Beastmix

Thanks, dude. It's been a fun season. Kinda glad I didn't retain my title as I was becoming public enemy #1 Losing Patterson didn't help either though. He was a beast at the start of the season, but I found it hard to trust him upon his return.

Limped into the playoffs, limped out of the playoffs. Congrats, @maqroll!

I love how all four NFC East teams are, as it stands, qualifying for the playoffs. I also hate this as I'd rather it was just us.

Hardly a classic for the ages, is it?

Ho Ho maHOmes, surely? ...I'll get my coat

The Jags are sneaky good though. Five wins in the last seven. As a Cowboys fan, I was angry last week until I realised how much of an up-turn they're on.

We need to become the club players heads are turned towards, rather than away from. As you say, we really don't deserve this cycle of buy/grow to love/sell all the time.

I mean, the football 'hierarchy' is an abstract theoretical concept. This aside, you can move up a hierarchy (as Man City have seemingly done), so this is what we need to be aiming to achieve and you can't achieve this by having an inferiority complex. The club needs to conduct itself like a major force, both to attract and to keep players. The fans need to believe it too.

Yeah, and this is the mentality we need to snap out of. You can't join the elite if you don't think/act like the elite. This goes for both the fans and the club itself.

The greatest pure striker of all time, no question. The guy was something else. Ran the show in the 2002 World Cup. Had a far better supporting cast than Maradona had in '86, but it was still all about R9.

That's an oxymoron.

I don't even know why we entertain the idea of selling certain players. We really need to stop speculating about it or giving the media the attention they're after. It's almost like our fans (especially on social media) are trying to materialise it into happening. In many ways, they're doing his agent's job for him. If you don't give a flame oxygen, it goes out.

It's only going to be one game (two, tops), so I'm sure we can all get behind Olsen for that. He's terrible, granted, but we need to start boosting players' confidence, rather than tearing it down. It is a confidence game, afterall.

...not sure this argument stands when we're literally talking about a footballer who's been on growth hormone drugs for the majority of his life. Medical purposes or not, it's a leg up.

No, but I'm pitting the two individuals against each other. Side by side. They're effectively the same player, but one had far more advantages than the other, meaning the one who didn't, by definition, is the better player. Maradona, with all the advantages Messi has had, would have been horrifyingly good. I mean, nobody can say, definitively, who the best is anyway. It's a boring debate, much like the greatest boxer is. There are too many variables to consider, so I'm simply throwing my argument into the ocean of arguments. The most alarming thing is Argentina have produced the two best players who ever played.

Woke up this morning and immediately needed to see the ending to that game again. Only to make sure I did see what I thought I did. Wild.

Maradona, for me. It's reasonable to say Maradona and Messi are directly comparible in ability, size, and style, so we could make a case to say, from a base-point, they're about as equal as it gets. Then, take away all the advantages Messi has had: sport science, heavy data analysis, higher quality teammates (club/national), better pitches, and so on. Take these things away and, suddenly, it should all become clearer. Messi is still the 2nd best though... and I don't even like the man.

The play makes absolutely zero sense, given the scenario. Can only put it down to a mental blip. Still, always good to see things like this happen to the Pats.

What on EARTH were the Pats thinking there!? They weren't even losing, haha! I've never seen that before.

Dallas don''t makes things easily for themselves... or the fans. I've already had to deal with Messi winning today and now this. Fuming.

I'd like to vouch for the Ambernic RG351M. Endless retro fun on long train/car/bus journeys..

I've cut-up your original quote here because, despite Emi's involvement, this is precisely why I'd like France to win on Sunday. It's fawning on a grotesque level. Damien Duff spitting hyperbole about him on Irish TV yesterday was almost feverish.

There are plenty of 'football crazy' nations in this World Cup with comparible (or higher) populations than Argentina AND are willing to travel en-masse. I reason they've acquired their tickets by nefarious means which, as tournament organisers, is on FIFA to police really. It's a shame because the overwhelming bias every game somewhat tarnishes an otherwise perfectly good World Cup (football-wise).

Argentinian fans have to travel further though, surely? I'm not sure the location of the World Cup makes much difference, unless we're talking about the hosts or immediate neighbouring countries. Croatia is far nearer to Qatar than Argentina.

They should have given each set of fans a fixed amount and then have the usual number of corporate/sponsor/delegate seats. It's a huge advantage, especially with the noise they make.