Happinesstan

To be fair I think he was asking "Is calling someone a black cunt worse than calling somebody a lanky cunt?" I think it is. But in the context of competitive sport it could possibly be argued that they are equivalent in their intention. *HUGE emphasis on could possibly. However, the reaction if someone were to be suspended and fined for calling somebody a lanky cunt would most probably break the internet.

Looks like they are getting confused over fact and fiction too. Havn't they read every post in this thread to see it was a joke? No one expects you to read every post, basic common sense expects you to not run with something that you've accepted as true based on nothing substantial though. It just shows how some accept things as news, or fact. You're being salty about something which is quite clearly your own fault. Rather worryingly it demonstrates how the people who report the news accept things as news, or fact. if it's true.

Looks like they are getting confused over fact and fiction too. Havn't they read every post in this thread to see it was a joke? No one expects you to read every post, basic common sense expects you to not run with something that you've accepted as true based on nothing substantial though. It just shows how some accept things as news, or fact. You're being salty about something which is quite clearly your own fault. Rather worryingly it demonstrates how the people who report the news accept things as news, or fact.

I quite like cous cous though. Cous cous is pretty bland on it's own, but if you ponce it up a bit it can be delicious. Shelvey's evidence: "I called him a nonce. Now I'm calling you one. NONCE"

HAVE or for the phonetically challenged 'VE

We need players who can comfortably play in front of 50000 week in, week out. Too many players in recent years who have frozen at home.

My team, in the absence of Shelvey and Diame. No signings necessary. Gayle Gouff Peres Ritchie Hayden Anita Dummett Clark Lascelles Yedlin Darlow

As much as I appreciate Shelvey's amazing contribution this season, we can't afford to become too dependant on him. So it might not be such a bad thing if he gets suspended. On current form he is pretty much undroppable, which is great, but he is such a major part of our game and we have no direct replacement. Maybe a few games playing a different system will further strengthen the team for our hopeful premiership future. Our plan A has been so successful that I don't know what our plan B is. I hope it's not playing with 9 men.

If we can maintain our lead on 3rd place until Diame leaves, I'd be happy if Rafa gave Peres the opportunity to prove he is worth keeping. With Yedlin and Ritchie playing down the right wing, Gouff coming inside as a support striker, Peres can just hang around the space on the left, He's scored a few goals from that position.

Should just withdraw from all FIFA events. Fuck em.

too early to say with this lad, he's had a few sub appearances and a couple of starts. Needs a run of games. Diame has started a lot of games and is just starting to shine, it would be a bit previous to assess Atsu on what he has done so far. Despite it being on the whole quite positive. I guess he is looking for a club who will give him 1st team experience, so he needs to prove he is good enough to hold down that position in the Prem.

What a Christmas pud. Nee worries Al, just pinch somebody else's dinner.

It's going to be interesting if Shelvey is missing. We don't have a direct replacement so we will need to adapt our system. In the absence of his incisive passing we will need to move the ball quicker, and be more mobile. despite being head and shoulders our most talented player, we may prove to be better, or more effective, without him.

Jesus. Gary Neville as a 20 year old england international, earning £1000 pw.

Watching Gary Neville now. Not sure I can agree with the idea that a young player should be practising his interview the day before a match. It is funny though that Neville is arguing for things that pander to the journalist and they are fighting him.

The awful dross in the PL are on another planet to the dross we face each week in this league. I think your kidding yourself about the quality of our players, like. We basically need a whole new defence and keeper (if Krul doesn't return) if and when we get promoted. I don't even wanna start with the midfield and wide options, and we all know we need at least one striker. I accept we need better for the prem, but a lot of the players we have now, SHOULD be better players by then. Better to look at it in May. In the meantime, we obviously need to look at getting people in to cover African Nations. So what's that Diame and Atsu? A left winger who can play no10 might be enough.

Can't deny he's been frustrating, like. but he has always imposed himself on games. Luckily for us his frustrations haven't led to him giving up.

Felix Navidad? What position does he play?

Has it really dipped? He's basically been no better than average in every game and that's being kind. I mean, I can't be arsed to think about every match in detail, but came away from a good few of the early games in the season thinking he'd had a quality match. Hasn't happened for a while. I can't really remember any match where he stood out as a different level to everyone one the pitch in the way Shelvey has at times. I'm not necessarily having a go, but considering the money we paid, and his record at this level previously, I think he has arguably been the biggest disappointment of the season. Can't think of him doing many good things throughout the season tbh, and our overall form has carried him and made him avoid any major criticism. I think you're all pretty spot on. He's not performing to his best but he is contributing to the team and more importantly results. The fact he has acknowledged he can do better leaves me confident he will do better. If we can increase our threat down the left, he should be even more effective. Attacking LB would be nice.

Think we should go easy on the upheaval, like. With our current team I think we could easily avoid relegation. We have a pretty good backbone in Lascelles and Clark, Hayden and Shelvey, and Gayle up front. I think I'd be happy if we built around that. With the caveat that they continue to impress for the rest of the season. On the flanks we have some quality but could improve. A left winger is probably a priority, in my eyes. I'd be happy going forward with Ritchie on the right. And hopefully Atsu can continue to impress on both flanks.

Winning these games is massive compared to where we used to be. Lower division so it is relative, but for so long we would just turn up to these games with the expectation of 3 points, with no expectation of having to work for it, and thus got a right surprise when the opposition had a go. Rafa has got us doing the job that needs to be done. Not often pretty, but pretty wins beauty contests not football games.

Standard away performance. The machine rolls on. HTL.

And a recent history of coming out on top in these situations. An early second half goal would be good. I think this is a game where we could lose out to a late goal. A draw would still be canny, but we're in a position to get 3 points and need to wrap it up.

COME ONNN!!!

With that team we should murder these, attacking pace on both wings with Ritchie an extra man in the middle. Lush.