Dunge

Bad news: He’s not coming to coach us. Good news: He’s going to be the next England cricket captain instead. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cr475x3wplro

Could’ve been another “loan with an option” deal. Seems to be what everyone’s offering these days.

It looked to me last night like Rowett’s just told him to go Full Huth - no obligation on the ball, play safe, concentrate entirely on defending and clear your lines. It’s probably the best thing for him.

I was keeping an eye on Okoli in the Stoke match. He was rarely in a position to even challenge for a header, let alone win one. He’d go wandering, wrestle a bit with a player in a non danger area and leave the clearing to others. Combine that with Kristiansen ducking out of every aerial challenge too and it’s no wonder we’re getting overloaded. Ideally Nelson should be shouting and organising more, because he’s the only one ever in the right position. But that’s very difficult with inexperience. Particularly, I was concerned that Okoli was hiding against Stoke. Didn’t want the ball, didn’t want to be involved in key moments of defending in case he made a mistake. His confidence must be through the floor. Regardless, he’s got to stand up and get on with it because Lascelles is likely going to be a crock.

I genuinely thought that was going to be a poem from the first four lines.

For those who have been following the saga, is hfaes actually Wout himself pretending to be his own aunt?

Personally, I’m a fan of Union FS. I’m not a member or affiliate, but I appreciate a group who have passion for the club and have clearly dedicated to trying to create an atmosphere, and at a place in the ground where it’s not simply for the sake of antagonising away fans. I also say this as someone who sits in a naturally quieter part of the ground too. I don’t think of them as a problem. Quite the opposite in fact.

I still really like Stolarczyk; having a goalkeeper who is strong in the air is a godsend in a team that’s short like ours. He is making too many mistakes and needs to iron those out. But spending any limited funds we have on a new number 1 would be lunacy to me. We have so many outfield positions to prioritise, while Stolarczyk is good for the Championship and could well have a higher ceiling.

I get the complaints about Thomas, but Kristiansen is the player I most want to see banned from the training ground and told to just leave. He doesn’t want to be here, he doesn’t want to play for us, and he’s nowhere near good enough for the club to put any effort into him.

I’ve been watching weekly, did a double tonight with the last two episodes. Great watch. I had it wrong whodunnit until shortly before the end of Ep 5.

No point doing a DNA test with her because she wouldn’t accept the results anyway. She’s a fantasist.

Under the kind of moderate/anaemic government we’re used to, it is. But my concern is that it’s a gift to a future extreme government. I tend to think: Imagine a government you hate - far left, far right, either, your choice - proposed this. How would you feel then? (For the record, I’m undecided on it.)

His handling wasn’t great tonight, but if a shot goes through the wall then any save is a bonus.

My current gear-grinding advert is the eBay one where the guy’s just bought new speakers. As someone who’s had past troubles with a noisy neighbour, I don’t find it humorously charming and instead I absolutely loathe the fictional c.

I think humanity needs vanity projects, at least right now. It needs to dream, to satiate its desire for exploration. And we’re better off doing that upwards than sideways. For instance, which planet would you prefer Elon Musk was focusing on - Earth or Mars?

The last few matches I think he’s looked better, picking the ball up deep, being the main man in midfield in front of the defenders. Maybe not exceptional, but decent and with a clearly defined role that he executed well. Yesterday he was back to looking lost as the game passed him by, and I think a lot of that was because Winks was taking charge and doing a lot of the linkup that Soumare had been. It wasn’t that Soumare was outright bad yesterday, he just looked like he didn’t know what to do in possession. Perhaps he’s a player who prefers rigidity and a defined role. Either way, he doesn’t look comfortable playing next to Winks.

I’m very envious of anyone who can pick up a cricket bat or a tennis racket and just start clonking balls away with great if not perfect timing from ball or point 1. I like cricket but my batting relies on strong defence and concentration so I must be excruciating to watch. I’d love to be one of those people who can just knock off a century in 25 overs then retire to let someone else have a go.

That was a fascinating snippet of a conversation, but I think people somewhat missed the point: - Xi mentioned the possibility of people living to 150 by the end of the century (not unreasonable as a muse). - Putin mentioned the possibility of immortality through organ transplants, which is far more in the realms of science fiction. - It’s an insight into Putin’s mind; the guy is an obsessive and this is a massive thing for him. He’s terrified of death to the extent of believing in this to combat it. - It kind of felt like Xi was humouring him a bit and that Putin brought the topic up.

Look at that! What? Up there!! Where? The flashing lights in the sky, didn’t you see them? No. They were reaaaaaaaally strange. What were we just talking about? Something about the Epst… LOOK AT THE UFOS

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62z4rd87nlo If you want to hate on Labour, feel free. Goodness knows they’re not perfect. But if you think Reform are the answer, the alarm bells are ringing hard.

That’s a really interesting idea.

People like boundaries. Not all people, but a lot do. Boundaries give people security. They bind people. I can understand why many feel such a thing is missing in the modern western world.

I quite enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club, although granted I hadn’t read the book so can’t compare. Wasn’t my favourite movie ever but a solid couple of hours’ entertainment. On the Green Mile mentioned above, that’s a movie I really try to avoid because if I find myself watching a minute of it I end up watching the rest of it then realise three hours have passed. Great movie but a proper time sap.

I don’t think it matters whether it’s unpopular or not; none of America, Russia or China would accept it. Besides, there’s an obvious question here of “who watches the watcher”.

I think this case and those like it are indicative of the problem we have in modern society with social media. Twitter/X in particular is treated like chatting with fellow pub-goers whereas it’s actually like shouting something through a megaphone. Someone says what Linehan did at a pub, everyone ignores them and moves on. If they go to the clock tower and shout it through a megaphone, the police would get involved. Context is the problem, and people not understanding that they’re essentially on a platform when they write these things. And there are so many of them on social media from across the political spectrum that I really don’t know what to do about it. Try to stop it and the police are overwhelmed and the populace get angry. Ignore it and you’re letting people get away with incitement to violence and that will get exploited by extremists. What is unfortunately clear is that a lot of people won’t self-regulate online.