oldtype

I never said Kevin Nolan not playing was correlated 1:1 with us not winning, and never claimed to be doing so. I just got annoyed because people seemed readily straw man me into that in order to respond with the usual platitudes about "statistics, LOL" And I don't have a career in statistics. Thank God

Here's a broader rant: it pisses me off to no end how people think "statistics aren't perfect" = "statistics are useless" As a tool of analysis statistics are never going to give you the 100% perfect picture and if you rely solely on them you are going to come to some pretty screwed up conclusions, but too many take some snippets they've learned about how statistics are flawed and expand it to this really annoying "I'm cleverer than the numbers" attitude. Nobody intelligent relies entirely on statistics, but nobody intelligent tries to make it out like they're some kind of voodoo either.

I think it's a fairly robust indicator that there's a strong chance that the presence of Kevin Nolan within our team has a significant influence on our probability of getting a positive result from our matches. That's the fully qualified version, but thanks for setting up something like four straw mans for me without even asking.

See, I expected this. You English football fans and your pathological dislike of anything statistical. "Stats don't mean anything, my baseless conjecture is much more reliable."

We won 0 of 8 games without Nolan last season.

Granted, It's probably worth 15m over five years if he scores 20 goals and takes them up next season. Absolutely shocking contract in the abstract though. This deal sucks for us and sucks for them.

Wait, so Ronaldo was actually being sincere? Have I just whooshed myself massively here?

Have WHU actually given him 5 years? So much for learning from the mistakes of relegation.

A short, cunt-ish reply from Ronaldo. Wow. Never seen that one before.

Jonas has been the only "flair" player in our squad for a good two and a half years now without actually being a "flair" player. You have to sympathize. We'd be mad to sell him

Would he have been happy to have been a squad player though? For what it's worth he's quoted as saying yes.

I liked where Barton was at the beginning of the season. Then he went and had a great spell for a few months and went back to the self-aggrandizing idiot we all know and love.

Why does everyone always feel the need to take the most extreme position? Why does every player have to be either godlike or not worthy of the shirt?

Weird isn't it, you'd think he'd scored 30 goals for us from centre midfield in the last 2 seasons or something. Jesus, the way people drool all over Kevin Nolan you'd think he'd scored a hat trick against Sunderland or somehting.

http://www.whufc.com/articles/20110615/two-new-signings_2236884_2376810 Dear God, please let the other one be Smith.

Didn't Brummie disappear for something like a month after the 6-0? This might be good for about a year and a half I think

It's funny how people have emotions about football. Let's get rid of all football fans and replace them with androids.

Good to see Aston Villa doing their best to fill the void we left. (or have we?)

We're probably four really good players off having an outside shot at the top six but we're an infinity away from getting anywhere near fourth place. There's a big difference.

Was very "meh" about this yesterday. "PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE SIGN HIM" today.

Being a true bipolar football fan, If that happens, I'll go delete all my sappy posts.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00233/nolan_barton_05_619_233961a.jpg Two years where a group of flawed individuals came together as more than the sum of their parts to drag this club back from the edge of oblivion. You may have not been the best players/manager but thanks for making me not hate everyone involved with my club again. For better or worse, it's over now guys. Feel free to reminisce.

I'm devastated by the Nolan sale but seriously guys

Him staying is impossible at this point. Those CM links better come off.

This is exactly like sacking Hughton imo. We know he's not the best but he's done well and you'd rather not roll the dice on a replacement while simultaneously pulverizing existing team spirit.