Happy Face

"Bootross Bootross Gali!" (sic)

Having already sprinted 30 metres and beaten 3 men to get to the edge of the box in the dying minutes most strikers would have a crack. He had the time/space to shoot there, but took on another 2 to slide it past the keeper instead. Not his best goal. but pretty good.

"Beat" 2, "ran past" 3, danced around all 5.

When you consider bottom half sides like Boro and Fulham made the final I'd agree. ...and both got beat in finals off superior Spanish also-rans Sevilla also rans the same Sevilla who were leading La Liga with 3 weeks to go that season, who were only 5 points off winning it. Also rans Atletico second biggest spenders in Spain last season, with the a £40m rated striker playing up front with the World Cup player of the tournament. Also rans Must try harder. I'm confused by your point then. How's the Spanish league so much more pish than the English? I must have misread.

When you consider bottom half sides like Boro and Fulham made the final I'd agree. ...and both got beat in finals off superior Spanish also-rans

Look at it above. I hope there was plenty Kleenex around last night for you. As I wrote before the game on Twitter, he just needs to scratch his arse and the commentators are all "oh look at that from Messi", it's a good goal, watch it again, it's a contender for goal of the week, but only an idiot could say that's even in the same league as Maradona's goal against England. Absolutely woeful defending for that goal last night, but Messi exploited it, fair play, decent goal, and that's the end. Connor Wickham scored a goal 10 times better than that, three weeks ago, and very little is said, so get yourself cleaned up and take it for what it was. The difference being that Connor Whickham's wasn't away in the Champions League semi-final, against your biggest rivals, in what is the biggest fixture in the club calendar. That's fair enough, but from a defensive point of view it might as well have been J69's Chester Le Street & Sunderland League Division 8, and even then if I was the manager I'd have bollocked them. Fuckin "Lass", he was a like a lass in that instant, he could've stopped it straight away, and the defending got worse as his run continued. As for Ronaldo and Messi, it's not something you can definitively prove who is better, plenty say Messi, noblemen of the game like SAF say Ronaldo and I agree. The defenders in La Liga are pish, if he scored 31 in 34 games like Ronaldo did in the Premiership I'd take my hat off to him but the 1 in 12 record against CFC, MUFC and LFC says a lot in my opinion, and he pulled up nee trees in the World Cup neither. Ronaldo hardly set the world on fire there though either.

The Washington Post did a very long winded story over the weekend around the real reasons Obama hasn't closed Gitmo. Most of the blame according to them lies with Rahm and Obama...not Congress. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/guanta...ry.html?hpid=z1 The main points are highlighted here... http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/04/...e-big-bad-wolf/ and

you have to love him. I think to an extent he has a point which is why I want Barcelona to lose every game they play, but I don't think it's an orchestrated stance by any one organisation. Didn't barca have 70% of possession? 77% but still had about the same number of shots. It's not what you have it's what you do with it, you should know that by now, 31 years of age. Barca did much more with it.

you have to love him. I think to an extent he has a point which is why I want Barcelona to lose every game they play, but I don't think it's an orchestrated stance by any one organisation. Didn't barca have 70% of possession?

Look at it above. I hope there was plenty Kleenex around last night for you. As I wrote before the game on Twitter, he just needs to scratch his arse and the commentators are all "oh look at that from Messi", it's a good goal, watch it again, it's a contender for goal of the week, but only an idiot could say that's even in the same league as Maradona's goal against England. Absolutely woeful defending for that goal last night, but Messi exploited it, fair play, decent goal, and that's the end. Connor Wickham scored a goal 10 times better than that, three weeks ago, and very little is said, so get yourself cleaned up and take it for what it was. He didn't score it in the champions league semi final though did he, so of course Twitter didn't light up in a comparable way. itv commentators are knackers who will over egg him and Ronald, even during their shite first halves, doesn't mean he wasn't class in the end. Most on here can see the difference and don't fall for townsend's hyperbole.

There's a PhotoShop thread in pepe's girly visage there.. Definite red like... Top knee shading

There's a PhotoShop thread in pepe's girly visage there..

Some daftee on 5 live saying he was gifted space cos real had 10 men. As if real had been bombing forward and leaving gaps. He just tore them up. Ronaldo....didn't.

My point from the other thread.... What Shepherd seems to have realised had been excessive spending and was apparently ready to curb/offset, Ashley paid no heed to when he arived and went on increasing to at least an equal degree for 2 more years. He could afford to, but it's not something you can say Shepherd would have done too. Every player at the club following relegation was on a contract signed by Mike Ashley. If the wages were too high at that point, it was entirely his own doing. Yes indeed, but again, that's all about what we imagine could have happened. I feared the worst too. But on the other hand we could have been bought by any one of the billionaires to have come into the league since who've wanted nothing to do with buying from Ashley. Shepherd and Hall's shares could have dwindled to zero value and Ashley could have bought the club for a nominal amount if he agreed to take on the debt...then he'd have had £132M to invest in the team rather than being handed to them. We have no clue what would happen. I know the club would never have gone out of existence.

Not that simple. Don't forget that figure is "only" £66 million with the cost cutting we've seen and is just to stand still, he'd have had to find all of it, plus more - the accounts were only signed off by the auditors because Ashley (in this case) underwrote future shortfalls, someone would have had to do likewise and we'd just lost £34mill even with the existing debt not being due as a lump. There was a significant amount of around £27mill owed on transfer fees which had to be paid sharpish, which was part of the £70 mill figure. All in all it's about £25mill a year in new money needed (minimum), of which we'd probably have needed two years worth as a lump up front, again I stress, just to stand still and with the cost cutting we've seen. Even with an all time record revenue of £99 Mill in 2008 we still lost £20 Mill (even with the help of transfer profits of £10.8 Mill) The only amount that can really be discounted is the purchase price. As I alluded to previously though, when he arrived Ashley put a stop to the cutting that Shepherd had started and went daft increasing the wage bill, so I don't buy that Freddy necessarily would have had higher costs. Nor would Freddy have had the massive protests in 2008 and the accompanying boycott of club shops or associated drop in ticket sales. So income would have been higher too. Not to mention the extra income of not being relegated. Why do you think Freddy would have had to find more than Ashley has?

Thanks for the translation. I wasn't belittling BP but pointing out it wasn't an example of a successful Blue Chip. It's safety record has been pants for years and it is not as well rated as others in its sector like Shell for example. Or Sports Direct? Imagine if someone put on their CV that they had years of experience in a blue chip company and it turned out they stacked trainers at Sports Direct.

You could also turn that statement into.... Given Ashley injected over £100m into a poorly performing but well supported football club and got it relegated you have wonder how hes upto the job of running one of the most successful businesses in the UK. Skillfully ignoring the fact that the "injection" (along with the rabid cost cutting) was simply to keep the ship standing still and afloat and not a new capital investment, which if it were , would have given some validity to your point. How much of it paid off the mortgage? As far as I know, his total "in" was circa £268 Mill, £132 mill to buy, £70 Mill debt repayments (of which some will be the mortgage, not sure specific amount) plus £66-ish mill working capital. So the £250M+ Ashley insists had to put in or Newcastle would have been out of existence isn't quite right, Shepherd would not have needed the £132M to buy, or most of the £70m to pay off the mortgage/debt immediately. He'd have needed to find some proportion of the £66m working capital used to pay wages/costs...if only Ashley could have come in as an investor, with a view to buy once the debt was restructured.

You could also turn that statement into.... Given Ashley injected over £100m into a poorly performing but well supported football club and got it relegated you have wonder how hes upto the job of running one of the most successful businesses in the UK. Skillfully ignoring the fact that the "injection" (along with the rabid cost cutting) was simply to keep the ship standing still and afloat and not a new capital investment, which if it were , would have given some validity to your point. How much of it paid off the mortgage?

I've renewed without taking the 10 year deal. Isn't it just the same price? And if so, what is the benefit in not taking it? No, pay 3 years up front and you get a further 10% discount.

I've renewed without taking the 10 year deal.

They have to go in the cheapest seats in the house. I'd have preferred if the away fans moved closer to the pitch, the leazes corner moved back to L7 behind the goal and the kids moved into the corner.

Decka, your lass looks like a reet filthy cow. Does she take it up dirt box?

Be interested to see how the overall gate receipts end up comparing. They've moved everyone from L7 down to L4 and below to fill the gaps there...but still charged them L7 prices, then halved the price of all the seats in L7 for kids. All credit to them if it fills the stadium week in week out, but the brand has clearly been devalued. The increased Sky money probably allows it though. Our monetary value is worth a lot less than our continued support.

Shola didnt make his debut till 2000 Aye, still a canny prospect

Jack Carr 1897–1912 Alexander Gardner 1899–1910 Alf McMichael 1949–1962 Bobby Mitchell 1949–1961 Steve Howey 1989–2000 Shola Ameobi 1998–present