ScepticalStan

Anyone know why Stoke are way out at 3.50 at home to West Ham at the weekend? Hammers are even money to get the win there...I'd personally have been a little more hopeful that they'd face a tougher task getting a win at the Britannia than the bookies seem to be suggesting. Injuries? Or is it a case of the bookies just thinking the difference in motivation makes all the difference?

NO. NO. NO. NO This is one of the biggest misconceptions out there. The fact that there are demographic disparities (in a variety of things, not just the job market), is NOT somehow evidence that these disparities MUST be as a result of discrimination. That's just a conclusion people jump to without a shred of evidence. Watch. This. Video.

Goodness no. It's grotesquely unjust, but that is the cold, hard truth I'm afraid. Aside from the fact that there's no reason to suppose this is either 1) Important and necessary or 2) the case with the BBC in a 87% white country you should realise that almost no profession, almost anywhere in the world, has a demographic make-up that reflects the overall population. This is a rather damning indictment of how you view ethnic minorities - that you think they're so naturally violent, tribal and quick-to-temper that we have to overpromote them into positions they're less than qualified for partly because there's no chance they could achieve such a position on their own unassisted, and partly lest they descend into mob violence and looting. I also have to take you up on the bolded. No-one is arguing that ethnic minorities ought not to have "access to employment" - that's a complete straw-man argument of what people are taking issue with - which is that white people are being overtly discriminated against to ensure that a particular candidate has the right set of genitalia and/or skin pigmentation. Here's an idea....how about we just have fair and equal hiring processes that treat every candidate, male/female/black/white equally and hire the best one for the job?

I'm massively clutching at straws here but I do wonder if a combination of rested players, a flukey Bournemouth goal and frustration at finishing outside the CL places could maybe cook up a kind of toxic atmosphere that would cause an upset. Don't think West Ham winning at Stoke is by any means certain either. In fact I'd be quite surprised if they did so. They had clearly put absolutely everything into tonight (as evidenced by them rolling over for Swansea) and I think a win against Palace will be enough to catch them.

United are astonishingly lucky to have any sort of a chance to get anything here.

The best qualified person kept being a white guy, and it was realised that transparently fair and equal hiring processes do not, by default, automatically result in a workforce that obligingly matches the demographic spread of the overall population.

Mahrez, Vardy, Simpson, Drinkwater and Kante are all legit better than their counterparts Mane, Long, Martina, Davis and Wanyama. Huth, Morgan, Schmeichel and Fuchs are essentially equals of Van Dijk, Fonte, Forster and Bertrand. The rest of the players are all much of a muchness as well. The answer is lol no. We are not as good as the team that's ten points clear at the top of the league in May.

West Ham 1-0 United Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea United 0-1 Bournemouth Stoke 1-0 West Ham Saints 4-0 Palace. 5th Place. Boom. (But all joking aside we're realistically cheering for United and Chelsea for us to get 6th)

Quite. Watford, West Brom, Palace, Norwich, Newcastle (away) & Sunderland, Villa, Everton, Stoke (home) = 4 points out of a possible 30. Not to say this season hasn't been awesome and well above what I expected but it is frustrating to see so many points dropped when it's since become apparent that we were capable of much, much better. I guess you've got to console yourself with the fact we were lucky to face a City side that basically threw the fixture and a Spurs team that were clearly downcast from missing out on the title when we did. We faced Liverpool at a good time too, in between a couple of their Europa League games.

Where are we all drinking?

Spurs just drifted suddenly from 1.95 to 2.10 on 365 (Saints going from 4.00 to 3.70) from about ten minutes ago. That's actually a relatively significant swing especially for it to be such a sudden jump. Looks like some kind of news has filtered through.

The bookies must be licking their lips

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/04/donald-trump-triumph-lesson-europes-politicians#comment-73632359 Article from the epitome of smug, Simon Jenkins - peering down from Mount Olympus on the politicians failure to control the plebs as they flock to Trump, UKIP, the FN and AfD etc. and how 'they're brought it all on themselves by ignoring the working class' etc. ...Of course, he doesn't actually specify on what policies or wishes of the working class they ought to implement or act upon - because he himself doesn't think there are any that they should. He's essentially arguing for the elites to start doing a better job of conning the public and stringing them along, and is disappointed by their failure to do so.

There are a lot of people on this forum and throughout our fanbase who would unironically agree with this

Agree completely. At the likes of Bournemouth (where don't forget, he's had a very solid transfer budget to work with), he's done well-ish in his first season similarly to the way we did in ours; by being capable of beating more-or-less anyone in the league on your day (Chelsea/United etc.) and so, even if not particularly consistent, being able to at least conceivably take points from most every game in the league. The downside is that his Bournemouth side managed to lose at home to the likes of Villa and Newcastle and have generally been very, very inconsistent with a fairly hopeless defence and a spine of the team that buckles very easily under pressure and ships goals for fun when things are going wrong. Granted, they're a promoted team but we need a manager who can build something stable and sustainable over a 38 game season if we seriously want to finish top 6/7 - not a maniac (speaking purely tactics-wise of course) like Howe or Martinez who might have their moments but are going to drop points left, right and centre throughout the season. Agree again. Trouble is that I don't think the club are 'properly serious' about Europe by any stretch and so I'm completely resigned to losing him - which would be immeasurably frustrating given that he's got two seasons left on his contract after this one - and quite capable of scoring 20-25 goals next season which would likely offset any transfer value lost from the extra year given the competition for his signature.

The bitterness on here really is weak. He left us to join a bigger club and has been vindicated by going on to achieve their highest league position in recent memory. Get over it.

Well, we've got two matches to get the necessary points required. I certainly hope we do it - particularly as I'll be at the Spurs game next weekend. Testament to Ronald Korman's ability. Best manager we've ever had by a million miles.

Clattenburg had obviously been instructed to avoid giving a red card either way and it looked like both teams were savvy enough to realise it and took advantage.

Chin up pal. Only a fool would think the title isn't over.

Sadly this is probably true. Funnily enough, I wonder if we could put a bid in for Walcott as a replacement for Mané? Granted his wages will be big but the transfer fee shouldn't be too much. Plus, when you look at what he'd bring to the table in terms of pace and finishing he'd probably suit our style quite nicely. He's not the most skillful player in the world but with our system the way it is, he wouldn't have to be. Mané's a wonderfully talented player but what made him effective today was simply his ability to run through one-on-one and finish. That's a job Theo could probably do quite effectively - and we get more out of Long when he's alongside a pacy strike partner as well.

Yep. Not much to fuss about for the rest of this season other than staying above Chelsea for the dizzy heights of 8th rather than the crushing lows of 9th.

Back during the World Cup two years ago he was saying that the goal-line technology was wrong and incorrectly awarded a goal so you won't get far with a humble offside

Another goal from Gaston. Gotta bump up that thread

That's right. After seven seasons failing to crack the dizzy heights of 10 top-flight goals there's no reason to suggest our man Paddy Long won't burst into form next year and be one of the league's top scorers. And the fact that Vardy leads the way in combined goals and assists is something that should be totally ignored. Because he hadn't before he had, and you can't prove that he won't suddenly stop scoring. And like I say, Shane Long is not ****, he is a reasonably decent player - but the excuses, apologies and general hype made around him would never be extended to anyone else.

This is part of the reason you actually do want a big name manager; someone like Depay could easily wind up disrupting the squad and falling out with a manager like Pearson but Koeman on the other hand would command infinitely more respect. Anyway, where have the rumours about Depay come from? Is there actually any solid evidence linking us with him?