KentVillan

Surely the plan is to sack Braverman at the first sign of weakness. What a sordid little deal with the devil he’s done there. Does kind of prove the point that the problem isn’t the PM, it’s the entire party. Labour govt needed asap. I think Rishi will do a lot better than Truss on the economy, and generally stabilise things on that front, but will struggle enormously on wider politics / social issues, and a Starmer landslide is still on the horizon.

Is Sunak the first PM born in the 80s?

The Dougie Luiz contract is the giveaway I think

I always thought he was a fraud and a cultist but he really has been excelling himself recently. What a massive massive throbber

The good thing is I think he’ll get time. The optimism isn’t delusional… people aren’t expecting Europe this season. But a decent run of results, some more of what we saw versus Brentford, will go a long way to making people enjoy being Villa fans again.

Honestly think this guy was so **** harshly treated at Arsenal by their shit fanbase, will be great to see him feel the love from Villa Park. I think he'll really enjoy it here. We'll be happy with top 10 this season and the odd big win, and then he can build from there. Also just a big opportunity for some of our younger players to finally work with an elite manager. Just really great news, and he has a January transfer window to play with as well. I'm buzzing!

Don Coneone was his nickname at Sevilla

It was a joke

Villareal fans saying his assistant is the brains behind him, so unless he's coming too, this could be a big mistake

His reputation at Arsenal was that he liked to try and defend leads (often unsuccessfully) rather than going for the kill. But not a 90 mins park the bus type manager. Great appointment, don't think we've ever had a manager with this kind of record. And hopefully will have learnt a lot about the PL from his time at Arsenal, and has a point to prove. Very optimistic about this. Also think our fanbase have more realistic expectations than Arsenal's did, so he'll get more time to build something here.

I'd say he's in that group with Potter, Arteta, Ten Hag. So definitely a big appointment.

The funny thing about Sunak is that because he's so skinny, he actually looks like a 6-foot-plus man who has been shrunk down using CGI

I think all the parties are wrong, and Labour used to have a better system that didn’t really give the members the final say. In other countries (eg Australia) members often have little involvement in picking leaders. I don’t think there’s any definition of representative parliamentary democracy that hinges on party members picking their leaders. So long as you have MPs elected in free and fair elections, forming parties in parliament, there’s no need for the members to have the final say on who the leader is. The problem with choosing leaders who aren’t wanted by their own parties’ MPs is they just get undermined by their colleagues and you waste months / years waiting for the next leader. It’s always a complete shambles.

Members shouldn’t pick party leaders. They get to choose Parliamentary candidates already. Let MPs pick their leader in Parliament and let the electorate choose MPs in general elections. Party members are weirdo niche cults who demand too much say in things that have nothing to do with them. Party member “democracy” has resulted in loads of leaders who weren’t the preferred choice of their own MPs (Iain Duncan Smith, Ed Miliband, Tim Farron, Jeremy Corbyn, Liz Truss) and all underperformed as a consequence. Graham Brady did the right thing here, and as much as it looks like a stitch up, Sunak won his seat as an MP fair and square, his party won its Parliamentary majority fair and square. This is all constitutionally sound. At some point in the next 2ish years he’ll have to face the public. Delusional Boris worshipping Tory members can go and **** themselves.

I mean think tanks blow with the wind, but Policy Exchange is closer to the centre than Centre for Policy Studies, IEA, etc, and “Clean Brexit” post-dated the referendum. Policy Exchange wasn’t a driving force behind the Leave campaign. Sunak won’t try to do what Truss did. His long term goal may be a smaller state and tax cuts, but I doubt he’ll have time to do that, as the next election will come round while he’s still trying to get things under control, and then we’ll have a Starmer government. I think it’s good news he’s PM for the time being tbh. Better than if anyone else had got it. The markets have reacted with lower interest rate forecasts. He’s the best of a bad bunch.

Really enjoying this drink: 2 and a half teaspoons of Bisto Onion Gravy Granules squeeze of tomato puree (about 1 tsp) squeeze of garlic paste (about 1/2 tsp) few dashes of Worcester sauce couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce Mix it all in a big mug with boiling water, and top with cold water to bring down to drinking temperature

I'd say Policy Exchange are mostly centrist, "Cameroon" Conservatives. Nick Boles was their founding director in 2002, and he is an arch-Remainer (who says he'll vote Labour at the next election). I'm not saying I agree with their politics, but I don't see Policy Exchange as a pro-Brexit think tank in the slightest. Just classic, pro-business, pro-markets, centre-right ideology. My feeling is that Sunak as PM would be much more orthodox and pragmatic, and less ideological, than he has presented himself to his own party. I still hope they get wiped out by Starmer at the next election, but I'm happy we have Sunak for the time being. He'll be a lot better than Johnson and Truss.

Read this last night but wanted to write a proper reply. Really happy to hear you’ve found a support group that you like, and a few healthy coping mechanisms that are working for you. I agree that for a lot of people there’s a dividing line between “alcoholism” and “I’m not an alcoholic, but alcohol is the cause of everything stupid I do”. I’m more in the second camp, and I think you are too. But that’s still a good reason to get the drinking under control. All the best with everything. I know you’ve had some dark times, but it can always be fixed. People climb back from some terrible situations, and it’s worth it!

Yeah before people get too enthusiastic about Danks, it's worth pointing out Brentford's away record going into the game was W0 D3 L2. He made some good (fairly obvious!) calls in structuring the midfield around Luiz and Dendoncker, and giving McGinn / Ramsey / Coutinho a rest, who were clearly the 3 who frustrated the fans most under Gerrard. He was always going to get great support at VP today, so it all kind of came together as a big release of pressure after the constant emotional torture of the Gerrard era. Think things will be a lot trickier when we go on the road, and play tougher teams where we aren't rolling them over in the first 10 mins. Today he hasn't had to think about tactical changes or do much at halftime. Everything went perfectly according to plan. On the other hand, I think the team he put out today will be dangerous on the counter, so I'd stick with it vs Newcastle and see what happens.

Love the enthusiasm here for Bailey!

This too, I guess - the Young / Buendia / Bailey / Ings linkup isn't something we've had much of a chance to see since they all joined.

Was a joke - agree. Also interesting that Sanson still isn't getting a look in.

Young, Bailey, Buendia and Ings were linking up as if they’ve been playing together all season in that shape. Just came out of nowhere. Lovely to see, but why haven’t we seen that before!?

Bailey / Luiz joint MOTM for me, but lots of good performances. Danks keeping it simple and playing to our strengths. Suddenly turns out these lads can play a bit!

I’m so glad he outlasted Gerrard. He’s some player.