Sean

I don't get him and the spell he appears to put over English people at all. I have to accept it is seemingly true but I could look at say, Cameron, and see it but all I get is "That guy? Him?"

Also - PSR makes yo yo a real possibility. Maybe keeping someone long term is a good thing, both because Farke is experienced at getting out of the Championship - no small thing when you look at that league this year - and maybe you have a chance of figuring out a style and how to make it work

It's early enough in the season that a point would be okay. Maintains the gap to Forest too.
But, we are about to go on a horrible run of games. 3 points would really help. Think of how much better we'd feel if we'd beaten Burnley or not drop the 3 points off late goals

If we are going there for the win, you have to drop Aaronson. If you are trying to grind out a draw, he's more defensive. But I think we need to go for the 3 points.

It's worth saying James didn't look right even during preseason, so we might need to temper expectations as he comes back.

Who is the Bielsa class manager that we could get, right now, that is the difference maker we couldn't get as a player?

At best, you wildly speculate on a foreign manager you know little about, in same fashion we pin all of our hopes into whatever youth player isn't in the team.

He tried a formation change on Saturday and it did not go well. Aaronson at 10 in the Prem is... a stretch, mind.

Farke is good at bringing calm to chaos and fashioning a team that performs how you'd expect at that level. I don't think he can do the alchemy Bielsa that gets a team playing way above their level. The problem is few can.

To be fair to Farke, he's trying to find answers. It's not worked yet

If it was Bielsa, I'd yo to now from the end of time. Farke, not sure.

There's some logic about having a consistent manager and accepting some yo yoing. It runs against the entire grain of football, which recommends it for me instantly, but it gives you a chance at developing a style of play and the club and managers learning how to adjust it and what players work

My biggest thing with Sunderland is they don't appear to have went "ooooh its really hard, let's change to big bastards FC". They appear to have played their same game and got better players

If you are probably screwed anyway, Id rather run that risk.

Sunderland did have more money. And luck matters more than admitted for all recruitment - not just whether the player is good, but how they fit the team and how quickly they get up to speed.
None of our recruitment looks outright bad but we really needed them all to land quickly.

Farke gets you back up if you go down and helps manage the inevitable churn. Looking at how the relegated sides are getting on, this is not something to be sniffed at.

Who keeps this squad up, and is available?

It is important not to wet the bad after a bad result. That's said we are 100% going down.

Only caveat is that we've been better at home

Our whole strategy seems to have been to be 4th worst. You can say that our business was boring and sensible and defence keeps you up, sure. But we also could have tried to play how we did last season pretty successfully, and just improved the team to make it work.
We're also conceding a lot anyway.

It's important not to wet the bed at every bad defeat. But we are 100% going down.

The problem with "should but not" is it piles the pressure on subsequent games. Like if we were three points ahead, or had beaten Burnley, things would seem much rosier. As is, too much riding on Forest.

But I am against drawing people onto us full stop. You are never good enough for it to not be a risk. Bielsa told us this a thousand times.

There are maybe three worse teams. But we need to beat Forest and get a few surprise points. We haven't had many of the latter

We should be another 3 points ahead tbf. The issue is that we switch off for a tiny amount of games and we concede. Crippling for a supposedly defensive side.

Farke is trying to solve the conundrum of how we score and keep shape at the same time. But recruitment has done him.

Where is ours? The quality we bought was meant to be defensive. We look okay but switch off and are punished.

I'm at "are there three worse teams"?. I feel like as a club we've internalised that the Premier is hard and it's a struggle to get points. Sunderland haven't

Again concerning how many goals a side set up to be grindy and defensive are conceding, and not necessarily good ones either.

It is not, but universal fundamentals?

The situation is difficult. Various threats like bond markets are real. Even successful navigation will feel like a struggle. Payoff is deferred.

Genuinely talented communicators are an advantage. Are there any in British politics right now, nevermind Labour?

The nagging thought is: Joe Biden and the last democratic admin did mostly good government. It didn't matter, because the communication and visibility wasn't there and the message is hard.

The biggest issue is there is no one obvious that could communicate in the manner needed even if you wanted to

Decent chance of finding Jesus

Gnoto? Based on his last performance, I am now confident Aarsonson is the new Messi.

Ask people if they should let undocumented immigrants die in ER and see how it polls. Or whether a part of the police budget should be moved to prevention and have a supportive police chief beside you when you do.
"Abolish the death penalty" is a conscience issue. Some bedrock matters in politics.

It also.ignkres that intensity matters and leadership and framing can move the needle? Democrats reliably fall into the trap of seeing left wing policies polling well outside of campaigns and then being shocked when they fall off in a campaign.
There is a bit of that in reverse here.

Nation building is a long haul and I think sectarian instincts could be eradicated from Ireland tomorrow and we'd still have a lot of work to do if we won a referendum to make current unionists happy in a UI.
But some of it only really happens after, I think, when polity collides with real people.

Sectarian abuse ‘never okay’, says Sinn Féin leader after Heather Humphreys targeted during presidential campaign Defeated Irish presidential candidate said she and her family were subjected to ‘absolutely awful sectarian abuse’ during the campaign

As part of the campaign it was minor. I think it's unfair to say it was even slightly material.
Abuse happening should not be dismissed as minor and
Mary Lou did condemn it:
www.irishnews.com/news/norther...
Maybe she and others could be stronger, earlier. But it's all a work in progress.

I wondered about 2 strikers. It's perceived wisdom you can't do it any more but I wonder if it's been that long teams might get caught out.
352 is an option but is there anyone that could drop back so you are 442 on the ball but 451 off it?