existential crisis!!!

[meretricula]

seriously, have you ever had a moment like you've suddenly realized you're in the Matrix? good god. I was reading all these really ancient and very detailed wank reports on Cassie Claire's circle back in the day and had the sudden horrific thought... what if I'm a troll too?

...you guys would tell me if I were a troll, right? I know I don't always remember to be nice. and I was kind of a bitch over the fbkink thing. and I say awful things sometimes without really thinking about it. and got told by a Canadian yesterday that I'm embarrassing to be seen with because I swear too much, so it's not even just an online thing.

but if I'm being awful please just tell me, okay? I don't want to be a troll.

fandom is scary sometimes.

(PS: good god cornerflag why must you be so difficult to write.)

Comments

[mardia.livejournal.com]

when he was at Valencia (imo) he really really fucked over the club in a lot of ways.

Ooooh. Was this the year they won the Copa del Rey, may I ask? I remember reading an article (probably by Sid Lowe, heh, I should look that up) about how the club was going absolutely INSANE that year, and not even winning a trophy could fix it.

But man, that is a GREAT idea for a story. Oh man, poor Villa and Silva.

[nahco3.livejournal.com]

it was! what happened was they fired their first manager of the season (Flores, who I really liked) and brought Koeman. they did win the Copa del Rey, but also had a fun little relegation battle on their hands, which is ridiculous considering the year before they'd come in 4th in the league, and had been in the CL at the start of the season. so.

that, I believe, was the year the board decided to build Valencia's new stadium which is the project that put them so in debt they ended up having to sell DV and DS. (and also stop playing players wages for a while.) because that season was such a shitshow, their was also a lot a lot of locker room drama - no one liked Koeman, no one listened to him, the players didn't get along very well, etc.

I should mention that DV and DS stayed close the whole time though. :D :D

[mardia.livejournal.com]

they did win the Copa del Rey, but also had a fun little relegation battle on their hands

0_0...holy shit. I'm almost afraid to ask, is the new stadium finished or no? And awww, it's great that Villa and Silva stayed close--that type of situation had to be incredibly frustrating, dear God.

[nahco3.livejournal.com]

construction on the new stadium has been frozen since 2009. so, no. it's the kind of thing that makes me want to fly to Valencia and go slap some sense into people. (which is why the Silva and Villa transfers are so hard for Valencia fans to take - they didn't need to happen, if people on the board had actually been smart.)

sorry, I just have a lot of ~feelings~ about this.

[mardia.livejournal.com]

Dear God, that is AWFUL. (It's also why I'm concerned about everyone pushing for a new stadium for Liverpool--I really want this decision to be made rationally and carefully, and I certainly don't want the club to become bankrupt over it.)

Jeez, no wonder Valencia fans are so torn up about the transfers.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

Again butting in in a conversation of people I don't know (hi! nice to meet you! i like your fic!) to contribute one stadium-related thing -- one of my friends is a huge massive Red Sox fan, and when we were talking about the NESV takeover, he said re Anfield, hold on, his own words will explain it better:

D: If New England Sports Ventures does to Anfield what it did to Fenway Park, they will unlock a lot of value. I visited Fenway last month, pretty amazing the difference between what it looks like now and what it looked like in 2001 (which was the previous time I'd gone).
me: Shiny & new?
D: No, not shiny and new, in line with historic tradition (it's the oldest ballpark in America), but they managed to add a few thousand high-priced seats in a way that seems even more fitting with tradition, if that's possible. They took a ballpark that some had suggested had outlived its sell-by date (all the other competing bids for the Sox wanted to move the Sox to a waterfront ballpark) and revived it.

So yes, if NESV has a track record of "this sort of thing", hopefully they will merely refabulize Anfield instead of incurring way more debt to build a new stadium. Woo! (ngl, I am pretty jealous of your new owners.)

[mardia.livejournal.com]

Excuse my language, but thank fuck. The owners have said they're not committed to anything, but John Henry's made a point of saying that once he went to Anfield, he was really surprised at all the talk about needing a new stadium, as he was hugely impressed by the history and atmosphere. So, woot.

Considering all the other crap that has happened--and is likely to still happen this season, I am kind of astonished at our luck in these owners. Have you seen us this season? We don't HAVE any luck to spare! And considering all the crap I've seen other owners pull on other teams, I'm just feeling rather relieved at the moment that at least we don't have to worry about that.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

You know what they say re sunshine, dog's ass, etc... :-) but if you had to get only one piece of luck, this was a good long-term piece to get. All United got from their American owners were stupid Payment In Kind bonds, which do you know what those are? They are THE ASSRAPE THAT KEEPS ON RAPING, christ fuck. (Sorry. I figured you might be okay with strong language, and there really is no way to water down the terminology here; I work in finance and PIK bonds pretty much really are THAT bad.) If they also do end up selling Carrington... I don't even know. Gah. I wish the Glazers would all die in a big luxury yacht accident.

[mardia.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're a Man Utd fan? Dude, what on EARTH is up with the Glazers? Sorry, but finance makes my head spin--it was all I could do to follow Liverpool's court issues back in the fall, and that seems like a relatively simple affair compared to United's finances right now.

All I know about the Glazers is that every month or so, there's a rumor of a bid for the club from Qatar, and then the Glazers release this terse statement about how they're keeping the club for the long term, which...dudes, really? Because I may not know much about finance, but that's not what this looks like.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, United Red of such long standing that, um, I remember when young Giggs was OMG Might Be The Next Lee Sharpe! (I'm old.) :-)

I don't even work in the Fancy Part Of Finance, I just barely know enough to follow it when the Real Pros (like Andy Green) write flag-raising This is A Problem That We Should All Be Worried About blog entries and news articles. It is a special kind of fucked up. Basically, it's a variant of the same shit that got the US into the recession it's currently in -- Very Fancy Debt, and Too Much Of It.

I don't claim to understand what the deal is with Qatar and the Glazers, but it's almost like no owner could be WORSE right now, so hopefully if Qatar or whoever keep putting pressure on the Glazers, they'll eventually sell. Hopefully before the club is run into the ground. The only thing keeping us afloat right now is the magician known as Sir Alex, who, like a 1940s wartime wife, is stretching what he has to make do and mend. It's definitely not a great squad, and the talent is thin in comparison to what we had not even that long ago, but SOMEHOW they are mostly eking out the results, God bless them.

(To be honest, though, this has been the weirdest EPL season in ever. At the beginning of this season I pretty much accepted that United would finish trophy-free because of the thin squad and general lack of quality, but... EVERYONE has sucked this year, in massive and surprising ways... as a Liverpool fan, I'm sure you were surprised by your own team! So it's come down to who can suck the least over 9 months, and we'll just have to see how this plays out. Oh football, why u so crazy sometimes?)

[mardia.livejournal.com]

This is without doubt, possibly the strangest season to come in as a newbie fan--not just w/r/t Liverpool, but with the EPL in general. Apparently the only thing that isn't new is Arsenal choking at the worst times--or best times, I guess, if you're a United fan. (But really, y'all couldn't work it out against Sunderland at HOME? FFFF.)

Oh God, don't even get me started on Liverpool--when I fear we'll lose badly, we win (see: Chelsea double) and when I have a reasonable assumption we'll win, we get our asses kicked. (See: Blackpool's double against us--I may enjoy Ian Holloway trolling like a pro, but not against my team!)

I'm sorry, but the description of SAF as a 1940s wartime wife is the best footie metaphor I've heard YET. LOLOLOL. But truly, good luck with your owners, and I hope you guys get it worked out soon. (Speaking from experience, having your shitty American owners be nothing more than a bad memory is a REALLY GOOD FEELING. Even if I still reflexively hiss at the mention of Tom Hicks.) And yeah, the impression I get is that whoever buys United, it's someone with an oil fortune behind them, since they're the only ones who can afford to buy the club, especially at the asking price the Glazers are putting on it. (The last figure I heard was somewhere in the region of 1.5 billion POUNDS, and it's probably just a rumor, but jfc.)

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

Omg, if you are new to this - I cannot IMAGINE! I've been watching the EPL since before it had "Premier" on it, and this is bizarroland. It's really rare for there to be so much fail spread so evenly around that the bottom of the table is this tightly packed at this point in the season. The only remotely typical part is that two teams have pretty much "pulled away" so that you know who it's between by now. (But even said "pulling away" is rarely done in quite this full-of-fail fashion.)

(Arsenal, btw, NEVER used to choke! Arsenal used to be among United's fiercest, most physical, most determined rivals -- when those two teams played there was always *something*, because there were hot-tempered hard men on both sides, so the fights were AMAZING. And yes, I said hard men! At Arsenal! They never used to be tippy tappy twinkle fairies! They used to be Boring Boring Arsenal, 1-0 To The Arsenal! Their back 5 -- Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Keown, Winterburn -- used to be the fiercest, most reliable thing about them! I hated those guys! BOY, how things have changed.
FWIW, I date the tippy tappy passing style more or less to the introduction of Cesc Fabregas. Show me who your central midfielder is, and I will tell you how you play...)

Anyway, that LONG digression on Arsenal aside. It's not just Liverpool who have been as unreliable as you describe - EVERYONE is doing that this year, losing when you expect they might win and vice versa. Spurs too, City too, even United! Losing to Wolves? *smh* We had it coming though; given the quality of the performances, there was no way this was going to be an unbeaten season. Speaking of which, the best football turn of phrase I've heard this season is "Manchester United are still unbeaten, but for Invincibles, they've looked awfully unconvincing at times. The Unconvincibles!" I was a little sad when the streak was broken, if only because I couldn't refer to them as the Unconvincibles anymore.

You remember the Singaporean businessman who wanted to throw his hat in the ring to buy Liverpool? I heard he was actually a United fan. But Liverpool were actually, you know, affordable...

Anyway, I should head to bed soon in order to be up bright and early for the big match at Anfield tomorrow! All my worst wishes to your team - I'm sure the feeling is entirely mutual. ;-D I would say goodnight, except that I have to go leave a comment (non-trolly! I promise! that is not how I roll!) on your Pepe Reina entry now. I'll see you there in a second...

[mardia.livejournal.com]

The only consistent thread in the English media so far this season has been, "Premier League is CRAZYCAKES, yo." Except, y'know, they're more British and cranky about it. And haha, the fail is basically across the board right now, it's like nobody can put together anything remotely consistent, good or bad. (Haha, remember when Chelsea was kicking everybody's asses at the start of the season and was like, seven, nine points clear of everybody else? Yeah, I can't either.)

BAHAHAHA. Arsenal, hard? Oh, YOU SURELY JEST. Lol, I kid, I've read Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, so I know that the Arsenal of old is MUCH different than its current incarnation. So I shouldn't shake my head too much at their current performances, considering how cracked the season's been for everyone. I'm pretty sure the Wolves are the greatest example of this. They beat us, they beat you guys, and they're STILL in relegation! WTF. I'd say La Liga is more soothing in comparison, except that it really, really isn't. (Stupid Sporting Gijon. And Hercules. And Mallorca, the first time around.)

Ahahaha, I hope our strikers make your backup defenders CRY tomorrow with the goals they score, so yes, it's completely mutual, lol. And hee, see you at the other entry!

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

FML, I was supposed to go to bed over an hour ago. Oh football.

Wolves is a special brand of - how can you play this well and still be bottom of the table?! by being BOBBINS when not playing big teams is how. (I really like Mick McCarthy.)

La Liga is so much more soothing, are you kidding me, both to the eyes and the soul. The entire first half of this season, I would watch United in the morning, get annoyed at how poorly everyone was playing, mutter and rant, and then watch Barcelona in the afternoon and think "aaaahhhh. This is why I love football. So beautiful, so elegant." I swear Barca was the only thing keeping me sane back when United were throwing away 2 goal leads against Everton and Chelsea were romping away merrily with their wins.

I can't believe neither Rio nor Vida are playing tomorrow, damn you bent refs and tweaked calves, but a Red always has faith, so have faith I shall. Smalling's been looking good, actually. Hopefully one for the future, and by the future I mean in... 6 hours! Wooo!