David Kelly

Prodigious I think.

We had better keepers in Harper and Krul of that time, we had Ricky at leftnback, an outstanding Colo and of course Shola!

Is this first thread we've ever had that has had the word demure in the opening post?

But we had better players.

The full transcript in the Chronicle is a bit better. He's clearly saying that he's going to stay but he's not happy with how things have gone in the transfer window. It's still not clear whether he has been (or thinks he has been) lied to in terms of budget, or whether he's just not happy we didn't move fast enough at the beginning of the window and frustrated we don't have the money to do what he'd like. Good news he's staying for now but there's still serious doubts about his long term future (I suppose there always will be). I think we will definitely see how good a manager he is this season because he's certainly not going to have star players to drag us through. It's all going to be about tactics and how well he can drill the players he has.

Detroit. Good film and well acted although I did think that the kid from Son Of Rambow still looks too young to play the part that he did.

Aye that whole Martin Hardy article on Sky Sports (which is actually generally positive) is a good read. If he does have less to spend than he thought that is a concern. I was hoping it was more that he's finding the money we do have won't go as far as he initially though. But if we have less then he's basically been lied to and that certainly won't play with him. He might hang around this season for the players and fans but there'll be no long term project if he can't trust Ashley.

It's looking very likely now that no matter what the end of it all is, the Stark children aren't going to end up back as one happy family.

Where's Waldo?

Where's the Carroll money?

Aye that's unnecessary having him there with Theon. Sorry I skim read Fish's post. A bit daft but still nothing that spoilt anything for me.

It needed Tyrion on the beach to show that he still has love for Jamie surely? Although in the show there's no reason to think that he doesn't whereas in the books there is.

I can't believe anyone would think Rafa is happy with the situation currently but I'm not sure whether it's because he's been mislead by Ashley or he's just frustrated that the market has been so difficult to work in at the moment. There's no way he's content to go into the season with just two strikers or with same number 10 options that he had last season and couldn't make really work. That said, I think there will be a lot of movement in the next month and some of the fees will level out a bit when people realise that not everyone is going to go for a ridiculous fee.

Don't fancy us to get anything. We've had a decent enough pre season (results wise) but we're still playing the same left winger who wasn't good enough to get a game ahead of Gouffran last season, we still don't have a number 10, we are down to two strikers, one who is struggling for fitness and one who the manager doesn't rate, we still have Dummett at leftback and we still don't have have an alternative in midfield for if Shelvey isn't playing/firing. Somehow we've failed to address pretty much every area of concern from last season (Colback appears to further away from the team and we have cover for Ritchies so there are two improvements to the squad). Going to be a difficult season as things stand.

We were in the party stand on Saturday. I heard the walrus mask get a mention on TMS yesterday was driving home with the hangover from hell.

The teleportation stuff didn't bother me in the slightest, in fact I was caught up enough in the action to not even notice it. I thought it was a superb episode with real tension as to whether big and much loved characters would be killed. It's the first time in ages that I really felt like I didn't know what the outcome was going to be and who would survive.

Couldn't have asked for a much better day at the cricket than today

I think they've introduced him too late. He was first mentioned in the second book and first appeared in the third, increasing his power from thereon. He was also brought in with his two brothers after Balon's (their other brother) death. I think all of this made him a much more respectable character in the books. I can understand why he was left out of the show for as long as he was as he wasn't moving the story on. But its backfired somewhat. In the books there was a similar problem with the introduction of Aegon in the fifth book. It just felt strange to introduce and important new character and storyline so late on. Which is probably why they've left him out of the show.

That's all a little simplistic don't you think?

Aye she could have used her flame visions to convince them surely. If Thoros can do that with the Hound surely she can do it with someone who thinks she's all about fire. Incidentally, book devotees have been complaining about the apparently teleportation throughout the show. To me it's clearly just a device to move the show along. Otherwise it becomes a travelogue like Tyrions chapters in the last book (which were criticised also.)

Dragons had been common in Westeros up to the last hundred years or so and their skeletons had been in the Red Keep to be seen. The White Walkers had been gone for a thousand years or more, before there was any real records kept so they have been considered a myth for many hundreds of years. I suppose it's like to us if dinosaurs reappeared compared to griffins or unicorns (or dragons). While most would be sceptical (to say the least) at first, we do know dinosaurs existed at one point whereas unicorns are considered pure fantasy.

Aye he has some serious shortcomings in social skills with Sansa.

Haha that was superb. I love the bloke in the background struggling all the way through to keep his laugh in.

Some of the black players? They really aren't trying to escape the racism tag are they.

Someone has been applauding Colback?!!