Vancvillan

8 hours ago, VillaChris said:

aside from the owner and Ivan Toney who's actually betting on Brentford

Imagine seeing this man's jib and not liking the cut of it.

14 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Based on what? I agree with some of the others about Ollie likely getting called up but I agree with about Ty and Southgate.  Southgate has shown time and time again he doesn’t always pick on form or playing.  It’s done him well to a certain extent.  I’m not expecting Ty to get called up however the season finishes although I hope he does.  Ollie I have more hope that he’ll get a call up but again I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t.  Southgate doesn’t work like that.

I've said it before but I'd be really interested to see who Southgate picks once slabhead is playing for West Ham next year 

4 hours ago, wishywashy said:

https://www.estadiodeportivo.com/futbol/mallorca/equipo-que-quiere-pagar-clausula-kangin-lee-negocio-del-siglo-20230419-417416.html

"three goals and five assists in 28 LaLiga games"

Cameron Archer does those numbers in a week.

11 hours ago, Rds1983 said:

I'm dissapointed that 38% of people still think owning a gun at all is acceptable, let alone a bloody AR-15.

Canada has a huge amount of firearms. The difference is legislation and regulations. No open carry, and you have to have a reason to own one (self defence isn't a valid reason, so either sports shooting or hunting).

The ones you can own and have on public land (for hunting) are unrestricted class, mostly long rifles and shot guns - not many semis (but you can still get one in 223 rem same calibre as an AR15).  No handguns.

For sports shooting (handguns, most semis, restricted class) you do an additional day of training and need an additional permit for each firearm that lets you transport to to a specified location, and you have to travel by a reasonable route with no unnecessary stops.  If you want to take a restricted firearm to a gunsmith, you need to apply for a separate permit to take it there.

AR15 was banned based on the culture around it. Ditto a few other firearms.  Long story, I have mixed opinions on efficacy based on what the stated aims of the ban were.

Both licences require a background check including personal references, you have to declare any recent (two years I think) redundancies or divorce / seperation, need sign-off from your partner or spouse if they live with you.  Mandatory 28 day waiting period, typically 3-5 months for processing.

I can go to a big box store and buy a rifle + ammunition today if I want. It's not like it's inaccesible.

Plenty of people have a good reason to own firearms.  The US has an issue with regulations.

5 hours ago, maqroll said:

We should sign Mitoma and weaken Brighton in the process.

Love the idea but you know they'll just take half the money and find some unknown world-beater.

9 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Cheeky Trent A-A bid?

Liverpool willing to sell apparently. 

The absolute inverse of an Emery RB, unless we're playing two of them.

7 hours ago, fruitvilla said:

My plan for tomorrow:

Get up at 7 am (3 pm in the UK)
Stay the hell away from VT
Volunteer at the local Adopt a Highway at 8 am
About 12:30 pm watch the recording
At 2:30 pm (10:30 pm UK) see if it's safe to come to VT

Best kind of adoption. Don't have to feed, bath or put a highway to bed and no-one complains if you drive over one.

16 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

Meanwhile in Texas, Governor Abbott wants to pardon a white guy who killed a black guy, in seemingly cold blood.

Abbott sees him as an American hero, he stood his ground in the face of immense aggression and only shot as he was under threat. Open carry is legal in Texas, so neither man were illegally carrying a gun.

This narrative kinda falls apart when you see his views:

“Might Have to Kill a Few People”: And other texts that suggest Daniel Perry intended to commit murder at a Black Lives Matter demonstration - News - The Austin Chronicle

 

Worth mentioning that the victim was a white guy carrying an ak47 strapped to his chest at a protest, not a black guy.

Not excusing the offender, but details matter - open carry is dumb.

1 hour ago, viivvaa66 said:

As George Box said: “All models are wrong but some are useful”. To predict the outcome of a match do include a lot of variables that can’t be included in the model, like the breakdown of VAR in the Spurs vs Brighton match and so on. Still bookmakers do try to predict the outcome of matches, and they make money, so it can be done better than some random guessing. As any statistical model it is never going to be 100% correct, but I would still rate it somewhat higher than pointless. 

Don't bookmakers use models for base spreads but leave total of all outcomes under 100% and then adjust based on what people bet on?

Genuinely curious, no idea how it works.

7 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

The Guardian football podcast recently prefaced the show with they would talk about pantomime level ignored Villa run of form then when it came to Leicester result some guy just went on about Leicester players and how bad the team was and they moved on to next topic

I think I get the story you're trying to tell but it took six reads and now my head hurts.

Toughest game we've had since the Man City / Arsenal week. Don't think they have the talent of those two, but very well drilled and they're not 3rd for nothing. That said, we've beaten similar opposition since Emery arrived, so if we're on it we could get three points. Would happily take a draw though.

Wish Isak was still injured tbh, though CW loves to score against us. A win here would be a great result.

4 hours ago, Chindie said:

Charlton Heston also hosted an NRA event at Columbine in the aftermath of the infamous school shooting there and declared they'd have to take his rifle out of his cold dead hands, so **** him.

I've got no love for Charlton Heston, but he said that in North Carolina at an NRA convention more than a year after Columbine. Michael Moore can probably be credited with spreading that popular misconception.

Doesn't make it less gross, but didn't happen how it's often reported. 

Would be happy with a draw. They aren't where they are because they're shit, that's nonsense.

I think we can get at them as their defence is vulnerable at times - only problem is so is ours.

Toughest test we've had in a while for sure.

Be really interesting to see if he gets a call up when slabhead is playing for West Ham next season.

Imagine the shock when fans see a player told to focus on the things he's best at that are also positive EV for the team. Same applies to SJM and others.

But still we had "established" posters bemoaning the fact that it was impossible that any manager could get more out of this squad than Stevie G could, because "the fight wasn't there".

Think Ollie has shown enough to shut them up.

5 hours ago, MaVilla said:

im sure i saw a graphic/graph/table somewhere that implied that we have the second hardest last 10 game run in of all teams in the PL.

It said only Brentford had a harder run in.

edit: here it is:

Frank Lampard's Chelsea have a genuinely tough run. Could see them picking up very little until the last couple of games.

Which would be objectively hilarious.

Garth Crooks somehow manages to make himself look more stupid each week. I love SJM and his form post-Gerrard, but this is brain injury level nonsense.

"He hadn't scored a goal for Aston Villa since November 2021. Another one of those wretched football statistic that doesn't tell the whole story of a player's contribution to the team. McGinn has arguably been Villa's most consistent performer for the last two seasons. "

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65170383

2 hours ago, sne said:

Land of the free.

This is probably bigger news in terms of potential impact on US citizens than the Trump indictment.  The bill makes it illegal to US a VPN to do anything the US considers unauthorized, with steep potential penalties including jail time.

Obvious implication for Tik Tok, but questionable on freedom of information for journalists, and a huge blow for anyone in the US involved in crypto, where most financial service protocols (derivatives / perps / options exchanges, etc) have already geo blocked US-based IPs due to fears of legislation.  Even if you hate crypto, the US not being involved at this formative stage is going to leave them lagging - because digital currency of some form is written into the future, and the amount of innovation happening right now is something they need to be a part of.

56 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I’m not sure I agree that it’s weak, we actually don’t know what the charges are and we don’t know what evidence they have.  

We appreciate it’s the weakest politically but unknown whether it is the weakest from a law point of view.

All we know is that a Grand Jury has heard from many witnesses and have mountains of corroborating evidence.  Until we see the charges on Tuesday at the earliest, everything else is speculation.  

All we can say is that Cohen went to jail for the same related thing, which remember, he went to jail while Trump was President so now to push this on Biden by the Right seems disingenuous and it’s a State charges not DOJ.  

Cohen going to jail for related charges of tax evasion and campaign finance related charges…I think it was 8 different charges at the time.  Trump is being charged with 34 charges.  

You’d think if there was enough evidence for Cohen going to jail, there maybe enough related to Trump as well given their relationship at the time and we know that naivety of events in law is not classed as an acceptable defence under law, involvement is sufficient.

 

Respectfully nick, you quoted my first sentence without including the second, which is pretty important in terms of context. By "weak" I mean that given what has been reported so far (including what was in the rest of my post), I wouldn't exactly call it a slam dunk.

I guess we'll know more next week, but right now it feels weak based on what we know. I read the NYT post above, but the BBC reporting suggests it isn't as clean cut. That last paragraph really jumps out.

Trying to see it from a moderate Rep's perspective, it's easy to see how if there isn't much more than covering up a hush money payment, they are going to compare that to Hunter Biden's laptop, Nancy Pelosi's insider trading, etc and see it as electioneering. Not saying it's right, but right is pretty subjective in US politics atm.

What is Trump accused of?

Anthony Zurcher

BBC North America correspondent

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

In 2016, adult film star Stormy Daniels contacted media outlets offering to sell her account of what she said was an adulterous affair she had with Donald Trump in 2006. Trump's team got wind of this, and his lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels to keep quiet. This is not illegal.

However, when Trump reimbursed Cohen, the record for the payment says it was for legal fees. Prosecutors say this amounts to Trump falsifying business records, which is a misdemeanour - a criminal offence - in New York.

Prosecutors could also potentially allege that this breaks election law, because his attempt to hide his payments to Daniels were motivated by not wanting voters to know he had an affair with her. Covering up a crime by falsifying records would be a felony, which is a more serious charge.

Even advocates for prosecution acknowledge that either way, this is by no means a clear-cut case. There is little precedent for such a prosecution, and past attempts to charge politicians with crossing the line between campaign finance and personal spending have ended in failure.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-64993429

It's ironic that the economy is the biggest topic at the moment but it's one of the things that presidents have the least control over.

Sure, they can bring in programs and spend money on different things, but many of those won't bear fruit in their term, and the ones that do can still be overwhelmed by external factors.

Fwiw, running a deficit is one of the few non-partisan things left in the US. Every president in the last 20 years has done it, and the total is about equak between Reps and Dems. They just spend money on different things.

Jerome Powell has more influence in the economy right now than either party.

As long as we don’t have Buendia marking Billing at corners I feel pretty good about this one.

23 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

All that said, I do feel like we need to do a better job as a recruiting operation in keeping our cards closer to our chest. We are too leaky.

Wait, what? It’s the one thing I’d say we’ve done well - a lot of our signings come out of nowhere. 

16 minutes ago, S-Platt said:

You saying they are all inbred?  

I hope they get promoted will be interesting how they do in The Championship.

Would be good to see how Azaz does too at that level in a settled team that he knows.

Haha, got some family down there so can't resist a cheap shot.

Yeah, would be great to see them come up and Azaz to go back for another season. Can't be easy hopping around teams in loan spells.

Most teams like to claim their fans are one big family but for them it's true.