NJS

Absolutely - if he'd banged in 40 goals in two seasons then I would "blame" him less if he does leave but the "what might have been" is a killer. I also agree with Wacky - the idiot has to realise that his trophy signings don't share his "geordie nation" bollocks.

I'd define that as making him fully responsible. Why did he ask for it? - for exactly the reason we are now finding out - so it would be easier for him to leave when it suited him. Continuing the analogy from above if a girl way out of your league agreed to go out with you on the basis that you dropped all your mates, burned all your CDs and gave up watching football then yes, its your "stupid" fault for being so desperate to agree to it but that doesn't make her less of a bitch.

Like nothing around at the time, must have been something to see when they first appeared on the scene!!! And especially that part of their sound came from Iommi chopping the ends of his fingers just before they launched themselves. I enjoyed the programme but obviously only having an hour there was alot missed out or glossed over that they could have made more of that i'd have liked to see. I thought they would have mentioned the 3 chord note thing from the track Black Sabbath which was supposedly banned for centuries by the church for being evil. Iommi was right - it does make the hair stand up. I thought it was sly to count Led Zep as "stadium" to feature next week instead of including them as a "founder of metal". Oh and on topic - so not Paul Scholes then?

Because He or his agent acting on his instructions leaked the story to the press about the release cause. That is enough for me to seriously question his position.

And therin lies the problem - he's had plenty time and opportunities to say yay or nay but imo is biding his time waiting to see if anyone comes calling. I'm sick of this "we should be grateful such a god should even contemplate playing for us" attitude some seem to have. We pay him more than £100k a week (insurance ot not) and have spent a fortune in medical bills so lets cut the "poor little messed about Michael" shit for starters. On a career basis Shepherd was right - none of the "worthy" clubs look like they want him (for now) - people like to think that the £17m bid blew Liverpool out of the water angle is correct but I'd put it down to him realising that Benitez didn't want him and we did. I'd love him to stay because even a sad old bastard like me is starting to feel positive but I'm certainly not going to do a Wayne's world type worship of him. What like asking him to clarify his position and the new manager going out of his way to sell his vision for the future to him? Is that not enough?

If he stays for a "token effort" as he feels he owes us or something like that, tbh I wish he'd just be honest and leave now. I know its an old cliche which sometimes is full of shit but I do feel its a case of "we only want players who actually want to play for us". I was very cynical about how he only just dipped his toe in the water at the end of the season before last so that he was fresh for the world cup - again being honest a "that serves you right" thought did enter my mind when he was injured know matter how much it may have cost us. I think it was that that really pissed me off especially with all the emphasis of when he'd be back for England and not for us. I agree with the comments that if he's "forced" to stay we'd get 100% on the pitch but when he does leave I'll still have a bitter taste in my mouth.

I'm being more and more impressed every day - I like the way Barton has mentioned the "sell" that was given to him and Viduka looks the same. Could be cynical and mention the money but I get the feeling Sam, as with the backroom thing, just goes about things "properly".

I get what you're saying but bias aside Shearer's tackle on Lennon has been at best excused and at worst glorified by fans. Also ask other fans about his elbows over the years - I think he gave as much as he took but from one angle he was a "thug". Which leaves mooning - hardly a capital crime.

I;m not one for dodgy anecdotal evidence but I worked with a lad who had a dodgy back for months but was completely sorted by one.

As I've said before I hate the fuckers and the report is no surprise but agree its an attempt at blame shifting. I think the worst aspect is the willingness of so many fuckwits to charge the gates without thinking about the past and what it would do any hope of justice. Having said that in their place I doubt I could have kept calm.

Got my bill from Virgin today without the promised refund from last month so rang to complain and see if the upgrade had happened. Messed about quite a bit until I spoke to a lass who did seem to care (had to ask me to calm down a couple of times and tbh if I'd been her I'd have told me to fuck off). Upshot was that the upgrade has happened but as I'd suspected the throughput on my router was limiting it (bought a new router off ebay at the weekend in anticipation) but worryingly the tech support people knew nothing about networks. Wacky - if you have a router attached it might me worth trying a direct connection (heinous crime normally) just to see if thats your problem. Anyway the lass rang me back at the end and offered me the price of the 8Mb connection for 6 months (£12 saving) so what with having a good rant, getting it working (sort of) and saving money it all worked out okay in the end (for now).

As I've said I still have doubts about the style we'll play but this kind of talk of professionalism does impress me.

Putting nastiness aside for a moment, I think Shepherd should consider his health - a 63 year old man with Pleurisy/pneumonia should surely be looking to take it easy for a while - taking the money and "disappearing" would be a good solution all round.

1. Pissed as a twat for the first time in ages 2. Been out on the piss with a couple of lads I used to work with who came down to Chelmsford especially for said piss up. 3. Unofficially offered a job in Leeds working for one of them. 4. Will probably use it as a lever at salary review in current job next month. 5. Nice to have a fallback.

Unfotunately I think they've moved way ahead of at the moment - 3 or 4 years ago when it was Houllier then the gap was tiny but now with Benitez/Yanks its huge again. On the bother I'd say the truth lies in the middle as usual- arsehole element + shite policing. My order of prefernce btw is NUFC > infinity > any fucker else.

The way I explained it at work today to a "football fan" who couldn't understand why I wanted them to lose was "You've obviously never seen your team play them, you've never been to Anfield to see your team play with all that involves off the pitch and most of all you don't remember what utter, utter bastards they were when they were top dogs". I'm not sure what your point is. I've seen them play at Anfield, as a neutral and against us. Never had any problems, in defeat or victory. I know you have a certain amount of bitterness towards Liverpool, for me the irony is I'll be the one treated as the odd one for wanting a fellow Northern team to do well, not you for preferring an Italian one to do well. Oh well, never mind, hoped you enjoyed Kaka's latin religious sentiments. God gave him the talent to play football but made him stupid enough to believe. I've never understood an "affinity with northerners" as you suggest - to me they were just other teams - the Hartlepools and Darlos meant nothing and I always had proper reasons to hate the ones I actually encountered eg Leeds and Sheff Weds. I know you have personal reasons for "liking" them - joking aside - and I suppose I should confess my secret as well - my brother supports them. It was actually him more than my Dad who "raised" me as a Newcastle fan but then he defected in 76 - the ultimate in treason. That is a factor but I stand by what I said - the dealings I've had with them over the years has left me not trusting them. They live the stereotype. My boss at work is Irish and supports them (he's seen them play once a West Ham this year). His brother however goes to a lot of games and couldn't get a ticket for tonight so came over to Liverpool to watch it. My boss said he'd booked the trip until Monday because he wanted to watch the victory bus tour - summed up the bastards for me.

The way I explained it at work today to a "football fan" who couldn't understand why I wanted them to lose was "You've obviously never seen your team play them, you've never been to Anfield to see your team play with all that involves off the pitch and most of all you don't remember what utter, utter bastards they were when they were top dogs".

Seconded - I need to see crying in the crowd though.

If I looked up "Cockney Wanker" in an encyclopedia I'd expect to see him as one of the top 3 examples.

I've read about the thottling and it makes broadband completely pointless imo. My 20Mb hasn't kicked in yet but as it says that will run out in 20 minutes in their peak period. I doubt I'll stay on the top package. They try and argue its thousands of songs - so fuck - its not thousands of DVDs. I'd love to know what they consider a true use of broadband is - to browse you only need 512 max.

If you're talking torrents then the most I've had is about 450/500 KB/s. The only thing that uses the full whack that I know of is binary newsgroup downloads.

It was canny - next weeks doesn't appeal too much but I'll watch - the rest after that all look good.

Why so patronising? If you'd never had cause to use it/look into it before then it's not exactly a crazy thought to think you could drive through it. I guess if people can believe in aliens then a 30 mile long road tunnel is feasible. Not far off.

Got the baseball one wrong - how the fuck would anyone normal know that? On a point of order on the answers Noah didn't really have an ark either

Parallel worlds by Michio Kaku about cosmology/multi-universes. Also trying Cell by Stephen King but lack of enthusiasm atm.