Rolta

I don't blame any of the players. The manager has no idea how to set us up, and he makes them all look bad.

Come back Bertie.

That was a bullshit red. He did nothing that Mitrovic didn't and Mitrovic was the aggressor. Maybe his nose touched Mitrovic's chin, but that was lame.

Sanson has looked head and shoulders over Dendonker every time he's played. Just another example of Gerrard farce.

Against Chelsea maybe, but every game I've watched (I've only missed a couple) we look like we couldn't score in a million years unless we get that moment of magic low percentage shot from a mile out. Most games we don't miss many chances because we barely make any.

It's OK, but I wouldn't get too excited! I was expecting more tbh.

Yeah this definitely is what's happening. Villa use the telegraph to do a poll on Twitter to get fans' opinions on the next manager. Definitely it. Definitely!

Literally the day Coutinho started playing, who would go on to begin starting over a well performing Buendia. We never looked back... No joke, I think Buendia has a silky touch in every single one of those highlights. Starting Coutinho over Buendia was the beginning of the end for Gerrard.

Why are you expecting such a huge and dramatic upturn in form? (I'm making a joke about how we don't ever look like scoring)

'We are one moment away from being in a healthier position.' We only got a draw in the last game against the bottom team because our left back nailed a one in fifty shot—that was the moment of magic. It's just all nonesense now isn't it.

Moorish pirates right? As a side addition of trivia becasue I watched a documentary on the Moors last week (on Netflix)—the documentary suggested there was an element of resentment for the way the Moors had been pushed out of Spain even though a lot of them had converted to Christianity and their families had lived in Spain for a hundred years or so. They had been told they could stay only for a more extreme regime to take power in Spain and to actively and violently remove them. So they apparently, according to the documentary, enjoyed a bit of payback by targeting places in Spain. Interestingly they also enslaved people as far as Cornwall and Iceland. Their motivation wasn't racial superiority, but being marginalised and lashing out, finding new ways of fending for themselves. It was very interesting. On the other topic, Spain still has an uber racist attitude towards Morocco and all this suggestion that 'racism is a protestant' thing is bollocks. It just shows that strongly Catholic people, surprise surprise for people who believe in an incredibly judgemental sky god, are also incredibly good at self-justification.

It's not just the results. We don't ever look dangerous. We barely make any chances whatsoever, even against the bottom teams in the league. We are a dire and clueless football team, and this is all on Gerrard and his magical wishful thinking.

Bleak. The penny will drop for all remaining believers soon enough—Purslow included.

Am I right in thinking that would mean a decent uptick in ppg/form? We couldn't make a decent chance against 10 man Leeds or bottom club Forest. Things are more dire than I think some people realise—we're not getting 9 points from the next 6 games. We'll be submerged in the relegation zone if he stays for that amount of time.

He's going to relegate us with his non-existent ability to set up a decent football team. He's shown absolutely nothing to justify your faith. This is feeling bleak—he's had money to spend. There's no excuse. Just listen to him in the interview after last night—'We need magic'—he said it about five times. What a joke.

Make him go please.

We're going nowhere. I don't remember when I last had any anticipation/enjoyment watching us. Please get a real manager.

I think I got that. But doesn't it boil down to, 'nobody cares about the racism because they all feel they're perfect in God's eyes and they think they can't be wrong'. Something like that. There's a lot of that in Spain. The people doing it are arseholes. There's a lot of other people too. It's an interesting psychological comment. If that was your point @MakemineVanilla. The self justifying racists are still arseholes though. In the UK do religious types seem as arseholey in this way? No I don't think so. But then the actual pope, I'm sure, would have discussed racism at some point.

I mean, I live in Spain and racism is abundant. The actual racists don't have a problem with it because they're racists, but I've seen old ladies from South America crying on the metro here for one. I know whose side I'm on. I've heard so much casual prejudice and racism. Here the racists are small minded, paranoid, egotistical arseholes just like in any protestant country. This interpretation that people are obsessed with racism because of guilt rather than education (I don't mean this in any big way, I just mean, 'thinking about other people, learning about other perspectives, possibly self-education by just opening your eyes and your mind a bit in a very basic, normal way) sounds like a big excuse to me. It also sounds paranoid too...as if it's a desperate comment from someone feeling under attack maybe. I don't feel guilty for the acts of historical dickheads from the UK. Why would I? There's more to identity than your race or your nationality...what actual link do I have to a racist Imperial British person from the 19th century other than the arbitrary notion that we're British? Appreciating actual history and appreciating history isn't just something from the past, but that it's ever evolving isn't guilt.

This idea is just happening in your head. Being aware of history and things outside your own thoughts isn't the same as being made to feel guilty. You don't need to feel guilty—this kind of comment just seems to be what people tell themselves to stop themselves thinking. Same with this imaginary oppression by the woke. Elsewhere in this thread (not foreveryoung) the evidence that someone has different sensibilities is because he doesn't like people being kicked when they're on the floor. This thread is getting sad.

I was leaning on the 'shouldn't need' bit (because there's a whole lot of places to start answering the question, Why is White Chicks ok etc etc) but you did put things nicely above.

Your low effort at thinking around this topic is really saying something, no offence. You shouldn't need people on villatalk to tell you the differences between minstrel shows and your point about white chicks.

Most of this you've made up for yourself but it's winding you up, which says a lot. Whether Golliwogs are banned or not, the world has grown up and moved on. They're cringeworthy and only seem to be defended by people who says things like, 'You might as well ban bananas, that way people won't get offended if someone throws them'. The controversy doesn't surround the word 'wog'—though that's not a good look either—but that they're dolls based on a story based on dolls based on black minstrel shows performed by 100% racist white people in black face that stereotyped black people as slow, dim witted, lazy and so on. You've already talked about Irish people not minding Irish jokes, but if you go to Ireland and talk to actual Irish people with the equivalent old-fashioned perspective you're defending in your various posts, you see how many friends you make and alternatively how many people think you're just revealing yourself as someone who's not really very interested in the world outside your own thoughts, and you see how many of them want to spend much time with you. I'm sure you're a nice guy more generally, but there's a reason why this stuff is embarrassing now, and it's not because of some collective madness and people getting offended—it's because it's dumb racist shit from the past and most people these days are OK with moving on from that.

Also, I wonder what the tone is in the Werewolf show (I have no idea).

I mean there are a lot of stories out there that are about people's lives—and I'd say the show is also about her professional life too, and also about her being a Hulk—so her life as a whole. I respect what you're saying, but I'd argue the dating stuff is just one of a number of continuing plots which are being interwoven. For me it's a nice change and it's a huge part of what makes her relatable. There are a lot of young professional women out there like She Hulk, and dating is a part of that life. They have sex. If there were more Marvel shows that treated relatable interpersonal drama with the same weight as skybeams then the richness of the MCU would come on quite a lot. I think Hawkeye went to similar places in a way, at least in the framing of his relationship with his wife and family, and for me that was also effective—also that one plotline in Thor Love and Thunder.