Ex Lion Tamer

I will admit that I've never known a full on gambling addict. But while banning advertising won't stop addiction, it surely doesn't help people who are try to quit if they have it constantly pushed at them when they're trying to watch football?

I would add that plenty of white middle class people take drugs without ever needing to fear being stop and searched with no evidence

That may be true to a degree. I'd love to see definitive stats on it but am not aware of any. In their absence we have no idea whether that that is all of it, even though it's easier to go with that because it makes us feel better about ourselves. What we can be pretty certain of is that stop and search is causing serious resentment. Just listen to what Black people are telling us rather than thinking we know better. There are countless examples of where S&S has been used badly. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54709901 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/08/met-police-apologise-for-handcuffing-athlete-bianca-williams https://www.itv.com/news/2020-06-11/suffolk-police-apologise-for-racist-comments-from-officers

The vast majority of footballers are not left wing, let alone radical Marxists. So when they take the knee, they are clearly not endorsing Marxism. Yet people choose to focus on that because they don't want to face up to the fact that Black people in this country face discrimination. Black footballers and their teammates who aren't just going through the motions simply want the rest of us to understand that. Black people are 8.9 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people. Can you imagine how humiliating and annoying it must be to be searched by police when you haven't done anything wrong? Structural racism does exist in this country, no matter how much it hurts our self image as white people to face up to it

This is exactly right. It was a tough call but at that time it was reasonable given that we'd have had to spend money to find a replacement

Although it sounded ridiculous to us, I can identify with being in a foreign country and mimicking the accent to try to help people understand what you're saying

That's one of the reasons why Wenger didn't persist with Walcott up front

I generally side with giving players time, but I would have sold him to Watford to fund other signings. He'd had a lot of time and I didn't think he was ever going to kick on. I would have been wrong of course, though the fact that it was only Watford that were interested suggests other clubs may have felt the same. If he had gone to Watford then perhaps he wouldn't have kicked on because he wouldn't have had Ralph's coaching

The turnaround in JWP's finishing has been remarkable, so it could happen. Shane Long though

If it is true then I'd like him to own it and bring back the Jason Puncheon celebration

Could it be some sort of serious bowel disorder like Darren Fletcher had? It's a bit embarrassing to talk about publicly, hence the secrecy, and can be really quite uncomfortable ("not a good time to be Salisu"), but ultimately he should be able to get it under control by following a strict lifestyle ("we gave him all the time he needed to solve these issues"). Or of course i could be way off!

Oh no, where have I heard this before!

I don't understand the point of scrapping the Community Shield. If it doesn't take place then clubs will just have other friendlies instead, so its not like they are reducing their workload. Is it really as cynical as not wanting gate receipts from a friendly to go to charity?

Not trying to make any sort of a point with this but when do we think was the last time we signed a player with 47+ England caps? Keegan? Le Saux was close but only had 36

It will be interesting to see if Ralph can get him playing the pressing game. Some on here have questioned his aptitude but I'm not sure he's ever had a manager drill that sort of game into him. Unlikely Wenger or Koeman did anyway. Silva? It could give his career a new lease of life if he can adapt to Ralph's methods

It's the likelihood of getting assists based on their general play. For all that Diallo will give the ball away less, he'll make us a more defensive team and we may find it harder to build attacks. Expect people on here to complain that he only does short sideways passes

Looking at Hoj's stats, he's a much more similar player to Sangare then he is to Diallo. Much more attacking, poor pass completion

At least Diallo is better at passing I guess. He just has a lot less going forward.

Sangare looked quite ungainly in his movements, although perhaps effective nevertheless. This guy seems like much more of a natural player

Plus the experts on here though Pelle and Mane were shit based on their first few games!

Exactly, there is a reason our away record is so good - we like teams to come on to us; then we can press, win the ball back and break. Hodgson treated it like an away game for Palace, so it was a home game for us, which meant we struggled to break them down.

Armstrong wasn't that highly rated by Celtic fans was he? My memory was that he'd lost his place in the team and they weren't too worried about him going

Same thing happened to Klopp in his last season at Dortmund. Sometimes things can suddenly fall apart for managers who for years have got players overperforming. That said, Bournemouth's weakness at the back for the whole of their time in the Premier League counts against Howe getting a really top job.