RandoEFC

Yeah good listen this one. You forget all about his huge accident that preceded McLaren's return to the top. Well I forget it, probably because I was like three years old.

There's been a lot of change at the top of the Conservative party in a short space of time. A lot of experience has left the party or at least the public face of it in May, Rudd, Stewart, Grieve, Gauke etc. It's natural they have a few less than impressive specimens at the top. A cynical man might suggest that that Cleverley fella is there more to make them look as if there's some diversity in the senior echelons of the party than to actually be competent.

Watched the debate, didn't learn much. My takes: - The Conservative election campaign ir at least Johnson's execution of it is very, very primitive, Get Brexit Done, Get Brexit Done, Get Brexit Done. It's not a bad catch phrase but if you use it too much it begins to sound disingenuous and as if that's all you've got in your locker. - Corbyn looked weak on Brexit. I get his position but he makes it an easy one to attack. He really should just say it doesn't matter what I'll campaign for because it's up to the public to decide, or even say that he would campaign for neither and therefore be able to present the benefits and costs of his deal and the benefits and costs of remaining in the EU. I think that would speak to more people who still don't really know what Brexit means or which way they'd vote now. - Johnson kept it tight on the Brexit section but in the second half it got very jarring when he kept turning every question back to Brexit again and again. This led to him being the weaker of the two on non-Brexit issues. - The woman doing the interview was really good in trying to keep them to time and on topic. The only thing I was disappointed in is that she didn't push harder on the personal integrity part. There's no reason why either of them shouldn't be expected to answer for anti-semitism accusations, Acuri, Russia etc in more detail. The lack of rigour here made it a very safe and gentle debate. Only so much you can get into an hour. It also felt like the climate question got little more than lip service. - Also credit to ITV for calling out the toxicity of political debate in recent times. Johnson had a little win when he was clearly more keen to shake hands with Corbyn on trying to be better going forwards. - Overall I'm not going to get into who 'won' the debate because it's a stupid argument. I think both men said what the people who already support them want to hear, but didn't say much that will swing those voters who are up for grabs either for or against them. With the Tories leading in the polls I think Corbyn has to take more risks in the coming weeks.

@Fairy In Boots many good points made as usual, it would be better if we had more Conservative/Brexit posters on here as you'd get to see things from both sides a bit more. It doesn't mean we'll ever agree. I think the solution is that there should be a very strong welfare state. For every scrounger or ever fatty that drains the NHS by not taking responsibility for their own health, I still believe you have more people with genuine issues. A former colleague of mine has had to retire as their partner is unable to work and basically needs them to act as a full-time carer. Both were hard-working and have kids to look after. They claim all the benefits they're entitled to when neither of them can work for health reasons, and they struggle badly. That shouldn't be the case. It goes back to a discussion that's died down in recent years which is better means-testing. I would also fully support a huge regeneration of schools' outdoor facilities. In every school I've ever been in though the sporting facilities are plentiful. Kids generally go outside and run around at break and lunchtime as well. Less than they used to, because now especially when it gets cold they prefer to sit inside, on their phones bafflingly instead of talking to each other. If it was down to me, phones would be banned altogether in our school but I'm nowhere near important enough to make that decision. We as teachers see the health and social costs of this mobile phone addiction and I've no doubt that many of the kids who prefer to play games on their phone inside nowadays than go and play jumpers for posts football outside will go on to be unhealthy and potentially cost the NHS more money. All of this goes back to the parents though. I'm very conscious of these problems so when I have kids (at least I hope to) they'll be told to go and run around outside instead of ruining their eyes, brains and social skills staring at a screen every free second they have. I digress anyway. I understand why you have less faith in people acting responsibly and doing the right thing and having the decency to contribute properly to the society around them unless they really, absolutely can't. I still think that with enough positive changes we can turn a lot of them around. Maybe I'm naive, time will tell.

I think I've covered most of this above. Having a man who has never been a director of football do the job at a club that's never had a director of football under an owner who's new to football and a chairman who's a bit of a footballing dinosaur isn't really a great combination. A director of football does more than just scout players as well. Scouts are responsible for identifying and evaluating players. A director of football is there to ensure that the club's overall footballing philosophy stays in tact even if you have to change managers and also has a lot to do with the finances. It was partly the fault of the people who gave him the job that his role wasn't made clear enough and he wasn't supported in being good at the things he wasn't already good at, but I also stand by my criticism of Walsh. It was a shambolic setup all round and Brands is a big improvement as he's done the job before at PSV with success and actually knows what a good DoF should do, something that we as a club don't know because we've never had one before now.

Walsh was definitely only part of the problem. If you look at the CAM situation as an example, Walsh wanted Davy Klaassen, Koeman wanted Gylfi Sigurdsson and it seemed that Kenwright was behind getting Rooney back to the club. It was our first attempt at having a Director of Football, and it became clear quickly that it hadn't been implemented properly at all and everyone was stepping on each other's toes. God knows how it was allowed to happen but thankfully the board was overhauled and now we have Brands who has a clearly-defined role, a new CEO etc. Hopefully Moshiri has learned from his mistakes the first time around. He gets credit for Idrissa Gueye but the rest of the Koeman/Walsh signings that made it at Everton (Pickford, Sigurdsson, Keane etc.) may have been his ideas, but he was brought in to unearth the Mahrez/Kante type gems that he got credit for at Leicester and just didn't. Even if the likes of Pickford were "his signings" it's not like basically any other person could have had the foresight to sign the best players from the clubs below us in the league. I don't remember the timings too clearly but if we had the opportunity to sign Robertson and ended up with Cuco Martina (a right back) filling in for Baines when he got injured mid-season then that pretty much sums up the transfer policy at that time. Thankfully we have Digne now so don't have to lose too much sleep over the left back position. Maguire would definitely have got in our team and it would have been positive for us of course if we were the ones who mugged United off for that £80m. As a player though I don't think we're missing that much, definitely not as big a miss as Robertson.

After they listened to him on Klaassen and Sandro maybe they didn't feel like listening to him again? Come on guys, I know Stan that you partially credit Walsh with Leicester's title, and LFCMadLad you want another excuse to make Everton look stupid, but this isn't the first time someone who was sacked by their former employer for doing a bad job (a really, really bad job) has come out and made claims that make themselves look better for the sake of their own reputation. He's unemployed right now isn't he? He's hardly going to talk publicly about the bad signings he made when he's looking for work. I can buy that Robertson was on a list somewhere at some point but the fact that we didn't go in for him or the others isn't evidence that Walsh wasn't backed. We brought several of his signings to the club. Even after Koeman was sacked, Cenk Tosun was Walsh's suggestion for centre forward, signed for just under £30m, bang average player. The bloke was out of his depth. Gueye was the only really good thing he did for the club.

Feels more and more like this election is stumbling towards a Conservative majority. The Lib Dems are ironically becoming the party that ensure Brexit does in fact happen, by shouting and screaming that Labour are a pro-Leave party. Absolute nonsense. Labour are offering the only credible and democratic option for preventing Brexit which is negotiating a deal and holding a second referendum. If the country still votes to Leave then, even as a Remainer, you can't justify staying in the EU. If the country votes to Remain in that instance then Labour are the party that have prevented Brexit. The Lib Dems have absolutely zero chance of a majority so if they really believe in stopping Brexit they should be supporting Labour. This election isn't about Brexit for the Lib Dems, it's about the Lib Dems. Swinson is trotting out that she won't use Lib Dem votes to put Corbyn in number ten but that means she won't use the Lib Dem votes to stop Brexit so can't deliver on her one key campaign promise. Labour aren't innocent either. By deluding themselves that they could win an outright majority rather than reaching out to the other parties, they too are ensuring that Brexit will happen. Onto the media. It's astounding that if you type "Russian interference report Brexit" into Google, you'll see articles from the Guardian who are so pro-Corbyn that they'll get laughed off by anyone who isn't already a Labour supporter, and one article from the BBC from last week. It's nothing short of a disgrace that the national media in this country refuse to talk about what appears to be blatant corruption from Boris Johnson as an individual, linked to the Brexit vote. There are independent MPs and journalists all over Twitter warning us that there are serious, shocking revelations in this Russia report and that there's no reason for it not to have been put before parliament and the public. You can forget about Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, Leave, Remain. If this is the case, Johnson is covering up this report and withholding information that should be public in a way that we'd all have called absolutely shocking if Russia or North Korea had been reported to do the same just 5 years ago. Now it's just become accepted even by the public that this whole thing is a game where nothing matters. There isn't even a pretence anymore, or an attempt to give a convincing reason why it's alright that this report hasn't been publicised. And why would there be? I expect The Sun and The Telegraph not to be probing into something that could damage the Conservative party but where's the scrutiny from the BBC? Sky News? I've actually given up caring now. We as a country are going to get what we deserve. Five years of Boris Johnson, a known liar that appears to be, at best, compromised, and at worst, in the pocket of Vladimir Putin. Russia wanted Trump, they got him, and their interference in the US election has been successfully covered up for almost a full term of his presidency. Russia wanted Brexit, and they're going to get it, they're going to successfully destabilise the West by putting money in the back pocket of greedy politicians for a second time, and while the UK have put up a fight against it, it's a fight we're almost certain now to lose. This isn't up for debate. If I'm wrong, that report would have been published. Unless a miracle happens and the Conservatives are prevented from reaching a majority then this country is headed to a dark place under Johnson's premiership.

Can't see the tweet as I'm at work but this is hearsay and speculation. Anyone can claim ifs and buts but the facts of what actually happened are that Walsh along with Koeman set us back 3-4 years with arguably the worst summer of recruitment by any team in the Premier League era. Steve Walsh is such a genius he said that we don't need to replace Lukaku because all of the other attackers we signed (Klaassen, Rooney, Sigurdsson, Sandro and Bolasie that is) would score enough goals to make up for it. The man, at Everton at least, was a fraud. Fault must go to the people who gave him the Director of Football role though when he was actually only a scout at Leicester.

Most (if not all) of them will miraculously recover in time for the next game.

Strong enough economy to leave the EU with no trade deals in place but also fragile enough that it's "dangerous" and "catastrophic" to spend more money providing free services to the people that live within it. Have I got that about right?

I'm no expert and I'm not pretending to have read up on the numbers (what's the point? It's basically impossible to find impartial analysis in this country, especially during an election campaign) but I will poke my head above the parapet enough to point out that the current government's own analysis apparently showed that it would be cheaper for broadband provision to be run by the state than to continue as it is now. I just so can't be arsed reading people's takes on these things now. Sections of the media are likening nationalisation to communism now. I didn't do politics at school or university but even I know what communism is and what it isn't. Perhaps certain members of the media aren't so lucky. As to the estimated cost, Labour say £20m, Conservatives say £80m, BT say £60m and you're saying £100m. I would bet then that the true figure is probably around £40m as then everyone has lied or exaggerated or underestimated sufficiently in their chosen direction. Can't trust any of it though, people just make numbers up willy-nilly these days to suit their agenda and barely anyone in this country with a loud enough voice and far enough reach is anywhere near impartial enough to provide real information.

Apparently they have a very strained relationship and haven't seen eye to eye for years. Part of his interview suggested that he hasn't actually spoken to his son about this so I'd bear that in mind when deciding how much to read into this. Good attention grabbing headline though, classic international break.

Yeah, to be fair though I don't know how comparative it is. There you had a generation of lads who were pretty much born and bred one club men in the England squad. Neville, Scholes, Beckham, Gerrard, Carragher, Terry, Lampard. Gomez and Sterling don't quite have the same affinity to their clubs but I suppose the overall point stands.

Yeah this season has been a bit slow and average so far, but recent (half-)seasons have ended up having a satisfying climax so hopefully we see the same thing here. It's really good to see Negan doing stuff again. Jeffrey Dean Morgan in that role is one the best bits of casting I've seen from any TV series.

You can say what you want about Brexit and I'll probably agree, but the Brexit Party is a political party whether we like that or not. The fact that they're named after something that you don't acknowledge as real doesn't matter. If the Conservative party renamed themselves the Unicorn party, they'd still be a political party, even though they were named after something that isn't real. I don't know how it works though to be honest. I don't know whether the Lib Dem MP who stepped down in the Isle of Wight for the Green party is also £100 out of pocket, but if they are they haven't made a public issue of it.

Have they actually 'invested in' the Brexit Party or have they actually just made donations like thousands of people do to the other political parties who themselves constantly change policy and don't/won't carry out their stated policies?

I don't think it needs to be a massive deal but if two players have carried a club-related spat into the national side then it also isn't a non-issue. This isn't something that just happens all the time, usually footballers are absolutely professional about separating their club priorities from their international priorities. I can't actually think of another time this has happened off the top of my head. So yeah, if it's been resolved by both men and the manager then we shouldn't keep pushing for further detail or drag it out and make it a bigger thing than it is, but it's still up for discussion, it's quite significant in my opinion.

My housemate said Gomez has a cut above his eye, is that true? If so I have no sympathy for Sterling at all if it went that far. You can always question whether these things should be dealt with in house or publicly, but if Gomez has physical signs of a scrap, people are going to notice Sterling isn't in the side for Montenegro, and with the amount of people who know England players, staff or people who work at St Thingy Park, it's going to get out so maybe it's the best thing that Southgate has just owned up to it and given the full story outright instead of allowing the newspapers and social media to speculate and make things sound even worse. Going back to Sterling though, yes you have to accept that these things happen between young men who happen to be super-competitive athletes, but there also has to be consequences if you bust your team-mate's forehead open or whatever he's done.

Yeah I definitely hear tidbits about it, the first couple of years of primary school are very heavy on educational play. I don't know much of the detail as if I have anything to do with primary colleagues it's at the other end of their school but from what I know yeah it's quite a significant thing.

Further tweets in that thread from Brand. This could be interesting.

Seen it mate and a big fan of it. It would be huge for some more of the teenagers that are unlucky enough to find themselves sat in front of me in a maths class to see education as a lifelong process through having parents, carers and other adults engaging with their own learning. Would hopefully go some way to healing the outlook that many kids have where they just have to put up with school until they reach 16 then they never "have to" learn anything again. Top work .

So Farage has stepped down his Brexit candidates giving the Conservatives a free run at the seats they are defending. They will probably still lose some of those seats but it also seems likely that Labour could lose marginals to either the Tories or Brexit Party. Equally possible those parties could split the Leave vote in Labour Leave seats and end up saving Labour in those seats. Really hard to call but the polls still show a lead for the Conservatives. It's hard to see anything other than Boris remaining PM. A majority still looks hard from his point of view, a small cluster of Brexit Party MPs could give him enough votes to get Brexit over the line without creating a formal coalition. Labour have been suffering from cyber attacks over the past two days. My first thought given recent news was of Russia and apparently a Labour spokesperson or someone said the attacks were coming from Russia and Brazil, but nothing official from the National Cybersecurity people, whatever their proper name is. I think Conservatives will stumble to a slim majority or almost majority. The only real game changer you could see is a massive u-turn from Labour and or Lib Dems and some cooperation between them but it's hard to imagine. A shame that the "Corbyn doesn't want to nuke 10 million people so he's not fit to be prime minister" argument has returned to the fore over the past day or two. Nothing worse than being reminded of the insane priorities of our media and public.

I have been thoroughly enjoying them. Aggressive insults that only a scouser could come out with read out in computerised monotone .

There's still something there for them this season if they can create the right bounce around the club with a new manager. Problem is balancing that with an actual long-term plan so it may be that they just accept this season as a mess and spend the time lining up the right changes for the summer.