The Left Back

This is a very rose-coloured of the 60s and 70s. Homosexuality was still illegal for nearly half of that time and still very much taboo. Two blokes wandering around holding hands say wouldn't have survived long on the cities of most streets. The only tolerance seems to be thinking it was alright for radio 1 DJs and football coaches to take advantage of vulnerable kids. We seemed to tolerate that very well.

That's a bit harsh, I think he was just using the Champions League reference because that is what Liverpool are doing next week. Would you have preferred him to say "this is a dead rubber match for us now we're 100% safe"?

I think @hypochondriacmight be invoking, whether consciously or not, the concept know as the wisdom of crowds. At a county fair it was noticed that the weight of an ox was more accurately assessed by taking an average of the hundreds of ordinary folk who had a guess, compared to the various butchers who cast their eye. Substitute judge for butchers, Amber Heard for Ox, credibility for weight and court case watchers for fair-goers and there might actually be some merit in the argument being put.

It's less of a thing than it might have been. I think goal difference can now only play a part in the unlikely event that City lose at home to Villa and Liverpool draw at home to Wolves.

I'm not with this as a strategy. The board need to make the decision when this season ends. Either keep Ralph for another season or replace him quickly and give the new manager time to arrive, have his say in the transfer window and prepare the team fully for next time. I'm for keeping Ralph personally, but am obviously not privy to what's going inside the club and am curious about this latest poor run of form, so wouldn't be surprised if he went.

You make no sense at all. Can’t decide if you are a WUM, a fascist or special needs

Fuck me it was a long time ago?! Better tell your mate, he's advocating for reform based on your last post. I'm currently working with both public and private sector and guess what? There's people putting in the effort and taking the piss in both. The Tory announcements today are nothing to do with the anything other than the politics of division and distraction

Are you really suggesting that because of Turkish's singular experience (and let's be honest, it's hardly the most unbiased sample) the government needs to instigate a reform of the whole of the public sector? I never knew he had that much power.

I'd usually agree with this sentiment, so this is a bit weird, but I'll have a go at disagreeing. 2nd March this was the line up for West Ham in the cup WILLY CABALLERO YAN VALERY ROMAIN PERRAUD JACK STEPHENS KYLE WALKER-PETERS WILLIAM SMALLBONE MOUSSA DJENEPO IBRAHIMA DIALLO JAMES WARD-PROWSE ADAM ARMSTRONG SHANE LONG Arguably only 2-3 first team players. So our squad is big enough. And some of them being on holiday is just not a reason

I have definitely been in the 'keep Ralph' camp pretty consistently. I'm hoping we keep him for another season because he ticked the three boxes I would have set for him this year. (1) survival (2) decent cup runs and (3) bloody the noses of some big boys. The 4th box I had was to play an attractive , progressive type of football, which we've done in spells but not enough for a big tick. However, the tailspin at the end of this season has been very worrying. I know we've had these long poor runs before under Ralph, but I understood them more. This one seems unfathomable. So if the club feels we need a fresh a approach I wouldn't be too unhappy, as long it's a well thought through appointment and not some knee-jerk reaction. On the flip side, Watford have just appointed their 8th manager in four years. And where has that got them? So stability is an underrated virtue in my book. Sure it can tip over into staleness, but I'm happier supporting us than I would be trying to survive the carnage that is Watford. And to those of you think we should not compare ourselves to Watford I offer you Everton (9 managers in 5 years).

I find I have an inbuilt automatic program that kick's in whenever relegation is a possibility. I tell myself the premier league is soulless and driven by greed, while the championship is so much better...proper teams, 23 home matches, mostly 3pm Saturday kick-offs, less hype, 'honest football'. I think I developed this protective armour in the 80s and it's been pretty useful about half of the seasons since. This year I never expected the armour to appear but noticed it starting to whisper in my ear before Brentford. I wouldn't say I'm touchy about it, but it would be such a massive story, given where we were a few games ago, that it does bring me out in a hives a bit to consider it. It's a bit like a 9-0 defeat. In reality it's just a heavy defeat - plenty of teams get dicked 4,5,6,7 -0. But 9 is banner headlines. And 9 twice is Guinness book of records stuff. Relegation for us, given we were 9th on 7th March, is trauma-inducing, and I would challenge any fan not to be a little bit defensive about it.

Am I the only one getting a 'Visit Portsmouth Cathedral' banner ad on this forum today? You'd think the likes of Cambridge Analytica would have developed better targeting by now.

That's hilarious. I've reposted the OP to remind me and you what was said. It's pretty clear what is being called out. I'm guessing SaveloyMush had you, DMan, and Twar in mind (possibly Sadoldgit as well, although perhaps harsh as I think he's on a 3. a day budget like me). For a while the thread had a reflective, nostalgic quality to it. Although I'm a recent contributor I'm a long term lurker and enjoyed some of the memories being described, including your contributions. But the inevitable happened, hence my comment. FWIW In enjoy most of what I read in here; even the stuff that I don't agree with can often be entertaining. The bit I don't enjoy is what the Op mentioned, i.e. when the same few topics keep reappearing, and then the same characters get stuck in the same trenches. It becomes mind numbingly predictable.

I rest my case

In a superb irony this thread is becoming the very thing the OP was complaining about

Pretty much every single Premier League player and manager could afford to retire right now and 'travel, enjoy life, spend time with family doing whatever they wanted to do and never worry about finances'. Why do you think they don't

The answer to why he doesn't get it is contained within the rest of your post. He's blustered and bullshitted his way through an entire life and got away with it. It's his winning formula and it got him to no. 10. It's the only way he knows.

Surely this is a simple case where it's both Howe's work and the quality and quantity of spending in January that have contributed to their massive shift in form, not one or the other? Howe himself has credited the winter break, and there's also new owners and the 'feel good factor' to consider. So all these factors (and probably some other behind the scenes ones we don't even know about) have probably played a part. The same old debate between the same old characters makes for fascinating car-crash viewing but what else is it achieving? For my 50p's worth, Howe has done better than I expected in what was a tough assignment and the signings were a good mix of solid trusted pros with a sprinkle of stardust. It will be interesting to see what happens over the summer with them. If they are serious about top 6 they are going to have to make some tough decisions about whether to stick with Howe and also how many of the current squad are good enough for first 11 places.

I think that's a very out of date view. Sure it's a minority sport, particularly compared to the men's game, but your % seems overstated.

Blimey what a mess. I don’t know the history of this religion-based feud but it makes for ugly reading from here. @Matthew Le Godi would say you’ve got yourself in a hole. When you’re in a hole stop digging. There’s plenty on the forum who would like to help you out but every time you post you dig a little deeper and it gets harder to intervene IMO. @Turkishplease take the chance to be the better person and let this go. You’ve made your point and been well supported. Continuing to pound on the guy in the hole and anyone who tries to help him does you no favours IMO. hope this helps, it’s just the way I’m seeing it.

100% this. Ralph, like other topics on this forum, brings out strong views that are largely entrenched. When we do well we hear from one lot, when. we do badly we hear from another lot - both driven by confirmation bias. And there is a third group that I think you and I are members of @Lord Duckhunter. We don't agree on much but I think we both said early on that we need to judge him at the end of the season (unless he got poached or we were bottom 3 in March if I remember). I think you would have replaced him last summer whereas I wanted too see how things went this year. I'm guessing I'm more positive about him than you but mid-May is the time for that conversation. It was noticeable to me Saturday that we did to Arsenal what some teams often do to us. Arsenal got the ball at the back and we retreated to the halfway line and refused to engage; they struggled to work out what to do. In fact they looked at their most dangerous when we had numbers forward in attack - which wasn't very often. And when we had the ball at the back we went long/direct/lumped it 95% of the time, minimising the opportunity for them to win the ball back in our half. It wasn't pretty, but effective. I'll be interested to see if we try it more often next season when we player teams like Man City or whether Ralph still thinks our best chance of a result is or normal approach.

WUM#1 classic. 17 hours without a response though. Are you losing your touch?

I feel about Fraser like I do about Shane. I'm loving both their swan song performances, it's great to leave the club on a high (a bit like finishing a round of golf with a good 18th). But they are both the past, not the future. I hope Fraser has done enough to play every match somewhere smaller or warm there bench at a big club - we fall in between those stools.

Winning ugly is something we just don't do, so happy to see that yesterday after the week before. But I wouldn't want to watch it very often. Thought Moi was excellent today and Fraser massive (in every sense). We were amazing without the ball, very organised and solid. But we had so little of the ball it's hard to be too excited. The booing of Cedric seemed to appear part way through the game (to my ears). Not sure why it happened but agree it was a bit sad to hear.

To be fair to Lord D he probably didn't vote for him, unless he lives in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Boris needs to go and soon. He is a disgrace to his office and embarrassment to the country he purports to serve. He lacks conviction and his ego dictates his policy making. Never mind doubting the media, anyone believing a word that comes out of his mouth without checking for themselves is seriously naive. He's not even a proper Tory. He attracts the worse kind of human around him. Underneath his cuddly, bumbling, oh-so-genial, man of the people persona lurks a manipulative, racist, sexist, homophobic narcissist. He appointed Priti Patel. He appointed Gavin Williamson and then made him a knight when he sacked him. His biggest cheerleader is Jacob Rees Mogg. I could go on. The litany is long.