ariotofmyown

The weird thing is, going into last season, I thought we were a striker short of being a very good squad.  We'd kicked on under Cocu from when Rooney arrived, we'd addressed most of the major needs in the squad (with Matt Clarke back, Jozwiak and Marshall), we'd sold an asset but replaced him for a fraction of the cost (Byrne for Bogle) and so on.  Obviously things didn't pan out that way. 
This season, if you look at who we've lost compared to last season, it's only really Matt Clarke (who was excellent again) and Waghorn (who was poor for most of the season).  We've lost quite a few warm bodies - Gregory scored a few, Roberts showed the odd flash, bits and bobs from Menghi etc.  But bar Clarke, is there anyone that we've lost that will *really* be missed?
Obviously we're not in a good position at all, but there's plenty of reasons to think it can be turned around.  We desperately need a striker and 2 central defenders, but beyond that, the first XI isn't too bad.  Marshall/Roos, Byrne, Shinnie, Lawrence and CKR are still decent championship players. Jozwiak has had a decent Euros and should hopefully either be more settled and kick on, or be sold for a decent amount.  We should hopefully have Bielik for more of the season than last. Lawrence missed a lot of games last season too, he was missed. Knight, Bird, Buchanan have all got another year of championship football under their belts. Sibley started to establish himself back in the team towards the end of the season. McDonald, Ebosele, Watson etc have started to get first team football.  It's reasonable to think we can get 3 or 4 loans in relatively easily. With Rooney's name and a guarantee of first team football, I suspect we'll have a fair few top-end prem youngsters here.  And given the state of the transfer market, there are going to be a lot of players around on free transfers, so we can pick up a bunch more experienced warm bodies, if we need to.  
I'm not trying to gloss over the state of the squad, but it's not an unfixable problem.

The transfer embargo is the best thing to happen to us. Its an absolute blessing in that we have proved previously we cannot get expensive transfers right. So much money wasted on ridiculous transfer fees and wages with too many examples to list. Im happy to go after CKR type signings of no fee, a fair wage together with ability and great attitude. Bring it on. Its going to be the making of us.

With Derby’s recruitment the problem is we actually need 8 or 9 new players to achieve the 3 players good enough to fill those positions. The rest will be jozefsoons or Blackmans or anyas or Ibes (mark 2).
 

Ah I must have missed those posts. I still think nearly everyone is fairly moderate on the masks questions.
Hopefully the number of mask extremists remains low, even with an irresponsible media fanning the flames.

i feel very conflicted when it comes to JHB.  Like Katy "Horse Faced ****" Hopkins, 90% of the reactionary crap she spouts is done for shock value and clicks/listens as she tries to stay relevant and employed.  But unlike Hopkins, she's got a definite MILF thing going on.  Definitely confuses both my heads...

I think this is the key thing.  I see loads folk wearing them when they're in cars, on their own, or simply walking down the road.  In my opinion that's being overly cautious but I won't call them out on it, it's whatever makes you feel comfortable.

I'm not sure intentionally hiding data/not collecting it is the right way to go about this. Its in everyone's interest that there's transparency in the outcome of the result. I'm sure the government would love the jump on we did the right thing. 
Cases aren't irrelevant, as hospitalisations and deaths are clearly a function of cases (although the ratio is much lower than it was). 
Anecdotally I know a lot of people being exposed to covid, and due to my age I have not had chance to have 2 vaccines. The vaccine roll out has slowed down a lot after it hit the under 40s.
I would have preferred that everyone had the chance to be double vaccinated prior to reopening as I think there is a risk of huge numbers of people getting it and even more having to isolate. 
I know I'm supposedly not at (much) risk, but equally I don't like being told that my health doesn't matter either. 
The self isolation stuff is going to be a nightmare this summer. Booked to go away in August so unless the rules change, we're going to have to have a quiet week before to reduce the risk of coming in to contact with people. 

To be honest, I think its a really dumb thing to tweet.
I have actually enjoyed listening to JHB throughout this pandemic. One of the few people that has felt like they are on the side of the every day working man.
Whether her viewpoint is right or wrong, she has regularly asked the questions that the opposition should have been asking (its no surprise to see that Starmer is backing the wrong horse again).
But back to the point, how can someone else wearing a mask make JHB feel uncomfortable? What if the person is vulnerable? Should they remove their mask just to make her feel better?
What does she want? The Government to mandate that people cant wear masks? 
Personally, I think the Government have finally got it right in making this about personal responsibility, that means making decisions to suit your own needs, what other people are doing should be irrelevant if you are managing your own risk correctly.

You seem to have trouble following what I said. I was criticising GB News for stoking controversy and dividing people for money, but you seem to have read it as something to do with killers and diving?

Yeah did watch it all. Where you see balance, I see someone trying to divide people and create controversy. Make out people are in 2 extreme camps and will hate each other.
I imagine most people will wear masks less, but will usually put them on when indoors and close to people they don't know.  Most people understand that wearing a mask can help them stop spreading Covid, which is a reasonable objective when cases are flying up again.
A minority of people will proudly not wear masks when everyone else is, even when they could be close to unvaccinated/vulnerable people.
A different minority will never go out, even though they've been fully vaccinated and have no health conditions.
Most people are fairly considerate and don't need telling that everyone is on two extreme sides of the latest media stoked "war".

I'd watch, but I was too busy watching the Welsh language version of Paw Patrol.

My take on it: I'll be glad to get back to normality so social distancing and mask wearing is a thing of the past.
I'm a little concerned that the high case rate may translate into more cases in hospital but so far, that doesn't seem to be happening. So far, so good.
We need to keep the vaccination programme running at the same pace as it is now, as we know that it doesn't take much for people to start catching it. I heard a story about a couple of people in a crappy little fishing town in the north who went for a few glasses of dry white wine with friends, now they're both self isolating. Pubs full of people, with someone in there spreading the virus around, passing it through their colleagues, friends and family - the best defence for everyone is to get vaccinated, let's get numbers down to as low as we can.
I'll probably be ready to keep wearing a mask, in public crowded indoor places, if that seems to be the social norm. If I'm in a supermarket I'll put one on, but if I find 90% of shoppers aren't doing it, I'll not bother. I'm double jabbed, so although I don't feel invincible, I don't think I'm at risk of dying. But you never know.
I think we'll be scrapping the masks and the social distancing. It'll be back to normal with hygiene measures soon (with people not bothering washing their hands after they've been for a poo, never mind carrying back the shopping from the car). Because people are dirty sods at the best of times.

I don’t know it, but the land remediation costs of a former gas works would be huge. More straightforward to offer the site to another ‘contaminator’ selling pollutant and noxious liquid. Clever to tack a new petrol station on too.

You may be right regarding your second paragraph Kash, but do we really yet know how good his coaching and man-management skills are? Which senior players have made comments to suggest he might not be up to the job? Waghorn perhaps, but I can’t think of any others.  
As for our youngsters, have they regressed because of him, or did many of them experience a difficult second year of pro-football? It is ‘easy’ to come in for a few games at the age of 18/19/20 and make a really positive impression, offering glimpses of star quality. But the Championship is a long, hard demanding league, and many of the players who make other teams tick are hardened, expererinced professionals. In my view Buchanan, Sibley, Knight, Bird, etc., suffered last year not because of Rooney per se, but because too many of our experienced players were found wanting, because we were in survival mode from November onwards, and because our squad was so wafer thin because of injuries that some youngsters were being played in too many games, often out of position.
I am at heart a happy clapper, so I think a few astute signings by Rooney could make the world of difference to our youngsters in the coming season. I don’t see it being the shitshow others keep stating it could be.

Given the two failed takeovers, I wouldn't be surprised if they waited until the ink has dried on the contracts before announcing anything. 

Although weirdly, life expectancy has more the doubled over the last 300 years in the UK. I blame that meddling "science", with their evil vaccines, medicines and nanny state hygiene rules. We want our freedom back.

Well I think that in light of all this new research we should make spitting in public places compulsory. 
Nothing like dodging a few hawked up wads of snot on the pavement for making men and women of us all. 
I mean, honestly.... ?

I guess one of the things which coronavirus might change is our attitude to spreading disease. 
We have previously had a devil may care attitude to socialising whilst having a cold or the flu. 
There has been some mockery of more considerate nations who wear masks in public so as not to spread disease. 
We can decide now whether we change or not. 
Having little in the way of facial recognition has for me been a big negative over the last 16 months or so. We have become automatons, scanning and skyping where F2F interaction would have been nicer. 
So there's a balance to be set. If I'm outside in the fresh air and a reasonable distance from others I'll be mask free. If I'm cooped up indoors like on the tube or bus, I will consider a mask. 
Others will have a different view. That's why at this stage, it has to be commonsense based, not rules based. 

So you agree until all of the nation gets adequate protection, we as individuals still need to take precautions in stopping the spread of the virus.

Well I agreed with this at first, but now realise that @angieramactually wants to destroy the human race. I'm going back to the office tomorrow and gonna spit in everyones face. To save them.

Your opening statement was full of crass and gross generalisations then you demand a reply from me on the basis of that. 
Post something less jaundiced then I might be inclined to engage with you and have a coherent conversation.
 

Maybe not a great comparison, so apologies, but when I look at how the EFL has conducted itself over the last few years and in particular with Derby they remind me of FIFA, or in particular Sepp Blatter.  Someone who orchestrated things to his benefit.  For decades he abused his position and it took years for him to finally be called out, eventually being done for a "breach of rules concerning duty of loyalty, conflicts of interest and offering or accepting gifts or other benefits". I think his buddy Valcke did similar. I also think this was the tip of the iceberg and many officials go away scot-free.  Now I'm not saying the EFL are doing exactly the same, but in principle, from everything I see, they're abusing their power, they're showing zero duty of loyalty to their members and appear to be on some sort of personal crusade to destroy one of the league's member clubs, for not making absolutely clear in their accounting notes what they had done, despite what they had done having been sanctioned by the EFL themselves so in theory they should have known what they were looking at in the first place.
Mel instigated a challenge to their power by seeking to unite all 72 clubs in asking the EFL to address a view that they weren't representing their clubs in the best way.  He also challenged the money flow for TV rights, again with the view this wasn't in the best interests of the member clubs. I believe that this, more than anything else totally riled the pompous buffoons at the EFL, who, like Blatter no doubt live a great lifestyle and don't want their power challenged to the extent they've made it a personal goal to see Mel, and unfortunately Derby destroyed. The irony is Mel was probably demonstrating the values the EFL should be following, but aren't.  Love him or hate him I do believe he's always had the best interests of this club at heart.
If we can sell, meaning Mel moves off the scene, they maybe, just maybe, some status quo will be achieved and we can go back to focusing on playing football, re-building this club, making news for what we do on the pitch, not off it, and maybe one day, in the not too distant future, getting back into the PL. 

Thanks buddy - I haven't taken it yet, trying to work through the anxiety in other ways including counselling. I don't really think that's been for me though - I'm not scared to talk about the issue or opening up. I've probably mentally felt better (not sure if it was the councilling or just a bit of everything) but my symptoms are still there.
Taking each day as it comes - My issues are mild compared to others, but its bloody frustrating. Every time I feel anxious I need to go to the toilet!
The drug remains an option for me if other things don't work though. I actually don't mind the feeling anxious, its the symptom of needing the loo which bothers me!

In fairness it was a pretty good satire of some of the debates I’ve ended up having in this sub forum over the years!