egg

Ditto. The concept of infinity blows my mind, as does how far advanced of us (technologically and otherwise )other civilisations might be.

Possibly. Or perhaps because they're not buying into what RM is doing.

Yep, but I'm not sure this place is representative of the fanbase. Everyone I speak to in the real world are patient.

All that means on current form is that the gap between us and promotion will get wider.

Hopefully that's correct. Odd that the EFL published list still doesn't show him though. Link to the squad lists. I think we're pages 38 and 39 https://www.efl.com/news/2023/september/07/efl-squad-list--season-2023-24/

Yep...he's on not on the official squad list as published by the EFL. I'd assumed it was an error that would be rectified but I looked again yesterday and he's still not on the list.

Yep, plenty of others too. At its simplest, addiction is an illness. The problem is that people see the fall out of it and judge addicts on their actions, and usually wrongly believing that people choose to be that way. Nobody chooses any illness. Paul Walsh was another who's alcohol addiction got him while he was still playing. He's very open about it and this podcast is a decent listen. There's a summary in the link too, and it touches upon the link between sport and addiction which someone mentioned above. https://www.priorygroup.com/blog/sporting-highs-and-lows-podcast-episode-one-with-paul-walsh There's a great line where he says he "got his comeuppance and had to go to Portsmouth" 😂

Yes, I get what you want, but thankfully the club have Ballard's interests at heart and have loaned him to Reading to aid his development.

Carphone

Not sure. Drugs, booze, gambling programmes are all about abstinence and avoiding the first line/drink/bet. I can't imagine this is about avoiding the first sexual act.

I don't understand your point. You mentioned Ballard...I said that he won't develop playing a few minutes here and there. The fact that Mara doesn't learn much doing that is irrelevant. Ballard will develop at Reading.

I've got a mate who's a recovering sex addict. He would wank loads and loads. It's a proper addiction - read all about here https://saauk.info/our-addiction-our-program/

What Ballard needs for his development is to play regular men's football, not sit on the bench coming on for 5 mins here and there. It's also important to remember that all Ballard has done is play well against kids. Mara, who you think should be behind Ballard in the pecking order, looked a world beater when playing for our B team. We made the correct decision with Ballard imo.

That's the theory, but he ain't registered in our EFL squad for whatever reason.

Ha!! Ditto!

Yep, and there's about 10 million reasons why he'll still be unemployed next year....

I can't comment SoG as I'm not a sex addict and wouldn't want to join in the speculation. All I know is that he admits to having been very promiscuous and predatory, so I can't see that there's anything salacious in stories about him having lots of sex and pursuing women for consensual sex. Sure, his approach looks wrong when assessed through 'normal' eyes, but in the same way that a gambler doesn't bet normally, and an alcoholic doesn't drink normally, a sex addict won't have a normal relationship with sex. Addiction though can't possibly excuse the alleged stuff with that kid though, and the other serious allegations which he denies. Those allegations need to play out in the correct way, not via the media/social media/etc.

Ha!! Don't expect to see him anytime soon though - he's not registered in our 25 man squad.

I think the captain choice is the least of our concerns. I'm more interested in having a team with our best players in their best positions, the full backs playing at full back, the players working hard and tackling, and being coached so that they can attack/defend/create and look like an actual football team.

I get the sentiment but Wilder played under lapping wing backs and over lapping centre backs. That said, I'd take him. He's tried and proven at this level and I agree that we need someone who is. Martin wasn't, and it's going about as well as I anticipated unfortunately.

I think that's harsh. He's not a DM and is being hung out to dry being played there, especially with Aribo and AA as his partners. Poor kid ain't got a prayer.

Exactly! Anthing is possible...

Could it be 3 at the back? Manning in the middle 3? Fraser and KWP as wing backs?

We have one. He's playing him CB. And putting CB's on the bench. That's a mental line up. Absolutely mental. I think there'll be a curve ball though, Fraser at full back perhaps.

The point I made in response to SoG was that the stuff he's done and said which marks him out as a toe rag, isn't stuff that will be determined in court. It doesn't stop us forming a view about the bloke though. The stuff with the 16 year old, even if only partly true, ain't illegal but it crosses the line for most people you'd imagine. On the rape and criminal stuff, I've seen enough criminal cases in real life to be able to say that when the case looks overwhelming, that things are often very different when the evidence is tested. Whilst it looks bad for Brand on the face of it, that stuff needs to play out.