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armchair_red

Listed below are comments made by armchair_red between Wednesday, 24th September 2008 and Monday, 2nd February 2009.

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"We blame the parents" 4:06pm on 02 Feb 2009 Feels a bit risky wading in on this one, makes a change from heartfelt sports debate!

I'm a Christian, have two pre-school kids and we're lucky in that my wife doesn't have to work.

Here are some random thoughts:
- I hate the fact that single parents are made to feel guilty (especially by the church, which is supposed to be about relieving guilt)
- The fact that correlation doesn't imply causality is a good point. I wonder whether those numbers were adjusted to take in to account other key demographic factors? I also wonder what percentage of children who eat a roast meal every week have learning difficulties?
- Neuter segments of society? Really? Democracy is crazily scary. I hope that kind of view never becomes a majority.
- Some of the reports proposals (civil birth ceremony) seem a bit weak although I guess these are only supposed to get us thinking.
- I do believe that a stable loving family is beneficial to children. I'm not sure anyone is expressing anything different. However, I think that the idea you can promote this using tax breaks / penalties is at best weak thinking. Love holds people together. There are many heartbreaking reasons why families / relationships break down but the idea these can be remedied with a few quid is offensive.
- Yes. Let's be less selfish, more loving, more giving. Now how do you legislate for that exactly? Perhaps we could set up a government watchdog, Ofmorals perhaps? Individuals could be assessed against weekly selflessness targets. Each time you do something good for the community you'd need to fill out a form ...
Money talks in Super Bowl 2:19pm on 02 Feb 2009 I enjoyed the superbowl last night - work might have suffered for it today though ...

I have to agree with #4 and #6. The NFL has no real competition within it's own sport which is why they can cap salaries. The premier league has to compete with other leagues for a share of the global soccer market.

It's kind of ironic that the most capitalist of nations should have such a socialist sports structure.
FA Cup never loses magic 9:27pm on 04 Jan 2009 lol, just read post #53

I'm (obviously) an armchair supporter!

Have to say that I take your point, it's a fair one.
FA Cup never loses magic 9:23pm on 04 Jan 2009 Much as though I hate the fact, the FA Cup just doesn't mean what it did 25 years ago.

When I was a kid it was pretty much the equivalent of winning the league. There's no where near that level of importance placed on it now.

There is still the fun of seeing teams from different divisions/leagues going head to head, but that doesn't make up for it's loss in value.

The key change has been the champions league. With only one team qualifying for the old European Cup, big teams had to take the FA Cup (and a route in to the Cup Winners Cup) seriously. Nowdays it's all about finishing in the top four.
Ince forced out by fear factor 6:45pm on 18 Dec 2008 This is an old thread now but I still wanted to add an opinion....

I think Blackburn have made the right choice. Paul Ince was a gamble and they couldn't afford to lose. There's no guarantee that Sam Allardyce will keep them up but he is a manager with a proven track record in the premiership and has to be a better bet than Ince given how this season has gone for Blackburn.

The problem is, if you don't shake things up where is the change going to come from?

Tony Adams has called the decision 'spineless' and I can understand why as he may be in a similar boat in a few months time. But premiership football clubs are not there for young managers to 'cut their teeth'.

They gave Ince a shot, it didn't work out so well and they're hoping to cut their losses. There's nothing spineless about that, it's just the harsh reality of the premier league. Just ask Ramos.
Drogba still key to Chelsea success 10:28am on 10 Dec 2008 post #7

"Drogba is key to Chelsea in the same way torres is at liverpool"

I kind of agree with this. These are both key players etc. etc.

But the bottom line is Liverpool are top and Chelsea are second in the premier league without either player contributing a whole lot so far this season.

Chelsea are definitely a better team when Drogba is part of it and playing well. But I wouldn't go so far as to say Chelsea can't win stuff without him.
Why we all lose in the 2012 funding lottery 08:48am on 04 Dec 2008 In reply to post #6

I think you're a junior so long as you start the year U18. I'm not sure Paul Drinkhall can help how old he is.

Given that the funding's only been there for a short period of time it's completely unreasonable to expect it to have resulted in a top class senior player already. You've got to be able to back an athlete from an early stage all the way through. Four years just isn't long enough to do that.

A junior world champion would be a huge indication that the funding has been working. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see that the top junior might be towards the top of the senior game in four years time.

Where was Andy Murray four years ago?
Why we all lose in the 2012 funding lottery 10:27pm on 03 Dec 2008 Gutted. I'm a table tennis enthusiast and have had genuine optimism that we might produce a world class player. Looks like that's under severe threat now.

Paul Drinkhall winning the Junior Worlds next week would highlight quite how harsh this is.
Liverpool send out title message 11:12am on 27 Oct 2008 Great result - still trying not to get my hopes up too high but there's a lot of reasons to be positive.

Couple of random predictions:

Looking at upcoming fixtures I think there's a serious possibility that either Arsenal or Man Utd will be effectively out of the title race by early December.

Babel to make a significant goalscoring contribution after Christmas, playing down the middle.
Births outside marriage - a real cause for concern 10:16pm on 24 Sep 2008 It's quite strange being apprehensive posting in support of marriage. Has it become politically incorrect to be an advocate of marriage?

It's not that single parenting, or co-habitation is bad as others here have already pointed out. But what I find a bit depressing is that the concept of life-long partnership and stable family life is no longer treated as an ideal.

I'm not sure I like the idea of tax breaks for families but I do like the principle of celebrating and promoting marriage and family.

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