MessiWillSignForVilla

 

Look in the crowd tomorrow and see if you spot anyone

Empty seats since we're not playing tomorrow?

 

Exactly, so if you see anyone you know they're a shoe in for the job 

Not sure how I feel about Allardyce.... and would serious question his sanity if he chucks in what is a good gig in East London for Villa. He's just got the fans on side, got the team playing effective attacking football with quality players, and has a stadium move to look forward to in the next 12 months.

 

I'm not sure beyond an enormous sack full of cash (we know Randy likes paying managers)  what we can offer?

His contract is up in the summer with no sign of a new one, if we can offer him a job that extends beyond then, I think he'd at least consider it for stability's sake.

I personally think if you're going to sack someone then should replace them with somebody better, I know... it's a crazy thought. So Southgate shouldn't be considered, he's easily worse than Lambert.

Not really how it works though, getting a "worse" manager won't necessarily be the wrong move.

Look at Sunderland a few seasons ago, is Di Canio a better manager than MON? Personally, I'd say no, but Di Canio provided the right momentum and drive at the right time to keep them up. If Southgate was appointed for instance, and he kept us up he'd be the right choice, irregardless of his managerial ability compared to Lambert.

 

 

Can someone explain why Neil Lennon is a terrible choice? I am not being coy here; I genuinely don't understand the revulsion among certain VTers. He seems like he has a very strong record and has played on the big stage. There was one post about 60,000 pages ago where someone called him something along the lines of "the worst human being in the universe" or something equally subtle.

 

a. he is an asshole

b. he is as defensive as McLeish

c. he is an asshole

d. he is a disciple of MON similar to Lambert

e. he came 2nd in the scottish league 

 

 

I appreciate this funny response, but A and C could be applied to probably one of every three great managers, right? And being defensive in terms of personality or playing style? Don't know enough about MON to know much about D but I appreciate. Not sure I understand E. I see this and it looks pretty good.

 

Three titles in a row is good, but then again it was with Celtic. The gulf in quality between them and the rest of that league means literally anyone could manage them and still win the league, it would be considered a monumental **** up to not win the SPL with Celtic. Winning the Championship is probably a bigger badge of honour than a Celtic SPL win, if he'd won it once with any other team bar Rangers, then it'd be a different story.

I like him, I think he did well in many ways here (imo especially in the transfer market) and I till think he'll go on to be a good manager, but we have just been too woeful recently. We became stale and incredibly predictable and he seemingly completely lost control of the situation and I begin to wonder if Benteke's lacklustre attitude was perhaps an indication he'd lost the dressing room. I didn't mind his first two seasons, this season has just gone from worse to worse.

Sorry Paul, good luck in the future and thanks for the effort, but this is absolutely the right decision.

Pat Murphy on 5Live just mentioned Brian Little until end of the season, might be a good choice?

I should add that was his speculation, not any inside tip I don't think.

 

 

Nothing makes me happier than news that shuts up the arm chair, twitter, FM, never kicked a ball dross that plagues these boards.

 

Oh wind your neck in. Other people have different opinions, get over it.

Oh you told me didn't you! Nar there is no opinions with the crowd I mentioned. Just football manager, made up toss.

 

Yup, FM just made up toss, totally worthless as any sort of gauge of players...

oh wait, some clubs actually use it http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/12/why-clubs-football-manager-scouting-tool

Not just mental games in the FA Cup, Watford beat Blackpool 7-2 after being 2-0 down at half time!

Ridiculous weekend for football!

Funny how our virus infected team wasn't used as an excuse for not winning when it was 0-0 and yet now we are losing 3-0

No, the excuse when we weren't winning at 0-0 was probably, we're playing **** Arsenal, you know, one of the best teams in the league.

Also, Lambert said before the game that some players were affected but declared themselves fit.

Was gonna make a comment about the West Ham shirt the other day moving from Claret and Blue sleeves saying I wouldn't be surprised if WBA moved from their classic kit style just like West Ham and Southampton did, but when I saw the Southampton shirt I thought again, it's a shame it actually happened though

It's a nice kit, it's just not a WBA kit imo.

Makes me glad we've got someone like Macron who aren't just trying to turn our kit into a template.

 

On a separate note, can you put stuff up for sale on VT? Like in a sig or summat? Got a few tech gadgets I want to offload to fund a new phone. PM me if you want the details.

If only the mods would draw up a list of rules and link to them in the bottom right of every single page.

 

I don't really want to get into an argument or anything, but, with the subject at hand the guidelines are contradictory.

Firstly they say:

 

 

Signatures may contain small, discrete adverts

Then further down there's this:

 

 

Please don't advertise your stuff or your site on these boards.

With that last bit being in the advert section which one would assume is more to do with the ads at the side and top of the page. So surely if someone wanted to know if they could sell their stuff on here the best thing to do is ask somewhere like General Chat where someone might know and not just making a new topic, as I'm sure you and the other mods won't want to be constantly asked if people can advertise their electronics and what not or locking threads.

If you're going to get sarcastic when someone asks a question, you should probably be aware that the guidelines, in this instance, don't actually make things clearer as they're contradictory.

As I say, I'm not looking for an argument or anything, just wanted to point out that the guidelines for this particular subject aren't all that clear.

Fantastic finish.

Feel sorry for the US, been pretty good to watch so far, shame for them to go out.

Flashbacks of Benteke v Utd last season with that goal!

Great play by Lukaku!

I think both player and linesman will be thanking each other for that!

I think the thing that makes me sympathise with them the most is that we were in almost the exact same situation 4/5 years ago, then we got picked apart, had a bit of mis-management and now look at us. I doubt they'll have the cost-cutting we had but I hope Koeman is allowed to re-invest enough to keep them mid table.

It'll be sad to see another team get close to the top to be immediately swatted back down by the "big boys".

The thing with Suarez is it's not just the well documented stuff, forget the biting, diving, constant arguing and racism, he's still very much a horrible dirty player.

He's Joey Barton with more talent and an over bite. At least Barton has decency to admit he's a shit head with what he does.

I hope Liverpool **** him off this summer, as much as I don't like the club as a whole, they don't deserve to have that clearing in the woods constantly dragging their name through the mud more than it already is (though admittedly they don't help themselves with that).

If they get £40m for him off of Barca or Real, they could use that to build a very good squad and unfortunately have a great shout at the title again.

So...what's at Braavos where Arya is heading? 

Well, she's going there fairly aimlessly currently, but, the coin she gave to the captain, the iron one from Jaqen H'ghar,

(What's happening next season/in the books)

is almost like an invitation to something called the Faceless Men, an assassin's guild/churchy religion place, and they claim they caused the downfall of the Valyrian empire and the Doom

Sign him up 

Good finish.

Why has Atsu shot there? He should have looked up and slipped Gyan through.

Dangerous play refers to an intentional move that happens to be dangerous. There's no such thing as unintentional dangerous play from a rules standpoint. For instance if a player successfully challenges for a header and clashes heads very hard with a player he didn't see, then that's literally 'dangerous play' but the term would be meaningless in that context. Much the same for a normal kick that turns into a high leg because you've been shoved backwards.

 

Except the rules don't mention intention. It's all interpretation I suppose, but imo, if you're swinging your leg like Boye was when he jumped, it's dangerous as it swinging upwards with little control, hence why he kicked Dempsey in the face.

 

Surely that makes it even worse? He kicked Dempsey in the face whilst both were jumping, how is that not dangerous play?

 

his leg came up because of the contact after he'd left the ground, he's going horizontal in mid air, its not his jumping technique thats caused his leg to come up, its dempsey jumping in to him, not sure what else he could do

 

I understand it's not intentional, and I'm not saying he should have been sent off, but if you're kicking someone in the face, it's dangerous play. Yes, he gets a nudge, but he could try control his leg better, his leg goes so far up because it's already swinging upwards before the nudge, he's completely uncontrolled and reckless, therefore it's dangerous.

According to Savage, it's not dangerous play, it's not his elbow, it's boot!

Surely that makes it even worse? He kicked Dempsey in the face whilst both were jumping, how is that not dangerous play?

Really liked the episode thought they did very well tying up all the loose ends of this series, all the way until the penultimate scene;

They have ruined Tyrion for me, I think they've handled his story line this episode really poorly. It's almost as if they want to keep him as the "good guy" because he's a fan favourite, but his whole story arc is about moral ambiguity and the fact he's been pretty screwed over mentally his entire life by his family, he is most definitely not a "good guy".  His actions in the episode seemingly keep him, sane-ish and justified.

 

Comparing the scene to the books;

 

In the book he has his argument with Jaime and he learns the truth about Tysha (what happened to her anyway?) and "admits" to killing Joffrey and spills the beans on Cersei. They both leave feeling angry and betrayed, Jaime because he thought Tyrion was innocent when he "wasn't" and because of Cersei's sleeping around ("and Moon Boy for all I know", and all that jazz), and Tyrion because he was lied to his entire life about the only girl he probably truly loved, by his Brother the one person he thought wouldn't lie to him, and that lie essentially put him on the spiraling path of self destruction, drinking and whoring that was his adult life. This conversation has a lasting effect on both characters for the rest of the books, it's not the swift good-bye it was portrayed as.

 

When he goes to the Tower of the Hand, it seems as if it's just a "what's going on in here then?" type of thing. In the books, it's evident this is a decision based on anger, betrayal and what is most likely the start of a mental breakdown for Tyrion. His whole life has been revealed to be a lie by his brother, he thought that only whores could "love" him and he's just found out that the girl he actually fell in love with and actually loved him wasn't actually a whore, was in fact all true and not set up by Jaime like he was led to believe. He wants to confront Tywin about this so when he realises he's near the TotH, he goes to do just that. Without that reasoning, I don't see why he'd go there.

 

As for murdering Shae, why make it self defense? It gives Tyrion an out. In the books, it's an act of pure anger, one probably made due to his breakdown he has during this part. The feelings of betrayal he is having are doubled and its an act that shows he is in fact capable of murder and all the horrible stuff the "good guys " aren't, it's moral ambiguity part of his character shining through. Now it's just self defense, there's no pleading for mercy from Shae, no trying to explain, no lying back as Tyrion slowly strangles her. Shae immediately goes for the knife, so what else was Tyrion to do?

 

And finally Tywin. The whole reason he kills him isn't because he calls Shae a whore, or even that he was sleeping with her (and that's not to mention Tywin's hypocrisy in this situation), it wasn't even the fact he sentenced him to death, he kills him because he admits to what he did to Tysha, he admits it was a lie and he admits that he made his guards and Tyrion rape her to teach Tyrion a lesson. Tyrion is already going through a breakdown, and this pushes him over the edge, or at least "wherever whores go..." does. It completely destroys him. Everything he's known up until now is a lie to him. The reason he is like he is, a lot of it is down to what happened with Tysha, something that has already traumatised him and pushed him down his path of self destruction, drinking and whoring. Now he kills Tywin because he called Shae a whore and slept with her, because he sentenced Tyrion to death, not out of rage in the midst of a breakdown as his life crumbles around him.

 

And just remembered, why cut one of the best one liners in the books? "Lord Tywin Lannister did not, in the end, shit gold."

 

Sorry for the essay, but for me they've completely changed Tyrion's character now and not for the better, seemingly to keep him as a good guy in the show. Expecting a lot of filler in his arc now as 50% of his story line is now essentially unusable (I suppose it's a small positive that we won't hear "Where do whores go?" ten times an episode).

 

I don't mind major changes to minor characters, I don't mind minor changes to major characters, but this is a major change to a major character, something which I think is completely unacceptable if you want to faithfully adapt a story. Stolen from Reddit but I think this is a fairly apt comparison, it's bit like making LOTR and omitting the Ring's influence on Frodo.

 

Still, I liked the episode. It was great to finally see Mannis be Mannis, the Children of the Forest part was awesome, even if 3E Raven wasn't how I imagined and it was great to finally see Arya go off to Braavos too. The scenes in Meereen were also done very well I thought.

 

And book/next season spoiler

disappointed with no LSH

?

It's a huge spoiler, but then again it isn't, because if you know what it means, then you know the spoiler already.