That seems pretty fair. I think one of his underrated qualities is how nuggety he is. Of course the downside of that is that he can be a bit hot-headed But really, our problem hasn't ever been Xhaka.

My point is that in the private sector you would be fired if you bought this nonsense, not once, but over and over again. There'd be a memo to procurements about the company not needing more snake oil, accompanied by a directive to HR to start issuing pink slips.

Oh 100% I agree.

If you were making deliberate decisions you knew were to the detriment of your company you would be fired without question and depending on the decision in some cases there could be legal consequences.

They know exactly what they're doing. Honestly watch The Capture. It's a police thriller but it's *%^@*** great. Season one is excellent but season two is where it really moves up a level and all this data stuff really hits home. I know it's fictional but the second season is clearly based on Cambridge Analytica and it really makes you realise that the truth doesn't matter as long as what people say polls with certain demographics. As Decaf said, it's snake oil, but as long as that snake oil routine hits the mark, they'll keep on keeping on. They don't care about the consequences for us as long as we, as a nation keep letting them have the ball to play with. I hate the right, but *%^@ me they are much smarter than the left when it comes to this stuff.

What a stupid thing to say. Are you seriously claiming you would rather be murdered than live under a corrupt government? I simply don’t believe you. Serial killers enjoy killing. That makes them unusual but not insane.

Bernard, have you ever asked yourself why you're fascinated with serial killers? Or more importantly, has your wife?

Anyway, taking my girlfriend and the kids to the ladies game v Tottenham at the Ems tomorrow. Apparently, over 50,000 tickets have been sold. Really looking forward to it.

What, like they did in the USA in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, which created a world recession! Always, always step back and ask yourself if it really is true that the private sector is more efficient, or less corrupt than the public sector. This is bandied about so often, yet strange how it is frequently the public purse which has to come to the rescue of private sector obscenities.

Probably it’s being normal. My interest is fairly limited anyway. It’s very heavily UK serial killers, and narrowing it down further, those from the UK and female. I’m way less interested in serial killers than you are with politics anyway.

Good post Grantyboy. Arsenal will be in big trouble if the general football public stop showing bias towards us..

I know it's the US but there's a new Netflix programme on Jeffrey Dahmer that's meant to be very good.

Spot on. Privatisation leads to less efficiency, less accountability, higher prices and worse service. But that's not the point of it, is it? It's about a few being able to profiteer from something that worked perfectly well prior to it being privatised.

I’ve heard of Jeffrey Dahmer, as I have Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos. But I won’t watch it as Dahmer was neither British or a woman.

If you honestly think I am stupid please ignore my posts.

I'll ignore yours until you learn some manners.

I wasn't comparing the private sector to the public sector. I was comparing the private sector to the voter, and the tendency of the latter to be a major consumer of political snake oil. The private sector has its problems, without doubt, but it usually acts in its own interest at least.

I don’t think you’re stupid at all. I never said you were. I feel you said something stupid in that post, which isn’t the same as calling you stupid. Just saying something that is stupid doesn’t make one stupid.

Are you seriously saying you would rather be murdered than live under a corrupt government? Because that is surely what you strongly implied. Hence I think that was a stupid thing to say.

I am sorry if you feel I was being rude. But I think that has more to do with you taking what I said the wrong way rather than me lacking manners.

Summers: “Between Brexit, how far the Bank of England got behind the curve and now these fiscal policies, I think Britain will be remembered for having pursuing the worst macroeconomic policies of any major country in a long time.”


https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/statu ... dVU8j3l-Lg

Thomas Partey has pulled out of the Ghana starting XI against Brazil due to a knock picked up during the warm-up.

Hey ho.

What is this man made of?? The finest porcelain.

And honestly the warm up. Designed to minimise injury in the game. Of course that’s when he’s been injured.

It’s strange. In his last three season at Atletico Madrid he must have been verging on injury free. In 2017/18 he played 33 La Liga games; in 2018/19 he played 32 La Liga matches; in 2019/20 he played 35 La Liga games. Over the three seasons he also played 38 cup games.

Southgate seems to be picking this back 5 and defensive safety first football almost as needs must as he doesn’t trust a back 4 or the technical quality of englands players to dominate a game. To some extent I agree with him, but he keeps leaving out players who are technically better than what he picks in favour of more robotic safe players.
Picking Saka at left wing back when he hasn’t played there in 3 years and is one of the best right wingers in the prem is bizarre.

England have one of if not the best No.9 in the world, surround him with creative quality from wide areas and pick players centrally and in defence who don’t just hoof it.

Ben white should be picked in a back 4 with Stones, James, Chilwell. Or go for broke and pick Trent - there’s not much between him and James in my opinion.
Saka has to start on the right wing, play players in the system and position they play for their clubs and play attacking football. I’d like to see Maddison given a chance and someone else on the left wing other than Sterling who has scored a lot of goals but his touch is awful.

I watched the last three minutes of injury time. Have Italy lightened the shade of blue for their shirts? I thought they used to have a darker (albeit way off navy) shade of blue shirts than they had today.

https://www.espn.com.sg/soccer/uefa-nat ... s-to-italy

Saka rated as worst England player

Greetings Bernard. Sorry for getting on my high horse.

My point was if your live in a country where corruption is rampant (and money laundering is pretty central to that), you have high chance of being miserable or dying/being killed before your time.

In fact, even if we narrow it down to serial killers ... the worst serial killers (in terms of people killed) in history are in places like South America (they tend to move around) and Pakistan. Not because they are exceptionally vicious or clever, but because they are less likely to be caught or even noticed in such countries.

They played him at wing back ? Twats

Think Southgate may have run his course.

There’s plenty of attacking talent in that side so to struggle to score goals is daft

I started to get excited when I read in the article below that one describing "the imperious Marquinhos". But of course that is not our Marquinhos

Arsenal women 1 up against the spudettes.

Got a second close to half time.

One way traffic, 4 with 20 minutes to go.

Finished 4-0. Apparently we broke a record with eight clean sheets in the women’s league. If that is the case, it’s across two seasons.

Saka is more than capable of filling in a number of positions but you can get dragged down to the general mediocrity of the play. Crazy that anyone would criticise Saka for not having a stella game playing at left wing back when he thrives as a right winger. That and having the turgid Maguire as his left sided CB....

England play Maguire, Dier, Walker as CB - none of them are good ball playing CB so we struggle to progress the ball quickly. Southgate should be picking his most technically able players, if he wants a back 3 go with White, Stones, Guehi. Get Chilwell in as a proper left wing back, James/Trent on the other side and play Foden and Saka either side of Kane with Rice and Bellingham in the centre of the park. Personally I'd pick that team minus the extra CB and bring in another central midfielder. You could have a pair of 8's like Arsenal deploy and use Bellingham and Maddison/Foden

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/thomas- ... ler/230784

Here is Partey's injury history. In his 5 years at Atletico he only missed 6 games through injury. He didn't seem to be first choice in his 1st two seasons but from 17/18 season he was all but ever present

I just don’t think at any point the England side should ever play 3 at the back with wing backs. it’s never worked as it involves 5 players who play for different clubs forming a very cohesive defensive unit and it nearly always involves a talented winger being shoe horned into one of the wide positions.

Just a shite idea and going by that team selection it looks like Southgate hasn’t learned from the final defeat when they should have gone for the jugular. It’s the Mike Bassett movie joke really where they joke about changing the formation all the time.

Tierney gone off with concussion in the Scotland v Ireland game.

Hmm. Can see this developing badly on Tuesday then.

Fears that Partey could miss the north London derby have been eased after a member of the Black Stars’ medical team issued a positive update on the Arsenal midfielder’s fitness.

Journalist George Addo Junior posted on Twitter that he had received an update from a member of the Ghana medical team stating that 29-year-old was left out of the Black Stars’ game against Brazil as a ‘precaution’.

The tweet read: “A member of the Black Stars medical team has confirmed to me Partey’s exclusion was only precautionary.

Partey felt uncomfortable around his knee and was advised to pull out. He should be ready for Tuesday’s game.”

Who knows what to believe?

After further talks between Arsenal and Ghana today it’s been decided Thomas Partey will return to London, rather than stay with the national team for the rest of the break.

Arsenal felt that was the better option, given he wasn’t go to play against Nicaragua on Tuesday anyway.

Charles Watts

Concussion presumably (and hopefully) won’t keep him out for the Tottenham game a week away. Scotland have a game on Tuesday away against Ukraine? Will concussion today keep him out of that?

EDIT: The Evening Glasgow Times wrote the following.

“Tierney seemed adamant he could continue in the Nations League clash but it appeared he was told he would be coming off by physios.

The full-back was visibly disappointed to be forced off with head injury protocols appearing to take the decision out of his hands.“

If he wanted to continue and it was the physios who come off with the current head injury protocols as they are, I wouldn’t have thought it would keep Tierney out of the Tottenham match next Saturday.

Yes. I presume he will be out of the next Scotland game but should be OK for us next weekend.

Just reading up on it and the minimum period for return to play after concussion is 6 days. He obviously wouldn't be able to train for a few days either, so he might very well be a doubt for the Tottenham game.