|
|
Post by EspadaIII on Aug 25, 2022 11:01:53 GMT
Yes but, no but...
City v Chelsea is boring... I would much prefer to see minnows play us as there is real chance of an upset. Yes we beat Burton 9-0 a few years ago, but look at some of the results this week... No one cares if City or Chelsea win - its just another Premier league team going through... Also it gives the kids a chance to play. If we play Chelsea we have to roll out the big guns..
|
|
bpg
Full Member
Posts: 2,812
|
Post by bpg on Aug 25, 2022 13:14:00 GMT
Thankfully Fulham don't have to face Burnley away in the 3rd round, never get anything up there. 😂 That's how I feel about Stoke and a February midweek game. |
|
bpg
Full Member
Posts: 2,812
|
Post by bpg on Aug 25, 2022 13:20:36 GMT
Isn't that the point of competition ? To be the best and beat everyone else ?
That's not Manchester City's problem it's everyone else needs to work to get themselves up to that level. Yes, they've got buckets full of cash to short circuit the development phase, they don't have the copyright or trade mark on Android playing footballers.
I don't agree with the German line of thought of absolutely battering the opposition into a humiliating defeat. What they did to Brazil in the WC final in Brazil was wrong. There's such a thing as sportsmanship.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,427 
|
Post by WDB on Aug 25, 2022 14:19:13 GMT
There is but it’s entirely compatible with playing to win and win well. It’s doing anything else that’s disrespectful to the opposition and the game.
Our opponents last Saturday brought on an 11-year-old bowler (ineligible under league rules, shouldn’t even have been on the field) when we needed 13 runs to win. He bowled four slow long-hops that were duly put away to the boundary to end the match. A tough lesson for him? Certainly — and, I hope, for his club, which put him in an unfair position. Unsporting? Not at all. What else should we — or Germany — have done?
|
|
|
|
Post by EspadaIII on Sept 1, 2022 6:28:23 GMT
A neighbour from my block in Israel is a keen football fan and is visiting England in October. Another one of our neighbours is a guy from London whose son-in-law works for ManCity in some executive role. So tickets have offered for the home match at the Etihad on Saturday 8 October.
He wants to depart from London by public transport on Saturday morning in time to reach the stadium by 13.30.
There is no sensible way of doing it without staying overnight both ways!
Trains barely exist on Friday and there are no trains at all over the weekend. National Express coaches are available but take 6.5 hours.
He may have to get a taxi both ways.
What is going on that makes us less capable than most third world countries? Brexit? Union intransigence? Corporate laziness? It's embarrassing.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2022 7:43:23 GMT
Tories. Glad I didn't vote for them.
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on Sept 1, 2022 7:55:32 GMT
Is a hire car an option?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2022 8:08:08 GMT
Flight to Manchester for the visitor, EIII?
|
|
Rob
Full Member
Posts: 2,779
|
Post by Rob on Sept 1, 2022 9:20:12 GMT
Trains from London to Manchester are only on sale at the moment a week in advance. So your friend won't be able to buy a ticket for the train until October. Unless things change there is only one train an hour and not three. Not only are the tickets not available but the timetable isn't even confirmed.
Also don't expect a seat even if reserved. Don't assume there is even a first class. That's what happened on the way to Hove via London last Thursday for us. I'd bought tickets weeks in advance. Went last week to redo seat reservations but they had cancelled them all for that train because it was busy. They let anyone sit in first class. Goodness knows what a first class passenger thought when they got on at say Stoke to London and found they had no seat.
This is all because Avanti West Coast does not have enough drivers and they won't work overtime.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2022 9:32:08 GMT
Leaving Stoke on any conveyance is an almost spiritual experience, whatever the circumstances.
|
|
|
|
Post by bromptonaut on Sept 1, 2022 10:08:31 GMT
A neighbour from my block in Israel is a keen football fan and is visiting England in October. Another one of our neighbours is a guy from London whose son-in-law works for ManCity in some executive role. So tickets have offered for the home match at the Etihad on Saturday 8 October. He wants to depart from London by public transport on Saturday morning in time to reach the stadium by 13.30. There is no sensible way of doing it without staying overnight both ways! Trains barely exist on Friday and there are no trains at all over the weekend. National Express coaches are available but take 6.5 hours. He may have to get a taxi both ways. What is going on that makes us less capable than most third world countries? Brexit? Union intransigence? Corporate laziness? It's embarrassing. According to my usual booking engine, London North Western, there are probably trains but the timetable is 'unconfirmed'. As of today Euston to Piccadilly is one train hourly with few if any tickets available in advance. Avanti West Coast have reduced the normal three trains an hour to just one for a while now. Some say this is due to the intransigence of Avanti and their predecessor Virgin in not recruiting enough drivers to not be reliant on heroic levels of overtime and rest day working. Others, including Grant Shapps, say it's unofficial industrial action in the form of a withdrawal from voluntary overtime. Using next Saturday as a model, the one train an hour service has a few getting to Piccadilly in time to be at the Etihad for KO. |
|
Rob
Full Member
Posts: 2,779
|
Post by Rob on Sept 1, 2022 10:58:19 GMT
Be prepared to stand on the train though - there were people standing when I used it last Thursday. We were lucky two who had got on at Manchester got off in Macclesfield so we got two seats.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,427
|
Post by WDB on Sept 1, 2022 12:42:02 GMT
Is there an indirect route with a different operator via, say, Leeds?
Anyone else less than thrilled at the idea of being on a train whose driver is working overtime? Pilots and truck drivers aren’t allowed to do that.
|
|
Rob
Full Member
Posts: 2,779
|
Post by Rob on Sept 1, 2022 15:04:46 GMT
I am surprised that they can do so much overtime - or did. Now they won't because they are holding out for a big pay rise. But if they were so hard up then wouldn't they be doing overtime? Also the average is about £60kpa for a train driver which isn't bad.
I would imagine their time as train drivers is going to be limited. It's got to be easier to automate trains than get self driving cars. They run on rails with signals after all. The dockland light railway has always been driverless.
|
|
|
|
Post by EspadaIII on Sept 2, 2022 8:15:14 GMT
It's a shambles and the rail unions will be in for a shock when suddenly there is no work for drivers.
I wish I earned £60,000 for the work they do with no stress about staff, insurance, premises etc. Liz (Thatcher) Truss will sort them. She just needs to get her Yorkshire accent back.
|
|
