manc-mag

You could tell Enrique had the goods and yet from a defensive point of view he wasn't a massive strengthening of the defence at the time. Santon's coming in to fill a spot which (if it does transpire to be LB) we're still harking back to Enrique's loss, so he'll need to do it from the off or he'll get slated. By and large anyone whos played that position since Enrique left has had massive detractors. That's the point I was making on the whole, I just went overboard a bit. Expectation levels have already gone way up and that means theres less time for transition/bedding in etc etc before you come in for a slating.

Muhammed Ali 'hasn't got a chip on his shoulder'? I think it's fair to say he had some reasonably firm political views when it came to things like this. Perhaps it's just more likely he wasn't asked to comment about the Suarez case, given that he's 1. got nothing to do with English football, and 2. got Parkinson's disease. Unlike Jason Roberts and Stan Collymore.

Is this a piss take? Last season Ricky was arguably our best player. As he was the season before and as he was in at least the second half of the relegation season. His first season he had a few wobbles but even then he had a lot of bright points. This whole myth about him being shite when he first arrived is comical tbh. With regards to Santon, he's impressing more and more but I agree that he'll be more effective at rightback. He certainly looked that way against Blackburn. It was an exaggeration for effect tbh. His first season he wasn't up to anything is my real point, 'a few wobbles' is being overly generous. He ended up a great player for us (two absolute stand out seasons) and then he went which was a massive blow, but you're still talking about someone who went at least a year before he proved worth buying. It didnt really matter because we were shit and had been for ages and ended up relegated, but for a team with any upwardly mobile ambition (as we purport to have now) you can't afford a player to be sub-standard for a year. See the stick Obertan is getting for evidence of that.Equally Enrique would have been slated for his first season out of Spain if it'd have been at Liverpool. It didn't really matter for us because we were gash anyway and on the slide. So going back to my point, Santon has looked decent enough already, which is important given the basic trajectory of the team. You can't compare Rickys first season to Obertan. I can't be arsed to look back to then but I'm sure there was a lot of positive comments about him whereas there has been a slating for Obertan across the board. Yes you can say Ricky came into a team doing shit and Obertan has come into a team doing well but really there's no comparisson in their performances. I'd actually say santon and ricky are quite similar in their starts. Aye, fair point I don't think Enrique was anywhere near as bad as Obertan's been in his first season, I just meant that he wasn't remotely the player we sold in the summer during his first year here. He was well off that and I maintain if he'd played that way at Liverpool this season he'd have been regarded as a relatively pointless addition to their squad. Theres an onus on Santon to do it from the off this term, straight off the boat, because we're i. generally continuing to improve as a first choice 11, and ii. have fuck all strength in depth/alternatives.

Even manages to call Man U "United". Couldn't fuck off fast enough as far as I'm concerned.

Don't say it a third time.

Diane Abbott wouldn't fare too well in your new Jerusalem.

Hope this gets put to Dalglish in some of the post-match for comment. Not that it's anything to do with team matters and so ordinarily it would be entirely inappropriate for a manager to be asked to comment, but given the overall stance of the club, taking their direction from him, he should be asked directly whether he thinks he hasn't sent out the wrong message to supporters re: racial abuse. He wouldn't answer I bet but it'd get him proper vex'd, I'd just like to see his face tbh.

Well if his fitness is going to get tested anywhere it's in the Prem tbh, just because of the pure physicality of it. It's not Serie A walking out of the back four past the half way line. And just to link that back to Enrique again, I think that's where he came up short in his first season with us. You could tell he was technically class, but he got bossed by inferior players just because they were more physical / he wasnt able to do his technical stuff at the pace of the game.

Is this a piss take? Last season Ricky was arguably our best player. As he was the season before and as he was in at least the second half of the relegation season. His first season he had a few wobbles but even then he had a lot of bright points. This whole myth about him being shite when he first arrived is comical tbh. With regards to Santon, he's impressing more and more but I agree that he'll be more effective at rightback. He certainly looked that way against Blackburn. It was an exaggeration for effect tbh. His first season he wasn't up to anything is my real point, 'a few wobbles' is being overly generous. He ended up a great player for us (two absolute stand out seasons) and then he went which was a massive blow, but you're still talking about someone who went at least a year before he proved worth buying. It didnt really matter because we were shit and had been for ages and ended up relegated, but for a team with any upwardly mobile ambition (as we purport to have now) you can't afford a player to be sub-standard for a year. See the stick Obertan is getting for evidence of that. Equally Enrique would have been slated for his first season out of Spain if it'd have been at Liverpool. It didn't really matter for us because we were gash anyway and on the slide. So going back to my point, Santon has looked decent enough already, which is important given the basic trajectory of the team.

Reported.

Ed Milliband with his own Twitter faux pas today in the wake of Abbott's shit the other day. Must have been going some to fuck up anything as un-related as Bob Holness passing away.

Which is what Chez said, and which I'm also inclined to suspect may be the truth. Other companies might have been concerned about the negative backlash, he's not arsed in the slightest though as he doesnt have an ounce of sentimentality in him. It was a billboard that wasn't being used, it'd never brought any money in, so flog it. Basically either free money flowing in or SD 'awareness', can't lose either way when you've got that mindset.

No, what I was saying is that people who have clearly expressed the view that everything is SD marketing driven as some sort of masterplan/main reason for buying the club (ps and has been from day one) and that that would also convert to 'free' shirt sponsorship in due course have been proved wrong at the very least in terms of how all encompassing they thought that was. This is not me saying he's getting more NUFC focussed and that money will be made available to the manager, but it is me saying it's evidence against everything being SD driven. A masterplan is a masterplan and it was either his intention to give the shirt sponsorship to SD for 'free' or it wasn't. This very much suggests it wasn't. So it's an income stream which will flow back into the club, how he makes it available is another matter. Previously it was predicted it was a traditional income stream he was closing down to the club for the benefit of SD. That proved to not be the case. The stadium stuff didnt exist as an income stream in the past. The 'story'/sales pitch is he would sell it to sponsors if they came forward. We're led to believe they havent come forward, hence the 'SDA' shite. We can't know for certain one way or another what the truth is but the Etihad/The Emirates, were both shirt and ground combo deals. If it was a masterplan, that's probably what he would have done re: SD imho, as it happens it looks like he's just flogged the shirt for what he could get for it. Perhaps that suggests he'd do the same with the stadium too.

Try listening to James Mason in it though and not thinking of Michael Howerd MP. Physically impossible.

Check him out in Wuthering heights, he looks a right dick. The lass who plays Cathy though...she's his missus now ffs! She's stunning. Charlotte Riley. MINT!

He wears a Muslim's hat He's the Premier League Top Scorer And he lives in a council flat (paid for by the government)

Plus Enrique looked shite for years before we got proper performances out of him. That doesnt make it any easier to take that he went (it makes it harder if anything as we'd persisted with a bobbins player only to lose him after he came good), but at least Santon is showing some quality at an earlyish stage.

Re-runs of Spender?

Barton is a complete twat too like imho.

See the So Solid Crew wiki page got edited just before Romeo went into the BB house-presumably after all the doctoring that happened to the members list after Barton was slagging Harvey off on Twitter last week saying he bet he'd made f all money out of it because the band had 30 members. Full member list before wiki took it down: http://profanityswan.com/2012/01/05/wikipedias-so-solid-crew-list/

Aye while all the while getting fuck all off Webb, so add 'demeanour' to the list too. Webb was practically apologetic on the few occasions he gave a foul against Man U-what an absolute dickhead he is. Disgrace that he's the FA's unofficial top ref in the country.

Small club, massive overachievers. That is a scandal in modern football. Much bigger than us though eh? Its 20 years since we got that in the league. When I saw that it made me wonder what their season ticket sales must be. I know they're pretty fucked financially (not the only ones) as there's nee outside investment coming in, but I was surprised their natural resources were as low as that. Must hurt them big time as a cash flow thing at the start of the season.

Returns from Henda!

Best not to get too far ahead of ourselves as it is just half a season at the mo (calendar year if you count W Ham mind) but it should absolutely be enjoyed to the full for what it is. What I will say though is that when the goals do tail off, as they do at some time for all strikers, his hold up play is a massive bonus to the team too. Without 'getting too far ahead' I'd suggest he's been better for us in the past 5 months than Andy Carroll was in the same period last season. Aye. He's definitely scored goals that Carroll wouldn't have. Only hope his level of effectiveness for us in the 2nd half of the season is better than Carroll's was too, if you follow what I'm saying.