Simon Doyle

The Long Game Imagine you are a tenant, in the worst financial crash in living memory, and you discover that over three thousand of your very precious and irreplaceable euros have been sent by your idiot bank to your previous landlord. And then he won't give them back. Not then, but also, not later either. He just keeps the money, because that is how Irish private landlords behave. You pay a deposit to a landlord and then they try anything on to refuse to give it back. Now imagine you spend the next 16 years seething every time that landlord appears on the TV, being fêted for his sporting triumphs, receiving state appointments and still never giving you your money. And now, and I invite you to imagine this in full 8k Hi-Def Surround Sound, imagine seeing that guy announce he was running to be President and realising you were going to tell your story and End It.

I learned about Sports Thumb Jim Gavin dropping out of the Irish Presidential election from @tupped.bsky.social's The Gist this morning and I owe it to you to share this relevant passage, which got my week off to a great start:

USED TO BE COYS: A fan's angle of Harry Kane's goal against Frankfurt

Yep, completely agree and a good point made by TF, data can help with analysis of a game but it’s not everything. Thought we played well especially coming off the back of an away CL game. Leeds were decent and had their spells on top but you’d expect that being at home.

I think some of that was people putting up the match stats and then pretty much saying “look how bad we were”, when we weren’t. I didn’t think the stats gave a true reflection of the game yesterday.

Enjoyed the game today, thought we played pretty well overall and were in control for most of it and had some very good opportunities that we didn’t make the most of. The stats might disagree but that’s how I saw it.

Nope, game was pretty even although I did feel that we were in control for the most part, they had a couple of spells where they were on top but those stats look misleading to me.

I think if Solanke was available we’d see a lot more passes into the centre forward position, he’s much better at holding it up and bringing others into play than Richy. That said we didn’t seem to try it very often tonight either.

Poor performance overall, improved late on with the subs, but showed some spirit to come back from 2 down, thought we might nick the win but I’ll take a point in the circumstances and move on.

Yeah, it’s on in Adare Manor, should be a great atmosphere and a lot different to some of the stuff that went on this year. Maybe it’s the team element of it that I like, but it’s always a great watch with lots of twists and turns.

There’s supporting your team and then there’s this kind of carry on. So happy the bullies didn’t get their win.

I don’t watch much golf but do like the Ryder Cup. Delighted for Europe, under huge pressure throughout but stood up to it and got the win in the end, Lowry getting the half to clinch it was just perfect.

Doesn’t matter how or when you get the points as long as you get them, brilliant from Europe overall.

I have approximately zero following on this app, sharing in the hopes it can get in front of the right person. A man I went to college with’s wife was kidnapped by ICE at a green card hearing, and he’s trying to find a reporter who will speak to him about the situation

Thought it was a foul, maybe on the edge or just outside, he made the most of it but looked like he caught him.

YouTube video by Tottenham Hotspur Together Against Suicide | You Support Us, Let Us Support You

Powerful stuff by Tottenham. I’m so sorry for the losses experienced by Chris, Micky, and everyone else who had to say goodbye to a loved one who gave up their life.

Your mental health sometimes doesn’t just change for the better. It needs attention and you might need help.

I’m autistic. Not because of Tylenol.
Not because of vaccines.
Not because of some headline.
I’m autistic because that’s how
my brain works. Stop treating us
like a problem. Start listening to us.

Superb hurler, will be missed. It’s very sad that he retires without winning an All Ireland but still leaves behind an incredible career.

A statement from the Tylenol website stating that Tylenol does not cause autism

Tylenol ain't taking this shit

From tylenol.com

A piece of paper that reads: "When I was in 7th grade, our teacher put o a video and told us to take notes. Ten minutes in, she threw the lights on and shouted at Steven Webb Sladki, telling him he wasn't taking notes and he should have been. But the thing was, Steve was taking notes. I saw it. We all saw it. The teacher asked if anyone wanted to stand up for Steve. A few of us choked out some words of defense but were immediately squashed. Quickly, we were all very silent. Steve was sent to the principal's office. The teacher came back in the room and said something like "See how easy that was?" We were reading "Anne Frank." I started to understand. I just thought now was a good time to share this story. Don't ever let anyone tell you that what you see with your own eyes isn't happening.

In the Age of Political Gaslighting, this is a sobering reminder.

Brighton's video with Samaritans for the Together Against Suicide initiative

Well done Brighton 👏 👏

@officialbha.bsky.social

Love what you do, and if I don’t want to watch a video I just don’t open it, so keep it going.

I think that people couldn’t accept that Spurs could have a player that good come up through the ranks and were constantly looking for faults, when they couldn’t find any, instead of acknowledging how good he actually was they threw the lack of trophies at him. It was always “he’s good but ..”

That was crazy, golden boot that season as well as playmaker and spurs finished 7th not sure what else he could have done. Carragher didn’t have him in his top 10 PL forwards yet the other day was saying he was England’s greatest ever striker.

If Chelsea are guilty over Abramovich payments a fine would make a mockery of the rules | Rob Davies The FA cannot swallow the club’s argument that reporting Roman Abramovich’s alleged irregularities wipes the slate clean

Excellent from @byrobdavies.bsky.social. Football appears to have suffered an element of Chelsea amnesia since the rise of Citeh and PIF money. Abramovich's CFC were the first and arguably the most egregious of regimes to distort the modern game.
www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Spurs against Nazis leaflet

He won’t care but it’s just incredibly disrespectful. Here is a manager who has had success in various countries at club level and has also had success at International level, yet there are still fools out there who think he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

People equating finishing 17th with nearly getting relegated is incredibly frustrating and completely ignores any context whatsoever, but it does suit a certain agenda.

But we were able to win EL matches, he just prioritised those games, if we were in any danger the priority would have changed.

We were never in any danger whatsoever of getting relegated.

Sluggish opening 20 mins or so cost them dearly, plenty of spirit and effort second half, deserved at least the draw to be fair. Had to mute the sound second half, too much “20 mins to save the campaign” type stuff for me.