Dr Gloom

i suppose if our more destructive stroke players can learn to play the situation and occupy the crease when required then we won't need another colly. i always found it comforting though when he came in between pietersen and flintoff. you had two of the game's biggest sloggers with king of the low backlift stone wall sandwiched inbetween

i can't help but wonder if in years to come we all look back and laugh at the time when carroll might have been sold for £30m. i hope we don't sell him and i hope he goes on to fulfil his potential but you have to admit that's a lot of money for an unproven 21 year old. i doubt whether an offer like that was ever on the table. it was ashley would surely have teken it - it was probably tabloid speculation but it would have been a pretty good bit of business.

Did you txt TMS with this as well, DG? Sure I just read something very similar on there. no that wasn't me. It's funny how it takes a guy to retire though before the plaudits start rolling in. Colly really was the king of the nudge and the nurdle. The ugly shovel into the on side. But fair play to him - a brilliant career and a cv that his more talented predecessors would envy. The one worry about him going is that he'll almost certainly be replaced by another attacking stroke maker. Who will be rock in the middle order that will occupy the crease and grind out the backs to the wall innings colly built his reputation on, like Cardiff last summer?

I've got a lot of respect for colly. He's an example to all players with limited ability. He got to the top through hard graft, application and knowing his limitations. His fielding is the best ive ever seen and is an example the rest of the squad has followed and now he finishes his test career with three ashes victories and a 2020 world cup medal on his cv plus a test average of over 40. Not a bad way to go out.

He could go a long way towards building bridges in this transfer window. He just needs to show some ambition. Football fans are generally a fickle and forgiving bunch if things are going well on the pitch. If he put his finger in his pocket, hung on to our best players and got us back into Europe, the fcb chants would cease pretty quickly. The problem is there's no sign of him doing it - he blatantly has no regard at all for the fans. Some of his decisions-like sacking keegan and hughton and the stadium naming rights - show he has zero interest in winning us over, that has to change if he wants support from the terraces.

He just retired. Might not even bat again in tests now tbh

I don't understand how Del Bosque not call Enrique for the national team...is the best left defender of Spain because Capdevila is old... Is he highly rated in Spain? Is there even any talk at all in the media of him being called up?

Fucking 0-0 draw to start proceedings instead of a 5-0 hammering. Typical

In a nutshell

that will take the gloss off if it's a serious injury. hes been immense again tonight

nicely taken to be fair

might sound harsh but i'm not that bothered. think williamson has looked sharper this season

best putting himself in the shop window

anyone got a link to a decent small river?

Simply the best!

i think trading places is probably my most watched film ever. love it. not sure it'd make my top 10 though

what's with the highland fling? what's it like being you? a bit hectic?

mike leigh's naked is also a personal fave. fuck it. a top 3 or a top 10 is just impossible.

mike leigh's naked is also a personal fave. fuck it. a top 3 or a top 10 is just impossible.

if we're talking honk kong cinema my faves would have to be the killer and hard boiled

i really really hope we don't sell carroll. not least because we'll never hear the end of it from you if we do you may be right, partly because anybody who continues to defend the fat cunt any longer deserves all they get. I'll still renew my ticket though, will you ? i gave mine up 13 years ago when i moved down south. i won't let the fat twat stop me going to my half dozen or so games a season though, no. i doubt he will, but i really hope ashley proves us all wrong for once. it would be nice to see a little ambition finally. let's hang on to our best players and buy a couple in this window that improve the starting 11. if he does that, it's a start. ashley's a gambler by nature; it's how he made his fortune and he'll be hoping he can fluke his way to success with us while investing the minimum amount but i'm hoping he learned a lesson from relegation that we won't surive in the premiership if he sells our best players. he has to speculate to accumulate and avoid bigger losses further down the line. or maybe he really is that stupid.

phil, are you defending perch? he really isn't very good you know.

i really really hope we don't sell carroll. not least because we'll never hear the end of it from you if we do

they don't come around too often. you have to enjoy them when they do. i'm chuffed we've got this lad in