Hobsons Choice

FWIW my take on it is this: Whilst SJM would not have been my first choice, it's hard to deny his work ethic. On his day he is excellent, but as others have pointed out, he is streaky. Perhaps SG wants the work ethic to be at the heart of the team, and I can see why. Maybe not leading the team by example in terms of technical ability like Jack did, but perhaps more in terms of effort. It's difficult to know without being around him whether he is a leader, but I am giving SG some lattitude here, as Stevie was absolutely a leader of men on the field, and he therefore should know what that takes. Plus, I remember when we gave Jack the captaincy it was kind of the making of him. He performed better, took more responsibility, and became the heart of the team. At the time Jack was probably the last person I would have selected, because of his lifestyle, but it worked out pretty well. Maybe this will lead to more consistency from SJM, particularly as he will be able to operate further forward, and with fewer defensive responsibilities now we have Kamara. I guess the jury is still out, but then I suppose it always is. We don't really know what cliques and groups exist within the squad. Maybe John is at the centre of the culture of the club. Good Luck, big John. Hope you prove us all wrong and lead us to greatness.

I haven't followed Villa Women much, unfortunately. How is the youth side of things? Usually when you find yourselves as a team in the position we are in (based on comments in this thread), you might look to developing youth as a way to move forward.

As much as I enjoyed the match, and love to see us doing well, there was a bit of diving. We are a wee bit of a shithouse side at times.

Did they actually put a clearing in the woods on their kit?

If we stop giving the ball away in our own half, we'll win this. Sweden's defence ain't great when the ball is on the deck.

Yeah they were mullering us down the left.

Apart from the goal, I didn't think there was much quality showing in that half from either side. England looked like they were crapping themselves for the first 25 mins. Started to improve after the goal so hopefully we see something more second half. Good goal though. Mead was nervy as hell before the goal, but it was a lovely first touch and finish.

I'm not sure it came about after a specific incident, I think they just took the view it was bloody stupid to teach their kids to pet Black Widows. Which is fair enough. Incidentally, did you know that in Australia, they don't have an age rating system for films (12, 15 etc), they have two categories 'Bloody Stupid', and 'She'll be 'right'. One of the above sentences was a lie btw. Shhh.

Sounds about right. If I saw one of those Huntsmen, I'd run into traffic.

VAR checked the penalty shout for England against Spain, allegedly. Which leads me to conclude that either VAR was switched off, or that the people checking it were functionally brain dead.

Interestingly that episode was banned in Australia (I believe so anyway), because they tell Peppa that spiders are harmless, and she should not to be afraid of them. In Oz, spiders are NOT harmless, and children should run screaming for the nearest shoe/rolling pin/5 iron/jeep.

Breached FFP by a huge margin.

Not so sure about that shirt. I'd like the hanger though.

12,000 unfilled NHS Doctor vacancies. 50,000 unfilled Nursing vacancies. Jezza admits Brexit is at least partially to blame.

Are you high right now?

Preferred Brighton's home kit from last year.

To take this slightly sideways, I was wondering if anyone had looked into, or had gotten one of those domestic heat pumps (ground source or otherwise), and whether it's worth it. If we could store some of the heat we've experienced this week and use it at a later date, it would be decent. I've worked on commercial GSHP, but I wanted to know if the domestic equivalent is cheap enough and good enough to get yet.

Don't worry, they'll grow up and get jobs in Wetherspoo....oh wait.

Careful, now, you'll put fishfinger salesmen out of a job, as Panda fingers displace them in the market. Just one of a million new opportunities afforded by Brexit. Next up, cans of creamed earwig soup.

Go on Wes! Score a butt load.

Maybe she's telling them nursery rhymes about how their futures have been sold down the river? That because of climate change and economic collapse, war in Ukraine, the pandemic, energy crises, food scarcity, global inequality, racism, sexism, crime and stretching to breaking point of the NHS, all of which have thrived over the last government's tenure, things aren't looking so great for little Jimmy. Or she's probably talking to them about cheese. or Pandas. Yeah, Pandas.

That's one of the most unintentionally hilarious things I've ever seen.

Sweet, I would prefer a UHD stream, over a disc, but I guess there will be both.

Yes, but why should the victims compromise because of the trolls/bullies. Then they win. Regulation is the only answer. Hell we have Mods on here and we all accept it as a necessity (hi mods).

I was commenting on the acceptability of dealing out abuse, not the ability of the recipient to mute it. Are you saying, then that providing it's possible to hit 'ignore' that online racial abuse is acceptable?