Jonesy7211

Foden is different gravy. His technique on the ball is incredible. Hope him and Jack get to start a few games together for England. Foden and Mount have been the best players on the pitch tonight.

According to the *sauces, Man City are after Jack, Haaland, and Kane this summer. Realistically, who's going to sign even two of those three in the same window? Man City will be going for a striker, and nobody else can afford Jack.

There's a young cb at Fulham who's pretty highly rated, Tosin Adarabioyo.

If the EU does go through with blocking the vaccine then it's the kind of headline that will surely lead to worse events.

The British media really got behind Brexit when David Cameron went for concessions and was rejected. I shudder to think what comes next in this instance.

Perspective guys. We're almost certainly safe, which is a good job considering our recent form. I think that covid break has killed us.

Add that to the fact we're still only 18 months away from a squad that had total crap in it, I'm pretty happy overall. Just goes to show you how much work there still is to do on the squad. Some of these players simply aren't premier league quality. But they're all DS has to work with. We all agreed last season the money we spent was spread too far.

5 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

On a related topic, what about other foreign travel? Over 18 months since I've really able to get home; will that extend into next year now? Millions of people across the world have the same issue. Again, understandable at the start, or a few months in, but after 18 months?

Insanity. And it feels like people are just nodding their heads and saying it's reasonable. (not aimed at anyone on here)

It's really harsh that you can't get back, but the only reason I can see why people are agreeing with it is because of the concern around introducing further mutations into the country. It's very much after the horse has bolted to a larger extent, however it's the only reasonable excuse in my opinion. I'm shielding from my family and that's bad enough, but to be stuck in another country would break my heart, so you have my sympathy.

The mutation the government are worried about most I believe is the SA variant. It accounts for 5% of all cases in France already, and the early data is showing that AZ vaccine doesn't offer much protection at all against mild and moderate illness. Protection against more severe illness is unknown. If that took hold here the vaccination program that we're all cheering on (and rightly so) may count for very little. 

It's not just their wrestling ability. For the past couple of years the most entertaining personalities in WWE have been women. Becky in 2019, Bayley for a long time, and then the talents in NXT. Rhea Ripley could be a crossover star. Fair play to them across all the promotions.

4 minutes ago, avfcDJ said:

Same surname, same age as me and the same group on the list. Are you me?

Only Monday to Friday. On the weekend everyone calls me Shirley.

Oh, too much info.

Hope you're coping well with shielding, it'll be a relief when that's over too.

Not a conspiracy theorist, but this has Tory hands all over it. The "delay" will be down to one of two reasons;

1. Less likely. There is a growing fear that the vaccine isn't as safe as the UK gov are stating. Rather than admit this they're slowing down the rate so they can await the outcome of the WHO tests.

2. More likely. The Tories have done a deal with the EU to divert some of our supply. Quids in for the Tories, sod the people. Would also look like a massive climb down from a few weeks ago when there was all the sabre rattling over the EU blocking our supply.

I hope I'm wrong, but the vaccination program has been running too well. About time those fox chasing bastards ruined it.

29 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

As others have said, in this world, IT makes everything happen. They'll never be redundant. Keep us happy or we'll **** you over when you really, really need help. Trust me, every IT guy has done it.

I'd very much like to second this. I've deliberately gone out of my way to be difficult to overly entitled users many, many times. It's a badge of honour. Being difficult but keeping the fix within SLA takes real skill  And then moaning to everyone I work with about what a Representative for Wellingborough the requester is, so they do it too.

It's like if a tradesman comes to your house. Make him a cup of tea, and he'll be happy. Talk to us in IT nicely, and you'll likely get the response you require next time you have an emergency.

2 minutes ago, bickster said:

It's true. We'd much rather people booked online or via IVR or Voice recognition. Not only are automated bookings cheaper than calls answered by the call centre staff, I was looking at the number of bookings not picked up and those entered by call centre staff have by far, the worst rate of No Shows by customers. Call Centre staff account for 40% of bookings, automated processes the rest. the call centre No Show rate is currently approx 4% The Automated processes come in at about 2.5%, one method is consistently lower than 1%. The only non human method that rivals the staff in No Shows is our original App (it has bugs) which I'm trying to persuade the board of directors needs turning off

It's so much cheaper as well. Voice agents can deal with one call at a time. A user can deal with multiple enquiries from the omni channel.

With automated processes and now AI the cost of running your contact centre reduces drastically.

Just now, maqroll said:

I know. And having worked in the service industry my whole life, I'm sympathetic to people who work the phones. My anger isn't directed at them, but the corporate dickheads who are too cheap to have a properly staffed C.S. apparatus in place.

I feel your pain. Sorry to be boring, but I always warn companies about this, especially where it's easy to leave a review. Never listen. The worst offenders are car insurance companies by a country mile. I once knew a company down in the south east who had their car park blocked off by a huge lorry from a haulage firm who hadn't been able to get through to chase a payout.

8 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Wait times exceeding 15 minutes when dealing with customer service over the phone is just unacceptable. **** OFF

The main reason for this is always understaffing. I design multimedia contact centres and nearly every customer I've installed for would much prefer you to contact them in other ways. Now AI and bots are in the market you're going to find it harder and harder to talk to people in the future.

13 minutes ago, coda said:

Germany has pulled the AZ vaccine. 

Where are you seeing this reported? Quick Google and I can't find any links to it.

I only ask as I wondered if Germany are seeing a link in deaths/blood clots to the vaccine.

7 minutes ago, darrenm said:

Yep, as Mike said, they're basically triage now. Too scared and not enough time to investigate anything further than referring anything that can't be pushed away from another day, referred to a specialist or prescribed with something recommended on the NHS site.

I can Google symptoms and cast the same critical eye as them so the only reason I'll go to a GP now is if I think I'll need to be referred.

The not enough time point is key. I've been on a number of occasions and told that if I need to talk about more than one problem then I need to book another appointment. They only get a few minutes per patient. Some more cynical people I know have speculated that it's so they can get more private appointments in, however I'd imagine it's more to do with the overwhelming numbers a lot of the GP's now have to deal with.

In my opinion, the growing schism between generations is another symptom of a break down in communication that seems to be more than ever affecting race, politics, gender, sexuality, and nationality.

This isn't true of everyone, but if you look at social media and the media in general imho nobody is listening to people with a different opinion to them, it's just a case of who can shout the loudest or is the most belligerent.  I've been guilty of this in the past as well I'm sure. If we could get people from opposing sides to talk to each other, listen, and ultimately learn and compromise, this shitty world wouldn't be in the state it is.

This doesn't mean that everyone with an opinion is wrong, it's just that if we better understood why people were coming from different view than us, we'd be in a better position to educate them, or learn ourselves. Maybe too simplistic, but if we started from a position of what we have in common rather than what's different or we don't like then this might help too.

Stories I've heard from a couple of Sheffield lads I work with.

1. Wilder won't go until the end of the season.

2. The money they've spent on transfers was borrowed from selling their future prize money and parachute payments. Whilst the owner is a member of the Saudi royal family, he's (in comparative terms), not one of the wealthy ones. When he took over the club and forced the other 50% owner out via the courts, he had to borrow money from everywhere to purchase the ground and training ground.

If the story about Wilder not going till the end of the season is true I don't see the point of getting rid of him at all. I know football is cynical, but surely he's earnt a crack at getting them back up. If they do go down though they're going to be a skint championship club paying high wages to players on long term deals and any earnings will go to service debt. 

No keeper who ever played the game would have stopped that

18 minutes ago, bickster said:

Erm, this interview has shite all to do with my long held opion that we should abolish the institution

That's fair enough, it's just that #abolishthemonarchy has been trending on twitter since the interview. My point was made more in general on those people on social media who are deciding this based on the interview alone.

I agree it should be abolished btw, but I've long held this view for a whole host of other reasons.

1 minute ago, ender4 said:

Nah, it's a few days of media uproar and then the media move onto the next big story. 

Just a bit of celebrity circus.   Its on par with something crazy Kim and Kanye do.

Well I suppose the Tories have been getting away with it for the last year.

In all seriousness if it's not properly addressed this will have international ramifications. It'll make us look even more racist than whenever Farage gets on TV in America.

To their credit, I think the youth of today are much more inclusive and far less racist than the elder generations, and the royals ignoring the interview will create a massive disconnect with the young people of this country.

My earlier post shows I'm no fan of the monarchy, however before anyone rushes to judgement around abolishing them there simply must be a response from the royal family to the interview.

That being said, I absolutely believe that Meghan has been the victim of racism from the family. Philip, Charles, Andrew, and even Harry have shown time and again what respect they have for anyone who isn't them or filthy rich. Does anyone believe that they care about such things as equality and fairness? It's for the peasants.

A real watershed moment is coming for them if they don't address this.

We're as bad in this second half as we were against Sheff Utd. We need so much more quality in the squad.

I think it's easy to forget though that less than 2 years ago we had even less quality. 

21 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

He's a pain in that he is going to want to do one of two things - either play with two holding midfielders in front of a back four, or play five at the back including Dier. It's like he's looked at the squad, noticed where we're weakest and built a team around that weakness.

 

After the 2010 world cup everyone agreed that we needed more technical attacking players, instead of the rush/strength football the English game was based on. The irony is we now have them, and those technical players are now our best, but we've got Southgate who simply won't play to our strengths for the reason you've stated.