Dolly Potter MD

I've seen the remake of 13 Tzameti. Mickey Rourke was in it, and it was shite.

Probably wasn't the best choice of wording on my part ie. players treating the game as a farewell tour. But i think there will be a couple of key players [or more] will most likely not put in the extra effort needed to close down that extra yard or so, to put their limb s on the line in a physical 50/50 contested situation. For some, whose futures potentially lie elsewhere based on form over the season & the club's time leap back towards it's feeder club days, Sunday will be more about physical self preservation. I think you overplay the potential financial rewards gained from a 3 point result, and as to whether the players will collectively bust their gut for it. There must be more than a hint of skepticism amongst senior players as to whether the football department will bear any rewards from a 5m windfall . The financial factor, as you infer, will barely register with this lot - a playing group which has been effectively sold down the river during consecutive EPL January transfer windows.

This is more of a compliment, WBA are a poor man's Arsenal. I admire their front office's football playing philosophy. It has cost them , in the form of relegation, yes - but to their credit, they've stuck to their guns as opposed to travelling down the Stoke or Allardyce Routes ie. awkward to play against/ survival based football based around a no-thrills & no-risk team mindset which ultimately kills any promising talent as produced by their respective academys. There's not alot of blue chip individual brilliance in their line-up but with time & space on the ball they are very capable of turning us over as a unit ala Bolton, if some players treat this game more like a farewell tour and fail to press accordingly.

"Patient Zero" by Jonathan Maberry.

Adaptions of critically well received horror/thrillers have been the flavour of the month for a while now. 'Let Me In' was inevitable, given the popularity of the vampire genre - it was a blatant but otherwise understandable cash grab on the studio's part. Thanks to the performances of it's two leads i thought it captured alot of the original's essence and appeal ie. a story about childhood bonding & mateship. The same cannot be said for another classy and original thriller, an offering which shouldn't be airbrushed for the sake of pleasing the mainstream cinema going audience. I speak of the French flick 'Martyrs'. I've heard the producers of the teenage friendly Twilight films are bankrolling it, and the film's director wants to serve up a climax which offers a glimmer of hope because the original is too dark. The original was unrelenting, a challenging ninety minutes viewing, and without giving away any spoilers the climax was provocative, it polarised viewers - the climax is a true 'love it or hate it' one. The remake of Martyrs has disaster written all over it.

The Fighter: top notch, 4.5 out of 5. The Killer Inside Me: Rubbish, 1 out of 5. I really enjoyed the mini-series ,"Generation Kill".

Enrique and Collocini the departures. Collo has 2 years remaining on his current deal, and obviously is a big earner - his stock has risen on the back of a solid campaign. It's Ashley's last opportunity to minimise his losses, as per the club's original 10m outlay. I expect our Iranian friend [Ashley & Dekka's consultant wheeler & dealer] to heavily tout him, especially abroad. There's nearly 20m there from those two departures, with 15m spent on fees. If Tiote goes it will be a bumper Summer for our owner. A profit will be made, it's a question of how much.

Hopefully this is the last opportunity a Pulis managed outfit [accompanied with his trademark brand of anti-football] has to stink-up a showpiece football date. Take away off-field politics out of the equation it was a win for football today. It's a pity that Bolton failed to deal with Stoke's awkwardnesss, as the alternative final match-up would have offered alot more for the neutral observer. Although he had some invaluable assistance from De Jong, i think Kompany has developed into a top premiership centrehalf. K.Jones' physical & aerial threats were nullified today, and Jones is representative of 'Stoke Football' - he isn't a footballer but he's an awkward one-on-one match-up for defenders.

Agree, absolutely nowt wrong with them. One of the shittest artists/bands going around imo. A three point penalty should be added for that. Chad Kroger/The Paddle Pop Lion = the Doctor Suess of rock lyrics.

A really shite Osama joke. What do cocks & Osama Bin Laden have in common? The both have a single hole in their head.

I was having a smoke outside the Emergency Ward the other day when a smart arse in a wheelchair trundled up to me & asked 'why the fuck are you smoking!' I replied......... 'Why the fuck are you wearing runners!'

Seymour Jnr, The McKeags>>>>>>>>>>>>>Mike Ashley. It took nearly two decades but the club has travelled full circle in terms of who or which clubs are benefitting thanks to Ashley's restoration of our 80's 'feeder club' status. It's a kick to the guts tbh.

Edit.

Risk a suspension [at the start of next season] all for the sake of window dressing a campaign on the final matchday of the season, to salvage a campaign which has fallen on its arse since the close of the January transfer window - and of course gaining a little cash windfall for potentially leap frogging a couple of other mid-table clubs. It's a totally different ballgame if we're fighting for and are in the mix for a slot in Europe etc. Starting next season with our strongest possible line-up, and with it the strongest possible opportunity to gather some positive momentum similar to what was seen during the opening stages this year, is more important than the above mentioned window dressing [and jumping a couple of positions for the benefit of Ashley's balance sheets] of another Ashley induced tango with the drop. Given your obsession with healthy net spend & balance sheet figures, and going by your mates' track record of selling our best players at the peak of their respective values [instead of building a team around them, a team to be proud of] the Tiote Problem might well be somebody else's problem next season.

............ and one of the most interesting sporting figures of the century. One part a raw & largely uncoached and uncoachable genius/talent, one part charismatic, and another being the volatile side of his on-course demeanor. Not many other sportsmen & women made for essential & captivating viewing. His eventual downward spiral [as a golfer, and later his health] is in dramatic contrast to the magic he supplied in abundance to sport in general.

An uncoachable genius at the height of his powers. His game was all about feel & creative shot management. Buggered things up by tinkering with his swing, by adopting a more orthodox or so-called coached swing. He tried to transform himself into a regimented ballstriker. Rip

I wonder if Dekka's PR spreading internet bots [or forum infiltators for a better term... I suspect this going on tbh] work pro-bono?

Those stats make great reading if you're the club's 100% shareholder looking to claw back his outlay, due largely to his own incompetence & ineptitude decision making............ long may the opportunistic asset stripping of well performing players continue, as long the obsession with end of year profits dwarfs the notion of providing successful on-field product. Those figures will look even more impressive after Tiote and Enrique's eventual departures, which will be sooner rather than later, whose replacements will be drafted for comparative peanuts.

A strong & mobile frontman who provides hold-up play, and also occupies defenders creating space in & around the box is a pretty bloody important ingredient for a midfielder (Nolan) who earns his crust by arriving late in the box. You can get into pedantics and analyse all of Nolan's goals (as to whether AC was credited with the direct assist) all you want. As eluded to earlier AC's strengths were central to a pattern of play which extracted the best out of Nolan.

Hopefully HBA doesn't become something of a one man show for us in attack, with our attacking edge and season's fate being heavily dependant on his health & durability next season. If this is the case [without viable/quality attacking options around him] he'll be targeted accordingly, particularly floating defensive midfielders - and his repaired leg will be tested out.

I'll give you a football related reason as to why Nolan will be nowhere near as productive next season, in comparison to the first half of the current campaign. Carroll's physical presence in the box often made it difficult for opposition centrehalves to effectively clear their lines, especially when the artillery was supplied from the wide channels when the build-up play was more patient & controlled, especially when Barton was heavily involved. As well as being a tough one-on-one physical match-up AC was a great reader of the ball in flight - his adjustment to the delivery often made it better than a 50/50 contest in his favour. Shearer wasn't a huge targetman, in terms of size, but his reading of the delivery [and his adjustment for positioning in his direct one-on-one match-up for contested ball] was exceptional, and i think AC just shades Shearer in terms of offering 'nuisance value' inside the box. When you combine that attribute with a dogged workrate to match second chance opportunities arise inside the box. This sort of supply line is essential for somebody like Nolan who has predatory instincts inside the box but as an attacking midfielder doesn't have the legs & pace to be a counterattack threat in the mould of Scholes. Nolan needs alot of help in order to be productive, in the way goal production. He doesn't produce individual moments of magic [on the ball] in the so-called hole through the central corridor. Carroll's aforementioned presence played a big role in Nolan's one and a half season purple patch. It's been no surprise that his scoring record has pointed southward in the wake of AC's departure. And this is the yardstick which Nolan is judged on, because he offers very little in creative build-up play. More thought should've been given to Carroll's importance to the team's attacking structure, rather formulating a January transfer gameplan aimed at how to best profiteer [for the sake of an end-of-year operating profit] off the back of the impressive exploits of an academy produced youngster/gem. I can't see the club/Ashley being prepared cough up the sort of money required to replace the overall package which AC was fast becomming, to the continued detriment of Nolan.

This goes on more than some people realise, in terms of clubs & 3rd parties escaping the noose. Third parties & club officials will always attempt to stay one step ahead of the game's governing body & the procedures used to detect offences - just like the war against drug cheating, it's a never ending arms race. Success in detecting offences is largely dependant on any sort incompetence on the clubs' & agents/3rd parties' respective parts, as to whether they've been stupid enough to leave any sort of paper trail. It's worrying when the club [lead by business types who have zero credibility in the way of ethics, & respectful dealings in the football world] enters into a loose business relationship with a known mover & shaker in this area of player recruitment ie. 3rd party ownership.

Some of those were very well received at the time. Owen is being discussed and is obviously among them. Some people thought Paul Dalglish was OK, and quite a lot of people were more than happy with Ketsbaia. Tomasson went on to play for AC Milan and personally I think if he had played alongside Shearer rather than the ambling waste of space Asprilla who just got on with his own game spending half the time on a different planet, his career here would have gone competely different to what it did. But Ferguson, you are joking right ? He was one of the best strikers in the premiership ? Those marked in bold in particular. And Cort was a top emerging talent at the time, certainly the pick of the crop at Wimbledon. I was just as excited at his signing, as the case when we signed Bellamy. Both were top performers amidst very average playing lists. In relation to raw ability & productivity levels, both were standouts. Cort is often very harshly judged, as a 'shit signing', to beat up the previous regime/Shepherd etc. Injuries curtailed his career here, and post NUFC as well. Hindsight is a beautiful thing. In fact Cort [going by the current transfer policy] is the sort of signing expected from the current regime ie. young talent brought in, to be improved, before being moved on for a profit.

A big reason as to why i believe the team is running on fumes now ie. picking up points at the tail end of the season. The win against Wolves was a godsend, along with earlier & unexpected points gains at Everton & Arsenal. There are some players [notably Enrique] who have done enough already over a large part of the campaign, to secure beneficial moves elsewhere - particularly in big games against strong opposition. Enrique has acclimatised to the pace & flow of top flight football, and his performances up until the final straight have reflected this, especially as a lock-down specialist who is capable of shutting down the opposition's attacking forays on his flank. Enrique is a pillar of strength, as per the above - the best in Europe imo. Some indifferent performances, at the tail end of the season for a club with no ambition whose recent & accompanying behaviour has probably demotivated & deflated some players, doesn't spoil his efforts & productivity and likewise it won't scare off suitors like Liverpool. Enrique has earnt a move away, on the strength of his overall season display - prior to his recent injury spell. His post-NUFC career imo has been sorted, and he's going through the motions now.

Add a top winger into the mix [to compliment the potential or likely purchase of Enrique], along the lines of Elia providing their interest in the said winger is reignited, and Liverpool have the left flank pretty much locked down. The left side has been a problem area for them, in both facets of the game - in attack & defense. The rebuilding process, with the intention/ambition of regaining the club's CL status, is looking good for them.