Makom

Didn't know about it either, but I think that's only because I've long ago subconsciously ignored any and all international friendlies, barring the first couple of Gibraltar ones. Did laugh at Collymore having a fit during the first half - he's absolutely outraged that Liverpool are buying Milner as a DM, and can't see why Hodgson is playing him in that role for England. Not that I disagree with his points, but he gets proper upset, as if somehow England will ever have a Pirlo in the role. Ireland are non-entities anyway, they took FIFA's hush money to build their shiney new stadium, and needed UEFA to expand the Euros so the little people like them could get in. Colin Murray has their mentality spot on (even though he's NI) - because their so tiny and insignificant, every game is their World Cup final. Feckin eejits. All this talk of trouble though - well, whose bright idea was it to have a ref from NI? If this was a competitive fixture that actually mattered, that could easily be the spark for a riot if he dropped a bollock.

The foreign Messiah thing is a puzzler. We've never had a foreign manager under Cashley. But yes, that's total garbage CT - if The Fish sees it, expect him to be apoplectic about your logical fallacies.

The last operational Vulcan will stop flying alter this years displays - and this time it's for real, it's not a money issue but a regulatory/engineering one. And I cannot stress this enough, you need to see this shit, it's that awesome - it's big, it's loud, it's powerful and arguably it's even beautiful, from certain angles anyway. If you really need to have it explained to you in any more detail than that, then I guess I can indulge you here, but I'd rather you just stopped being such an ignorant fanny. Put it this way - if Gemmill could be an airplane, he'd be one of these, fo'shure. The confirmed appearances can be seen at http://www.vulcantothesky.org/appearances.html At the time of writing, it doesn't look like it's going to be at the Sunderland air show (last weekend in July). While there still seems to be an open slot on the timetable, the word on Facebook is that they've already enquired and been told it won't be there. I think they're lying and are holding out for a cheaper fee, like typical mackem cunts. So your last best hope to see it is on the nationwide tour on Saturday 27 June - at some point during that day it will be flying over the North East Air Museum (nelsam.org.uk), also in Sunderland, and will hopefully do some kind of mini-display. And now, it's picture time.

So, there I was getting angry at not being able to figure out why this bastard test thinks I'm going to die well beyond my years, when I remembered that for the question that says rate your health, I said poor. Stupid machine doesn't know a pessimist when it sees one clearly. No word of a lie, every other question there I answered was in my favour.

Climbed out? Out of what? This is beyond intriguing. I demand to know what job is physically demanding, is a proper man's job requiring lots of experience and a certain amount of pragmatism toward the 'regulations', but which is also managed by uppity young boys. All I can think of is.....tank driver?

Exactly. The best anyone can think of to say about this helmet is that he's the only one prepared to take it up the arse like a bitch, and he's maybe possibly slightly better than Pardew (which to me is not a claim that can be made with any certainty given the wildly different circumstances). And of course we can't be sure, but a betting man would surely not go against the argument based on what we know about the club from history, that McClaren was their only target, and if any actual meetings took place with other candidates, it was just as likely going to be for show to get the sheep (like Stevie) to buy their STs in the vain hope that Ashley is about to do a volte face and back the manager, than out of any actual desire to appoint them.

Let's put it this way, if it wasn't us, which other Premier League clubs would be making this chumba wumba their one and only target? He's fucking desperate for a chance to prove he's not a failure at the highest level and that Boro wasn't a fluke largely down to Gibson. He'd probably accept the job even if he was made to lick Ashley's balls clean once a week.

In any normal job, you'd expect a face to face meeting with the person who has the power to renew your contract. I'm not seeing any good reason why it should be any different in a football club. In a top class company, you'd even expect a debrief so the company can learn from any feedback given by you as a departing employee, who is suddenly able to speak freely about how he sees the company.

It's not rocket science Fish. Good coaches would be interested in NUFC, but only if Ashley wasn't here and the entire philosophy of the club was different. McClaren is a bang average coach who might do a job if given loads of money. But under Ashley, I don't know how anyone can say with any confidence that he'd do a better job than Pardew, because let's get fucking real here, the statement was bollocks, nothing at all has changed about how this club is run.

NUFC have appointed their first ever female coach, Natalie Henderson, as the U10's Assistant Academy Coach. Previously a player for our women's side, she's also the Football Development Centre Head Coach at the North East Sports Academy, and also coaches for the NUFC Foundation. She already has the UEFA B-License, and is studying Sports Development and Coaching at Northumbria Uni.

Final 23-man squad announced.

No.......

Charnley is such a stupid cunt. With this one thoughtless act, he not only made the club look like idiots in the media yet again, he also made sure that the topic of idle conversation for the rest of the day at that course was how badly run NUFC is. It's infuriating to think how many well connected people in football ended up hearing that bit of gossip.

You just have to read his full resignation speech, it's beyond ludicrous. He's off, but now that he's resigning that apparently means he can now proceed post haste with all the reforms of FIFA that he was supposedly being prevented from doing by 'others' when he was still El Presidente. All of this will be completed by the time of the next election. It's fucking bonkers stuff. For anyone who wants the non-European perspective on all this FIFA nonsense from football correspondents based in all the continents, I recommend 5 Lives's world football program (Fridays, 2am-4am). Normally a fan phone in to talk mundane shit, this FIFA scandal has put it into over-drive, completely sidelining the fan phone in part and just becoming one giant newsnight type affair.

I don't have a Twitter account, but if the replies to this tweet were not something along the lines of Don't just sit on your arse all day listening to it then, you stupid cunt. Get out there and DO YOUR FUCKING JOB, then I'll be very disappointed.

I meant not foreign as in not unaccustomed to our football or our language. Didn't I already say that, you dumb fuckers?

Panorama-tastic. I can't recall exactly, but wasn't that supposed to be illegal unless they'd been offered at the full price online for a significant period of time?

I was basing that on the fact he's apparently very intelligent, and the fact he'd be a novice manager joining a Premier League club with a very clear chain of command and a documented history of not giving a toss what the manager thinks, even club legends. Hard to see what he would gain, or even how he would win, if he started throwing his weight around.

Aside from the lack of experience, Viera ticks all the Ashley boxes - a left field appointment, cheap, unlikely to rock the boat, and not foreign (yes, he's French, but I'm sure he's been here long enough to even be naturalised, and certainly speaks perfect English). It doesn't make sense to me if the transfer policy is going to change, but if it's staying the same.......then a French icon as manager makes perfect sense. Whether he'd succeed would be a total coin toss tbh, which would rather undermine Ashley's luck making promise.

Shame. I've had an epic weekend.

Average attendance of both sides in the Scottish Cup final - 4k Two of the top four in the second level The third best side in the country only 21 years old Can't get sponsorship from anyone except brewers and bookies No winter break despite being regularly snowbound Wee angry ginger as an international manager Refs strike because players/managers are such cunts Village team renting the national stadium Scottish football is wank. Should have been merged into the Northern Counties League long ago.

Brilliant story. Tell me more. Where were you going?

AFAIK there's nothing to stop any breakaway group of country level associations from leaving FIFA to start a rival international association. We could see a Darts style split, with different sponsors backing different world cup tournaments broadcast by rival media conglomerates, with different teams in each one. FIFA can have their Qatar/Russia tournaments with the teams who decide to stick with FIFA, and the new body can have theirs in more sensible places.

The genesis of this discussion was the fact that the guy HF was arguing with on twitter claimed we were on course to 'do a Leeds' if Saint Mike hadn't graced us with his presence. Anyone paying attention to this thread and not merely jumping in to engage in some tedious jock-cuntery would know that. Now fuck off back to your croft and stop trying to annoy your betters.

Hendon? The only Hendon I've even heard of is in London FFS. Someone's yanking your chain. As others have since said, during this supposed golden era of financial stewardship to 2004, Shepherd was only managing to break even, once he'd turned the profits into dividends rather than debt repayments. Clearly his whole plan for repaying that debt was for us to establish ourselves as a top club, and he was certianly already paying himself as if we were. And obviously, once you're out of Europe then your wages as a % of turnover will obviously rise. Rapidly unravelling finances caused by failing to stay in the CL is the very definition of 'doing a Leeds', and nothing you've said so far is at all contradictory to the idea that the debt we had up to 2004 was unsustainable.