PompeyVillan

1 hour ago, Dave-R said:

We need to be prepared to break bank to find what we are looking for, that is the bottom line.

That's not going to happen, the noises from the club are that we buy young players we can improve, give exposure to and then if necessary sell on for a profit. We are reluctant to 'overpay' (which is objective really) for players, unless it's absolutely necessary. Mings arguably, and justifiably was a case in point, we needed him, but actually the fee we paid for him, now and England international, wasn't ridiculous. 

If we establish ourselves as a Premier League club with the above stated successful philosophy, then don't you worry, we will be able to beat rivals and even in some cases top teams to these sorts of players. 

Douglas Luiz and Wesley are good examples. Neither are likely to get a senior international call up without the exposure we have given them, and obviously their positive performances for us.

Given that we've invested heavily in the squad in the summer, I can't see us making one big signing in January. It'll be more of the same. Which to be honest, based on what I've seen so far would be superb. 

Another point is that the competition for the top dollar, ready made, low risk but high cost players is ridiculous. We can't compete in that market, we've only just been promoted. 

After the pain of Ross McCormack, Micah Richards et al. I am more than happy to back our current approach. 

Bloody Hector, we've gone from having never had a Brazilian player to having two Brazilian internationals. That is an incredible early sign of the potential of Wesley and Douglas Luiz. They just need caps now to confirm their status. 

To say I'm impressed is an understatement.

Thing is, the people receiving benefits absolutely will not be voting Conservative, so this news will mean nothing to them in terms of voting intention. It's there to appease middle England conservative voters into thinking that they're doing their bit for the poor. 

I saw a chart on Twitter the other day that showed all constituencies listed in order of most deprived to least deprived and who they voted for in the last election. 

As you can imagine it was very red on one side and very blue on the other. The more deprived an area is, the more likely it is to vote Labour and visa versa. 

You can understand why when we see how the poor and less fortunate have been treated by the Tories.  

You don't physically assault someone else's child, that's appalling behaviour. You do need to find out what happened, if your son instigated the altercation then it changes the situation slightly. 

Either way, as an adult you don't allow a situation to escalate to the point where there is an assault. 

If it turns out this bloke has assaulted your boy unprovoked you absolutely need to involve the police. 

Does anyone do any beer club subscriptions? I've recently joined Beer52. I've been quite resistant to it for a while, because it isn't cheap but they send you such unique beers. I've tried Flavourly as well, but I didn't look like the type of beers they spend. 

58 minutes ago, snowychap said:

Why would you believe this to be the case?

I'm sorry but this is rather meaningless.

I don't think that anybody disputes that parties 'take' votes off other parties but the question to be addressed is will they do it in the same way or in the same numbers?

In case you didn't read the subsequent tweets to the one I posted (to which you responded):

 

Thanks Snowy, I've found some interesting analysts through the account you've quoted. 

13 minutes ago, snowychap said:

 

That is an interesting point, however surely the Brexit party have done their homework on this? I think they'll be taking votes from Labour and traditional Conservatives. 

What remains to be seen (see what I did there?) whether Labour can convince remain supporters of another referendum is their best route to remaining in the EU. I think it is, partly because the Lid Dems policy lacks any sort of pragmatism.. 

Let's be honest, Lib Dems policy is pie in the sky. It could only be implemented if they win a majority (which ain't happening), and even then, they would revoke article 50, put their fingers in their ears and pretend that the last three years didn't happen?

Ironically for hardcore remainers, the worst choice if you want to remain in the EU. Especially if it takes votes from Labour in constituencies that Labour can win, and let's the Tories in unwittingly. 

A people's vote is the most realistic route to remaining in the EU, even then, it's fanciful. 

Ironically, I think you could argue the reverse with the Brexit party and the Conservatives regarding leaving the EU. However the Brexit party are promoting a different flavour of leave, the full blown no deal, wreck the country stuff and that's remarkably popular. 

I tend to think the 'traditional' demographic voting trends will change a bit in this election, but not dramatically enough to 'end the two party system'.

2 minutes ago, Xela said:

 

The hilarious irony is that Trump's endorsement of Johnson will do him absolutely no favours and Corbyn and Labour will relish his criticism.

I also have a bit of a think before each election about what is important to me. I'm struggling to imagine a time where public services are not the  #1 priority for me.

I have friends and relatives that work in hospitals, schools and for the police and fire brigade and I work in SEN education myself. The privitisation and chronic underfunding of these institutions is alarming. It really is. 

Unless you're extremely wealthy then these services are essential to you too. They need looking after and the current government are degrading services to the point where they can privitise them, primarily the NHS If you don't think we're on that route, then think again. 

Phase one has happened, degrade services to the point where they're not fit for purpose. 

Phase two is the referendum and Brexit, enable a situation where privitisation can occur. 

Phase three isn't far away, a free trade deal with America, or wherever, that is economically really positive for the country, so privitisation can be sold to the public as a by product of our prosperity. 

So, for me and many others, Brexit is important. But it isn't #1, and nor should it, because whatever happens post Brexit, we need a government that's going focus on the priories in the country. Not hostile environments, universal credit or fox hunting. 

I will be voting Labour, but in all honesty, I will be doing so with a lot less enthusiasm as I should. But they're the best bet for me and my priorities at the moment, in my constituency which is comfortably Conservative.

Labour, although in my constituency that is a protest vote. I have considered Lib Dems because they're remain, but they're equally a protest vote, nationally and locally. 

I've just seen that Boris Johnson is using the slogan "Britain deserves better". Perhaps one of his aides should remind him that the Conservatives have been in government for the last 9 years, not the opposition. 

I can see Labour and the Lid Dems using that slogan as much as their own efforts. 

18 hours ago, Enda said:

Should start against Wolves.

I think he will, it's his competition. If he has a good game I think he could start against Liverpool. 

Davis is smaller physically than Wesley, but he's much more a handful for defenders to deal with. But he hasn't yet shown that he's capable of scoring enough goals to justify putting him in the team in the Premier League. 

Wesley's hot and cold performances might give Keinan a chance. He's had to wait a long time for an opportunity to play, he'll be desperate to take it.

4 hours ago, Mic09 said:

So is there any possibility that the stars could allign so that Corbyn actually pulls the trigger on the election?

Because right now he is playing a dangerous game of the public thinking he might be taking the piss just to make parliamentary life difficult. 

Why should the opposition dance to a shoddy government's tune? Theresa May should not have called another election, she should not have lost their parliamentary majority. Following on from that Boris Johnson shouldn't have kicked however many MPs out of the Conservative party and upset the DUP. 

If this government is weak and pathetic, that's not the fault of the opposition, is it? 

It's shameless spin to pin this on the opposition. 

He's a big character. The hardest thing to do, is to stand up to a bully. He did that tonight. He didn't just silence the idiots with his football, he took a strong, dignified, no nonsense stance against racism. 

A performance that he can be proud of, and something a few of our fans need to take note of following the embarrassing Nakamba chants.

As for the player, wow, he's good. I was impressed after Burnley, but he was even better against Norwich. He makes such quick decisions on the ball, and isn't flustered in tight situations. 

Great for ball retention but also perfect foil for Grealish and McGinn. If we can get Grealish in particular on the ball higher up the pitch, then we're a greater goal threat. Marvelous looks like he'll be able to do that. I'm interested in how good he is defensively against the more dominant sides. 

I had a little chuckle to myself yesterday as I watched Man United lose to Newcastle. I think we have a better central midfield than United. A few years ago that would have been an outrageous claim. Now, I could see a few neutrals agreeing with me. Bloody Marvelous.

3 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

Shame our fans have taken the stupid, racist Konsa chant and adapted it for Marvelous now.

 

What a ridiculously stupid thing to sing. It's racist and it's not welcome. Way to go and mar a good result and an exceptional performance from Marvelous. 

I was sat by an elderly gent yesterday and whenever Mings had the ball at the back he was terrified, it was quite funny. "Ohhhhh woaaa. Oh no". Haha, I suppose we're not used to our centre backs taking so many chances as Mings does. 

He impressed me yesterday. He has a good awareness of his passing options and where the space is before he receives the ball. His first touch is good too, as such he's seems very good at receiving the ball in tight situations and either turning and running into space or finding a teammate with a first time pass. 

He also pinged a couple of lovely cross field passes to the full backs when the short passing options were not on. 

He seems to work really hard, has decent acceleration too and seems combative too. He's obviously not particularly big or strong which is probably his biggest weakness. He looks like a pretty well rounded DCM to me. 

Douglas Luiz will be hoping we persevere with the team shape we played yesterday so that he can have a go in Hourihane's role, because I can't see him getting ahead of Nakamba at the moment. 

7 minutes ago, useless said:

I'm deflated and sad, have lost all hope.

In which case, have a bit of word with yourself. It's only football, and it wasn't actually that bad. 

That felt really harsh. 

50 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

The problem I have is that I don't disagree with yourself or Chrisp at all. 

Can I once again say that there is plenty of poverty that we need to tackle in this country and we should not rest in our pursuit to help others?

Would you not agree that we are very fortunate to live in a country where the vast majority of people, even those earning minimum wage, are able to live a good life compared to the  majority of rest of the world? 

Do you not agree that people die to come here, to better their lives? Is the fact that they are fleeing their homes and risking lives enough evidence that life in UK is better than in most places in the world? Not perfect, not amazing, not satisfactory to my standard, but better?

And can we not, in this god forsaken world where babies die on the streets of starvation appreciate the good stuff we have and are able to give to those most needy in the UK?

I'm not sure what this really means? 

If you've had a humble upbringing then perhaps you'll understand, but someone else's struggles don't make your own feel any less terrifying. 

Trying to frame the inequality in the country this way comes across as apologism for the way the country has been run for the past 8 years or whatever since the nasty party got in. I'm not sure whether that is your intention though. 

We punched ourselves out after 60 minutes. Up until then we did alright. We limited Arsenal to one real chance on goal. Our work rate was impressive. We played a decent mid block with the midfield working particularly hard. Trezeguet was literally everywhere, his enthusiasm is fantastic and he seemed to really want to make up for the mistake against Palace. 

Unfortunately, we didn't have much of the ball in the first half, so much of our work was chasing. And in the second half we lost the mental and physical battle. Arsenal looked like the team with the extra man.

But yes, the 60 minute mark was significant for me. We went 2-1 up and we started to look tired, both in the minds of the players and the legs. Trezeguet was rightly substituted, but I couldn't help but feel we should have been making another change in midfield. They are important players, but McGinn and Grealish can be substituted. Nakamba was looking a bit loose on the ball as well. The game became stretched and Guendouzi who's is odious and magnificent in equal measures, took a grip of the game, and didn't let go. 

I dunno, I think Hourihane could have come on much sooner. I wouldn't have been against giving Davis a game either, Wesley was beginning to lose his battles. We lost control of the ball, and we had to keep running, and we already looked spent. 

So when the second goal went in, you could see the third coming. As Smith alluded to after the game, all three goals were from mistakes. 

Partly it is down to inexperience. Not many of our squad have played in this league before, many are still getting used to their teammates. Partly we capitulated because our players are not as good as Arsenal's. Unfortunately we need to learn on the job, but without the luxury of time. 

A different challenge next Saturday. One that we would realistically want/expect/need to win. 

5 hours ago, Chindie said:

Satan would get similar approval ratings.

Corbyn is fighting an unfair game, the odds are loaded against him, but he plays a poor game.

I think he's a really good player. He has an amazing attitude on the pitch and a lot of self belief. He's physically good, technically quite good but where he really excels is his intelligence in around the box.

His loan here would have done him the world of good, he was the main man, banging in goals in a good team. But it didn't all go his way, we had tough periods and he showed his character during those times. 

I think alot if people, myself included if I am being honest, felt the step up to playing regularly at Chelsea was a bit beyond him. At Villa he didn't create many chances for himself and his finishing was hot and cold. This season however he is improving in both of those areas of weakness. He needs to continue to work on his hold up play, if he does and continues to improve at the rate that he his showing at the moment, he'll be called up for England before too long. He is proving that he is good enough. 

I'm delighted for him scoring three against Wolves, I will be giving him a very same welcome back at VP when he returns. I just hope he doesn't score against us. 

I will forever be fond of Tammy (and Axel Tuenzebe) for the promotion season. 

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

They didn't keep clean sheets much but they usually only conceded once in many of the games last season. In five games last season they conceded five goals. This season ten.

It was a fixed trio of Coady-Bennett-Boly last season. One is massively out of form and the other was suspended yesterday. I also think if you can get a quick forward like Tammy isolated against Connor Coady his mobility gets exposed, don't think he's good enough for England call up at all.

Nope Coady is a tryer and a worker. He's not bad, but he lacks the ability to play at the top level. Laughable that Wolves fans think that he is better than Mings. Mings is a tryer, a worker, physically imposing, quality on the ball and intelligent. And he plays for s bigger club. 

Also, well done Tammy.