NurembergVillan

Gabby?

Started a Villa save for the first time in years. I usually avoid it because we've been so bad! My previous saves on FM17 were Sheffield United, which then led me to the Everton job, and I did an Arsenal save too. Over the course of those two I developed a really nice 4-2-3-1 tactic which at Arsenal saw John Guidetti as my main striker scoring 54 goals in his first season. We won everything, including the Champions League! Spend most of the budget for that season on Stefan de Vrij and Radja Nainggolan, which strengthened the team massively. With Villa, I decided to adopt the same tactic and started the season with 10 wins on the bounce. I've added Marcus Maddison from Peterborough as a back up left winger, and Bradley Dack from Gillingham as a back up AMC. I signed Andrei Ivan as a young RW and sent Green out on loan. A key signing has been Nacer Barazite, who I brought back from the Dutch League. He's been amazing so far behind the striker. Elsewhere in the squad I signed Phillipp Ziereis to be an extra CB, and Necip Uysal who was listed by Besiktas so came in as back up to Jedi but has turned out a better player so far. Managed to sell Bunn, Kozak and Hutton went on a free. Can't give Richards or Gabby away. 12 games in and won 11, lost 1. Goal difference of +23. Beat Spurs in the League Cup too, AET.

Given the injury to Seamus Coleman, think we can make it a double whammy and sell them Micah Richards?

If we're talking notable bombings, your guess would be woefully wide of the mark. It's hard to find documentation of every single incident, but of the notable ones many seem to have been a lot more recent than you'd think. Including this one in 1992 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bombings_during_the_Northern_Ireland_Troubles_and_peace_process I don't disagree that 2005 is in the past. Strictly speaking so is yesterday. So how far in the past does it have to be to be forgiven and forgotten? The last Islamic terrorist bombing in the UK was in 2005 too, soooo.... In terms of Islamic terrorism being on a whole new level to the IRA, I totally disagree. Read my post again. A bomb detonated (some attacks used more than one device) within the UK on average EVERY SEVENTEEN HOURS FOR THIRTY-FIVE YEARS. It's absolutely staggering. More global, yes. Far greater threat? Only if you believe the papers. Read that quote above - a 3,700lb bomb that damaged 700 houses. That's like a full-on act of war. Yes, the killing of innocent civilians made things worse in the Irish troubles. No doubt. Similar to the child killed in the US Marine operation in Yemen in February. And the countless others killed by drones, soldiers, missile strikes since we very kindly went to the Middle East to liberate them and make them safer. Your original post made a clear statement that terrorism in Ireland wasn't a threat any more. Maybe not to you, but I urge you to take a look at this list on the BBC website, which again goes to show that the media are amplifying the idea of an Islamic threat while offering far less coverage to the dozens of terrorist attacks being committed against British passport holders on British soil every year.

I'm not old enough to know, thankfully. At least not in the peak of the troubles. I know my parents ran a Post Office in Birmingham during the 70s, and a guy came in with a parcel addressed to Sinn Fein so they called the police to come and check it out.

I think if they were all white skinned the attitudes towards them might be a little different...

Between 1970 and 2005, the IRA are widely reported to have been responsible for around 19,000 IEDs - that's one every 17 hours, for 35 years. There was an explosive attack on police in Northern Ireland THIS WEEK. Three bombs have been successfully detonated by Islamic terrorists in the UK, also back in 2005. I'm not suggesting Islamic terrorism isn't a threat, it is. I'm not up for people suggesting it's the only threat we face, or that it's yet anywhere near the level we experienced in the past.

Nah - I'm not talking about you. I'm clear on what your stance is, and to a certain extent I agree. You're spared the noose! What or who I feel is sketchy are those who will tell you Islam is the only bad religion. That's when I feel it starts to get "racist" (in the absence of a word which does justice to a fear or hatred of a certain religion). All religions are somewhat bonkers. We could ban Muslims, send them all "home", etc, but this sort of thing is cyclical. There's always an "enemy" - the Vikings, the Normans, the Germans, the Irish, the Muslims. I don't think the behaviour of a couple of hundred Muslims in the last few years quite puts them on a par with the Vikings or Nazi Germany though!

On the whole I agree with you, but it's also important to consider the part I've highlighted in bold. My dig wasn't aimed at anyone who questions Islam, but is aimed at anyone who only questions Islam. As you rightly say, any religion brings issues - but then similarly there are plenty of non-religious folks who are unutterable bell ends as well. Certainly from what I've seen on Twitter (yeah, I know) lots of people make comments about how Muslims should respect that Britain is a Christian country or "go home". Is it? I'm not one. I probably only know about 4 people under the age of 65 who regularly attend church. The final part of your post asks me not to shout people down as racist for not liking a particular religion. I disagree, and I won't stop. It's fine to not like religion as a whole, I think it's pretty sketchy to start suggesting some religions are ok and some aren't.

If we'd saved 1% of the 5 people who died yesterday, there would still be 5 people dead.

I guess it depends on how you define terrorism. One man's terrorism is another man's war, and vice versa. My point was to subtly illustrate that not all terrorism is derived from Islam, and if people on the far right of the political spectrum believe that Muslims should be kicked out and banned or whatever, you could take your "statistic" and say that as far as the UK is concerned 99% of terrorism is committed by Irish Christians. Rewind back as recently as the mid-late 90s and it was ALL ABOUT Irish terrorism as far as the UK was concerned. I've covered this point several times before on VT, but compare yesterday with the pub bombings in Birmingham, or the bombings in Manchester, Warrington, the Tory conference in Brighton. But yeah, brown people. So...

Looks like the Islamic Republican Army have struck again...

I was making a play on the American word for a mobile phone. Perhaps a bit niche...

Don't think you're allowed mobile phones in prison.

Just as a few Twitter folk predicted yesterday, Trump's sent up a smokescreen by way of more travel restrictions - this time several Middle Eastern countries and airlines are no longer allowed to have passengers carry electronic devices in the cabin. This includes Qatar, Emirates and Etihad - and includes using those countries as a connection. In typically limp-wristed fashion the UK has followed suit. So if you're on a business trip to Asia via Emirates you have to put your laptop in your case on the way back. Bonkers!

Best country in the world. Possibly.

This must be on course to be our shortest match thread ever.

Dr Dre.

I really want Sevilla to win this. I can't abide some of those Leicester players - Vardy and Huth in particular. There must be something about having that particular shape of chin that makes you an odious clearing in the woods.

Not being snarky here, but perhaps that why he's a football manager and we're not? Picking eleven players and putting them into a shape isn't a full time job. There's way more that we have no exposure to, that I'm sure makes a huge difference.

Thanks @OutByEaster? and @chappy It's hard to follow the game from afar in this league, or get decent reports after the game, so write ups like yours really help the community. I'm sure I speak for all of VT in thanking you (and the others who bring the game to life for us such as @John) for taking the time.

Our most complete attacker since Dwight Yorke. Can play central, out wide, can run with the ball, can shoot with either foot, is useful in the air, got some skill, scores all sorts of goals. If he'd been playing for decent clubs since he was a teenager instead of since his mid-20s he'd be far too good for us by now.