Morley_crosses_to_Withe

I didn’t watch it today, but this can’t go on. I really did want him to do well, I’d really like him to do well, but I feel the general feeling has turned, so as fickle as it may be, I’d rather join in with majority. I’d rather lump in with my fellow supporters at this stage and fight a common cause.

This appointment has caused division from day one, so it’s time for Purslow to admit his mistake and make it right. We need to bring in a manager who can galvanise the fan base and that has to be someone like Pochettino.

The club now needs to stop talking the talk and actually **** act like the club they keep pretending to be. 

Here’s my first ever criticism of him: he’s a Poundshop Tim Sherwood. 

“Hi Steven, I work in journalism but I’ve been on the moon with my eyes closed and fingers in my ears, so I don’t know if you’ve talked about this several times over the last week, but it looked to be a good performance from Emi Buendia when he came on as a sub. Has he done enough in your mind to start a game?"

Some people will be in the same situation as foreveryoung anyway; you won’t get to wear the shiny, new helmet. Foreveryoung doesn’t want a booster, other people might, but unless you’re in the eligible cohorts, the decision has been taken out your hands and made for you by the JCVI. 

I’m sure that’s beyond what some people will be comfortable with, but you have no choice other than to trust the experts. Perhaps it’s not great, and we shouldn’t trust the experts here, for whatever reason, but you have no choice in terms of the new booster. You will still wear a helmet (previous jabs and probably infection) or you can wear a much more effective helmet (previous jabs, possibly previous infection, plus other risk preventive measures) but you won’t get the super protection helmet. 

So ultimately, you’re still left with some personal decisions to make - you can reduce social contacts, avoid busy areas, and wear a high quality, well fitted masks on the rare occasions you do leave the house. How many people have genuinely been doing all these recently though despite waning immunity? And will you be doing it if you’re not in an eligible cohort for the booster? 

The logic for not doing these things, whilst probably not exactly the same as foreveryoung, does occupy some of the same space. “I know I could catch COVID, but I’m previously vaccinated and/or had the infection, so I’ll still go to that pub/bar/party on Friday. I want a beer at Villa park, so I’m willing to stand in a packed concourse. Despite the risk, and the airport crowds, I still want to go on holiday next week. I’ll socialise at Christmas, I’ll see my mates, and see my family”

You must be weighing up your risk and concluding: “If I catch it, I’m sure I’ll be fine/I hope to be fine next time”. Or as Blandy said: “If I catch it, I’ll handle the symptoms”. Your overall risk factor has already been determined by the JCVI and, if you’re not eligible for the next booster, it’s now left to you to carry on as normal or make those other personal choices. 

If you had absolutely no belief that it’s likely you’ll be okay, you’d stringently stick to the full suite of personal risk preventative measures. There’s overwhelming evidence to suggest a very cautious approach would help; you’d wear a more effective helmet at all times. 

As @CVByrne rightly pointed out, Carlos was signed as a press resistant, ball playing CB.

Rob Holding is the absolute polar opposite of that. The link HAS to be complete rubbish. It would make no sense for us to sign him with they way we’re looking to play, not even as cover. 

21 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

I think this picture says it all with regards to Gerrards tactics - or lack of them.
Where the f*** is our midfield? We can't just play with Kamara and then two no.8's who bomb on - especially as the fullbacks push so far forward.

Honestly, tactically, we're a mess. Kamara is going to be hung out to dry this season unless we tweak the way we're playing or sign another defensive midfielder. We're an absolute mess in the middle of the park. Teams are just going to run through us.

Wakey wakey, Villa. 

It’s a dangerous situation if the play breaks down, sure, and a number of players would have an awful lot of work to do in order to get back into a defensive position.
 

However, you can also look at that photo and suggest it could have been a promising attacking passage of play. If the first ball is effective, the Bournemouth full back has to hope he can outpace Bailey. McGinn is running into a lot of space, and aiming to drive forward so he can take up position outside/in line with corner box. You can see the B’Mouth player desperately trying to get over to cover McGinn’s run, this then leaves space behind him, but the opposition player picking up Ings has allowed Ings to get goal side of him with a yard head start. There would be then be an opportunity for Ings to take up the huge area left by the onrushing Bournemouth player.

So say the first ball is effective and it finds either Bailey down the line or McGinn in space (either scenario ideally requires the ball to, at some point, end up at McGinn’s feet), he should then be looking to race ahead of, or cut inside, the onrushing B’Mouth player and then deliver the ball to Ings who should use the space and make a diagonal run into the box. 
 

Arguably you’d want the players in that situation not to be McGinn and Ings; I’d expect a better outcome with Buendia and Watkins. Buendia to receive the ball and use his nous to beat the man trying to get across, Watkins for his pace to make the diagonal run. They weren’t even on the pitch though, so..!

Saying all that, it’s hard to deduce anything just from a still photo, taken in the early stages of the first game of the season, that started at a frenetic pace. What we can all conclude and agree on, though, that it was mostly a horrible, horrible mess. 

7 hours ago, Keyblade said:

That's what happens when people have been blowing smoke up your ass your whole life. You would think he was Pirlo or Zidane the way the English media went on about him.

Or the way Zidane himself went on about him. 

20 minutes ago, Genie said:

I can’t tell if you’re trolling with this Newcastle love-in or not anymore

I’d never heard of Mara so looked him up. According to Fotmob he was the 11th best player in the team that finished rock bottom of the French top flight. 

He scored 6 in 27 last season (0 assists).

 

Same. As someone who has never watched Bordeaux with the regularity some see to have, I’d never heard of him either, those stats look dire though.
But imagine being jealous about vague targets and tenuous links 

There was an article in the Torygraph the other day basically saying Newcastle are back to the drawing board with their recruitment plans and are having to work through a different list of targets.
 

Not Southern Indian but some of my shouts would be:

Kricket.
This is good for causal dining and it has a large seating counter. It's more of a modern take on Indian cuisine but the food is great and it's got a lively atmosphere. Go to the sister bar next door called Somo for a few cocktails. 

https://somasoho.com

https://kricket.co.uk/soho/

Tayyabs. 
https://www.tayyabs.co.uk
This is over in East London. It's been around for decades and remains popular. It's rustic with no frills, but I don't know anyone who's been there that didn't enjoy the food.

Dishoom

https://www.dishoom.com

This is very popular so they've now got a number of locations. It depends where you're staying but I'd try one of either Carnaby St/Kingly Street, Covent Garden or Shoreditch. I like the one on Kingly Street. You should also definitely have a look in Kingly Court if you go that way. 
 

God, this thread is a weird load of bitterness. I don't understand the jokes, memes, over exaggerations and furiously partisan opinions of football fans on a football forum. It's just bizarre. 

Oh, and I've never seen Jack waving pom poms.

The earlier pages of this thread are pure, unmitigated comedy. Football forum punditry at its most hilarious. Go have a read if you want a laugh on a Monday morning. 

Here’s pro vaccine, pro 1st & 2nd lockdown, mask wearing promoting, anti-viral supporting, whack job Dr Ali, who was against ALL restrictions from the very start (apart from the ones he wasn’t), spouting his bullshit again.

I don’t know how he keeps flying under the radar of the Guardian’s editorial process and being allowed to spout his startling quackery. What’s worse is that he STILL retains his lofty positions at three prestigious institutions. How are top scientists in those places not seeing what the layman can see?

We can only hope the epidemiology experts on message boards and newspaper comment sections continue to take him to task. Maybe then his fellow colleagues at Cambridge and Oxford will wake up and remove this man. 

Once we stamp out scientific debate, and censor those that don’t agree with us, only then can we end this pandemic. 
 

Quote

That is why it’s so important for everyone to continue to follow the public health guidance – including wearing masks – even after mandatory restrictions end.

………………

Of course, during the first wave this evidence was lacking – which is why lockdown measures were justified. Even in the second wave, there was sufficient evidence to show that the benefits of lockdown outweighed the costs – especially with the arrival of vaccines, when lockdowns were not just delaying admissions and deaths but actually preventing them

………….

Fortunately there are things clinically vulnerable patients can do to protect themselves – including wearing well-fitted FFP2 or FFP3 masks, which have been shown in hospitals to greatly reduce the risk of infection. The arrival of antiviral drugs will also provide additional protection from hospital admission and death.

…….

Covid is far from over. With our new freedoms we all have the responsibility to continue to protect others and be considerate of those who are more vulnerable to the virus.

Quote

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/28/lift-plan-b-restrictions-england-vaccines-restrictions

So now we’re just trusting the government now are we? Wow.

Another long winded post but you still haven’t explained why 400 deaths per day from COVID is accurate. You’ve provided no analysis of any data.

You’ve decided a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge and an honorary consultant in acute medicine at Oxford University is wrong because of some vague reasoning: “a tainted history”. 

I have suggested you should provide your analysis based on the ONS stats. You don’t even have to address Dr Ali, just the raw stats instead.

Devi Sridhar is also wrong and should be discredited. Okay, so who is correct and which scientist have you decided to trust? 

14 hours ago, nick76 said:

The question though is he correct with the data.  I don’t have time to check his data.  We know how people manipulate data both ways.  I’m sure somebody will debunk it soon if it is wrong or I did more checking plus it’s a week old and deaths have risen a lot in the last week according to government released data so looking at his tweets from a week ago is already out of date.  

My issue is when somebody has been tarnished a number of times like this guy, then you have to question the data he is presenting to further his narrative.  Is the data accurate? Is the data adjusted somehow? Is the data telling us everything? When your source is tarnished it brings into consideration any data they present.  You can’t take his data on face value.

It’s not his own data, it has come directly from the ONS. Here’s the link that he provided in his Tweet. 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales

You have your own narrative but you don’t seem to be able to back up your claims. You don’t have the time to look at the data but you seem to have the time to post long-winded messages on a football forum. Odd. 

15 hours ago, nick76 said:

But that’s old data now even if correct, I don’t know the guy.  Even if correct you can look at the data for the last few days and the deaths have increased quite a bit since those tweets a week ago.

Edit:  just read up on this guy and seems he’s been against any restrictions at any time during the pandemic.  Think I’ll give his analysis a miss, thanks.

That the deaths have increased wouldn’t change the fact that the data could be skewed by certain factors.
He provided the raw ONS stats. The link to the data tables are in the thread. Let’s see your analysis then and you can explain why 400 deaths from COVID a day is accurate since you’re standing by that claim so vehemently.

Oh and did you see the recent article by Devi Shridhar in The Guardian? (A paper that Dr Ali has also written for). She’s been courted by all corners of the media throughout the whole pandemic and has had an extremely risk averse and cautious approach throughout. 

You’ll note a massive change in her tune. How about her analysis or nah because it doesn’t agree with your opinion that we shouldn’t be moving to the stage of living with the virus.

Quote

Now that science has defanged Covid, it’s time to get on with our lives

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/19/science-covid-ineradicable-disease-prevention

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

I fully appreciate that people are having suicidal thoughts but people are actually dying from Covid at ~400 a day that’s equivalent to just under 3,000 a week.  

It doesn’t make sense.

6 hours ago, a-k said:

Except he is a crackpot? His claim of "inventing" mRNA vaccines is based on some work of injecting mRNA into mice that he did as a Master's student. This is not the current method that is used and he had minor contributions to this current method. He wasn't even the first person to inject mRNA into a mammal. He never completed a PhD, barely did any scientific research in the 15 years immediately preceding the pandemic, and consistently posted misinformation and/or blatantly misconstrued the words of others in his posts and not backed up by the research and data he was posting. This is a guy who organized a deal with Trump for a $21 million study to see if heartburn medication could cure covid, then resigned from his post within a week of the deal going through. Makes you wonder how much he pocketed from that and what his conflicts of interest are.

Freedom of speech does not equate to freedom to spew whatever nonsense you want that may endanger others. The problem with people like Malone is that you don't know what their motives are. There are so many examples of high-profile people who are themselves vaccinated but strongly oppose the vaccines simply for personal and/or political gain (see Fox News). When you have 500k followers, you can turn it into a living by spewing whatever your audience wants to hear.

 

I think this is mostly fair. I do think there is some underlying bitterness to Malone.

The relevance of the heartburn drug, though, I am not so sure. In the early stages of the pandemic a number of pre-existing drugs (treating all sorts of ailments) were being reviewed and analysed by scientists across the world as potential treatments for COVID-19.
Some drugs did show early promise but fell by the wayside.

In terms of the $21m deal, that’s was paid to his employees. It does wonder whether he was rewarded with any of that money, but we just don’t know. It could be that he walked out on the basis of the company reneging on paying out certain financial incentives. He blamed the environment as being difficult to work within. I guess we’ll never find out. I’d be very surprised if he didn’t make a dollar out of it though. 

There might also be an irony to it being a heartburn medication. Pfizer are one of three companies currently going through litigation in the US. They’ve been accused of concealing the dangers of a carcinogen they’d been using in Zantac (a heartburn medication). The drug had been marketed as safe and the chemical was never listed as an ingredient. 

Sally Nugent

Mary Nightingale  

9 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

It's ironic isn't it. The most rabid anti-vaxxers now claim that they don't want to be labelled as it makes them sad, yet they're wearing derogatory shirts, spouting BS and believing in hugely inflammatory rhetoric. The term hypocrite doesn't even cover it.

I don’t really know how this is a response to what I posted. Did you mean to quote me? I was talking about why some people might be vaccinate hesitant for reasons other than stubbornness and ego. And how it’s not helpful to tell all currently unvaccinated people to stop crying and get on with it. 
 

1 hour ago, magnkarl said:

No. There is no "right" on the anti-vax side in this debate. I wish people would stop regurgitating that. 

If you don't get vaccinated you increase the risk to yourself, our health system and to the chance of us developing new variants. 

If you don't have a medical reason not to take the vaccine then you're honestly just being stubborn and egotistical. EU wide the admissions are 60-70% in favour of unvaccinated, in example in the Nordics where the unvaccinated constitutes about 7% of the adult population. These 7% are essentially keeping Norway and Denmark in pandemic style social lockdown where kids are not allowed to do sports, go to school and everything social is heavily regulated. Is that fair?

If, like me, you're anywhere near your 50-60's, you've already been vaccinated under a mandated programme for Polio, Mumps and a whole host of other illnesses. Stop crying and get on with it.

Some people can be vaccine hesitant (for many reasons) so it’s wrong to use these labels and to just tell people to “stop crying and get on with it”. 

(Yes I am vaccinated). 

24 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

If Professor Ferguson thinks that, based on his track record we're probably ****

Indeed. 

Gladly, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard also said he thinks the worst is behind us.

Also, Dr Raghib Ali in the Guardian. 

Quote

But there is a realistic prospect that 2022 will be the year we can begin to live with the virus – and without the fear of both Covid and lockdowns that has haunted us for the past two years.

Quote

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/04/pandemic-end-uk-covid-hospital-vaccines-optimism

Quote

Covid: Vaccines for all every four to six months not needed, says expert (Prof Sir Andrew Pollard)

Quote

We may well need to have boosters for the vulnerable in the population but I think it's highly unlikely that we'll have programmes going forwards regularly of boosting everyone over the age of 12," he said. 

"But identifying those who remain at risk, despite having now had three doses, is critical so they can be protected - either through vaccination or improved treatments over the course of the years ahead."

For people who are clinically vulnerable to Covid, a third dose of a vaccine is considered their full course - with a fourth jab being given as their booster.

Quote

Infectious disease expert Prof Neil Ferguson said he was "cautiously optimistic" that Covid cases were starting to plateau in London in the 18-50 age group, which had been seeing especially high numbers.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59865108

There seems to be a slight change in tone & direction albeit with some tough weeks ahead still to come. 

What ever happened to the AZ vaccine? 

I don’t understand why that isn’t being also being used as a booster. Have there been studies to show it’s ineffective as such?

I genuinely have no idea why the UK Government just seemed to sideline an effective vaccine!