Chris Bridges

[The 44 ⚽️ @The_Forty_Four]

"You can’t support other national teams at the World Cup"

Me at home celebrating Cape Verde draw

[Richard Seiler @richardseiler]

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦

Jeremy Clarkson has never pretended to be anything other than exactly what he is

Brutally honest. No oil painting. A pot belly, a lifelong smoker, a drinker. Not exactly the modern alpha male or is he?

And somehow that is the whole point

I have watched him for most of my life
First as a motoring journalist who could make you want a car you would never own and never need
Then as something bigger
The loudest, funniest, most unfiltered mouthpiece the ordinary person ever had
A man who said the thing everyone was thinking while the rest of television tiptoed around it

From Top Gear he built something that should not have worked
Three middle aged men, The Stig, a track and a chemistry you cannot manufacture
James May the patient one
Richard Hammond the brave one
And Clarkson the force of nature dragging both of them into chaos and somehow back out again

When it all fell apart at the BBC he could have disappeared
The fracas was not his finest hour and he never pretended it was
He owned it, apologized and carried on
No reinvention, no groveling tour, no carefully managed comeback
He just kept being himself and let the work speak

The move to Amazon and The Grand Tour proved something I think a lot of people missed
The format was never the magic
The men were
You can take three friends out of a studio and drop them anywhere on earth and the loyalty between them travels with them

But it is Clarkson's Farm where the whole picture finally comes into focus

Here is a man with nothing left to prove walking into a field he barely understands and refusing to fake competence he does not have
He has run that farm at break even and then at an outright loss in full public view
No editing it into a success story
No pretending the numbers work when they do not
His farm manager hands him one brutal truth after another and he sits there and takes it

A whole season swallowed by drought even after he leaned into robotics and the most advanced farming money could buy
Technology was supposed to be the answer and the weather did not care
He showed that too
Most people would have cut it

And through all of it he has done something quietly remarkable
He has dragged the plight of the British farmer into the light
The paperwork, the council, the margins that vanish, the weather that ruins a year of work in a week
People who had never thought about where their food comes from suddenly cared because he made them care

And then there is the part nobody warned me about
Men who raise animals for meat and still love them
Who name them, worry about them, sit with them
Who treat them with respect and dignity right up to the moment they cannot keep them
And feel the full weight of sending them off

He does not hide that
He lets the camera sit in the discomfort of it
The grief of a man who knows the deal he made and still finds it hard

That is not weakness
That is honesty most people are far too afraid to show

We live in an age that rewards the polished, the curated, the carefully built personal brand
And here is a scruffy, swearing, chain smoking farmer who has done the opposite of all of it and won
He stayed exactly who he was while the world begged him to become a product

That is the whole secret
There is no act
There never was

And that is exactly why we keep watching

Praying for a full recovery mate, looking forward to another season of Clarkson's Farms!

[Pelle @Harrypell_7]

Over the moon for the boy!!!

Played a key role in keeping the bulls up.
Deserve everything that’s coming your way.
We’re all so proud of ya lad!!
@Gmunday101

🖤
@HerefordFC

[Forever Everton // Rob @F0reverEvert0n]

Cole Palmer and Phil Foden sat at home watching this weapon 😩

[The Magic Mod @TaylorMod]

Not one stone island jumper or pair of Adidas gazelle’s insight ffs the game is gone

😂😂😂

[Caiden ⚒🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿ᴸᴺ¹ @CFgm_WHU]

You do this to a police officer at football and you're doing a 5 stretch, out fucking rageous

[World Cup Wheddsta ⚽️ @Wheddsta]

Football is so obsessed with xG and analytics nowadays so players don’t attempt things like this.

That’s why we rarely see screamers any more.

Game has become so boring.

[Bailey Wynne @bailey_wynne2]

Kane on his own goal line, asking for a pass. Rice catching his breath, saying it's not over. Bellingham doing a 50-touch 180-degree turn every 5 minutes. Madueke dribbling the ball out of play. We're going to have a great time.

[Deano @deanocx]

Harry Kane turning up at the England camp to be greeted by Quansah and Madueke

[Callum Castel @CallumCastel7]

Noni Madueke for Premier League champions:

1 goal
2 assists

Jarrod Bowen for club likely to be relegated:

8 goals
10 assists

[Chris Bridges @Bridgo2]

@everythinghufc @HerefordFC ??

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

This has been a terrible week for VAR.

The events at West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur and Motherwell proved as much.

And to think its introduction was designed to “get rid of headline mistakes and scandals”. Instead, they have not been removed from the game but have in fact been piling up like never before.

Mistakes and scandals that are not just one-off errors, misses, lapses of judgment, but rather an inevitable part of the VAR system.

There is one clean clear simple solution for this, @JackPittBrooke argues.

That is full abolition without delay.

🔗 https://t.co/Upt9cS7FL1

[Thegingerwig @thegingerwig]

Now imagine a VAR check for a foul by Ballotelli and tell me football is better with VAR

[Chris Bridges @Bridgo2]

@JacquelineO1970

[Chris Bridges @Bridgo2]

@KHFC111 Paul Caddis

[Cameron Ponsonby @cameronponsonby]

Football had a monopoly on the single greatest moment of elation that existed in sport...and got rid of it in pursuit of a perfection that doesn't exist. Genuinely so shite

[The 44 ⚽️ @The_Forty_Four]

VAR stole a generation moment once again…

Ruining the beautiful game