blandy

I get where you’re coming from, in that he’s a better manager for Villa than Bruce was ever going to be. I never wanted Steve Bruce as manager...but... The thing with me is that unless things are disastrous managers have to be given time. 12 months ago I wouldn’t have been at all sad to see Bruce go, because I’ve never rated him and don’t like his football outlook, yet given the mess he inherited the extra season was just about deserved. I remember saying to @TRO that he wouldn’t take us up, but I was almost wrong, and that’s the thing - it is fine lines and managers deserve a decent opportunity to show their worth. The better owners can’t be changing manager every year. The same applies to Dean Smith, if he has a bad spell, as he will, the owners have to give him a chance to recover things. Regular upheaval is the enemy of progress. Give managers time, really is my message. Let’s be positive and say that Deano took over at nigh on the perfect time with the perfect board and that wouldn’t have been the case 12 months ago.

Not that radical. The sort of thing Trump might say about reporting re Mueller, perhaps? As we know, press (media) reporting has to walk a line between reporting things which for which there is evidence and asserting what that evidence means. SO for example, Farage was caught visiting Assange is a fact. Farage is/was a "mixer" with Trump and the two appeared to be "on the same page" on aspects of politics. A paper might leave it to the reader to join the dots as to whether Farage is/was a conduit between Assange and Trump. Now the Guardian (say) doesn't much like (hates?) Farage and his ilk (with good reason). Just because the subject of some "connections" is someone who might be popular with twitterers or momentum or whoever, doesn't suddenly mean that it's a hatchet job (or that it isn't). cry of "Fake News" about CC's twits on Seamus and Corbyn just seems to me like...well, "it's covering someone(s) we think are great, so it can't be true, it must be a MSM set up". Aside from this particular little aspect, and to stay on topic, CC has uncovered all kinds of links and shenanigans about Brexit funding, Russia, Facebook, Cambridge analytica etc. As people have commented, it's hard to follow, and I'm sure she's made mistakes in some of her direction, looking for more, but I think the general responses from the Brexiteers like Aaron Banks, Andrew Neill, Farage and so on suggest she's got to them, when they thought they'd be clear. Now she's followed a line of enquiry/investigation that wavers towards maybe some in Corbyn's camp, it's a bit much to pull up our skirts and jump on a chair in horror and alarm. The left of Milne and Corbyn are every bit as manipulative as Farage and Banks. The ideology is different, and arguably less malign, but the (some) methods are universal across all politics. My perception is Corbyn and Milne etc. are every bit as susceptible to being manipulated by Russia as are Banks and Trump and Farage. Different weak points, but ultimately same result. Whether it's "Spot of Presidential power interest you, at all?" or "oodles of mining cash any interest?" or whatever, there's always a weak point, particularly with ideologues. Caveat. I have no idea if CC is dizzy on recent accolades and going off on one, or if she's found something else worth picking at, but I just see the responses from supporters of Corbyn on Twitter as exactly what you'd sadly expect and just mirrors of the Trumpites in America.

Im not sure why you say that, or think that but even if it were so, I dont see what that says about the story. The Washington Post didn't much like Nixon, but that didnt mean their posts on Watergate were made up. The same notion applied to many other stories. Papers hostile to Blair, to Thatcher, etc. Investigated stories and revealed dirt about WMDs and so on. CC's stories have yet to join all the dots on Brexit, or on this one, but "motive" is a weak retort, were it to be made.

List of top 10 in no particular order, now I've got my computer running. Christina Vantzou - No. 4 Luluc - Sculptor Lucy Dacus - Historian Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel Anna Von Hausswolff - Dead magic Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs 
Teleman - Family Of Aliens Low - Double Negative The Lovely Eggs - This Is Eggland HMHB - No One Cares About Your Creative Hub so Get Your F***in' Hedge Cut And 11 extras 
Beach House - 7 Nils Frahm - All melody Marissa Nadler - For my Crimes The Lucid Dream - Actualisation Anna Calvi - Hunter 
First Aid Kit - Ruins 
Eleanor Friedberger - Rebound 
Hookworms - Microshift Tracyanne & Danny - Tracyanne & Danny Clarice Jensen - For This From That Will Be Filled 
Goat Girl - Goat Girl

It is. As Bicks mentioned, the low frequency buzz thing initially grated with me too, but after repeated listens I got past that and love it’s entirety now. I’ll do a list later, but that Low one will be in the top 3.

FTFY. Also, Scott it would be helpful to me at least to be able to buy home tickets longer in advance than we can currently. Usually There’s only the next 2 home games available. I would like to see that as soon as the date is set ( I.e. tv isn’t going to move it) the tickets are made available for sale via the website. It would help me for example with train tickets ( cheaper to buy them in advance) and general planning. It might also lead to increased ticket sales for the club.

It’s changing, slowly, but it is changing. What I mean is that first there was Neville, then Caracher who started actually telling us stuff we might not know or see, based on the actual games in front of them, rather than trading on blokey reminiscences and cliches of in my day. Then the female commenters and Rosenoir have come along with something to prove, as they are lesser names, but boy can you tell they work at it, as well as obviously having knowledge. It’s a big step up, and it’s also made MOTD types wake up, too. There’s way more sense talked now, and more insight given as a result.

Your comment applies equally, pretty much to the pair of them, regardless. I thought it was spot on. These narrow minded, small brained Home Counties Tory types are a menace. They have no understanding, no width or breadth of appreciation and if things don’t turn out as they want them to, they just try to tilt the table. Appalling people utterly unfit to be anywhere near government. I detest them.

The three best I’ve seen are God, then Allan Evans and Martin Lauren behind him. God and Allan Evans are the only two where you’d see opposition forwards just give up. My favourite God moment is him scoring away at Forest when we were trying to win the league. Towering header, away end going mental, truly mental, in celebration. But really it’s his consummate defending and reading of the game that stood out. Worst moment, an absolute mare of a game away at Coventry in the fog on a Boxing Day. We lost 3-0 and he was dreadful. So he is human, and a lovely human at that. Top man.

Pils. From source

This a million times over. Bruce as a manager of people, as an identifier of players, as a ‘leader’ was fine, but (as I kept saying) the coaching, aside from his first few weeks where he sorted out the defence, was woeful. It’s what let him down big style. That and his cautious outlook. Good man, but just this job was beyond him, always.

Tony Xia is why. The club was financially goosed with bigger worries than who was manager. I never wanted Bruce from the start, but once here he had to be given 2 years to try and get us up. Once he didn't, under normal circs he should have been potted, but because of the financial clusterpork he should be thanked for not jumping ship.Sure, he didnt exactly leave us with a balanced squad, but he did his best and showed an admirable willingness not just to eff off and grab. Anyway, he's gone, we got rescued by wes and Nas. Things have changed so quickly it's easy to forget. It's all looking up right now, it's fun, but crickey it's been a roller coaster.

Another thing to add to the gleefest is that I like the players. This stems from last season as well as this, but they seem a good bunch of people.

Thanks. for songs loaded from my 'puter.

I see you

Can it play songs loaded on from a computer rather than on the go?

Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it Chris. Christmas is shite, going abroad is brilliant. What’s not to like about avoiding 1 and having 2 large?

Is there a decent music app that can handle playlists, allow song rating, display lyrics etc. ? ditto podcasts? Auto fetch new podcasts, delete them when heard that kind of thing

Deep breath. I kind of don’t mind if a news org has more gammons or more allotment tenders than not, that’s kind of ok. But what I do want is for those people of whatever bent to do their journalistic and interviewing jobs fairly and well. I don’t mind that they concentrate more on government actions than opposition actions and words, to an extent, because ultimately those have more impact on our lives and perhaps deserve more scrutiny and examination. Where the BBC has got things wrong IMO is they’ve not shown an openness on too many issues, particularly Brexit. Like you say they’ve cut out the Scots, Welsh etc. angles and ignored almost the weight of the remain arguments, which half the population at least are in favour of. They are too London centric, too Tory centric and seem to focus more on personal angles like May, Mogg, Johnson etc and their futures, rather than that of the nation. The likes of Corbyn, Abbott etc. well the scorn they might seem to get is pretty much self brought, IMO. They’re way short of competent performers, and prefer to avoid rather than improve their game.

I think I’d say both those words like you’ve typed them. Hand me the revolver, get me a brandy and I’ll find my own way to the drawing room.

Ghey

I agree. It looks like they’ve changed the criteria specifically to get him available. Like I said, it looks a cynical move to me. That said, he is a brilliant talent who would add to the quality and spectacle. A while back Eoin Morgan reckoned the squad was effectively already picked, barring injuries, so he’ll have to start like a house on fire to force his way in. Good luck to the bloke, cricket needs all the stars it can get.

Yeah. The way I see it is pre Smith we mostly all felt we had a squad that was full of attacking talent, but wasn’t coached in a way to unleash that talent and which was criminally weak at the back. What we’ve seen happen is the unleashing of the attacking talent to great effect, but that the weak defence remains. That’s pretty much it, for me. The mentality is reflective of that - try and score more than them, be confident you can get there. Keep attacking, keep scoring. It’s a joy to watch, but the need to get better defensively in terms of players and organisation is essential to turn us from fun to successful.

Arguably, though didn’t he grow up in the windies and only move here to earn money playing. I’ve no problem with that, btw, but it’s not good for windies cricket and the game generally, perhaps. I get for the player coming here is more lucrative, but changing the rules to strengthen England still seems cynical to me. Brilliant player though.