1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

I don't look at it like that.

Normally you'll need a point per game to survive.

Lose and we are 4 pts behind schedule.

If folks thinks 32-33 pts will be enough to survive i think you are in dreamland.

This is a bit silly. You do know you get three points for a win and one for a draw right?

11 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Because we use a CAM as a RWF

That's where he played for blues and Brentford. He definitely doesn't have the pace to be a prem winger though and I wonder if he'd fit better as a number 10.

1 minute ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

If that’s the case, they shouldn’t be on our bench then 

If that's the criteria we'll have a lot of empty seats on the bench!

10 minutes ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

Personally, I don’t think either Hourihane or Lansbury are Premier League quality players, do you agree MotoMkali?

I think they're not that good Championship players.

22 minutes ago, avfcDJ said:

I know two people who joined the police. One was always a rocket polisher. Abusive, racist, thick as shit.

The second person is a nice guy, helps out with food parcels, always there for others.

I'll let you decide which one left the police as it was stressful and which one got promoted.

Sounds a shame. I have a friend who joined up last year. He told me a similar-sounding story that there are two types of police officer — those who want to help people and those who want to control people.

Second attempt at this in the right format now. This was a really significant read, an eye opener on the police in the US.

There may also be a few cross-over UK points in there, although I'd guess police in the UK have a different attitude, so mainly about how 'society' is set up and maintained.

https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759

2 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

The difference being that one group is subject to racism in their lives, work, justice system and society, the other is subject to when the job centre posts their weekly allowance so they can buy more cans of stella and get that potato Yaxley tattooed on their arse.

To be fair to them, a lot of them, some of them, at least a proportion of them have been left behind by the system too. They're just too prejudiced and manipulated by the likes of the Sun and the Mail to point their anger where it would be more useful—classic culture war, divide and conquer stuff. I'd bet they've had the voting habits of turkeys voting for Christmas in recent times.

Pretty fascinating read: https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759

Quote

I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were.

This essay has been kicking around in my head for years now and I’ve never felt confident enough to write it. It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of. It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt. It’s a time that I acted as a violent agent of capitalism and white supremacy. Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined people’s lives but in so doing, made the public no safer… so did the family members and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me.

2 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Cant we pretend it isnt

Textbook Tory

Joking.

1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

Think he was referring to the BLM movement.

They have proved to be violent in numerous occasions.

Racism is sickening, but personally i am scared about the people in BLM. They are filled with hatred. Not saying all of them, but a lot of them are violent people, a lot.

So many peaceful protests around the world and you'd rather just focus on the incidents of violence. Conveniently you now get to disengage from the whole thing.

13 hours ago, Dave-R said:

I could say same about your post that it is all hot air couldnt I.

I don't think you know what hot air is. All I said is you literally know nothing yet have judged absolutely. I know as much as you do and I know you and I know nothing. Understanding the limits of knowledge is a good place to start when making judgements on things for everyone.

EDIT: I think I've come across a bit strong. Of course it's a message board and we're going to speculate and that's the point. I thought that you were talking as if you had facts when they weren't facts and that you'd built up a bit of a prejudice on things none of us really know anything about.

1 hour ago, Dave-R said:

Conclusion are usually always based off of how someone is behaving in front of others is it not??? We would not come to such conclusions if we did not observe others, I mean we have to observe an individual to come up with such things. Ghazi may of put in some very good displays in the championship but why has he not been able to replicate such play in the premier. 

We have all had a weigh in on what we think of Drinkwater's Headbutt in training, how he should of been sent packing back to his club, what gets me here is Ghazi went one step worse in doing it in front of the world. Ghazi was not done for his actions in the slightest yet Grealish got done for stepping outside during lockdown and fined. The fact that Ghazi squared upto Mings in front of cameras showed how frustrated the man was because he made a defensive blunder. Ok it wasnt a full on headbutt but it was contact still and should of been dealt with by Smith and Co. In fact Smith should of handed Ghazi abit of ban whether we needed him or not. Ghazi's actions have been questionable on a few occasions have they not??  Yes Ghazi is human like other footballers but it doesnt excuse the fact your playing for a club and get paid a small fortune to play as a professional.

From physical contact on a team mate, can't be bothered attitude, time wasting on the floor and annoying your team mates, to going off making out your injured, it does look like we have a player who's had a taste of the high life, that has learnt to bend management to his will because they are to soft. Yes sure there may of been instances where Ghazi has been injured but you go look back through this seasons games and you will see a player that looks completely different to the Ghazi from last season in the way that he is behaving on the pitch in front of fans, now that isnt my own thoughts is it?? I also certainly was not being biased since I am not comparing the bloke to anyone at all and saying anyone can do the job better, although theres no denying that there is because our Wingers have been massively a let down this season.

I do think Smith is to soft on our players, I think if it was JT who was in charge he wouldn't of stood for none of it from anyone, not that im saying JT should be in charge, I'm just using it as an example.

Hopefully and fingers crossed that Ghazi has collected himself and brushed off the silliness, gets his head together and we see the player he can be. If we was talking about Wesley going down on the floor to much as he has done this season you Guarentee there'd be a horde in waiting to have there say and rightly so. Ghazi though just because he has had a good championship season for us doesn't excuse him from being subject to questions as other players would be if they did something wrong.

Not everyone had a weigh in on Drinkwater vs. Jota. And maybe none of us should seeing as none of us saw what happened and none of us have any idea what happened. Are you really that upset about El Ghazi leaning his head a little towards Ming's head? Apart from him looking a bit troubled this season – like our whole team does often, because we're struggling, as opposed to last year when we were big fish – your post is all hot air. There is basically no actual knowledge. You have taken some flimsy observations on body language (I take back the flimsy if you're a body language expert, but I'm going to guess you're not) and applied them to what really comes across as a very subjective interpretation that El Ghazi is bad. That seems like a bias against him to me.

Personally, on this topic, I don't know anything. Like you don't know anything. But I'm not going to start making guesses about things I don't know about because I'd probably be missing a lot, and what's the point? By all means speculate, but it seems that you've drawn some very certain conclusions for yourself.

41 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Both a dangerous Ideology though. How many people have been killed under Communist regimes!

If you want to pretend that the BLM protests are a communist uprising, that's on you! Or, you could look at the actual point of the protests.

I mean, I haven't heard one person actually say they want to overthrow capitalism and that's what they're protesting about. Sure, some people at the BLM marches definitely do feel like that, but the protests themselves are obviously not about that. Is this what you tell yourself to disengage from what they're saying? Toppling the statue of a slave trader doesn't equal communism, for example.

2 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Painting graffiti on a statue is a peaceful protest.

EDIT. I think I'm saying what you're saying.

12 minutes ago, Brumerican said:

Throw a rope around it whilst drinking cheap lager.

This is something that confused me. How can anyone drink that much Fosters and Carling (tempted to end the sentence there) – and also how can anyone get drunk enough on that weak piss to make them that lary. Lightweights.

7 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

As a direct result of the actions last week. Anyone with half a brain could see it was like poking a hornets nest with only one probable outcome, We’ve been here so many bloody times in the past

So you're saying we shouldn't have a right to protest for fear of triggering a bunch of far right words removed? I thought a right to protest was part of democracy.

13 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Shall we continue this in the politics thread? Its a interesting debate

What a depressing idea. If you want to debate against whether the UK government are pretty exceptional bullshitters, I think you yourself can just go square pretty much everything BJ has said in the last nine months and go square it with what's actually now happening and do your own conclusions. Then pick most members of the cabinet and do the same. Then see what they were all saying back in 2016 and see what they're saying now. Same with most things that come out of Trump's mouth too.

I should have stuck to El Ghazi. Truth is, we don't know if he's agitating for a move. And I think it's fair to say building a prejudice against someone is better with some actual truth, some evidence, not just things made up or overheard by someone posting on a messageboard.

Just now, Demitri_C said:

"Insane as the logic here"

Your saying not to believe it as its untrue im merely stating a fact you dont know if its true or not.

And your post is opinion not fact not sure why your bringing politics into this post as this has nothing to do with it

I said the first part because you didn't seem to get that the burden of proof is with the accuser. Think about a world where the burden of proof is on the accused and you'll have nightmares. As for the politics, it's easy to feel depressed because it's the same shit everywhere – 'I believe this and it must be true.' Sure it was off topic, but it's there now.

Presumably my opinion refers to the fact that truth doesn't matter any more in politics. I mean do you disagree? Our whole government demonstrably, objectively, with proof keep on lying.

6 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Or we can swing it around and say there is no evidence its not true either

I hope the world isn't as insane as the logic here. The burden of proof is always on the accuser. Otherwise we all might as well give up, the whole human race – the way things have been going though in Trumpland and UK Trumpland, I'm sure we'll see plenty more subjective opinions thrown around as if they have this level of actual weight. Our politics is rife with it, truth is becoming subjective and that's utterly depressing. Facts don't matter any more, only what you want to believe.

5 hours ago, Dave-R said:

I think theres been plenty of bull bullcrap from Ghazi to suggest hes looking for a way out. If by any chance he is he can get lost now for all I care. I'd rather us lose 10 nill in a game than have one player on our team who is always looking for excuses not to play. The way he goes off at times with these injury's then he's back fine again following match, it all suggests to me we have a player who is expecting everything laid at his feet and if that doesnt work, he doesnt want to put the time in to make it work.

Anyone would think Ghazi is royalty, maybe he should hook up with the prince in the stands.

I used to have a go at Kodjia for looking uninterested, yet Ghazi  this season has topped Kodjia's cant be arsed attitude at times, least Kodjia stayed on the pitch. Crazy thing is I honestly thought we had got rid of certain behaviours but in alot of ways as TRO mentions, Smith maybe inviting this type of behaviour in because he fails to shut it down or deal with it in a way that results in a player knowing there place, is Smith to soft???

So that's a no then! Another problem in the world—making conclusions not from actual facts but from a bias you've gone on to confirm yourself with your own thoughts.

'The way he goes off at times'—there's been one controversial example where he might well have been actually injured.

He's done a lot for us over the previous two seasons. True, he hasn't been as effective this year, but he's playing in one of the toughest leagues in the world in an incredibly average team, and he's no world beater himself. He doesn't deserve the detectable tone of vitriol in your post, especially as it's literally all based on an incredibly subjective interpretation of events.

Is this one of those things like happens a lot these days where there's no evidence, but people believe it anyway?

23 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

The most recent thing I've watched with excess use of the N word was The Wire, that will need to be edited down to a 90 minute movie I think.

'What about black people, they say the n word.'

I don't know. Maybe you're joking! For the record, I'd remove the racist statues, but it goes without saying that I'd leave the shows because these two things are completely different. Because one puts racists up on pedestals and whitewashes their history to the same degree as a North-Korean personality cult. The other is TV. It's an actual relic of our history and something that can and should be preserved. Nobody wants to pretend that racism doesn't and didn't exist—they just don't think that in any modern country mass murderers should have statues and buildings and schools and whatever else named after them.

We can put statues up and name schools after people who actually did good things (no, philanthropy paid for by a tiny fraction of a man's wealth, a man who made his money on the premise that black lives really don't matter doesn't count). Dublin does it well—Joyce, Beckett, Lynott, Lady Gregory, Molly Malone (so not actually real), Kavanagh, Famine Memorial, End of Civil War memorial, Lady Markievicz, and plenty of other figures I am no expert on but it would be good to learn about.

1 hour ago, Genie said:

It could be that it was dwarfed by the Covid situation but if you compare to the coverage of Rhys Jones, Sarah Payne, Maddie McCann, James Bulger etc I’m surprised this passed so many people by. 
There has been several other big stories that have captured peoples attentions alongside the pandemic over the past few months.

There's something like 50 under-16 year olds murdered every year in the UK. It's an exception when these become national news.

1 minute ago, Demitri_C said:

How many times in the uk has that happened in the last 12 months?

They're not just protesting about police murder.

6 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Davis is joining the great list of players who improve in reputation from the fans in the inverse relationship over the amount of time he has actually played for us.  Like Carles Gil.

Yes has been injured and yes I think he has some potential but the fact is that is has scored  a total of two league goals for us in the best part of four seasons he has been at the club.

I would like him to stay but he badly needs 1) to stay fit and 2) go out on loan to a championship club for a season and see how he gets on.

I don't think this is a fair comparison. He looks effective and as if he worries defenders every time he plays—he always has done. He might not score, but he looks like he can actually compete. He has a presence in the game that a lot of our players are lacking, along with a certain quality and we've all seen it. I imagine that's what people are getting hopeful about.

Obviously, he's been held back by injuries, and nobody is going to argue that his goalscoring could be improved upon. You can't pull a rabbit from the hat unless there's already a rabbit in the hat, and for me, I'd argue there's a good shot at there being a rabbit here as a Premier-League-level first team player even if he won't score countless goals. We look like a better team when he plays.

Carles Gil never had that kind of presence. He was too slow for a start.