Rayvin

His apology is eloquent as fuck, mind. Sounds like it was an overheated argument rather than a fight in the end: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/15/joey-barton-rangers-fallout-after-celtic-defeat

Aye, I think this is one of the most dreaded threads on the forum now, with the possible exception of the Yes Gemmill thread.

Publicity stunt? Classic Joey though.

MF putting across really well what I was trying to convey. Great post.

Just be careful here as if they're older than 18 they could get in bother if they overdo it...

If it had been the other way round, we'd have had a few smileys in the match thread where it was decided, a few follow up pages on this thread about how they were handling it, and it would have been old news in about two weeks at most. If we'd still been going on 4 months later about how we relegated them I'd be embarrassed to be associated any of you We're in the division below them and they still have an inferiority complex. Because that's how they are as a city I'd argue.

That score isn't working for you mate....

Sounds like a safe way of doing it. Hopefully your younger son can just stand up to him and tell him to fuck off and it'll work - as I say, it did for me, once - but definitely best to have support. Fucking school politics, man.

Does it have to be alliterative now?

I was bullied too fwiw, including being attacked periodically, and I found that just standing my ground one day and yelling blue murder at this kid in front of quite a few other kids bothered him enough that he went looking for someone weaker in the end. Not a great resolution for the next kid down the line but there it is.

OK so there is a reason. I totally get that it's not a good one but there's clearly something here that the little fuckwit is attacking your lad for. Even if your kid fights back, if this guy is angry enough about what is effectively a low level crime of passion, it could just escalate. Especially if she's there. So two things on this - one is it'll probably blow over. Not saying don't do anything but the main goal is to keep your son's confidence up as that's the real thing that could harm him long term. Martial arts is actually a good way of doing this. The other thing is probably to confront this kid. If his two older brothers are going to walk him home, have them follow from behind in a non apparent way. If this kid starts on him, then they get involved. If he doesn't then just leave it. If the kid does start, what he'll probably do is begin with verbal abuse. I would encourage your son to give back on this as just standing your ground can solve these things. Especially knowing he has the relative safety of your other sons nearby. The main thing I reckon is to try and resolve this quickly. If it rumbles on then his grades will suffer. I'm surprised the police haven't offered to do more though. Or the school.

If he's being attacked outside of school then it definitely is a police issue. That said, do you know why it's happening? In particular? Surely this kid can't just specifically want to attack your son. There must be a reason.

We do of course have Louise Taylor for the Guardian in that boat And she is widely despised. A bit different I guess, since the Guardian is a national.

Aye, I'm not entirely sure what Sissoko would have been offering us were he still here. Certainly wouldn't have had him ahead of Ritchie. Maybe on the left but did he ever play there for us? Wouldn't have him ahead of Shelvey in the middle on current form. Guess he would have provided competition for places EDIT - although I guess what you can't know is how well we would have played down here with the standard of teams he'd be facing. Maybe he'd be tearing it up.

Was he effective

Villa are really making us look good this year!

I think essembee might explode if this continues

Even if we lose Shelvey we still have Ritchie, mind.

I can't quite believe the gulf in quality between this and the PL. Some of these teams come up and you think that a fair few from down here could go toe to toe with the lower PL teams but fucking hell I doubt it on this evidence.

According to QPR's forum, this was their biggest home defeat ever May not be true, but none of them can remember having been obliterated so convincingly.

Absolutely what I've thought the whole evening The past 5 years in the PL can fuck off compared to this. It'd be different if we were trying for something up there but we weren't.

Fucking well done lads. Just superb. :D The best Tuesday in some time.

He didn't score tonight, mind.