Football phrases that grinds your gears

WeePat

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No one has a ceiling.

Your are limiting that player by claiming they have a 'ceiling'.

There's no such thing. How does one define a ceiling? As you say it's pure guesswork, so it means absolutely nothing.

It's bollocks and grinds my gears proper. :wenger:
Players don’t have ceilings. They have potential. They realise it, or they don’t. ‘Ceiling’ is a fantasy.
Come on, it's just a turn of phrase to say one player has high potential or higher potential than another player. Not a literal limit to how good a player can become.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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Come on, it's just a turn of phrase to say one player has high potential or higher potential than another player. Not a literal limit to how good a player can become.
Yeah, it’s childish.

Potential is a much better word. Ceiling is reductive nonsense used as a metric by children.
 

WeePat

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Giggle all you like. You’re suggesting that there’s an actual observable metric that tells you how good a player can get. It’s the stuff of computer games and is thoroughly daft.
I'm literally not. Read the post you've responded to. It doesn't claim to actual limit players potential. It's just a way to say .... god I'm just repeating myself now. I'll leave you to yell at the clouds mate.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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I'm literally not. Read the post you've responded to. It doesn't claim to actual limit players potential. It's just a way to say .... god I'm just repeating myself now. I'll leave you to yell at the clouds mate.
You can’t change the meanings of words mate.

“He has a higher ceiling” is just a stunted, abstract, limiting term to apply to an assessment of potential. No professional coach or scout uses it. It’s playground shit.

But Go off I guess.
 

WeePat

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You can’t change the meanings of words mate.

“He has a higher ceiling” is just a stunted, abstract, limiting term to apply to an assessment of potential. No professional coach or scout uses it. It’s playground shit.

But Go off I guess.
You are being way too literal about it, but yeah man, cool I guess.
 
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Champ

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Come on, it's just a turn of phrase to say one player has high potential or higher potential than another player. Not a literal limit to how good a player can become.
So why say it then? :lol:

Why not say, 'that players really good, he'll go far if he realises his potential'?

Rather than, 'he got quite a high ceiling hasn't he?'
 

WeePat

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So why say it then? :lol:

Why not say, 'that players really good, he'll go far if he realises his potential'?

Rather than, 'he got quite a high ceiling hasn't he?'
It's just a turn of phrase. That's how they work. They don't always make literal sense, but we all know what they mean and that's the point. It's really not that deep either. I hadn't intended to get into a silly back and forth about it but the tone of his posts were just annoying :lol:
 

thisISben

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‘If that was on target, it’s a goal’. Usually when a player hits the woodwork.

‘On Target’ could be anywhere in between the posts, so who says the keeper isn’t saving it?
 

sirAlexsglasses

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Yeah, just say their names. I’ve heard another one like “the Bayerns, Barcas and Madrids”. How many Bayern Munich or Real Madrid sides are there.:mad: Just say “top clubs” or name them properly.
Glad it isn’t just me then, honestly I must be unhinged as I want to launch my TV when they say it.
 

calodo2003

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‘The post / crossbar / woodwork saved the keeper.’

A repeat of a post I made in here years ago, but I heard it during a hockey match the other night.
 

Frank Grimes

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"Decisions even themselves out over the season". Stupid saying based on nothing.

"Can he handle the step up to International football." Most International games are a standard below an average Premie League game and have been for some time.
 

Pretzels81

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"I can't believe he missed that"

Or maybe it wasn't that easy. Armchair comment.
 

Tyrion

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‘The post / crossbar / woodwork saved the keeper.’

A repeat of a post I made in here years ago, but I heard it during a hockey match the other night.
That and "if that had been on target, it would have been a goal".
 

C'est Moi Cantona

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'This is done', 'This is so clearly done', 'This deal is all but done', 'It''s done guys' . When it's so clearly not.
 

Red Daz

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“Generational talent”

“Wand of a left foot”

“double pivot”

“come and get me plea”

“mentality monsters”
 

kthanksbye

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I'm literally not. Read the post you've responded to. It doesn't claim to actual limit players potential. It's just a way to say .... god I'm just repeating myself now. I'll leave you to yell at the ceiling mate.
Fixed it for you.
 

wolvored

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Various people. - Hes got a good engine - why not say hes got great stamina? Hes not a Ferrari.
Various people. - Hes out of sorts - what other time would you use that sentence? Why not say hes off form.
Various people. - that was a professional foul - Is there an amateur one? No hes just a dirty bastard is all.
Big Ron. - It's still early doors yet!? Surely it should be early days?
A great goal scored by an English player, various people. - If that goal had have been scored by (insert top foreign players name over the years) we would be showing that for years!? Every goal over the last 30 odd years and some even earlier have been televised, so they can be shown again and again.

Couple of old comments always had me baffled or chuckling:
David Pleat on Waddle for England. - Waddle can play 2 channels a wide channel and a narrow one!? WTF was that?
Think this was Neil Warnock but not 100% sure but the saying I havent forgot. - That was a great shot. If it had have been on target it would have been a goal!? It couldn't have been a great shot if it wasn't on target ffs

The biggest grind my gears though is the transfer media. Not phrases, but when its reported (any team) have beaten Man Utd to the signing of (a player we have only been linked to in the media). Just to make us more a laughing stock.
 

phelans shorts

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Various people. - Hes got a good engine - why not say hes got great stamina? Hes not a Ferrari.
Various people. - Hes out of sorts - what other time would you use that sentence? Why not say hes off form.
Both of these are absolutely fine I’d say. Stamina is a clunky word anyway (if you’re going down that route sure you’d use cardio) but engine more implies that they don’t lose performance when they’re tired too, to me at least.

Also I use out of sorts in daily conversations lots. Feeling not great but not ill? Then you’re a bit out of sorts. Nothing to worry about but not at your best.
 

RopersReturn

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Listening to Ray Parlour struggle to form a coherent sentence on TalkSPORT the other morning. In particular, his fondness for the noun, “Governor” and “Gaffer” became somewhat irritating after a couple of hours.
 
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Chipper

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Big Ron. - It's still early doors yet!? Surely it should be early days?
No, early doors a common phrase. It's disputed where exactly it came from but there are two main theories.

It's either from a time when the doors of a theatre would open early to those willing to pay a bit extra in order to avoid the queue just they like do with fast track check ins at airports now. Or it comes from when pubs used to close during the afternoon and was referring to the early part of the evening after the doors had been unlocked to allow people in again.
 

Mr Pigeon

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"economic levers" just makes me think of some Barca exec pompously tugging down on a giant lever to open a drawbridge.
 

M Bison

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Not really a football phrase but really gets on my nerves posters writing out an imaginary conversation between a club/player :mad: