Miguel Sanchez

One week to go. Will Pele snuff it and stop the good Bishop getting his second win in three years? Will you remember to get your 2023 team in? Time will tell.

Week 52 update Forgot what day it was. One death this week, Fulham player George Cohen: George Cohen obituary | Football | The Guardian I was thinking about this the other day when it was posted here and I wonder how many of these footballers there are left that I can post about. One club men from a bygone age. Fulham got promoted a few years ago, spent 100 million on a new team and were relegated again after a season. The idea of someone being born in London, growing up and just playing a full career for them is completely unthinkable. With the recent World Cup win for Lionel Messi there's been a lot of (awful) discussion about whether this makes him the greatest - the argument being he's done so much for so long and we've seen all of it. He's a bit of a bad comparison here because he spent so long at one cub but even then, the Barcelona from 2010 onwards just seems to define football as it is now - money, players, the absolute pinnacle of the sport from a business perspective as much as a sporting one. Even two of their best ever players went abroad at the end of their careers for money, and probably for marketing the club and its brands as much as benefitting themselves. In Scotland we have it easy with our comparatively small clubs. Can you just be a local fan anymore, the way your dad was in the past, if you're a fan of a club in a rich league? I don't know. I don't think George Cohens can exist at every level anymore and I don't think that's a good thing. I'll always feel a tinge of sadness whenever I see someone in these circumstances go. Cohen was voted England's greatest ever right back in a fan poll. Outside of this, he had an unremarkable international career. Cohen died at 83, making him worth 42 Base Points for @BillyAnchor, @dagane, @pub car king and @superbigal, with a Deadly December bonus doubling that for 84 points. As a result, the standings look like this: 1. Bishop Briggs 691 2. JustOneCornetto 680 3. Indale Winton 635 4. Ned Nederlander 571 5. chompmyroot 551 6. Arch Stanton, sparky88 518 8. Billy Jean King 460 9. gkneil 455 10. Arabdownunder 445 11. weirdcal 430 12. psv_killie 426 13. Moomintroll 416 14. pub car king 399 15. mathematics 394 16. peasy23 391 17. The_Craig 388 18. buddiepaul 361 19. Fuctifano, Sweaty Morph 342 21. Sergeant Wilson 341 22. Savage Henry 338 23. thistledo 336 24. pawpar 327 25. The DA 321 26. cdhafc1874 305 27. Raidernation 291 28. Melanius Mullarkay 280 29. The Master 273 30. scottsdad, tamthebam 262 32. nessies long lost ghost 259 33. Arbroathlegend36-0 255 34. Blootoon87 253 35. Lofarl 249 36. lichtgilphead 237 37. Karpaty Lviv 235 38. microdave 228 39. 10menwent2mow 223 40. HI HAT 222 41. ICTJohnboy 221 42. senorsoupe 219 43. Desp 217 44. ayrunitedfw, The Naitch 213 46. ThomCat 208 47. Aim Here 205 48. Florentine_Pogen 202 49. gingette 199 50. jimbaxters 196 51. sleazy 194 52. paulathame 171 53. LoonsYouthTeam, thisal 160 55. qos_75 159 56. Mark Connolly 153 57. mozam76, The Hologram 146 59. Billy Anchor 142 60. Scorge 141 61. mizfit 136 62. sophia 131 63. Lex 125 64. willie adie 115 65. dagane 113 65. Hamish's Passenger, speckled tangerine 112 67. Les Cabbage 111 68. Miguel Sanchez 105 69. Bully Wee Villa 104 70. Glen Sannox 101 71. Oystercatcher 85 72. superbigal 84 73. djchapsticks, Enigma 81 75. Ray Patterson 76 76. stanton 75 77. cambozpar 74 78. statts1976uk 68 79. D.V.T. 59 80. Aladdin, doulikefish, HTG, invergowrie arab, smpar, Soapy FFC 58 86. Cardinal Richelieu, get_the_subbies_on, RossBFaeDundee 52 89. Amarillo Bairn 44 91. Bert Raccoon 39 92. Curmudgeon 35 93. Bold Rover, Clockwork, Duszek, Hedgecutter, lolls, Stringer Bell 29 99. amnarab 27 ZERO POINTERS - @Cairn Terrier @dee_62 @DG.Roma @Eednud @expatowner @HibsFan @HK Hibee @ParsJake @Raven @Richey Edwards @superwell87 @TxRover @wellinwigan The spreadsheet has also been updated with these scores: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mup1IJllKHs0a47J8G6IXUkvShJrV28Iuc-Kkn7RKuo/edit?usp=sharing

In no particular order: The Shaking Stevens one The Jonah Lomu one The Elton John one The Paul McCartney one And in a particular order, top of the list by an absolute fucking mile, the most depressing piece of music ever committed to record by humans, the song that every single time I hear it has me imagining the same thing: being alone, living in a run-down, damp, mouldy, ruined, dingy little room, sat at a table with grey meat and cold potatoes on a plate, thin tinsel barely hanging off a tree in the corner, some ghastly 70s sitcom on the television because the silence was just too much, a paper hat on your head at a funny angle, some sort of underfed pet in the corner who's even less interested in you than normal and as you hear So this is Christmas and what have you done? the tears start rolling down your cheeks as you wonder how life ended up here - no friends, no family left, and it's all your fault you've ended up like this. The John Lennon one.

5. 12.23.95 by Jimmy Eat World 4. Christmas Steps by Mogwai 3. Please Come Back Home by Glasvegas 2. I Won't Be Home For Christmas - Blink 182 1.5 It's Christmas So We'll Stop (Choir Version) - Frightened Rabbit 1. It's Christmas So We'll Stop - Frightened Rabbit

I do love the Barrowland but it needs a scrub. You can see the stoor on the ceiling and the doors.

Better hope Doak is the real deal and can score multiple goals a game, because we're not finding a decent goalkeeper any time soon.

How do you unwillingly rape someone?

Why have you joined a football message board to post about transgender people?

*trans women The existence of trans men in these arguments is, well, non-existent. Wonder why.

^^^ Paul Scholes found

It's important to remember that Linehan got banned from Twitter at three in the morning and was immediately on Mumsnet asking them to help him, only to be met with replies like "Who are you?" and "If you're a man you shouldn't be here."

That being 16 and playing for Celtic means nothing in isolation. Although I do enjoy that Bendy left Celtic as quickly as possible after realising what playing for them is like. Higuain is fucking mince tbf

Jak II: Renegade (PS4, 2017 - originally PS2, 2003) When I last played Rayman 2 I completed the game 100% in about six hours. That was finishing the story and collecting all 800 Lums. When I first played that in my younger years I remember it taking weeks and feeling like a massive, sprawling odyssey of levels and difficulty and it being the largest, hardest, greatest thing in the world. Taking turns with my friend to try and beat levels, and the nervous release of excitement when I finally realised I was going to beat the final boss. Jak II is a similar tale, although slightly embarrassing. I think this is the first open world sandbox game I ever played, and I didn't know how it worked. After escaping prison at the start you have to go to the icon on the map to find your first mission and I didn't know how that worked. I spent a lot of time flying about the opening area of the map and I don't remember what pushed me into the right alleyway to actually start the game. I also remember getting stuck a few missions in, where you had to jump through an obstacle course while being shot at with an awkward camera. I'm not sure if all of this happened before or after I had the strategy guide for the game, but I'll save myself any further embarrassment here and say before. What did the Jak and Daxter franchise need after the first game - a colourful, humorous, action adventure platformer? It needed the playable character to hit puberty, get a gun and be set in a world which shows the political and social downsides to letting a city's ruler live in a giant palace on the top of a tower in the middle of it. Jak, Daxter, Keira and Samos start the game by going through the big gate they found at the end of The Precursor Legacy. As they do a big head pops out and promises them a very miserable time. Jak and Daxter are promptly captured by some armoured lads with guns, Jak goes to prison and gets pumped full of chemicals. Two years later Daxter breaks him out, hilarity ensues. Jak II is still, at its heart, a platformer. The jumping and physical combat controls are just the same. Only now, he has a gun with four eventual different types of ammo, vehicles to fly around Haven City where the game is set and a lots of different types of Metal Heads, the creatures who try and capture the city every now and then, fighting its leader Baron Praxis and his forces over Dark Eco, the energy source they all need. Sometimes missions take you to other locations inside and outside of the city so there's still lots of variety, even though some of your trips outside are surprisingly brief (or briefer than I remember them being when I was younger). The amount of variety from mission to mission is actually surprisingly high. Even if it probably was inspired heavily by the 3D Grand Theft Autos of the time, the missions aren't all escorts, chases or go into a building and shoot everyone. Actually several of them involve just shooting stuff and often with irritatingly awkward time limits or settings, but you jump from one place to another and one goal to another so often it never feels repetitive. One drawback of playing a game that's twenty years old is its interesting approach to checkpoints which can make certain parts of missions very annoying. Even given its age there's not any defending this. You just need to hope you can get through some places which will definitely annoy you. My total play time was twelve hours so it's not like you're going to be there forever, but it does show its age in places. Was this Naughty Dog's first game with guns in it? It might have been. Either way, this is a large part of the game's annoyance. You have four different weapon types. The scatter gun is basically a shotgun which does a wide area blast in front of you. Since you often face multiple enemies at a time, this is good. The blaster is a single shot weapon which does as much damage as a scatter blast, and which you can't aim. The game sort of aims for you. I say sort of, sometimes it does and sometimes you'll need to fiddle about with the left stick and hope it hits what you need it to. Eventually you'll just spam jumping, spinning and shooting which fires bullets out in all directions, but this is out of frustration rather than strategy and even though ammo is plentiful, you might end up running out. The vulcan rifle (or something) is up next and this is an automatic version of the blaster which needs time to spool up, and in a game where enemies have four health at most. The gun is a nice idea, but I think some refinement was required. The final weapon type comes too near the end of the game to be worth mentioning, which is a shame because a long range electrified rocket launcher just sounds great. New to the series is Dark Jak, a result of Jak's time in prison. You can collect Dark Eco from defeated enemies and unleash an extra strong version of Jak with improved physical attacks when you get enough. There are also finishing moves you can unlock which take out all the enemies in an area. It's pretty pointless in all honesty. There are one or two missions where it might be useful, but regular attacks and the guns are always enough. You might need one of the finishing moves if you're really overwhelmed, but that's about it. It's a nice change and has some thematic purpose, but it's not game-defining. I complained about the health system when I played The Precursor Legacy and at first glance it looks better in Jak II, but it's not. Your health display has eight green bars in it. Virtually every attack you take will take away two of these, so you can still only take four hits before you die and take your chances with the terrible checkpoints. Health pickups aren't consistent either so there will be times you're swimming in them, and times where you're frantically dodge rolling and trying to avoid enemies getting near you. The lack of consistency in stuff like this just feels baffling playing it now. How could someone play this game before it was released and not think this was terrible and needed changed? The dodgy checkpoints were probably the worst part of the game, and they were much worse than I ever remember them being before. Why I loved this game then, now and probably still will in another twenty years is the atmosphere. Haven City is a dark, bleak hellscape which is advanced enough to have flying cars but still have slums. You can interact with very little of the buildings or... any of the city at all, really, but it still feels vast and expansive because of the different areas. It might be lingering awe from it being the first sandbox I'd seen but I just enjoy moving about the city, hearing the sounds, music and dodging in and out of traffic. The ambience is outstanding, and it's something that not many games do this well. What I love most about theses games is the Precursors. It's why I loved the first game so much too. This bronze stuff everywhere with strange markings on it that makes otherworldly metallic noises when you touch or interact with it. What is it? Who put it there? Why aren't they there now? Why is it so valuable? Why don't I have a Precursor Orb on my desk? Both Jak games strike the perfect balance of this stuff being ubiquitous but never actually active or explained. You feel familiar with it because you're spending so much time with it, but nobody's actually telling you anything. In Jak II the actual Orbs and artefacts are less significant and frequent but this just increases their sense of intrigue. Once the story really starts focusing on the city's founder, Mar, and his relationship to the Metal Heads, the Precursors and Jak, it's just fantastic stuff. There are more and more complex characters than in the first game. I probably know all of them too well to analyse them objectively but in addition to the range of missions and gameplay, the characters you meet are are all deep and interesting enough for you to be invested in them. The voice acting is great for all of them too. Daxter maintains his role as the true strength of the game for the same reasons - he's funny, he's wacky, but he's also adult and realistic and somehow not over the top no matter how obnoxiously he shouts. Given my issues with terrible games like The Last of Us and the Uncharteds, it's good to know that yes, once, Naughty Dog could write good characters. It's just been announced that Uncharted is getting a reboot. Where is my Jak and Daxter reboot? Surely there's room in the world of video games for an action adventure platformer with a bit of mystery and actual good characters that's going to let a bunch of people relive their childhoods? Give me a fully realised version of Haven City and I'll die happy.

Why have you joined to posts specifically about contrarian issues, if you're describing it like this?

The last 16 year olds to play for Celtic were Karamoko Dembele (decided he's English) and Jack Aitchison (Barnsley) Vaunted company indeed.

Youngest debuts - LFChistory - Stats galore for Liverpool FC! Can't wait for Bendy to become our Harvey Elliott.

Peppy is quite clearly not Supras and I have no idea why so many people have conflated the two over the years.

I've seen 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong, I can die happy. If you're the old c**t next to me who took his phone out for a picture in the middle of every song, I hope you're not there tomorrow.

Creamy Elephant repayments.

What are your objections to the bill?

Mogwai tonight and tomorrow. Eagerly awaiting being fully deaf on Saturday.

Falkirk thread for this pish.

11 of 19 2023 teams in so far have Pele in them. I have three others sitting in my inbox I've not checked yet.

I'd put this in the Normal Island thread but it seems like it's in Thailand.