Kitman

You have to wonder if the hammers can afford this level of spending. maybe theyve sold upton park already? In any event giving lots of bunce to the man who signed Alan smith and geremi might be a bit of a mistake. I wonder if he'll sign that shit el hadji diouf again.

The only reason he'll stay is if he doesn't get a decent club in for him. Unless he can get his head straight I think I'd rather he went now so weve time to get a decent replacement in. In fact we should have someone lined up already cos it's pretty obvious he's wanted away for some time now.

I've got an iPad2 and I'm very happy with it. It's good for surfing the web, YouTube, music etc. Has its limitations as people have noted (in particular no flashplayer) but it's perfect for what I want it for, which is to dick around whilst watching the telly. I also have an apple macbook and a work IBM alike laptop. I don't own an iPhone, my daughter has an iPod which I don't get to use. The main things I like about it is everything works instantly, it's easy to use, light and compact and looks good. Plus it's not constantly trying to load software updates. Yes it's probably overpriced for what it is but I don't mind that. This is NZ after all, I'm grateful for any whizzy technology tbh.

If there's no intention of spending any of the Carroll money on new players, a bit of honesty would be appreciated. I can see Enrique being sold for 10 mill with the money going on Erdinc and and a cheapish left back now. Nothing suggests to me there'll be much more transfer action than that. I think I was predicting a net spend of 10 mill at the outset so I'd be disappointed if that's where we end up. Not so much because we won't have got some good players in by the looks of it, but that we could have done more.

do we get a cut of any sell on clause? Hang on, I'll just go and have a look at the contract, it's around here somewhere

I'm told I resemble this fella a bit Edit: Stephen Rea

If the money isn’t spent then what was the point in selling them? Why not keep Carroll and make the team even better than it is after our £500k summer spending spree? Great point and one i've been trying to understand. If it comes out of the club, we'll know through the accounts next year. If it doesnt, why sell him? Wasn't your suggestion in one of the finances thread that the money may have been required to fund accumulated trading losses and get the club back on an even keel (which is what the financial data suggested but is at odds with what the club itself has said)? Apologies if I've misinterpreted this.... Weren’t the accumulated trading losses covered by Ashley loans? I dunno. If that's right it suggests the Carroll money would be used to repay the loans in effect. To be consistent with the "not a penny out of the club" statement, that would require the Carroll moeny to fund operating costs with the resultant operating profit being used to repay the loans. Or player sales going towards repaying the loans and new players being bought with the Carroll cash. Can't believe they'd be that disingenuous though.

If this had happened to another player in a pre season friendly, we'd have just put it down to bad luck. That and the oppo player being a complete shit. tbh I've been nervous about pre season friendlies ever since Shearer knacked his ankle with virtually the last kick of the game (against Everton I think)

If the money isn’t spent then what was the point in selling them? Why not keep Carroll and make the team even better than it is after our £500k summer spending spree? Great point and one i've been trying to understand. If it comes out of the club, we'll know through the accounts next year. If it doesnt, why sell him? Wasn't your suggestion in one of the finances thread that the money may have been required to fund accumulated trading losses and get the club back on an even keel (which is what the financial data suggested but is at odds with what the club itself has said)? Apologies if I've misinterpreted this....

Cheap option tbh. Well as long as we can sell him for a good deal more than 6.5 mill, then it's a good signing for the balance sheet Leaving cynicism to one side, it seems we've been chasing this bloke for over a year so I hope they've seen something in him football-wise. Maybe PSG haven't got the best out of him yet. Not sure if I buy into the whole "we been tracking him for a year" reports. We need someone who scores goals and scores them consistently. We have plenty of other players who create goals and assists and now we need someone who can stick the ball in the back of the net. My opinion Well he might be the bloke to do it. I admit the portents aren't hopeful but maybe he's been played in the wrong way. Fuck knows I'm clutching at straws and he hasn't even signed. What I am hopeful about is that if Ben Arfa's fit, and some of the new lads bed in, we might have more goal threat across the front line and midfield (excluding Jonas) than last term, so we're not so dependent on one or two players to score. Again that's may just be wishful thinking...

Cheap option tbh. Well as long as we can sell him for a good deal more than 6.5 mill, then it's a good signing for the balance sheet Leaving cynicism to one side, it seems we've been chasing this bloke for over a year so I hope they've seen something in him football-wise. Maybe PSG haven't got the best out of him yet.

PSG certainly don't seem to think much of him.

27 does seem a dangerous age for musicians. RIP

Awesome. Settling down to watch the cricket with a nice bottle of vino. Then a 22.5km run tomorrow.

Me too. Hey ho. The man who looks like he has a stocking pulled over his face lives on.

I wear one of them in Wallsend tbf. There's something 'not right' about a few of them and the Wallsend atmosphere plays no part of it! Stevie needs to do some wrong'un detective type snooping on that nation in my opinion. Wallsend is the only town in Britain where I've driven past a man having a shit in the street. At 10am. Was it a torpedo effort or a more technically skilled Mr Whippy? If he had bog roll with him, I'd say it was premeditated. His toilet must be pretty grim.

Truly horrific. The man responsible must be mentally ill the sick fuck. My thoughts are with the people affected and as a parent I can't begin to imagine what they're going through. My God what times we live in when a man's idea of protesting politics is to slaughter innocent children.

And it still could be. The only source for that 3 weeks thing is Ben Arfa himself. Hopefully he's just repeating what he's been told by the medical staff

you complete bastard. another fucking decade before I forget that jingle again When the carpet smells fresh, the room does too I don't think I've ever managed to escape it, it's just lain dormant like some kind of horrible virus waiting to strike at a weak moment

Could've been worse

Yes.

Pretty sure you're right about his parents. I agree he should have come out too. He was an exotic character anyway, an Indian from Zanzibar, although helloed that down too. I've heard people vehemently deny he was foreign, amusingly.

Looks like the weathers nice in England today

They should come out imo (high-profile figures). I don't think anyone should hide their sexuality if they can avoid it. More people being open about it will either make it less of an issue, or bring the public discussion to a head and thereby create an oppurtunity for attitudes to change. Dead right. There's no excuse these days. I guess mercury believed it would harm his career, my impression was that he refused to discuss his sexuality rather than denying it.