My take on My Take:
Always entertaining and a good read. You know what you will get, i.e. a no-holds-barred assessment that will be fun to read but obviously goes in with both feet. If you haven't watched the game yet and read only My Take, you know it definitely won't have been any worse than pommpey called it. That's a given for any game. Your praise is certainly infinitely harder to earn than your creative ire.
As you do not like it ad hominem but want people's views, here is my personal view of the match. We were poor and are down. I was disappointed because after Brighton, I felt this was the one we would win. Everton and Newcastle are the two crappy teams way higher in the table than they should be. Were we atrocious? I did not think we were. We are clearly devoid of confidence, which in my view makes insistence on a changed system almost futile. At the moment, these players will not perform in any formation. We are Norwich Post-Lock-Down Mark II.
Because of the now complete lack of future prospects for this season, unlike after Brighton and Man U, I took no positives. I felt quiet disappointment, not acute pain like Leicester or Southampton. The final whistle had me accepting relegation, where before I kind of assumed romantic escape still to be possible.
Having said that, this was a rainy, boring, dreadful 0-0 if ever I saw one. Everton knew we have mistakes in us and when they materialized, they took one of only two chances I recall.
That does not mean they deserved the win or had us sussed with some inevitability of winning. They were crap, too.
Anyway, we were poor enough for me to know without reading what kind of artillery you would wheel out. As every week I read it and smiled. I like it and it has its place, but of course it is not a surprise. My Take is pommpey doing pommpey things. For several decades since SUISA as you pointed out.
Where I often also smile, however,when I follow discussions you are involved in is your reaction to people viewing your viewpoints as incendiary or not helpful for debate. It adds to the intrigue of the phenomenon pommpey that you seem surprised and belligerent every time it happens and quickly do your play the post not the poster response - or variations thereof.
So, as a matter of principle and away from the issues discussed in this thread, would you not agree that you have a very distinctive writing style that would allow any reader on here to pick out a pommpey post from a sample of five other randomly picked posts almost without fail, irrespective of the topic you post on?
A style that is entertaining, no doubt, but deliberately uses both creative swearing, strong symbols and exaggeration to make a point and make people laugh and think? The position you take on most issues would also rarely be surprising to regular posters who have read you before which in no way evaluates the merits of what you say, of course. Yours is always one of several perfectly valid viewpoint to hold. You are never a lunatic, just always heavily pronounced.
Having said that, my personal take would be that your distinctive style will never facilitate compromise. And that is despite loving to read what you write because you are a talented and creative writer. And a man of your control over language obviously has the option how to colour words or pitch his tone, depending on the topic of discussion.
So how can you still appear to be surprised by or get engaged in these little spats, pretending to yourself and others that all you are about is positions - never the way you deliver them? Of course, your style creates division for people who do not like your deliberately over the top stylings aimed at something they love so dearly, irrespective of the current quality on offer. Just by way of illustration: My partner may well be ugly these days, but I would dread to read Your Take on her, if you know what I mean?
So you are indeed clear and helpful on most things. But your clarity isn't of the type likely to create middle ground on any issues. In my view, of course.
