David Kelly

Rafa won't play 2 up front because he believes the formation we have best covers us for where we need to have players. If he moves one of those players to play an extra forward it will take a player from the position he wants them to be in and we will be short. He might do it for spells if we are a goal down and thinks it worth risking us defensively for an extra forward but I don't see him ever starting with a different formation to what he's played every game for the last two seasons. Personally I don't think swapping an ineffective number 10 for a potentially effective number 9 weakens us defensively but my opinion counts for nothing to Rafa.

Not convinced his and Hall's ideas for the club were for reasons other than to benefit themselves, but they did know that something could be made of the club and they tried to make it happen. Which is a damn sight more than any of the other owners we've had in my lifetime have done. RIP

Hales out too but it doesn't sound like he did anything. Jennings and (probably) Onions going to Lancashire next season. Will Smith (not the Fresh Prince) heading back to Durham.

I'm with Tom, he's nothing like Hernandez other than in terms of his size. I also disagree with Fish (and RobinRobin) that Merino would be better than Shelvey pushed further forward. Merino is making more tackles for us than anyone else in the team. He also wins a lot in the air (he's was excellent in this respect in the first half against West Ham) and I wouldn't want to lose that, which I think you would, if he was moved forward. Shelvey doesn't have that in his locker.

We're still wondering why the posts appear at all. I'd take a draw all day like.

I remember Cacapa looking class for Lyon like. I still think Milner is shit. I can't believe he's moved for the money he has in his career or played for England so much.

Football is dead isn't it.

Was it that late when the change was made? I assumed it was in the first decade of the last century. Checking McCracken's wiki page he played for us from 1904 - 1924 but it doesn't say when it was that his play effected the change. Edit: Just checked it was 1925.

How many other leagues were actually going then? Were we pretty much the centre of the professional (or organised football) world back then?

McCracken's wiki page mentions that he held largely responsible for the change in rules. I can only assume that's right. I might be mistaking linking it to a league title for us but he was definitely playing for us when we were winning the league. Aye I remember John Watson. I've got a feeling Steve Watson's brother is also called John so I seem to remember there was a lot of assumptions at the time that they were brothers. I think he was from Wallsend too.

So just before we play them, we've allowed him to terminate his contract so that he could play against us? That doesn't strike me as the best deal the club could have done.

How does it work that he can officially complete a move outside the window? I assumed they'd just agreed the deal but it would take effect come first of January. But if that was the case how could he play against us?

The success of our defence when we won the league led to the change of rules for offside. I remember reading the birthdays on .com where they've spoken about one or two of our players being particularly responsible. Bill McCracken being one of them.

That seems to have been pretty much what they've been doing this season without a massive amount of success. Even without the points deduction they'd only be lower mid table. Burnham seems to be very highly rated but he's struggled so far. Potts was away with England U19's earlier in the summer and seemed to do well. But it seems like they need another two or three senior players alongside the likes of Collingwood and Rushworth. Getting Latham back again would be a start.

It's an awful forum though. It has numbers but I've never seen an intelligent conversation on there.

I'd be surprised if he was picked on Sunday. He wasn't even on the bench for the last league game.

Looks like Jennings (probably Notts too) and quite possibly Onions will be going too. Onions only being offered a one year four day contract which will be a drop in wages from his current all formats contract (despite only playing the one format) while he's been offered two years and the chance of a coaching position elsewhere so you can understand it if he goes at his age. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't the only ones to go by the sounds of it. It's looking a bit glum for them. Stoneman, Borthwick, Coughlin, Jennings, Onions, Muchall & Mustard all gone in a 12 month period. Wood is never fit and Stokes very rarely plays these days (I'd imagine he'll be away to the IPL again next season if the England schedule allows). They're running out of established pro's (Collingwood and Rushworth is about it). More positively, apparently they're in discussions with Latham (who's done well replacing the poor Cook) to be their captain accross all formats next season.

Went to see Mother last night. I'm tempted to say it's a pile of shite but that's probably not fair because its well acted and pretty well made. Unfortunately it's complete bollocks. It starts off quite creepy but then gets totally ridiculous to the point where I was laughing at bits of it. I'm told it's a love or hate film and while I could understand people hating it , I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would love it other than to try and suggest they 'get it' and feel superior over everyone else.

I hadn't considered that. Friday afternoons are usually the part of the week when I really can't be arsed to do anything no matter what I have to do. Was much worse when I used to go for a pint or two with lunch as well.

It's a fair cop.

I used to go on NO a bit a while ago and I never thought it was anything like that in terms of people getting called worse than shit. But I did find that it was more difficult to get a decent conversation going and that the greater number of people on there was a disadvantage. I suppose it feels a bit more like twitter. Any news is on there much quicker but there's less depth to the conversation. Of course the problem here is there can be long periods of nothing getting posted at all. Friday afternoons seem particularly bad. I assume most of you are lucky cunts who get to finish early.

It's a really weird message board that they have. In just about every thread someone will have a right go at another supporter for what they say. No argument just basically fuck off you're a cunt. Maybe it's because of the number of people who post on there they don't build up any sort of relationships so they don't bother having any real conversations. Seems completely pointless to me.

I thought Joselu had a pretty decent game actually. I know he's a striker and paid to score goals but I thought his all round play was good. And as others have said, he's getting into the right areas. If he keeps on doing that he'll score a fair few just by law of averages. Merino is a joy to watch. He just looks like a proper footballer. If he keeps up the way he's going and keeps adapting to the league, there's going to be a lot of teams interested in him. Whilst in no way am I suggesting that Ashley didn't screw Rafa over this summer, not signing someone like Perez might actually be better for us. We saw with Thauvin that having a player who doesn't want to play for us does us no good. Perez always seemed to want to go back to Spain so he quite possibly would have been a massive waste of money. The squad we have now want to be here and do well for the club. It's great seeing that after some of the players we've had in recent years.

I quite enjoyed the specky kid. Tbh I thought they all did a decent job but I thought the Jewish kid had pretty much no purpose in the film and the way the black kid (I'm not just attacking minorities here) sort of come into the group out of nowhere wasn't very well handled. The other characters were better realised. I also felt that although it was set in the 80's, the town felt much more like the 50's setting of the original novel.

Bobby The Brain Heenan died this weekend too. RIP.