HanoiVillan

If the board wanted the players and the manager didn't play them, then the manager got the sack in part for not playing the players, and, in the board's eyes, getting worse results than he could have done if he did play them. If the manager wanted the players, then the manager got sacked for not playing players he demanded they spend lots of money on and not getting results. The manager got sacked regardless.

The link is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06zw32h (Might not work if you're outside the UK).

I'm not carefully following Michael Gove's progress, but I had been under the impression that he was indeed cutting back on a lot of Grayling measures . . . what am I missing?

If we go down, they absolutely should not be producing a 'season review' DVD.

Yes, he's not a brilliant pick because we don't score enough goals. I'll be benching him most weeks once Lanzini is back in action. I don't like Kolarov as a selection - you never know when he's going to play, and if he doesn't start he doesn't come off the bench. He also seems to be scoring and assisting less, and of course without Kompany they never keep a clean sheet either.

'Bread press'????????????????W?????????T????????F???????? I do quite like the polo shirt though, shame I'm too fat for horizontal stripes.

How can you possibly think a squad without a single decent striker is good?

They're a large part of who I'm thinking of. In the end, it doesn't matter who wanted them - they're at the club, they cost a lot of money, they're not even making match day squads. Of course the board are going to be unhappy about that.

From gross to sexxxy in 0.5 seconds.

That ballboy is approximately 20 feet tall.

This goes back to how much money they've spent. Why are the board trying to pick the team? Because he kept leaving out players who they paid a lot of money for. Derby spent a lot by Championship terms, and the strength in depth in their squad is probably the most in the league, they really should be in automatic promotion places or to the top of the playoff places. Promotion was clearly an expectation this season. And yes, I hope their recovery knocks SHA back a bit.

I have Veretout and play him most weeks. He averages somewhere around 12-13 points since Garde took over. Villa players score well under Garde, especially when we play at home, which I surmise is a result of the fact that we maintain possession for long periods. Garde's playing style is very conducive to TOGGA points. SBS has picked up Cissokho, which is a great pick (I was planning on doing the same thing myself, just hadn't got round to it/got lazy) - Cissokho has scored in double figures (nearly?) every week and seems to get close to 20 points when we pick up a clean sheet. He's helped by being a 'creative outlet' (quotation marks very much justified). Another decent pick - and I'm being serious - is Mark Bunn, who is also picking up a few double figure scores.

They've spent a lot of money this season.

I've been hospitalised with diarrhea before (don't ask) and you couldn't be more right. Immodium works if you've got a small stomach upset, but it's not a cure-all. It's also worth pointing out that if your body needs to eject whatever it is that badly, and you've completely bunged up the anoos, then it's just gonna come right out the other end. It doesn't sound like it was free? Just that you're paying for it with your time, instead of both your time and your labour.

Thanks for the recommendation, I've just finished watching it. Very interesting! I do enjoy a bit of war-gaming. Now I see why my question didn't make a whole lot of sense. I was trying to drive at 'if we didn't have Trident, we wouldn't be a target' but we were a target for our conventional military actions, so my point was moot. I see your point - the Russians seemed very contrite, so maybe they wouldn't have fired the ICBM's if the Americans hadn't hit back, and then Trident would have worked as a deterrent (sort of, although not really, because basically an entire land war was already in progress before it got to that stage). I don't know if it changed my mind. The revelation that most wouldn't authorise a retaliatory attack on population centres rather removed Trident's 'second strike' capability as a reason for supporting it, and the film rather adequately demonstrated that Britain's nuclear status, combined with its very small amount of firepower and total lack of influence on Washington, makes us a target but without much corresponding influence. The other, rather more urgent feeling I had watching it was just how dumb it was for George W Bush to push for admitting Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, and how imperative it is that we stop any further NATO expansion, forever. Good programme though!

Surely the argument is that without Trident they wouldn't have targeted us in the first place? In the same way that they didn't target, say, Spain. EDIT: I didn't see the program, I'm just guessing based on your description!

So are we gonna talk about how that one guy is bottomless and presenting his anoos to the rest of the village or not?

Yeah, in fact that list isn't complete is it. Sunderland also only got 19 points in 02/03.

5 worst & Us: Derby 07/08 - 11 points Sunderland 05/06 - 15 points Aston Villa 15/16 - 16 points Portsmouth 09/10 - 19 points Watford 99/00 - 24 points QPR 12/13 - 25 points Still need three wins and a draw to escape future 'five worst' lists.

Definitely the worst Superbowl I've ever seen as a piece of entertainment, probably in the bottom five NFL games for me. The thing is, we can say that the defences were excellent, but there weren't actually that many massive defensive plays. Obviously Miller (MVP) for the two turnovers, the pick from Peyton (sorry forgot the guy's name) and a couple of great Norman reads, but really most of the defending was routine stops of very poor running backs. And I lost a fiver.

He's almost certainly scored at least 3x more PL goals than the rest of the squad put together.

This is better.

Carolina suck.

Eh. Maybe you're right, but I hate adverts as well. Anything to avoid adverts.

I don't spend money on television.