Alex

Was Mystic Keg the nickname manc-mag gave to Stevie (in light of his unpredictable predictions)?

Especially when the margins were so tight in the ties Arsenal and Man City lost

Been reading too much of the Mail probably

He’s got a hip injury and out of contract at the end of the season anyway I think. It’s the same issue that saw the loan cut short. But currently on Everton’s books, aye

Also, the bookies have October - December 2024 as the red hot favourite for the General Election date. Theoretically it could be Tuesday 28th January 2025. Imagine that? If you want my personal, cynical opinion, it’s not happening until after the summer as so many of the Tory party look set to lose their seats regardless and they won’t want the facade of having to campaign to interfere with their four weeks in Tuscany or whatever.

Would like to see him resurrect his career. But when I read that I thought it’s something he should have kept to himself. It’s not exactly realistic given how little football he’s played recently.

It’s grade II listed and there aren’t many parks outside London that are iirc. Leazes Terrace is grade I listed so that isn’t getting touched. So although it’s not Grade I listed, being a park and the rarity of that makes it less straightforward than if it was a grade II listed building. But I think you have a point with Leazes Park that could work in favour of the club. I think they would only have to slightly encroach on it by expanding the Leazes End. I would come at it from the approach of, if they were allowed to do that, restoring the rest of it to its former glory. And making it a green space people could use and is well maintained etc. You’re right about it being in proper poor condition

Legally there’s a minimum of 25 working days from Parliament being dissolved and the election. If one hasn’t been called by 17 December (5 years since the last one) then it would automatically be dissolved and happen 5 weeks after that. So, even if he called one now, it couldn’t take place for five weeks. By convention they take place on Thursdays

Yes. It’s fairly mild imo. At the last election they tried to stay as classy as MLFs. Whilst several different sources later showed the then government to have been misleading in a lot of their statements. Also, she’s still an MP and will likely be after the election. She’s been particularly vocal lately and is cozying up to the extreme right. But, most of all, she was a disastrous prime minister during this reign of the Tory party

JFK coming back just in time for his 107th birthday, presumably to get Cruyff out of the witness protection program

I once had the pleasure of reading a letter she wrote to the PM when she was Foreign Sec. It was full of phrases like ‘maintaining our heft’. I’m sure that PPE course at Oxford teaches them to come out with that shite. Much like that weird way of talking Renton alludes to. It’s like a Tory politicians by numbers course. Whoever the fuck runs it wants shot to shit.

Cretan hospitality is legendary even amongst Greeks. Possibly in no small part to their absolute determination to get you rat-arsed on free shots of Raki ( or Tsikoudia, to give it its proper name).

You ever seen it when Jim Laker got his 10th wicket in the innings (19th in the match) v the Aussies? He just turns and gets his hat off the umpire and shakes hands with the batsman at the non-striker’s end. While his teammates politely applaud

Aye. Standing up to Underwood, who nearly bowled medium pace on turning, sticky wickets. And he makes it look like he’s shelling peas at times.

Aye but Southgate replacing him isn’t necessarily an improvement.

Aye, all those players we’ve sold to Saudi clubs with inflated values. I suppose they’re not exactly known for letting the facts get in the way of a story though. Newcastle have dove everything by the book and haven’t even looked to exploit any loopholes so far. There’s the issuing of shares but that’s legit and nothing other clubs haven’t done

You’ve got loads of options from Manchester. You could do the Peloponnese. The Greeks are slightly perplexed by the obsession with the islands. As they think the mainland is just as nice. The one thing I would say is do a bit of research. I’ve only been to Greece once post-Covid (Corfu). I would say it’s obvious a few of the smaller resorts are on the bones of their arse and haven’t recovered yet. Crete is very beautiful and massive and varied. You can also holiday in the mountains there. Not just beach resorts. Heraklion isn’t the best advert for it. It’s a bit of a sprawling mess, in large part thanks to having had the fuck bombed out of it in WW2. Rethymno is much more attractive. Thing is with Crete is there are lots of ancient sites to visit if you get a bit bored with sitting around. The Minoan sites pre-date Ancient Greece. The other thing is the size makes it too big to see all of it unless you’re going for about a month or two. If you can be arsed it’s worth going to stay in an island without an airport. But then you have to factor in the extra time, as you’ll need to catch a ferry / hydrofoil too. Maybe too much if you’re only there for a week. But with that in mind, Symi (next to Rhodes) is an option. The best place I’ve stayed is Paxos. But again - no airport. Also the ionians have a longer, wetter winter. If you’re going September, further east / south is more likely to still be dry and hot. Another place I loved was Paleokastritsa (Corfu).

Yeah. I’ve got the CD from back in the day. Loads of the Bukem mixes are also with MC Conrad. I don’t really mind MCs but he always sounded like he had a blocked-up nose Anyway, that’s just the man himself in the mix. It’s quality

Give this a blast: https://on.soundcloud.com/HcrkhLjDUnSZYEgdA

And out

What sort of holiday you after, mate? Also what time of year?

Yeah. I thought it was a bit tongue in cheek and a reference to how one or two results can have a massive impact in the odds at this stage.

Ok. Looks like we’ve run out of ideas

Nothing more to declare? No extras?