shurlock

No evidence, so far, that the under-30s intend to go out and vote, a key ssumption in some of the closer polls: https://www.ft.com/content/127f8778-49e6-11e7-919a-1e14ce4af89b

You might disagree or not like Abbott. But why do you (generally) hate her? You seem to hate a lot of people, pal.

Targett is a deluxe Lloyd James.

It does mean May now gets a replica in Madame Tussauds (only elected PMs are eligible for one).

Wrong again, Simon. I never said that he was s**t. I was very clear I was passing on info from mates (Roma and Inter) who had actually seen him play. I was neither endorsing or reaching a verdict on their assessment since I also made it clear I didn't know much about him at the time. You see why it's hard to take you seriously and why you get yourself banned, DPS/Jeff? You repeatedly get the wrong end of the stick and when all else fails just make things up. Anyway this is a thread about VVD, not your woes and inadequacies on here.

Ok it's very innocuous and you didn't cost things - fair enough Catch me out pal? More your MO when you're not asking for a meet up or getting banned- recall your last blinder re. Gabbiadini where you trawled through old posts and attributed statements to me, except I didn't actually make them

Good

Obviously we don't know the specific nature of VVD's injury -but presumably the fact that clubs are willing to fork out so much on him means that (i) it's not that serious and/or (ii) he's returned to full fitness. In this respect, not sure why Jrod is particularly relevant - he suffered a torn ACL which is literally a career ender. It took him 16 months to return to competitive action. Frankly if given the choice of £60m this season or £60m next summer (with the injury risks you suggest), I'd happily take that risk as I think it's trivial and outweighed by the benefit of enjoying arguably the league's best CB for another season. Of course, what the player wants is critical but that's a different discussion.

Because you didn't state that the costs of buying Semedo and Sakho (inc. wages+transfer) would exceed the money raised by the sale of VVD (transfer+wages saved). By contrast, someone might think you plucked the reported fee for VVD (£60m) to purchase Semedo (£20m) and Sakho (£40m). Hey presto, both add up to £60m! They offset! Great deal! But of course, you might have meant something else, chubster

You make it sound as if he's injury prone. He'll still be in demand next summer -if anything fees for PL players will be crazier, relative to the costs of replacing him from abroad.

We'll also doing it from a position where we don't have an established core of players. In previous seasons, even during the height of the meltdown, we had that continuity and quality. If Bertrand, VVD and Romeu leave, who would you count as truly established and battle-hardened? Forster (if he returns to form)? Davis (though he's in his twilight years)? Cedric (if he stays)?

Doubt it's added anything since he would have still had three years left on his original contract, giving us more than enough transfer bargaining power. If anything it's cost us in terms of the wage rise etc.

Don't see why not. Seems odd that we give a player a contract extension -and presumably a wage rise and we don't take advantage of that security to get another year out of him. Frankly if we hadn't given him a new contact, he would have still had three years left on his original contract and we would have been under little financial pressure to sell him this summer. Begs the question why dole out additional money (and risk) on the new contract if the result is going to be the same. Of course, if we do keep him, it'll be a massive coup.

Better still pal: express yourself logically.

That's very true.

Ok so it's not technically a like for like. Much clearer.

While paying the wages of two players, how does that add up, Simon?

These general polls are singularly useless as a guide. It might be that the parties are a close at a national level but the Tory lead is much wider in marginals in which case it's all over for Labour. National polls obscure this difference and thus bias upwards Labour's electoral prospects. It's a mystery why pollsters don't poll marginals more systematically - the practice is much more established in the US. Philip Stephens from the FT suggests that ministerial gossip has it that anything less than a majority of 50 would be a serious disappointment. A happy ending for May would be a margin of over 70. Of course when Thatcher beat Michael Foot in 1983, she won a majority of 144. Will go for a majority of 60-75, though I'm basically guessing.

You do understand the distinction between Islamic and Islamist and the specific way Islamist is used in these discussions, I assume? ...apparently not

Les? Is that you?

Do you get a refund each time you're banned?

Yet the French and German leaders don't have a problem being direct.

Quite right. They're not mutually exclusive. If anything, the fact that they've become more efficient means that they guarantee a decent bang for the buck, should you want to invest more in them.

Very similar attributes? I trust youre not basing that on your silly little computer game. How many times have you watched him play?

As long as Les doesn't go leftfield and do a Caulker. Seriously, going to be massive hole to fill. However good the replacement is (no guarantees), hard to see how it won't be a real downgrade on VVD.