Sheaf Saint

There's clearly a blurred line between coming from an Islamic family and being an actual believer/ practicing Muslim, if that is the distinction being made here. An old friend of mine was in a similar position in that she had an obviously Islamic name, but had completely turned her back on that way of life when she was quite young and was disowned by her father as a result. But I also know one or two people who don't practice, but still consider themselves to be Muslim anyway as it is more a label of their ethnicity than their religious beliefs. Just as being of Jewish ethnicity doesn't necessarily equate to being a practicing Jew. So any confusion around this is perhaps understandable. I'd imagine that many of those killed in Gaza also sit somewhere within these blurred lines.

Looks like Finn is playing in more of a 10 role as well...

Or they might not have, while they were debating whether or not to accept the terms of the cease fire agreement. In which case this action has probably all but signed a death warrant for the remaining hostages. Either way, breaking all international laws and bombing a country they're not at war with to eliminate people meeting to discuss a cease fire is not a great look, wouldn't you agree?

They are both perfectly capable players at this level and played a part in our last promotion. It's far from a disaster if either of them ends up on the pitch at any point this season.

Really? The few remaining tickets that went to members must have been snapped up instantly then, because when I logged on that morning to get one it had already sold out.

Yes, and I expect many of them did expect to get arrested and in some cases probably even wanted it to happen, to highlight the ridiculous waste of police time and resources. Arresting 900 people for doing nothing but holding up a banner or wearing a T shirt is complete overkill and not sustainable, and this action is intended to force the gov into a rethink of its decision to proscribe PA as terrorists when they are nothing of the sort. It was a knee-jerk response to them embarrassing the MOD. "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty" - Thomas Jefferson.

They are peacefully protesting against Israel's actions in Gaza AND against the government's absurd decision to proscribe PA as a terrorist organisation. Surely you get that?

Anyone got any idea if this is likely to go to members after season ticket holder sales? It's a long trip up north on a Tuesday night, with away trips to Hull, Liverpool and Derby surrounding it, so I'm hoping demand will be sufficiently low for me to get one.

Oh great. I might get the chance to make use of that box of Armenian flags I bought 🤞

I think you might have been watching a different Ryan Manning from me then. Because what you have described above doesn't correlate with what I've seen. So far he's had one good game - as a sub against Wrexham. The rest of the time he's been mostly underwhelming, free kicks aside. As for your last sentence - just no. I never want to see him playing LB in a four because he's simply not good enough defensively and leaves us badly exposed time and time again with poor positioning and a rank inability to prevent crosses into our box. And I absolutely do not want to see us play with 3 CBs against Pompey, because it leaves us wide open in midfield and that's the last thing we need in a highly charged derby game.

4-0 now.

Just watching Plymouth v Stockport (my nephew is playing for County) and Caleb Watts is playing AM for Plymouth, having moved from Exeter this summer. Edit: and has just scored a belter to put them 2-0 up.

For someone who "doesn't make points", this is a very good one 😉

Time will tell, I guess.

It's perhaps unsurprising to see a few people jumping on the Rayner story and suggesting that it proves Labour are 'just as bad' as the Tories, but that's an obvious overreaction from people always willing to look for any stick to beat them with. And it demonstrates some laughable double standards from some political opponents, who have resolutely defended their own colleagues for far worse transgressions in the past. What Ange did was obviously ill-judged and she has rightfully had to resign over it, but it's not exactly an abuse of her office when it's just a very common tax dodge that pretty much anybody could do and easily get away with. It's the lying about it and the attempt to cover it up that made her position untenable though. Compare that to a certain previous holder of her office, who really did abuse his position by, among other things, unlawfully approving a property development proposal from a Tory donor to help him avoid having to pay £45m in Community Infrastructure tax that would have been reinvested in local health and education projects. And despite presiding over scandal after scandal during his time in the post, he still kept his job until he was reshuffled out of the cabinet for political reasons. Believe me, I'm far from happy with this government so far. But in terms of ministerial scandals, they're not even in the same ball park as the previous lot. Not yet, anyway. When one of their ministers gets caught illegally meeting with foreign government counterparts while on 'holiday' to discuss the possibility of diverting aid funding to their military, then we can start drawing fair comparisons of corruption.

Nothing has made it out into the media, but Still did mention in one of his recent press conferences that both of these players had pending transfers lined up and that's why they were training separately. We know Edozie was close to a move to Bruges, but whatever was going on for Aribo was kept out of public knowledge. But yeah, the Turkey suggestion was just because their window is still open I think. The fact they are both back in full training might suggest they have decided against moving and are willing to stay and fight for a place (or sit on their arses and get paid not to play because nobody was matching their current deal).

Drama in the Eastleigh v Scunthorpe game last night. Match was abandoned after two players were hospitalised following a clash of heads. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/c9wy4zynww2t

Both of them could be useful assets if we can't sort out a move for them. Edozie was starting to look very dangerous last time round in this league, before being cynically taken out and crocked at Norwich. And Aribo is a solid if unspectacular midfielder who could be useful in an area where we're still a little light after shifting MF and Smallbone.

Are you suggesting that Weston Shore isn't a proper beach? 😉

Exeter isn't on the coast. But swap them for Torquay and your point still stands.

Don't do it.

And the total sales can't be right either. We got nearly that much just for Fernandes and Dibling. What about the money we got for Sulemana, Bednarek, Onuachu and SAA?

Hypo said "hardly any of them were Ramsdale's fault" and you replied with "here's four which spring to mind", which suggests that you thought all four were his fault. No matter. You're probably right that one or two would have blamed Baz for them all, given how some people immediately blamed him for not saving that FK yesterday. But I don't think it's fair to say most would. And if you think that save against Wrexham, from a scuffed shot with hardly any power behind it, was 'excellent' then you must be easily pleased. Credit where it's due, he did the bare minimum to push it just round the post and that allowed us to go on and win the game. But that's literally the only time I can remember in all his time with us that he's made a match-winning save. And it's a save that any competent keeper at this level should be making, rather than being excellent IMO.

Interesting you think they were all AR's fault. The first one took a deflection and you can see how AR had to readjust having already started going the other way. The second one was a great finish right in the corner, and even the commentator said it gave Ramsdale no chance. I wouldn't have blamed Baz if he had conceded either of those. On the other hand, the header from Wood looked saveable, and the disallowed one was an obvious howler. So yeah, some errors there. But the big difference is that Ramsdale regularly made some excellent saves of the kind that Bazunu just never does.

They've just brought in Matt Targett, so I can't see that happening now.