acrossthepond

If you say so... Though that was never anybody's point of view being debated Well, you're the one seemingly intent on comparing him favourably with the previous regime, regardless of the facts. As shown by the bits you've put in bold. Feel free to put me right though. How much did shepherd spend out of his personal fortune on players like? Ashley's made a net profit on transfers. Is it only his own money when it suits your argument? No, the clubs made a net profit on transfers. In other words, yes, it is only his own money when it suits your argument.

Well, that was atrocious. With any luck that'll be the end of Smith's time in the team. I understand that Hughton is trying to keep faith with the team that won us promotion and got such a spectacular result against Villa, but what was the point of buying new players if we aren't going to use them? HBA and Tiote - especially Tiote - need to start our next game and should have both started this one.

Just as you say that there is a problem with the way the Islamic world interacts with the West - certainly true - there's also a problem with how the West interacts with the Islamic world. All too often those interactions are of the violent variety. That's why it really kills me that people are kicking off over the 'mosque' - here are some American Muslims who I truly believe have good intentions and the future of Western-Islamic relations at heart, and they're getting turned away. Then meanwhile some idiot is burning books that we consider holy and people are saying "Oh, where's the harm?" There are certainly problems, and it's going to take work from both sides to fix them. And part of that work is definitely that Muslims must recognise that there are problems within the Muslim world. I doubt that a few people yakking on a NUFC internet message board is going to help much solve what is probably going to be one of the defining conflicts of the 21st century, but it can't hurt.

Allowing Nazis - that is, enemies of Great Britain - to hold rallies in the UK during WWII would be ludicrous. I don't understand what relevance it has to this situation. We aren't in a war against Islam...are we? Or are you trying to say Muslims are enemies of Great Britain as well? As far as what Renton is saying goes, nobody is getting "tortured or murdered" - that's laughable hyperbole. You've really got to tone down your generalisations. This isn't the first time. You constantly refer to Islam as though it were some sort of monolith. I remind you that in Sunni Islam there is no organised 'church' that makes policy decisions for Islam (there is such a thing in Shi'a Islam) and within Sunni Islam there are many divisions and that's even before getting into Shi'a and Ibadhis, etc. Your reference to Mecca is really a reference to Saudi law, and I have never denied (in fact, have actively stated) that Saudi Arabia is among the most intolerant shitholes on earth. According to the Saudis, who proclaim themselves "keepers of the faith" and a load of other nonsense, Mecca is Muslim-only because of one ayat in the Qur'an which says that as "idolaters" are unclean, they should not be permitted to enter Mecca. "Idolaters" is a tough one to define and I'm sure mullahs could argue me in knots over that one, but I can conclusively say that there are dozens of quotes in the Qur'an that contradict the notion that Christians and Jews, at the absolute least, are idolaters. So keeping them out is really just a power play from the extremely radical Wahhabi-dominated Saudi government. For myself, I think that non-Muslims should be allowed to enter the holy cities at any time except for the annual pilgrimage, during which time they're crowded and dangerous enough with only Muslims and adding more people to the mix would only exacerbate the problem. I also disagree with the contention that Islam is somehow intrinsically more intolerant than the other Abrahamic religions. I remind you that the Muslim world was a bastion of religious freedom for centuries while Europe was crusading, slaughtering each other over sectarian divides, and running Inquisitions. As I have spoken exhaustively about in previous posts, there is definitely a trend of radicalisation and thus intolerance in the Muslim world, but it exists only over the last 100 years and it is reversible. What Happy Face says about the relative importance of Islam in Islamic society vs. religion in Western society is a very germane point. You can bet your bottom dollar that if we rewound a good hundred years, we'd see widespread protest if some Muslims decided to grab a stack of Bibles and burn them. Is the Muslim world 100 years behind the Western world? Hardly, but as I have already told you all, we are extremely backward in many respects and that's something we have got to work on. Stunts like this are not going to make that happen. They will only provide fuel for the people you describe as 'cavemen' who are working to keep us in the 7th century A.D.

Most of the people having a whinge in this thread are just wishing for religion to go away. That's not going to happen in our lifetimes, so you may as well just wish for unicorns or scousers getting jobs () or something else that won't ever exist. I know Leazes will have a go for "dictating rules" to you, but you are just going to have to accept that a billion Muslims see the Qur'an as - literally - the word of God and value it accordingly, whether or not you find that to be a rational belief. Once you accept that given, it's not hard to see why someone trying to burn them is something people are going to get worked up over. And if you don't accept it, we aren't even having the same conversation, so I'm not going to waste time trying to throw apples at you when you're only after oranges.

neither does one bad tournament compared to his record across his entire carreer Spot on. Can't stand Redknapp. He'll get the job but I pray he doesn't. I agree with Andrew, it agitates me when people have a bash at Cappello. Compared to Redknapp and his one credible trophy (FA Cup), he has nothing on Fabio in terms of honours at club level. He's like Steve Mclaren in my eyes, but with a mouthpiece that does nothing but churn out utter implausible shite, the above quote for example. In terms of class, check out his foul-mouthed rant in the self-titled thread, he seemed indignifed when the reporter suggested he was a 'wheeler dealer', which in truth is correct. I feel as if Redknapp pretends to be the public, giving details about transfers, being open about internal policies at Tottenham, the thing is when labelled at what I'm referring to, his scrotum face wobbles in pure rage as if someone has just shitted on his Tesco sandwich. Look, I'll be the last one to suggest that 'Arry would be my pick for England manager. I hate his guts and he's not even close to ask good as Capello. But I don't think England will succeed at the Euros with Capello in charge. I'd rather have someone proven, like Hiddink or Luis Aragones. Maybe I'm talking shite - wouldn't be the first time - but I have zero confidence in him.

neither does one bad tournament compared to his record across his entire carreer His record at club level, sure. Sven had a good record at club level as well, and you might argue McClaren's case to some extent. Didn't change that they weren't good enough to manage England. I feel the same way about Capello.

'Appy 'Arry'll get it like. Lord have mercy when he does. As for Capello, he's rubbish and should've gone after the WC. A couple of wins against lesser footballing powers don't change that.

Has just been called off according to USA tv. Keep on rocking in the free world.

Qur'an if we're being mega mega pedantic. I've actually never really understood what the apostrophe is there for. It's used in some English transliterations to express the letter "ain" (which is this one: ع) but that letter isn't actually in the word "Qur'an" in Arabic. (More knowledge that I paraphrased from Google btw. )

Anything you can do...

Shola having a testimonial would be about as cringeworthy as Shola being rewarded with a new contract after KK tried to shift him. So, bound to happen.

We were so terrible that Beye was really a standout performer.

This is just one loon in a 50-member church in some backwater of Florida, but once again, it's been taken way out of proportion. Ignoring it is the best way forward.

Well, we had him on loan for a season and he signed a permanent deal over the summer, so someone at the club must've seen something in him.

Keegan-tastic. Has ultimatum ever actually worked? I always get sacked when I try it on.

It was all about Kinnear for me. If we'd appointed pretty much any other manager, we'd have stayed up. Curbishley, Zico and Fatih Terim (and others I think) all publicly said they wanted the job. Any of them on a contract until the end of the season could've done it as we really were too good to go down. But Kinnear's time in charge did irreparable damage to the morale and organisation of the side and there was no way back.

Heskey - no thanks. Mackems seem to be very close to getting Gyan. I kept hoping that deal would fall through because he has looked class whenever I've seen him. I'd be ok with us not getting anyone else, but I'd hope to get this Boyata left-back on loan.

I was watching the Everton-Villa game yesterday and one of the commentators was really being hard on Beckford, which is rare since they seem to be paid to never say anything negative about players. He was saying how Beckford offers nothing to the team and Saha should've been on from the off. Grass isn't always greener?

With the amount of chances we blew we should've had these boring lupine bastards off the park by halftime. As it was I thought that was a decent point in a very physical game. Fair play to Barton too for keeping composed (until the very end) with some very filthy tackles being thrown his way and for a good assist for our goal. He's winning me around - long may it continue. We lacked for a bit of class to unlock this game and hopefully Ben Arfa is that spark.

Maybe trying to make sure Carroll doesn't boil over in the last few minutes and get sent off? I'd take a draw like. We've hardly been at our best.

Come on lads, we put in more dire performances than this last season and came away with results. Wolves aren't much better than Championship standard. Just need a moment of quality.

Gamecast (which you can get here) seems to indicate the same. Sounds like we aren't missing too much at the moment though.