strawb

Interesting point of view, bare in mind I'm nearly 32 but I played for Sheff Wed, Sunderland and Hartlepool as a youngster. It was about the time of the change from centres of excellence to academies. In real terms little changed between the two apart from the distance I was allowed to travel (hence the move from playing at Sheff wed and training at Chester le street with Simon smith, to going to the Sunderland "academy" with Ged McNamee). From my knowledge none of the lads I played with made a career out of football and I would be surprised if many of them went to university, they probably did what I did, played semi pro and got a manual job. The distinction between general intelligence and footballing intelligence needs to made though. It's too simple to say that the lads there weren't intelligent, there were some lads probably who would struggle to count to ten, but put them on a football pitch and the world made sense to them. I mean a couple of my favourite players, Beardsley and Gazza, arguably two of the cleverest and most imaginative, intelligent footballers ever (imo) are (having never spoken to either) thick as fuck. The problem with English football is the press, overestimating players, a lack of good players and it being 5 times more expensive to get a coaching license here than in Europe. Again imo.

I'm still in the paperwork stage of buying my house, my side was done in 2 days, 3 weeks later still waiting on the other parties. I feel like telling them to stick the house up their arse but it would probably be just the same if I found somewhere else. Since me and our lass split up I've got a fair bit more money saved from not paying for meals out and that so I have systematically bought pretty much an entire new wardrobe and about 7 pairs of trainers. Feels good.

Well put

Look at it this way, everyone slags off sissoko and Janmaat and Krul etc. But they are the only players other teams actually might want to buy. Other people want to buy them because they are good players. People are annoyed with them because they are obviously our better players but we went down, so it's easier to blame an outlier than to pick up on the massive fucking shortcomings in the rest of the team. Imo.

Too old for my blood that, grandad.

Emery wanted to take him to Seville, he is now at PSG, so I imagine he will play him pretty regularly. He is better than the other players in his position apart from Di Maria so I can see him being in the first team tbh.

7 year low in construction (my industry) output and we have been told that skilled European workers, from tradesmen to architects may not be able to stay. Good job we don't have a skills gap as it is.

Depending on how your chimney is bricked up you should be able to get it out by taking one or two bricks out, set it free man. Then Chinese hat the chimney like HMHM said.

I think he is about 5'7" so I doubt he will play up top on his own in the championship. If Ritchie signs I wouldn't be surprised to see us play some form of 2 up front.

Would rather play Lascelles and Mbemba, if he is coming as third choice then fair enough but he has been bobbins/not playing for three year.

Depends how much Townsend goes for. Also I don't think anyone can accurately judge a players worth anymore, its a sellers market with loads of cash floating around. Personally ignore transfer fees altogether now.

Aye the skinny cunt, need to get him on the Elliot diet immediately.

Aye definitely. If Townsend leaves and the Ritchie rumours are true, Rafa could be thinking about playing 442 imo. I'm not sure Gayle can play up front on his own in the championship.

He's quick which is something we are missing up front.

Our H&S law is tied to European legislation extremely tightly, the conservatives have already hamstrung the HSE by cutting its budget and making it make its own money, so rather than focus on enforcement of law they are concentrating on FFI to pay for themselves. The cutting of budgets means visits by HSE inspectors have fallen year on year under the conservatives. All changes to H&S legislation will be done under he guise of cutting "red tape" and improving productivity, but I and many other H&S professionals are worried that this will come at the cost of worker safeguards and lead to a more dangerous place for workers.

Safety nobheads like that give the rest of us a bad name. Probably one of the many who have learned everything they know from a classroom and never worked on a site in their life.

Still shite ugly shoes mate

My Grandad wears Sketchers, he is allowed though cos he is 89, worked on the tugs all his life and has two knackered hips.

Poor fucking bloke, each and every hobby or pass time he pipes up about gets ridiculed.

I will be voting to stay. I work in H&S, it is discussed regularly in our circles that people's H&S at work would be put under pressure if we were to leave. The current government has already cut the HSE budget by 100 million, which is seeing inspectors visits fall year on year. This was all done in the name of reducing "red tape" and there are plans to push if further which are currently being held up by European regs. This "red tape" means not only are workplace fatalities & accidents falling across Europe but the UK is performing best. I know H&S can be seen as a party spoiler or whatever but our record and methods are something to be proud of and improve rather than reduce, IMO.

Booked up for 3 nights at Oktoberfest with 5 of my mates, going to get face all up in some beer wench titties.

A vote would be more democratic than the previous method

Cheers mush. I'm buzzing, living with the ex has been the most toxic fucking thing ever. Now I get to actually choose the decoration of the house I'm living in, for the firs time in 5 years

Think I have actually bought a house this time. Bid accepted, off the market, solicitors instructed. Thank fuck!

Aye condolences mate