Mark Albrighton

Thomas F. Wilson did a fantastic job of embodying what really amounts to being the same villainous character each time but somehow making them different enough that they stand out from one another. I think he’s the (not so) secret weapon of the franchise.

Let the chant battle between “Jack McGrath, My Lord” and ”Super Jack McGrath” commence.

Yeah he did and it seems like he was still finding himself in difficulties (driving under the influence, drug offences). However, in the (seemingly at face value) plus column, it seems like he also set up and ran a creative support group for those suffering from issues from mental health, trauma and addiction.

Incidentally, and I acknowledge the opposition will be a factor, but Villa have won every league game Mings has played the full 90 (Brentford, Leicester and Everton). We also “won” the 70 minutes he played against Brighton.

I don’t know about a run, as such. Maybe we’re in it at the moment. Coming up we have Arsenal, West Ham, Wolves, Ipswich, Chelsea, Palace and Brentford. The form of some of those, there’s points to be won. And they’re all important games, of course. But looking at our fixtures after that we have a run of Liverpool (h), Brighton (a), Forest (h), Southampton (a), Newcastle (h), Man City (a). Saints, aside it’s five games against sides who will have European football on the agenda for next season. It feels like that run of fixtures will decide whether it’s 4th/5th or 7th/8th.

Yeah I knew about that first pre season but I wondered whether Torres may have made a cameo in that league cup game Mings returned to play in. Turns out no. Carlos played with Mings, and he’s left footed I think, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable that we see a Torres-Mings pairing at some point.

Have Mings and Torres ever played together? I feel like they have briefly but can’t say for definite.

As a chimp called Robbie who’s from Stoke.

I think this thread and this thread below were separated at birth. See what I did there? Entered into the spirit of the thread and at the same time dismissed the need for it in one sentence. And I’m still pleased with my Shaun Teale/Jesse Ventura in “The Running Man” suggestion too.

Someone, and not just Robbie Williams, thought it was a good idea to make a film about Robbie Williams but personified by a chimp, spend around 100 million on it and release it around 15 years after his last hit. It can’t be a surprise to them that it’s not doing terribly well at the box office.

Gosh, I did rather well with my predictions in that postscript bit. Well done me.

12th January 1967, James Bedford becomes the coolest guy by being the first person to be cryopreserved and 58 years later his revival plans are still very much on ice.

Weird how they’re so fond of the past, as I was led to believe that the past is a foreign country.

It’s also possible that people enjoy the escapism of watching a player like Jhon Duran play and get annoyed when they are deprived of that in what they consider to be an unfair manner.