Marka Ragnos

Now, this is starting actually to sound profound and zenny.

Nice chart -- thanks. It's an eye-opener! But I don't think useless meant it in a sort of existential way. And if you consider the second law of thermodynamics, it is ... sort of ... profound. A bit?

That's good enough for me. Let's hope the players get that message, too.

I was reading some relegation stories from other clubs and, yep, I gotta say that this year has all the hallmarks of doom. I think you're exactly right to say it's a long time coming. When you look at what happens to other clubs that go down, it doesn't just happen overnight, as you know. The seeds of demise are planted way, way ahead -- even years in advance. Let's face it: Randy Lerner's inattentive, listless non-leadership has been a slow-growing cancer on the club, and it's finally metastasized. Even when team seems to be reaching new heights, if the foundation is weak, it may all be a pretty picture that dissolves within months -- and the opposite is true, too. Arsenal is a great example of a very stable club that has no chance of going down any time soon. We're not them. Shite. I'm sounding like a brummie now.

... Brummies are famed throughout England as miserable pessimists. ... The thing that has struck me as especially remarkable is just the totalness of the assumption that it's all over, we're gone, stick a fork in it, etc etc. In a funny way, it's almost kind of perversely optimistic, like "let's move the next stage, and get on with it," to the point where I myself had almost completely forgotten that ... alas ... we still have a dozen games left! Maybe that's a way for people to dull the pain -- just get on with our new life in the Championship. But as you say, on its face, it's fantastically pessimistic.

I just don't think Benteke can be allowed on the pitch. How many times do we need to bang our head against the wall before we realize he's not going to produce?

This thread has gone light years beyond discussing relegation to killing, eulogizing, and entirely burying Villa in the Championship, as if it's a fait accompli. Now we're at the stage of the reading of the will and dividing property. But ... we actually still have a chance.

So ... are we on a downward death-spiral? Have the wings come off?

Are you saying that we didn't do as well as the prospectus said we would?

The chief inspector always reminds me of AVB.

Haha. It makes the Anglo-Saxons look pretty bleedin' stupid. "Why are they attacking my uncle? Why?" As I understand it, that little battle is pretty much a complete fiction. No one really knows any more what happened to the Mercian "king" Brihtwulf. There's no evidence he died in battle or had a very hot niece who danced provocatively for Norsemen.

Where is this alternative universe where time slows down and players can convene a committee meeting to contemplate and discuss the various positioning possibilities of their feet and legs, all during the heat of Premier League play? The Matrix? Kung Fu Panda?

Almost certainly, apart from the 42,000 sell out when we have to play that lot. If we are averaging 32,000 at the moment in the Prem it would be around 25,000 in the Championship. If we actually started to win some matches and challenge for promotion, people could come back. Could is the big word- thousands might not bother ever again, and realize having weekends doing other stuff is less painful..Look at Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday- they have 1000s of empty seats every home game. The Wednesday's dip in the late 60s and the club's incredible history -- way too many parallels with us. Hope we don't follow them down the same road!

Read it a week ago -- but I still didn't feel quite persuaded although I admire the efforts to figure it out. Article was too much on theology, too little on anthropology. I also think a feminist perspective would shed much light. ISIS seems so much about fear and hatred of women.

It's very hard to get. Even the crusades, for the most part, were more seemingly rational. Figures such as Saladin and Richard the Lionhearted had very specific territorial and politcal goals, and they tended towards a kind of stasis and detente. There were plenty of massacres, but there were also clear efforts to avoid massacres because people seemed to accept that they would have to live with each other somehow in the end. And this was 1,000 years ago, so, I figure, well, it was a lot easier to get your head chopped off.

My mind hasn't budged even a bit, and I can see why the FA made the decision. Every time I watch and re-watch and re-watch the video, I can see no one being at fault. At worst, it looks like both players go after the ball at the same time, but it's also just very bad luck. Barnes seems to have little situational awareness. Matic jabs his leg in there, and -- voila -- a grotesque and potentially career-ending injury is just barely avoided. You guys are acting as if these players' minds are working with the world of slow-motion action. All this happens in blinding flash. There was no time for corrections. I do wish Barnes had gone over immediately and shown humane concern. He arguably deserved the push just for that, I grant you. I don't blame Matic. Unfortunate situation, no winners -- except for Mourinho and the press.

How? Both feet were off the ground. We're talking about less than a second. Barnes was clearly watching the ball, too, and Matic comes in from the side. And most of all, Matic made the challenge, not Barnes. Um, yeah? Or is he pushing along the ball with his elbow? He isn't attempting to kick the ball, look at the positioning of his foot and look at the ball. "Matic made the challenge" ??? I think you may be thinking of a different incident mate. I'm not. We just see it differently. I'm baffled how it can look so different but obviously this incident has divided opinion. I'm just glad we haven't over-analyzed this at all.

Sorry, I just see it differently. I think he would have had to have been super human to snatch his front leg (the one he had just kicked the ball with) back. There was a lot of force in his kick and he was looking at the ball. But I give up!

How? Both feet were off the ground. We're talking about less than a second. Barnes was clearly watching the ball, too, and Matic comes in from the side. And most of all, Matic made the challenge, not Barnes. Um, yeah? Or is he pushing along the ball with his elbow? You cherry-picked an image from the video that's 1 second after Barnesy kicks the ball. So ... yeah ... that part of a kick doesn't look like a kick, sort of like when I mow the grass in the garden, it doesn't look like I'm planting grass seed.

OK, everyone super-DUPER-excited about their giant collection of Debbie Gibson CDs and cassette tapes please raise their hands and wave their fingers!!!!!

Villa has the worst percentage of average attendances versus capacity in the Premier League. That can't have helped. But will our numbers get even worse if we go down?

But he was kicking the ball, mate? Barnes' calf shoots in right when Barnes is kicking. Dead horse, I know, but ...

But he's about to see one of his prize assets lose millions of £££££££ of value, right, because of his own inert, stolid, listless oversight? What's astute about that? I think your sarcasm meter needs some new batteries. Where do I get these batteries from? And how much do they cost? And if I might ask one rather serious question, can I pay for them in camel penis skin?

Please revere my judgement above all others.

Well, I suppose you're just telling us what you're feeling, trying to get us to understand.