donaldstott

I realise it's poncy and it's clearly not a takeaway but Heston Blumental's pub 'The Hind's Head' has the best chips ever. Three times cooked, three times the fat, three times the taste!!

Dropping Garcia and Westwood was the equivalent of Taylor dragging off Lineker in the Euro's...or Gullit dropping Shearer. Not sure it was really Garcia played three days of awful golf and looked shaky over every 3 footer. He got critisised for leaving Harrington and Westwood until the end of the singles but they played badly too and were actually two of Europe's weakest players. I'm no big lover of Faldo but I think he was vindicated in a huge way for picking Poulter and he just came up against an American team that played exceptionally well.

A Nigerian businessman with £350million. Oh that sounds about as plausible as the emails I get addressed to "Hey mister"

I feel the same. Me and about half a dozen mates (who were regular home/away/abroad) have all stopped going over the last 4 seasons - because of the general mis-management of the club. To a man, none of us miss it - apart from the European jaunts that is.

Keegan in to 12/1... Shirley not

Tesco are selling 2GB Sony Vaio's for about 450quid. I've had one for two months and it's spot on (apart from the hideously bad battery life.. Should have everything he needs (though obviously he'll need to by Office seperately). Also I might be wrong but Excel won't work on a Macbook.

No and no!!

What an original idea where ever did you get it from? Incidently who was that Italian bloke who yovaged to the far east?

Total Thompson House garbage and it's a good job - Ince would be disastrous

I won't have a word said against Marco... I got married in July and who should turn up at the ceremony and perform an impromptu version of Robson and Jerome's Unchained Melody while we signed the registers - but Marco. He forgot the second verse but made up for it at the reception when he took my gran home early cos it was time for Eggheads. It truly is a pleasure to have been graced by his presence.

I've just put £15 on Deschamp at 10/1. I have no idea why.. Other than that's who I'd quite like to be the next gaffer.. He's clearly going to get the France job... Je suis idiot!!

I have my doubts if anyone (continental manager or not, friend or not) can work under Wise, although a DoF type role doesn't necessarily have the manager "under" them as Wise seems to have managed. The only way I see it working with Wise is with a complete yes man. The only way the director of football/manager role work is if they can work together and ultimately take responsibility together, if results go tits up, they both should get the chop, you get the feeling that wasn't going to happen!! Aye, Wise brings in the players, Keegan gets the chop if thety don't perform, basically. I've said elsewhere that I think the system has it's merits (largely due to KK having a lack of knowledge of European football). . But for KK to be saying we'll be fetching 4 or 5 players in and us to end up with 2 and allegedly trying to flog others on deadline day suggests that there must have been a startling lack of communication going on.. It also begs the question, just how bad must our finances be? Mike Ashley's business record suggests he's no mug and he would know full well that even if KK had stayed he'd still be getting shit in the away end for not strenthening the squad..

I have my doubts if anyone (continental manager or not, friend or not) can work under Wise, although a DoF type role doesn't necessarily have the manager "under" them as Wise seems to have managed. The only way I see it working with Wise is with a complete yes man. The only way the director of football/manager role work is if they can work together and ultimately take responsibility together, if results go tits up, they both should get the chop, you get the feeling that wasn't going to happen!!

Aye, but the debt being paid off tells you the money owed on players isn't the handicap they'd have us believe. It's just something to bash the old regime with and use as an excuse for not spending much at all in net terms. I know you weren't sticking up for the board here btw. I still maintain it's the personnel creating the problem here and not the structure though. Well I'm not sure about Keegan's relationship with Wise - I really have no idea. However I think Kevin is right in saying that the manager should be 100% in charge - It scares the living shit out of me that Dennis Wise has more influence than the tea lady at this club - never mind the fucking manager. I agree with Alex that the structure can work. The one thing that i read this weekend that struck me as interesting was Keegan's alleged list 'pie in the sky' transfer targets. If KK was in sole charge of player recruuitment, after three years of soccer circus, I'm really not sure whether he would have had the knowledge of who we could realistically hope to bring in to the club. Would he for instance have brought Modric across, he definitely wouldn't have known anything about Guttierez/Bassong.

Chris Houghton i reckon

Deschamps dropped from 11/1 to 4/1....

I'd love to smell her hair. Christ I know we're all going through depression but howay lads.. get a grip man I'd definitely sniff her couff...

Good work on the analogy front there HF. I was thinking much the same but my malaise stopped me writing anything about it..

I said Deschamps 8 months ago and would be happy with him now.. What's the latest odds. I can't get on such sites at work!!

WHAT THE FUCK IS GANNIN ON?

Rumour I've heard is that Ashley et al were pushing the sale of Barton to Pompey to get him off our books totally against Keegan's wishes. Keegan alledgedly told Barton to go public with his desire to stay at SJP which of course he did. Ashley has gone fucking ape-shit that, in his opinion, he's be under-mined by Keegan. Plausible I guess - if it is true then surely Keegan was exercising his right as a manager and Ashley is a twat for getting involved? Either way there's been a serious amount of 'right hand not knowing what the fuck the left is doing' since Wise and Jiminez were appointed IMO. The lack of communication has been apparent from day one of KK's reign for me. The problem is that KK looks like a nee-mark when he goes in front of the cameras and talks about transfers (which he clearly isn't closely involved with). The continental structure that MA has employed should mean that Wise/Jiminez talk to the press about transfers and KK talks to the press about whether Joey Barton's blisters have healed!! If that was true then KK was a very good liar all the time he said he was in control of thing etc. I've seen interviews where he's had to say "Sorry I don't know, you'll need to speak to Jiminez/Wise about that". That's a bit embarrassing if you ask me..

Rumour I've heard is that Ashley et al were pushing the sale of Barton to Pompey to get him off our books totally against Keegan's wishes. Keegan alledgedly told Barton to go public with his desire to stay at SJP which of course he did. Ashley has gone fucking ape-shit that, in his opinion, he's be under-mined by Keegan. Plausible I guess - if it is true then surely Keegan was exercising his right as a manager and Ashley is a twat for getting involved? Either way there's been a serious amount of 'right hand not knowing what the fuck the left is doing' since Wise and Jiminez were appointed IMO. The lack of communication has been apparent from day one of KK's reign for me. The problem is that KK looks like a nee-mark when he goes in front of the cameras and talks about transfers (which he clearly isn't closely involved with). The continental structure that MA has employed should mean that Wise/Jiminez talk to the press about transfers and KK talks to the press about whether Joey Barton's blisters have healed!!

Very sensible Jimbo.. It's not as if there isn't a little history of walking away..

Out of interest what's on the back page of the Chron?

I'm actually not that arsed about KK getting the boot, as I never really thought bringing him back was the right thing. However the thought of Dennis Wise giving post match interviews to MOTD makes my skin crawl... The sensible way to replace KK is by bringing a foreign coach in who is used to the system that MA has installed and won't expect to be involved in every decision like presumably Keegan did.