BigWalrus

Are you looking at me? And him? At the same time?

Burn!

Shares the same group of agents as HBA, too.

We were in the Champions League that year, but spent massively to get there. Imagine this situation. You buy 30 high end sports cars using money borrowed from the bank. You then sell them for 70% of what they cost you. You look flash as owt, and look like you're a real player, but in actual fact you've just lost a fortune and still owe the bank the money. NUFC no longer works like this, thankfully.

Hot on the bot.

401.8 on Chrome at someone else's work, over wireless and a remote connection.

I'm going. Usual seat. Expect about 25-30k there.

Might still work out cheaper than booking directly with the airline now, in which case I reckon it's fair crack.

Back in those days though, there wasn't much money in it. The average top division wage was reasonably in line with the national average for someone in employment. Now it's about £1.6m a year! Back then, money wasn't much a factor. It was more about playing for a club where you'd be happy, where you'd develop and potentially where you'd have the best chance of playing for the national side.

Still can't work out why anyone in their right mind would think that stunt was a good idea. What went through his head?

He could have consulted with his linesman, who was standing about as close as he possibly could to the incident. Instead, the card was out of his top pocket before he had the chance to think about it. That makes me think that he must have got a pretty good view of it, otherwise he's given an instant decision based on the reaction of Fletcher and the crowd.

Coloccini and Gutierrez were both on silly money (£3-4m per year each) - they'd have been mad to leave, even when we were relegated. Nobody would offer them similar elsewhere. To be fair to them, they've stuck at it and been model professionals throughout their time here. I also agree that we'd have struggled to give Coloccini away after his first season here. He bulked up over the summer and gained a hell of a lot from his season in the Championship and hasn't looked back since. I don't think there is such a thing as loyalty in football. "Loyal" players are those who are either paid enough to stop them going elsewhere or those who aren't good enough to attract the interest of any other clubs. Xisco has been incredibly loyal.

He's a fame-hungry media whore. He's a classless muppet.

1. What have you made of your start to the season so far? Relatively slow start, but not too different from the start we made last season. The performances haven't been brilliant, but we've only been beaten by Chelsea and Man Utd so far. Disappointed not to pick up three points at Sunderland and at home to Villa though - that would have left us on the cusp on the top 4, level on points with yourselves. 2. What are your opinions our our start to the season so far? Solid start to the season. I wonder how much of it is "new manager syndrome". Great home form, not so good away (hopefully that continues...). 3. We've recently seen Alan Pardew given a new eight year contract, what are your reactions to this? Nice gesture, but ultimately meaningless. If we went through a prolonged period of failing, I'm sure he'd get the boot fairly swiftly. His contract is supposedly largely bonus driven rather than any monstrous annual salary, so the likely pay off - if it came to that - would not be astronomical. 4. Mike Ashley always seemed an unpopular figure around your parts, what are your opinions on him? He's made some horrendous decisions in his time, but he's now largely doing good for the club. We're not throwing money after players unnecessarily, we're paying relatively sensible wages and we have some very fair deals on season tickets at the moment. We could do without the Sports Direct branding on every bit of free space inside St James Park, but football seems to be going that way. I certainly prefer Ashley to Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall. 5. What are your opinions on WBA as a football club alongside its supporters? Never really had much interaction with WBA fans. As a club, you were alongside us in the year in the Championship, where we were clearly the best two sides in the division. Since then, we've both established ourselves as Premier League clubs. I doubt many people have bet money on either of us going down this season. 6. Which players in your side should we look out for, and which players in our side do you fear? Hatem Ben Arfa and Demba Ba are two obvious players in terms of attacking threat. For WBA, Shane Long seems to be having a canny season so far, and Mulumbu has looked impressive. 7. What are you expecting for the remainder of the season? Personally, I'm expecting us to pull together some sort of consistent form, continue to be strong at home and finish between 6th and 8th in the league. I'd probably settle for that too. 8. What are you expecting from WBA for the remainder of the season? Do we have a chance of Europe? Everyone in that middle group has a chance of Europe. All it takes is a couple of favourable games on the fixture list, playing the right teams at the right time, and you can find yourself 6-9 points better off. It can make all the difference. 9. What side is Alan Pardew most likely to put out? Krul Simpson - Coloccini - Taylor - Santon Ben Arfa - Anita or Perch or Bigirimana - Cabaye - Gutierrez Ba - Cisse 10. And finally, score predictions. 2-1 to us

Linesman was standing yards away with a cracking view of the tackle - he didn't move a muscle.

That's brilliant.

It's a pointless exercise comparing derbies. How are you meant to measure it? Ultimately I don't give a shit about the Merseyside derby, but I give a shit about ours. I imagine it would be vice-versa for the dippers and the scouse-mackems too.

http://www.readytogo...ad.php?t=736936 Your team talk to the lads sunday We are good. They are evil and cheat, lucky and desperate. We are together, confident and better. Believe in youreslf, your team mates and justice. We will win if you trust in youreslves. Take care of this today. Love this, love every detail, remember everthing and give every thing you have and this will be a day that lives with you until you die. FTM.

Changed my mind. Start with Shola and Ba.

I wouldn't start with Shola. He's worth leaving on the bench, just so we can play with their nerves when he warms up and starts doing squats in front of their fans. Imagine the butterflies in their collective stomach when he comes on with half an hour to go, with the score at 0-0...

Pies are fine (occasionally get one that burns your mouth out). The pints are hit and miss. Lager tastes like soil, but the Guinness and Caffrey's is canny.

I've always found Viking to be quite competitive with their office supplies, offering a high level of service.

I thought the authorities over there decided that the score would stand at 2-0, rather than replay the game...? Makes no difference to me really, the main thing is that we have Ba and Cisse for as long as it takes for Spurs and Liverpool to sign them.

Seems like a bit of an empty gesture considering they didn't qualify anyway. It's like banning NUFC from the Champions League this season.