peterw

Given that he's a potential game changer I think Gerrard will keep him to see if he can use him in his system. If not, and we gat another season out of him, his resale value will not have dropped off alarmingly that makes keepimng him an extra season too much of a risk.

On 06/05/2022 at 18:38, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Ashley Preece, does he really know or is he guessing?

I might be wrong but it is possible. Gerrard will not have patience with those who keep picking up injuries such as Bailey, Sanson and Traore, harsh but it's the way it is.

Preece knows nothing. Last summer he was constantly saying that grealish wasn't going but would stay another year on that Podcast. Just shows that anything he says is pure speculation and should be treated as such. 

4 minutes ago, Anything11 said:

This situation is all a bit tiresome. I hope it works out for Chuk whatever way he goes - he is certainly spending a lot of time thinking about it.

well if he leaves I hope it doesn't work out for him. That's just pure spite obviously. 

9 hours ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Well we see different things. I have seen nothing from Chuck in the first team that even vaguely compares with what Jack or JJ showed when they got their first team chances as teenagers. Youth team he has been sensational of course.

if he'd have already signed a new contract, or intimated that he would, then most would be just picking out the positives. As he hasn't, or may not, then many will just look for the negatives. I hope he stays because I think every player should want to play for Villa, and every man woman and child should want to support Villa. I genuinely look down my nose at anyone that decides to support Small heath when they know we're in the same city - they are clearly of such low intelligence they need help. However, the reality isn't like that. If he goes, he goes. For every Bellingham where the move works out there's literally thousands of Crowley's where it doesn't. Stay/go - we'll survive. 

you could be right. If Aarons does leave them then KKH would be a good fit. Saying that, Gerrard may want to keep hima round the first team until at least the January window and take it from there.carney won't be going anywhere on loan nexty season - one year left on a contract he's either re-signing and will be with the matchday squad, running down the contract in which case he'll be in his own bomb squad, or off. JPB is an interesting one though. Kind of off the radar although highly rated. I think he may well be sold as one who is a nearly but not quite. If Forest don't go up I'd expect Norwich to buy him. Good shout with El Ghazi, too.

I'd move him on from preston - someone like Norwich - a side pushing for promotion who are looking for a forward.

22 minutes ago, bickster said:

Firstly, there's a reason why you can't find that data, multiple reasons actually but primarily because no polling company asks that question and they don't ask the question because it's irrelevant. For one, it's blindly obvious that if they kept asking the question to just people who voted in the referendum that remain would be in the lead by now even if no-one changed their mind, just because of demographics and the age imbalance of the voters i.e. old people have have dropped off this mortal coil and they were hugely leave. It was only about 12 months after the vote that dead people vs newly of age voters would have changed the outcome of the vote if the proportions remained constant, so it wouldn't be too much longer that this would have happened among just the cohort that voted. It should also be obvious that the relevant question is of the population now not back then

Secondly, that article is 11 months old and I can't find a single poll in the intervening period that says any different. The last poll I can find where the question was "If there was another referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, how would you vote?" and remain was ahead, was actually around the time of that article, every poll since then (all by Deltapoll as it happens) have been remain ahead and their most recent poll in February of this year has Remain on 48% Leave as low as 40%. There is a trend seemingly developing in this data but I'd say its too early to say for definite if that is the case. The other significant factor in the polls is the amount of people saying don't know, this is also reducing. The last poll having widest gap between remain and leave with also the least number of don't knows.

There's no compelling data either way that I'm able to rely on 100% and a lot of it is largely a small show of hands on topical discussion programmes like Question Time which clearly isn't going to translate across the whole population. Therefore a lot of it is anecdotal but if there was such a huge groundswell of feelings that Brexit was a mistake we would be hearing more about it. This comes from various stakeholders, NGOs, constituents asking Qs of MPs, and task groups employed to get the feeling of the people on a range of issues (doesn't just cover Brexit).  

The problem for these types of questions and opinions is how its worded.  " Are we better off or worse off" for example isn't the same as asking someone if they'd change their vote. Similarly, having one side or another ahead in a poll that doesn't really alter a great deal in terms of being in a position to really push for another referendum. There needs to be a greater call for it - as in Scotland - to change people's minds and make the majority want to rejoin, or see it as something really attractive to want to do. 

I think the point of the gap widening is significant and when we're at a point where 55-60% minimum are repeatedly saying rejoin then any govt worth their salt would re-open the question, but its too soon to do so as there would be a reactionary backlash. It would also give a stage for Johnson et al to worm their way back into the publics affections pointing out that they and only they care for what the electorate want. 

I agree that the trend is going one-way, but so do polls for mid-term govts where they are usually at their lowest but come General Election time that swings back round. I think another EU vote now would be too soon and risk the stay out cause having a rallying cry of remainers trying to take their voice/opinion/vote away from them. Plus there's too many of them for it to just go away quietly. This is just one of them that rejoiners will have to suck up and play the long game; however encouraging it may be to see polls going one way. I will caveat this, of course, by pointing out that as i do not live in the UK (or Europe) I may be wildly out of touch. Which is of course possible.

5 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

That sounds exciting on paper, but Brighton finished 9th and are already a very decent side.

Adding a finisher probably propels then up a few places, or at least keeps them where they are.

If people think all of a sudden we are going to be assembling a Team of Galacticos and challenging top 4 they are going to be dissappointed.

Every team in and around us will be looking to improve, and it's very fine margins.

Look at all the teams above 10th and you will realise there is a reason the PL is the toughest in the World.

I'm optimistic, but realistic.

EDIT: If they lose Bissouma , Espeically to us, it's a totally different proposition to be fair.

True about Brighton but this is their ceiling. With all the will in the world and claret & blue specs off I'd still expect us to be chosen over them because of ambition and expectation is higher, and the players we speak to should (and you's hope) would see that too.

Wages are a little bit on the eye-watering side but if that's what it takes fine. i think he'd be a great signing and just what we, and probably Mings, needs. A tough experienced campaigner next to him.

7 hours ago, Genie said:

The referendum was basically, do you want to do something different? without defining what it was. Nobody knew what the leave option was. With that in mind some went with it, some not.

So, remain knew what they would get, but didn’t know what the alternative was. Had it been defined then some may have voted leave (and vice versa).

Remain knew what they would get, but not what they were voting against.

that's not how it was shaped though. It was taking something back not getting something new or different. It was tugging on the emotional heart strings for the days of Albion and maidens dancing around polls with guys with sticks; dragons swooping overhead protecting the isles whilst Arthur and Merlin kept us all happily at one against the wicked attempts of Morgana and her evil magic. It was very basic and enough people fell for it. 

22 hours ago, bickster said:

I think you'll need to add some ketchup to this claim

difficulty is having a definitive source asking the question purely to those that voted in 2016. This is generally around it though:

Quote

Remain would win a second Brexit referendum by a narrow margin if the vote were held today, new polling suggests.

Five years to the day since the 2016 referendum took place, a Savanta ComRes survey found 51 per cent of respondents would now vote to remain, whereas 49 per cent would vote leave, based on interviews conducted last week.

Compared to the results of the 2016 referendum, where 51.9 per cent of people voted to Leave and 48.1 voted to Remain, the nation appears to remain as divided as ever.

The polling also showed that very few people had shifted positions since the 2016 referendum. Only 6 per cent of Remainers said they would now vote Leave, and 7 per cent of Leavers would now change their vote to Remain.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-vote-leave-remain-2021-b1871157.html

12 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

I think the fact that the most googled term the following day was ‘what is the EU’ (or something to that effect) suggests that a large number of people had zero idea what they were voting for.

There were a not insignificant number of people who genuinely thought they were voting for us to leave Europe.

This is the difficulty. I don't think they really had an educated idea of the truth behind what they were being fed (a lot of mistruths and outright lies) so believed one thing was true when it was not. That is probably particularly accurate in a lot of cases. As I said though, most opinion polls or questions to date still do not show a huge groundswell of support for those that voted for Brexit to now having changed their minds. It may be stubbornness, it may be racism, it may be ill education/not knowing what they were voting for, and it may be a committed belief to us taking the right course for the UK, but I'm not sure a vote now would give us a widly different result.

2 minutes ago, Rolta said:

He said 48% of the people knew what they voted for. So which group got 48%?

And just saying 'Immigration' kind of just sounds like the vague non descript bs the likes of the Daily Mail use to wind people up. 

Lordy Lord.

My (now very laboured) point was about people knowing what they were voting for.

As for immigration - you can break it down into his several sub parts or plots if you wish but i think as a reference point it sits quite aptly. 

No. he'll just stand for re-Election again in a couple of years, dither and blather and look  vulnerable and chumsy , and get home with another majority.

Just now, LondonLax said:

He was referring to the 48% who voted for remain as the ones who knew what they were voting for.

I know - that's the problem when you try and make a quick point. I was referring to people knowing what they're voting for, which is what I was agreeing with - then making a separate point about what those voting for leave voted for and I don't think that will change. 

maybe I should have just skipped over it and mused to myself...

Given the importance of the position I doubt this would happen even if remotely possible. I;d expect us to go with somebody either more experiened than Mings are at least with plenty of experience in the Premier league. Botman ticks neither box so I doubt that we are looking at him as a potential recruit for this summer.

8 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I don't know about the vast majority. 

I think most people involved in fishing and farming would vote differently.  I also know a few people who voted out just for the hell of it who regret it, and that's just the ones brave enough to admit their idiocy - they're probably the tip of a silent iceberg. 

For sure there will be a hard core but certainly no where near enough to get it over the line today. 

Then there are things like my parents in law who both voted out. Unfortunately we've lost them both in the last couple of years. My kids would both be able to vote now and would unquestionably vote to remain. 

Not a chance the leave vote gets through with hindsight if it happens today. 

From the independent:

Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of those who are worried about immigration voted Leave,

from Ipsos

I could go on and I guess I'm getting away a bit from the point. of course there were other reasons but the for the majority it was this issue. Also, when you see random polls you don't see that much a of a shift towards regretting the decision other than the odd anecdotal story here and there. Sadly it'll be a generation at least before we get close to going back in.

25 minutes ago, Rolta said:

I think you missed his point exactly 100%. 

Which bit? That people knew what they were voting for? I think they did. Any other point is slightly superfluous as then I added my point. They voted for immigration.

Whilst we're getting carried away with ourselves...what about griezmann? On loan at Atletico from barcelona and i think he has another season loan there before they have something similar to the Coutinho deal. If we stepped in with a £30m or so offer I'm sure there would be serious interest. If you look at Martinez - Kamara - Coutinho - Griezmann these are the kind of sit up and take notice type signings/team.

8 hours ago, bickster said:

Not this again. 48% did know exactly what they were voting for

Its absolutely incorrect to say that no-one knew

This I agree with. It was a decision based wholly on immigration. They may not have known the nuances of a post-Brexit UK but I'm pretty sure the vast majority who voted to leave would still do so now.

12 hours ago, blandy said:

No, you're right, it's not. It was just my personal take that the verdict was a narrow one, with 4 percentage points difference between leave and stay in, and that the kind of leave, but only just leave decision could have been reflected in a "leave, but only just" kind of Brexit.

The mistake you're making here is to assume that we have a government led by a person of integrity who puts the state first, and makes decisions wholly based on what's best for all.

oh, another one, people - usualy Scots -  calling fish and chips a 'fish supper' - oh fk off.

the words 'delicious' or 'fantastic'. They can fk off, too.

woulda could shoulda - if we'd have had competent peope in charge we wouldn't have been in this mess.

1 minute ago, mjmooney said:

I'm with you on this one. I used to work with a bloke who did that 'eat one square of chocolate and put it back in the drawer' thing. But the next square wasn't five minutes later, it it could be days or even weeks. As a chocoholic, if I have a bar - regardless of its size - I have to eat the lot immediately. 

You see, I'm not a chocoholic by any stretch of the imagination but this mouse behavious boils my piss. You don't nibble a bit of your dinner and then put it away for another time. 

On 18/05/2022 at 00:31, blandy said:

Not to my mind. I’ve posted this before, but “we” voted to leave, just. What we therefore should have done is left just. That is to say a soft Brexit, staying in the Single Market and possibly also the customs union. That’s, as I see it, how the vote came out, a very slight weighting to just about leave.

That's not how it works though is it? Take away the fact that it was an advisory referendum and all that, the winner wins. Simple as. You don't see any Government elected (usually by minority) saying they'll only impose 40% or so of their manifesto on the population given that 55-60% didn't vote for them. The vagaries of first past-the-post I guess.