grazza

Wonder if Bologna influencing the lad some what they have just brought him like Tierney situation initially with Arsenal said they prefer he not play internationally. Given covid situation wouldn't be surprised is his club were reluctant for him to go and at 18 he is very young so reluctant to go against that especially while getting match time so early on.

Radio One Big Sunday - Irvine 2001 - Manic Street Preachers, Feeder, OPM. Really got sunburnt that day.

The league cup group system has added for 3 extra games for many teams compared to 5 years ago, europa conference league also a reasonable chance the teams outwith Celtic and the Rangers will compete group matches. Only way 40 games would happen would be 14 team league with top 6 and bottom 8 split. Hard for it to be attractive to part time teams especially at national level e.g. Elgin going to Stranraer on a tuesday night and further down the pyramid there is already issues with getting the current number of matches played due to postponements.. so only championship would maybe consider it even then midweek games have significantly lower attendances and extra games.. The championship I think though could benefit but adopting 12 teams and split system that premiership has (though I think increase should mean two automatic relegation spots from championship). 44 games is quite a stretch though and means need to carry bigger squads. 38 games in tier 2 would be ok and post split games would have a lot riding on them.

Think this at the moment will be more a powerplay for further adjustment of European competitions to suit bigger clubs. Could see some sort of nations league system with promotion and relegation but still working alongside domestic competitions and teams above a certain level do not need to qualify through domestic league unless they drop down far enough If they did go with some sort of breakaway superleague of what 16 or so teams someone has to finish last and how long will they put up with that. It would need some sort of mechanism to promote teams and relegate based on results. Whatever happens I think there is going to be more resistance from bigger clubs on players going away for international duty,

Thanks for advice went in for appointment at Run4it and they done checks on how I ran and tried couple options. Got a pair of Mizuno wave rider 32. Went on for first run this afternoon and felt so much better and ended up doing 4 trips and back over the bridge instead of usual 2 so ended up doing 13 miles then 2 mile walk to cool down and that's nearly 3 miles more than I usual do but knees feel lot better than usual after run.

Cheers I have booked appointment to get that analysis done. Think it will be good investment given the benefits running has given me need to make the most of it.

Used to watch voyage to the bottom of the sea when I was about 5. Star Trek of course and I have been to conventions and had photo with Bill Shatner. The supermarrionation stuff in particular Thunderbirds were great as a kid in mid 90's watching repeats so could also mention the Flintstones.

Anyone got recommendations for road running trainers. Mostly run on footpaths and recently been doing back and forth on Tay road bridge of which the material is 'textured glass reinforced plastic flooring board ' so think I need to invest a bit more than the usual 30 quid or I would spend on amazon as got a pair last week that were showing to be fairly worn after 1 run so sending them back. In between jobs so can't go too crazy on what I spend but given the benefit running is giving me at the moment and the cost of replacing poorer quality trainers I do need to up my game.

Just make this a 64 team competition with tiers 2,3,4 and 5 involved knockout format with first 3 rounds regionalised.

I was going for 4 leagues of 20 below the top flight of 18 or whatever. It does mean an extra tier but like I said also open up more promotion and relegation with conference.

Does appear to be power grab by bigger clubs though we have seem relative dross manage to stay up in the premier league. Think this covid situation will make them more consider making all games broadcastable in the UK so perhaps premier league not playing 3pm Saturday but as a result harder for EFL to go up against them for tv games. The tv package while on average might benefit teams in EFL better it will probably create greater cliff edge for teams that overspend to stay in EPL. Firm rules should be in place so that any premier league contract is automatically reduced if the team is relegated and if necessary protections for the other side on release clauses. Hard to see this going through first time of asking but something is going to give eventually either EPL reduces or takes control/scraps league cup. The EFL though does seem a bit over the top with 46 games a season plus 3 cup competitions perhaps some logic in them going for 4 divisions of 20 and also more promotion and relegation to the conference. Having attended a couple of Championship games and seen some on tv it really is not that great a product to watch, its very physical probably given the fitness and endurance required but not much skill there even just going to 38 games would be better to watch. I think this has an effect on type of players Scotland squad has as many of our players gravitate down south.

It is important to discuss what we are looking for within our system. We need to try and ensure the top 2 tiers are in the main sustainable for full time football with the best ran part time teams able to still get in. In Scotland we have maybe about 20 full time teams at the moment and this has been the case for a while. If there any others that could realistically go full time that are not full time already?. So within the top 2 tiers at the moment I think 24 is the max. Going beyond that then I think you dilute the quality and size of crowds that currently help teams be full time.

House of Cards is excellent though I do still need to watch last 2 series I do take my time between series.

See Disney plus in the US next month to show new Mulan movie but on a premium access basis for $29.99. I guess they have little confidence with the pandemic of many going to pictures to see it, though that is a lot for pay per view (though you can get to keep the film after). I get they are trying to experiment with that but that is crazy price.

Assuming premiership isn't going to go for change at the moment I think championship could look at how it could change. The Premier split system is a good format but because of Celtics dominance less exciting. Ideally I would like the championship to still encourage full time football. If we add too many teams to top 2 tier the quality dilutes as well as the bigger gates. However I think a modest increase to 12 teams in the championship would be good and we could adopt same split system as premiership. The amount of big matches post split with likely every team in with a chance of promotion and at bottom end similarly with relegation. I would though suggest that with a bigger league there should be 2 automatic relegation spots. Below that up to teams to decide I think we need a nationwide 3rd tier for the well run/ambitious part time teams and not a cliff edge if a full time team drops down. Given a couple of teams will have been added to championship in my example the numbers need to not be too big to keep have reasonable quality. So I say 12. I have though argued that the tier just above regionalisation so the currently league 2 that a conference hybrid system might be a better road between nationwide and regional leagues. So for example say 12 teams split into North East/South West. Play your own conference teams 4 times = 20 games then the other conferences 2 games = 12 games. I would say put this at 4th tier as the stronger part time teams should be fine in a nationwide 3rd tier. So would be 4 tiers of 12 and with that also open up the bottom of that so Highland and Lowland champs have automatic promotion.

Would be good if the could show especially some championship and maybe even league 1 and league 2. Appreciate maybe bit harder to pull all together for the Saturday show but Sunday show could cover in depth premier matches played that day then do a quick round up of goals/incidents across all leagues and look at the tables etc.

The social media thing I suppose there is the compare and despair factor. Though mainly stoic in my connections. I actually find Instagram quite good I'm quite lonely and I just put up a photo each day, might have a bit of filtering sometimes but usually from walks locally or from holidays a few years ago and its quite nice to see some people enjoy them and likewise I do the same of some nice images especially from in and around Dundee and there is nothing weird in complimenting a stranger on a great pic from a familiar place. I can relate to the posts in the last couple of days in a feeling of being lonely. I live with my fiance and thats all good though we live with her mum but other than that we don't really have any friends in Dundee Her mum really doesn't have anyone else since her husband passed away and is an alcoholic. We've moved up to Dundee to stay with her had to move out when it got too much but back in as she can't really cope on her own. To be fair other than a bad week last year things have stabilized on that front.She won't go anywhere other than the shop but okay enough we could go away for a week and be okay etc. Anyway when things were at their worst about 3 years ago that took a toll on me and anxious to what I would come home to each day and even when we moved out for a bit we still had to check in on her and try to help if we could. The last year domestic wise had been fine and I think we have got her to as good a place as we can ever get and be able to have a bit of our own life. My fiance isn't really a social person with friends we do stuff together but it would be nice to have folk locally to have a beer or go a run with etc. I've got couple mates dotted around in Ayr, Glasgow, Edinburgh and brother in Yorkshire. Usually around christmas time and summer get most of the catching up which has been stuck this summer cos the virus. They are starting to have kids etc and we all have work etc so it's tricky, In the last year tried to keep myself busy with open uni course and doing a lot of walking / running around Dundee. I was going to a lot of punk gigs and so I like that community even though I'm going to gigs on my own there are a few familiar faces but I find it tough to really get conversations started and going with folk. I've found that with work also hard and working from home has made it worse. I'm finishing this job end of July so hopefully next place can be a fresh start. Also done a couple of lifelong learning classes in the winter which is good in that you meet people from different ages and backgrounds and get into good discussions about things. I think going out doing these things I'm doing the right things in that sense. Had to deal with a lot for a couple years and the world keeps turning and I think that sense of tiptoeing around an alcoholic in my home made me a bit more distant and wary even filter how I express myself. I like Dundee its the ideal size of city for me some cracking places to eat and drink etc The loneliness thing I thing is common, either we have worked and moved about a few different places or our friends and family do. Things as simple as going for a pint have to be planned out sometimes weeks in advance.

There is a cracking wee program called parsec that lets you share your screen with a friend and accepts controller input from them. Great for an games especially where you can only normally play local coop e.g. emulations/ports of mega drive/snes etc

I see series 4 will be the last but they are splitting it into 2 parts I hope that means more eps and not just because of current world situation. . At least it will get a proper conclusion.

Further to EA bringing games for sale on steam later in the summer ( no date yet) they are offering access to subscribe to EA access through steam. The articles I see on this keep mentioning this as EA access and not origin access. Hopefully that means we get what xb/ps players get then and they are not just re branding what origin access is.

Hopefully Braehead arena will be ok. Short term Clan at Murrayfield for a year I guess they could do so but if longer term move I could see it turning out like Ayr's move to Braehead they would need to drop Glasgow from the name. Murrayfield Racers have a lease with the rink and I get the impression it is quite cliquey and dated how the rink run their business so may not be as welcoming to Clan. Even during Caps time in elite the rink really wasn't that supportive and no interest in updating facilities ( I understand the listed seating part of it but in terms of food facilities, fan areas, changing rooms etc. ) Short term Murrayfield if they have somewhere else to go to in greater Glasgow area even just something like Altringham or a more permanent facility like ice Sheffield. Maybe an opportunity for Clan to seek investment maybe for a shared ownership of the arena so they don't get kick out the building for a month when singing kettle is in town. Streaming UK hockey on its own ain't viable. For elite teams under normal circumstances its good revenue from away fans, more people may use streams in current situation but still teams would really need at least 2 thirds of normal attendances and work on smaller budgets. Paisley and any amateur/semi pro SNL teams I don't see there being a market there for webcasts. They could play at Stevenson for short term but there is already North Ayrshire wild there. They could maybe scrape by on a pay to play basis but I think with Clan and maybe some other ice sport stakeholders could come up with a plan to show that a rink in greater Glasgow would be justifiable.

Punted for Assasins Creed games. Syndicate set in Victorian London so can justify that to myself as study for next open uni module. Also picked up odyssey, unity and origins. Steam done an offer that I got a fiver off the total price. Been crap week at work so treated myself. I have some others on ps3 already.

On the 27 games I suppose the extra home game could be given to to top 5 from previous season. First 9 games I expect to be behind closed doors or very limited capacity. I could still see hub stadiums used in order to reduce running costs at each ground and perhaps some of these stadiums may have more room to make distancing more viable especially if they have less bottle necks at entry and exit points. Will be tricky if they go ahead point for fans or a significant level of fans happens say a couple games into the last 18 some teams will lose that home gate sharing gate money might be the best way.

Fifa 21 down to 34.99 already on CD keys bit more. Reasonable than 60 quid.