Creative Midfielder

Yes indeed, and TBF to find even 1 Tory MP out of 361 who has any integrity or concern for their constituents is still 1 more than anyone would have expected!

I'm not so sure about that, he seems to have been positioning himself pretty carefully for the past 18 months and though it pains be to say it he probably has more credibility as a potential leader than anyone else in the Tory party that I can think of - except perhaps Sunak who as I said previously I don't think will win out through the rather bizzare system the Tories use to elect their leaders. As you say yourself it is a system that could produce a very strange outcome, as indeed it did last time! But would be hilarious if Truss or Baker or any of the other real nutters got it this time - would mean the current complete shambles continues for another two years (which it probably will anyway) but would be very entertaining and a huge boost to the opposition come election time.

There certainly are, and even a couple of years ago I would have been horrified myself at the prospect but given that anyone that has served in Johnson's cabinets over the last two and half years has a huge amount of unwanted baggage as well as the PM himself, that leaves Hunt not just as the least worst option but pretty much the only serious option. Then there is also the rather odd electoral process the Tories have whereby the miniscule number of actual Tory party members take the final decision - without wishing to cast any aspersions on that undoubtedly fine body of men and women I somehow can't see them electing Sunak, who is the only realistic candidate from within the government, as leader 😄

It's a fair question but IMO the Greens will be fine - the Labour Party have been adopting Green policies (and not just the 'green' ones) for the last couple of decades with approximately at 10 year lag and without stemming a gradual flow of support and members to the Greens. So I imagine that Labour will fight the next election on a very cautious interpretation of the Green's 2015 manifesto. The Tories will doubtless have a manifesto full of green bluster & b*ll*cks (much like the current Government in fact) which will have zero credibility with anyone beyond their most loyal supporters.The Lib Dems will be interesting, so far they have really seemed to struggle to establish any green credentials because it never seems to have been a priority for them - maybe that will change for the next election. But I think they have a lot of ground to make up greenwise, and as we've seen in local and by-elections already the Lib Dems will probably fare best in some of the current Tory where small 'c' conservatives that wouldn't ever vote Labour or Green may well vote LD. As I've been saying for years, the most crucial factor in determining the result will be nothing to do with the manifestos and everything to do with whether the progressive parties find a way of working together to defeat the Tories or continue to split the opposition vote several ways and let the Tories back in.

I think your £20 on Hunt is very likely to turn out to be a wise investment.

True enough, but then that is what she should have done over two years ago when he fed her a pack of lies in oder to porogue Parliament under false pretences. But sadly, she didn't do it then so I doubt she will do it this time either. We don't actually have a Head of State in anything other than name. Our broken and dysfunctional system of governance has so many flaws that it's hard at times to sort the wheat from the chaff and say which are the really serious flaws - but even in our weird and antiquated system Head of State is still a crucial role and not having a functioning Head of State is a major issue - for citizens and voters anyway. For the Government its a free pass to do whatever they like, however unconstitutional or illegal, as we see on an almost daily basis.

Nothing new in people having quite different takes on a football game, that's part of the fascination I suppose 😊 I'd agree that Man U was a decent performance but Indy's comparison with the Leicester game is spot on IMO - so no, I wouldn't agree it was a far better performance than any of our first 10. Plus I would add to that our 11th league game of the season was a far better performance than anything we have seen from DS so far - granted he hasn't got quite that far in yet but even though he has got nearly the full squad available now it is going to take a massive turn-around to get anywhere near that Brentford performance. Maybe he will but I've seen nothing so far to suggest he can.

Really?? Byram - the best full back at the club, Cantwell supposedly our 'best and most creative player', Normann our best summer signing (& was it Kabak) didn't even arrive until a number of games into the season........and I think Rupp, Gibson & Hanley at least all missed games under Farke through injury though I must confess I can't remember excatly who missed which game. But the idea that Farke had a full squad for his 11 games (or pre-season which is quite significant given overseas signings normally take a bit of settling in) just doesn't stack up.

😂 I think instead of calling people stupid you should be opening your eyes and looking at the bigger picture - are you seriously suggesting that DS should be given a free pass because he was unique, or even unusual, in having to play weakened teams because of Covid/injuries?? We played a weakened side against other weakened sides and got comprehensively spanked, simple as. Also that only explains Villa onwards, not the earlier games.

That is patently untrue - not only were there injuries throughout Farke's tenure this season but he didn't even have the full squad until deadline day, weeks after the season started and was then playing catch up with players that the rest of the squad had never seen before and had zero opportunity to train with.

Exactly this ^, and then some - Brentford was a much better performance than anything we've seen under Smith and in terms of performance there were several good ones under Farke that didn't get the points we deserved Leicester, Arsenal etc. Let's also not forget that Farke never had a fully fit squad either this season, in fact he didnt even have a full squad at the start of the season - our best summer signing didn't even arrive until the season was well underway. The idea that anything has improved since Smith took over is wishful thinking at best and downright delusional at worst - if Farke had been manager at Newcastle he would have been absolutely slaughtered by some on here but apparently it was part of our slow improvement 😂

Very fair point but it seems highly unlikely that Aarons and Cantwell will be with us next season and Normann definitely not. If we manage to keep Pukki then I'd suggest we look like a top half Championship side but play-offs a bit of a stretch, without Pukki then very much a midtable side.

Completely agree that football isn't remotely as enjoyable or indeed interesting as it used to be and the whole culture and identity of football and the clubs has changed (and diminished IMO) - clubs, players and supporters just aren't as closely connected any more. In fact, compared to 'the good old days' 😄 supporters have largely morphed into fans - the two words are often used interchangely but they are definitely not the same. IMO the rot clearly set in with the formation of the Premier League and Sky's involvement, and has got steadily worse ever since, and now VAR has given the coup de grâce to any lingering idea that there is anything enjoyable or entertaining about watching an EPL game. In terms of your original question, for me the early nineties was probably best, though the seventies were good times as well but that is obviously Norwich oriented rather than general. In recent years we have had some fun in the Championship under several managers and most of all under Farke, but I'm afraid since his departure I'm finding I nearly always have something more interesting or important to do on a Saturday than watch a dire EPL game.

Yes, I was happy with Barden & McGovern to the extent that I regarded more backup as a pretty low priority especially relative to the important areas where we actually needed to bring in genuine starters, viz CDM & second striker. But I think on the overarching point of focussing on quality over quantity we are completely agreed - as I said, the exact same mistake that Worthington made. I think he also brought in 9 players the summer we were promoted and yet the team was weaker than the one that got us promoted.

IMO we didn't need another keeper, or at least nowhere nearly as badly as we needed a CDM and second quality striker. If the mantra was supposed to be 'quality over quantity' (which it definitely ought to have been) I think we actually did the complete opposite - brought in a lot of new players who haven't upped the quality at all (Normann perhaps the exception but he arrived extremely late and when we had already suffered a string of defaeats). Seems to me that Webber repeated Worthington's mistakes on promotion in prioritising quantity at the expense of quality.

Yes but we wouldn't have had to spend under £10m on a striker if we hadn't spent £8m on a keeper we didn't need, for example. And more to the point what happened to our defensive midfielder? We spent £60m and what exactly has that delivered in terms of improving the squad because this team looks weaker than last season's to me.

It's a yes from me, to Webber anyway. As far as the owners are concerned it's entirely up to them - TBH I'm amazed they are still prepared to take the grief they do but it would be another retrograde step for the club, and almost certainly the end of being a 'community' club, if they do go.

I think the whole football world knew we needed a defensive midfielder!! If Webber needed Farke to tell him that than he is even culpable than I thought.

It becomes even clearer with every game that Daniel Farke was never the problem, and frankly I find it incredible that anyone, whether fan or board member, ever thought he was! Nor for that matter is it Delia's fault, one person alone is responsible and that is the person that oversaw a £60m spend on players this summer.

Here's yet another Brexit win for the @SwindonCanary's of the world, or stupid and deliberate economic self-harm to the UK as everybody other than the Brexit idiots would see it https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/09/brexit-decision-left-uk-firms-paying-10-more-than-eu-rivals-for-emissions

Exactly, and in fact it was Skipp & Tettey - how much more obvious could it have been?

That is certainly how it looks to me. It seems almost certain that they will be overtaken by Sinn Fein in the May elections, and you begin to wonder if they will even be the second biggest party after the May elections - if not they will have rendered themselves totally irrelevant and it couldn't happen to a more deserving group of politicians.

If that were true, which it isn't, then it is very strange that in an industry which in the UK is absolutely dominated by the right wing press and journalists that The Guardian continues to consistently be rated as the best publication by both the press and journalistic organisations. In case you are too thick to work that one out, let me spell it out for you - even the people working for the right wing press and their representatives in their professional organisations frequently (and in the last few years overwhelmingly) rate The Guardian as the best UK newspaper. Maybe you should try it, you might find you make less of a fool of yourself by continually posting your usual blinkered tripe and downright lies although I rather suspect you are quite happy doing that for as long as it provokes a response 🙄

As above, the DUP appear to be getting ever more desperate and their posturing ever more pathetic https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-59913417

I rather think that if they had Covid then they have to wait a month before they will be allowed a booster.