Rayvin

Oh god...I'd forgotten that.

Well, I'd be confident about this game (hope springs eternal) except for the obvious issue of having Alnwick in goal. Who knows what we'll end up with. I suspect Johnson and Larrson will be playing since I think they've some range on their shooting - I'd imagine that will be the main gameplan for the mackems - shoot whenever possible. As for us, impossible to say. On paper we should wipe the floor with them.

So on the one hand, this is exactly the sort of thread he'd love On the other hand, he did add something. There's far less furious debate now, it's just everyone agreeing with each other and CSD attempting to provoke Fish (who I think may have him on ignore judging by the interactions ) Not Ant's fault though, being banned for 12 hours is no biggy - he'd have been back online the next day.

that's actually awesome

John Barnes

Probably goes without saying, but you aren't really comparing like with like for Ben Arfa and Gouffran. Gouffran does track back, and does help out defensively (supposedly). To accurately measure their relative worth, you'd have to consider measuring those stats as well. Pardew might well argue that having Gouffran over Ben Arfa has won the side more points through solid defending. I do of course accept that both players are attackers - and on that basis Ben Arfa is clearly superior - but taken overall for Pardew's style, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Gouffran was a more valuable player to him.

Could renegotiate yet though, his current deal still has 18 months to run and it's not like he'd command a big fee currently. Much more likely to get game time here than at City or Arsenal (who I note are being linked). He can always move to them later and for more money.

How much would it be distorted if Boro came up and QPR went down though? Presumably it wouldn't take much to swing it back up, although I accept that they're looking at averages there.

Agreed, although obviously it's harming the UK's North Sea interests as well. Which I think we're just taking on the chin.

Tbf, Bruce should have known all of this before he signed him...

Anyone following the oil price issue with respect of Russia? Looks like it might be a US backed move to reduce prices in order to destabilise the Russian economy. It's working, if true (although at some cost, one would imagine). The Rouble has been tanking as a result though, so it looks like a good move. Pretty unfair on Russia of course. A counter for the Sino-Russian oil deal perhaps? Or am I just conspiracy theorising

I suspect you're right, with the caveat that any expenses incurred as a result of the cancellation should be paid for by the business in the same way that expenses would be paid normally. I don't think people can be reasonably expected to cancel everything just because an employer provides 'reasonable notice'.

Right so, I don't think they can do that really unless somewhere in your contract it specifically notes that they can. It sounds like a couple of managers are using their authority to push through something to assist them in covering up a failure to meet KPIs or something like that. The downside of course is that if you don't do it, they'll likely just make your life difficult for you. I still think it might be worth setting out that you'd made plans based on what they had previously communicated to you, and that it's highly disruptive to have to cancel everything now, given that it appears they want you to do this as a result of poor management of the department. Failing all of this, they should be prepared to pay a higher rate for the work. Or alternatively you could insist that they pay you back the day's holiday (although that never feels worth it to me).

If they agreed to give you it and then reneged on that, could you not just claim that you have a pre-booked excursion on that date and request that the pay any and all cancellation charges? It may be too late now if you said that you could switch to an earlier date though. (Also you would need to provide receipts I guess, but the threat itself might make them back off). At my work, I make regular decisions on who can and cannot take holiday at which time, but the only reasons I'd decline one would be if I was left with too short notice to organise for cover (i.e. less than one week) or if the standard cover person for that role was already taking the same time period off work. If I agreed that someone could take a holiday, that's binding as far as the company is concerned. If I really needed them to work it, I'd have to rely on positive work relationships for them to make other plans, or bringing in temps if absolutely desperate. Christmas does tend to cause problems in this respect though, as people are keen to burn through any remaining entitlement that they have.

It'll be like that scene out of escape to victory where they break one goalie's arm so that another can play... My money is on John carver doing the deed.

This is a fucking good post. Well said. In terms of everything else, has this been a concerted attempt to kill Fish's quiz thread with racism scandals?

If he ends up with about 10 goals this season then I think he should be considered a good striker for the future. As it stands, he's an improvement on Shola.

That is hilariously bad.

Liverpool's CL campaign this season: Taken from RAWK, but it amused me so I thought I'd share

Ahh, that's a shame...Liverpool really are in rapid decline. Why wasn't Borini playing though?

Here it comes, Liverpool's inexplicable win from fuck all...

I'm pleasantly surprised that our youngsters aren't rubbish, but if not for that, we'd be deep in it. Still, if the coaching staff were aware of this quality then I guess fair enough. If they weren't, then they're very fortunate.

I am slightly bemused by the now higher propensity of quiz related threads on this site...did I miss something?

A fair point, but do they actually do the breaking part? Seems to me that they just have 10 behind the ball - no goal threat to worry about at least. But I take your point. Although I thought that about West Brom too, and still we beat them. If Sunderland end up getting whipped up into the frenzy that they normally do, it could well work to our advantage.

Credit where it's due, our counterattacking is probably the best in the division. The defence sorting itself out is obviously a big part of that as well. We'll be destroyed by Arsenal but I think that's more down to player availability than anything else. Hopefully we'll make a game of Man Utd and the mackems.