Sunday, January 16, 2022

What Premier League Club Should a Gheorghie Support: The Shlara Edition

Shlara is likely the most accomplished of the Gheorghies. First of all, she knows Gheorghe, for chrissakes.

If you start typing her name into the Ghoogles, it autocompletes it correctly. She's served in senior executive roles in multiple organizations, has been on the board of directors of several significant non-profits, and has founded her own business. As Guy Fieri notes, she's the real deal.

She's a serious person, indeed. She's got substance. Her career has been marked by a focus on communications, social purpose, and enterprise community relations.

Nobody could argue that Shlara is shallow. But she does have a weakness for a certain type of tall, handsome authority figure. Jay Wright, for example. 

Shlara needs a football side that's deeply entrenched in its community. One that takes its responsibility to its supporters and the people its local environs seriously. If it happens to be led by a handsome fellow who looks good in a suit, so much the better.

Shlara should support Aston Villa.

Villa are a solid side, the best team in Birmingham, which is a cultured and vibrant city in England's West Midlands. They were one of the founding members of the Premier League, only dropping out of the top division for three years in the mid-2010s. They're currently a solid fixture at the top level, though early season inconsistency led to the firing of head man Dean Smith in November. (Ironically, from a Gheorghian perspective, Smith was immediately hired by Zman's Norwich.)

Smith's departure opened the door for Villa to name one of England's legendary players to his first Premier League head coaching job. Stephen Gerrard capped a magnificent 18-year career with Liverpool in 2015. He played a valedictory campaign in MLS with LA Galaxy before beginning his coaching career in earnest. After a stint with Liverpool's U18 side, Gerrard led Glasgow Rangers from 2018 to late last year, taking the team to its first Scottish Premiership title in 10 years and going undefeated in the process in 2020.

He's also a handsome lad. Again, we note that Shlara isn't shallow. Not at all.

Villa also walk the walk in Birmingham. The club's relationship with Acorns Children's Hospice is unusually close in comparison with others in the sporting world. Villa has worn the charity's logo on its kits in games past and sold kits with that livery to raise money. The club's foundation serves a wide range of community needs, including food delivery, wellness training, and other educational missions.

In addition to Shlara, Prince William is a Villa fan. As is Tom Hanks - a good dude, for sure. So she's in fine company. Villa's claret and blue kits are distinctive, and the club's rampant lion logo is classy and cool. Like Shlara.

Up the Villans! Up the Shlara!

44 comments:

  1. wow--thank you Rob! this is awesome, I have a team that suits me and didn't have to do any research. now I have to buy an AVFC jersey

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  2. "Under the Volcano" is a good documentary about George Martin's studio in Montserrat. Some of the bigger hits in the 80's were recorded there like Rio, Synchronicity and Brothers in Arms. It features quite a few interviews with the artists. It's on Showtime.

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  3. Whitney, given your recent now-legal purchases, you may want to buy this.

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  4. JC, I dug that documentary.

    https://gheorghe77.blogspot.com/2021/08/add-2-more-to-list.html

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  5. And I have one of those! Different brand. Helpful.

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  6. Pretty excited for todays slate. I’m obviously invested in the Bucs game. And the Bucs and Philly have a sneaky good playoff history. Weather not in Tampa’s favor today. Cowboys-49ers is my favorite game of the weekend (on paper) and a really great historical rivalry. I don’t think the. Ugh t game will be a good one but KC is always worth a watch and Arrowhead will be on fire tonight. And I get tomorrow off! Let’s go!!

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  7. Weather was supposed to be shitty in Tampa today. It certainly is on the east coast.

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  8. just saw that the bills played the nfl's first-ever perfect offensive game yesterday. no punts, no turnovers, no field goals. touchdowns on every single drive until they took the knee at the end. never happened in the league's history before yesterday. that's amazing.

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  9. Sssshhhh!

    They did that against the #2 scoring defense (#4 by DVOA). And it was Belichick. Tremendously satisfying. Shades of the 1990/1 AFC championship game against the Raiders. Hopefully the next game pans out better this time around.

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  10. Bucs are up 14-0. But down to pro bowl o lineman. Adding that to an already long list of significant injuries is not great long term.

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  11. Finally got around to reading the post. Good job by Rob, and Shlara deserves her own team. I’ve only met her once but she’s great and was kind to me despite her disdain for Gators. Anybody who is loved by Rob, Teej and Mrs. Teej is good in my book.

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  12. scoreline's gonna look like the eagles defense got dominated, but philly's offense and special teams were comprehensively awful. and the bucs defense was sick.

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  13. and jalen hurts has been brutal

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  14. Bucs defense is great when healthy and they are for the first time in a long time. Lavonte David is the most underrated defensive player in the NFL over the past decade.

    And I’ve been saying this since his time at Bama, Jalen Hurts is a great guy and a great leader but he doesn’t process fast enough, nor is he accurate enough to ever to be a real QB. He’s not the answer for Philly.

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  15. check this out. fog:tb clyde's kid recorded several hip hop tracks. pretty cool flow:

    https://soundcloud.com/seantinnen/sets/rookie-szn?ref=clipboard&p=i&c=0&si=D111E8B026EE476C979E3641A4A1570E&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

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  16. Deebo is a fucking monster. Yet another guy who Will Muschamp wasted with his refusal to run an innovative offense.

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  17. I appreciate how much you can count on the Cowboys sucking. Must be a bummer to root for Washington and understand that you’re worse than Dallas.

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  18. the strategic incompetence on display during the niners/cowboys endgame was breathtaking

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  19. I enjoyed the Nickelodeon broadcast, don't judge me

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  20. I hope Mike McCarthy spends the off-season evaluating every play from this game. Or at least lies and tells Jerry Jones he did.

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  21. I was deep into the Bucs game and not on Twitter. And then I was cooking dinner and missed most of it but TJ was on a heater today. It was an all timer of a Sunday for our guy.

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  22. On Twitter? It was a real downturn when Teejus defected from Gheorghe to Twitter

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  23. your tribe are 10.5-point dogs at home against towson this evening. i like the tigers.

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  24. I’ve never had MLK day off as a professional. Until today. I slept in. Took the family and my kids friend to brunch. Had a couple drinks at Brunch. Read a few chapters of the new book by Dan Shaughnessy on the 80s Celtics (I recommend) and then I took a nap (I never nap). Nice little Monday. And we get a playoff Monday night game!

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  25. Can Akers bring back on the field after tearing an Achilles in training camp is unfuckingbelievable.

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  26. Holy shit. What an awful decision. Game. Over.

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  27. This is a great pick for Shlara.

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  28. On another note, as some of you know I've mentioned (talked about with no real action) over the last three or so years about needing to change jobs. Well, I'm about to give notice to my current employer of just about 15 years at 3pm. Great resignation here I come!

    Normally, I probably would not sweat it but my boss happens to be a friend from W&M that most of you know. I do not think she takes it well which stresses me out. Wish me luck.

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  29. Good luck, Squeaker. I did the same thing from the same good company 12 years ago and survived (after a couple of years of hell.) Of course, I wasn't as outstanding an employee as you are.

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  30. You should use the U like Prince, JC

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  31. Whit, that was 12 years ago? Wow.

    JC, sure but it's a pharma company.

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  32. Congrats Squeaks. Any good boss should understand the desire to try something new. And what's the worst that could happen, you'll be hundreds of miles apart so she can't punch you.

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  33. Zman, you are correct. But her husband will be at Redeye's gathering this weekend, just one night. Thankfully he's not a violent type but it could add a like tension.

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  34. Well that went better than expected.

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  35. The NY Knicks made long sleeve t-shirts to commemorate MLK Jr.'s birthday. They wore these shirts to warm up before their game on January 17. The players autographed their shirts and now they are being auctioned for charity. I know this because the Knicks sent me an email with the subject line:

    MLK Jr. Shooting Shirt Auction is LIVE

    I did a triple take when I saw the subject line in my Gmail inbox. At first I thought it was a shirt commemorating his shooting, then I thought it was the shirt he was wearing when he was shot. Then I realized it was from the Knicks and that it was a shirt that the players wear while shooting before the game, and that it honored Dr. King.

    All this is to say the Knicks communications team needs a proofreader.

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  36. Congrats for making the change Squeaky!
    And, can someone write a new post, so this picture of me gets kicked down the page?

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