Dr Gloom

Yep. Mancs/Bradfordians. Mackems I don't particularly mind. got to agree with you about mancs. bit of a sweeping generalisation like but whenever i've been to manchester, they've always done their best to live up to the swaggering, stupid haircut, liam gallagher sterotype. i went to see the arctic monkeys at the old trafford cricket ground a few summers back and i must have seen at least 6 or 7 fights kick off during the day, all by gallagher clones. there was a violent atmosphere in the air all day, like it could kick off at any time, people pissing anywhere and chucking bottles of piss (with no tops on) towards the stage and where we were in the pit. pure savagery. i knew a few mancs at uni that were good lads but they all seemed to seek each other out and live in large houses made up only of mancs, it was weird. so houses of 5-6 mancs that didn't know each other before they met at uni. i met plenty of sound geordies when i was at uni but i didn't make an extra effort to live in a big shared house with them. weird behaviour.

He'd still waltz into our side tbf

strange to see him give up so early. i suppose he probably couldn't bring himself to play for a second rate european side after being at barca and fancied a new easy way to make some big money

Would help if you got on with any of them I suppose. there are plenty on here that seem like nice people and make me laugh but i'm not sure i would want to meet anyone here in 'real life'. meeting someone i've only ever spoken to online would be a surreal experience. plus it would burst the mental pictures i've developed of you all. meeting stevie and finding he's a normal bloke and not foaming at the mouth for example would be a strange one to accept.

no one. i can't imagine meeting people i only know from message boards

What was that Kevin? Have we signed Dan Gosling? We won't sign him. why so sure? he's not out of our league;he's an everton squad player. highly rated but a pay increase, an offer of first team football and the chance to play in front of 52k every week could tempt him. we are still a decent size draw for lots of players. the doubt as to whwther we might not sign him could come from ashley and whether he will sanction moves for expensive players. but gosling falls into the category of player ashley likes: young with potential to sell on for a profit so it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

minus the karate kicks. no need for some of those waist high tackles. and seriously, parking the bus and hitting the spanish on the break might have been their best chance of getting a result but they still lost. i wish teams would play a bit more exapansively. it's easy to see why they don't when there's so much at stake but those tactics don't half make for some dull games of football. holland have the front players to have perhaps taken a few more risks against spain.

Brick. Style over substance imo. nice visuals. interesting take on film noir in a modern high school setting but it didn't quite work for me. the visuals were nice - beautiful cinematography but the hard boiled dialogue felt out of context. at the end of the day, the characters are school kids, not private eyes and gangsters from the 40s. for me, it felt exactly like a film made by a film student straight out of film school rather than an experienced film maker, which it was. 5/10.

good keepers don't grow on trees. agree with those that say david james would be worth getting on a one year deal. would be interestign to see if krul is ready too. he has looked a good shot stopper in his limited appearances for us though obvioulsy has little experience so would be a gamble.

highly rated young midfielder. good move if it comes off.

after finally becoming our number 1 goalie after 10 years of trying to cement his place, why would he leave?

Paul Gascoigne, the former England footballer, arrived in Rothbury to offer his support for Raoul Moat, the fugitive who was tonight in confrontation with armed police. Talking toReal Radio Northeast, the 43-year-old appeared to suggest he had brought Moat, 37, a "can of lager, some chicken, a mobile phone and something to keep warm". Gascoigne added: "He is willing to give in now. I just want to give him some therapy and say 'come on Moaty, it's Gazza'. "He is all right – simple as that – and I am willing to help him. I have come all the way from Newcastle to Rothbury to find him, have a chat with him." Gascoigne, who has battled with drink for much of his adult life, is a frequent visitor to Rothbury as the fishing is good locally. "I guarantee, Moaty, he won't shoot me. I am good friends with him," he said. Gascoigne's agent, Kenny Shepherd, said: "He's doing what? I am sitting having an evening meal in Majorca. I'm speechless."

so if we employ that formation, with the current crop it will look something like this: ------------------------------given simpson/perch-------collocini-------williamson/taylor------------enrique ---------------------smith-------------guthrie -------routledge------------nolan------------------gutierrez ------------------------------carroll i think giving the wide men more freedom to support the front man is a good idea. giving them less responsibility when it comes to tracking back because there are two holding midfielders protecting the back four is a good move i reckon. i have doubts though over whether smith is good enough in that defensive role. same goes for guthrie. and can carroll play up top on his own? looking at that i would say we need a new striker for sure, a central midfielder and ideally a new right back though i'm guessing that's why we got perch in

fucking hell, he's far gone isn't he. deluded, sad old drunk.

wank you very much and goodnight

film - meh book - superb

sure, it's been gradually going that way for a few seasons now. i just thought it was an interesting blog, not only because it highlights the different takes on 4-3-3 but also because it's so widespread now. england were one of the few teams employing a traditional 4-4-2. not many of the other teams played with more than one central striker either. of those that did, i thnk only the argies got into the quarter finals. newcastle mainly employed 4-4-2 in the championship under hughton last year. i reckon it's probably time for us to move with the times. a 4-4-2 with our current crop will get over run in midfield. plus i doubt carrol and lovenkrands will cut it as a front pair against top flight back fours.

decent blog in the guardian about use of different formations in this world cup. i wonder whether chris hughton is smart enough to move with the times and adopt a similar approach in the premier league and whether we have the players that are capable of playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation. i don't think we have a striker good enough to play up front on his own. we might have midfielders that could fill some of those positions though. not sure who the defensive pair would be. in order for this formation to work, it helps if you're defensive two can also pass the ball a bit, which could in theory rule out alan smith. one thing that has emerged from this world cup though is the best teams no longer use 4-4-2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/...cs-the-question

agreed. the cuts, i think, have come hard and fast while the coalition is still in the honeymoon period. cameron was quite clever there - politically, he didn't want to still be cutting hard before the next election. typical tory cuts though, the poor suffering through the VAT rise. i hoped the libdems would be able to exert more influence here. it was galling to hear danny alexander defending cuts they radically opposed just a few weeks ago. they really have sold their soul for power. i thought it might lead to a more progressive coalition government but the the emergency budget really shows that most politicians are the same - they've no principles and they sell out as soon as they get into power. it's exactly the same with them giving ground to the tories over the trident nuclear weapons policy. labour under blair were exactly the same. i felt ashamed after i voted for blair and he followed bush into iraq. i feel just as disappointed with the lib dems now. i voted for them partly to protest over labour's failings but also for their social policies and the fact that they opposed spending billions on nuclear weapons we don't need when we've a record budget deficit to cut and they've let me down on both counts.

great pins for an old bird mind

quality thread this one, i must have missed it first time around. made me lol on more than one occasion. some old names from the past - what ever happened to shearergol and swindonmag? do they still post under different usernames? back on topic, here's my contribution...for the fans of this emerdale milf:

yeah, world cup finals are usually dull, cagey affairs. hopefully this one will buck the trend.

i will hold off my prediction until the transfer window shuts. there's time for us to add players needed to finish lower mid table. as things stand we're probably looking at somewhere in the bottom four or five.

i'm glad to see spain in the final rather than the krauts, they were by far the better footballing side. plus you've got arguably the two best teams never to have won a world cup between them fighting it out. nice to see a new country will be adding a star to its kit rather than germany getting another.

Say absolutely nee more about you like. Say nee more. you not got any mackem friends like stevie? you should give them a chance, they're not nazis