Dickie

Aye he is going to take some beatings. I didn't realise the winter tour is to Bangladesh and India. Ideally you want at least one spinner you can rely on to bowl 20+ overs per day in India cos if they're anything like they used to be they'll be preparing slow turners. I think with that in mind it would be canny if England decided to prepare a turner at the Oval and select Rashid at the expense of one of the top order and see how he gets on. I hadn't realised Rashid has already played for England, obviously missed that while I've not been watching in recent years - I'm guessing he didn't set the world alight. He's been around longer than I thought but looking at his first class record, its decent enough - 436 wickets in 10 seasons, so an average of 40 wickets per season, bearing in mind that leg spinning in English conditions for the first half of the season is usually a write off, isn't too shabby. I remember Graeme Swann playing county cricket for years before he got a run in the test side and never really looked like a world beater in that time, so I'd like to see a leg spinner like Rashid to be given the same sort of chance to make the step up.

Aye it was a great win that. They deserved it for the way they kept pushing for the win as soon as they knew they'd got a decent 2nd innings lead. I was really disappointed with the lines that Pakistan bowled on the 4th day - after they'd gotten Cook and Hayles out they should have at least had an hour or so attacking, trying to go for the kill. Very negative to keep bowling wide of off stump with a sweeper, especially to Vince and Ballance, and they basically ruled themselves out of a win and out of what would have been one of the most famous series wins in their history. Don't know if The Oval still takes spin as much as it used to cos I haven't really followed cricket for the last 10 years, but if it does I'd quite like to see them drop one of the top order, move Moeen up and bring in this kid Rashid they've been talking about. I don't think for a second they'll do that, given how well all the seamers bowled and it would be harsh on whichever top order batter got dropped, but for me you can't beat watching spinners attacking on a turning wicket. At least if it does spin then that Pakistan leg spinner should be good to watch and Pakistan will have to attack now if they don't want to lose the series.

Aye you've got a belter of a day tomorrow, especially as the weather is set fair - enjoy yourself! This is one of the beauties of test cricket, I never would have said the game would have been set up like this at close of play yesterday. Ideally the pitch would be deteriorating and England would have a quality spinner to take advantage, but neither of those things seem to be the case so it may well peter out into a draw. You never know though, there's probably a few twists and turns for us to enjoy yet.

I'm really looking forward to this. Colback will be canny enough in this division. We need to get Shelvey on the ball as much as possible this season and hopefully we'll have consistently good movement off the ball from the likes of Ritchie, Perez and Gayle to create space. Surprised Janmaat is still here, will be a very good player for us this year if he stays.

Looking like you'll be watching England bat to save the game on Saturday!

Nice one, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock are two of my favourite albums but I never got round to listening to that collection, in fact I'd forgotten it even existed. Might give it a go now - cheers!

Old Portuguese cure for bed wetting kids was to stuff their beds with nettles every time they wet the bed

The Team Foxcatcher documentary on Netlfix, about the murder of a top wrestler in America by John Du Point, one of the richest people in the world. Good story about a rich nut job, very well told.

Oh right, nice one. Still sounds like interesting work to me, and it's obviously an important field. Good luck with it!

If Rafa has managed to exert such an influence on Ashley that he can guarrantee the fees will be reinvested in the team then Sissoko and Wijnaldum for 20 mil each would be excellent. Neither want to be here, neither have got a heart and, although they might (especially Wijnaldum) go onto prove themselves as good players in better teams I'd be happy to see the back of them. Plus I'd have faith in Rafa to bring in players who'll do a better job for us with that money. Sissoko caught the eye in the Euros final due to his positive running against a team who wer basically happy to sit back and let him have the ball, but really I can't remember him creating any gilt-edged chances, which is what an attacking midfielder is supposed to do. He also did nowt in the other France matches I saw, very similar to what he's done for us for most of his time here. Happy to see him go - we've had plenty better players than him over the years who didn't seem to think the club was beneath them.

Crikey, sounds like you're in an interesting line of work Chez. You must have witnessed a fair amount of these kind of power games and skullduggery. Any plans to follow Smith into the corridors of power?

Anyone who watched us the half season he was here knows he was taking us down if he hadn't got sacked. Something that's always grated with me is that he's seemed to have a chip on his shoulder about our support ever since, similar to Sounness, without having the humility or self-awareness to admit that maybe he wasn't up to the job. I was at Stoke away in the cup which I think was his last game (KK was in the stands for the replay iirc) and it was one of the most turgid, lacklustre performances I've ever seen from any team. They still got applauded off and I don't remember Allardyce getting any abuse, although there was a home game around that time when there was a bit of "you don't know what you;re doing". He's an absolute charlatan, he's good for one thing only and that is getting small clubs to "overperform" (i.e. stay up) by playing pure dinosaur football. It would be hilarious if they don't qualify for the world cup.

I never knew that about the disabled supporters club. Personally, although as you nicely put it he has blotted his copybook, I'll have overall positive memories of him as a player. For the championship season and the next two after we came back up he was genuinely a joy to watch - as someone who enjoys watching quality defenders I'd put him above Woodgate because of the number of games he played for us and personally I just really liked his style of defending, all about anticipation and timing rather than relying on strength and pace. Some of his passing out from the back was different class as well. Overall in the last 3 years or so he's disappointed but he's certainly not been the only one. To be fair if someone hoyed 80 grand a week at me I'm not sure I'd turn it down - it would have just gone on some other twat anyway. But aye, would have been better all round if he'd left sooner - nevermind. If he means that last bit in his letter, and if he does turn out to be a decent manager/coach in the future, I'd be happy to see him back.

There's definitely something to be said for that. The only good thing to come out of this whole fuck-up is the quality of the thought/analysis/writing that has been done to try to understand and explain it. It's similar to the Greece crisis in that respect, and I would imagine similar things are happening in the media in all European countries. The only hope we have is that out of all of this debate comes some action to bring about a better way of doing things that addresses the concerns and plight of the disenfranchised people, of which there are clearly millions. Somehow it's hard to be optimistic about that though, cos you just know at the end of the day it's still going to be BAE with Murdoch and the rest of them continuing to run the show.

aye not much to look forward to. And that's without even mentioning the levels of homelessness that are going through the roof, let alone external worries like IS and Putin!

Another quality article by Paul Mason on the state of things, he's really on fire these days. Fairly long read mind. http://mondediplo.com/2016/07/03greece

Aye it's a shame with Given really, he could have seen that season out. I don't think he's a bad bloke like - I think he just made the wrong decision, probably under some stress to be fair to him and you never know what was going on behind the scenes at the club to persuade/disuade him to stay. I've long since forgiven him (no pun intended) - was was quality for us for years, mostly playing behind shite defences. He made a bad decision and probably regrets it himself. Not particularly fussed about Townsend. He looked canny enough last season but I've got a feeling he's going to be one of those players who does it in fits and spurts throughout his career. That's just a hunch. Glad he's going to Palace mind cos there's no way Pardew's going to get the best out of him - he'll probably have a storming start, as will Palace, and then the wheels will come off and The King will have him playing libero while the team goes on a 15 match winless run after Christmas. Happy we've got this Ritchie kid in straight away, can't remember seeing him play but I like what I've heard about him and it's good to have a Scot in the squad, we haven't had one since the Caldwell's have we?

Possibly, but most of the media had it in for him well before he was elected. In fact he won the leadership election largely in spite of the media coverage of him and his policies - remember the pure hatchet job the beeb ran the night before the elections? He's been on a hiding to nowt since well before he took control iyam.

Could the fact that Corbyn hasn't won back the 5 million lost vote be attributed to the fact that he doesn't have the support of the media (to put it mildly) or even his own treacherous MPs, rather than his hard-left message?

Very sad news, really talented lady. For me The Royle Family was a masterpiece, up there with anything in the history of British comedy imo. Obviously the other things she did were quality as well. Anyone remember Mrs Merton and Malcolm? I remember creasing at that as a teenager

Never read that, have been meaning to for years. A Farewell to Arms is the best war story I've ever read, probabaly my favourite Hemmingway book as well.

Aye no worries mate. A large part of the problem is that people on both sides are feeling betrayed and rightly so. It's a difficult subject to talk about without offending someone. I work with a lot of EU immigrants (Spain, Italy, Germany and Greece) and obviously we've hardly talked about anything else this week. A few times I've found myself trying to explain to them how the country could have ended up so fucked that a vote like this would have been possible and I have to be careful because it can sound like I'm making excuses for racists and xenophobes which of course isn't going to endear me to my EU mates. I don't think all leave voters are racists and xenophobes, and I also think if someone is a racist or xenophobe then they themselves are victims who we should try to understand the causes that have led to them ending up that way, but it's difficult to talk in these terms to people who are feeling personally betrayed by every single person who voted leave. That's really what it feels like to them.

I knew he reminded me of someone

I completely agree, I just thought the sentiment of the letter. i.e. "let's go back to a time when me and my mates were alright, nevermind the other 52 per cent of the country" was a bit arrogant to say the least