acrossthepond

So far in the "belta minge" thread we've had Jermaine fucking Jenas and...that thing KSA just posted. Anyone else seeing a problem here?

No, we didn't even make it out of the 7th century before the split occurred. Some (especially zealous) Shi'a commentators say it happened as soon as the Prophet died in 632 and Ali was not appointed his rightful successor, but most less biased historians make it 680, the battle of Karbala, where Hussein (Ali's son and successor) was killed by the Sunnis. What did happen regarding the Shi'a in the 1500s was that Persia and much of Iraq became Shi'a when previously no really powerful nations followed that branch of the religion, so that could be where you got that idea.

Prepare to be corrected again - in the 7th century, we probably didn't have "carpets" (those were from Persia, who certainly weren't Muslim at the time), we (or the world) didn't have coffee until the 1400s, and algebra wasn't codified into one discipline until the 8th century. The 7th century - well, picture a vast sandy desert somewhere in the middle of a much vaster sandy desert in the Arabian Peninsula - what we now call Saudi Arabia - where small bands of independent tribes (heavily inbred no doubt) herded camels, warred with one another, occasionally wrote poetry and recited it at inter-tribe meetings, and visited small cities built around oases (such as Mecca). Then the Prophet came, warred with the city folk of Mecca, was eventually thrown out for being a 'heretic', fled across the desert to Medina, raised an army, defeated the city dwellers at Mecca and unified the tribes into the nation of Islam, then began to go out and spread the new religion. That's what the Islamists want to return to - a society dominated entirely by religion and religious law, headed by a ruler who can trace his right to rule from the original Rightly-Guided caliphs, who spread their religion and culture through warfare. I hope you can understand that the rest of us - that is, the vast majority - have no intention of going back to that way of life and do not support those who do.

It's 7th century. 7th. Wouldn't want you to commit a factual error to go along with your ignorance and racism, you've got enough on your plate. Islam wasn't that bad in the early days - certainly pissed on Europe's dark ages in terms of scientific progress etc - I think it was about the 16th century when it started to go a bit wrong. What happened in the 1500s that made it go wrong? The Ottoman Empire was still at its strongest then. No, it was the late 19th century when Islamic civilisation entered a terminal decline ending in the fall of the Ottomans and the rise of Islamism as a political philosophy, then the early 20th century post-WWI period when Western colonial powers set up dictatorships in the former Ottoman territories that endure to this day (see Saudi, Jordan, most of the Gulf states, etc). What I said about the 7th century was referring to his "turn back the clock" comment. Nobody wants to turn back the clock to the 1300s. The radicals say they're going to re-implement the caliphate, shari'a, etc - all of which dates from the 7th century, the time of the Prophet.

It's 7th century. 7th. Wouldn't want you to commit a factual error to go along with your ignorance and racism, you've got enough on your plate.

So far down he's underground, I hope. That's one way to get a player out of contract. Vuckic has looked useless when I've seen him. Can't say I'm on expert on him or anything, but v. Accrington and Chelsea he was anonymous throughout in my opinion.

I still want an answer. Hughton's a nice guy, nice guys finish last, essentially another "loser." So who's a winner?

OK then. Who's a winner in English football that we could get to manage us? If not Hughton - and I didn't want him in the Championship, didn't want him managing in the Premier League, and still am not sold on him - then who? If I thought we could genuinely do better I'd be rid of him in a flash. But who can we attract that will do a better job?

And indoor toilets. And chess. And Noureen DeWulf.

Which self-help book did you find that in? You're just another inbred loser who can't recognize a winner. Ugh, I spelled "recognize" with a "z." Crucify me now before the St George's brigade gets here. I'll even provide the nails.

Ever since I had my two front teeth broken as a youngun and some fucking quack gave me a plastic cap that fell out a week later as I was eating a creme egg - not an apple or a raw carrot, mind, a creme egg! - I've not trusted any of them and I won't go back. I keep meaning to go to the NYU dentistry school and have mine looked at by someone who isn't an overpaid hack looking to gut me for everything I own, but so far haven't.

I'm not on the bandwagon. Reading and Hull came up and had fantastic debuts and beat big teams and then went straight down the toilet next season (or in Hull's case, in the second half of their first season.) I'm worried that these unlikely points they're grabbing now will keep them ahead of us during the lean winter that's no doubt to come for them, kind of like Hull, and they'll end up staying up ahead of us.

That performance deserved a point. Tiote and Jonas were brilliant, Colo looked good before he had to come off. Routledge useless as per the course but I guess we're stuck with him now. Barton and Nolan nowhere to be seen again - worrying but not unexpected in Nolan's case. Hopefully we will be starting Carroll instead of Shola next game, or even better, drop Nolan and play two strikers. Obviously there's nothing more that can be said about the incompetent standard of refereeing in that game. We can bang on about it all we like but it's in the books now and we've been diddled out of another point, possibly even three. Time to get over it.

So we're too stupid to spell Gutierrez but Pleat is saying Gutiarraz. Idiot, ugh, who's paying this senile wanker?

Dirty scum Tevez, yellow well deserved for that. I didn't have extremely negative feelings toward City before this game, but I'm hating them more and more as the game continues.

Get in Jonas!

If that's a foul, it's a red, so where was it you bottling shit-for-brains Atkinson? Get fucked.

What the fuck! He just said we're too stupid to spell Gutierrez!

Who's "Afra"? But yeah, Ben Arfa is done, it seems.

Idiot Pleat blaming the "inconsistent" Colo and Enrique for our form. Must not have watched any of our games.

Keegan (now writing for soccernet) on this game: From http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...and&cc=5901 I'm hoping for a draw. Doubt we will score against them though.

You'll be right next to Mr Fist on the wall when the revolution comes.

Yorkshire Puddings with rice? Pervert. Yeah, ok, you sprout-scoffing simian scruff.

Martins?

Sprouts are abominable. Anyone promoting them should be summarily shot. We have yorkshire puddings at any family gathering, so Christmas qualifies. Usually have a leg of lamb or sometimes a turkey for the meat, roast potatoes, rice pilaf, green bean casserole, and trifle after. Why are we talking about this so early? It's the first of October man!