England U21s on Sky Main Event starts at 2pm. Should be worth watching as the England v San Marino game will not be.

Rule Britannia. God save the Queen. (No not you TG THE Queen)

Turgid 0-0 so far. Smith Rowe just subbed after 65 mins. Eddie staying on.

I’m not watching the under 21 game, and nor shall I watch the San Marino game later. Watching paint dry sounds enthralling by comparison.

I’m not watching the under 21 game, and nor shall I watch the San Marino game later. Watching paint dry sounds enthralling by comparison.

Try supporting Ireland, Bernard. Before last night we had scored one goal in our previous 8 games. Yes. One. We went completely mad last night and scored two goals in the same match but sadly lost to Serbia 3-2 as our 3rd choice keeper was a bit crap. It's some roller coaster of utter frustration.

Thanks. Not that I’m eager to see him to play on Saturday.

FIFA is licking its the chops at the potential revenue from the states if the public adopts football on par with its 3 major sports.

The EPL's popularity has grown very large in America. However, football is far more a spectator sport than a participatory sport. There are many people like myself who are huge fans of the sport but don't play it. Rare 15 or 20 years ago, now there are many hundreds of thousands if not millions of fans like me. America still has experimented with different models, currently adopting the academy model the rest of the world has.

But until America's best athlete sees football as a viable option to American football and basketball, or even baseball, it won't be as big as FIFA hopes. If one looks at a majority of the best American footballers, a common denominator is that they are offspring of immigrants that have a football background for the most part.

Until America brings football to the masses but more specifically to the areas that are producing the best athletes, it won't get the best out of the country.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56387717

I’m similarly fascinated by The Loch Ness monster. I don't know anything about zoology, biology, geology, geography, marine biology, cryptozoology,evolutionary theory, evolutionary biology, meteorology, limnology, history, herpetology, palaeontology or archaeology but I think; what if a dinosaur had got in the lake

Well, you are certainly proving yourself to be the "missing link", that much I do know.

African Cup of Nations is in January 2022 so we'll lose players for a month next season. Ghana, Gabon and Egypt have qualified and Ivory Coast are expected to join them. That's Partey, Aubameyang, Elneny and Pépé all away at that time.
I must admit I thought the timings of the ANC had moved so it didn't coincide with the middle of the european season.
If we're lining up any African signings in the summer we need to consider this carefully.

Hey Soc, I haven't personally, but I have had a teammate in university from Oregon who is an avid camper and hunter and says that he and others at various times have 'seen something' that was unexplainable. Most people will say it was a 'bear' but they say they know the difference and his dog is used to bears and will be aggressive towards a bear but was utterly terrified of whatever it is.

I've seen those programs. In school we actually spoke of it and its actually something a biology or science teacher will discuss in most schools when I was growing up. As for believing myself, I will say I wouldn't dismiss it. I have to assume if our government gives any credence to it they have been secretly monitoring the areas of possible sightings.

I think one of the biggest reasons one can't dismiss it out of hand is from the many stories of the native populations. For me that's the strongest evidence. These people have been living on the land for thousands of years, and as you know are very close to the earth and land. If they say there is something out there, I would tend to believe them.

I was more into the Area 51 'thingy' and the possibility of a government cover up as well.

If the Americans knew that Bigfoot existed the poor thing would be an attraction at seaworld by now trust me

I’m similarly fascinated by The Loch Ness monster. I don't know anything about zoology, biology, geology, geography, marine biology, cryptozoology,evolutionary theory, evolutionary biology, meteorology, limnology, history, herpetology, palaeontology or archaeology but I think; what if a dinosaur had got in the lake

Little green men from mars, massive election fraud in the 2020 US presidential elections, and whether or not the earth is flat, are similarly fascinating topics. With Easter coming up soon, I feel we should reopen the debate on the existence of the Easter Bunny. On shouldn't dismiss these ideas on the say-so of the New York Time and bunch of 'scientists' and 'experts' who go around calling themselves 'Dr' without having medical degrees. What good is all this 'fake science' compared to one's gut instinct and youtube?

Basically true. If aliens existed don’t you think one would have popped by to say hello by now after a couple thousand years.

Ah, OK, so basically what you are saying is that there is no life anywhere else in the universe and beyond.........well, thanks for that quite remarkable insight and for clearing the matter up once and for all.

Wow. Interesting. What is the most compelling information for you?

For me, an alien landing in America is convenient. Of all the places in the world, America? Not that I don't think it couldn't have happened. In middle school we had to do a book report on 'Chariot of the Gods'. I don't think teachers can get away with that these days in many school districts in the states.

It is fascinating though. There is an ongoing 'urban legend' of sorts that the Defense department gave U.S. corporations secrets from the aliens and ship to re-engineer and make products out of it. Supposedly, instant pictures from Polaroid were part of this.

Also, that its kept secret from all presidents for 'plausible deniability' reasons. Again, stories, but its rumored that presidents have asked if it was true and were rebuffed.

There’s no factual evidence to suggest intelligent life exists in our own solar system apart from us. It may grate with you but is the truth. Despite landing on moons and planets we’ve found nothing.

If you choose to live in a parallel universe outside of reality your choice.

I think it would be difficult to categorically state there is no other form of life 'out there', just as it is impossible to prove that there is. My stance is I'll believe it when science shows it to me but it wouldn't surprise me if at some point in the future we did find life (and I don't mean human shaped green people), just 'life'. The reason for that is the advances in thinking and technology. We're discovering new things on our own planet daily, there are various caves in the world that we know so little about, we know more about our own solar system than we do parts of the deepest oceans. Not that long ago the collective thinking was the world was flat (some think it still is!) So based on there being infinitely more things we don't know about the universe than we do know I'd say the chances of other 'life' out there remain pretty high

Ah, OK, so basically what you are saying is that there is no life anywhere else in the universe and beyond.........well, thanks for that quite remarkable insight and for clearing the matter up once and for all.

Knowing everything about the universe, as well as about football........I just marvel at your wisdom and intellect.

https://www.football365.com/news/kane-better-than-lewandowski-says-merson

Merson talks some nonsense at times. His basis for rating Kane above Lewandowski is that Lewandoski didn't do anything at the last world cup and Kane won the golden boot. Talk about using one thing without context to frame your argument. Lewandowski plays for an inferior team with Poland and half of Kane's goals were penalties. Of course Kane is an exceptional player but Lewandowski is just better. Look at what he's done in the champions league. Lewandowski was totally robbed of the Balon D'or last year simply because they didn't host an award. He's got 40+ goals in the last 6 seasons (Kane has done that once in his career) and is already on 42 goals from 36 games this season, not to mention the bundles and bundles of trophies he's won.

Lewandowski has 263 goals in his last 276 appearances for his club
Kane has 176 goals in his last 250 over the same 6 seasons
Lewandowski's entire career goals to games ratio is 0.69 compared to Kane's0.59

Lewandowski for me is quite simply the best striker on the planet right now.

Kane will probably go on to break the england goal scoring record and the all time premier league goal scoring record but that will be it unless he goes somewhere in wins big trophies. We remember Shearer as a great striker (who did win the premier league) but he's not a patch on Henry in all time premier league rankings

I think it would be difficult to categorically state there is no other form of life 'out there', just as it is impossible to prove that there is. My stance is I'll believe it when science shows it to me but it wouldn't surprise me if at some point in the future we did find life (and I don't mean human shaped green people), just 'life'. The reason for that is the advances in thinking and technology. We're discovering new things on our own planet daily, there are various caves in the world that we know so little about, we know more about our own solar system than we do parts of the deepest oceans. Not that long ago the collective thinking was the world was flat (some think it still is!) So based on there being infinitely more things we don't know about the universe than we do know I'd say the chances of other 'life' out there remain pretty high

I'd agree with your conclusion regarding Lewandowski. However, if Kane played for Bayern rather than Spurs he'd be getting a lot more goals.

Considering the sheer size of the known or observable universe I find it almost impossible to accept that earth is the only planet capable of supporting life. The star in our solar system is obviously the Sun and it has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It used to have nine before Pluto was demoted from a planet. So far, the Earth is the only planet known to have life but there is growing evidence that water used to be on Mars, meaning life was possible there.

But I think of it this way. There are allegedly 200 billion stars in our galaxy. If they all have eight (or once nine) planets circling round them as the Sun in our solar system does, there are 1,600 billion planets in our galaxy. Will Earth seriously be the only one with life? 1,600 to 1,800 billion (as not everyone agrees that Pluto shouldn’t be considered one) is a seriously big number of planets in our galaxy.

But it goes further than that. In the observable universe there are up to 2 trillion galaxies. If our solar system is average (and I’ve little doubt it may not be as the Sun is apparently a fairly small star), that would mean there are some 1,600 billion multiplied by up to 2 trillion planets in the observable universe. The idea that none of them apart from Earth has life looks, to me at least, statistically remote.

Also, the actual number of planets can possibly be increased many times because what’s the current observable universe may not be the entire universe. If the universe includes everything, I find it impossible to believe there’s an astronomical brick wall that marks the end or outer limits of the universe. It just means, in my view, there are loads more planets in the universe beyond the 1,600 billion multiplied by up to 2 trillion planets that haven’t yet been observed or discovered.

Considering the sheer size of the known or observable universe I find it almost impossible to accept that earth is the only planet capable of supporting life. The star in our solar system is obviously the Sun and it has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It used to have nine before Pluto was demoted from a planet. So far, the Earth is the only planet known to have life but there is growing evidence that water used to be on Mars, meaning life was possible there.

But I think of it this way. There are allegedly 200 billion stars in our galaxy. If they all have eight (or once nine) planets circling round them as the Sun in our solar system does, there are 1,600 billion planets in our galaxy. Will Earth seriously be the only one with life? 1,600 to 1,800 billion (as not everyone agrees that Pluto shouldn’t be considered one) is a seriously big number of planets in our galaxy.

But it goes further than that. In the observable universe there are up to 2 trillion galaxies. If our solar system is average (and I’ve little doubt it may not be as the Sun is apparently a fairly small star), that would mean there are some 1,600 billion multiplied by up to 2 trillion planets in the observable universe. The idea that none of them apart from Earth has life looks, to me at least, statistically remote.

Also, the actual number of planets can possibly be increased many times because what’s the current observable universe may not be the entire universe. If the universe includes everything, I find it impossible to believe there’s an astronomical brick wall that marks the end or outer limits of the universe. It just means, in my view, there are loads more planets in the universe beyond the 1,600 billion multiplied by up to 2 trillion planets that haven’t yet been observed or discovered.

Surely though without solving time travel it’s not possible for alien life to reach us on earth and they certainly aren’t around in our galaxy as we’d have known by now.

On the basis it takes 7 months to fly to mars ?