Craig

Nice one Ritchie... It's a complete head shave and I'm doing it in aid of Myeloma UK It's the disease my Mam died of which will be 10 years ago in April. I did a sponsored head shave just before she died and said that I'd repeat it in 10 years time. It looks like they've found a potential wonder-drug (see here) which can treat the disease but it needs more research. Probably going to do it some time in March seeing as that's when I did it last time although I have my nephew's christening to go to so I might leave it until after then

Does anyone know of any sites where you can setup an online sponsorship system without having to pay any percentage to the site hosting it? Something along the lines of PayPal but of course without them taking their cut. If no-one does then PayPaul will have to suffice and I'll simply add an extra donation at the end to cover the costs of their fees but I'd prefer all the cash went to charity.

Very true - his leaping ability is quite something. The one against Everton yesterday was impressive. Mind you, the penalty went higher..............only just!

I think he'd perform better in our setup than how Everton have tried to use him. I seem to remember a certain Mr Bellamy being rather average at Coventry City and Sir Bob's sanity being questioned when we forked out £6m for him. Ashton would be my first choice and if we could guarantee getting him in the summer then a 6 month loan signing would suit me for the remainder of this campaign. Who would you prefer we went for if it's not Beattie?

Good news indeed. So he is potentially 2 months away from full training - guess we're looking at the beginning of April before he's playing.. Still concerned as to how Roeder plans to fit both him and Martins in the same side. I think we need more of a target man to complement one of them rather than playing two midgets. Unless one of them ends up on the right wing?

I disagree re: Beattie. Ashton aside, I think he's the nearest type of player currently in the Premiership to Shearer. I think we need that type of player as the perfect foil to either Owen or Martins. I don't think he works well in Everton's 'system' - everything has been structured around Andy Johnson, Beattie is still a quality player and CAN do a job for us. Ashton would be my first choice but: 1. His injury is taking longer to heal than expected and therefore isn't going to be match fit for quite some time 2. West Ham are never going to sell him this side of the summer. That said, if they go down he may have a clause in his contract allowing him to move on - at that point, I'd be fucking fuming if we didn't go for him if we don't get someone else in the interim.

You have sex with a minor in this country (consentual or not) and are found out and you're automatically placed on the sex offenders register. And then people wonder why there is so much opposition to 'naming and shaming'

Credits for the 'wank bank' James?

Beattie, Upson & Neill would be bloody good signings IMO. However, quite why the last bit is 'news/gossip' is totally beyond me - so they're staying in a hotel for New Year?? Are the Express bored or something or are they simply all out of Diana conspiracy stories?

NUFF SAID Shouldn't you be off being a 'real' man and having some sex?

Best make sure you get up early and get those sheets in the machine - don't want Mummy knowing about those dreams, do we now?

Amen ! I've got the party poppers and my dancing shoes ready ! sticks of TNT in her coffin with the fuses hanging out the sides and then give everyone a match! Put the saggy old bitch into orbit tbh!

Gotta be Maggie.... Please for the love of God rid us of this vile woman!

I see your point there but given the fact that Roeder claims that Martins was "the only striker he wanted to sign all summer" and that both he and Shepherd claim that the loan signing of Rossi was planned and NOT a 'panic signing' surely that only serves to confirm how shit our transfer planning last summer truly was? Either that or certain people at the club have been lying to us.......surely not? Not really sure it was shit planning really, Craig. With Owen & Dyer both out at the start of the season you didn't really have any cover for Martins (or Ameobi for that matter but that's a different story). If Martins had picked up a bad injury you would have really been in the shit. Seems to me that Roeder got a little 'insurance' on the cheap. Hmm - I'm not so sure. We knew for most of the summer that we would be without Dyer & Owen for the start of the season and anyone who had their heads screwed on knew Ameobi wasn't right and that it was only a matter of time before surgery was necessary. How it seems to me is that Roeder was persuing many targets all summer (it's known he had a bid for Gudjohnsen accepted) and that Martins was the player who didn't say know. The club claim otherwise and state that Martins was their target all along and when certain quarters questioned the loan signing of a Man Utd reserve as the second striker signing, the club announced that they didn't panic in signing Rossi, it was planned all along - if that's the case then in my mind it is very poor planning.

Shame Maggie hasn't made it a perfect hat-trick tbh - mind you there's still time... As for Saddam, he was right to hang but I think it is wrong, and somewhat hasty for it to have been done while the country is still under the control of America. Wonder how long it takes Bush to retreat now - now he's got his 'trophy', not long I bet...

Photoshop'ed tbh. An insult to photoshoppers tbh - it's fucking shite man, still cheap shots and all that...

Yeah I did, but that was when I was kid, pre-pubescent, juvenile, etc... Take it you're still at that stage then?

It's not just the hair man, he's lost a shed-load of weight since then as well IMO. Sold to the Fish perhaps?

I still can't fucking believe that's you....

I see your point there but given the fact that Roeder claims that Martins was "the only striker he wanted to sign all summer" and that both he and Shepherd claim that the loan signing of Rossi was planned and NOT a 'panic signing' surely that only serves to confirm how shit our transfer planning last summer truly was? Either that or certain people at the club have been lying to us.......surely not?

God's game wasn't one-dimensional though. Very true but the scepticism was the same....

Euphemism. 'fraid not - this 'little fella' also has an annoying habit of stealing the sky card out of the digibox and hiding it!

Part of the reason, yes but then they'd been wanting that for in excess of 20 years. The driving force was actually the amount of cars that were being sold. The whole thing was expedited in March 1999 so that they could get the new scheme in place in 2001 and make use of the 51 plate. (6 months later than they wanted to of course).

I was gobsmacked that they managed to get Cheggers and Philbin in the same room again without them clawing lumps out of each other

Because the very reason they moved to two changes a year was because there are more new cars on the road these days than there would be available registration numbers for a single change. Interest free rates and purchases from abroad (primarily thanks to the internet) meant that the bottom fell out of the second hand car market and more and more people were buying brand new. They way they've got it now means that the current system doesn't need to be changed until March 2051. Even then I think they'll change it to: ABC 51DE Giving us another 50 years before it needs to be changed again. Soon it will all be barcodes. Or lasers. Or something. Right out of Back To The Future! Not a bad idea actually...