Mixed Emotions For Rambo As Wales March On
Jul 2nd, 2016 by 'holic
Friday night draws to a close in this neck of the woods and the mood on social media is much improved from a week ago. I know that not all non-Welsh will have thrown their lot in behind Wales in their Euro quarter-final against Belgium tonight, but it certainly looks as though a large number of those I know did. The resulting celebrations were earned by a wonderful performance by the underdogs.
Eden Hazard and friends came into the match as favourites and in the opening quarter of an hour they showed why. A trio of desperate blocks were required to stop them going ahead but shortly afterwards Radja Nainggolan hit an unbelievable rising drive with power and precision past Wayne Hennessy.
The outlook was gloomy but credit Wales, once again finding a response in the probing and craft of Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale. On the half hour Ramsey’s perfectly flighted corner found his unmarked skipper and Ashley Williams headed in to spark scenes of pure joy amongst the Welsh faithful. With both sides now settled and going at each other hell for leather it was hard to predict a winner as the half-time whistle blew.
I’m not sure even the most fervent Welsh supporter could have dreamed what the second-half would bring. Picture the scene. Aaron Ramsey works an opening on the right flank and plays a lovely ball into Hal Robson-Kanu. The centre forward, a former Arsenal schoolboy but now unattached as Reading let him go yesterday, produced a Cruyff turn that sent three Belgian defenders the wrong way and calmly side-footed past Thibaut Courtois.
Surely Wales would eventually concede after a brave fight? Well, no. One golden opportunity for the elbowy, stampy Marouane Fellaini aside the Red Dragons defended assuredly. There was one awful moment when Ramsey conceded a soft handball and earned a second yellow card of the tournament which will rule him out of the semi-final. That could be crucial. Ben Davies too will miss the biggest match in Wales history.
The silver lining arrived in the shape of a towering header from the near post to the far by substitute Sam Vokes with five minutes remaining. It sparked scenes of delirium and joy. The Welsh haven’t had any tournament knock-out success before. Their 1958 World Cup quarter-final with a wonderful Brazilian side ended in defeat, not surprisingly, so let them enjoy this performance by their team. Full marks to Chris Coleman (and a mention too for Gary Speed before him) for the great progress they have made with this generation of players.
In the semi-final they will face Portugal. I would like to give you a blow by blow account of their progress at the expense of Poland last night. Suffice it to say I forgot it was on as I sought a suitable West Country holiday hotel and only caught the last few minutes of extra-time and the penalty shoot out. I am reliably informed that I missed nothing. Portugal crept through although so far they have been the disappointment of the tournament, performance-wise.
And so to the weekend, and two more quarter-finals to be decided. The head says Germany and France to progress to the other semi-final, but Italy and Iceland will have different ideas, I’m sure.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
95 Responses to “Mixed Emotions For Rambo As Wales March On”
First – surely not.
Far too few drinkers in the bar this summer.
The Euros came alive tonight with Wales. Superb performance. Really think they can go all the way to the final. Thanks as ever Holic. Your heart is always in the right place!
Bath,
Happy B-Day..! Iceland, for me, is the most amazing country I have ever been to. Superb people, landscape, music, art……… get out of Reykjavik and go north as far as you dare to the final frontier in this life. It’s an experience that will stay with you forever. HP18 at the bar for you sir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LeQN249Jqw
Well I have the match recorded for viewing later tonight. I watched the first 25 minutes but had to leave with Belgium leading by 1-0. What a comeback by Wales, and all credit to them!
As I asked before the Euros started … What have Belgium ever done to be ranked #2 in world football?
Not to denigrate Wales who showed great team spirit, but Belgium? Nice chocolate and a couple of useful tennis girls once, but that’s about it.
I’m really sorry for Rambo, with him in the team the final looks a very distinct possibility. As read on the BBC feed, somewhere there’s a welsh Leicester fan who’s having the season of his life.
Also in the guardian today: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/jul/01/the-joy-of-six-sporting-team-talks
Ironically, the dressing room speech for which Ferguson has perhaps become most renowned was only three words in length and could scarcely have been more calm in its delivery. While promoting a book of his own, his former captain Roy Keane recalled one occasion when Manchester United had a home game against decent but notoriously flaky opposition who, at the time, occasionally flattered to deceive at Old Trafford but were routinely dispatched with a minimum of fuss. “I thought I knew what the group might need, that we didn’t need a big team talk,” said Keane. They didn’t get one. Briefly sticking his head around the dressing room door, Ferguson delivered a now infamous team talk that was as short as it was withering and brutally dismissive: “Lads,” he said. “It’s Tottenham.”
Chris @ 4: “Nice chocolate and a couple of useful tennis girls once, but that’s about it” … I am surprised you didn’t throw in Jacques Brel and well, Hercules Poirot in the list to complete the stereotype. 🙂
They are a team of highly talented individuals, but as was the case with the Spain in eighties and nineties not a cohesive team. The Catalonian and Basque separatism of those times apparently didn’t help the team’s cause, and there is some theory that the Flemish-Walloon divide may be having a similar impact on the Belgium team.
Also their three main central defenders — Company, Vemaelen and Vertonghen — who also are the most experienced of the lot were injured.
All that said, very spirited and disciplined performance by Wales. Rambo sometimes fail to show the tactical discipline in Arsenal colors, but today he was fantastic in covering up and plugging defensive holes before running forward. His run into the penalty box and the subsequent technique for the assist for the second goal was brilliant, and there were a few excellent diagonal passes from deep to spring counter-attack.
Even without him, Wales may still be able to beat Portugal who haven’t won a single match this time in ninety minutes. What an achievement that would be. At the level of Denmark winning the Euro or Greece winning the Euro.
I made the same comparison with Spain as far as tribal rivalries are concerened in my earlier plaint Dr F, but what have they ever achieved to make them #2? Even with their injured players I couldn’t see them footballing it with Germany, Italy, France or even Spain. Okay, maybe Spain.
For the record Belgium’s qualification for Euro 2016 was hardly covered in glory – losing and drawing with Wales (so no surprise today then) without scoring a goal in either match, and dropping points to Bosnia/Herzegovina.
Based on that Wales should be ranked #1, aye.
Chris@8: I think the current Belgium team has enough talent to reach the finals of the Euro with a good manager and an unified committed team. But I agree with you that #2 is definitely flattering.
Joe Ledley getting back into the squad in no time after suffering a broken leg? Ashley Williams can’t raise his left arm yet gets back in the side to score a tying header in the next match?
Maybe AW should recruit the Welsh medicine men to work their wonders on the Arsenal!
Well done Wales.
A cumulative two yellows earning a suspension seems a very harsh tournament rule.
What Joe said @2 about Iceland.
Well done to Wales. Completely showed some of those massively overpaid and wearing white what it is all about. I also hope that AW was watching the performance of Rambo and taking notes on how he plays in certain positions. I thought he was outstanding.
Somewhere there will be a Welsh Leicester City fan sat wondering if he is dreaming.
Interesting read. The thoughts of more than one or two I would suggest?
http://www.onlinegooner.com/article.php?section=exclusive&id=3485#.V3d8B_R4WnM
So it seems that the Moaning has got Mkhitaryan …
Should be an interesting season.
I thought getting into the CL would attract players. How in the hell are all these players ending up in clubs that are not even in the damn CL? This is exactly how we started last summer, signed a goal keeper and keep quiet till the window closed and was told there are no players out there. I am seeing the trend again…. just saying.
Good stuff, Guvna.
Very well done Wales. Once again a team of hungry athletes keen to prove themselves cuff a bunch of overpaid, self-important egotists. Now beat the Portuguese poseurs so Rambo can play in the final.
Joe @2, thanks for that. We did have a wander and as you say, great people, amazing landscape and definitely feels like the edge of the world. Sigur Ros are very good. I bought Takk while I was there. That HP18 slips down so easily. I had Balvenie triple cask 12 year old to keep me warm while I was there.
Steve T @13, a heartfelt letter. I don’t have the longevity of his relationship but I share his sentiments and came close to the rupture.
Áfram Island!
Mkhitaryan risking an entire career without Champions League football. Unless he is sold within a year or two, that is. 😉
Yesterday apart this has been a very disappointing tournament. Italy have some real selling- players in their side but Conte has welded them into a team with method. But surely Germany will beat them? Portugal are bang average plus Ronaldo.
I’m hoping for a Wales v Iceland final!
Mesut Ozil- quality goal from a quality player.
But another awwwffffullll game
Ozil gives the goalkeeper the eyes? That’s a hell of a gift.
SHIT PELANTY by the Italian chappy
Worst penalty shootout ever?
Ozil is the worst penalty taker I’ve ever seen.Does he ever score? Such a pity because he was so good during the match.
TTG, i thought Mesut’s penalty was perfect,just the bloody post got in the way. !!
Even someone like Kroos playing at the top level with Bayern,looked nervous,and missed accordingly.
Still 4 of our players in the Euros as we march into July.
Given the 4 wk mandatory holiday period players are entitled to,that means they won’t be back at the Ems till early August.
So either a shortened pre season,or they miss the first couple of weeks of the season.
Given we have Liverpool and Leicester as our first 2 games,and a good start is always important,the temptation to use them,as with Alexis last season,will be very strong.
Don’t worry Clive. Loads of next best things and new signings to bolster the squad by the time the season kicks off no doubt???
Howdy Steve
Trust the family are all well.
It’s going to be a very long 6 wks till the new season kicks off.
I’m sure Arsene has his targets,whether he can convince them to join a Club that has serially underachieved in the past 10 odd years,is another matter.
Given Utd and Chelsea are both out of the CL next season,it doesn’t seem to be inhibiting their ability to sign some top class talent.
But then again,money does speak all languages.
Our esteemed Manager is on record as saying no more than 3 new signings,so with Granit already on board,that leaves 2.
Given every man and his dog knows we need someone to deliver goals in abundance,you would assume a Striker would be one of them.
My preference would also be for a quality player on the right side of attack to complement Alexis on the left,one who can score goals as well as create them.
Wally,the Ox and Rambo are not the answer.
It’s all about balance,and if all our creativity is coming down the left side,given Ozil is a leftie as well,it makes it much easier for the opposition to defend.
That would be my priority.
Whether it is AW’s remains to be seen.
Takuma Asano confirmed by .com. 😮
One more vacancy. :/
Bath
I assume Asano being ‘ one for the future in the gaffer’s words’ and unlikely to get a work permit will not count as one of the three! He better bloody not!
Good point TTG.
Here’s hoping. However I believe he is 23 and therefore can’t be too far into the future.
I don’t care about one for the future right now. I need one for today. all the so called ” ones for the future” where are they now? Teams without CL football are signing players left and right and we are here signing someone for the future. I don’t want to hear about we cant compete because of money ( salary wise) we can. Every team will pay over the odds for players this summer, why does Wenger think other wise.
Pay the 40million for Lacazette and get it over and done with. okay now am done ranting……
bath @28: Asano is 21 and in Arsene’s own words “very much one for the future.”
Hopefully he will be the first Japanese player to really make it in PL. Kagawa was poorly managed by ManU and failed to replicate his Bundesliga form.
Doctor Faustus. Agreed that Kagawa was poorly managed by ManU and failed to live up to his great potential there. I would add that is it just one case in the last five years of great players who have been stockpiled there and poorly managed and their careers have declined precipitously as a result. Mkhitarian beware!
bt8 @ 31: Yes, whatever we feel about Slur Alex he was rather good in managing young talents. Not Arsene Wenger good, but better than most. I wonder what will happen to Rashford now the destroyer of young careers is at the helm. Should we sign him up? ?
I revise my cynicism. It is not merely a marketing coup in Japan.
Accepting that a) Youtube compilations can mask major deficiencies and b) the Japanese league clearly doesn’t offer the same defensive challenges as the PL, if Asano can bridge the gap in standards, he looks as if he will bring pace, directness, dribbling skills at speed and a willingness to take a shot to our forward line. Feo should be nervous. If he can make that jump, he will offer for several seasons what Vardy offered Lesta for one.
http://news.arseblog.com/2016/07/video-takuma-asano-goals-and-other-stuff/
Hi Clive. All good thanks. I trust you and yours are all well?
I’m not 100% certain that AW does have firm targets. It seems to me that we will sit back, wait to see what others do and for them to finish. Then we will feed off of their scraps. It’s all too familiar. I do hope I’m wrong but my glass is not over flowing with optimism.
Asano will no doubt be off on loan to some far flung place in the universe. I won’t be holding my breath with regards to him making it into the first team. Our other two Japanese stars in the making quite simply just didn’t. You would have thought that if he really had that potential then someone would have spotted it before he reached 21? Time will tell I guess?
Asano doesn’t look to be a prolific goal scorer, even in Asia football: 25 goals in 92 games at a strike rate of one every 148 mins. He seems to do well in cup games: eleven of his goals have come in 22 cup ties. But he looks strong and fast, which are now minimum requirements in English football.
As for the Euros, football remains a game of two halves that Germany wins on penalties…
Clive@23: plenty of well-rested English boys for those early games next season 🙂
Batshuayi, gone. Janssen, pending (Or is Billy Beane holding Spurs off for his mentor, Mr Wenger?).
Where are we going to get a goal-scoring striker now?!?
Hal Robson-Kanu is without a club, Ochi…
Haha… Do you figure Arsene will bring out his inner Nwankwo, NBN?
Robson- Kanu was of course a young player with us. I share Steve T’s concern. It seems to me that we have a chance of:
Lukaku
Icardi
Jansen ( if Spurs haven’t tied up a deal)
Higuain( highly unlikely)
Benzema( ditto)
Morata ( ditto)
Lacazette( I suspect we are jousting with Lyon on price)
Sturridge( this is bizarre but wouldn’t totally surprise me)
Benteke- a consolation price
The cupboard is not totally bare but it seems we are likely to have to pay through the nose- like all our rivals
I left out Balotelli?
I would leave out Balotelli too, TTG. Also, for that matter, Benteke. 🙂
nowt makes you feel better
about all the wrong choices
you’ve made in your life
be they health , disregard of or
determination to continue in
all of the good ones above
than michael gove the wee slimeball
he was born in 1967 !
and i’m sure he came out
fully tweeded and ready for government
though apparently he has an x factor auditions story
to rough up the edges of his marks and sparks cardigan
he’s forty fuckin eight
he’s talking and looking like
an elder statesman
.
sort it out england
if I hear another plonker
looking backwards in history
cherry picking
I WILL BOKE !
and young Old Mister Gove
will understand what that means
somewhere
CBA
He came out of the womb tweeded up with a dagger in his pocket
as i said , m’lud
ready for government
Stabbing people in the back? Wasn’t that how the Brotish empire was built? And shooting them from the front as well, of course.
Now that nowhere is left in the world to mess around, little wonder such proclivities now turn inwards.
British empire even … But I like the sound of Brotish too.?
now now now
doc fau
behave !
that sorta nonsense’ll
get you believe d
but / yet
tut tut tutted
ÀFRAM ISLAND! (to the tune of Fuck off you Sp*rs!)
my loud voice is implied
baff knows how to make letters noisy
that’s why i am so not in Iceland
and he so is !
BIG SHOW OFF SHITE !
?
woooooo
the half ton !!!!!!!
“I really haven’t prepared a speech or anything “
The poverty of our performance against Iceland is being underlined by France tonight . The boy who scored the first goal looks useful. We could do with him…..you say what……?
cba @50, sadly I am not on the hill below the statue of Noggin the Nog this time, carousing with those nice people. I am at home on the couch having a toast to Icelandic spirit with crowberry schnapps from the Reykjavik Distillery. Sadly I only bought one bottle though I did buy a bottle of blueberry schnapps as well. 😀
What Bath said @41.
Robson-Kanu was born in Acton (who knew Wales stretched that far east?). But then so was Robin Friday.
The dream is over.
But the Icelanders are still smiling. Wonderful people.
Hope they get to cheer a consolation goal.
you’ve still been baff
so jealous
the mighty chris too
i am so jealous of
new zealand
any canadian gooners too
so jealous too
i saw sigur ros here
supporting
Godspeed
I incurred the wrath of
a few sigur ros fans
when I suggested
to my mate beside me that
their “big hit” judging by the shushhhing ‘s chorus
sounded like Smokey Robinson
so I quite quietly sang “baby , baby”
after yer man playing his guitar with a bow went
“Ooooo. Ooooooohaaaaaaahhhhh
Never liked belfast ?
God bless Iceland they’ve done marvellously but France are outclassing them. Hodgson and those prima donnas in white with the five useless Spuds should hang their heads in shame. Iceland beat you and France are mullering them.
and as i said before
we both have the same national sport
handball
ÀFRAM ISLAND!
cba, I think Sigur Ros are good and bought Takk in Iceland. I think some of their work sounds a bit like the Blue Nile.
sound fuck all like The Blue Nile
i’d walk across the rooftops to remind them
good man yerself
must send herself up the attic
on the lookout fer Stay 12 inch
brilliant
Mr Buchanan
a fantastic
and lazy songwriter
eee fuckin onnns
ahead of sigur ros
my family won’t thank you
for me singing tinseltown in the rain
for the night
and
when you said consolation earlier
i had the orange juice song on like lightning
thankfully herself likes billy mackenzie
so sulk will happen
but it’ll be me who gets sad
poor fella dying like that
anyway
fuck off
so sad though
?
feckin magic countdown show telly now
in usual bullshit bollocks
the mighty Tommy Cooper
all hail
ALL HAIL
is
Jerry Sadowitz gonna be mentioned
maybe
dunno
is he
he’s worth it
cba, I bow to your far greater knowledge of contemporary music.
Of course I do agree that the Blue Nile are light years better than Sigur Ros. I’ll listen to Takk and Youtube links again to find the tracks that reminded me of Blue Nile. Another reminded me of the Beatles in parts and another of REM.
Of course overall Sigur Ros’s special effects and heavy use of synthesised music make them sound different from all of these groups and they are interesting to listen to with their ethereal sounds inspired by Iceland’s otherworldly landscape. However those echoes from other bands do make them less original for me and at the moment I would prefer to listen to the older bands on my desert island.
Bath,
Welcome home. Takk is a good introduction to Sigur Ros, but there is music on Agaetis Byrjun to which I will be buried. If Mozart were alive today, he would be listening to this band 🙂
I was really disappointed to hear Manu have signed Henrihk Mkhitarayan. If some reports are to be believed, we offered £150k/week and Mourinho gazumped the deal in offering £250k/week. Furthermore, Mk, Ibra and Pogba share the same agent, so don’t be surprised if Mourinho doesn’t stop there..! And Conte has yet to start with Chelski. And then of course, Pep is beginning to burn the Sheihks monies. I really do wish Arsene would just approach Atletico and put €100m on the table for Antoine Greizemann and be done with it. He’s a player who could operate across all front 3 positions all-in-one, is highly technical and offers a foil/compliment to Giroud.
CBA:
Been listening to this chap from your neck of the woods of late. He’s very talented:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeEACP2wRhk
Joe, I’ll check it out. I agree on Griezemann. I hope our current apparent ‘inactivity’ is because our target(s) is/are still heavily focused on this competition.
I think the usual will apply Bath. In order to avoid being regularly outbid for players (ala Mkhitarayan), he will wait until the window is almost closed and force clubs into making a decision at the time. We realistically can’t compete with other leading clubs. Some people don’t seem to get that reality.!
On another note, this is a poem from an Irishman (Tom Kettle) who died fighting at the Somme:
To My Daughter Betty,
IN wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown
To beauty proud as was your mother’s prime,
In that desired, delayed, incredible time,
You’ll ask why I abandoned you, my own,
And the dear heart that was your baby throne, 5
To dice with death. And oh! they’ll give you rhyme
And reason: some will call the thing sublime,
And some decry it in a knowing tone.
So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,
And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor, 10
Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,
Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,—
But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed,
And for the secret Scripture of the poor.
On the grand scale of things, football comes a long way down the line…!
The “5” and the “10” refer to the line numbers and are not part of the actual text.
Nothing wrong with the strikers we have, OG and Theo, providing they play together with Theo on the right wing and the latter is told to stay focused on scoring/assisting and forget about defending. What we need are midfielders who contribute their share of goals. Özil, Rambo, Santi, Jack etc etc all have their qualities, but scoring doesn’t feature high enough. I’d swap any of them for Payet frankly, Mesut included.
The only worthwhile thing resulting from WW1, Joe, was some wonderful poetry. And charting the changes from Rupert Brooke’s romanticism to the dissonant and provoking styles of Owen, Sassoon and others reflects the course of that war as well as any historian has achieved.
Joe
Howdy
sorry
i am a very honest man
i think foy vance is shite
van morrison arse licker
can’t stand van morrison
so a ridiculousosed version
i am less than van likely to van like
someone better from round these parts
iffin ye like that kinda stuff
is malojian
gotta lotta neil young albums obviously
mind you
i have about two dozen so
https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=dnd-z9aU5Ug
link off a tablet
If ye don’t get it
I don’t give a monkey’s
To His Love
BY IVOR GURNEY
He’s gone, and all our plans
Are useless indeed.
We’ll walk no more on Cotswold
Where the sheep feed
Quietly and take no heed.
His body that was so quick
Is not as you
Knew it, on Severn river
Under the blue
Driving our small boat through.
You would not know him now …
But still he died
Nobly, so cover him over
With violets of pride
Purple from Severn side.
Cover him, cover him soon!
And with thick-set
Masses of memoried flowers—
Hide that red wet
Thing I must somehow forget.
how’s about a clumsy drunken splurge from an irish man from the north of ireland , joe .
it has been said Why did we , well i say we , rise up and fight the british out of ireland when the first world war was going on 1916
“Kick a man when he’s down”, etc
It was said
by many
“Is there a better time to kick a bully than when he’s down?”
all
very interesting
but WHY were we
the north
then left behind
i’ll tell you why !
but that’s a story for another day
bollocks
we were left out to bla yeah etc
you in the south were fine and dandy
do you know what it was like joe ?
do you ?
misty eyed talk about soldiers
is not my memory
is it like the Simpson’s episode
where the sign outside the church
was for veterans of popular wars
I think so
in other news
i also have wound up
some other people
americans
didn’t intend to
is it alright to still wrong call myself a paddy
i don’t like mick but are they still ok words
should i pretend the Choctaws a proud Indian nation
didn’t send money
to the Irish nation during the famine cos our neighbours
were stealing all our grub
as their “neighbours” stole their land and dignity
Oooh
I wonder did they see a parallel ?
.
ask that to a 12thbattallion 4thcompany 17th assholery Para
as he jumps out a plane shouting GERANIUM
.
I AM DONE HERE
Cheerio
Cheers ‘holic
IMHO, one of the best “poetry” about WWI and everything surrounding it is not technically a poem … Hasek’s “Good Soldier Svejk” with its piercing satire and tone-perfect depiction of absurdity about war’s machinations is a way more potent reminder of the foolishness and baseness that not only lead “nations” to organize a theater of massacre but then allow them to brazenly sing about the butchery.
War is shit. Nothing whatsoever redeeming about it.
well done
what is war , doc fau
if someone is shooting at you
what should you do
what would you do
.
?
eh ?
intellectualise the fuck outta that
cba — You seem to be some sort of a living musical encyclopedia, so it surprises me a lot when you judge musicians by whether their sound resemble someone else before them. You find Zeppelins to be thieves and Sigur Ros sounding like Smokey Robinson…
But music is transferred from one generation to other by nature, no? That is how all traditional music functions. Innovation works within the perimeters of tradition and subsequently expanding those perimeters. Even in European Classical tradition — the most formal and codified of all musical traditions — you hear Bach’s imprints on a large number of composers including Beethoven, but we don’t talk about Beethoven being a “thief”, or Schubert sounding like Beethoven.
Even after the post-tonal revolution you still have composers sounding like each other. You have “schools”. Even the most outrageous/innovative ones like Xenakis or Stockhausen somehow set forth a “pattern” …
You are a huge Ramones fan. To my classical and jazz focused ears those 4-chord blitzes — enjoyable though now and then they are — sometimes sound like MC5 singing a Beach Boys song. 🙂 But there is nothing wrong with it. It is what they convey and how they resonate with the audience… given your enthusiasm and dedication they have evidently resonated with you. 🙂
Somewhere I read this anecdote, don’t remember where: Monk was the then resident musician in Village Vanguard when Dylan was first making his name. One day he went and introduced himself to Monk, “I am Bob Dylan and I am a folk musician.” Monk’s reply apparently was, “We are all folk musicians, man.” 🙂
cba @ 79: There is an interesting parable about that, told by this Indian religious reformer in nineteenth century called Ramakrishna (some of whose disciples played a significant role in the so called Bengal renaissance that sort of kickstarted the foundation of modern India):
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Parables_of_Ramakrishna/The_Parable_of_the_snake_that_refused_to_hiss
cannon pointing inward
@83: very clever …
And meant that as a compliment…
War is shit. Nothing whatsoever redeeming about it Dr F (#78)
Which is where Owen, Sassoon and the other great Great War poets came in, ridiculing Victorian heroic stanzas emoting about corners of foreign fields with which the war was idealised originally.
Nothing redeeming about WW1 (or any war) certainly, but some responses to it remain inspiring.
Morning all, a feisty one last night I see. And I have much music unfamiliar to me to Google tonight it would appear.
Carry on, respectfully.
Tries to figure out why war is shit, not excrement. And, why shit is excrement, not war. Other angles to this?
Other angles you say?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiYuq6Ac3a0
All this “Chill out, there’s no way that Asano chappie is our striker signing for the summer” stuff would be agreeable if we hadn’t spent recent seasons buying some very average players and thinking, “Well that can’t be it, surely?”, only to find out that yes, yes it can be it.
Porky Pig is warming up the tonsils as I type.
You do wonder if Wales can go all the way and win it. In fact they have been the best team in the tournament along with the hosts so why not that be the finals. Germany may have other plans but honestly if both teams play to their potential, France should nick it.
Asano who? sorry never heard of him and hope he is not the answer for the striker. I sometimes wonder why our PR mechanism is so poor. Ok you signed him but when we are having announcements of zlatan/henrikh etc, please do not announce him, due respect to the lad.
I cannot see us signing a striker paying 70-80 million. That rules out greizmann and most likely higuian as well. It leaves us the bare minimum, the likes of jannsen, lacazette or lukaku, nothing great in any of the 3.
Talking of signings, we still need a cb and again the options are less and the cost more, god bless us.
Not to be unduly nitpicking over a subject as grim as war, but the ‘corners of foreign fields’ comes from a line of Rupert Brooke’s in The Soldier. Brooke was one of the Great War poets though he died in April 1915, having falling fatally ill at sea on his way to Gallipoli.
The Poetry Foundation has a good page of links to the Great War poets, and serves as a reminder that they weren’t all English:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/articles/detail/70140
We appear to be pursuing Morata.
The kid doesn’t really excite me. But if he comes and does good, it’ll be a good bit of business.
KGT @93: Thank goodness we appear to be pursuing someone!
Chase me, chase me! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>