ron obvious

No, this is wrong. Atheism DOES NOT ALLOW FOR THE POSSIBILITY of the 2000 pixies. Less than 200 years ago the existence of neutrinos would have been considered impossible. A distinction between knowledge & belief is often lacking round these parts. Agnosticism is, I think, the only tenable position available to us.

I think this is the true distinction, the one that matters, much more than left & right, & that is whether you are of an authoritarian or live-&-let-live disposition. Of course a lot of the former don't think they are I fervently believe in democracy, even when it rankles, as it often (necessarily) does; the problem is how to get a truly democratic system in play - now there's a real philosophical conundrum (sic!) - but that's no reason to abandon a flawed system for no democracy at all. I think our present situation is more Brave New World than 1984; so long as most people are able to survive in reasonable comfort they'll ignore all the activist carp & get on with their lives & everyday concerns, it's what people have always done. But that's why freedom of speech is so important, to rein in the egregious wrongs done to sections of the population (e.g. disadvantaged girls in Bradford & elsewhere, the small Post Office managers) whose fate is unimportant to the self-righteous activists who gain power when our political apathy becomes too great to resist their strident claims & clandestine activities. We need a better democracy, but how to achieve it? .......

Well a class player was what I saw. As I said, he needed time to get on his team mates' wavelength, but once he did he showed intelligence, a fair degree of pace & strength & coolness under pressure. Those attributes are not average in this division. You could argue he was pretty average for a PL striker, but that's not where we are. And unfortunately I strongly doubt that Adam will ever be as good a striker as Hwang. He's one of the most frustrating players I've ever seen, & have come to the conclusion his problems are deeply embedded in his psychology & as such will not change.

Yes, sonyc, I enjoyed that rant too! The comments are often interesting - & not necessarily ones I agree with. I occasionally entertain the idea of starting a philosophy thread on here. I suspect it would end up by being just me thinking out loud, so a vanity thing (which would rather destroy the point of the thread), but it might help me clarify all the random stuff flitting through the remains of my brain. So I might do it anyway. Possibly. My daughter's sacked me off of building duties (she says she's concerned about my ageing bones, but I think it might have more to do with me being incredibly slow &, since I'm working gratis, she can't complain 😁). So I'll probably have more time to ruminate & contemplate my navel. And, ultimately, the only important questions are philosophical ones.

I think this is important Inside the disinformation industry A government-sponsored agency is censoring journalism “Our team re-reviewed the domain, the rating will not change as it continues to have anti-LGBTQI+ narratives… The site authors have been called out for being anti-trans. Kathleen Stock is acknowledged as a ‘prominent gender-critical’ feminist.” This was part of an email sent to UnHerd at the start of January from an organisation called the Global Disinformation Index. It was their justification, handed down after a series of requests, for placing UnHerd on a so-called “dynamic exclusion list” of publications that supposedly promote “disinformation” and should therefore be boycotted by all advertisers.... https://unherd.com/2024/04/inside-the-disinformation-industry/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&utm_source=UnHerd+Today&utm_campaign=b098f615ca-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_04_17_08_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_79fd0df946-b098f615ca-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]

Hwang was class. I strongly suspect the allegations against him coloured opinions. You could see he wasn't on the same wavelength as his team mates at first, but rapidly improved. This is born out by his stats, since (according to WIki) he scored no goals in the first eight appearances then scored three goals in the five subsequent matches. I can remember seeing one of his goals & thinking that Idah would never have scored that in a month of Sundays, he just didn't have the technique or awareness. As for SvH, I really don't think he'll cut it here. Like Riki, just not suited to English football.

Something about him epitomised cricket for me. Quiet , modest unassuming, but deadly on a drying pitch. Nostalgia is built into cricket. I feel quite teary at this news. R.I.P. Derek.

Sam has one huge problem, one which cannot be coached away; he's slow. Anyone with pace will outrun him all day long. That means his positioning & timing has to be immaculate at all times, which makes his life very difficult. What he does have, though, is an amazing heading technique. He can hang in the air better than anyone I've seen in a long time. I'm wondering if he'd be better as a CD? Has he ever played there? Obviously speed isn't such an issue & he's more agile than our other incumbents & no weakling. Just a thought.

For all practical purposes I think that wraps it up.

No Fassnacht? Squad getting thinner by the day. Very worrying.

Me too. Daniel is the reason of course. Cracking game. God knows how it's still 0-0, both teams going incredibly close.

Hull v 'boro looking good. Fingers crossed 🙂

How many times have I seen this game? Completely dominate the opposition, get a couple of goals, miss a few, then, as the game wears on.... Our problem is we're far too good for most of the teams in this league ... BUT we're not as good as we think we are. It's our defence. We simply cannot & must not play 2 lumbering CDs in the Hanley/Duffy/Gibson mould together. We desperately, desperately need at least one 'modern', more mobile CD in there. For the rest of this season I think our only option is to play Kenny as a CD. I'm hoping (praying) one of our new boys will come good. otherwise we're going to have to pay proper money in the summer. We cannot continue as we are.

Seconded.

I do not blame Wagner for this. The players had several gilt-edged chances to finish the game off. And Wednesday are the filthiest, dirtiest team I've seen in a long time.

Yes I agree with all the comments about keeping the team unchanged, but that's in an ideal world & I'm not sure all our players will have recovered from Saturday. I suppose the question is whether it's better to start unchanged & bring subs on or vice-versa. I think our 2 best alternative players available are Fassnacht & Gibbs & I might swap Christian for Barnes & bring Gibbs in to central midfield, playing Kenny LB rather than Sam. It's also possible Nacho & Sainz might need resting (Nunez was certainly tired against Leicester & I got the feeling Borja was a bit less lively than usual on Saturday). In all honesty I suppose they'll be unchanged. We'll find out soon!!

A good, thoughtful post YF, but a phrase you used did give me pause: "Our own hands are not historically clean in this." This highlights a fundamental problem, much the subject of one of my favourite books of all time: 'The Open Society And Its Enemies' by Karl Popper. The enemy in question is what he terms Historicism, the philosophical (although not actual) roots of which he traces back to Plato, enshrined in which is the idea of tribalism, & that the tribe, as personified by the State, is all powerful, the guilt or innocence of individuals does not matter. Hence crimes committed by our forebears can lead to retribution on us as their children despite our total innocence; it's how Hamas can justify their recent disgusting acts against women & children. It's an attitude that has caused & is causing endless misery throughout world history. I cannot recommend Popper's book highly enough; I disagree with parts of it but his arguments are always clear & lucid & he never tries to pass his opinion off as fact. Above all he makes me think, which is what I want from a book of this type.

In my opinion the Balfour Declaration was a prime example of 'the road to Hell being paved with good intentions'. It has proved to be an unmitigated disaster: you cannot recreate a country which hasn't existed for 1,000 years. Also I cannot help but be struck by the similarity in attitude to those who want unlimited immigration into this country - just so long as they live somewhere else. BUT Israel is here, now, & it is not going to go away. There are NO EXCUSES foe Hamas' actions. Howard Jacobson wrote this article for Unherd. I'd forgotten how well he can write: https://unherd.com/?p=495046?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&utm_source=UnHerd+Today&utm_campaign=bd394638ab-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_04_05_01_53&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_79fd0df946-bd394638ab-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]

There's only 3 alternative starters I can see: Batth, Gibbs & Fassnacht (plus maybe Fisher). The new lads I know nothing about. It's a real problem. I think we could make a case for resting any of Saturday's team - they must all be totally knackered - but the nature of our reserves means we can't rest the full backs (unless we switch Kenny to LB & trust Fisher to replace Stacey). Gibbs is a useful player to have in this situation as he is viable in midfield or attack. So how would you rejig the team? Only Wagner will know exactly who is the most in need of a break, but we can make our own judgments/guesses. I'm going to have a ponder & post a team later.

Leeds, Leeds are falling a-part a-gain ...

Well I know who I want in the play offs. Ipswich Town. Mediocrity as an art form.

That's a very common tactic I've noticed nowadays. Usually works in innocuous situations but very few refs will give a penalty for it.

Leeds are doing an Us.

Not much you can do if the players aren't doing it on the pitch. And no game changer to bring on.

I'm not convinced it was tactics. To me it looked like too many players having an off day. It happens