izzymuzzet

Came here to say the same thing. New Orleans metropolitan area is about 1.2m people.

Biggest change by far in the last century or so is the improvement in infant mortality. If you were born in England in 1900 there was around 15% chance you wouldn’t make adulthood. For a child born now that’s about 0.04%. For the vast majority of people 100 years ago life was very, very hard and often quite short.

100% agree with this. He’d work well in a flatish midfield 3 I think, but then you wouldn’t be able to play with a proper number 10. I don’t think he’s got the positional discipline to play in a 2. When Ndidi comes back I wonder if Soumare might be better utilised as an attacking option off the bench.

The ultimate banter scenario: both Manchester clubs get relegated, but we somehow contrive to join them in the bottom 3.

My Old Ass. Coming of age comedy featuring Aubrey Plaza. A lot of fun and better than it has any right to be given the ludicrous plot.

Think I'd like to see Okoli back in alongside Vestergaard for this. We need a bit of physicality and pace in that back line. I'd go with: Mads (if fit obvs) Justin Okoli Vesty Kristiansen Winks Skipp Bouba Buonanotte Vardy Bilal

I live in Manchester so watch a fair bit of Lancs. He has talent but was thrown into a team in awful form and for some reason batted mostly at 4 when 6 or 7 would have been more appropriate for a young player in his first season. Looked good when he first came into the team, particularl in the one day games, then lost confidence. I do worry he's being fast tracked too quickly - there's enough pressure on him with that name already.

I get it, no one likes to earn less money than they're currently on. But it's a short career and he's already earnt enough to never work again if he doesn't want to. More importantly, with every season that goes by with him as third choice and coming in for the occassional calamitous performance, his stock drops further and his chance of a decent contract after leaving Leicester diminishes. You say he's clearly not bothered about playing, which is the point I was making.

Says about a lot about the guy that he was pushed into third choice by an academy product 7 or 8 years younger than him and he still didn't push for a move in the summer. If nothing else you'd think he'd be wanting to play regularly at a lower level to give himself the best chance of being picked for Wales. Yes he'll take a pay cut when he leaves here and no one likes to be paid less, but the way he's going there'll be no takers at all come the end of his contract.

I hope you're right. Didn't think he'd go to NZ either tbh. Atkinson looks good enough to bat at 8.

England test squad is shaping up nicely for the India series in the summer and Ashes next winter. The first XI looks the most settled it has done for a while. Crawley is a concern but there aren't too many options to replace him so you've just got to hope he hits a bit of form at the right time. I'd move Root and Brook up a place and drop Pope or Bethell in at 5 to take the pressure off them a little bit. Atkinson and Carse look like really solid and with Wood potentiallly rotating with Archer you have options for express pace. Would still be worried about Woakes in Australia and Bashir will need to get a bit more consistency in his game.

You didn’t read it right. In some areas elections will be delayed because reorganisation is taking place. In Kent for example they’ll probably delay. In most cases this delay will mainly benefit the Conservatives by the way, as they dominated the last time these elections were held in May 2021 and control most the councils. Labour are non existent in most the affected areas.

Le Tissier with 25 from 26 apparently. That's what they want us to think. I prefer to do my own research.

Get yourself to the Free Trade Inn if you have time. A short walk along the Tyne from the Quayside but worth it for the view alone.

Think I'd try getting another body in midfield for this and play Soumare further forward. Midfield 3 of Ndidi, Skipp and Bouba with Mavididi left, Bilal right and Vardy central.

Tuuuuuune

Good: - Bilal - Ndidi - Patson - Vardy the GOAT - Full backs were a bit better - Players worked their socks off Bad: - Soumare a passenger without the ball - 8 million chances conceded - Slowest centre back partnership in recorded history

Really enjoyed it when Gregg Wallace claimed he and Torode were big mates and Torode issued a statement categorically denying this. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/02/john-torode-not-friends-masterchef-co-host-gregg-wallace

Saw it today. Loved it. I must be a thicko because I didn’t see the twist coming at all 😂

Interesting unexpected outcome of Lou Haigh resigning - for the first time ever, the Cabinet is 100% state school educated.

Can see why you'd think that but I'm not sure it's true tbh. I wouldn't expect Heidi Alexander to diverge in policy terms very much at all. No doubt she had some disagreements with the Treasury but show me a transport minister who hasn't. And the changes to the fiscal rules announced in the budget (which will allow more borrowing for infrastructure) are very significant.

Not sure why you say she was out of her depth. I have a few dealings with people at DfT and in transport more generally and she was widely regarded as doing a good job. Her launch of the National Transport Strategy earlier this week went down very well with people in the industry.

We won't change system dramatically for this so on that basis I'd like to see something like this (assuming Winks is injured): Mads Justin Okoli Vesty Kristiansen Ndidi Skipp Buonanotte Bilal Mavididi Vardy

Agree the Dutch are generally lovely but they can be hilariously blunt. Was chatting with a Dutch friend of a friend about the Masters course I was studying for at the time and he listened quietly before asking "what's the point of that?"