Ian Watt

@SimonBrundish @decayingcactus Diet is not cause though and I reckon you're smart enough to know it. Just a silly post shaming autistic families for no good reason.

@decayingcactus Ok

250000 more chocolate spread sandwiches then..... and a shocking increase in neurodiversity

@Yorkshire_Steve @WendyMissons @BarkerLeadershp When slide 1 of the open day presentation says "No PDA profiles here" and "No children with personal care needs here". A tough thing to regulate.

@WendyMissons @BarkerLeadershp By far the biggest number of concerns I read about are from 'absence of action' when pupils are in y6. No sendco at open eve Very limited/no opportunities to meet sendco pre-application to discuss needs and offer. No Send focussed school visit opportunities for parents

I think it’s part of the prep: inspectors could look at local schools and compare % SEND and other groups with school being inspected and ask why this isn’t reflected in that sch admissions, if it isn’t.

@vicgoddard @warwickmansell @kennygfrederick When you visit independent schools especially, and on the first slide of the presentation it says they don't accept "PDA profiles" and any child who needs support with personal care. Our experience is that all the local independent schools are like this.

@kennygfrederick ‘We don’t do noisy SEND’. ‘We are very strict so if your child isn’t very well behaved we will be in regular contact’. ‘If your child can’t read this passage of text when they arrive they won’t be able to access the curriculum’. We don’t do that reasonable adjustment’. Etc etc

One school I know had in their SEND policy on their website “if your child has SEN then this school is not the one for you.”. I reported them to LA & Ofsted but as far as I know nothing was done to address it. They received and Outstanding from Ofsted!

@GraemeKelly1 How does the manager stop being rubbish from here? On the pitch, there's no strong evidence so far. If the players are a problem, well he said yes to signing 5 of them. Would you let him say yes to another 5 for 300-500 million? Not sure there's any evidence for that.

This is exactly where I am tbh. He’s been rubbish. The players have also been equally rubbish. #LFC

@themagic_tophat Clear fouls don't usually require multiple slow motion angles to confirm. I'm okay with it being given, because consistency is impossible. If it's not given outside the box, the attacker gets told to get up and get on with the game.

@iewatt It’s not soft though. It’s a clear foul. If you obstruct by throwing your leg in front of someone running with the ball and they clip it, it’s a foul. If you then slode over that planted footed trapping it, throwing the runner off of their gait, it’s also a foul. Two fouls.

Now which one of these do Man Utd fans think is a nailed on penalty and the other not? 🙄

@themagic_tophat The set piece effectiveness will wear off, bad luck and injuries will happen again. Player responsiveness to Arteta will change. It's also just extremely rare. I would say the squad is in a better position than the last two times Liverpool won the league, so there is that.

@iewatt Why? Not as if the squad hasn’t gone through an iteration already. And not as if the squad is old. Just secured long contracts on a bunch of its best players. Others to follow. Not sure what better indicators there are?

There are so many toxic Arsenal “fans” on here who call for Arteta to be sacked every time we hit a snag. The stats speak for themselves though. He’s getting unparalleled results, with the lowest resources across the top 5. This run in; just back him & the team no matter what.

@themagic_tophat Haha maybe. Taking it quickly would incentivise making good runs, Arsenal are good at it. But we're seeing most teams spend almost a minute just bedding in a wrestling match. It's not a great watch. Does anyone think Chelsea's goal yesterday was good? Crap by both teams really.

@iewatt If grabbing isnt allowed at set pieces, Arsenal will score 5+ every game. Suits us 🤷‍♂️

A thread of the agenda 🧵

@themagic_tophat They definitely still foul at set pieces, all teams do. Referees don't know what to do about it and may need some help. Haven't heard many good ideas yet though. I'd probably start with a 30 second timer on corners, not withstanding other delays. Less time, less grabbing.

And for me, that’s a false narrative. Arsenal are labelled that way but it’s simply not true. Just because they’re the only ones called out for it, people build up this infected belief that they drove it. Everyone did it. The irony is Arsenal learned how to do it without fouling so they got more goals. People didn’t like that so they then hyper focused on Arsenal.

@themagic_tophat All teams do loads of fouling at set pieces. Arsenal took this to a bit of an extreme as trend setters. Before VAR there was a period where in open play, any contact equalled dive and a penalty. Conditioned ourselves to agree. We're now normalising the ridiculous at set pieces.

The thing is, Arsenal don’t do much fouling at attacking set pieces. It’s a false narrative that they do. What makes them great is the timing and blind side runs that create space and block channels without fouls. So different from 3 seasons ago (where there was fouling, which they ended up getting called up for). Literally every set piece coach in Europe is now trying to replicate it because it’s literally not against the laws. If it causes issues in other leagues, then Ifab might rewrite the laws. Who knows.

@themagic_tophat The fair play record can't really cover the league wide issue around set pieces right now. Refs have no idea what to do about it, from the time they're taking to the fouling. Deep down you know the fouling at set pieces is reaching a breaking point. World cup will be interesting.

“Don’t lie, it’s Arsenal doing all the holding and fouling at set pieces - dark arts FC”. You mean the team with the best fair play record? And sure - your teams aren’t waaaay worse offenders.

@FUDdaily It's a poor look and very Trump that "the right" have gone "You cheated" when "the left" have had their first good result in years. In theory I don't hate the idea that each constituency could become a battleground, especially if campaign funding gaps can be removed as an issue.

Greens: hard work doesn't pay anymore, and life is getting harder and more expensive - we will fix this. The slop right: Legalise pepper spray! The right is never going to win unless it develops a sense of self-awareness about how ridiculous it looks to the people it needs on side.

@ScottElliott10 @vicderbyshire Assuming this job requires a degree, you make it sound like a choice, but how would young people fund this otherwise? If the choice is "don't take a loan" then most can't go to university ever.

Here’s what Max owes - his student loan balance via gov.uk 👇

@BellaWallerstei You know that crushing tax threshold issue applies to your student loan repayments too?

I’m on Plan 2 student loans with both a BA and a Master’s so I’ll be paying this graduate tax for most of my working life not because I’m wealthy but because I worked hard and tried to better myself. The system is outdated, punitive and quietly traps earners in decades of repayments while the balance barely moves. But if I could prioritise what actually needs fixing in this country, it wouldn’t even be student loans it would be the crushing tax thresholds that drag workers into higher bands and a bloated welfare state that hoovers up the money of people who get up early, work hard and play by the rules. It’s demoralising to see your payslip hammered while government refuses to reward productivity, aspiration or responsibility. Hard work should make you better off not just a bigger target for the Treasury!! Rant over.

@themagic_tophat It's very telling that Saka's headline numbers aren't improving. He should be on the cusp of elite and maybe he is. Whatever happens this season I think it's reasonable to expect a drop off under Arteta next season.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹 𝗴𝗼 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲? After the defeat to Man Utd, Mikel talked about how the group had come together to reflect and agreed to play with freedom and joy moving forward. However, we’ve not seen that at all and IMO, it’s because of Mikel’s decision-making. I see him prioritising his need to minimise weaknesses in his system rather than prioritising how to platform his players’ strengths. He is picking tired and ineffective players who need to be carried throughout the game, as well as misprofiling attacking players such that they can’t play to their strengths. You could previously argue this was the right call when the system got results. But it’s stopped doing that. I am such a big fan of Mikel fan but it’s him who is sucking the joy out of the team and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone, least of all him. This is how we should be lining up now if we want to play with joy and to our attackers’ strengths. If Kai isn’t fit, we need to play Martinelli up top in the PL because Gyokeres and Jesus simply don’t offer nearly enough centrally. I can’t even name 3 PL teams they would start for. They’re liabilities to be carried rather than assets to be leveraged. Martinelli is woeful when shunted out wide but so dangerous when enabled to play inside. These are all things we have seen this season. If we’re away from home and Zubi is tired, he hides (he and Timber are exhausted from playing too many minutes). So play Ø or Norgaard or Myles or even Eze in MF instead. We can use Leo and Max to give Eze and Noni rest when needed - they are incredible super subs. Cala is priceless for stubborn midblocks and (a rested) Timber is amazing for dealing with tricky oppo left wingers. We have the squad to play incredible football full of joy and freedom but it’s down to Mikel to platform his players to do this. The system does not need to change - he just needs to trust that platforming players to their strengths more than compensates for any perceived weaknesses they bring to those system roles. What Mikel does next will likely define his Arsenal career - he needs to be brave and follow his own wisdom.

@HendrickD82 @ianyoungkop What is the right answer though. Joel Matip?

@ianyoungkop Oh dear. Woeful take tbh. 4 good months in his entire tenure at the club. Woeful and always injured.

Adam Lallana could be one of our most underrated players in the premier league era.

@SimonBrundish Even at the weekend @GNev2 was claiming Salah played for a foul when the opponent ripped an actual hole in his shirt.

Salah gets mauled and assaulted every game, 89 touches per foul the diving golden boy of England gets a freekick for a butterfly farting in brazil, every 19 touches

@tomhfh In simplest terms, yes. Is paying down loan interest for the majority of your working life a good use of money for anyone though, since that is the reality for many on Plan 2? Imagine if that cash was available for investment, housing, starting businesses...

I started overpaying my student loan five years ago. Even then (when the interest rate was much lower) it was obvious that every marginal pound is best 'saved' in clearing the loan asap. It's dumb to save extra money in an ISA if you're facing high loan repayments. I knew I couldn't guarantee a return of ~6% on savings but I was adding 6% to my student debt, so the best form of 'saving' was paying off early. If you're saving money but facing a big interest rate on your student loan, you should put your savings into paying off the loan instead.

@SimonBrundish This is the real reason why they want to make people wait six months between theory and practical, but I'm not even sure that'll fix it and I'm not sure why it's still broken post COVID.

NOTHING works in this country I can’t figure the incentive for the government to put off drivers

At some point in time booking a driving test became Taylor Swift tickets….