revolution saint

Newspapers say he's wanted by Everton.

Oh come on, even in his first few games Morgan showed a range of passing that we hadn't seen for a while. Morgan and Dale Stephens are totally different players - if you're comparing them then it's age alone because it isn't on football ability.

Same. He hasn't really done anything noteworthy at all in his loan spell. If we did sign him I'd expect a lot of people to say banal things like "Does the simple things well" and "You only notice him when he's not there". Halfway through the season that would be replaced by "largely anonymous for most of the game....why did we sign him?"

I read an article years ago that said most people thought waiting list durations were far too long and that their perception of the NHS was was a poor one. When they were asked about their own personal experiences (or people they knew) then their responses were overwhelmingly positive. As I say this was years ago and under Tory rule although I'm not trying to make a political point here - merely that what is perceived as recognised wisdom (in this case "waste") doesn't always stack up or backed up by evidence. I did a year in the NHS and my own personal experience was that the vast majority of staff worked incredibly hard and IMO was probably the closest culture to a private industry as any of the public sector employers I've worked for. There were very real targets that had to be achieved and no cultural acceptance of failure. Personally I think that the work done on reducing waiting list durations has been incredible - we seem to forget that every election was dominated by this subject but now it's hardly mentioned. This work was largely done by administrators and managers and enable clinicians to do what they are best at, which is being clinicians. It also seems fairly obvious to me that in most cases trained administrators and managers are best at doing the administrative functions of the NHS - and they get results. Ironically the most waste I saw during my time was with PFI, and large IT projects involving the private sector and that was due to large handcuffed contracts that didn't make any financial sense. Just to even the score a bit I then went on to join the civil service - now there is a world of difference between the NHS and the civil service and at times I'd be hard pressed to defend them against the charge of waste or having a culture that prevented getting things done.

Mouriniho (sp?) agreed a move to Chelsea before winning the champions league with Porto. Now I'm not saying we're Chelsea - clearly we're better than that but it is an example of a football person being able to do more than one thing at the same time. Personally if I were Owen then I'd want to agree this before the Champions League final anyway - it'll give Alex a good reason to play him from the start. Kind of like a farewell match if you will. In fact the more I think about this the more credible it sounds. It's a superb statement of intent - well done to everyone at the club for pulling it off and well done to little Michael Owen for finally getting such a dream move.

This has been useful in that it's actually highlighted those areas that need to be addressed rather than a fairly bland "servicemen should expect fair and decent treatment", I'm paraphrasing there but you get my drift. Hopefully detail will emerge (although I wouldn't hold my breath) but so far it still seems to me a statement of rights that should already be in place.

Saying FACT after supposition doesn't make it true. Instead it makes you look stupid as does misspelling someones name to make it look like a swearword. It's not big, it's not clever and it makes you look as if you still go to school.......

I think that's pretty naive. Players are in it for themselves - they don't have the blind loyalty of fans and who can blame them? In the majority of cases a player will move to a higher division if they get the chance.

We were linked with him last season so I payed a bit of attention when they played us this season and wasn't that impressed. Might be a good players for us but didn't show it on that occasion.

That's really just your speculation. To be honest though what player signs for a div 1 club and doesn't see it as a stepping stone?

Personally I'd say generally speaking we're in a world of trouble if we blindly trust and believe people without asking questions. I've no great desire to be a sheep. All your accusations are based upon your own assumptions - you say "clearly Adkins hates him", no he just said he wouldn't recall him. You say he was made to train with the youth team - that's the first I've heard of it and wouldn't be surprised if you'd made it up. You say his body language is atrocious - well that's a question of perception. What do base that on? Are you qualified in that area or is it based on the fact he didn't run very fast when you him wanted to? I've no problem with Adkins not wanting him around - as manager that's his job. I'm not going to label the guy and slag him off though unless it's in a conversation based upon his ability as a footballer.

Being pedantic I'd have to point out that it would depend on the date range of the sample - if you're talking the number of armed forces personnel who have committed suicide ever then it's not particularly surprising. Of course you're right though - that kind of care should be readily available.

Puncheon told you that did he? Actually if I recall Adkins made the decision not to play him but I could be wrong. In any case you're still only hearing one side of the story - nothing wrong with trusting one version over another but there is something wrong with blindly dismissing someone as a person without really knowing any details.

Good question, and actually no one on here can tell you what, if anything, happened. That shouldn't stop us labelling him a C^nt though - we're football fans. Makes me laugh when people make judgements about the personalities of people they've never met. I think it's fair to say Adkins and Puncheon don't get on but beyond that is impossible to say.

Some good points there - I'm not sure such a broad range can be made into legislation without more detail though and I still think it's stuff that armed forces should already be entitled to anyway. Ultimately it's the detail I'm interested in - without that it's cheap political slogans that make politicians look good and populist without actually doing anything.

Rather than constitutional you mean an agreed death in service payment? Isn't that already the case?

Could someone explain exactly what it is? Seems like we're about to enshrine in law that members of the armed forces and their families should receive fair and decent treatment - isn't that what everyone is entitled to anyway? Not knocking the armed forces at all but this seems to be some kind of publicity stunt without any substance.

TBF I don't think they've been given a chance and so we can't really judge them. The OP is needlessly picking on them IMO

This goes down as one of those books that I just didn't get on with - I wanted to like it but the style of it made it unreadable for me.

I've just finished it and I pretty much agree with you - it just doesn't ring true in it's depiction of how society would react in the face of imminent death. It's full of stoical repression and a decency that seems unrealistic; almost an idealised apocalypse with manners. When you think that it was published 6 years after Dylan Thomas "Do not go gently into that good night" which was full of rage against death and On the Beach is more "Keep calm and carry on". That said I'm glad I read it - not a bad book by any means but, as you say, unconvincing.

I'd agree with the OP but then in an ideal world I think we all would. My hope is that we have already identified the players we want and are now just waiting for the season to be over so that we can "take care of business". To be fair last season we did get Dickson, Richardson and Butterfield in fairly early so the only players signed late were the loan players. If we follow that pattern again then anyone we plan to bring in on a free should get signed up relatively quickly.

Does anyone know if there is anything else besides the game going on? Stupid question I know but aiming to take the niece and nephew for their first ever game and while I hope they don't get bored I can't guarantee it. Can't believe I'm saying this but face painting down in the concourse would be nice....

Trump has been a total breath of fresh air - looks as if we've found the next in the line of Higgins, White and O'Sullivan. I hope he wins but I've a feeling over the long distance that Higgins will end up on top.

This is exactly why I like threads like this - I'll confess I would probably disagree with almost every other opinion you hold but at least we've shown we can think about issues and debate them. I'm not sure the old tags of "left" and "right" really apply anymore - certainly doesn't seem to be much "left" anymore but that's a debate for another time...

Personally I don't believe we actually need a replacement for a monarchy (ie a president) as many defenders of the Royal Family have suggested they don't actually use their powers so if we replaced them with nothing then it wouldn't really make much difference would it? However if we did go down the presidential route then it would have two redeeming features - we could vote them in and we could get rid of them.