ChezGiven

When they were dominating possession in the second half it was because Routledge, Jonas and Guthrie are all fucking fairy cakes. Tbf to Guthrie he did get stuck in a bit in the second half but he is poor at collecting under pressure and is easily muscled off the ball. The two wide lads need to start contesting a few 50-50 balls too, the amount of times they dont commit for fear of getting hurt is shocking really. For me, this is why we were unable to get a foothold in the match in the second half. Its a shame really as Chelsea's luck was awful and we could have stolen the 3 points with a bit more strength in midfield. Guthries has not had many games this season but he needs to get sharper and stronger, jury still out on him for me as PL player but signs not great today. Jonas needs to stop being so gay and Routledge needs to gain some confidence, as he had some very good moments. Just not consistent over the 90 mins. Back four did quite well considering.

I presume that Sky somehow ensure that there is money to pay the council for the extra gritting in the surrounding areas.

Sad indeed. Cos the polar bear has climbed up onto that floating bit of ice after a swim? It's not like that's where he lives and it's melted around him I'm pretty sure. Probably a brief respite, during a bloody long swim to find a new hunting ground during the polar-cap melt season. You do know that fishermen [and scientists who are studying their seasonal movements etc] are finding record numbers of drowned polar bears due to the above [global warming and the decreasing area of the ice cap regions], and how it's affecting the migrational distances they have to cover during the above mentioned Summer. How far back do these 'drowned polar bear' figures go?

I agree about MGMT being bad and that Midlake album is dreadful too. Been a good year for electronic music imo.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti's Round and Round (65 listens) and Broken Bell's The Ghost Inside (59 listens) are my top 'listened to' songs released on albums in 2010. LCD Soundsystem (I Can Change - 53 listens) are amazing live and This is Happening translated really well. Any band that covers Paperclip People's Throw is the epitome of cool for me. No surprise to see canofbeans bigging up Four Tet Ariel Pinks' Haunted Graffiti - Before Today Broken Bells - Broken Bells LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening The National - High Violet The Album Leaf - A Chorus of Storytellers Arcade Fire - The Suburbs Superpitcher - Kilimanjaro Scuba - Triangulation Actress - Splazsh Hot Chip - One Life Stand Pantha du Prince - Black Noise Four Tet - There is love in you Matthew Dear - Black City Bonobo - Black Sands Enjoyed: Anais Mitchell, Robyn, Wild Nothing, Toro Y Moi, Steve Mason, Avi Buffalo, Maximum Balloon, The Tallest Man on Earth, Janelle Monae, Broken Social Scene, Laura Marling, Local Natives and Twin Shadow.

Don't we have pitch covers and under soil heating etc?

It made me nostalgic for that good post he made a few months back.

Leadership is a rare quality and unfortunately an undertaking of this size requires those at the top to rise above petty politics and vanity. The problem for those at the top of an organisation like this is the diversity, size and intensity of opinion. If you think about factions in a political party, all united under their support for one team, the leadership needs to reach out to and speak to people with very differing points of view. Take the Labour party with its militant wing (the Ashley out at all costs) to the New Labour right-wingers (anyone but Shepherd). Leading that sort of organisation is a massive challenge and something like the NUST is a sort of mini-analogy for political leadership. I've met lots of intelligent and passionate people in my work career but the only successful ones are those who have learnt to 'bring people with them'. Its the one skill that true leaders obsess over (e.g. Barry Obama) because thats how you translate a diversity of passion into action. I'm not saying anything new here but the one massive failure i see around me at Director / Vice-President level is people who believe that leading things is just about forcing through what they want and think. I have no knowledge of the people running this thing but it does sound that they have equated election to a fledgling organisation with a mandate to then set the vision and direction. This would be wrong of them, given its infancy, the election imo gave them an opportunity to lead the development of the vision and direction. If its not shared, the organisation will fail. Very disappointed that the people involved feel the way they do but one thing i would say, people shouldnt mistake passion and knowledge about NUFC with an ability to run a diverse supporters group. The two never equate in business or politics.

My 2007 macbook is starting to show signs of age, you can run Diskwarrior if you think there is disk damage that is slowing things up. You dont need to defrag OSX, some people recommend to repair permissions after software updates. All other stuff is automated. It will be 3 years old in March and am not sure its ever crashed. It only has 1gb of RAM but performs about the same as my 2009 HP Elitebook which has 2gb.

Is mancy on the jazz cigarettes or something?

Aye, I enjoyed it but he ended up looking a very sad and lonely figure in the end. His best years obviously well behind him. Definitely one of the more interesting politicians. It was his film too, which made that portrayal of him even more odd. It was the real-time insight into his message development for Gordon or himself in crises and after major events which was mad. How he constantly was spinning everything all the time, probably even to himself. Frightening how close 'The thick of it' really is.

Did anyone see that Mandelson Storyville on bbc4 last night? Called 'The real PM?', its one the iplayer. Inside the mind of the dark lord in the run up to and during the last election. Was fascinating. One for Leazes, The Age of the Do-Gooders. With Ian Hislop on monday. Sounds shit tbf.

Over the last 5 to 10 seasons? As measured by progress in European competitions? I think things are changing though.

Lost appeal, 3 match ban.

Is it a 10.0 though?

Greenshirtmush!! The image is blocked as am at work but its stuck in the memory so well. I honestly nearly passed out with laughter when you posted that Stevie. Some of the photoshops were fucking magic.

Might be a blessing.

Nicely romanticised . The challenges I'm talking about are simply a case of not needing to be made. They're not a feature of his game, and it's not even poor judgement on making challenges. These are legs that are left out with the express intent of stopping someone. These have a place in the game and can be important in breaking up the oppositions attack, but in these cases they're in very silly positions when the other team are going nowhere. He can eliminate them from his game. If he doesn't he'll pick up yellows in more than every other game. We can't afford to be routinely missing a player like him given the difference he makes simply because of lack of discipline. Proportionately the bad tackles are tiny but because he makes a truly massive number of challenges they'll never be entirely erradicated. it's unrealistic to think so. A contact sport, let the neighbours talk. Its also part of his psychological impact on opposing central midfields. You cant disentangle the attributes, each player is a package with his physicality having an immeasurable impact. You dont know how much players like Cattermole or even Fabregas were put off their own game by Tiote's style and approach to play. Its a massive part of the psychological battle for confidence in the middle of the park that can win you games, particularly at West Ham and Arsenal. Asking him to avoid yellows at all costs will mean a less imposing player as he takes less risks in terms of giving away fouls. The idea that he has merely just left a lazy leg out to foul a player to pick up his 5 cards doesnt seem right to me. No one wants him to pick up silly cards for no reason in neutral areas with men behind the ball. I cant recall each of his cards perfectly but am not sure this describes them. I do want him to continue to impose himself and therefore due to the small margins of error associated with the pace of our game, i expect him to pick up cards.

Couple of new purchases. Winter warmers tbh. And finally got a bottle of this. Had the Corryvreckan few months back which was fucking impressive.

Tiote's yellows form part of his overall presence in the middle, part of his aggression. They are a feature of his game as much as mis-placed passes are from a creative player in midfield. You cant separate it out, or he would need to work very hard anyway to eliminate him from his game at least. Its not something he picked up with us either, the lads on the twente forum said he would miss games through suspension. Him, Carroll, Barton, Enrique and Nolan's goals are my reasons to be positive, just wish we could have added Ben Arfa to that list. The caveats on any positivity will be fairly obvious to most on here. From the perspective of living with what you've got, you'd want Jonas and Ameobi to prove week in week out they deserve to play in this league but they dont have anything resembling consistency. I'm also hoping that Campbell will pull his fitness together, never been 100% convinced by Williamson. Colocinni is lacking something too, he is the type of defender that should look to emulate a player like Carvalho. He has the ability but he doesnt inspire confidence, especially in the air and lacks pace. The defender in the 'spine' of the team is a problem.