STM

I think people are being incredibly harsh on Ramsdale. In keeper terms he's barely matured yet. Was Pope highly rated at his age? Anyway, it's hardly a priority and certainly not a hill worth dying on.

That's why it needs to be someone who can play there but can also play in other roles. That gives them more chance of game time. I'd be looking for someone young who perhaps isn't an out and out goalscorer that plays a slightly deeper, link up type player.

The good news is that IF we sign someone in January, it will likely be an attacking player, given where our injuries currently lie. Would love a versatile young forward in the mould of Joao Pedro. Except better obvs.

Every single thing about the club at the moment is positive. Even the bumps in the road are bumps along a shiny gold plated highway. Tonalis ban? The fact we signed a player of his calibre still delights me Fixture congestion? Aye coz we are actually in europe and competing in cups. Big injury list? Yep, still only lost 1 in 10, in all comps. Could have signed more ready made players? Fair but I've begged for an actual medium/long term transfer strategy. This idea that "well they could have done this better" seems a bit bizarre to me.... so what? As long as they overall trend of our strategy and planning is upward, I couldn't give a toss.

If we hold at West Ham, I'd argue that 7 points from those games was fantastic. Man City is a virtual write off.

This is the game to pull the old switcheroo: Pope Lascelles Murphy Dummett Krafth Targett Richie Willock Livramento Joelinton Hall

I don't know what his post football intentions are but if it were me, I'd use the opportunity to do my coaching badges and perhaps even take a training session or two with the u21s. Take his mind off the ban. He doesn't need to have a 4 hour day at the training ground. Ask to be part of the planning etc, who better to learn from than Howe.

I'm not disappointed in him, people make mistakes but now he has a chance to make amends and I WILL be disappointed if I don't see him around the club, supporting the team etc. If he starts spending all of his time in Italy, I'll be more than miffed. Now is the time to work extra hard and make damn sure you are settled etc. I see absolutely no reason why he can't be at all of our home games, supporting the lads, as a bare minimum.

There are a section of our support, who I'm convinced take Saudi flags, wear head dresses etc, just to stick 2 fingers up to those who question our ownership.

The problem is that Parish is a fucking moron, just like Simon Jordan was. A footballing dinosaur. Every time he tries to move on from Hodgson he ends up with Viera or De Boer. How about hire someone genuinely transformative? Brighton manage it, Brentford manage it. Fulham managed it to a degree. The fact he keeps relying on Roy tells you everything an absolute failure of imagination and ambition. If Parish was here, he tell us that he doesn't have the finance to compete but he doesn't have the morals to seek new investors or indeed new owners to make sure of the clubs future. Wheres the vision?

Also, when you are doing something that you know is wrong, it's very difficult just to come clean.

I'm not a body language expert but I do have a passing interest in the subject, Eddie has a little "tell" during press conferences.... He uses what's called an "adaptor" during certain questions. An adaptor is kind of a comforting technique, which we all do when we are under a bit of stress or anxiety. Eddie uses his index finger to scratch is face as an adaptor. Have a look when he's asked about Matt Targetts chance of first team football. Now I'm not saying he being deceptive but I'd suggest he's probably aware of the delicate issue regarding one of his players not playing as much as he'd like. Keep an eye out for it. Its not an exact science because people will have all kinds of thoughts going on in their head but I'd say that it's fairly certain in this case. I find this stuff kind of neat.

I'd 100% trust Livramento in a RW role FWIW. I'm not saying it would be ideal but I doubt we'd suffer much from him playing there. I actually think him and Trippier would dovetail well.

No, he liked a post of mine. Which was welcomed. Possibly taking a step back.

Yeah I made the cradle of life bit up. The rift Valley Ethiopia. 3.2 million years old, the oldest humanoid fossil. Mental.

It's something I have little real understanding of, that's why we talk and learn. I'm no anthropologist but I presume all humans descend from Africa and I believe the area is called the "cradle of life", where the oldest discovered humanoid fossils where discovered. Happy to be corrected. ?

Totally agree.

It's like the use of the terms "racism" and "Islamaphobia". I always understood them by there literal meanings: Racism- A hatred or feeling of superiority over people of other races (as far as I'm aware there are only a few different races in humanity). But as far as I can tell, Racism now has morphed into hatred of specific groups, nationalities or minority groups. I have no issue with either definition but interesting in its evolution. And Islamophobia, I always understood to be an irrational fear of...., but it's now defined as a more wider hatred/intolerance. I don't even remember what point I was making. I suppose that parlance and language nuance has an effect of this discussion.

I think when someone talks about "intolerance", it goes without saying we are talking about intolerance meaning bigotry, racism and so on. Am I intolerant towards religion as a concept and organisation? I suppose I am, yes but I don't go abusing people coming out of church , thats the intolerance i was talking about.

Yep. Not hard to grasp. I'm not intolerant to religious people (normally of course). Edit: I suppose it's a fair point on reflection. All humans are intolerant to an extent. I'm intolerant towards violence for example.

If we had an in-form Joelinton, it's a different game. He's very much playing within himself, like Bruno was a month or so ago.

It went like this: Saw a discussion on the subject of gambling. Saw what I believed was a Saudi national jump on the subject. My head told me that it was someone from Saudi about to tell us all about how Islam forbids gambling etc (which I was wrong to assume). I allowed my assumption to taint my words and said what I said. I detest religion. I detest the Saudi state but I detest intolerance and more over, a lack of discussion, which is where I made my mistake because I immediately became a hypocrite. I was was also tinged with trying to be funny, i.e look how overtly rude I'm being. It didn't come off that way.

I recognised wrong doing because I believe its the right thing to do. I don't know Ronson at all, I hold no ill feeling or ill will toward him and hope he can see a genuine apology and move on. If we want a wider discussion about WHY I said what I said, I can certainly explain. It wouldn't excuse but it might shed light where I my thought process came from.

Mid-table, lower end types. Wolves are somewhere between Burnley and Brentford IMO, they have a few good players but also have mega gaps in their team. We should absolutely be out-battling these lot and once we've done that we have the threat to score goals. Of course, as a side now expected to have the lion share of possession, we have the issue of dealing with counter attacks, which is our achillies. My over riding point was that our record against sides outside the top six/half is outstanding IIRC.