advice-from-me-for-boris-johnson/ Written by Austin Mitchell. The next few weeks will see an outpouring of advice for Boris Johnson. All the commentators who’ve spent the last few weeks denouncing him as a walking disaster, womaniser and serial liar will rush to tell him to redeem himself by doing what they want. Which makes me, as someone impartially opposed to his politics, who found him good fun and a chance for a new start in our deadlocked nation, feel justified in offering my more friendly advice. Britain’s only human politician who finds himself in a deep hole deserves it. A new Prime Minister will have a short honeymoon before the carping commentariat get back to grinding their axes. Anyone is better than Theresa, and it will be nice to have a human in charge instead of a badly-programmed robot. The Conservative Party will rally round with its usual mixture of loyalty and and grovelling servility. The electorate will like a new start out of a deadlock which frustrates them. So use that happy period – the only one you’ll get now that misery has become the national mood – to make a real new start and rally the people. They’re fed up with bickering deadlock and the long rearguard action of the recalcitrant Remainers. They can’t see why nothing has been done about their vote to Leave. A new Prime Minister and a new Government can’t be doomed to pushing Theresa’s deal for a fourth time. It’s dead, deceased, and inoperable. So it’s right to demand a new negotiation from the EU which they’ll probably refuse, saying Theresa’s is as far as they’ll go. That puts them on the wrong foot. React by doing the old Macmillan trick: announce the end of austerity, more borrowing and turn the spigots on to boost the economy. Then call an early election. That makes it shit or bust, but the lesson of Gordon Brown is that it’s better than struggling on with no majority and no mandate. A government with a majority of two can’t carry on. You have no alternative. The Remainers are wrong footed and (for the moment at least) Labour is in a mess which can’t be cleared up quickly. A leader determined on Brexit can undercut Farage’s party, while the Lib Dems are still tainted by the Coalition and their support for the euro. The excitement would delay the onslaught of carping which builds as the honeymoon ends. Denounce the intransigence of the EU. Show that “No Deal” would be its fault, ask for the nation’s backing for a fair deal, wave the patriotic banner, bash Corbyn and Boris can win. Then go back to the EU with new proposals which should include a promise never to impose a customs border in Northern Ireland, leaving them free to incur the odium if they want to. Add in a dollop of criticism of the damage agricultural protectionism does to developing countries, a promise of full rights to EU migrants who can support themselves and whatever covert trade deals we’ve been able to arrange against EU rules. Don’t threaten overtly not to pay Theresa’s ransom money – that will only unite them; just keep it covert, indicating that we’ve got to be prosperous to pay up. That’s a high-risk strategy. But Boris is a risk-taker and what’s the alternative? Only humiliating rejection by a stultifying EU, a long, whimpering failure as the country slumps back into bickering decline and a fun Prime Minister turns pathetic.

It's not a "perma-rage" at all. I'm not even slightly raging. I don't care. My fuck-giving tank is empty. All I said was that McKenna has gone backwards like so many others have done under McInnes. Please argue with the point I made without making assumptions which are just plain wrong. I know it's hard to accept or admit that the cause we've been investing in is rotten to the core. Tell me about it! I've been doing it longer than most. But never again.

I'm not qualified to comment on this season but if you did a graph with quality of performances over time, there is no doubt that McKenna was more effective in his first few months than he's been in his last few. He's been regressing, going backwards rather than improving which would be highly unusual for a young footballer gaining in experience but for the consistency in his manager's track record. Logan, McGinn, May, Stewart, GMS, Reynolds all went backwards, some of them from very high initial standards. Kenny McLean also regressed and was allowed to deliver no better than average for many months until he signed a pre-contract with Norwich, where he delivered great standards last season, free from McInnes. Ryan Christie was tremendous in his early days and also regressed alarmingly. The change in him when he went back to Celtic was amazing and his goal in the Final denied us a trophy, not that we had a shot on goal the whole match, the most one-sided 1-0 in history. The huge promise shown by Wright, Campbell, Anderson, Ross etc. hasn't come through either and the best footballer at Pittodrie this century, Maddison, his obvious talent was so invisible to (or resented by) McInnes he didn't even get played latterly. Greg Stewart's 16 games for Kilmarnock in between his spells at AFC was perhaps the clearest example that our manager doesn't just fail to get the best from otherwise good footballers, he makes them perform worse. McKenna is just another in the very long production line but our board see fit to pay McInnes a lot of money for his incompetence.

When and where did you give this "ridiculous example"?

Excellent post Tom. On this point, it would be tragic when society has to acknowledge that football supporters are scum, unable to behave themselves with civility and likely to commit crimes but it's the sad truth. It's not new either as those of us who were at Hampden 40 years ago remember. Pomagne bottles were the weapon of choice by the Rangers fans and we could barely watch the match for having to monitor the skies. It rained bottles that day and there were many bleeding heads. Football attracts scum. It always has. The minority make their presence known. The emptiest vassals etc.

The bookies aren't stupid. 800/1 now isn't even good value. My 3/1 on Brooks placed on Friday should've been stronger but for him missing putts all day. Finally got one at 14 though but Shane the man in pole position.