Rayvin

I don't know if the squad is deep enough for us to be selling that many players... would agree with Cisse assuming we can get Austin, but that's pretty much it from the first team. We barely even had a first team at the end of last season.

Wait, is this guy Thompers or Mako? Was Mako banned?

Agree with this wholeheartedly.

They're learning. Welcome Mitrovic!

Ok that doesn't sound too bad to be honest... Can you not just strike up a conversation with someone? Treat it as a loner holiday where it's all about the experience and meeting new people, etc...

EDIT - Nevermind, I skimmed Scoobos' post and missed the reference to Bing. My eyes glazed over at the mention of PAYE, so yeah.

Was it someone on here who said that the Tories are just getting all the really shit, contentious stuff out of the way as early as possible so that they can relax things in the run up to the next election when people will have forgotten about how nefarious they were in the first place? I read that somewhere and it seems to hold true so far.

Well I'm not going anywhere near that, so I'd say you've won Although I only assumed it'd be you as part of some elaborate wind up or just to get him to tell us so we could take the piss

I choose the ampulet

I was sure you'd be one of them...

it's always the same with our transfers tbh. Either we have no idea who's arriving and they just appear, or it takes fucking years.

True enough. Hope this goes through; don't know much about him as a player like but then I could say the same about Mitrovic. Just nice to see some progress being made.

I have only two and neither are hugely dramatic... The first was at wet n' wild back in the day - I was about 8 and had never been in a pool/set up with a wave machine. Anyway, I ended up wading in quite deep but it was comfortable until they turned the machine on - at which point waves were higher than my head. I panicked and couldn't do anything except jump up from the bottom to try and gasp air - I was saved by some kid who looked like a young Jack Colback, who I still think kindly of as there was no way I was getting out of that, despite the fact that literally all I had to do was drop to the bottom and wade about two steps towards the shallow end where it would have been manageable. Didn't even occur to me though, all I could do was jump up and thrash about. I had swallowed enough water to throw up shortly after, it wasn't great. Second time was in China - I was jaywalking admittedly, but I looked down the road and about 2-300m down there was a light just turning green to allow traffic through. I only had to cross 2 lanes so I thought I'd make it, but this taxi driver must have been utterly flooring it. I saw him a way off and thought I'd be fine, and just kept walking. He shot past in front of me just before I took the step that would have put me in his path, and I was actually nearly pulled over by the wake of his car. A group of Chinese people looked disappointed that I had survived That's not uncommon over there though, I saw people lying dead in the streets following traffic accidents, and they were surrounded by large numbers of people who literally just appeared to be standing there and 'taking it in'. Couldn't see any urgency or attempts to help, just morbid curiousity. Nothing compared to some of the stories on here anyway...

You wouldn't have thought 4 weeks in pre-season would be enough to deter anyone tbh, he'll be fit again by the start of the season even if he does miss training etc. is it not more likely they're just waiting to bid when he recovers?

Delicately put.

What is with that celebration though...

I doubt we'll ever get to know, or even if there is such a person, but wonder who it might be if there is...

Looking forward to this being officially announced, but is this pretty much all of our budget gone now?

Translation: I found fuck all.

This is a fair comment. As a public figure, he does have a level of responsibility.

Have thought about this a little more - I think I'd say that the singing/standing would be tacit acknowledgement of their position and a demonstration of the level of acceptance in our society that we have for this hierarchical system. So no, the anthem in itself, if considered alone, is not worthy of ire. When considered as part of our social conditioning however, for me at least, refusal to take part is necessary.

Fair enough, I do accept that I this may just be one of my (many) hair triggers.

I've heard the argument that since the BBC is criticised by both the left and right alike, it must be doing a fairly good job in the impartiality stakes. Am concerned about the Tory attacks though, the right wing media outlets already far outnumber the left.

I feel hugely uncomfortable whenever I've stood up for the anthem in the past (which I now don't do) because I simply don't believe in the words on the level of principle. I do not owe them my allegiance, and I will not stand respectfully for them while singing for their good health. I think it's a farce that the anthem that represents 60 million people is dedicated to a single old woman. I'm not going to protest about it though, I'm just expressing personal preference. McClean is a slightly different case if his issue is more with the UK, as that does raise the spectre of 'well you're happy to earn a living here'; but if it's directed at the Royals as mine is, then I can't fault him. I doubt it's the latter though, that doesn't seem to be the political angle for Ireland. That said, I can understand his position and the sentiment, even if it is a tad misguided.

If bloodline lotteries didn't have so much influence over the respective social positions of most of the people in this country, then yes, it'd be an irrelevant position to take.