forameus

Little from column A, little from column B. I'd broadly agree with that, but then the manager's job is to assess whether the player not playing for his club is going to affect how he plays for us. Is he fit enough? Sharp enough? If so, then he plays. Last part, absolutely. It might be a quote about "them", but reminds me of something I heard on a podcast around Alf Ramsay and 66. Jack Charlton was puzzled as to why he was being picked for the squad, thinking there were better options

Yeah, semi is on the Thursday/Friday/Saturday, with the final on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday (delete as WEEKOFFOOTBALLAPPLICABLE). I prefer the one-off game. I'd imagine there's always far more chance of us shiting it at two attempts than just one.

I was exactly the same. I don't think I've even had the headset out since. I'm tempted to download this and give it another go. If it's any indication, I get pretty horrendous travel sickness in cars (not driving, luckily) if I'm trying to read or focus on something while it's moving, so VR was...questionable at times. Some games worse than others (there's a demo one where you're flying from rock to rock, and it was like being in a blender). NMS wasn't too bad actually. Standing on the edge of a big drop still gives you a bit of a double take, and falling is weird, but I didn't feel too bad after playing, certainly not as bad as I expected.

The semi-final will be at Hampden guaranteed, and it's a one-legged tie. I think after that the final could well be away, I can't remember what the criteria is.

Did Spittal get abuse to make him act like that? I honestly didn't hear anything, particularly not to have him acting like that. Brilliant wee sequence though - I wouldn't wish an injury on anyone, but when he went down soon after, that would've been a brilliant time to score with him near the North. Also didn't realise just how big he was. Expected him being the young player he was to have a bit of a smaller frame, but he's fucking massive.

I was going to ask why he's an arsehole but on second thoughts I don't think I really want to know. I just meant the way he was playing today. He had a few wee goes at Gardyne in particular. Pushes or niggles off the ball, causing him to lose his shit while he just shrugged. Cracking wee player.

Cammy Palmer is a complete arse hole. And it's fucking brilliant.

I've never usually had problems, but any time I've tried to last season or this one, it wants me to buy the ticket normally for delivery or collection. The seat chooser also doesn't work, and lets me pretty much choose any seat (even ones I know aren't available as they're for people who have already got their tickets). I shouldn't be surprised, but it really is a pretty terrible system they're running

Anyone managed to add the cup game to the season ticket for tomorrow online? Or is it still totally fucked like usual?

The posting style is like the 5th sign people should look out for when they're having a stroke. FASTS - Face, Arms, Speech, Time and Scumjob posting.

In a word (or two) - fucking incredible. In a bit longer, they have done an incredible job of porting the game over. It would've been easy to put a half-arsed version of VR functionality in there just to say they could, but they've really spent a lot of time on the little things to make it brilliant. I've started a whole new survival game to experience it properly and the opening scenes are just brilliant now you're actually "in" them. I started on a Saturn-like planet with massive rings and three moons. You really get the scale of things. It took me a little while to get the hang of the controls using the move controllers, but it's quite intuitive once you get going. You can use the teleport stuff, but I've always hated that in VR, so I'm using "smooth" movement. It's not perfect, but as someone who gets pretty motion sick sitting on a bus if I'm reading or even looking at a phone, I'm not getting a huge amount of it. Then you get in your ship...and it gets really good. One lever for thrust and a joystick for pitch and yaw, and it actually feels like a skill you need to master, rather than just pressing a button and going. First take-off I sent it straight back into the ground, and it took a good few goes to even get it leaving the atmosphere. And not down to bad design, just down to it being a genuine skill you need to learn. Plus you need to lift a lever to physically lift the roof and get out. Brilliant. It's by no means perfect, mind. I find it loses the motion controllers a wee bit and gets confused, although that might be down to my setup rather than the game itself. And the biggest minus is that the visuals can struggle a little bit. Pop-in doesn't seem to be a problem (it really was in the game before), as you can see a fair distance, but the stuff in the distance can seem like it's swimming a little. Close-up you're fine, and I wouldn't say it comes close to ruining the experience or anything, but it's worth noting.

Pretty sure they'll be in the player picks and any TOTS packs (they're still listed in rewards on the leaderboard) but all the packs will be back to normal. Bit of a dick move stopping the packs on a Wednesday to be honest, Friday would've been nice as a final reward.

Which is a shame, as she's brilliant. But I have to agree. I'm not really sure what their plan is with her. With this 3 month lead up to every show, it's Shayna doing her excellent heel shtick, her MMA pals getting involved and either getting over the face or getting battered, then Shayna goes into the match and wins. It's not even really being written as much of a big story of her overcoming everyone, she just...is. I can only assume they're waiting for the right person, I've seen Dakota Kai mentioned. I'd take it off her in November and call her up. Now that Rousey's away, there really isn't anyone like Shayna. Let her go up and be a complete dick to everyone and have her build towards one of the titles. Her being there is killing the NXT division, through no real fault of her own.

Played my final one at the weekend, and I was on track for a much, much better finish than I'd ever managed. Best I've gotten is Gold 3 previously, usually in the last game, or at least the last couple. With 10 to go, I was 14-6, easily matching my best and with the way my form was going I thought I might actually be able to sneak into Elite. Knew it'd be tough, but f**k it. Immediately lost my next two to blow that thought away, and then went through a fucking dreadful spell. Everything that worked previously now wasn't to a startling degree. Passes going astray, players making mistakes. Managed one win in seven. Fucking seven. Three games to go, needed two wins to get G2 (which would still be a record for me). Scraped one win, then got absolutely pummeled to make it a one game shootout in the final. Now I'd been spending the weekend knowing I had my team, and that any leftover coins would just go to waste, so every tradeable asset in my team got sold and the proceeds went towards the Icon upgrade in the hope of getting something usable. After doing 5, the only servicable option was Prime Socrates. He'd made two sub appearances prior to that final game, mostly just when Cruyff wanted a shmoke and a pancake. I went 3-1 down in that final match, and resigned myself that it was all over. Made my subs, brought on Socrates for what would likely be the whole teams final match. He broke through and got a goal back. Then he assisted for the equaliser in the 87th. Really crunch time in extra-time, players still playing like a Sunday league team, but just about matching the opponents. Then in the 117th minute, that man again, Socrates, laid off Vieira outside the box. The guy who never scores. Never shoots on target. He put one in off the bar. 17 wins. f**k sake. Socrates was then sacrificed on the altar of another Icon SBC. Not even a board. It's what he would've wanted.

I'd give him the point that it's probably higher than the Premiership. Probably. It's arguable though. Given the number of goals he's scored, and that it has earned him the move it did, I'd say that domestically, he's played at a higher level than Griffiths. But then, as I said, Griffiths has played a lot of games in Europe, which is a considerably higher level.

Griffiths has played the same number of games as McBurnie in the Premier League. He's played way more in the Premiership. His record at International level is better than McBurnies at this stage - McBurnie no goals in seven, and three in sixteen at youth level, Griffiths has four in nineteen, and three in sixteen at youth level. Now whether McBurnie has played at a higher level is debatable. YOu can argue that some English Championship sides are utter humpty, and held up by a well marketed league that often ends up pretty exciting (the Scottish Championship is also exciting, but it doesn't mean the quality is high). But OK, he's been relatively prolific in the Championship, which is a plus. If McBurnie goes on to get even high single figures this season, then that obviously trumps anything up here. But then Griffiths has demonstrably played at a higher level, given he's made 48 appearances in Europe, with 11 goals in the Champions League (1 in the group stages) and 3 in the Europa League. That's a level McBurnie won't even get a sniff at unless he gets a move in the coming seasons. So where were your facts again?

Well, I like to think I give a more measured response other than your default "OMG I CAN@T BELEEVE YOU THINK SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY YOU c**t". And I disagree with the ludicrous "objective" part. McBurnie is largely unproven at the level we need him to be at. He's looked largely lost at international level, although that's probably a fair bit down to the players around him being shite. But that isn't getting any better, so he needs to shoulder some of it. In the time since the last game, Griffiths has gone from being a question of whether he'll even play again to scoring goals. So his stock is rising while McBurnie's has stayed static. A transfer fee doesn't change that, but scoring in the Premier League certainly will. So at the moment, it's massively subjective, until we actually start to see him play at a higher level. And for avoidance of doubt, I don't think either of them are that good. Still the best we have though. And McBurnie certainly has more potential.

Wouldn't Harry Souttar be his competition? I heard he's fucking brilliant. The "fact" is subjectively he is our number one. If Steve Clarke agrees he'll likely play him. If he hits the ground running in the Premier League, then he'll absolutely be in ahead of Griffiths. However, if the latter goes on to play himself back into contention, and McBurnie spends August and early September doing nothing for a struggling Sheffield United side, then it becomes a lot closer.

NXT Takeover: Toronto Candice LeRae vs Io Shirai. Match Result - Io Shirai Shayna Baszler (C) vs Mia Yim for the NXT Women's Championship. Match Result - Mia Yim Street Profits (C) vs The Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championship. Match Result - Street Profits Velveteen Dream (C) vs Pete Dunne vs Roderick Strong for the NXT North American Championship. Match Result - Velveteen Dream Adam Cole (C) vs Johnny Gargano in a two-out-of-three falls match for the NXT Championship*. Match Result - Adam Cole *Each fall will have its own stipulation. SummerSlam Drew Gulak (C) vs Oney Lorcan for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Match Result - Drew Gulak Goldberg vs Dolph Ziggler. Match Result - Goldberg Bayley (C) vs Ember Moon for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship. Match Result - Bayley Becky Lynch (C) vs Natalya in a submission match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship. Match Result - Becky Lynch Finn Balor vs Bray Wyatt. Match Result - Bray Wyatt AJ Styles (C) vs Ricochet for the WWE United States Championship. Match Result - AJ Styles Roman Reigns vs Rowan (UNOFFICIAL) Match Result - Roman Reigns Trish Stratus vs Charlotte Flair. Match Result - Charlotte Flair Kevin Owens vs Shane McMahon. If Kevin Owens loses, he will quit WWE. Match Result - Shane McMahon Kofi Kingston (C) vs Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. Match Result - Kofi Kingston Brock Lesnar (C) vs Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship. Match Result - Brock Lesnar

Didn't get an invite, but it's a blessing. I spend enough time developing and testing for a job that I know I wouldn't treat the beta the way it should be. Although I suspect I won't be alone in that, so many are just going to use it as a way of getting the game early rather than realising it'll be a broken mess that they're there to actually help fix.

He commanded that fee because fees are fucking mental down South for any home-grown player, and because any club selling to a Premier League club knows they have an absolute fortune sitting there. Hence, transfer fee is completely useless to gauge quality. I'm sure there are some putting him down, but I think the majority just see it for how it is. He's a player who has looked great in a Championship side and scored a lot of goals, but has so far looked out of his depth for Scotland. He's hardly alone in that, and it's a story we've witnessed many times before and probably will many times again. I really hope he goes on to prove them wrong and ends up being great for us, but recency bias is strong, and we can't just hold on to what he's doing for his club side if he continues to struggle for Scotland.

Neither Griffiths nor McBurnie are particularly exciting options, but they're definitely 1 and 2 for us. Order is subjective. Three things Transfer fee, particularly in England, is a fucking dreadful way of showing who's a better player. He has yet to play a game "against the likes of Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea" as a Premiership striker. He could go on to score 30 goals, or he could turn out to be shite. No-one knows Nit-picking mode, but it's the English Premier League.

Amusing the "having a medical" part. Hope they're not too strenous, they might break their new toy.

Is it beyond the realms of possibility that they don't want to punt them, but they wouldn't exactly be averse at this stage to letting him hang himself? All the quicker if they withdraw support. Cynical, I know.

It's always been the problem. Doolan looked largely rubbish last season, but he was made to look far worse (along with most forwards who didn't rhyme with Dot McSonald) by playing in front of a bunch of mannequins. Bannigan probably looked a lot better than he actually was purely because he was running about a bit and looked like he cared. If we'd had someone more than just Cardle (who spent a fair chunk injured) with a little bit of creativity, I suspect we'd have been far, far better with little other changes. But instead, we had our pedestrian midfield not seeing any runners, and unable to create anything themselves, keeping possession tidily until they get caught, then inviting pressure on everyone behind them. Our defenders aren't terrible, they're just average. Every part of the team is let down by every other part.