peterms

Things are getting tougher with us. Decisions like do we bid for a contract and find ways of reducing wage costs, or not go for it and not try to create the jobs. If it's a contract we already have, not much choice - we will try to preserve the jobs.

Spending a lot of time on thinking of ways to cut back-office costs, improving processes etc. Sometimes, the first reaction from staff is to think that you are trying to cut out their role and their employment, rather than cut out the crap and deploy them on stuff which actually adds value. Some people seem to think there's an option of plodding along as they always used to, and that any attempt to dislodge them from that comfortable state of affairs is some sort of management trick. In fact, the only available options are cut costs, or cut jobs. But some will always think the status quo was a viable option, if it suited them.

Acceptable result, in the context of several good results and clean sheets more than just acceptable. Steady, solid progress, not earth-shattering, but respectable and welcome.

Shorey .... was dropped for the new signing; just because he was the new signing!

Got any evience of that Jez?

It's one hell of s staement to make, and an ill founded one, IMHO.

Maybe Shorey was dropped for Warnock because, get this, MON feels Warnock is a better player.

Exactly. Warnock was signed because MON wanted a better full-back than Shorey, ie someone who would be picked ahead of him.

He's a new signing because it is intended that he play - not that he plays because he's a new signing.

Cause and effect hopelessly muddled.

I did a whole degree in Psychology! It can be used to explain everything the mind does. I'm not so sure about the work clothes thing though, but I guess if you are seeing the clothes you wear to work every time you try and relax then it will stop you relaxing.

Well, I suppose if you try to relax by focusing your entire attention on a uniform hanging on a peg on your bedroom door, that might possibly interfere with your ability to relax.

I suppose it depends on the uniform though, and what your idea of relaxation is....

But seriously, the idea that work clothes hanging up might prevent someone switching off from work is just silly.

A) Yes.

Your manager is a ****.

Bunnahabhain.

...I doubt many rational people's opinion will change over the course of a week...

Well that's why he's posted it on here, evidently. Seems reasonable to me.

Well, it does today, anyway. Next week, who can tell?

Peter

in order....

1) excellent candid shot

2) as is this but I have a question, I recognise it bt cant remember the name of the passage

3) the Tattoo I presume

4) Nice shot - well observed (and again I'm curious as to where it is)

5) Taken from the Camera Obscura?

6) You had a Picasso exhibition, bustards, I went to three in france this summer and not one of them was as good as that poster (though I did get my shot of the year at one (see up there somewhere)

2) Neither can I! It's off the royal mile, just up from the Mound.

3) Yes, the stage is still there.

4) The art gallery on Princes St/The Mound, the terrace around it, taken from below in Princes St gardens.

5) No, as above, reflection of Scott Monumnet in a window of the art gallery lower level, from Princes St gdns.

6) We did indeed. If it's any comfort, last time I went to Amsterdam the Van Gogh museum hardly had anything as it was all out on tour, and in Madrid the Prado had almost no Goya on display as it was all locked away in vaults for accredited scholars' eyes only...

A couple from round my way.

Milner was one of our better players in 1st half. albeit had an absolute mare 2nd, but his work rate stayed consistent throughout. had to go looking for the ball in the 2nd as midfield 3 could not pass wind

His touch was poor throughout.

Worked hard, got into some good positions, but couldn't seem to get it quite right. Could have had a hat-trick.

Shame - one of my favourite players. Still, as someone said, he's allowed an off game.

Thought Warnock did really well, solid and confident. Strange to give him only 3?!

I agree. He wasn't quite up to the standard of Dunne and Collins, but had a good game overall.

Best moment - two blocks in the space of about 5 seconds, either of which could have been a goal.

Taco Bell

oh wow, i absolutely love Taco Bell.

and Del Taco as well.

but we don't get any Taco places here in Birmingham. :cry:

i ate loads of these bad boys when i went to California.

That looks disgusting.

Tired, grey mince, processed and pre-grated cheese from a poly bag, precariously piled into an odd-shaped construction which will fall apart as soon as you bite it. It's like what they used to eat in wartime, though better photographed. And no dried eggs, I assume. I suppose I might buy one if I was too bladdered to remember my name, but apart from that, there's no chance.

Ugh. Why bother.

You can make far better yourself. Last night I made enchiladas with green tomato sauce, fried plantains, and mango and cactus salsa. No great cooking skills required for that, and far better than that mass-produced crap.

...the ones who have voted for Milner doesn't know much about football

You mean the ones who have voted for Milner don't know much about football.

Fixed the grammar, but the judgement is beyond help, I'm afraid.

Milner for me. Young is more technically skilful, and more eye-catching. Milner is a far better team player, equally dangerous or more so, and a better footballer.

When Young stays on his feet and tackles back, which he does possibly more than he's given credit for, it's a close call.

Mucho respect to the scotch bonnet. I made a big pot of normal veggie soup with all the usual good stuff in it (broccoli, carrots, potatoes, garlic, pepper, salt, babycorns) and into that 3 litres of soup I chopped a solitary bonnet just to give it a bit of a kick. Gotta say the bonnet doesn't even taste diluted. The little fecker has Indian'd it right up Respect

Partner made a dish with some Scotch Bonnets. Three, I think. Didn't chop them up. Didn't tell me. She removed the one in her bit without eating it, but expected me to intuit that there was a whole one in mine, complete with seeds.

Put the whole bonnet into my mouth. It was disguised by the sauce, so I hadn't noticed what it was, until I bit it. Oh ****.

Tired comment?

What he said he was suprised because we LOOKED tired. Not ARE tired.

That means we looked lathergic and let's be honest we did, If it's an excuse he says

"It's been a long season and the players are a wee bit tired and we're suffering"

Your actually taking his comments and using them in a different context to what he meant.

we looked and we are tired are two completly different things.

I took it as 99% of people took it - "what an unbelievable thing to say after one game !" - sorry pride, but you are in the vast minority if you think there was nothing wrong with that.

And todays was beyond belief.

EDIT

and before you say why would he know how many players xxx have got"

The answer is simple - he is paid 2 million a year to know. By all knowledge he does not do the coaching and rarely visits Bodymoor. So if he isn't studying opposition and ways to improve us - what is he doing.

He should look at everything. How many players to top clubs have, how many do the bottoms club have, is there a pattern, is the age of a squad relevant to league position, how many yards are covered on the pitch by a player - does this relate to injuries received (ie: overworked muscles)

He as a manager of a top football club should know EVERYTHING. He doesn't (or shouldn't but I have a feeling he does !) do it himself. He should have a team of specialists looking into every area and feeding the data into him to analyse.

And if he isn't - then we have hit the nail on the head why he cannot go further in modern day football !

Frankly, this is ludicrous.

The point by AVFC about his comment being about looking tired is well made, and your claim that most people read it like you do, ie wrongly, is irrelevant. If you criticise something you have misunderstood, don't expect your criticism to be well received. You should accept that you misread it, not claim that "most people" read it likewise, trying to justify your wrong reading of the comment.

Second, he's not paid to know the things you suggest. Blandy put it more eloquently and pointedly on another thread, but I am being to the point in saying your suggestion is nonsense.

Third, your suggestion that he doesn't actually do any coaching or visit the training ground or really do anything much is also quite odd. You really need to support such a serious allegation with something more than "I have a feeling", which is all you come up with.

Really, can't you do any better than this?

How else are the fans supposed to get their feelings across?

I suppose that begs the question about what the fans want.

If they want to pay a few quid and emote to their heart's content, like all-year-round pantomime, then boo away. Don't shout "man on", shout "He's behind you!".

If they want to help their team succeed, then a different approach may be called for. Because shouting abuse at people in public rarely helps them achieve better performances. Except of course those rare cases where the abusers were known to be opposition fans, where players said it helped to motivate them.

If there are cases of home supporters helping their players to greater heights of achievement by screaming dogs' abuse at them, I would be grateful to be given a reference. I don't think it works, really. If it did, I would be all for it. If it doesn't, I wonder whose needs are being served by the abusers. Certainly not mine.

Never done that with a whole chicken tbh Rob but have you tried the Garlic and roaemary pushed into a leg of lamb trick?

Just make slits in the lamb and push in slices of garlic and small sprigs of rosemary, then roast as normal

That's always a winner if you like lamb of course

That's good with anchovies in there as well (but don't salt the lamb), with lemon juice and some white wine over the top.

Shame it's not the same commentators against Porto. Hopefully they'll be just as entertaining though.

Apparently there's a keeper change for Juve. Someone called Buff Phone...

He applauded because it was a good pass. He intended on reaching Weimann with it.

Watching it on a stream there was a close-up and I thought that's what Robbo was applauding. I wasn't really looking upfield. But yes, you're right. It was me who was thinking nice one son, long ball into the corner, but in fact it wasn't really going for the flag as I'd assumed.

That's right. But it was also good to see the coaching staff encouraging an attacking move at that stage of the game, rather than timewasting.

like to see Herd or Bannan on for Sidwell now.

:winkold:

Our kids are better than our squad players

Sadly i agree

Don't be sad.

I still don't get people who constantly skive off of work. I couldnt do it, maybe its the industry I work in, but having a day off sick means that you are just dropping your colleagues in the shit as your work still needs to be done whether you are there or not.

I agree, but there are many places where people don't share this view. It's like they are "owed" the maximum sick pay entitlement, and feel they have a right to take it whether sick or not.

Not very high up my list of people to hang on to at all costs, I can tell you.

Pathétique! If you don't mind me saying so.

:winkold:

In a more practical sense, I would say that the more realistic situation is that companies (with weak managers) will tend not to sack badly performing workers from minorities, where they would do so for the majority - not based on race, but based on fear of a minority person using the law to bring trouble upon them.

it's a problem of weak management, not law, but it definitely happens.

Yes, that's true. It does happen, and it is to do with weak management.

Sometimes it happens because managers are not supported. Sometimes it happens because they think they won't be supported. Sometimes it happens because they don't want the hassle, time commitment, emotionally draining consequences, and strained work relationships which come from facing down unacceptable behaviour, and find it more convenient to claim they have been "prevented" from acting by a "politically-correct" employer.

But you're absolutely right to locate the problem at the level of management, rather than legislation or society.