Chindie

Having also backed Diaz I'm pleasantly surprised this morning. I think McGregor needed something to ground him, and Diaz has done exactly that.

Hollis didn't join till mid January and we were due to bring players in right to the death, so out doesn't look like he 'clamped down on spending' at all.

Made them the most powerful nation on earth by a country mile, and the only truly global superpower to have ever existed.

Never played 2. I've nearly bought it a dozen times and then just don't, due to the same issues I mentioned. I know I'll do alright, and then reach a point that I can no longer overcome the frustration of playing and bin it off. For some reason I have less of that feeling with what I've seen of 3 - it seems to have made a more immediately offensive, faster style of play more viable early on, hence the Bloodborne comparisons, and that combined to hopefully less horrendous performance appeals. Absolutely not a day one purchase though. I'll let the community be a guinea pig.

Watched a few vids myself. I have this odd relationship with Dark Souls. I adore the world and the look and the ideas and the atmosphere. I've never managed to enjoy playing one. I've played the first 4 or 5 times, bought it nearly as many, and whilst i wouldn't say I'm good at it I've done alright. And then I get to Blight Town and I can't play it anymore. The annoyance and frustration factor in combination with the terrible technical performance at the moment makes me walk away, every time. So I looked at the videos that came out from the event they hosted the other day and again I'm sat there thinking I really really want to play that but I know within a few hours I'll hate it and never touch it again. Saying that, this one does apparently pick up a few elements of Bloodborne so it plays more like a bastard child of both series, which might help me enjoy it more. It looks a lot like Bloodborne as well, some of the environments and particularly enemies they've almost copy pasted into this by the looks of things. And technically it's a pretty game by the looks of things. A lot of the reaction to it so far has seemed oddly muted, that I've seen, though, for some reason.

She's keeping form... Watched 3 episodes back to back and it's stormed back to previous standards. Great series so far.

Hence my saying he'd join a rarefied group who had successes after leaving.

Arguably also a reason not to support it if it doesn't change anything

I don't at all. He'll still have a very good reputation in France, which will have some draw for him across the continent. I wouldn't rule out a job in the Prem either. Not one of the top jobs, but a midtable side I could see taking him on. I think the narrative (correctly in my view) of Villa being such a mess will take away from his actual results, as will his conduct. He'll do alright, provided we've not burnt him so much he jacks it in entirely.

Incidentally, if when he goes we are stupid enough to hire Pearson, we could at least have a weekly game of 'which person is he going to throttle this week?'. Probably be more entertaining than the football itself. Or embarrassing.

He'll leave this summer, almost certainly, he'd be a madman not to. I think he will, however, join a rarefied group of managers who left Villa Park and went on to succeed. Usually they leave and the career tumbles down but I'm pretty sure he'll go on to be successful somewhere else. In respect of the press conference walk out, if that's what actually occurred, I'm not that surprised. Whilst he's always been very measured and professional with the press, he is known to have a temper and had a reputation as an authoritarian, it's not a shock that his professional side might slip under the pressures at the moment.

My thoughts are with you. I lost my own father almost exactly a year ago in the same circumstances, so I can appreciate what you're going through all too well.

Standard Netflix binge watch style.

House of Cards needs a bounce back after a weak third series. Early word suggests it does, thankfully, although a greater focus on Claire Underwood concerns me. She's a deeply unlikable character, unlike Frank who you end up rooting for despite how evil he is, she is just this hateful presence through the whole show.

He was the technical director of the French national team for a bit. That isn't being a CEO. He might work as a true DoF, if we want to go down that route. Unfortunately I imagine he's pretty well paid doing a similar, higher level less hands on thing for the entirety of Red Bull Football.

Ha. I'm glad we had the same reaction though. Looks dreadful and desperate. The callbacks only serve to remind you how good the original was. I'm convinced there's only 1 funny person in it, Wiig, and she's not a home run. Even the logo, which they've barely changed, is somehow shit.

Remember Ghostbusters? Best watch it again before this travesty makes you forget how good it was.

What does Gerard Houllier know about running a business? Let alone running a business with international reach, in the sports sector, whilst also being in a distressed state? CEOs don't need to be the mythic 'football person'. Exceptionally few of them are. They need to be good businessmen.

That's a very very good choice. I'm hoping the casting can maintain that kind of quality because if there's even one bum choice this show will wobble and potentially collapse IMO. It's a fantastic, fantastic story, but heavily weighted on how great the characters are. Even the minor ones. Ian McShane though... That's a great bit of casting for that character.

They form a triumvirate

Pearson also spent a considerable amount of the season being a complete tosser with the conduct of an angry drunk.

He was a Democrat for years as a younger man, switched to the Republicans for a while, went back Democrats, and now he's Republican again. He has no political convictions beyond what's good for him at that moment. There's no chance he'd have cross senate support for anything other than the policies you could have a donkey as president and there'd be agreement on. I doubt he'd be a lesson to the nation either. Political affiliation is so ingrained in some states he could set the White House on fire in tribute to our efforts at crushing the Yanks and voting patterns wouldn't change. It's terrifying that the only candidate in the race that isn't horrifying as an outsider looking in is Sanders, and he's got absolutely no chance.

Perhaps. As said I think ultimately this comes down to money. I don't think the owner will be bothered at all by fans choosing to leave early. A few thousand walking out, having paid their money, and a few chants and banners, will be worth far less to him than the money he's holding out for over the mythical lower price we'd like him to take. I'm not Randy Lerner obviously, but put me in his shoes and for arguments sake give me 10k people walking out early and a few embarrassing banners every match, or losing £XXm on my property, and I'm taking the name calling and walk outs until the end of time. However, force my property to keep costing me more and more money versus the return I get on it and I'll want shot of it less it become the millstone round my neck even more. I think you can do that without a full boycott if enough people choose to boycott enough revenue streams for the club. It's a difficult sell to the fans though and probably won't happen, but it's the only way the fans can be anything other than an impotent actor in real terms for me. And again I don't want to criticise the current efforts. It's something and it makes the disquiet real for the wider game. I just don't think it's going to do much in real terms, unfortunately. But it's something.

He was a Democrat, until he wasn't. Donald Trump will do what's good for Donald Trump, which basically means everything that comes out of his mouth is completely intellectually bankrupt because all he's doing is saying what the immediate audience want to hear. He'd be an absolutely atrocious President.

It's too easy to bend and spin in other directions that are unsavoury, and it's always immediately linked to more violent and unpleasant types of protest. No good comes of that, IMO. You can use the same symbolism though with more nuance. The lion being lead to the gallows by Lerner, etc.