Kitman

The level of optimism on N-O flies in the face of all the evidence. I can only assume that Prozac is widely prescribed these days.

Derek urges NUFC supporters to remain calm

Doesnt make sense unless its accounting wizardry getting the money to come in in a different financial year. It makes perfect sense. Football operates on a 'buy now, pay in instalments later' model. Unless you're NUFC which pays for everything upfront. It means that all our purchases have to be funded upfront, whereas none of our competitors do. Apparently this is a good thing, for reasons no-one can explain, unless you're running a corner shop.

That grid in full: Defenders: Need more players please Midfield: Need more players please Attackers: Need more players please

Reading his quotes, what strikes me is the complacency about avoiding relegation. Explains our January transfer dealings, or lack of.

Derek's very economical. With the spending and with the truth.

Yes. Which consists of setting his boxer shorts on fire while he's out training, then screaming into his face about growing some balls and kicking his opposite number up the arse. Probably.

How awful, RIP. I hope the family will be allowed to grieve in private. But somehow I doubt it.

Now that's entertainment!

I do think it's got less entertaining, especially for the armchair fans like me. Some of the highlights are even boring and that's supposed to be the best bits. At least you've got the craic at the pub before and after to look forward to Stevie. The Prem has lost its soul little by little, probably because of a combination of foreign managers/foreign players and the high stakes involved in losing. The calibre of player may be better but not the spectacle. What seems to have gone/be going is the sense of occasion and the belief that anything might happen. This, combined with saturation coverage and overhyping, the constant changing of fixtures by Sky, the domination of a small number of superclubs, and the exorbitant cost of going to games, will lead to a big fall off in attendances imo. Football will eat itself. Sky have a lot to answer for imho.

I'm half way through the graphic novel now. Very good. The graphic novel is very good iirc. Must have read it about 15 years ago now. Was the story by Alan Moore?

I just don't see what successive managers have seen in Ameobi. The odd flash of skill isn't worth the dross that precedes and follows it for long periods. He puts the opposition under very little pressure when he doesn't have the ball. I just don't see what he can offer long term and he won't improve now. I hope we've given him a new contract to ensure we can sell him on in the summer.

You'd think his card would be marked by refs going forward. Players get a reputation for this sort of thing.

If Boro fans stayed in their seats until a goal's scored, they wouldn't stand up at all this season tbh. Presumably when the crowd has shrunk to 500 people, Sue and their ilk will be happy because the stewards will be able to do their job properly.

I can't blame him for feeling more affinity for the side who paid his wages tbf. All I know is that we need someone better than JFK and Bruce fits the bill. You can blame him pretending he's arsed about NUFC though. I know what you mean, but he doesn't play for them now so I guess he can show a different allegiance. I don't doubt he USED to support us, then he went on to win pretty much everything with arguably the biggest and best British club of the nineties. It would have been insane for him to have rattled on about us. I doubt we'd want to hear one of our players singing the praises of a rival club just because they happened to have supported them as a kid. Don't forget we were actually their nearest rivals for a while too. Bobby Robson was no different. His "bleeding black and white" didn't appear to happen until he was nearly 70 and I love the guy. I am have this completely wrong but......didn't Bruce have a trial with us and end up going to Norwich instead? IF that's true - and it's just based on a vague recollection - I'd imagine he'd have disliked us for many years. Hell hath no fury and all that.

I'd be ashamed to hold that bedsheet up, incase somebody thought it was mine

After he'd worked out no club would offer him the same wages as the toon, such is his loyalty to the club.

"We have twee matches to turn fings awound. We must follow the way of the dwagon!"

I've never got tired of looking at that oriental lady avatar. It's the way she keeps saying "Boro' piss" of course.

Walkers crisps - S&V, prawn cocktail, worcester sauce Tortilla chips & hummus Olives Cheese, crackers & sliced Jalapeno

Very well put. Its a shame that its going to be lived out in every magazine and tv programme for however many months / weeks its going to be. Dont think thats good for anyone, particularly young uns who are so caught up in celebrity. As mentioned before she is fairly well off on her own and the kids real father is not short of a bob or two. Hope she has the sense to realise this and spend every last possible moment with her kids, not on some tv sofa. Spot on. I wonder whether in the future the desire for celbrity will be recognised as a mental illness? Along the desire to get elected to parliament....

There's no financial incentive to depopulate. In developed countries, an ageing population places massive burdens on wage costs, pensions, healthcare etc. And queues in the supermarket whilst you're waiting for the old codger in front of you to get there bloody change out to pay. Hence the continued acceptance of immigration. In poor countries, a large family is the old age pension. China has tried to control population growth but I don't think they've been successful. Maybe a Malthusian solution is most likely, although the prospect of worldwide war just got a little more remote with the retirement of George W Bush Junior. We're due another flu pandemic however.

"Oy you can see me kebab!". Or something similar, as I recall. As a "celebrity", she's famous for nothing and she won't be missed for anything. She's emblematic of charva media obsessed society where getting into the papers or onto television is an end in itself, despite having absolutely no talent to earn the opportunity. There'll be another Jade Goody along in 5 minutes to annoy everybody. However I'm desperately sorry for her and her children, it's a tragic waste of life and at such a young age. I'm spared the media circus here in NZ but I imagine it's very sad and quite painful to watch. Cancer is a dreadful disease, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.