hypochondriac

I started off in the window praising out stance but by the end of the window it was clear that we should sell once he fees became massive and it was obvious he didn't want to be here.

All except jwp are being played because we have injuries and there is no choice.

He has to be sacked its getting ridiculous. I expect protests if he isn't gone after United.

Does anyone seriously think a result is likely today? The saints board aren't stupid and must be feeling a similar way. Surely they can't let this go on for too much longer?

Utterly deluded if that's true.

That's a ridiculous thing to say. Loads of managers would do better with what we have despite the limited ability of many in the squad. Big Sam was one example.

I'm guessing the fact he is young and English has a lot to do with it. It looks good for the club if we can get players like that performing well so I expect that's why he gets a lot more chances than others.

We haven't really had good enough backup since we got promoted. It's bizarre really. Forster isn't great in the first place but if he gets a long term injury the we don't have someone like Stephens in that position who could step up and save us like he did last year at cb.

Such a huge game today. Similar importance to the Everton game where we came out on top. If we lose in a similar manner to many games this year then we really have to question the manager continuing. Win and we will be a lot more comfortable. Probably a draw then

I wouldn't dress up as Diane Abbott if for no other reason than I can't think of a good reason why I would want to but I see no reason why someone wouldn't have attempted to dress up at the darts as Diane if she was more attractive and white or any other nationality. It wasn't the colour of her skin that made those gaffes so amusing, it was her pompous attitude and car crash nature of the interviews. Her skin colour was entirely irrelevant.

Liverpool?

Is this considered racist? Bearing in mind I don't think the joke would really work without the darker skin because it would be extremely difficult to see who it was.

So your view is that the character of apu is racist? I suppose the counter argument to that would be that the Simpsons is a show full of stereotypes and many individuals of Indian origin have praised that character and got rather heated at the suggestion that a character they love is a racist representation. For my part, I don't like to throw around words like racist unless there is some sort of harmful intent behind it which brings us nicely back to this darkening of the skin thing. Thank you for expressing your opinion by the way. I don't really agree with what you've said but I like to hear opposing views. I tend to favour a libertarian outlook where people are free to dress however they like just as long as they can accept the criticism that comes with it. I'm still not sure I understand how blackening your face to pay tribute to a favourite sports star or person you admire is actually being harmful to anyone. I doubt most of the people complaining about that are either black themselves or were old enough to remember minstrel shows. I do however think more of a case could be made against blackening your skin due to the history of it but my personal view is that dismissing every incident of that type of thing as irredeemably racist is a step too far.

That's what I was asking you. I don't think we've managed to define where the line of acceptability is yet. So any sort of darkening of the skin for a costume is an unacceptable line to cross yes? Is that the case for every ethnicity? Could an Asian person darken their skin to dress as a black figure they admired? Or could a white man change the colour of his skin to go as atilla the hun? Or is the very act of changing your skin colour unacceptable? I see there was a documentary on apu from the Simpsons and how a white man playing him is perpetuating harmful ethnic stereotypes. What are your thoughts on that?

My sisters boyfriend is an ex professional footballer- played against saints the lucky b*stard- and I found his insights really interesting. According to him, the best coaches and managers are the ones who can have a laugh and a joke, let everyone go out and have a drink but who you know that if you go too far will crucify you. Apparently him and some of his team mates got involved in a fight in a club in the early hours. The manager came out strongly and condemned them whilst behind closed doors his only concern was that they were stupid enough to do it in public and he wanted to make sure that they all backed each other up. He reckons the authoritarian managers and coaches had little chance of success because the players wouldn't play for them. Would be interesting to know Black's style in this regard.

Extenders are rubbish. Get the tp link powerline one, they work perfectly.

Have you considered using a powerline kit? I use a tplink one from maplins and it's fantastic.

You should never assume someone's gender. Even if you look white you could identify as a different race anyway so you just never know.

Well yes- although clearly dressing up as a nazi is entirely different from dressing up as your favourite basketball player. The issue is where you draw the line and decide which symbols are unacceptable. Is it OK for someone who isn't Asian to dress up as Jackie Chan for example or is it just darkening your skin colour that's the issue due to the history of minstrel shows? I mean there are articles online saying that no one is allowed to dress up on Halloween as someone that isn't from their ethnic background due to "cultural appropriation" which I think is absolutely insane.

I think context is key here. I mean I could certainly imagine situations where it would be acceptable for anyone to say the N word. I think dressing up in blackface is a silly thing to do but I do think there's a difference between a minstrel show and someone blacking up in order to dress as their favourite sports star for example. I read an article last year about a little boy who had blacked up his face to go as his favourite Australian football player. I know that's not the same, but it just highlights the fact that this issue isn't entirely black and white- excuse the pun.

Oh god exactly what this conversation needed - a moralising sermon from Verbal. Didn't your partner get all annoyed because you were spending all of your time on here?

I agree with much of that 1977- good post. One thing I will say is that I believe both trump and brexit are largely consequences of a certain type of people ignoring legitimate concerns of those in society with less opportunity to the point that they felt they had to make their voices heard in the manner that they did. I don't have as much of a fear of right wing extremists as you do because I don't believe that the majority of people voting these type of people into power are actually racists or extremists themselves - rather they are the only ones articulating the frustration that the unheard are actually feeling. The EU exacerbates the situation because they don't actually want to listen to the people they supposedly rule over. What moderate political parties from all nations need to do is to listen to their population and find fair solutions or at least begin the conversations about how to tackle mass migration, radical Islam and giving the lowest in society a voice and you will see these extremist so called populist parties disappear. My worry though is that the EU's answer to this disquiet and anger is to push for greater integration and to remove the power of nation states- I think if they carry on with that you will see more extremism within Europe as a response and I don't think that what anyone really wants but people will go to them if they are the only ones willing to address their concerns without calling them racist, sexist or xenophobic etc etc.

Put it this way. Presuming we don't have some sort of injury crisis, I doubt very much that keeping vvd for another six months will be the difference between relegation or survival. I think a much bigger bearing on that outcome will be what attacking players we get in and if selling vvd will allow us to bring in a better calibre of attacking player- as I believe it would do- then for me it is well worth selling him.

It's a cost benefit analysis. We won't be making any significant signings in my opinion as we aren't flush with cash so I'd rather we sold vvd which would enable us to strengthen. We have a fair amount of depth at cb compared to other positions and I'd rather play the likes of Stephens as he seemed good last season.

That's a laughable opinion regarding soggy. It's easy to see how he has followed me around the forum for years, mentioning me in posts when I haven't spoken about him at all. Clearly it's something he gets off on but this is going off topic. We have an adequate defence without vvd, certainly more than enough to keep us up. If selling him allows us to bring in some more attacking quality that we clearly lack then I'd be more than happy to do so, particularly because he will be leaving in the summer anyway.