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Re: Ronnie: Trump can dominate for the next decade

Postby Acé

lhpirnie wrote:I think people should be a bit less negative about Yan Bingtao. He very nearly won the NI Open at the age of 17, which would have broken the record. I know Ronnie doesn't like him, but can't we form an independent opinion?

I think he's already a far better player than he has shown in the big semi-finals or finals, which suggests he's still not quite comfortable on the main table. It's easy to see how he can and will get much stronger. As with any of the young Chinese players he has to face a lot of obstacles to give up his life and come and live here.

Any other sport which had a 20-year old tournament winner, when the rest of the winners are all over 30, would be more appreciative.


Bingtao doesn't get the juices flowing compared to other players that broke through his age and if I'm being honest the youngsters that have come after Judd have all sucked, I've yet to get one behind.

Look at Hendry, Ronnie, Ding, Judd when they were young they were breaking through in a way that made that wowed the crowd, Bingtao and Kyren Wilson are flat as pancakes compared to them when they were breaking through and they didn't break through on the scale of those 4 either.

Ding was beating Hendry, Ronnie, Higgins etc when he was breaking through in the mid 2000s, the dude was a firecracker from the start beating legends in TC finals and ranking events, he was hyped to heavens back in those days.

Re: Ronnie: Trump can dominate for the next decade

Postby TheRocket

Acé wrote:It's possible in terms of young talent, snooker has gotten much worse compared to the 90s and 00s

Kinda like tennis, I don't see another Federer, Nadal or even a Djokovic about


thats why i think we should enjoy the current era as much as we can. Snooker could become some sort of dead sport and I've heard thats already the case in the UK. With no younger people playing Snooker anymore and clubs being closed. Cant confirm it though because I don't live there.

But it speaks for itself that we don't really have a great british talent in the game. And in the other places of the World Snooker will never be a big thing. We need to be honest about that. May it be continental Europe or America.

So it pretty much depends on the Chinese players if Snooker is still played to a high level in 10-20 years.
Last edited by TheRocket on 19 Apr 2020, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Ronnie: Trump can dominate for the next decade

Postby Acé

TheRocket wrote:thats why i think we should enjoy the current era as much as we can. Snooker could become some sort of dead sport and I've heard thats already the case in the UK. With no younger people playing Snooker anymore and clubs being closed. Cant confirm it though because I don't live there.

But it speaks for itself that we don't really have a great british talent in the game. And in the other places of the World Snooker will never be a big thing. We need to be honest about that. May it be continental Europe or America.

So it pretty much depends on the Chinese players if Snooker is still played to a high level in 10-20 years.


Seems to be a sport thing in general lately if I'm being honest, even if football there's still no one better than Messi and Ronaldo or a young talent coming up the ranks like those 2.

already mentioned Tennis

Dunno what's happening with my generation, I mean I'm not a social media freak by any means I like my sport and keep fit but...dunno, can't be a coincidence that snooker talents, tennis, football stars etc all came along when there was no social media

Re: Ronnie: Trump can dominate for the next decade

Postby Iranu

There are 1000x as many distractions as there were when the co92 came through.

Also, you look at footballers like Pogba, he earns more from his Instagram than from his football contract. Obviously that’s not to much the case in snooker but that combined with the designed addictiveness of social media and it’s hard for snooker to compete.

There’s a reason Judd won his first world title at 30 once he’d calmed down on the Twitter etc.

Re: Ronnie: Trump can dominate for the next decade

Postby Acé

Iranu wrote:There are 1000x as many distractions as there were when the co92 came through.

Also, you look at footballers like Pogba, he earns more from his Instagram than from his football contract. Obviously that’s not to much the case in snooker but that combined with the designed addictiveness of social media and it’s hard for snooker to compete.

There’s a reason Judd won his first world title at 30 once he’d calmed down on the Twitter etc.


Yep agree, as my dad said "back in those days" lol if someone was in sport they'd earn a living through just the sport and learn to hone their craft from an early age, big sponsors, earning money from social media etc, those type of incentives weren't there. Sport has generally hit a sweet spot regarding money.

Look at Bouchard in Tennis. Horrible tennis player that's not mounted to anything, but she earns lots through social media presence and being a pretty girl

Re: Ronnie: Trump can dominate for the next decade

Postby Dan-cat

HappyCamper wrote:o'sullivan repeatedly said in studio analysis things like 'he (yan) just doesn't excite me as a player'. and generally seemed to downplay his achievements this season.

though i think he also predicted him as a future world champ a few years back when he won the world cup with zhou. in short o'sullivan's opinions are a world of contrasts.


Never heard Ronnie say that about Yan. The only thing I remember was hin saying he should be winning tournaments at age 19 if he's going to be a great