RiseAgainst

Or maybe they just felt they'd taken things as far as they could for now and are keeping their powder dry for next season? There's a law of diminishing returns to protests, so perhaps RF feel the concessions they've achieved can be built on in future and walkouts now might seem petty, especially since Gibson did sit down and listen to them. RF are never going to dictate club pricing policies, but at least they're able to influence them to an extent. It's more than fan groups could hope to achieve at a lot of other clubs.

Love the cartoon! 1. Will Carrick finally see sense and drop Glover? Probably not. Sense has been somewhat lacking of late in our team selections. I suspect there'll be at least two selections that will have us scratching our heads. 2. How quickly will Dieng concede from us playing it out from the back if so? N/A. 3. Have you ever had an oatcake? I have, but I'm not really a fan. If we're going down the oat route, I'd rather have a chocolate Hobnob. 4. What's your favourite thing to come from Stoke? I've travelled extensively around this septic isle, and

...and nothing else.

Oy! Get in line! I've got previous when it comes to nobbling Tories, so I claim dibs.

I said I liked Top Gear once (many years ago, before it became crap), and within minutes, someone replied "[my username at the time] voted Leave." That was his entire post. Most peculiar. I didn't tell them my wife was a full-time employee of the Scottish Conservatives (admittedly only for four months, straight out of uni, before she realised they were all tosspots and subsequently went off to work for KPMG and voted Labour in the 2019 GE), but I would definitely have been on disencouragement if they'd known I was making the beast with two backs with a Tory...

Really? Haven't been on in years, but that's quite depressing.

And there was me thinking they just used crap servers that took an age to load on matchdays. I must have been Discouragee of the Year when I used to visit the site...

It really doesn't have to be binary, does it? I'd imagine almost every team has one or two loan players at any one time. If we get to August and still lack strength in a couple of key positions, I don't see any issue bringing in a couple of PL-standard players for the season. Our loans last season worked their socks off for us even though they weren't permanent signings. You just have to choose a Giles rather than a Connolly, and an Archer rather than a Greenwood. And to be honest, that's where we tend to struggle because our quality control is all over the place at the moment.

What's 'discouragement'?

I wasn't going to respond to this initially because the OP is basically on a permanent wind-up, but it is an interesting question if you set aside the confirmation bias implied in the first post. I think next season will be better, because if Carrick IS on the cusp of unlocking some great secret in terms of the way we play (and extracting the best out of all these project players we've signed), he'll have achieved it by then. Whatever alchemy his fans are hoping to see must emerge soon - EFL cup run aside, we've had an absolutely dreadful season so far. If we get to mid-autumn and w

Your research is more accurate than mine, but yes, I was bored tonight as well!

Whatever Carrick may be, he's not an idiot. However, I do agree that the players seem thoroughly discombobulated with whatever he's teaching them on the training pitch. Maybe Carrick needs to take a leaf out of Mike Bassett's book? At least everyone knows how to play 4-4-effing-2.

This story isn't hanging together. Dieng was ruled out on the 9th, and at midday on the 12th, the Gazette posted the above quote from Carrick saying Dieng was already back at Rockliffe but injured. Think about how long it takes to travel halfway around the world with no notice. He'd have had to pack up at the AFCON hotel and say his goodbyes to everyone, get to the nearest airport and book the next available flight to the UK (there aren't that many in a day, so there was probably several hours of hanging around if not an overnight wait for the next departure) which takes nine hours minimu

I think there's a difference between not wanting to make a public display about something because you're a bigot, and not wanting to make a public display about something because you feel you're being bounced into it. That would get my back up, regardless of what was being campaigned for/against, the wider moral arguments, whether I had personal experience of it, etc. Some people just don't feel comfortable being pressured into things because other people have decided it's something they should do. Ultimately, there are no definitive moral arbiters out there - just a load of individuals w

I was wondering where Ottawa was on your list so I Googled it. I was surprised to discover it's only the fifth biggest city in Canada. Then again, Canberra's population is barely a tenth of Sydney or Melbourne, so Ottawa's not unique in being relatively small given its importance. My uncle and his family emigrated to Canada many years ago and never came back. Then again, they were moving from Moss Side in Manchester, which was on fire most of the time. I'd love to visit Canada, but I won't be venturing anywhere near its bigger southern neighbour any time soon.

When we sell out the Riverside, we have over 30,000 fans in attendance. It's madness to think there won't be racists and bigots present within such a large cross-section of the community. However, that's also true in every stadium in the world, albeit to subtly varying degrees. Also, just a gentle reminder that racism exists in many forms beyond white people being discriminatory towards ethnic minorities. I grew up in Argyll with people spray painting 'English out' on the walls again and again, and then moved to Lanarkshire where I was told Scottish people don't touch English banknotes be

I agree with everything you say but I also think Carrick needed a statement today - to build on that unexpected Leicester win and prove it wasn't the aberration both it and the reverse fixture looked like in the context of our season, to underscore how much we've missed the injured players who are now returning (the absence of whom was repeatedly used to excuse how poor we were during the winter), to please the home fans after some woeful showings of late, and to distract from all the bad PR the club has had this week. The bad PR isn't Carrick's fault and it shouldn't be up to him to rem

Do you know what's making me rethink my support for Carrick? He isn't learning. Karanka was in post for two or three weeks and had us playing a disciplined and cogent style. I think there was one game where he went gung-ho in response to trailing and lost the plot a bit - a 3-4 defeat to QPR, IIRC. After that, we played a clear style with square pegs in square holes, every player had a defined job, and the players who came in adopted the same role as those they replaced. There were no stars - no Akpoms or Archers - but everyone was drilled and methodical in their play. For better or worse, he

Interesting post, but if Gibson isn't backing Carrick, why keep him in post? If Gibson thinks Carrick's out of his depth, he should say 'so long and thanks for all the fish', then give a new manager ten games to get his feet under the table and suss out what he wants to do in the summer. Listening to the commentary on the radio, I think Carrick has now lost a lot of the fans. He's unlikely to win them back, especially when an abject first half is followed by an equally abject second half. Apart from a handful of games, we've been gash all season. The table doesn't lie, even though our ass

We're on 44 points. QPR went down with 44 points last season. (We're not going to get relegated, but my God, we're not getting promoted.) Carrick has had 18 months in charge, three transfer windows, plenty of support from the chairman, and I think I've just witnessed our worst performance under him. I can't say I want him sacked, but I wouldn't raise an eyebrow if he left the club after this. We are literally and metaphorically going nowhere, and playing some truly atrocious football in the process.

Sam Greenwood is coming on. You pray for a miracle and you're handed a ouija board.

No wonder nobody knows what the hell they're doing when Carrick's using a random position generator.

If we have basically written this season off, as January's transfer activity suggested, the atmosphere is going to deteriorate with every home performance along these lines. Carrick won't survive til the summer with the team performing this poorly, when pretty much everyone could be subbed off without grounds for complaint. Most matchdays this season, I've found myself wondering what the hell we do on the training ground, because I honestly don't see what our model is supposed to be other than playing it around at the back and giving everyone palpitations. What is our intended identity? W

I don't think it is, but it's becoming increasingly hard to make the case that Carrick is building anything here. There's a hostility in the stands today that feels like pressure is building with no escape valve, and we all know where that ends. Even Mogga got hounded out when the fans turned, and some of the fans watching this are in the process of turning.

They forgot to mention midfielding and striking.