Villa v Burnley called off, not fair on fans to have cancellations so late. Only one game in the Premier League today. There is a real dilemma now, a circuit breaker could work perhaps in tandem with a countrywide one but covid will still be around in a week or 2 and besides, the schedule is already tight as it is.

Yeah, I am saying that the sale of Armstrong will be in the June 2022 accounts. Any purchase in January would also be in the June 2022 accounts.

Widespread reports about a 2 week circuit breaker which will inevitably go on beyond that. To expect football grounds to continue as normal amidst that would be naive. I am against a lockdown but I think after today there wont be any live football in stadiums for a bit.

We have a massive sale in the accounts of this accounting period.

With lockdown seemingly imminent, and we have been here before, it won't be 2 weeks, this will be the last game for a while in front of fans I suspect sadly.

Footballers very much included. I don't think that players should feel hard done by, of course not, but the idea that they are unfair beneficiaries of Covid based cancellations is not right. One thing that you would say to go off on a tangent slightly is that footballers who earn enough solely from football are very much in a minority, with so many more failing to get there, and even more so when you consider the few on 10s/100s of thousands a week. These are very much at the top of their trade.

Who are they?

At Christmas a footballer cannot indulge over Christmas, often will have to train on Christmas Day and stop in a hotel that night with their team mates. What do you propose to further remove their supposed "privileges" at Christmas? And are you implying that they have any control in the situation with games being called off due to Covid, ensuring that they have more scope to relax at Christmas? I don't understand your point.

We seem to be getting to a stage whereby clubs are considering vaccination status when signing players and also there have been suggestions of fining players who miss games due to not being vaccinated.

I keep saying that I share your stance on attitudes towards covid, albeit without the same level of naivety it seems. Why that brings you to the conclusion that I am "panicking" suggests that as usual, you are not reading what I am putting.

He specifically said "for us."

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2021/december/16/kaminski-set-for-rovers-return/ Ok with injuries, but this doesn't bode well: “Rather than injury, I think the COVID situation is more pertinent for us.”

Like I said, I share some elements of your current attitude towards covid and a potential lockdown. But attending Rovers puts you at high risk, not staying long on the concourses and wearing a mask may slightly reduce that risk but only slightly. Going to an event with thousands of people will put you at risk no matter what else you do. You will still need to pass through people in the concourses and then in the stands to get to your seat, you may need to use the toilet, and you will be surrounded by people in your seat. Yes being outside may be slightly less risky than if it was indoors, but loads of people around you, maybe even singing and shouting as the game unfolds, increases the risk. A shopping trip would also be risky, any social event will put you at big risk of catching covid considering how rife it is at the moment. The question is whether you consider the reward of attending these things to be worth the high risk of contracting covid, which would mean you had it at Christmas. I also think the crowd will be massively down. Many people will have either tested positive or go with people who have tested positive. Some wont bother with the certification requests, and many wont want to take the risk. I also think a lockdown is inevitable. Wouldnt agree with it but its coming sadly.

What a bizarre mindset. Does earning a high wage render spending time with your family to be less important? Its hardly as if players are using it as an excuse, they will be forced to test regularly and with the virus so rife and the rules stating that you need to isolate for 10 days if you catch it, the probablility is that as we are seeing, a number of players will have it just as im sure a number of posters on here will have it.

Why is it harsh? He wasn't very good last time, why would we sign him again? He doesn't score many goals really.

It isn't my opinion that it is high risk to attend on Saturday, it is a fact that Covid at the moment is as infectious as it has ever been, the numbers of infections prove that, and going somewhere with thousands of other people (even if you do wear a snood!) is putting yourself at large risk of catching it. I will be attending on Saturday which will be the first day out of my current isolation having recently had Covid. Although I would have attended even if I had not recently had Covid, as I somewhat agree with your stance seeing as covid will be around indefinitely so I don't think it is possible to spend our lives hiding behind the settee. That being said, I have not got my head in the sand like you thinking that attending a football match doesn't carry a very high risk of infection, and I also fear an inevitable lockdown imminently as much as I wouldn't agree with it.

Because he was so great last time!

The virus is so rife at the moment that it is particularly difficult to avoid it even with following various precautions. When you go on Saturday you are at high risk but of course you appreciate that there is a big chance of contracting it and go knowing that and willing to take the risk. There is no way to reduce the risk to zero so to suggest that it is purely down to "not being sensible" is very naive.

There are so many genuine, tangible ways in which the game has evolved. Information and knowledge on nutrition, recovery, injury, hydration etc have helped footballers to become proper athletes. There are also a number of other improvements but is adding buzzwords and phrases like a low block, transition, pivot etc making any genuine improvement on words that mean the same thing that already existed?

I think Rankin Costello is not destined to ever be a regular football player, every time he gets close to first team football he breaks down and his original injury wasnt even muscular.

It is just my opinion, many of these words and phrases are in my opinion meaningless, conjured up by people often to try and appear to know more than others, when current terminology would suffice. You said "They're not needless terms, and the whole of the professional football club community feels that way" which you cannot possibly claim.

We are both presenting opinion, albeit I am not doing so whilst claiming to represent "the whole of the professional football club community."

If you are willing to go to a big event at the moment with cases so high, you have to accept that there is a large chance of catching Covid prior to Christmas. Washing hands, masks etc will perhaps fractionally reduce the risk, but the risk will still be high. I could understand it specifically as a tactical choice to skip a game knowing that it falls a week before Christmas if you are desperate to ensure specifically that you avoid it at Christmas, and suspect that In general, of course I think that avoiding events out of fear of Covid is counterproductive because and I know its becoming a well worn out cliche, but we do have to live with it, and hopefully variants will continue to become milder.

I am sure that they are aware of them, my point being that these needless terms are not what makes them more intelligent. Knowing what to do when the other team loses the ball in your half to set up a counter attack is the intelligent bit, not using the word "transition" for example. I think it is condescending to imply that not everyone understands these terms either, its just that people dont see the need for it, and I would agree that it can at times seem like people trying to portray intelligence by creating and using new terms for things that there are already words and phrases to describe.

But an intelligent footballer is not necessarily one who is up to date with all of the aforementioned jargon, which is unnecessary.