Alex

I don't really have a problem with him, beyond his seeming to think he's more down to earth than other footballers when he's pretty much the same as most iyam. He can be very funny though. He only thinks he's clever because he picked up a couple of books (much like Tony Adams did) when he stopped spending most of his spare time getting pissed. Fair play but he's hardly Jacques Derrida (although he seems to think repeating famous quotes makes him so). As for his influence in the dressing room, if you're going to take the media reports about that at their word then you also have to accept its true he was allowed to tear up his contract for being a bad influence at the start of 2011-12 (and the months preceding that), since the same papers were reporting as much then too. As I alluded to before, one good season (which was a long way from paying back the faith the club had shown in him) and he seemed to think he was untouchable. I do take the point about him hanging around but so did plenty other senior pros who gave more before then and have done since.

Get yourself to Paxos instead.

I seem to remember it being Butt, Nolan and Smith tbh. I think too much was made of it anyway and it fit the media narrative of Chris Hughton being the quiet type who let his players manage themselves. Either way the only true measure of an influential player is what they do on the pitch.

Aye he was injury prone throughout his career here (bar one season). The amount of influence he had on the side that year is conjecture.

Aye, his position amongst the fans is more or less purely down to that as opposed to anything he achieved on the pitch. If that's not an odd way to judge a player, I don't know what is.

Misread the stats on .com btw. 8 starts plus 7 as a sub (I knew it wasn't a lot though).

He didn't contribute much that season. In fact there was only one season (the one after that) when he did. I wouldn't go along with PL 100% but I find his 'cult' status amongst our fans a bit odd. We got one good season out of a five year contract. I think he's quite amusing in some of his more outspoken comments but he is a bit of a fraud. Particularly in his attempts to come across as an intellectual ( ) and not least in his attempt to make people think he's not the money grabbing bastard he so clearly is. Perhaps 'delusional' is more correct. It made me sick to see the fans giving him such an ovation at Steve Harper's game (relative to people who actually had made a major contribution to the club).

He started 7 league games that season (and had another appearance as sub).

I think they're performing better but Moyes would've got slaughtered if he was still there and they weren't strongly challenging for the league with that sort of outlay.

The obvious point he's making is that it would make sense to criticise the defenders who aren't performing before crititcising the one defender who looks decent. Focusing on the latter suggests an agenda.

Aye, the press coverage will be excruciating if they beat us.

Definitely spakka'd off the tablets

Hope it all goes well for you, Stevie. A lot of people are thinking about you.

Or speak to this bloke:

There are companies that do it. They'll usually pick stuff up from a business and do it on a regular basis but I would imagine they would provide a one-off service. Not sure about the costs. Maybe get a quote and see if it's worth buying one instead? Tbh, I think it's not so much your account numbers as people using your name and address for identity fraud.

@@aimaad22

Siems that way, doesn't it?

Aye, the format spoils it a bit. The T20 world cup has more of the feel of the old tournament, which was over in about 3 weeks. I think it's 6 or 7 weeks long now, which is too long. I appreciate the ICC wants to develop the game and so on but you've got 6 'minnows' in there. I know some of them, particularly Ireland in recent times, have pulled off some major shocks so I think they have their place but 6 is too many. I would probably only have 2 but even reducing it to 4 and getting rid of one round of matches in each group could probably knock a week off the tournament. All about telly/money though.

And, as the previous page shows, you really know your cricket

Not really, seeing as Pardew is right up there with Keegan and Bobby Robson.

No counter argument mind. Unsurprisingly.

I think it's plausible. He doesn't seem to be anything like his portrayal in things like JFK and some of the unofficial theories. The police ditched him as an informer because he made up stuff about people with rival night clubs instead of actual crimes. I think it's possible he thought he'd have been lauded as a hero for killing Oswald. There's nothing in Ruby's own comments which suggest otherwise either.

I assume you're taking the piss like. I think there's a debate about Oswald's motives and whether he acted alone (I tend to think he did) because he got killed so soon after the event but the version of events which places him as the killer at the book depository is the only show in town. I didn't use to think that but subsequently discovered all the conspiracy theories I'd heard are the ones playing fast and loose with the facts. They're all outlandish upon closer inspection.