Diabolus Ex Machina

Just a possibility, then again we did turn them over without too much trouble at our place. Think we'll get a result against Hapoel anyway so not too worried.

Ideally in the next round of games I think we'd want to beat Sparta and have Inter beat Hapoel. Would guarantee us qualification, would leave Hapoel with nothing to play for against us and would mean Inter could still qualify if they beat Sparta 2-0 at home giving them a reason to try and win that match. Would be our best chance of winning the group I think. Slight worry is that Sparta only need a point now to qualify so might park the bus against us which we have trouble with.

Just because i'm a bit of a stats geek - here's the current situation in regards to us progressing to the next round of the competition... Win both games – Go through as group winners Win one, draw one (i.e. 4 pts over the 2 games) – Guaranteed through to next round, possibly as group winners Lose to Sparta but beat Hapoel at St Marys – Guaranteed through to next round in 2nd place Draw both games – through to next round unless Inter win both of their remaining games Beat Sparta but lose to Hapoel– through to next round (potentially as group winners) unless Inter lose both of their remaining games. Draw with Sparta, lose to Hapoel – can only go through if Inter beat Hapoel but don’t beat Sparta in their last game Lose to Sparta, draw with Hapoel – We go out if Inter win both of their remaining games or if it’s a score draw with Hapoel or it’s a no score draw and we have a worse Goal Difference than Hapoel (would then go to goals scored and away goals if GD the same) Lose both games – out of the competition Thought it might save people having to work out all the permutations themselves or wrongly assuming we're doomed if we drop points

We'd do very well to better 6th WITH investment in my opinion. If it's purely down to money then we realistically can't compete with the likes of the Chelsea's, Man City's and Man United's whose resources and revenue streams dwarf ours. Even if we suddenly decided to spend £100m on transfers each year you'd still only be on an even playing field with them so would be no guarantee of a better league position (just look at Liverpool for a good example of this). We've recruited wisely and tried to keep a team spirit going and it's done us well so far. Same sort of thing helped Leicester produce miracles this season too. This club has proven to be resilient when chairmen, managers and players have all left and I have enough faith that we will continue to do well for ourselves even after Ron goes.

So from what I can tell 'Ambition' solely comes down to having more money to spend on players? You'd think years of continuous improvement, a top 6 finish and Europa League next season would show some sort of 'Ambition'? If he really thinks going to Everton will give him a chance to improve on where we currently are then so be it, but on the assumption that that must mean Champions League then good luck coming above at least 3 of Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Spurs & Liverpool. Add in the reigning champs Leicester, the apparently spend happy West Ham and ourselves and i'll think he'll struggle massively no matter how much money they throw at it. They're already be playing catch up to the top teams and they'll still have less spending power than the likes of Utd, City and Chelsea.

TBF was just my gut reaction, hadn't looked at what the papers had said. Even if it was a full £100m without player sales that still doesn't guarantee you'll get quality and the teams they'll be trying to catch up to (the Man City's, Man Utd's and this season apart the Chelsea's) will have just as much if not more spending power anyway.

We've all heard about how he's happy to see out his contract though Saints want him to extend so not out of the realms of possibility he could move on if an agreement can't be reached. Would seem an odd choice for him when you normally hear names like the dutch national team, Arsenal or even Barca mooted as future jobs for him though. I also wonder if that £100m touted includes money gotten when Chelsea come calling for Stones again and Lukaku tries to head to a Champs league club.

True you can't directly compare seasons but it was just an observation that while we may not be playing at the same high level we were last year to this point, we could still see us matching our points total of our best ever prem season over the first 16 games if we do pick up those few wins. Considering player losses and other teams strengthening i'd think matching what we had at that point would be a good sign. Still, was just an observation and not some sort of prediction of how the rest of the season will go.

Happy to get the 3 points even though second half performance wasn't very good. Don't seem to handle pressure too well at the mo in terms of ball retention though the defense was solid enough when called upon. Need to learn to take the sting out of games I think. Thought i'd take a quick look at how we are doing compared to last year at this point and we are currently -8 pts from this stage last year. However last year we only picked up 1 point out of our next 15 so if we can win 3 of our next 5 (Sunderland, Man City and Palace away, Stoke and Villa at home) we will be matching our performance from last year which is promising considering where we ended up.

Jose Fonte baby!

I rescind my previous posts about the Man U penalty. Did completely take him out. My mistake.

Only saw the replay once but it looked to me that again it was a reckless tackle and the player went down early - except in this case rather than jumping over the player completely he makes sure he has made contact with him. Guess I need to see it again.

Funnily enough the pen just given in the Pool/Utd game is very similar except he makes sure contact is made as he goes down.

Spot on actually! Forgot about that one. Again wasn't treated as a straight forward case though as from what I remember there was quite a lot of disagreement about it. Anyway like I said I wouldn't have complained if it was given against us as the challenge wasn't very good but i'm not going to make it out to be some travesty of justice.

Fair enough, as said the vine is above somewhere if you want to see it. I can't say I remember an example of it ever being given though (and would be interested to see if anyone could find an example). I would agree that the fact the ball went the direction you'd expect it to if Targett had made contact with the ball helped his cause though and I wouldn't complain had it been given but the fact is it wasn't.

They give penalties for intent now do they? Because he jumps no contact is made - no contact, no foul, no penalty. The vine in one of the posts above shows pretty clearly that he jumps over the challenge without contact. His own fault for not getting the penalty that would have been nailed on if he hadn't hurdled it.

Game lacked quality, will take a point away from home though. Generally lacked a cutting edge and too often it looks like players are waiting for someone else to create something rather than doing it themselves. Would have liked to see Juanmi get a run out to see if he could have changed anything and am hopeful Clasie can mix things up once he gets in the squad. VVD looked at home in his first Prem game which was good to see though there are tougher tests to come. Do like the way he pushes higher up the pitch and is willing to look for a pass. Thought Wanyama also played well so hopefully can put that whole saga behind us as well.

Game has an air of 0-0 about it. Missing a cutting edge which Mane normally provides so hopefully see him some time in the second half. Think Wanyama is having a good game.

Should have scored there.

Not got the best stream, that's either a certain pen or a dive lol

Think getting JRod involved up top will be important. Wanyama better be at his best cos I can see the fans getting on his back if he looks like he isn't giving 100% especially since he's replacing Romeu who has been one of our best players recently.

I've tried many times to type what i'm thinking but I just can't get the ideas straight or explain myself as well as i'd want to so I think i'll bow out of the discussion. I do think people should have the choice but I think each circumstance needs to be taken on its own merits and don't see how a single piece of legislation can cover it, especially without hampering that element of choice.

The problem with any legislation for assisted suicide is that it cannot be a one-size-fits-all system. Can you treat a stroke victim the same as you would someone with brain damage or a terminal illness? Would something like alzheimers be treated the same as someone with advanced AIDs or Cancer? If it's opt-in when does this need to take place and what happens to those that haven't opted in? What happens to those under 18 years of age? Do they opt-in or don't they get a choice. That's not even getting into the area of mental illness and if those people should have a right to die if they wish. But that's the other problem - once you allow it for one thing you open the floodgates for people to say they should have it for other things. I think the idea of assisted suicide is good in theory but creating actual legislation and a system to implement it is much more problematic. Dignitas relies on the person themselves giving consent on multiple occasions which just wouldn't work with some of the conditions people would want this for (the example above with the stroke victim for example if they were unable to give their own consent).

I'd add that I would have both Fonte and VVD ahead of him in the pecking order so no Maya wouldn't be a starter but calling him a liability is an exaggeration as he has performed admirably over the past couple of seasons even when asked to be played out of position.

Started almost half of our league games last year and didn't seem to affect us too badly. I'd argue Fonte makes almost as many mistakes but doesn't seem to get called out for it as much (letting his defender get the wrong side of him has been a constant occurence so far this season and should have been called for several penalties last season but wasn't which was lucky for us).