Kitman

Thanks Ken, appreciate your good wishes. The position's desperate but they'll bounce back in Chch. I just hope there's no more quakes or aftershocks, and everybody gets the chance to bury their loved ones and grieve properly.

Fair enough, I was thinking of the Intertoto. We haven't got a squad to cope with European football though imo, even if we are lucky to qualify.

I think I'd have to go with today's squad. However I voted for the 2006/7 squad to irritate ASM.

If it's extra money + no outlay then yeah.

9m extra is not a figure to scoff at. I'm not one of those who buys into being in Europe being a massive hindrance to the premier league season. You have a full summer to prepare for it, and 9 million is enough to bring in one good player or two decent ones even allowing for wages. Being in Europe should also make us slightly more appealing to players, instead of being just another of the mid-table rabble. The extra players will provide additional cover across the premier league season. All said and done though I don't realistically see us finishing 7th. Yes but you don't get 9m unless you win it, that's the point. What CT is saying is that as an owner you might have to outlay upfront for extra players, with no guarantee of winning the comp, plus you have to pay extra win bonuses etc as you progress. if your league position slips because the players are knackered/injured/suspended or whatever from Europ trips, then you have to knock that off as well. the spin off benefits of TV and merchandising etc are going to be fuck all unless you get right to the end too. So from an owner's perspective it's possibly not that appealing. Speculative outlay which might not be recouped if you get knocked out in the 4th round or whatever. Not that we have an owner who would buy extra players as an investment so it's all academic anyway. I agree we'd be a more attractive club for being in Europe. Plus I agree 7th is unlikely.

What? if you consider that our club is worth, say, £100m, being in the Europa League for one season is worth just under a tenth of the clubs total value. It also puts the club into a different bracket in terms of attracting new players and/or securing contract extensions for existing players. Given the apathy that fans appear to show the Europa League, when you're talking about attendances, I'd say it's a bigger thing for owners than fans. I think the 9m is only if you win it. You get fuck all for playing six rounds against Viking FC in Iceland or whatever. iirc it takes ages to get to a meaningful match and you need a decent squad to cope with all the travelling and injuries. For fuck all money basically unless you get to the latter stages.

I'll be made up when, if, we survive this season. That's enough for me after all the shit that's gone on. Talk of Europe seems a bit silly somehow, maybe if we're in pole position with 5 games left I might get excited about it......

The position's pretty grim. 80% of the city has no water or sewerage and there are still a lot of people missing. The worst hit buildings are just piles of smoking rubble and some are too dangerous for rescue workers to access. The town's biggest hotel is apparently about to collapse and most of the iconic buildings are in ruins. It's very strange to have such an appalling disaster on your doorstep. It reminds of when the IRA bombed the Baltic Exchange, or the 7/7 bombings. It looks like it's somewhere else but you know it's just up the road and it's very real. I can't imagine the horror of being there. Some of the reporting has been pretty horrific too. Footage of people wandering around covered in blood or screaming for loved ones. Or "interviews" with survivors, basically shoving a mic in someone's face and saying "Well, you nearly died back there, how do you feel?" Disaster porn. People are in bits here. A girl who works with me had her Dad trapped in a collapsed building and had to have his legs amputated to be rescued. Another girl has a mate who worked in one of the worst collapsed buildings, he's missing presumed dead. Lots of tales of luck escapes for relatives. The city's a write off and will take years to recover, assuming there aren't more earthquakes. Glad to hear about your brother Kevin. Luck of the Irish and all that

Good post, Chez. I think the thing that's hard to believe is that there's any method to what he's doing, other than the desire to cut costs and make short term profits. Our progress from where we were when we were relegated might just be down to luck. Like you say all will become clear in the summer. If he doesn't plough the money from Carroll back into the team, I think we'll know we're not going to progress. And so will the players.

I wonder how much of the team improvement is down to Carver and the other coaches. Hey ho, Pardew's doing OK, but as others have pointed out it's what the fat man does that counts.

I expect getting players to turn up and leave in a suit would be a mission. They probably think they're keepin' it real as they put on their designer gear and climb into their ferraris after their 2 hours' work for the day.

Fair enough. I do think it's likely that we'll have more stayaways next season if Ashley doesn't tip the Carroll money into the transfer pot. That's more of a silent protest than taking on Ashley though.

Where are you copying this stuff from Parky? David Icke is mentally ill by the way. The shapeshifting lizards who live underground told me so.

Ok, so if Sessegnon isn't a striker and you're down to Gyan, with Campbell & Welbeck both out injured, as well as Healy & Waghorn out the door, then that to me looks like the tactics of a business that is scaling back its operation, but relying on enough points accrued at this stage of the season to stay up. Not exactly high risk tactics as 37 points, despite the 3/12 and 0/9 returns since Bent left. The question is whether this is a temporary position or a sign of permanent retrenchment. As you're clearly a glass half full kind of person, I'll take it you're optimistic that Bent quality replacement(s) will ocme in during the summer and that, say Gyan, will not be sold. Muntari didn't let the grass grow long at Pompey and had a few fallings out at Inter, but he is undoubtedly a class player. Incidentally, was the Stoke or spurs winner his foul was indirectly responsible for? Yes, Quinn took a huge pay cut, which was something like 40% of the £1.8m shortfall in your gate receipts. As I say, as you're a glass half full kind of person, I'm sure you're convinced it will all come right in the summer. Star striker sold and not reinvested - check Relying on current points total to stay up - check Fans worried about remaining star players being sold - check Wealthy owner not wanting to subsidise further losses - check Club would go into administration if owner demands money back - check I understand you want to take the piss but fuck me you could be talking about NUFC. Except their owner isn't a fat know-nowt cock end who's made a balls of things along with his seedy cock end of an accomplice. I'd rather have Quinn over Llambias any day. I think their attendance is a bit of an embarrassment but I don't know what you gain by slagging your own fans off in the press. If they'd had our owner over the last few years their place would be empty by now.

lol

Makes you wonder what would happen to LA or San Francisco if one as big or bigger than this happened. Major structural damage, utilities disrupted, death. You're not the only one with the Gift Pamela Anderson's face and tits wouldn't have moved an inch though.....

Makes you wonder what would happen to LA or San Francisco if one as big or bigger than this happened. It's only a matter of time. It's the same fault line that runs into NZ apparently.

Last stand has begun, consciousness raising (the ancient races feel it first)...STOP...It is in our hands..STOP...Only have a reprieve..STOP. The Plumed Serpent What you see on this image are ten EMVs (Electro-Magnetic-Vehicles) in a formation in close proximity to the Sun, recorded by the NASA/ESA the SOHO STEREO EUVI 195 Ahead and Behind satellites. Each of the EMVs are larger than our planet Earth. This formation was called by the Mayans, Aztecs and other native tribes the Plumed Serpent or Feathered Serpent. I'm interpreting the appearance of the Feathered Serpent as a warning-sign for humanity, especially for the global ruling "elite" and the EBEs. The global ruling elite has set their plan in motion to kill most of the people on Earth and then enslaving the surviving rest to serve them. This will not be allowed. The EMVs have protected planet Earth up until now from countless coronal mass ejections. If the global elite, and I am talking directly to the Rothschild and Rockefeller psychopaths here, is going on with their plan, then ALL of the EMVs will just move away from the Sun, as they partially demonstrate in this picture, and then let her do the rest. There will not even remain a single bacteria on the face of this planet or even underground. Their plans will never be achieved because they are dead then like the rest of us. They can not hide in the 1500 underground cities they have built, no matter how deep they bury themselves because the EMVs will absolutely make sure that nobody will survive down there. I know that the Ro&Ro and bloodline-psychopaths, according to their psychopathic minds, are having problems to comprehend facts as they are enthralled in wishful thinking so WE must make them understand. As we are becoming a space-travelling race the EMVs are protecting the other peace-loving exraterrestrial races from us, an immature war mongering race. We as the human species on this planet have to figure this out and get a positive result. This is humanities CALL on this planet! I am Shaman The planet is in danger. Peace Sounds like something the Raelian church would come out with. Yeah, baby!

Damn you're good

You had a vision of an Italian restaurant? Were you peckish at the time?

Knew there was one coming. Aye, well, you only need to see Stevie's betting tips to know he's got the gift of second sight

There will be plenty of backpackers and students caught up in this I reckon, best wishes to anybody who's loved ones are in South Island at the moment, hope they're safe.

6.3. Not the biggest, but it was only 10 km from the city centre and only 5 km underground, so the impact was severe. Plus it struck at 1pm, so people were in the city centre and at work

Thanks mate, appreciate it. I'm in Auckland, so nowhere near.

Thanks mate, we're all safe. I'm in Auckland (top of the North Island) so nowhere near the carnage down South. However we've plenty of folks in the office with loved ones there, including one girl whose Dad is trapped in a collapsed building, so it's been a difficult day. I'm sitting here watching the telly now, there's 65 dead, 200 trapped and it's pissing down with rain to boot. An absolute fucking disaster. NZ's a small place so everyone will be affected in some way. It's particularly cruel because the town got hit with a big quake 6 months ago (and there's been loads of aftershocks since) but was just getting back on its feet. The place is totally trashed now, no power, no water, collapsed buildings everywhere. It'll be a long time till it's sorted, if at all. It could be the end of the town (NZ's second biggest city I think). As it happens Auckland has something like 16 volcanoes, and I live near one that appeared out of the sea 800 years ago. We don't worry about earthquake here, it'll be pretty fucking biblical if the balloon goes up here!