Danwichmann

On 03/12/2018 at 20:30, Paddywhack said:

Seems VT has stopped running, or at least stopped talking about it.

Everyone getting fat for Christmas and starting again in January? That's exactly what I'm doing.

I've pretty much lost my interest in football so no checked this site too often, but still very much running. On track to hit 3000k by the end of the year.

Ran (or least ran, walked and hiked) 50km at Annapurna 100 race at the end of October. Seriously tough but the views, wow. Next race not until February though:(

On 06/12/2018 at 04:44, Hornso said:

What watches/shoes does everyone prefer/trust?

Watch I use Garmin Forerunner 30. Pretty cheap and does the job for 99.9% of my runs, although the battery isn't enough for the ultras.

Shoes are the one thing I spend a lot of money on. I used to think they didn't make a lot of difference but changed my view after getting properly assessed and into the right pair of shoes. Currently Saucony Ride 10 for the road and either Saucony Perrigne 8 or Salomon Elevate XA for the trails. Got a pair of On Cloudflash on the way that I'm seriously excited for as I loved my Cloudventure Peaks until the tread started falling off.

Another marathon in Seoul for me yesterday. Seriously hot so I've got some interesting tan (well, burn) lines today. Really struggled in the last 10km but just about managed to hold on and finish in under 4 hours.

Dawson and Foster fined for refusing to go on tour. Sounds like the sort of toxicity we had when we went down, not a good sign for them!

BBC

8 minutes ago, richp999 said:

Think you can squeeze McCormack in there? 

Squeeze him into the goal. Tell him it's a gate or something something......

That picture was taken shortly after I reached the bottom of hill and before turning around. I looked a lot less fresh by the time I reached the top! The last 2k was tough, but on tarmac is wasn't too much to keep a steady 5:30per/km pace. Would have been walking if it was trail!

On 16/06/2018 at 00:12, Czechlad said:

We need a solid partner for Chester and having Elphick plus someone like Tuanzebe can be good

A lot of posters seem to think Tuanzebe will be a good option at CB. I saw very little of him last season as I only managed to watch a handful of games (9 hour time difference), and that little was not impressive. So I'm genuinely curious, what attributes does he possess to make so many people think he's a good option?

On 17/06/2018 at 01:19, praisedmambo said:

Out of interest should Chris Hughton have been sacked when Brighton finished 3rd and didn't get promoted? Should he have taken the blame for finishing 20th the season before when he came in halfway through the season? 

Should Jokanovic be to blame for Fulham finishing 20th in his first season when he came in late? Should he have been sacked for making the playoffs and not being promoted the next season?

Should Wagner have been sacked for finishing 19th when he came late...no. 

And so on. 

There are now promoted teams who have been through exactly the kind of progress we've seen in the last two seasons. 

For me, all of those managers got squads promoted that on paper probably didn't look good enough for promotion. They made teams more than the sum of their parts. Bruce has done the opposite, he's taken a squad that looks great on paper and a shoo-in for promotion but most games they look far less than the sum of parts.

Credit for sorting out morale and no question for me the single biggest issue that needed sorting out was the toxic atmosphere. He's done that and deserves enormous credit for it, but I struggle to see him taking us any further, especially with less resources.

22 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I would have love doing terry to stay but no getting out of it he is 38 I don’t think he will get as many games as this year next season.

There is no question that he is in the decline stage of his career and will almost certainly play less games each season that he continues. That doesn't mean he wouldn't be good enough for us next season, but each season the risk to his club increases. If we had have signed Terry again, we would have needed more cover than we will signing a younger center back which in our financial situation has got to count against us making him an offer.

1 hour ago, Wainy316 said:

Ha you're in Korea.  You've got no chance!

Certainly doesn't help! 

I've got no intention of going veggie, but I would quite like to reduce the amount of meat I eat.

What makes it hard is not so much that I would miss the meat as I just don't like vegetables enough to eat them as an alternative.

High 1 Sky Marathon yesterday. 42km of mostly runnable trail and about 2500 metres elevation gain at a Korean ski resort, very happy with 5hrs 56mins.

Much easier run than 2 weeks ago, 50km very technical with almost 4000m elevation gain, took over 12.5 hours!

Making the switch to trail is seriously challenging but learning and improving with every race. 

My mistake

16 hours ago, omariqy said:

We sell Grealish for £30m (more realistic).  We sell a few fringe players like McCormack, Gil, Elphick, Tshibola, Lansbury, Gardner, RDL, Gollini, Gil (probably get £25m in total). Say we have £8m to £10m to spend. 

We'd be lucky to get 25m for those fringe players and Grealish combined. Some of them we won't even be able to unload on free transfers.

13 hours ago, Nabby said:

We are all aware that we will face severe FFP challenges next season. I am an Aston Villa fan. But I am also a businessman. Under the current circumstances, I think the club needs to rethink not only the past two years but also the past ten years. Villa needs to be a sustainable football club. People join. People leave. That is the cycle of football. But the football club always remains through it all.  This is the ultimate reality that cannot be changed, but I can assure you that everyone behind the scenes is working tirelessly towards achieving our ultimate goal.  

We have been heavily investing for the past two seasons. However, the loss on Saturday means that we need to change a lot of things. No one wanted to see the club have to go through this, but I believe that only changes can help the club to progress towards the positive direction and this requires the joint efforts of everyone associated with this great football club.  No matter what the changes will be, I sincerely hope that everyone can unite and overcome the challenges together. Our goal has not changed and as long as we believe, regardless of how tough the process will be, I am sure we will succeed in the end.  

This sounds like it could have written by Randy Lerner himself. Not that cutbacks are completely avoidable but it sounds like we'll be going at them pretty hard to me. I don't think that we'll putting together a squad that looks capable of challenging for promotion next season, so unless we appoint a manager that can get great results from average players my expectation is mid-table at best.

On the bright side, I enjoy the Championship much more than the Premier League, but the longer we are in this division the harder it becomes to return to Premier League riches.

1 hour ago, John said:

How about? 

Peter Schmeichel, Olof Mellberg, John Terry, Paul McGrath, Steve Staunton, Bruce Rioch, Danny Blanchflower, David Platt, Peter McParland, Robbie Keane, Gerry Hitchens. Subs: Brad Freidel, Martin Keown, Paul Merson, Ray Houghton, Steve McMahon, Robert Pires, Savo Milosevic.

Not bad, but aren't you allowed 12 subs at the WC?

50 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

Ulises de la Cruz mainly because I cant think of any other right backs with World Cup appearances.

Olaf Mellberg, well I normally go for Laursen with this sort of thing and I just wanted to mix it up a bit. Also be a great foil for God I always thought.

Paul McGrath (No explanation)

Mellberg at RB and Laursen with God in the center?

I'm no fan of Bruce but he absolutely deserves huge credit for sorting out what was a toxic atmosphere and the clubs  no.1 problem. If he leaves having only achieved that he'll have more than earned his pay and have been a successful appointment. I honestly thought the toxicity at the club would see us do a Sunderland but he has turned it around.

12 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

That is the worst smell.

Someone who hasn't bothered to shower so has just sprayed themselves with a shit load of cologne, or Lynx Africa or something.

Disgusting.

 

I love cologne, but it's not there these days to cover up stench.

"Shower in a can" as it was called back at uni.

2 hours ago, sparrow1988 said:

Have a look and see what you think. Apparently this is a rule now but I've never seen it enforced before and can you book a player during a penalty shootout?

You can book a player before and after the game, so I'm sure you can book one during the penalty shootout. Haven't seen any video, but to book a keep for straying of his line during a shootout would be crazy, unless the keeper was doing it repeatedly / with the intention of putting of the penalty taker knowing the kick would have to be retaken. I've no idea if that was the case here.

1 hour ago, sheepyvillian said:

You can't compare the two managers, when it comes to finances. I don't think Wagner is defensive minded manager by nature, but he's a very Intelligent one, that's for sure. You don't spend as many years as he did at Dortmund, by  being defensive minded.

At times, whilst in the Championship with Huddersfield his team played some wonderful football, hence, the manager of the year title. As I said , he's not a foolish man and realised that he would have to adapt his style if is team was going to survive in the Premier, which to his credit they did.

But do I believe that if he came to us and was given the proper resources, he would have us playing consistently defensive football ? Not a chance. 

 

Paul Lambert says hi.

12 hours ago, choffer said:

Julius Aghahowa

Great on Championship Manager 01/02.

Not so much in real life.

Got up at 3:45 am to watch that. Of course it was 0 0.

Thought Adomah was excellent tonight, was often the only outlet but consistently kept possession which stopped us getting sucked too deep and created a couple of good chances with low crosses for Grabban and Hourihane.

Job done and we looked comfortable throughout, Fulham will be a tougher test but we are plenty good enough if we get it right.

I can't believe there is now a team in the world I hate more than SHA.

3 hours ago, AlwaysAVFC said:

From my experience of my one and only event I think it probably ends up as mixed ability even when it is done by time. I ended up under estimating myself when applying (although I don’t think it would have changed my wave), whereas lots must have put times much better than they would do as I was overtaking some I shouldn’t technically of caught at all, relatively early on. Especially as I started towards the back of my wave.

It’s got to be really frustrating sometimes for people going for PB’s. Having to overtake lots probably was a good thing for me though as it possibly slowed me down a touch and made me not go off too quick and regret it. 

At Seoul marathon I got stuck in the slowest wave because of my only previous marathon was a 4 hour and 43 minute disaster. I spent the first 5km zigzagging all over the place, on the pavements, of the course, just trying to get through. Might have cracked the 3:30 mark if I'd started in a faster wave where most of the runners were running a similar pace.