Only2McInallys

There are lots of socialist things that people are happy with such as NHS ,Welfare etc they just don’t want socialist governments.Blair effectively positioned the party as Tory light I don’t think the word socialism was ever uttered by him. The last time the Labour Party won an election with socialist policies was 1974.Thats 40 years ago.Whenever they have proposed socialist policies at an election they have been decimated 1979,1983,1987,1992 2010,2015 ,2017.2019 . Blair came to power after 5 election defeats in a row he realised socialism although admirable doesn’t win British elections.

It was meant with a degree of humour. PR allowed him a voice when he led a very small party. It allowed him to be seen with more respected figures and gave him credibility when his vote share was very small. Later when his vote share increased he was able to form coalition a government.For me this is the biggest problem with PR.Parties after the election do deals with each other and come up with policies no one voted for.An example of this was in the Coalition government here in 2010.Lots of students voted Liberal Democrat because they said they said they were going to abolish university fees .What happens when they become part of the government,they vote for it. When I vote for someone I want to know what they are going to do,I don’t want them saying to me we changed our mind because we needed to do a deal with another party.

Let’s not forget that Hilter came to power through PR

I stated conservative with a small c not the party.I was talking about winning elections under the present system and how the Labour Party can become a government again.If it wants to win an election it will have to move to the centre . If you want a centrist government PR will be perfect for it.if you are happy to see Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson in House of Commons then let’s have PR because one major drawback is small extreme parties now have more power.

No government in the last 75 years has ever got 50% of the vote .Even the “landslide” victory by Attlee in 1945 only got 47% ,Blair in 1997 achieved 43%.

Since the end of the Second World War (75 years) only 3 labour leaders have won a majority in elections.That indicates to me we are a naturally conservative country. I think many people who lived through Blair’s governments just assume it will alternate between Tory and Labour governments. He did everything he could to bring Labour into the centre and won 3 elections with this policy.Many in the Labour Party would dismiss him as a Tory and maybe in certain areas they are right but if Labour ever wants to be in government again they are going to have to adopt similar views.

We survived because as some have mentioned on here our players seem to be united and we have been able to improve defensively.I think pre lockdown we had conceded more goals from set pieces and post lockdown don’t think we conceded any? Many of our players at the start of the season were not “premier league ready” Guilbert,Luiz ,Konsa ,Targett etc who have improved hugely as the season has progressed and now able to perform consistently. How we survived with a forward line of Davis, Samatha and El gazi( total goals 2 or 3) is a miracle. The most positive thing for me about Smith was the way he changed our set up post lockdown and he has shown he is learning how to play in the premier league.

Let’s hope he can help to sort out our defence because pre lockdown it’s been A Comedy of Errors. Wonder if Dean will be reading Juluis Caesar and worrying about the ides of March and reciting “et tu Craig?”

We have come back strongly today but with their bowlers and state of pitch I expect us to be bowled out for 120ish. Only hope is if Ben Stokes can repeat his incredible Headingley innings...one of the most amazing games I have ever seen.

Brilliant defender.Always so cool reminded me a bit of Keith Richards (not that Keith was good at defending especially at corners) I remember a story about Platt who swapped shirts with him at the end of a game when he was playing in Italy and he said most shirts smell quite sweaty but his smelt of Aramis. He has won so many trophies ,I remember watching a champions league semifinal and he got booked so he would miss the final but he acted like it was nothing to him.

Looking at goal ratios when players are young I think is a mistake. Look at Dwight Yorke ,he was a very slow starter he scored 27 goals in his first 128 appearances that’s about 1 in 6 and he would become probably one of our greatest strikers.He didn’t shine until he was 24. Davis like Yorke offers other things besides goals,his running with the ball is exceptional. This also applies to some of our other players like Wesley,Guillbert etc we expect them to come from a foreign country and immediately start performing at the highest level when many great players took time to adapt and learn.

I think it is very wise to not openly state you have a large transfer budget before transfer window opens. Whenever we have had money to spend under Lerner,Xia or now it has become public knowledge and other clubs have taken advantage and we have overpaid for players. Maybe the 20 m is right or not but if they bid for a player the selling club is not going to be asking exorbitant fees.....maybe we should try it. I wonder if this standoff between China and UK is going to affect the Chinese owned clubs such as Wolves and WBA ,they might put restrictions on how much money they can invest.

One of my favourite bits of Bach is Bach concerto for 2 violins in D minor || largo ma non tanto Sorry my tech skills not able to post it Bruce Willis Arnold Swatznegger and Stallone have agreed to make a film about great classical composers. Willis says I will play Beethoven Stallone says I will play Mozart Swartznegger says I’ii be Bach

They did us a big favour today. Not sure if it was because they lost to us or because of Troy Deeneys comments last season.It. sets them up well for the FA Cup final and Aubeyang must be feeling confident They do owe us after we were robbed at the Emirates earlier in the season.

Utter elation, had to isolate myself for 2 hours couldnt handle watching us and hearing there’s been a goal here or there. I see some comments recentlythat make me doubt they are Villa fans.Maybe it’s obvious to everyone else. I am proud the club stuck with Smith.This club needs stability .We signed 12 players at the start of the season and as Smith remarked Luiz came in 2 days before the season started. The break helped us hugely we have improved massively defensively and managed to stay up without a proper .striker.I think Smith has learned how to set up as a premier league manager. I think staying up is more of an achievement than getting promoted last season,we were without our main striker and goalkeeper for half the season and had 12 players to integrate.We need some quality signings and spending big money is no guarantee of success Haller(46 million)Joelinton 41 million...... There is talk of getting rid of Smith,I think that would be a big mistake as big as having Thierry Henry as manager. Lets not forget we were 15th in the championship 19 months ago. I want to see us improve but in a controlled gradual way - we have had owners who spent big for a short time and then pulled the plug that kind of thing ends in the championship. All that time I spent thinking about our games and our relegation rivals games I can spend on more constructive things like.......... Next season I want mid table mediocroty my heart can’t take it.

If match was on Sky I would probably watch it but don’t have BT . Dont think I can bear “there’s been a goal at Goodison,London Stadium “ etc Cant bear this is the table as it stands now ..only show the table when the game has finished! I will have to turn my phone off,leave the house for a couple of hours and find something to do without hearing any football news.Its a bit like that episode of The Likely Lads where they try to not hear the result of a big England game. I can feel the nerves building up,tomorrow is going to be unbearable.Whats the betting that VAR is going to have a big part to play?I hope Kevin Friend has no responsibilities in Watford or Bournemouth games .

Yes totally agree.Botham was brilliant for us but against the West Indies he did very little and seemed to revel too much in his friendship with Garner and Richards. Gooch was the beginning of our resurgence and I think played some crucial innnings in our later series . Richards was an incredible batsman.The way he came out with just a cap and the way he used to swing his arms as he was approaching the wicket was very intimidating.I vividly remember him demolishing our best bowler at the time Bob Willis.I don’t think there has been a more dominant batsman since.

Arguing about the relative merits of a player can be a pointless exercise people see different things when we play. All our strikers have struggled this year and if you listened to most people on here they are all rubbish.There is something about the way we play that doesn’t create lots of chances for our strikers. When Davis played against Shef Utd he created 2 or 3 chances on his own(unfortunately that he didn’t convert).None of other strikers are able to do that.Davis is getting into positions where he is having chances how many shots has Samatta had?I can’t think of a single shot he’s had .He does a lot of good work but for me Davis is better. For me he his our best striking option at the moment and I would start him against West Ham.

He has fantastic strength on the ball and when he gets it he rarely loses it cheaply.Yes his finishing needs to improve but I think we should persevere with him.His goals ratio is deceptive,most of his appearances have been as a substitute. Confidence is crucial for a striker look at Benteke,a few goals I feel would transform him.He will never be a prolific striker but his hold up play makes up for it.

Since lockdown I think he has been excellent.Yes he does make at least 1 error per game but he takes on more responsibility than other defenders so he ends up making more clearances and headers than anybody else.I think he has been carrying our defence a lot and that’s why errors occur. If you were to put him next to an experienced defender and a team that held onto the ball he would be even better. You only realise how good some players are is when they leave.Delph was similar, him and Benteke kept us up and only now withLuiz have we found a replacement.

The feeling after a win like that makes all the pain worth it.I find watching games like these to be almost unbearable. We deserved the win and thought in last 10 -15 mins we tried not to sit back and created some good chances.We seemed to start winning more 50/50 balls and that helped keep the pressure off. The last minute sub of Lansbury wasted a good 60 seconds why haven’t we done that before trying to see out games.? Since lockdown we have improved massively defensively and Smith is showing he is improving tactically.

Or it’s the fans expectations. Westwood came in for some horrible abuse on here he couldn’t do this or that.A lot of posters on here only see what a player can’t do rather than what they can do.Maybe if we had kept hold of Westwood we wouldn’t have needed Nakamba and then we could have bought Benrahma sometimes keeping players allows you to spend more on other areas. Maybe some posters on here can take some responsibility for our problems. Look at El gazi he made a mistake is it going to help him to abuse him on social media,is it going to affect other players thinking if they make an error they are going to be crucified. Then we wonder why some players are afraid to take risks with the ball. We hopefully have 2 games left let’s just think positively about are players and hope we can perform to the best of our ability .I can not forgive a player for not giving his all but I can accept a player giving the ball away or making a mistake.It happens. The time for proper player assessments is at the end of the season.Now is the time for support and prayer (if you believe in McGrath)

Today’s result is great for us. Unfortunately Arsenal winning last night was bad news.They will rest players for their final game against Watford so l can see Watford getting something from that game. Hopefully Arsenal won’t be at their best against us and hopefully we can take advantage. West Ham concern me they looked really good against Watford and we might find it easier for us to beat Arsenal than West Ham.

This is so accurate.There are many comments on here that x is completely rubbish and we need to get rid of.Then we sell them at a loss and buy somebody else who is worse .The huge turnaround of players we have had at this club has to stop it’s not sustainable financially . Elmo,Taylor,Hause are players who have had huge amounts of criticism but who I think recently have performed well. Look at Luiz probably our best player at the moment but who struggled at start of the season. I found the game physically painful to watch and was not that surprised by the equaliser.To stay up we need Watford and ,Bouremouth to not win any more games and we need 4 points unlikely but not impossible.As long as it’s not mathematically certain I still have retain a minuscule amount of hope.

I think the FA cup may have an effect on our survival. Arsenal play on Saturday night against Man City and play us on the Tuesday hopefully that will effect their energy levels.Not sure if extra time is played any more but it would be good if it did. Arsenals last league game is Watford and if they got to the final they might rest quite a few players so let’s hope they don’t make the final. West Ham v Watford still not sure about best result for us,if it’s a draw it keeps West Ham in the relegation battle .If West Ham beat Watford and then Watford beat Arsenal that puts them on 37points with better goal difference means we will have to win all 3 games to go above Watford. Teams are fighting for their lives and winning games you wouldn’t expect them to(except us) so more teams involved the better.