Mark Albrighton

Wtf

It’s been said on here before, by myself and others, but it was great when they had the UEFA cup, the cup winners cup and the champions league. Three reasonably distinct tournaments, all of them significant trophies that were all sought after by the clubs who entered them. And you had a variety of clubs, interesting ones who you looked forward to seeing, Parma, Werder Bremen, Real Zaragoza etc. Just a big congealed wankfest now with an after thought of a tournament promising a golden ticket for the winners to said wankfest.

Hmmm, this depends on the opposition I think. Ok, if Liverpool play Spurs in the final there would be some, probably a lot supporting Liverpool for that reason, keep it an exclusive group. But if Liverpool or Man Utd were in the champions league final against, say...Leicester, I reckon most would choose to want Leicester to join the club than have “six times la’” or the United fans going on about how their rough patch has finally ended.

I think in part, Kodjia being more flamboyant, in his talent and his personality is a factor. I can imagine more people see themselves in a Hogan-esque player. Not particularly outlandish in his style, someone who tries but his limitations let him down. They could never be a Kodjia, but being Hogan is somehow more realistic, if that makes any sense? They probably see Kodjia the same way they saw that kid at school who didn’t go to practice but was guaranteed a place in the side. There possibly is an element of race in there, but I think in the main it’s not intended as such. At least I’d hope so. Maybe more lazy stereotyping than anything else.

Yes, while this isn’t unique to Liverpool, this aspect of the game is something I really dislike.

I doubt anyone is really surprised. Some, like myself, often complain about how much attention/favourable coverage they receive. Why would I expect any different tonight? No, I don’t like it. But I’m not evenly remotely surprised to hear it’s the leading story on the news. It’s not actually annoying me in fairness, I can avoid most of it. It would have been great to see what would have happened had Harry & Meghan announced their kid today instead. I reckon the news production teams would have had to literally fight it out to decide the running order.

Haha...well, as I knew you’d be interested....

I remember after the final whistle, when Sherwood runs over to the panel covering the game. You had the presenter, I don’t know, Dan Walker or maybe Jake Humphreys. Then for the Liverpool angle you had Michael Owen and Steve McManaman. The other two panel members to add a bit of balance were David James (come on he played for Villa nearly a third of the amount of time he did for Liverpool, balance!) and finally rounding out the panel so all views are covered in a Villa - Liverpool cup tie was none other than Mr Robbie Savage.

Not sure about others on here, but I’ve only just learnt about this. The Dyatlov Pass Incident. It’s now 60 years old, quite an interesting, now apparently reopened, case. Couldn’t decide whether it should go in the history thread or this thread, but have chosen to risk the “aliens” meme and put it here as the main thrust of the case is determining what the hell happened. There’s obviously lots of theories with this, but none seem to answer everything satisfactorily (e.g. potential avalanche while plausible, doesn’t explain why the camp site and footprints were left intact). I’ve tried to find an article that’s not so sensationalist about it, but there’s plenty out there for further reading. To clarify, I’m not thinking KGB or aliens or a yeti or anything, so possibly a conspiracy thread isn’t the right place, but the little bits of unexplained weirdness of it interests me. Curiosity link

Ruge, if you want someone to upload a Kenneth Williams gif, you just have to ask.

I can picture it now....

Just watched “Anomalisa” for the first time. Interesting, typically Kaufman-esque so it’s not going to appeal to everyone but I liked it. David Thewlis is rather good, isn’t he? There were a few occasions when I forgot it was stop motion, the sex scene managed to avoid looking anything like Team America anyway.

Hang about....weren’t you practically organising the victory tour bus for Norwich way back in December? I’ve asked the question there, but I already know the answer. Yes, you were. Your praise of Norwich has been one of the most notable constants from your posts throughout this season, and it’s something that actually has borne out to be accurate. You practically wanted to declare them champions in December and now they are. I thought they might slip up, or have a rough patch. They didn’t really, I was wrong. You were proven correct. But NOW you’re using this same Norwich side as a shitty stick to put us down with. You’ve somehow managed to be inconsistent with the one constant you were correct with.

You do realise it’s just a statistic, right? Like the ten wins in a row is just a statistic and so is Tammy teaching 25 league goals. Are they important as winning promotion, of course not. But they’re fairly noteworthy. Hell, loads of people were talking about the ten wins thing, but I didn’t hear “oh but it’s not in the top division...doesn’t count.” I’m pretty sure @OutByEaster? isn’t saying that this therefore makes this villa team the best for nearly half a century. If he was saying that, that would be incorrect, but he’s not. It’s a statistic, not an opinion. But all these statistical achievements are nice little indicators that things are going rather well for us on the pitch.

First two series, fine. Enjoyable, fun, just the right amount of self referential humour. And some actual decent detective work. A very good updated reworking of the text material. I remember reading an interview with one of the writers for the second series where they basically said “to hell with the deferred pleasure, we want to do the most well known stories now”. I remember thinking at the time that was a bold, potentially dangerous move. Especially doing the Sherlock-Moriaty confrontation so early doesn’t really leave you anywhere to go. And as such the episodes since have massively suffered. Aimless. Series 3 was too self knowing, too full of itself. Series 4 was just terrible, frankly. Nonsensical. I don’t watch it religiously but Elementary is, for the most part, an enjoyable “whodunnit”, with a nice take on the Holmes-Watson dynamic progressing throughout, both Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu are really good and you can tell they’re enjoying themselves. I think it’s ambitions as a show are not quite as high, but it’s the better for that.

I watched the first and last episodes (kinda by chance more than anything). Yep as a snarky e4 sitcom goes, it’s good. A bit inbetweeners-esque in places. Alexa Davies has been good in pretty much everything I’ve seen her in, much like Charlotte Ritchie, while underused in the episodes I’ve seen, is always a very likeable presence. I reckon bigger things for both of them in years to come.

I thought I’d seen it elsewhere on here to be honest!

I think a contender for the most embarrassing would be “One ticket for ‘You don’t mess with the Zohan’ please.” Or the title of pretty much any Adam Sandler movie would do the trick. On the subject of terrible film titles, if you’re ever playing charades I can highly recommend “The Hudsucker Proxy” as a film to give a rival to act out it’s name. It works especially well if the person who has to perform it has never heard of the film.

I kinda feel like I take up a defensive view of Thor, not quite sure why as I don’t massively rate him but I don’t dislike him as much as others appear to. Maybe it’s just to play devil’s advocate in discussion. Didn’t watch today but if his effort is being questioned then that’s a bit notable, that was the one aspect of his game it could argued wasn’t an issue. I always felt he had a solid attitude. He’s scored a few notable goals for us (one or two rather good ones I recall). Had a few decent to good performances when played in that holding role. But yeah, it’s not really worked out for him here has it? Not all his fault, the fact it took practically a year to work out where his best position was slightly embarrassing (at least it seemed like that long). Throw in an injury or two and the Whelanaissance and he’s become more or less a complete bystander. If it’s probably his last game for us, his time here won’t be burnt into my memory, but I wish him the best.

If I was a neutral I’d put us as favourites with a bit of daylight between the two sides. As I’m not, I think we have the better team and are in the better form, but I still feel apprehensive about it. I think if we win the home game, we’ll go through. Going back to the neutral point of view, my brother who doesn’t support any of the teams in contention is convinced the eventual play off winners will come from this tie.

I don’t care if Villa are mentioned or not. But it’s incessant with Liverpool, more so than any other club I think. On this front, I really don’t have an issue with any other club, but with Liverpool it’s been there for as long as I can remember. Impartiality goes out the window for some reason when it comes to them. Jose acts like a word removed, he’s more or less labelled a word removed. Klopp acts like a word removed, he’s a “character”. That type of thing. The amount they’re discussed is slightly irritating, but it’s the positive bias towards them that grates more. As for your earlier point about knowing Liverpool supporters, I don’t know many Liverpool supporters. Those I have met have generally been sound, happy to talk to them about football. It’s the sheer numbers that apparently live near me who all flood in when they’re playing in the latter stages of Europe or are playing Man City or something. It’s a petty complaint, but it’s irritating. Maybe you’re just in a fairly Liverpool free catchment area. As a non scientific example, when the local pub by me puts the football on, really only three teams are likely to fill it - Liverpool, Man Utd and since they’ve found a bit of success, Wolves.

I’d quite happily take the next 29 years of suffering for Aston Villa if it also included 1 Champions League title, 1 UEFA cup (or equivalent), 3 FA cups, 4 league cups and generally having the media back you at every available opportunity.