I keep telling you guys: it's okay.

We're happy when Superbowl's flashing around all the big bucks on big stars talking up crypto, when we see crypto ads on Wall Street, Times Square, right? And most of the time, none of it has anything to do with crypto (most ads aren't even allowing you to own any coins or interact with blockchains, for example).

Might as well allow the FUD to keep squeezing out the fear.

2 days, with the interest rate to be announced today, in a few hours. Europe and Asia stocks just closed a bit lower (Bitcoin happy to reflect that it seems) as they're probably expecting a bit of bad news, even if the quarter-point hike that's predicted will likely be announced. It's what they'll say accompanying the announcement that investors are itching to hear now and I think they can't believe we're getting off lightly at the start of the year.

I remember Long Blockchain or Long Island Blockchain yeah. Similar to all the "e-name" companies I saw pop up by the dozen or even "name.com".

AI does seem a bit old fashioned now, no? .bit never really caught on, .io was only popular in crypto but I expected Web3 to be the next buzzword... or .xyz to denote Web3.

Could be wrong, have been wrong before.

Not looking good for my Coppa bet. Need to kick myself each time a game looks tempting, but I thought Inter would continue their slump, while Atalanta might go on scoring. Still half an hour to play but I'm switching off. Don't remember a recent time Atalanta haven't mustered a single attempt on goal... while Inter are trying for fun. Maybe I wake up and Lookman becomes a hero again but Zapata and Pasalic are shades away from themselves...

I don't but I hear it. It's been a while since I had to concede to our poor form but it had to come sooner or later. As I'd said even several ties we had, if I weren't Liverpool, I'd be betting against them regularly. Brighton odds were not even 27/01 on the last game -- that's an accurate assessment.

I'll take Barca ML tentatively but yeah need to see how they both do in UCL and Europa.


Yeah, Dembele sad, for me Ansu Fati also seems to not be hitting his peak, he's been long my Barca favourite (not that I follow much).

Totally taking Osasuna/Athletic in the final though!

On the contrary, I think we did feel the impact of the rate hikes (the dollar was well above the euro for a good time, and also all time highs against my local currency) -- but that was always going to be temporary and the return to "norm" now exposes long-term vulnerabilities of the dollar.

I do feel a "black swan" is yet to come but yes, that will be as deep as it will be temporary. My DCA should enjoy that short period =)

Late to the news but good old Dyche is back (I thought it would be Bielsa really): who here believes he's going to go turn Everton into full Burnley and get Weghorst types up front again? To be fair, that might not be the worst thing for the Blues right now.


Yeah, I'm just having a dig at him even though he's got nothing to do with the misery I'm feeling right now. My kid keeps reminding me about him (I talked him up a lot of Brighton this season) and that I should also now talk up Conte (who, now might be overseeing some crazy transfers if the rumour mill is right).

igehhh will not be happy if I say this but I hope you're right about spectacular backfires.

@bering Kante to Liverpool, come on, man.

^ Saka doesn't lose his spot, if I know Arteta well. It took time and patience to exorcise Saka's misery at Euro (in fact, I think Arteta brought up the miss a couple of times already so we know he worked specifically on that) and you don't want to ruin a good thing.

That said, he's only had 1 pen this season...


How did I miss that? Oh yeah, too depressed to watch games these days, but damn, I'm going to have to try fit him in at some point when others drop off (like Almiron already has).

Yeah, I actually thought Mitoma was also not bad at World Cup, but the rest of his teammates were in similar high category, I just love that kind of goal, it's less silky skill and just regular footballing, but with courage and verve.

I bet in all of this, it's Potter who looks back with the most regret.


Man, Steve must have really good contacts to get these legends on the show! On unrelated note, we have to be so old if we feel like we have fresh memories of the guys Behind the Bet. See if he's as chatty as Calamity James


I'm watching the games now already expecting bad things to happen, so I feel ya. Even before Mitoma's goal I saw the end coming, the Chelsea draw was probably the last time I thought we might have a chance of changing. It's so bad, Klopp actually said we played quite well and I'm not sure which game he was watching (a few good attacks don't scrub out the bad passing and nerves throughout). The way things are, we might as well play B team and give the first 11 a sort of... mental retreat?

I know it's dumb but I actually am looking forward to Real... it's our only chance of salvaging a season, but you're probably right, we're going to end up whipped badly if we don't find a way to stop the slide.

What's interesting this January is a lot of other big clubs seem to be caught in some kind of funk. Chelsea, (even City?), Real, Juve, Inter, Bayern, PSG, I can think of. So we've got Arsenal, Napoli, taking advantage. Good for them!

Certainly not one of the best phrases I've become accustomed to; bull trap feels more elegant and fakeout more snazzy. False bull sounds just a bit like someone trying too hard (even if I'm sure it's a common phrase).

I'm not new to the idea of every rally being called a trap though (and conversely, every pullback a death spiral).

So Clasico's confirmed, although it won't be the grand finale for Copa del Rey, I think a semifinal meet is just as good. Real will have gone off meeting Liverpool first so this game's in between the Last 16 legs... not sure if it's a good thing at all, but I suppose only worth placing bets after the Liverpool result.

Great chance for Osasuna/Athletic to get their hands on a trophy, though!

I know it's facetious but I've been looking at crypto companies stocks as altcoins. They rally harder than Bitcoin when it's bullish, they crumble harder when Bitcoin's down.

I'd say it's a long way off from being correctly valued, but then I don't know anything about stocks nor of Coinbase profits, but it still doesn't agree with my logic that Bitcoin's performance should affect stocks of companies that should be valued based off their performance. I suppose revenue just doesn't work the way it should with crypto companies.

Ah damn, should have read older posts, so it's double game week confirmed, no wonder the Rashford love. Still plenty of time to switch around, and I'm happy to take a few points off to bring in another midfielder. Or Nunez back (haha).

Maddisson still too risky? He's been in training already. Sure, not sharp, but all we need from him is a couple freekick goals.

My FPL is currently the definition of fantasy (players I believe will turn a corner in a big way).

Yes, but not restricted to FUD. I think any kind of solicitation is unethical, especially the way most people do it (cherry pick information and showing what is positive, sometimes even unfounded). I love when there's spreading of awareness and information, absolutely don't like when speculative hype is being bandied around. Doesn't matter if FOMO or FUD, it's all generally quite irresponsible leading to people parting with money they can't afford to lose.

I know it's all opinion but when you're spreading it, even paying for it to be heard/seen...

Have to say the only stickers I've ever come across in my wanderings (apart from on shops to signal an accepting merchant) have always been neutral (no message), or even funny/non-serious (I distinctly recall the rollercaster Bitcoin person thing). Hard to spread a message without providing some kind of evidence, but I do always wonder what a person sees first when Googling. Definitely need to think about adding this forum link

The biggest probably crap news I hear today is Lukaku wanted by both Newcastle AND Spurs. I usually don't pay attention to that kind of nonsense but something tells me it's actually true. Heh.


Yeah and now, for me, who wants to go to Chelsea now and sit on the bench? Only people who don't mind not playing (aka not hungry enough). Something tells me it's not just about Chelsea being idiot in transfer, I wonder if also about Potter not knowing what he's doing or can he really be blameless here?

Closest thing I ever did to that was a short stay in the UK, which coincided with Liverpool's run to the final of Europa League in 2016 (we lost the final but it was unexpected, and Kloppomania had just begun).

Opened new accounts with almost every bookie I ran into -- online and at the shops. Didn't know there were so many! All books give new players a first bet promo, which pays out really generously. They limit you to something like 2 GBP per bet, but payouts were something like 50/1 on Liverpool wins. So I did this at every stage of the game on a new bookie all the way to the final.

Then throughout Europa, they all ran similar promos even in EPL. Boosted prices on small things like scorer, first scorer. I put almost every scorer promo on Daniel Sturridge. Who was on a hot streak that season.

With something less than 50 pounds outlay, I ended up with huge profits thanks to Liverpool's crazy run. Lost quite a bit in the final (which we didn't win) but ended the season well.

Left the UK so closed out all my bookie accounts.

But that wasn't me not going back again, that was just me unable to return =)

Unfortunately not. I was about to pull the trigger when Monza's first goal was disallowed, but then I spent too much time looking at horrible Liverpool play (more on that I'm too tired to explain). But yeah, time to get serious about Monza, I predicted 2-1 on them on Superbru but that was more hopeful than anything else to try and climb the table.

Honestly don't know what's going on in Serie A other than much-publicised Juve... but Napoli seems to be the only one keeping form.

And dare I say, Lazio's the one now improving theirs?

^ Ya saw that, well done, at least someone is not miserable today.

Funny enough, I saw that I actually had Sevilla in one of my tickets, so that passed happily as the first leg. Honestly can't remember ever doing that, it's been ages since I counted them to serve me up anything, so it's a weird accident I'm pleased for.

Meanwhile, Valencia did as expected, and Atletico slim win, business as usual in La Liga

And after I said to myself not to waste any more money on the Reds, I threw away a bit more. How do you rank our worst performances this season? Impossible. Every single Brighton player performed better at passes completed in opponent's half than our entire forward/midfield.

And Fabinho coming on, first key pass so bad, first key tackle could have been a red, he needs a cold storage placement because he has lost all confidence.

Mitoma's goal was pretty slick, rarely see that kind of feint in the air these days. May they go on and win the FA Cup. Don't let City please.