hypochondriac

Sounds pretty intelligent to me. Given what could happen, it seems like a better scenario than many/most alternatives to be honest if they can pull it off.

Yes plus it means we can refresh the squad without being overly reliant on Holgate, Charles, Adams and Aribo who I don't feel are really up to it.

Yep. Seems unlikely we will have everyone fully fit and unsuspended all at once for extended periods of time.

No I don't miss the last few years of the prem. I certainly miss playing there under poch and koeman. I miss the European campaigns they were amazing. Watching my team in Vitesse, Prague and even Milan was incredible and is not something I'll forget in a hurry. I enjoy doing well in the league like this year but I know if we don't go up that we will lose most of our good players and get worse and worse. I'll certainly be missing the prem if we lose Downes, THB, KWP and Sulemana and end up mid table next year.

Good man management to give him a chance to show he deserves the spot.

Odd response. Writing an opinion on here about the future has no bearing on my ability to enjoy the season nor does it mean that I'm worrying about the future. I'm perfectly capable of enjoying this season, looking at what we are doing well and poorly whilst also thinking about what the club has said about it's intention to play this way should we get promoted. The two things aren't mutually exclusive.

I certainly don't want him gone, but I am of the opinion that if we ever get promoted with him (not sure we ever will) then we will be straight back down with a pitiful points tally. Not a chance does a newly promoted team not get torn a new one most weeks being this open. When you go up then pragmatism is the order of the day at least until a few seasons in when you've sufficiently increased the quality in your squad.

That's a remarkable statistic. I would surprised if that isn't the longest period in the football league.

Presumably that's the team you would like rather than the team we will actually play. Manning will play not Bree and Smallbone instead of Charles.

I think the worry is that getting results how we are playing currently just isn't sustainable. Eventually we won't be able to keep getting last minute goals. I can't remember a game where we have been two goals clear or where we don't let the opposition back in. I'm not asking for that every game obviously but a few woukd be nice and give confidence that our form can be sustained.

I'd like to see Amo Ameyew off the bench. He had one poor game when he started but otherwise I don't see what he's done to be dropped. I thought he looked a threat.

Am I off ignore now then? Good for you buddy, working through your impulse control issues.

I was drinking something when I read this and most of it is now on the floor.

It's a good draw and a positive that we are scoring late goals. Still a crap performance though and I don't have much confidence that we will be able to keep this up. Still much too close to mid table for comfort.

Harwood bellis Sulemana Stuart Armstrong Alcaraz Manning Back in for Birmingham please.

Agreed. Very odd.

Historically, populations that have had their pride badly damaged and then continuing to be impoverished by sanctions and punishment after losing a war do not generally become less radical and in fact support for even more radical elements who want to demonstrate the might of Russia is likely to increase. That's the fear that longer term this will lead to something worse than we have now.

We will see but I reckon that will eventually lead to Russian desperation. I don't want a nuclear power with that mindset.

Anyone can point out potential issues in any proposed solution just like Israel it's fairly intractable. I just don't think crushing Russia is going to be any kind of solution or even the best of a load of bad options given that they aren't going to go away.

Not necessarily gaining. It depends how you view Crimea to be honest. I could see an argument for that staying with Russia. I think a state like Russia is always likely to do things like invade and interfere in countries that it still believes to be part of their empire. I'm not sure we will be able to stop that sadly, it's just a case of containment and the best of a bunch of shitty options. Bit like Israel in that respect. Maybe some sort of ceasefire where we agree not to allow Ukraine to join NATO and maybe we have to wait till Putin gets removed and where there are severe consequences for Russia if they try something similar in the future.

I had a very good conversation with an extremely intelligent and moderate Muslim once. The conversation got onto Salmon Rushdie and the right to be offensive and I was shocked at how much his tone changed and the aggression in his words when he told me that there was never any circumstance where mocking Islam is justified and that basically Rushdie deserved what he gets. Like I said, this was such a moderate, generally mild mannered man and I did not imagine he would say something like that. We know that that's the very tip of the iceberg.

No we don't. What a silly thing to say.

If you really look into both religions and particularly their followers there really is no modern day comparison between the two. I'd urge you to watch the video I posted earlier, particularly the bit by Sam Harris about halfway through the video where he defines what a jihadist is and why it's impossible to reason with them in any way they would understand. They love death more than we love life and consider it right and completely just for innocents to be slaughtered for their cause. It made me consider things I hadn't done so before.

They obviously aren't going to concede defeat are they. That would mean certain death for Putin for one. I just think it's worth bearing in mind that imposing such a crushing defeat and then conditions on Germany after WW1 definitely contributed to the strength of feeling that was at least partially responsible for WW2. IMO allowing Russia to save face in some way may be the smart thing to do (which is what I assume Elon Musk is going on about) otherwise we may risk things escalating in a few years of bad feeling and simmering tensions.

So Israel is responsible for some nutter jihadi blowing up a train in London?