David Kelly

I think you've got some weird sense of exactly what I'm thinking now Howay.

It seems some people go so far overboard defending Rafa if anyone brings up anything they think he's done wrong. I got dogs abuse on twitter at the beginning of the season for saying that he was wrong to play Anita right midfield (which of course he was). The man is a human being capable of making mistakes and just because the rest of us don't have his experience, it doesn't mean that we can't call him out on those mistakes. Just because I think we could have success with playing Mitro with Gayle on some occasions or that we should be changing the way we try to play when we don't have the most pivotal player in the squad available, doesn't mean that I think we have anything but the best manager available and one of the top 3 managers we've had in my lifetime, or that I think we doing anything other than heading the right direction. As much as there are some moaners who kick off at the slightest set back, I think there's more people who have a ridiculous overreaction to anyone who doesn't see everything as perfect.

I agree with Rayvin and Howay. I think given Short's lack of interest in the tramps these days, he's more than capable of just saying fuck it I'll not take the risk we'll get relegated and lose him for nothing in the summer when I can get £10m now. I also think Defoe would jump at the chance to head to London and would be a great short term signing for West Ham. He'd get a substantial amount of games for the next season or so and at 34 I doubt he'd be too worried about the possibility of not playing every week. Clearly if they did sell him they'd be absolutely fucked. He's their only good player and source of goals and there's no way they could replace him for that money even if Short were to give them it all to spend. You'd imagine it would have a seriously detrimental effect on the morale of the remaining players and the inbreed's who watch them.

I thought we paid £5m for Murphy. Personally I think he just doesn't rate Mitro. That's fair enough but we should be replacing him with who he does rate because we need another option imo.

Personally I would give Mitro a chance not because I think he's a world beater or he should play ahead of Gayle but because I think Gayle could possibly do even better with someone with him giving the opposition something else to think about. Perez certainly hasn't done that this season (or last for that matter). And whether he starts or not, Rafa needs to think about some of his substitutions. To me it seemed an obvious move on Monday to bring Murphy on before they scored to give us extra firepower when we were well on top but struggling to score. When he wasn't brought on and they scored he should have certainly been brought on immediately at that point. To bring him on in the 88th minute was ridiculous (just as it had been on Boxing Day with Mitro) and gave him no chance to make an impact.

Morgan hit a last ball 6 for 70no this morning for the Thunder in his last game in the big bash before he heads out to India. Hopefully him Willey and Billings can take on their form from Australia where they've all been excellent.

As first days back go mine has been alright. I've been too busy all day (without having any deadlines to worry about) to spend any time thinking about how much I can't stand work.

Yes

I am a bit concerned that Rafa doesn't seem to have worked out another way for us to get wins in the sort of games we've managed to lose. Although I don't really think yesterday was one of those games as we created more than enough chances to have won it, it was just one of those days we couldn't (fairly) put the ball in the back of the net.

I totally agree. I personally would prefer Delph over him but I think Cleverly would be a good signing and can't believe people are expecting more than England internationals in what should be just about the prime of their career. Cleverly has also already proved himself as a quality player in this division.

Two games in two days? Now that is tricky for them!

Anita being one of the worst central midfielders I've seen for us would be my problem with putting him in there. He's no better than Colback and people seem to have forgotten that because he's been doing a good job at fullback. We just have to get through the next couple of games and get Shelvey back. Hopefully with another signing or two to help him out.

We really do need to get back to the insults (and not just insulting Fish) to get the season back on track.

Yeah I enjoyed it. You never know whether you're going to get laughs or just freaked out by Pemberton and Shearsmith and I thought this one was probably heavier on the latter (no surprise when you think back to the League Of Gentlemen Christmas special) but certainly had some laughs too.

Thought Sherlock was one of the best ones they've done for a while. They've still never surpassed A Study In Pink for me though. I enjoyed Witness For The Prosecution. It's not as good as the Charles Laughton film but still a nice piece of Christie.

Not seen captain fantastic yet (or even heard of Wizard Mode) but I really enjoyed all of the others that you liked and all of the ones that you've not seen. I've spent most of Christmas watching old films (gutted that Zulu wasn't on) or repeats of Only Fools and Horses. Might try and get some new films watched this week.

Definitely harsh on Ali, especially as he's just got four hundreds in the last year. But it's plain for everyone to see that he's not a frontline bowler. It remains to be seen whether Rashid is the answer there though. Ali's struggles against the short ball are likely to be tested against Australia too. That batting lineup certainly looks exciting though.

Aye I certainly want Cook to play on it's just his time as captain that I think should come to an end.

I really think it's time for Cook to go as captain now. We have some quality players but there doesn't seem to be enough fight in the team when things go against them. Maybe changing the captain will help address that. This was always going to be a very big challenge but the last two tests have been pretty pathetic on the whole (while still having some good individual performances). I don't think that there's much in the line up that needs to change apart from having everyone fit (Wood would be a good addition if he could stay fit but I suspect he'll always be a bit injury prone) so beyond that it's either the captain or coach you need to look at. Bayliss and Farbrace have done an excellent job with the white ball teams and I wonder if having Morgan (and Butler) captain those teams has also had a more positive influence than what Cook is having with the test team.

I think Cooks captaincy hasn't been great this series and he's going to feel pretty deflated with the results. I would expect him to step down now.

Parky's score of 6.5/10 seems a bit high for the the rest of the review. I agree about Luna, don't think he is up to leading a film like this. The lack of a Ford standard personality will, along with the Director Krennic not being the fearsome antagonist of previous episodes mean that despite this having a lot going for it, it's not going to be right up there with the best of the franchise.

A draw looks the most likely outcome now. We'll surely struggle to fuck up enough in the time left.

Rogue One. Very good last hour or so and I loved the ending. Mendelsohn was slightly disappointing. I really like him as an actor but I didn't think he stood out as the main bad guy. Mind you, you could consider him the third tear bad guy in this story so he shouldn't be standing out above the other two.

That's just made my Christmas.

We all want so see big hundreds though don't we? I'm sure he does. He's well behind Kohli and Smith in the amount he's got.