nutmegwolf203

I realize that not every player in the squad is up to par, but recently I think that Davies has been doing well at shielding the ball when he gets marked. In the sense that he seems to recognize defensive pressure a bit better to at least evade tackles and then be productive afterwords. He definitely still hits some wayward passes but I think he's raised his game a bit, even if it's not at the requisite (starting 11) standard. There's genuine pressure to start in this team and he's recognized that there are things he needs to add to his game to be included.

Iwobi has been great to watch.

I have a lot of thoughts on that Mark, really glad you brought it up. I'll put something together after the game!

I watched it. Watched the match live then I've seen the video. I realize I have a very different perspective and opinion to most here on TT. Not necessarily profound lol, but alternative nonetheless. It doesn't mean I'm trying to be loud for the sake of it. I've already said that I'll let that go if that reasoning is indeed the truth. Without being more comprehensive there's no way to know. Thus the cycle. Whether he did or not the tools to be sure are lacking. That's more my point. No one's really questioned these things beyond speculation so perhaps it could be worth it. Equity is treated as speculative in the Premier League. The government he supports is known for summary killings and displacement that was reported by Amnesty International around the time of the salute in 2019. I'm not sure what's redeeming about any of that. Maybe someone could confirm otherwise but I feel like that type of organization doesn't make false claims all that often. I'm not even saying Tosun is in favor of all those things, far from it - but blindly supporting it is also damaging. I don't claim to have all of the answers but having been around activists and civil rights leaders most of my life I can say that from the outside, what passes as equal justice initiatives in football are subpar, at best.

For sure, breaking even would be great business in this case. No love lost and best for both parties. Hopefully no more Raiola tumult either. He seems to allow his ego to influence his client's decisions.

Sure, I get all that, not worth the back and forth. I'll also admit that I was reacting to this reasoning the most, in regards to the most recent incident. In my mind it's significantly different to just being thankful and raise one's hands as a gesture of praise. I take no issue with the second reasoning at all. But in a more broad way, I guess I'm saying that I think matters of equality are a blind spot for this forum, football, and sports in general. It's always frustrating to see people rush to defend their players so much that they abandon causality or systemic issues. I've been skeptical of him since that match in 2019, but I'll let it go considering nothing comprehensive has been done. Simply asking someone: "do you support this far-right group?" is not an investigation in my opinion.

I can see the reasonings deduced from all these internet detectives, but no actually I don't agree. Hateful people visibly support causes they shouldn't all the time and when pressed they don't really own up to it. T***p is a perfect example of that. Or any Republican voter that lied in early polls about their support for him, because there's evidence of that. Happened in 2016 and we knew leading up to this election that many people didn't want to be known supporters until they cast their anonymous votes. Different scale but incredibly similar sentiments. The race was "shockingly" close for that reason. People spent weeks analyzing the sad truth that people wholeheartedly align with his views. There's also Josh Hawley for example, the now disgraced senator here in the states that put his fist up in solidarity to the rioting terrorists just before entering the Capitol last week. Very clear photos of that. Obviously a different scenario that's near impossible to explain away but I bet you he'll side step it somehow. He can totally get away with it if he chooses the right language and denies as much as possible. He'll be fine. Multigenerational slight-of-hand. I'm glad this was brought up. Again something I disagree with. Let's keep the same energy for everyone. That's the point. There's no growth otherwise. These are very real issues that happen to be presented in the realm of sport but that shouldn't mean you get a pass. If Richy fucked up I'd be the first one on here saying so. I don't understand the reluctance at being critical in these moments. We follow a club (that stands for a lot of good) not one single player and we can push each other to be better, especially when lives and common decency are at stake. The internet is rife with outlets to find this information. People say the same things about stopping matches because of racist chants or making abuse known in any way. "Don't make a scene or give them the pleasure of riling you up." If Tosun wasn't celebrating this group then fair enough but prior evidence would suggest he'd be a prime candidate to do just that so I'm confused as to why people fear being investigative about it. Can't be tired of something we haven't done before... I'm not trying to aimlessly drag a player, I'm trying to be thorough. We never are, the club lacks the tools, and the FA is useless.

Come on. At the International match in 2019 his salute in support of a tyrannical military campaign got completely swept under the rug. From Wiki Turkish Motives Recent increase in jobless rate and electoral collaboration of opposition parties lead to significant AKP defeats in the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election, signaling difficulties for the leadership party.[98] Military operations are known to boost nationalism and Turkey executive's popularity.[98] It is also seen as an effective way to break apart opposition alliances, between pro-Kurdish and pro-peace representatives actively criminalized by the government, and other opposition parties who are faced with the dilemma of betraying the informal political alliance in order to showcast popular patriotism.[98][99] Moreover, another driver for the Turkish operation into Syria is the domestic politics involving the 3.6 million Syrian refugees residing in Turkey—the highest number of refugees hosted by any country—which has led to increasing public dissatisfaction and therefore public support and pressure for intervention.[100] The negative sentiment against refugees among the Turkish electorate allows Erdogan and his AKP to benefit from moving refugees back to Syria.[98] And now (potentially - and I think highly likely considering the reasoning for the offensive in the first place) support for a far right paramilitary group. His hand placement looks pretty deliberate to me. But, assuming it's for the military again and not that specific group, why say anything now? I can't think of any other reason besides he agrees with the ethnic cleansing by whatever means his military uses and/or he likes the mission of this Grey Wolf organization; which preaches superiority of Turkish Muslims. I think you can be pro-military and critical of your military at the same time but in that case he chose to be boisterous about a truly dishonorable campaign. Going out of your way to say anything is bizarre to me. From Wiki Human rights violations have also been reported. Amnesty International stated that it had gathered evidence of war crimes and other violations committed by Turkish and Turkey-backed Syrian forces who are said to "have displayed a shameful disregard for civilian life, carrying out serious violations and war crimes, including summary killings and unlawful attacks that have killed and injured civilians".[67] I guess I'm saying that any support should be troubling, whether he's lying about this scenario or not. The FA is horrible at investigating these things. Based on recent results, they couldn't possibly posses the personnel or minds to accurately asses whether or not things are racist, homophobic, etc. Seems to me the representation on the committees that make these decisions is lacking. Since no one has any "stake" in what is and is not offensive they never find anything or seem to grossly mis-sentence players based on particular incidents. One minute major social media companies are excusing hateful dialogue on their platforms, the next they're trying to backpedal that decision after an attempted coup on the United States Capitol. This stuff snowballs and at some point you won't be able to combat the evil that's grown in the absence of accountability. Apathy kills, it really does.

Oof, that is conveniently deflective.

Scored some decent goals and I thought his second season would have been better.

The Blue Lives Matter flag very quickly replaced the Confederate Flag at NASCAR races once the latter was banned this past summer. The Blue Lives Matter flag is also a callously merchandized response to a cry for help. It would not exist if people didn't first say to law enforcement, "please stop shooting us, amongst (many) other things..." To object to what Colin Kaepernick was kneeling for is to condone the conditions that inspired the gesture in the first place. Often times, most times - when people want politics kept out of sports it really just means they're personally uncomfortable confronting the topics being discussed. What the kneeling did and what it can continue to do is be disruptive to people's realities. Force them to step outside of what's familiar and hopefully consider other perspectives.

But even this is a myopic view. It paints the depravity of Pre Civil War America with a regional brush - a national brush, even. It's a much larger problem, but to your specific point, it wasn't that they never thought they lost the war, it was that they weren't ever made to suffer the consequences typically befitting the loser of a war. Southern whites picked up the pieces, largely left to their own devices. Union folks had cousins on either side. All that changed was the lifting of a travel ban once the Confederacy fell. Now the wealthy could begin their agricultural commerce again and see their extended family down south in the winter. Southerners began by telling a very particular perspective of the war, as Imperialists often do; a version that portrays them as benevolent and chivalrous. Over the last century and a half that broad lie and complete lack of oversight has influenced media and collective reasoning to the point that people aren't outraged or informed that enslaved peoples are referred to as farmers and workers in some textbooks today. The human cost of that war is completely suppressed in the minds of the public; compared to what it really is. It was the South's lie but there's never been enough interest from folks who aren't black and brown to rectify its influence. The fact that Jim Crow laws were ratified by the federal government as a response to Reconstruction tells you everything you need to know. The United States has collectively mischaracterized the Civil War since it ended. This whole country is responsible for this energy and what feeds it. Also, for what it's worth, it's definitely too late to distance yourself from any support for Trump lol. This moment is shared by anyone who's gotten him to this point. You can't pretend to not be an enabler once things get worse than you imagined. There were many warnings about something like this happening. At this point you have to own it and move forward. Republicans bet on racism, they leaned into it. This is what happens when your platform runs on disenfranchisement.

They'd rather watch things burn than cede even an ounce of privilege.

This is racism. Multi-tiered and multi-faceted racism. Physically violent, institutional and completely systemic. From the lack of consequences given to those inciting this behavior, to the aiding and abetting of the insurgents by law enforcement, to the disbelief that this is something that can happen in this day and age. What happened at the capital yesterday is the most American thing I've ever witnessed in my life. The policing plan was to allow them to do what they wanted because many of those police agree with those they helped. They are the same people. Those involved, they didn't even really have a plan besides mayhem and they were certain they'd be able to do damage and walk away unscathed. That's what I'll remember most about those scenes; White folks walking around a government building looting things in plain view of cameras, unmasked and unbothered. Doing things that I'd get shot for even contemplating. Most of the people arrested yesterday were from the city's curfew, after the event itself. The heart of American democracy is racism. Mass extraction and exploitation is how it was founded and it's never really changed much.

It's the lack of passion for me.

This whole team deserves an audience but I feel that for Dom the most. He's a real credit to the club. Asked for the shirt and has been determined to honor it. Seems to genuinely love and understand Everton. Deserves his goals and will get many more in this team.

He has no relationship with his father, therefore he can only be making speculative comments. I get the feeling he finds the media, they don't find him.

It's a shame Kenny had to shift to the center because he was looking pretty good the first quarter of the game.

I've felt the same way. As much as I love Everton and football in general, I wasn't really eager to see it in its current state. It always made sense to me to just scrap it all together; that would've allowed for even better planning and safer protocol for 20/21...although I suppose rushing and making a bunch of mistakes in quick succession is a means of learning too.

Thanks for mentioning this Matt. Biden is most certainly opportunistic. He's been pandering to Black voters since he was in the White House and from my perspective his appointment as a VP was an effort to bring more moderate white voters over to the Obama campaign. Biden is a liberal good ol boy; but once again the lesser of two evils in a political race. He's riding his proximity to Obama//blackness in the same way that de Blasio used his family as talking points during his mayoral campaign or the way Bloomberg tried to downplay his very intentional implementation of stop & frisk policies during his own tenure. These men are entrepreneurs first and their idea of success almost always involves someone else losing.

If only San Francisco had any of that anymore! Not sure when you last visited but it’s all tech bros now.

I don’t think Pickford makes more mistakes than anyone else and he does have a point about the English media and the national team. I do however think he’s fundamentally immature in terms of how he responds to criticism. The bratty attitude that turned that Newcastle match last season was very much a personality issue. That was a him thing - that’s who he is. Maybe he’s grown a very little bit from that but we just gotta realize these things about his demeanor and be ok with it.

The trainers are indeed Nike Off-White Air Force 1’s. Not my taste, but then again, not much footballers wear ever is... I do think that Tom’s personal style is some of the most genuine and unique. I think Dom is impressed by that and mostly following suit. He buys what he sees while Tom is a bit more intuitive and clever. I work in the arts, not too far from where these pictures were taken (SoHo - I’m a few blocks south in TriBeCa) and often encounter the monied types with no style, lol, so seeing how footballers dress feels commonplace now.

DCL said in his interview that he knew it wasn't his best game, yet he got a goal anyways (knew he shoulda had a second, as well). It seems he's reached that level of balance and maturity in his game where he can still produce for the team regardless of his form. Happy for him and Richy right now.

Obafemi Martins too. Always thought he was fun to watch and I think Kean’s mentioned him as an influence.