Marka Ragnos

But it was 1-1 and looked like it would end that way. You can't defend the touch. Boot it out do anything but don't take that touch. We're scrapping for points. A draw would have been an improvement and stopped a run of 6 losses on the bounce. A captain should know this. A captain should know that with 2 mins stoppage left we have what we hold. 1 point is a dam sight better than no points when your scrapping. Now we're 19th and have another L beside our names. Nothing to build on and nothing to salvage from what prior to the game was a happy Villa Park. If Villa's only problem this year were that our captain didn't know how to do his job for one millisecond, we wouldn't be in the drop zone. I blame Vlaar for mucking it up badly, but I refuse to indulge in overstating his role in our loss. I'm sure he feels destroyed.

Thanks for the reality check. This is a realistic perception. But we should have been beyond the "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" at this point of the game. We need to get beyond the stage where we need Lady Luck.

Vlaar single handedly cost us a point. No two ways about it. He was never getting to it. It would have went in if he didn't at least try. After that horrible first 90 minutes, I can't believe people have the temerity to blame Vlaar. Yes, he screwed up badly. He knows it, no question. But the match was already lost.

Vlaar single handedly cost us a point. No two ways about it. Except ... there are two ways.

Why in the hell does Tekkers keep being allowed into our squads? Why? WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So sick of the stupid arguments. He clearly is not performing. Off. Off. Off.

Not all Vlaaar's fault -- at all. We should have been further ahead. We're still not getting balls in the back of the net. So don't pin this disaster totally on Vlaar! He had a moment of madness. At least he was trying.

(OT: What's "bantz"? Yet another one I've never heard.) Banter - term used to describe activities or chat that is playful, intelligent and original. Banter is something you either posses or lack, there is no middle ground. It is also something inherently English, stemming as it does from traditional hi-jinks and tomfoolery of British yesteryear.

(OT: What's "bantz"? Yet another one I've never heard.)

Yeah, the one bloke had a GBV poster on the wall, too. Yeah, nice tip -- indeed, we watched and re-watched, but that's a few years back at this point. Can't believe it was cancelled. Unfortunately, I tried to find "Green Wing" and "The Detectorists" and neither is available for (legal) commercial streaming through Apple, Netflix, etc. in the USA. Yet! You can use VPN services like TunnelBear to watch British TV in the States (and in the US, it's perfectly legal to use them as far as I know). I will need to see what I can dig up that way.

I do. I also remember that it didn't happen. I have called people monkeys before, probably a few black guys as well when I was playing football myself. Didn't mean it in a racist way, Clattenburg didn't either I would expect. Behaving like a monkey is pretty self-explanatory. Now..... making monkey chants and throwing bananas at black players however, cannot be misinterpreted. Happens in Spain, Italy and Russia doesn't it? It's all about context. In the USA, it's become quite acceptable for black men to use the "N" word to describe male peer in an affectionate way. If I were to use the term where I work to describe a black colleague, I would be fired -- and deservedly so -- faster than I can finish typing the word I-D-I-O-T.

Two big points: Let's hear it for the dignity and quiet courage of the man who keeps trying to get onto the train. I admire him enormously. That's the kind of man the future belongs to. The men on the train belong to the past. This isn't a Chelsea thing; it's is a European and UK football thing.

Suggestions noted carefully! Will trawl the stream-o-verse and intercontienental web-tunnels for these shows.

Any decent English comedies lately? Everything they're sending to the States for online streaming is crap. I feel like ever since Peep Show vanished, it's been slim pickings. I don't understand how you witty English folk can cope with Community -- can't STAND it, but I am in huge minority, I know. For drama, you guys have probably already discussed, but The Americans is really good.

All he has to do is lose to Stoke, and the whole tenor of this thread will shift profoundly, right? I want to believe in the magic of his Half-Time FA Cup team talk, I really do, but a sober part of me knows that Sherwood's success or failure will be built on a more complicated set of actions. If a few well-chosen words were all that were necessary, they could be carved on stone and mounted on the locker room doors, but such talks are always context-specfic, too. Sherwood pressed the right buttons at the right time and place. This weekend, the buttons will all be in different places! His ability to find them, week after week -- and install some new ones -- will be the true measure of his talent.

If we lose, does the Sherwood Half-time Talk Magic narrative collapse?

When someone of his vintage adopts that unshaven, anorak-wearing hipster look, one thing is certain: it's hip no more.

A lot of what you write makes great persuasive sense to me, but not this line. That paints us into a real box! Do you think we're that limited in our choices? Doesn't the new bride get to ask for some new furniture? That's an interesting idea, and again, as with Villamarv, what you say is persuasive to me. It's not like I wouldn't LOVE To see Tekkers brought back, and somehow I'd forgotten how young he was. Maybe he'll be a bit like Ramsey at Arsenal after last year, after the injury?

Has Benteke peaked? There's a lot of focus on him again and the idea that Sherwood needs to give him a kick "up the backside" to get him functioning again. First of all, that all sounds pretty simplistic to me, and I don't think it will work, frankly. Was he somehow already under too LITTLE pressure under Lambert? Hard to imagine. Shouldn't we be trying to envision a post-Beneteke Villa? But I also wonder whether -- and I hate to say this -- he's a bit of a lost cause, and he'll absorb energy and time better spent elsewhere. I feel that Sherwood needs to push back on the idea that he has to work with what he's been left. The fact is, Sherwood or not, we still need a top-class, reliable striker, do we not, and we're sunk if Lerner stays in denial about that. So many people love the narrative of the prodigal son who is reformed and brought back into he fold to assume his role, but I'm finding it hard to think of other successful models of this sort rejuvenation. On the other hand, a whole lot of counter-examples spring to my mind -- Torres, Michael Owen, etc etc. I hope Sherwood will early on use his positive rep to push back on Lerner. Sherwood may be Mr. Tough Guy with confidence-lacking strikers, but can he stand up to his boss and speak some home truths, which I KNOW PL never did?

Harsh! I didn't like PL's management, but that seems a little brutal! And why the swipe at Glasgow?

For you and me -- and thousands of others. That "something" that "happened" is the most hugely simple and elegant and yet most desperately difficult thing in the world -- getting a ball to go into a net on a top-level English football pitch. Millions of pounds are spent and lost in pursuing this, and we'd pretty much been unable to make it happen this year. Funny how thorough and unpredictably predictable that all is. I would guess that about 25% of the posts on this thread since the Leicester match are pretty much variations on this same theme. The truth is, nothing succeeds like success. (You know, I haven't smoked pot for 25 years, but I feel like my comment above is the sort of thing I would think when I was really, really, really stoned -- when "everything" suddenly became "very clear" lol)

No, football is far more complicated, to my mind.

I had to write to a VTer to learn what a "gillet" is -- it's not used in America -- but what is the significance of this action of throwing the jacket or gillet? Hahah. I get it. thank you!!!!

I had to write to a VTer to learn what a "gillet" is -- it's not used in America -- but what is the significance of this action of throwing the jacket or gillet?

yes!!!

He lacks confidence. It's almost like he loses his cool every time he gets close. Honestly, I think Sherwood should have him talking to a club sports psychologist -- I really do.