Substack 12+

As ever, a excellent read Paul, I agree with most of your post, I think FSG have pulled another rabbit in Arne, Jurgen gave us everything he said he would, including leaving the club in a very healthy position,
As brilliant as Jurgen was/is, Arne is more hands on and can give those who need it that extra bit of confidence,

I’m excited by what I’ve seen thus far albeit we have yet to be properly tested, but the signs are very good, it looks like we’ll press with more purpose perhaps more methodical, he has the a tool box full of the right tools and with a couple of additions I honestly can see us challenging for major honours, yes, even this early in our transitional season,

We weren’t too far away last season under the burden of Jurgen’s last hurrah, I felt his bombshell actually had the adverse reaction he hoped it would, but that’s gone now and we have potentially a squad capable of taking those other two horses to the finishing line, again, and who knows who’s nose will cross that line in front??

Would you bet against us ??

YNWA

I’ve come onto the app looking to find writers in the topic areas that I’m interested in (tech mainly). The app is difficult and non-sensical to navigate. at the beginning, it just gave me a list of writers that I’ve never heard of to follow… which is just silly, because how am I supposed to choose anything when I’ve never heard of any of these writers. I can’t believe it doesn’t let you choose topic to follow, and then bring writers in from that. Then when I do go and select a bunch of writers (having to randomly selects based on what they’ve called themselves, hoping that they are good ones, because I have no reviews or anything to help me navigate that)… The only thing I’ve left in my inbox with is the crap that made me select at the beginning (some sort of rubbish editors picks). None of which I’m interested in. And all the writers that I just went and clicked on are not appearing in my inbox! Unbelievably frustrating. So massively inferior to Medium. I’m not sure why anyone would use this vs Medium. And no. I don’t work for Medium. I just hope someone at Substack reads this. Also, why am I not paying for membership? Perhaps if you guys had sensible membership subscriptions, you wouldn’t have to go to crowdfunding to raise $2 million.

You know (Polis) how I feel about A Good Year, and my singular inability to put words together in the way you have done and do is the very reason my own attempts at authorship have stalled, died and been buried in the cess pit of lost dreams.

There are a few books I have read and enjoyed as much as your twelve days of Christmas folklore tale. They would be Christ Stopped At Eboli, The Name of the Rose, The Magus (although that was so long ago I may be misremembering), and just to prove I’m as shallow as a pond evaporating in the desert, DP Clarence’s The Paper Boys, which I galloped through with the alacrity of a frisky colt put out to grass.

I have recently bought Disbanded Kingdom and will read that when it comes to the top of pile. And what a pile it is. I recently discovered a perfectly apt word, from those masters of apt words, the Japanese. It is Tsundoku - the phenomenon of acquiring books. Mine have become a fortress needing a literary Joshua to bring the walls tumbling down! Oh biblical bandsman come blow your horn!