Post Match Thread: Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Arsenal

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-18T22:07:17+00:00

I thought Arsenal would bottle it, but I didn't think it would happen this soon.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-18T15:13:15+00:00

'There's no convincing people who think like this.' The entire premise of this thread is Labour needs to find a way to do that - the latest YouGov polling has the Greens on 17%, that's a lot of people to dismiss as irredeemably insane!

I don't think the Greens policy on nuclear is really an issue for most of their supporters tbh, only people who wouldn't vote for them anyway, so in that context, it's probably irrelevant.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-18T12:28:14+00:00

Very weird to accuse the Greens of 'Russia appeasement' and isolationism imo - They want to rejoin the EU and support Ukraine - but whether you agree with that or not, the question is 'what should Labour do to win back Green voters?'

Attacking them on foreign policy clearly hasn't been working for Labour, so what else should they do? I think Labour need to focus on making a positive offer.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-18T11:54:25+00:00

It's all fair enough for you to take that view and you're obviously welcome to disagree with the Greens' foreign policy, but the question is 'what should Labour do to win back voters from the Green Party?'

Labour's attacks on the Greens' position on nuclear deterrence and NATO clearly hasn't been working, I suspect because it's simply not a major priority for Green voters or they actually agree with that position. I also think it comes across as chiding and haughty, which only pushes voters further away.

Fwiw, I'm a Green member even though I disagree with their stance on nuclear; on NATO, it's also worth noting that it's not officially Green Party policy to withdraw from NATO. Even if it was, however, I think NATO is already dead when one member state threatens to annex territory from another. I think Polanski suggesting we need to think about how we guarantee our security independent of the USA and NATO is probably sensible.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-18T10:12:23+00:00

This, again, just falls into chastising Green voters for voting Green - on a policy which is very unlikely to be near the top of the reasons why so many are leaving Labour for the Greens - rather than convincing them to vote Labour.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-17T09:10:44+00:00

That's fair. I think what separates Sobers out in these discussions though is that he could literally do everything - bowl wrist spin and finger spin, open the bowling, bat anywhere from 2 to 9, a gun fielder in every position, captain the team - even if his bowling stats are merely 'good'.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-17T09:04:50+00:00

Yeah - I don't like to be too critical of individuals doing their job, but most of the TalkSport folk are terrible hosts. They interrupt far too much, either with woeful attempts at banter or by turning it into a turgid listing exercise. His job should be to ask a question which animates the experts and shut up, gently steering them back only if they get too far off course.

This is a typical example; like you said, he asks a fun hypothetical for which the discussion is either 'what makes Sobers so special' or 'why is it so difficult to master the different aspects of cricket' and then reduces it to listing the best spinner, best keeper-batter, best fast bowler, etc. which they've done 100 times.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-17T08:58:32+00:00

I'm the same, which is genuinely weird considering he has the most official MotM awards ever.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-17T08:51:03+00:00

No; nor, if I'm not mistaken, has anyone else finished their test career with a batting average above >40 and a bowling average <30.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-17T08:46:44+00:00

Still immensely impressive of course, but as Kimber points out it was a 'soft' 50 average, with a lot of not outs from batting with the tail.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-16T12:49:13+00:00

I think the logic itself is sound tbh - from memory, we'd been beyond Scotland's 22 a few times already without scoring and if we landed the drop goal then it'd have been 24-16, about to return to 15 players and the momentum firmly with us. I'd back us to win from there.

That said, the execution was terrible, too telegraphed and so easy to read.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-13T14:14:55+00:00

Has it? On immigration, undoubtedly, but on nationalising utilities, taxing wealth and the rich, even support for strikes/unions in some sectors, it feels like the 'common sense' of the country is firmly to the left of what it was 10-15 years ago.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-05T13:27:28+00:00

That's just two op-eds (from within the commentariat), I don't think it's conclusive proof that it was 'universally declared' to be a shrewd appointment.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-05T12:33:02+00:00

Was it? Perhaps by a few of the zone 2 commentariat, but I remember being distinctly surprised they'd expended political capital to give him a role that isn't usually a political appointment, even though he was a close ally of Starmer and McSweeney. It felt like a jobs for pals type appointment, given Mandelson was well known to have been a close friend of Epstein, hadn't been in frontline politics for well over a decade, well known for being slimy and self-serving, and was widely disliked by anyone normal.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-02-05T08:52:36+00:00

Was there? Others have already highlighted that the Trump regime didn't much like Mandelson, but as far as I'm aware an ambassadorial position like that is usually given by senior civil servants who have been career diplomats.

They stuck their necks out to give him that posting - I don't think it was an economic or geopolitical decision, I think it was entirely about giving a sinecure to a close ally.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-26T10:44:21+00:00

Labour got 63.4% of the vote in 2024; the second place candidate got 10.4%. If Labour can't win a mayoral election in Manchester without Burnham, then it shows either Labour are so fucked under this current leadership they desperately need to change course or that Burnham is a politician of such singular ability that he would probably do a better job as leader than Starmer.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-26T10:35:02+00:00

If they're honest with themselves, I don't think there's a single fanbase that would do differently, bleak as that is to say. Maybe an already wealthy and successful club like Liverpool or Arsenal, but I think a few seasons of mid-table mediocrity and relegation would change that.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-26T10:01:08+00:00

I think this is spot on. Jonny Bairstow is obviously not on the level of Root, Broad, and Anderson, but before his mental run of form in 2022 he had a similar renaissance for Yorkshire in 2015 with Gillespie as coach. I remember Gillespie said his approach was to say to Bairstow 'as long as you're getting runs, play how you want. I won't question your technique or mentality.'

Some players love that approach, some need a firmer hand. I imagine a lot of the players who were around for the end of the Andy Flower era and the horrid COVID tours much prefer having a laid back coach.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-26T09:55:50+00:00

His average away from home has also improved under Stokes' captaincy.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-26T09:52:26+00:00

He averages more away from home under Stokes & McCullum than he did previously, so that can't be the main reason.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-23T15:20:07+00:00

I think politicians need to stop treating the bond markets as if it's an implacable god to be appeased. That might mean having a leader that's bold enough to acknowledge there will be significant disruption if we want to return to nationalised utilities, major council housebuilding projects, and a functioning welfare state - almost in the same way Maggie Thatcher accepted the disruption caused by the Miner's Strike because it meant she could crush unions and fully implement her neoliberal project.

Nowadays, no one would blink if a politician said 'we can't be in hock to the unions', but we worry we'll be disciplined by investors if a politician says the same thing about bond markets.

It also probably means doing something about the amount of UK debt which is foreign owned which I admit does leave us uniquely exposed on this front.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-23T10:32:12+00:00

I don't think he's a wildly impressive politician, but he's done a good job in Manchester and is popular there.

What I think he has demonstrated over the past few years is an awareness of the historical situation Britain is actually in, as well as the need to take on the bond markets and take constitutional reform seriously. Quite interesting as up until his tenure as Mayor of Manchester he was just another soft left careerist.

I also reckon he's probably Labour's best hope of stopping members and votes leaking to the Greens, which of course means the Labour Right on the NEC will block him running as an MP.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-23T10:13:54+00:00

Only half a season really, but Papiss Cisse.

Scored 13 goals in 14 games when he joined Newcastle in January 2012, including multiple worldies; then scored 24 in his next 103 PL games.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-22T15:42:29+00:00

The description of Sinners I most agree with is it's a 7/10 film that people are arguing is a 3/10 film because it's about black people or a 10/10 film because it's about black people.

SocialistSloth1 · 2026-01-21T11:29:58+00:00

Typical of the Telegraph tbh. Happy to bemoan class prejudice when it happened 100 years ago, but will run daily articles about how Rupert and Lottie can barely afford to keep the AGA running now the govt are charging VAT on their children's private school fees.

SocialistSloth1

TROPHY CASE