Vancvillan

Easy to say that when a large portion of your income doesn't depend on it. I remember in the 80's (and later) when non-white players where basically told "you'll never stamp racism out of football, if you don't like the heat...". It took decades of people standing up and being counted - it was (and still is) very slow progress but at least some steps by police, the FA, clubs and other fans are now a lot more apparent. I bold other fans because as much as holding offenders to account is important, it's the en-masse (albeit slow) shifting of attitudes that has probably had the biggest effect. Now if you hear racism during a game in the stands or in a pub there's a strong chance that person will at the very least get called out or told to shut up. The difference with social media is that if pressure is there, and it is applied by enough people in enough places, there absolutely are algorithms that could help identify offenders, ban the user, ban an IP (I know, I'm behind 7 proxies, etc), ban an associated email address or phone number. In the world of 2FA, you have to link an account with a device, and that makes it harder to create new accounts. Honestly I think if you just make it a little bit hard you'll get rid of 90% of it. I don't agree with "she should leave if she can't handle it" any more than I think she shouldn't wear a skirt if she wants to in case she gets cat-called in real life. I think the fact that she's staying and speaking out is not something she should be obligated - to do but it is brave. If she chose to leave that's again her decision, but the more people talk about this problem, the more likely something is to change.

I agree with all of this with the exception that unless people are saying really terrible things about him, people posting that he's taking bad advice or he's got ideas above his station isn't offside at all - especially on a forum for his current team. No need for people to be nasty but I get why people would think he's gone full Big Time Charlie after barely kicking a ball outside of age group football. Whether that's true or not is a matter for speculation - which is why we're here and why we have 404 pages of discussion on Milot Rashica.

Fair enough - I think we're talking around the same tiny points of minutia, but I don't know if we disagree on much in actuality. Let's just say we're both right and have a beer.

Juvenile? Unlike painting your face, wearing a shirt to watch millionaires kick a ball on TV, shouting at the ref through said TV, singing songs about ball-kicking millionaires like they're battle heroes, etc, etc, etc. The whole thing isn't exactly a celebration of logic and maturity. Wind your neck in man.

1. I don't think there's much "hatred". Maybe from a few but I'd say it's mostly disappointment, disagreement or dissatisfaction. Or one of the other disses. 2. I don't think him not signing a contract and the manager leaving it at home from the preseason tour for this exact reason is "just another irrational idea". No-one on here knows for sure, but if you make a list of the top 3 reasons for what's happening, him not wanting to be here for some reason (money, appearances, wants bigger club) would probably be two of the three. If you think otherwise, we'd love to hear other rational explanations.

So you're saying people aren't allowed to dislike a player because he wants to leave? Aren't allowed to question the decision? That's how I feel about the NHL draft - but only because I give zero shits about hockey.

She probably makes the majority of her money from social media related stuff. But yeah, when people abuse her she should just switch it off and forget about those earning like we all would.

Those two things aren't the same. People are saying get rid because he doesn't want to be here. His new club will welcome him because he does want to be there. When my ex was cheating on me with a guy she ended up marrying, I didn't (at the time at least) say "well you can't question her attitude - people change relationships all the time and she deserves to be happy".

The grammar police is going to disagree.

Maybe. He’s looked very comfortable. Really makes you wonder about the captain - you want someone who is one of the first names on the team sheet. Right now we have Emi M, Cash, Digne and Kamara who you would bet would start games if fit. I guess add Carlos too. Given that I don’t love having a keeper as captain that makes it a tough call.

Not a great look. Only a friendly but they haven’t exactly done inspiring business. Side note - as someone who resides in North America but didn’t grow up here, referring to teams in the singular (Minnesota is beating Everton) is something I’ll never make peace with. It makes my whole body wince. It’s just wrong. Like single ply toilet paper or James Corden. It just shouldn’t be a thing.

@avfc1982am said he needs to work on his core strength but is growing. As in he's getting stronger. I don't know if this is true but it seemed pretty obvious what he was getting at, and not in any way implausible. If you think a player is done at 24 and on a downward trajectory, there's a list of elite-level players who kicked on in their mid-20s. It would probably be easier to ask where you think he can't grow at age 24. Height? I'm not sure what else.

I'm going to risk sounding like an absolute know-it-all-Nathan when that couldn't be further from the truth. I've never had the problem of being the smartest guy in the room. As a lover of stats who almost pledged his life to it's study, xg is a useful tool but it's not the last word on a player's effectiveness. If you're using it in conjunction with other stats then great, but we shouldn't start taking league tables of xg as gospel. I've done all of 30 seconds of digging into how the statsbomb model works (other models might be different) but two things jumped out straight away: 1. It's based in historical data, so assumes football as a game is somewhat static. Also each chance is compared to others, but no previous shot is going to be exactly same and maybe those small differences have a big effect. 2. It doesn't assign any weight to the ability of players involved, so if you're taking a throw in, it doesn't matter if the opposing keeper is prime Peter Schmeichel or Peter Enckelman. There are going to be lots of other gaps since modelling something as complex as football is no easy (or even possible) task. Unless you assume all players are spherical. That's a joke for an audience of maybe five people. If you don't get it you're missing nothing. For a season of less than 25 chances these gaps could make a big difference. That's not to say we ditch xg, just treat it for what it's worth - one of a lot of useful tools that can lead you down the wrong path if you use it on its own. Also, I don't think we need another striker, but I'd take another number 8 all day long.

I was going to reply but @avfc1982ampretty much read my mind and worded it better than I could. Could even be stages of the same game - if we have a narrow lead and the opposition is pressing high and keeping us in our half, bringing on Bailey would change the dynamic as we could get it out long to the wings.

Imagine a world here the Villa first 11 is based on attacking the opponent's weaknesses, rather than having to pick the 11 best players because the rest aren't good enough. Leon's going to be much more effective against some teams, less so against others. And a decent number of those he won't be as dangerous against will be perfect for Emi. As a side bar, has a player ever gone through the VT stages of a new signing so quickly? 1. Sign - "can't believe we got him, what a coup". 2. Debut / early games - "he's better than I thought!" 3. Injury - "we need him back, in he'll be like a new signing" 4. Comeback - "he's shit" 5. Another injury - "waste of money - we've been done here" 6. Comeback - go back to step 2

Outside Left. Basically you don't like the Dems but you dislike the Republicans more. It's like being told you have to eat a shit sandwich, but you do at least get to pick whose shit it is.

This all day long. Obviously there are some breakout yoof, but it's not typically that 18-19 year olds are contributing in a meaningful way to a first 11 in the Prem. Paul McGrath was 21 when he got lifted from amatuer football to the dizzying heights of the Irish top flight. Our youth players are good, we need to have patience with them.

On the topic of the tipping point, personally I'd say it's a lot of things but the internet is a big one. It moved people into silos. There's an interesting (for want of a better single word) article here on the only two US school shooters who are out of jail. This was pre-Columbine, and the murderers were charged as minors so could only be held until 21 - after which their records were sealed. Caused outrage and the changing of some state laws (but not gun laws as far as I can tell). https://abcnews.go.com/US/living-us-mass-school-shooters-incarcerated/story?id=36986507

Tell that to the Knight of Gloucestershire.

It's Stasi you daft Nasi.

If you replace the words "God" and "supernatural force" with Talksport it still works.

For me he's got two problems that don't mix well. He's a confidence player and he's not a top half top Prem player. He's got plenty of ability when you look at bottom half prem teams, but when the side is struggling his head seems to dip. In the Championship when we were on a tear he looked great - because he had the ability for that level and the confidence. Like has been said, Europe or a top Championship club and he'd look a lot better I think.

We had 196 corners last season. Average across the big 5 leagues is around 3% historically (goal results from corner, not just first touch after corner), so you'd expect 6 goals on average. Yes, I have The Google. And all of this is probably made up.

Is that $20m from a Talk Sport exclusive? If so, there's something I need to tell you about them and you may want to sit down. Assuming it's true (and that requires giving them Christ-like benefit of the doubt), it's not ideal but what's the better strategy? 1. Sell him for peanuts now and we set a precedent. We're clearly going to be bringing a lot of talent through our academy, better if we establish the boundaries now. 2. Play him and hope he signs? We'd be developing a player for someone else, or at least developing someone who has shown no commitment to the club. I don't see a better option.

Or just $80m if they keep Maguire.