Parky

Stats just show what we already know but it's too boring to remember.

The past is no indicator for the future.

Really curious to see what happens with the WBA game.

The balance is getting there...Can't be too critical. It's really fine margins winning and losing in the PL, what I look for is continuity in ideas and how they are deployed on the pitch.

Townsend will be better when he grows up a bit.

Smooth finish. Well done Shola.

3-0

Well said.

India and Pakistan have had two wars and there is also a religious divide. Let's get back to whipping the white boy...

But the content and cultural demarcation of that image IS racist. The FA will slam him for it and rightly so...Ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law.

You also need to think about what you're saying, Haidara wasn't offended by what was tweeted. I've seen people who are not black wrongly persecuted for reasons they had no control over. You seem to think that it's worse to do something to a black person which isn't hurtful to them than it is to do to others which does hurt them. There's definitely different levels, mick. Calling someone fat doesn't hark back to the enslavement of fat people for 400 years, but it hurts their feelings and upsets them. Two different things, no? Racism is a far more devastating thing than being nasty to fat people Fuck me then I'm the biggest racist in the world because Mrs Bimpy is one fat mother fucker. Being fat isn't a race.

Historical context as a retort to the fat people defense.

Skin colour has been a defining characteristic for hundreds of years of persecution, it really is a no go area for jokes.

That's bollocks, you can hurt a fat person as much by taking the piss out of him for being fat or a ginger kid for being ginger. Why is one fair game while the other isn't? I'm neither by the way so I'm not biting. Err the history of the world, subjugation of blacks, slavery, colonialism, discrimination, apatheid...Need I go on. Don't be silly Mick. It's not quite the same as being ginger or fat is it?.. What ST did is classic latent racism...Oh it's just a joke a bit of banter. If this was America his career would be finished. edit as Nobby said.

You can't really make 'jokes' in the public arena with regard to peoples colour, especially if you are a footballer and all the race based issues that have been flying around lately. The FA have no choice but to react to it. "Like to see you guys smile" is rooted in a casual racist comments that were popular decades ago and that in itself is very poorly thought through. If something about a person is joke worthy that is fair game, but it can never be about skin colour.

Shola lacking pace tried but couldn't get away.

A million years of race relations down the drain.

It's not always Pards fault. Gifted players have always had drastic downturns in form..It's the nature of the beast. You have to handle it and get it ready for when the voodoo returns.

Mulensteen would have been ace.

Out of Pardew and Hatem there can only ever be one winner.

Good article.

Also AVB is a bit like Mourinho in that he is quite conservative and not very adventurous.

I very rarely give myself goals as it goes.