DJ Barry Hammond

Why not use both ways of getting instructions across? Having visual and verbal instructions increases the likihood of the instructions being taken on board - even if the substitute isn’t paying full attention. The other thing to consider is how a key skill for every top footballer is visualisation - suggesting visual rather than audible instructions is a lot more effective - with basic formation visuals of a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-4-3 testament to that. To labour the point further - think of anything one might learn in life and consider what an advantage it is to learners to be able to see what they’re supposed to do. There are not many tasks where a teacher would rely on just vocal instructions.

Lovely 5 minutes - backed Leicester to win (was strangely confident on that one this morning) and Pivoine at York. Mwah, ha, ha!

I could see this being the end of him as leader... already mirred in anti-sensitise controversy, as you say this will run further still and with parliament off for the summer there’s not much to shift the political agenda. Wonder if he’ll make the reporters congregated outside his door cups of tea tomorrow?

Oh and we’re light of a ‘different type’ of midfielder. Silva, Ibora, N’didi, all to similar.

In a game of fine margins... two of the errors I see is managerial decisions. Personally, i wouldn’t have gone with Amartey. And I found the decision to take off Maddison strange.

Go on Madders - announce yourself!

I’ll give Puel and the side some due; they responded really well. Dare I say it, we look good.

Well that was all manor of awful to start off with; and ultimately a ‘safety’ double right back team selection is a contributing factor.

There’s my current one - although i’ve been very lax in terms of content recently and topic wise the content is allover the place; https://articulatelive.wordpress.com/ Now I do believe I did a pre-season review some years back on another blog I’d played with for a while - and it’s a lot harder than one might think it is (at least to do properly)! Actually researching 20 teams and then coming up with short susinct conclusions is tough, especially in such a tight publishing window - and it only takes two weeks for the content of your posts to look like a steamin pile of crap. https://fanfromafar.blogspot.com/ - having checked, it appears I didn’t end up publishing the season preview I attempted way back when; possibly because I ran out of time for it to feel relevant. What you could find easier and more rewarding hits wise however is to focus articles on individual players at clubs on televised games you see and slowly build up profiles for a player at each Premier League Club. It would give you a narrower and more defined focus in terms of researching and writing which can help develop a keen eye and a more engaging pieces.

I’m not sure conflating two horrific situations achieves much; that stories of abuse keeps appearing with links to Catholic Church doesn’t make other stories about Asian grooming gangs any better; and even if these other examples didn’t exist, that wouldn’t make Tommy Robinson’s actions any less misguided. We possibly need to ask ourselves that with an ever growing picture establishing that abuse of children is not just historic, but continues to be widespread across a cross section of society, can public anger about these stories be better used in finding a way to eradicate child abuse once and for all? BBC article on Ampleforth and Downside School; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45127284

Thought this was an interesting insight to what was happening around the Maguire transfer; https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/09/manchester-united-veto-jose-mourinho-wishlist-cash-fears key extract Manchester United veto José Mourinho’s transfer wishlist To Mourinho’s intense irritation, United’s conclusion was that in most cases he had targeted defenders who were no better than those they already had and who, in today’s inflated market, could conceivably have cost upwards of £70m without vastly improving the team. Mourinho’s enthusiasm for Harry Maguire was not shared by the Old Trafford decision-makers and when the club approached Leicester they were put off by the kind of fee that would have been necessary to sign the England international in the wake of Virgil van Dijk’s £75m transfer from Southampton to Liverpool last season. The interest in Maguire was abandoned and, for all the speculation linking Toby Alderweireld with Old Trafford, the truth is there has been only one conversation between Woodward and the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, Daniel Levy, throughout the summer. That was Levy calling Woodward to ask about two of United’s players, one being Anthony Martial. Woodward wants to keep Martial and that, again, is a serious issue between club and manager.

You have to say... that Di Maria goal was something else.

Paddy Power currently offering 50-1 for Harry Maguire first / last goalscorer. Imagine a few might be tempted with that.

And I’m banned for posting rubbish ☺️ Call it a much needed letter to myself. I feel a little better already. Thanks Webbo

Part of me can’t believe I’m starting this column, but the other half considers this might be the best way to vent and go through the healing process; and in doing so create a thread that may become useful to others in the future? We’ll see. My personal conundrum Having reached my mid 30’s and made the decision to start a career again by going to University I had begun facing the idea that I might not end up getting married and having kids. My dating history or success up to this point has been riddled with failure; it seems mostly down to the incompatibility of ‘nice man syndrome’. Coming to terms with this was hard - it’s been a long held ambition of mine to be a dad, but the confidence knocks and scars were taking their toll of me and i’d come to the conclusion it was better to focus on myself and a new career and life than to endlessly consult Twitter, POF, OK Cupid and a host of other dating apps and set ups. Perhaps a further motive behind this approach was to allow love to find me rather than constantly search for it myself and typically enough that approach seemed to bare some fruit and with that produced fresh hope that maybe I wouldn’t live a largely seldom life. To set the scene, I responded to a random uni advert to assist as a ‘presenter’ for a campaign project a group were doing for Antony Nolan. Having surprisingly been provided with a decent script (most Uni projects like this are badly prepared) I only needed to consider what additional mannerisms and hand movements I would use to greater inforce the message, so made appropriate notes to my script and turned up with it - and no doubt coming across as a right arrogant **** (even if these addition notes were valid). But that arrogance must have caught the imagination of the women in question - and likewise, she caught my attention with her alround brilliance. Communication following that chance encounter grew, as did the mutual attraction, but there was one niggling question mark in my mind as we seemed to be drawing closer; I knew that she was engaged. Eventually as it became clear we couldn’t pass this off as ‘friendship’ anymore, the topic of her engagement was broached and she made it clear I had opened her eyes to a different future that she wanted - to the extent she broke off the engagement and we began dating. With the regularity we were together, a Love Island effect began to establish itself to the point we became very close; and on her agreement I ended up moving in with her and her ex-partner! As odd as that sounds, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, although it did feel a little odd - and the hope was that her ex would find somewhere else to live; indeed he had also gone on a couple of dates. However, with a holiday booked for her by her parents, it meant I needed to return home, home, for a bit - and this extended for an extra week due to my mum being ill. This eventually leads to the bombshell phonecall that “she’s been having serious difficulties about the age difference between us” (there’s a 12 year gap) and “she can’t do this anymore”. What i could make out through her tears was that she’s had a fair bit of pressure from her mum about our relationship and I can completely understand her having doubts about the situation; I’d have expected her to have many and we did discuss them. Yet I can’t escape how happy she was around me, how she had clearly grown in confidence; and how the relationship appeared to have a strong future, especially given the difficult starting point. I also ponder - had I been able to immediately return and be there once she had returned from holiday, would she have felt the same? Or has it been the memory of a past life with her ex partner has looked brighter after a period away from it? So my agonising at the moment is what what do I do when I return; for I have to because I left some stuff in her house including my precious ‘Leicester City Champions Towel’ - originally left as a sign that I would return and not bugger off with another women in Bristol (oh the irony!) Do I chalk this up as another painful experience and try to move on the best I can? I suspect that is what I should really do - and so maybe this post is all about confirming something I don’t want to be true - but any thoughts and consideration she would be most welcome. Oh and... sorry ☺️