Rayvin

I see HF's point here which is essentially a combination of 'better the devil you know' and hoping that Charnley will be so indebted to Rafa that he'll be forced to keep him on side. I'm not sure about the giving him credit bit mind you, as he made a decision that literally every single person on this forum, likely including CT and Essemmbee of all people, would also have made. The decision was the most obvious one he could make and he still dithered to the point of sabotaging our season. From a management perspective he should be gone. He's a risk, he lacks foresight and decision making abilities, and can only see the path ahead if it's literally right in front of him. He's also on the brink of costing the club £100m. No way will he have a job after that. No way should he expect to. The fear is that Ashley brings in someone worse, but I don't think I see that happening this time, especially as Ashley has other things to worry about. He'll want someone in who can just sort the club out without him being pulled back in all the time.

Yeah I get what we're doing here in terms of managing expectations but even so. I agree with your point about Sunderland being hard to beat, but the key one is that they aren't winning (which you also said tbd). If that continues we'll stay up. Even Fat Sam seems to be feeling the pressure now. I was convinced we were down until last weekend but now believe we've as good as chance as the other two. I'll be very surprised if Sunderland get a string of results which make our remaining games irrelevant.

So jealous

Based on yesterday's apparent psychological impact on Spurs, it could happen.

Well done Leicester. More importantly though, Spurs looked as mentally devastated by that as I hoped they would.

Thank fuck Chelsea are getting this over with.

They aren't really winning games though, and that's what will make the difference if anything. Any other season I'd say they would lose to both Chelsea and Everton...

We didn't guarantee it for the first five years though did we? That was old new Labour. Who failed in the last election. Caveat on reflection - you may turn out to be right about this in the end. You've more life experience than I do - be a depressing state of affairs though. Best we can hope for being minor modifications to the status quo rather than any meaningful change.

So you think we should vote them in and hope they do what we want rather than what they said? That doesn't make sense. I would argue it's not even fair tbh.

I was 12. I guess your implication is that I didn't see where Labour placed itself prior to 1997? A fair enough argument but I witnessed in my adult life the shift to the right. Backing austerity despite solid economic arguments not to was what made me believe ideology and winning elections was more important than doing what was best for people. At least in the eyes of old new Labour.

As for whether or not he'll be elected, it doesn't make much difference when the alternative has been pulled so far to the right that it's now centre rather than centre left.

Dunno mate, I do see your wider point here, I just don't share your view of the man. I've listened to what he's saying and looked at what he's doing, and am quite happy with it. In truth though, if I was only looking at how the papers are reporting him, I'd probably be right off the guy.

As I said, for me it's because his of his policies. Well put.

Villa aren't capable of fucking it up for us. It'll only go wrong if we decide not to turn up. Villa could go all out and still lose comfortably if we play as we have been. That's not because we're great, but because that club is utterly hopeless.

I guess you're right on that, but I used to think similar things about Elliot... I think Darlow can improve.

You, sir, are a hero.

I probably would have gone elsewhere, but then Labour put forward an option I believed in. I and others like me aren't at fault here Rents, it's the failing of New Labour that is entirely responsible for where we are. Corbyn had nothing to do with Labour failing in the last election, so everything the Tories are doing up to this point is on New Labour and the Blairities, not Corbyn. You can't blame people for wanting change and something better than what was being served up previously. EDIT - sorry, failed to address your first question - I think it's important to separate how Corbyn is exploiting Tory failures, and how little coverage the press are giving him on anything positive. I think the Guardian has run more stories about this anti-semitism 'scandal' than they have about Hillsborough. That says it all.

Yeah there should be no saving charnley from this masterpiece of uselessness. If we survive it could be the best thing to happen to the club in years though. We lose charnley and gain Rafa. But it remains unlikely.

I remain unchanged personally. If he loses he loses. If they oust him I'll be abandoning the Labour party - unless of course they come back with progressive policies instead of Tory-lite ones. It's always been about policies for me. Not at all impressed by how hard the establishment has worked against Corbyn and it makes me all the more determined to stick with him. Until he does or says something I can't support, that'll be where I am. Stunned that people think the struggles of the Labour party are all at his door tbh, given the conniving machinations of the Blairite wing. I'd like to think my views on how pathetic the Blarites are being are shared by many other younger voters, and I guess we'll see when he's eventually torn down from within where they all go. To the greens probably. I don't think Labour will be stronger for their loss though.

Agreed - both the backups have done well this year. Not sure I'd even be too worried about Krul leaving now.

Although watch fucking Arsenal capitulate against Norwich.

But they did beat Bournemouth today...

I don't see them winning either of those games, but they likely will draw them. I don't think we'll be safe until the last minute of the season.

Thank fuck for that. A lot of similar sentiments on here