Fowls

Piss off Cartman

I wouldn’t say that, he was deadly for us. All that wasted money for a player who did virtually nothing. We’d probably still be in the Championship if it wasn’t for signing that prick.

Speaking more generally, data driven analysis is at its most useful when it goes against what you think or previously thought. It does not mean that you should immediately change your opinion, but that you should try to understand why the difference exists. xG (or most of its components) isn’t useful for me, but if a club aren’t using data in their analysis of performances they’re at a severe disadvantage. I’ve only used data that describes people and whilst one person is not necessarily predictable, groups of people with similar characteristics are - hugely so. Applying that to football, a game can have a mistake, a bit of quality, or a controversial refereeing decision that decides the game and whilst they can’t be predicted, over several games their impact is lessened. It gives you another way of looking at the game, or a series of games, without necessarily focusing on results. As a fan though, it either confirms what you saw, or maybe gives you a hint that you might be a little biased.

Previous data decides. You look at past matches - I assume the model for this looks at a huge number - and the proportion of times a particular situation led to a goal will be the contribution to xG.

Apparently he can’t leave just yet, because he has a big wedding party planned at Chequers in a few weeks. If this was a plotline in The Thick of It we’d say they’d gone too far.

The Tories want a second referendum? How dare they subvert the will of the parliamentary party!

I don’t see how Fernandes and Eriksen play effectively in the same side, but when did that stop Man U before?!

I think Derby’s odds are affected by early betting, when their takeover looked agreed and they still had a lot of players from an ok Championship season. Bookies will want to limit exposure and so price them unattractively.

Agree. As this is now happening publicly then it will happen again if we capitulate. We’re not desperate for players, so we should tell them that we’re moving on to other targets.

We’re still in June and five players have signed, this feels new. The squad looks to be shaping up nicely.

Potter for me. But of course the FA will do FA and we’ll go out as soon as we play someone decent in the World Cup (just as we have in the last two tournaments).

Not quite unsellable, they managed to agree to a transfer to China, which Bale was supposedly happy with, but Real decided to stop it when they thought they could get some money for him (think they thought that Man U we’re about to bid). It was Real’s greed that kept him there until now. Bale might be a prick, but I don’t see many players acting hugely differently to the way he has with Madrid.

Are you suggesting that a player who signed for Chelsea, at a point in his career where it was pretty close to certain that he’d never actually play for them, is somehow motivated by money?

Leonardo (DoF) has left already and Pochettino is about to.

The issue that we have, and one that has been present for a very long time, is that we have so few players who will be better next season. If we want to go anything above the bottom half of the championship when we do go up, we need a squad that’s developing. If we had gone up, we’d need a total rebuild to do anything other than struggle. Players who, at their peak or after, have been convinced to play in League one, do not get out of the Championship via the good exit.

Loss of earnings?

If that’s true, he won’t play for them again, as he’s played 9 games and I think there’s a big fee to Spurs after the tenth.

Isn’t this still our best finish from a first season in the third tier? I know it feels crappy tonight, but bringing in someone new is a risk, particularly given the level of manager we’d be able to attract. Surely those funds would be better used in adding quality to the team.

Peacemaker is worth a watch if you liked Deadpool.

That’s a big undertaking - 7 series and 4 films - series 1 is a bit rough, but it’s worth persisting. If you want Seven’s backstory too then that’s in Voyager (but that isn’t as good imo).