sadoldgit

How did Clasie and Juanmi do?

From what I have seen of Villa they have looked rubbish a great deal of the time.

I was less than enthused when I saw how the team was set up for the first half but more optimistic with the changes at half time - but same old story. Not playing badly but cant put our chances away and give away soft goals. Good to hear that they are looking to bring in another striker but fear we need more than that to make the changes we need in the results. I was going to wait until after the next two games before I started to think about buying a rubber sheet but todays result would indicate that we have got ourselves into a certain rut. It is very frustrating because it seems as if we are not that far away from turning it around and it is almost as if we haven't got the belief to step it up.

I have just seen a transcript of the interview. I am a big fan of Rons and admire his honesty but sometimes I think he shouldn't always say what he thinks. To the players yes, but when you come out in public and say that stuff I wonder what affect it has on the youngsters. Reed and Targett will take heart but the rest must think, thanks for that Ron!

swallow

Injured or rested?

Meant to mention this earlier. C B Fry made a valid comment earlier about why was I blathering on about rape in England on a thread about the Paris massacre. To try and pull it together - my point is that instead of getting worked up about Muslims/Migrants or whatever labels the media want to stick on people - the fact is that the problem is not muslims or migrants as the vast majority of these people are normal peaceloving folk like (some) of us. The problem lies with a certain number of people who, for whatever reason, do not adhere to the social contract that the peaceful, normal people live their lives by. You don't have to look very far to see political capital being made out of the Cologne attacks or any terrorist attacks. I have been labelled an apologist and that is fine by me. I will apologise all day long for people who are peaceful and who live their lives in a decent law abiding fashion. I have been ridiculed for stating the obvious. Fine but when you read that Mulsims who ran a fish and chip shop in Scotland were attacked after the Paris massacre simply because they are Muslim, perhaps it needs more people to state the obvious. The deeply unpleasant Katie Hopkins was annoyed that more Muslims were coming out and distancing themselves from the atrocities. So Katie, how many does it take to satisfy you because I have seen plenty saying "not in our name." In fact, the same time she was saying this there was a peace march by Muslims in London. Not enough though eh Katie? On this very thread there are some views which are clearly Islamphobic (if there is such a word). A few prolific posters call people from the middle east "medieval." Some of the behaviour clearly is but isn't it going a bit fat to label millions as such because of the behaviour of a minority. For every Jihadi John there are hundreds of thousands of decent people who happen to come under the same religious umbrella. For every Imam preaching racial hatred you will find hundreds preaching tolerance. IS want the West to rail against Islam. Far right wingers want either closed borders or much stricter border controls. Every time there is a Cologne or a Paris it works against the moderates. So yes, I will apologise for the moderates and will continue to point out that there are plenty in our "civilised" culture who behave in "medieval" ways too.

If you look at the crime reports after the weekend you will find a great many arrests for sexual molestation, assault, robbery etc caused by drunken young men. Not once did I say that it happens in an English town on the scale of the attacks in Cologne, but if you look at the arrests across the country it adds up to a major problem. There have been a number of programmes about the problems that alcohol and binge drinking cause in this country. Not all sexual offences are caused by young men drinking alcohol of course and it seems like the offenses in Cologne were carried out by group of young drunk men. But when you look at the figures presented by Rape Crisis - approx. 85,000 women and 12000 men are raped in England and Wales every year, isn't this a greater issue than one night in Cologne? Yes, the attacks that took place are disturbing but in terms of the bigger picture the context changes somewhat. Rape/sexual assault is a constant major issue but it seems to me lately that if you can attach the word migrant or muslim before the alleged offender suddenly it becomes more newsworthy.

Are the Daily Mail the only ones who know about this stuff?

"There is a clear massive cultural problem in letting god knows how many Arab men into Western Europe." Why is that? Are they all potential rapists/robbers? Could you clarify please as you are beginning to sound like Donal Trump again.

At no point did I say don't worry about Cologne as rapes happen everywhere.

When this news first started to break a big deal was being made about the offences being carried out by Muslims/Migrants as if that was the overriding factor. I was simply pointing out that men get drunk and cause offenses all over the place and it is not the sole preserve of Muslims or migrants. A sex offender is a sex offender be he from Syria or Southampton. It is no greater offence if the offender is a Muslim or a migrant or both. It is dreadful that a rape and several sexual assaults were carried out the other night in Cologne but these things (sexual molestation, robbery) go on here on a regular basis albeit on a smaller scale, often perpetrated by young, drunk men, without the media batting an eyelid. Yes, the scale of the attacks made the Cologne attacks newsworthy but if you multiply the offences that are committed at weekends across this country by drunken men on women you would end up with more offenders than you had in Cologne. And before the usual suspects start trying to pretend that I am apologist for offending Muslims or migrants, any found guilty of committing unlawful offences should be prosecuted as should any body else.

But we don't agree. I used Maidstone as an example as it is something I know about first hand. Not only have I seen it but I have dealt with the crime reports on a daily basis. You can exchange Maidstone for any number of town centres at the weekend sadly. No doubt you have seen the numerous programmes on Binge Drinking Britain? What happened in Cologne is unacceptable be it migrants or who ever carried out the sexual assaults and robberies. It is even more worrying if reports are true and the attacks were orchestrated and more worrying still that there appears to be an attempt to cover up what happened by the authorities. But as I said earlier, this isn't just a problem to do with migrants or "drunken muslim men" as was first reported. Violence against women is being carried out on our own doorstep regularly and by men of all races and creeds. Many sexual assaults are carried out after drunken nights out. Many do not involve alcohol. As far as I know there was 1 rape reported after the Cologne incident. The Rape Crisis Centre reports that on average there at 11 rapes carried out per hour in England and Wales. That is about 1 rape every 5 minutes on average. The Cologne incident is a worry but the problem is not just a group of drunken, possibly Muslim, migrants. There is a much wider issue here about how some men feel they can behave towards women, drunk or not.

As do you, Caped Crusader.

If you don't think it is relevant, fine.

Go and read it again. By the way, there are 11 rapes per hour committed on average in the UK. Just put put what happened in one night in Cologne in context.

I made reference to Maidstone earlier which has been twisted.

Don't let the fact that I didn't say that stop you.

Oh, so the pantomime hissing represents the gassing of Jews?

Just like making monkey noises and throwing bananas at black players used to be. There is no excuse.

Sod it

It isn't just that though is it? There are plenty of people already living in various countries who are prepared to pull crazy stunts like this.

Just seen the Liverpool team, great chance for Exeter tonight. Good luck to Matty Oakley and Danny Butterfield.

This is precisely why I said ages ago that defeating IS was going to be very difficult. There are nutters spread all over the place who are prepared to do things like this.

slurp