Mystic Force

Well the only reason I had cable was to watch Southampton, so as soon as I figured out that this was going on I cancelled it. I have to work every other Saturday, but I could still stream it at work from NBC, but then the IT department blocked it. And watching replays of Southampton losing last season on a phone screen when I got home had little appeal, so come this season I will not be watching any Southampton games, no cable, no app not paying $50 to watch on a tiny screen. I understand why they did it but I am out.

Few more wheels falling off this bus during the week. When I heard the new communications guy talking, my b0ll0cks detector went off at maximum setting, this guy is so full of cr@p I would have to check my watch if he said good morning to me!

I am starting to think that the man has dementia. As someone who is licensed to sell life insurance products you get in serious trouble if you sell an annuity to someone who is subsequently found to have dementia, you have to be able to identify if they are showing signs pointing to it appearing upto 5 years later. I will put it this way, if Mr Trump asked me to sell him an annuity plan I would have to decline for fear of being sued. He is not crazy he is losing it!

Well now we have INTENT. They can not say that they didn't want to do these things, we have it written down. So now that intent is shown it makes it harder to deny the other stuff. Waiting to see any reaction from the Trump lovers that I am undercover with here at work. This is like when the woman goes to hire the hitman who turns out to be a cop, "But your honour no one was killed!" "And that's why you were charged with attempted murder" To quote some Churchill. This is not the end, it is not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning.

They might be considered bigger now, but if a team strings success together over a period of time they become "big". Clubs that do poorly for a period of time become "small". For example people who fiddle with fish are currently "tiny".

Didn't see the usual Republican Party turn out in our towns 4th of July parade, in a republican leaning town, almost as if they are hiding. Democrats were there handing out candy, I am sure as part of some leftist plot to bribe kids..... Big government with its handouts!

Maybe we are going to be doing what all the cool kids are doing these days and play 3 at the back and need some extra defenders.....

Well in slightly better news, my Trump loving colleagues have been less vocal in their support for him of late. I think that maybe we are starting to see some erosion of the unquestioning support and it is now more considered. Although that's still along way to being against the man. I think the response to an actual crisis will be a turning point. You going to blame the media or spend time dealing with it. Someone in his position should not be worried by such trivia. I think that others are starting to watch too. Now all the Russia and Comey stuff isn't going to break through that's a Washington game people out here do not care, but the other distraction stuff is starting to effect things at the margins.

I think he will stay because I don't know who would want him, unless he is looking for a sideways move to a Stoke or Leicester.

Although I would like to think that he will get done in by his own hand before ruining the place where I live The people who supported him to the win around here that I work with, and typify the type of voters that came out in larger numbers that the election models estimated (rural white voters) haven't backed down from their support of him just yet. Mostly they don't seem to follow the regular goings on, or think these actions are a good idea. One of these people for example is married to an undocumented Mexican immigrant that they are working on getting papers for her, but was more worried that Clinton was coming for their guns. Or another guy who is a preper (for the end times) with a horde of guns and tinned food. The real problem for employment around here is that farming takes fewer workers than before, commodity prices for corn and bean are down with knock on for farm business spending and processing of agricultural products takes less workers than it use to, unemployment is low but the jobs just don't pay that well. "Good factory jobs" around here pay $17 an hour hardly the wages that are always praised, lab work (need a degree) pays $14-16, hardly worth racking up student debt. At some point hopefully they will see around here that they are not getting what they expected.

Two nuns were at a football match when a streaker ran on to the pitch. One had a stroke, the other couldn't reach.

Tadic is a good player, but not a great player. I doubt he has what those above us are looking for, so we are probably as good as it get for him.

Well I am here in the middle, I work with a bunch of people who do cheer on Trump's ideas that the "left" dont like. I don't think he is illegitimate, he won according to the rules like the last guy did l, who he thought was illegitimate, but those are the rubs. While not illegitimate he is incompetent, lack experience of required skills, and lacks interest in gaining them. They are ill prepared despite having months to get ready they have only nominated 29 of the 545 senate confirmed nominees. He appealed to people based on the easy fix. Well the world is more complicated. Its going to be a very long 4 years. The Republicans have definitely done a good job at gamming the system for political advantage come election time. But the Democrats have done themselves no favours by sticking to leaders that appear out of touch with the ordinary people. One interesting thing from this election is that we now have a "working class" it was always "middle class" that was used to describe these people in the past, so maybe there is some opportunity for dividing up the working from the middle. This morning I heard that defaults on auto loans was up to the highest levels since 2009, enjoy it while you can this is the good times the seeds of the next recession have been sown.

Ok first a confession, I was wrong. I said on this thread he had no chance here in Iowa, based on sign count, well a few days later I visited rural south east Iowa, and trump signs were everywhere, I knew that my prediction was in trouble, but didn't want to come on here and admit it. In fact the election played out exactly as the sign information I had seen suggested, but didn't want to believe. Trump got more support in rural areas than previous elections had for republicans, therefore all the polling models were wrong. They are all based on if this is the same as the past then this set of data indicates this... The problem with big data, you can only predict the past... Anyway, I cant say that anything that has happened has not been telegraphed, he is doing exactly what he said he would do, in a way politicians don't normally do, mainly because the type of thing that fired up those rural voters in SE Iowa are the kinds of things normally not considered a good idea. All those liberals, of which I am one, out complaining (not me), all they are doing is making those people who voted for Trump think they are right, about their world view. Ultimately this experiment will play out. I just hope we are still standing. I wonder how this effects me on the local scale, as I work for a foreign company that exports a product all over the world, but they could move somewhere else if they wanted, would not make much difference. We make 2 products that we are the only commercial scale producers of in the world and one also made in China. There is no particular need to be here, at a certain point do companies just say US is too much hassle? It seems that the policy is not so much America first as F you!

My hope is that we are saving ourselves for the second half of the season. So we can have a repeat of last year where we came on strong at the end of the season. We saw how Poch's spurs gave out at the end of the season, we can expect something similar from Klopp's Liverpool, because the pressing game does stand up over a full premier league season. Well that's what I am hoping anyway....

Most people disapprove of any economic system that doesn't result in them being fabulously wealthy

Earlier in this thread I asked the question who will be the first defector to leave the club after their big money signing.* I didn't expect it to be Schniederlin as I always saw him as a model professional. *I specifically ruled out Ricky Lambert at that time, due to his age he was never going to stay at Liverpool a long time.

It makes me wonder, if Les has a secret dossier or potential coaches, does Ralph have dossier of potential Les replacements.....

Rather light on policy discussion, saying something is terrible over and over again does not persuade that you can make it better. I am used to seeing debates between competing ideas to solve problems at these things, we haven't had any of that this time around. Just personal insults, Trump refused to really offer any answers to the actual questioned posed, and Clinton still does not have any good response to the same stuff swirling around for months. But how can anyone defend the actions of someone who should be living on the sex registry rather than in a building on the register ofhistoric places I don't know. Not sure if DC has the 3000ft requirement, and what's within that distance..... Britain had Yewtree, would Trump have survived that enquiry? His only defense is Bill did it too. That is totally pathetic, I know he will lose now. You can always judge who will win an area by the number of signs for each candidate that can be seen. Trump signs have gone from peoples lawns here in Iowa, while keeping other republican ones up. So I expect him to lose or only narrowly win here. And if that the case he aint got a hope in other places.

And they have red and white stripes.

Wanyama while great for us, was always a limited player who shined against the better teams, where his physical presence helped out compete teams that came to give us a game. where he struggled was when the onus was on us to play. He was never a great passer of the ball, with miss hit passes, and you where not expecting him to offer that killer pass that would break open a defense. However when I watch Romeu play he hits great passes under pressure (except on Sunday!) digging us out of trouble, he can find people in good positions and can probe for a weakeness. Is he as physically imposing as Wanyama in a game? Hell no, but I think we need penetration against "worse teams" more often in a season than presence against "better teams" I would love to keep him I think he is terrific and I wished he had played more for us last year.

I like how keen, eager and full of running is at the end of games. I have long liked the look of Redmond, I think he will develop into a great player for us. It has taken a while for the team to adjust to the new way and I will admit I was getting a little concerned, but I think that things have turned around and its onwards and upwards.

What really tells me that the selection system is stupid is when a player who has been lauded for their performances at a "small" club doesn't get picked but the moment they move suddenly is good enough, and then players who are bit part players for "big" clubs who get called up England duty all the time move on to another club and then are never picked. Cleaverly being the prime example of this. That tells me all I need to know.

I remember back to that time when we told by other supporters we had to support the English teams in Europe, it was our duty. What dod they do with thay support? Turn it into a giant cash cow, and those teams don't look very English any more. This looks more like American franchise system, than traditional football. One of those "big clubs" that isnt as big as the others will get stripped as they become the "Singapore Rams" or something and then what will the supporters watch Everton or Arsenal, or maybe cheer on their club Singapore.

So I think that the OP actually has two parts of which we have only really discussed one aspect. First the non talked about one. Our academy is regard as a source of profit, not players. In that we are trying to make players other teams want. Not that we wish to make players we want. Maybe we want them too, but know we can't keep these players? And Saints are falling foul of part two to get there. The second already reviewed part is coming. Ok I want to take this back to first principles. Certain attributes are favorable for certain position, such as height for central defenders, strength for a hold up player, ability to do tricks for a creative player etc. Physical characteristics are a product of genes, with some influence from environmental factors, ie malnourished children tend to be less tall than their genes would make them given better access to food. Genes vary across people, but some genes are found clustered in certain places that give people certain physical characteristics. This next bit is where the problem starts. We get a short hand. That is if we have X then they will have property A, B and C. That doesn't seem so bad. But we are at this point looking at say 10 year olds who haven't matured we are guessing they are more likely to have A,B and C when they are older because they are X. Well ok, life is about making guesses it makes sense even if I feel it is wrong. But next we say if you are X you NEVER are going to have Q. Only Y can have Q, we are only going to train Ys to be Q, and here is the different part because X is not smart enough, not because they do not have the right physical attribute but we guess they are not smart because you are X. To do this is a disservice to the players that come through. How about X/Y how do we build them how much X makes them only X? To go back to an earlier example, in the thread. Once apon a time black players were thought unable to be quaterbacks because of the intelligence factor. At a certain point players will specialize, its natural and necessary, and it makes sense that those who are most suited to a role, train in that role. The problem comes when we substitute short hand for insight. Now I bet that some of this will go on subconsciously, we as people should strive to overcome that. When it becomes more overt we have a problem. If saints are doing this deliberately because they believe that is where the market is, would be disgraceful. So I hope that is not the case. Often criticism comes from jealous people, hopefully that is all it is. But if founded I would be very disappointed, because it would mean that our academy is not based on the principles they espoused. Subsidiary point. Sometimes Turkish makes good points and brings up intresting debates, sadly Turkish also likes to irritate people, and unfortunately the good stuff gets lost in the shuffle because of peoples prejudice, so instead of unpicking an intresting topic, we have some ancillary stuff going on. More of this stuff please Turkish. Thank you for starting this thread. I think it is an important and intresting thing to examine.