NJS

NE bottom three looking quite possible now.

The thing about complaining and rocking the boat like we did for Beye's red card is that as long as they keep employing the same incompetent cheats, chances are they can get you back.

What's the odds on Obama being the consumate politician and inviting the pilot to his inauguration?

We did have a couple of years ago (probably pre-Ashley) - a lad I know who used to work for the Shields Gazette - I don't know if he's still there

Pretty much spot on - especially hope and belief >> fear and dread. From my own pov I'd add that that hope and belief rekindled a love of the club and football which was nearly dead and is now in death throes again "one year on".

So this isn't the Ricardo Montalban condolences thread then?

Bit harsh on Bulgaria going by my visit to Sofia in '99 - some mafia/crime/prostitution related theme would have been more appropriate - the rest are pretty good

He was on my flight back to Stansted after the Sunderland game - didn't look as extremely pissed off as I or the couple of other fans on the plane were.

It saddened me as she's on my "you don't really want to know how many people I'd kill for a chance with her" list.

I remember he reffed another game either the next year or the year after and disallowed another goal which was actually a correct decision - the funny thing was the crowd didn't even go up for the goal iirc - we just expected it to be disallowed. It would be good to see the two goals now with modern angles etc - they certainly went beyond even Bennett or any of the other corrupt fuckers worst excesses by a million miles from my "nostalgiac" viewpoint.

Ambitious teams will realise that Bassong is good and he'll be sold.

If I was Hughes I'd wait till the last day and then slap a cheeky £3m in for Given and maybe a couple for Owen - it'll be like Woolies.

I was mainly thinking of the jug-eared cunt and the parasitic whore when I said his family weren't that bad on race - obviously the Queen Mother was a piece of shit.

The context was "our little Paki friend" - do you not think that's extremely patronising at best?

I'd say it had more to do with the army officer training mentality/attitudes rather than his family. His "Dad" is a fuckwit but not a racist imo.

For Taylor I blame Tony Adams - that loan spell at Wycombe "under his wing" accounts for his pointing/ "I'm in charge" attitude which is fine if you were Adams and could defend/had respect but not when you're a headless chicken.

Better than none at all. In all the games he''s played I don't think Jonas has put more than 20 crosses into the box.

Fair enough but Duff (Who I don't rate at all) made the goal - and goals get results.

I think we have to stop looking at names and look at contexts more - I was saying to the lad at work who's a Blackburn fan who was going to go to fulham today that I thought at the time losing to them was a fucking disgrace but now a draw there would have looked like a good result. Given West Ham's recent form the result wasn't bad but I'm still worried about the rest of the season once the squad is weakened.

Must have been fantastic in the first 35 minutes (which I didn't see) then because he was fucking shit for the rest of the game. You're always hard on him but I can't see how you were watching the same game as me, he was incredible. (And he did provide a good run and assist for Owen's goal, which you missed then) I just don't get it - he's a winger who rarely puts a good cross in and can't shoot to save his life - but at the same time he makes me think "hmm... good player" when he does get on the ball - I just want more.

Must have been fantastic in the first 35 minutes (which I didn't see) then because he was fucking shit for the rest of the game.

My take on it. So that's young/potential out for money and semi-past it in for nowt - sounds about right.

Yeah the people who were interested just happened to have invested with Madoff. This fucker is as much a lying lickspittel as Kinnear.

There weren't any flaws in his ManYoo deal. The flaw in the West Ham deal was the clause that the owners could transfer him whenever they wanted regardless of West Ham's wishes. No such clause exists in his ManYoo deal. I'm sure the rule was about "third party ownership or financial interest" - as I said above how can he be "on loan" from a non-club? I know they tried to fiddle it by saying it was about "registration" or even by mentioning what you have said but the deals are definitley against the spirit of the law.

Hopefully that will expose the flaws in his Man U deal.