Billy Whitehurst

He was the definite MOM like. Sky's inability to deal in anything other than extremes is what we're all ridiculing though. Completely agree, as good as he played, the post match analysis was fucking nauseating.

Think 3-0 was maybe a little harsh on us. Man Utd definitely deserved to win and had the majority of the play but Harper didn't make a save and their goals came from us losing posession near our own penalty area. I think 2-0 would have been fairer. I've seen us pay a lot worse against the top teams and the number of goal attempts we had was encouraging. Right back is a real worry, as is who to play alongside Carroll. At the risk of jumping on the Skysports bandwagon, Scholes' passing was immaculate, best player on the park by a mile, as he was last weekend. How embarassing is the format on Monday Night Football though? Fucking awful, almost makes me miss Jamie Redknapp's inane patter.

Don't you claim to be a comic?

More of an Onitsuka Tiger man myself.

Avoid the West End (Picadilly/Leicester Square/Covent Garden) and you'll be fine. The top end of Brick Lane is decent. Places like The Big Chill, Vibe Bar, 93 Feet East let anyone in and tend to have a good atmosphere and you are close to Shoreditch. Angel is also a good night out, loads of pubs round there and late places. There are a lot of skinny jeans types buy they are pretty harmless and not lairy like your Picadilly Circus/Leicester nights out. Have just seen that you are staying in Chelsea so Shoreditch/Angel are not too convenient. Fulham is ok (would recommend Aragon House on Parsons Green), lot's of bars but lot's of toffs also. If it's a nice day, kick things off in some of the pubs by the river near Hammersmith (The Black Lion and The Old Ship are nice).

Or how many aren't Irish for that matter I noticed that. Only 5 out of the 17 were born in Ireland.

I'd throw Dalglish in there too. Ruined Keegan's team.

Each to their own definitely. But Hughton hasn't a clue in my opinion. I don't believe for a second he's capable of keeping us up. I'd been thinking of starting a thread praising Hughton but couldn't really be arsed. But your comment has inspired me. I think he has done an outstanding job and to consider giving it to that big nosed smoggy is unreal. The improvement in the form of the following has been marked - Colo, Enrique, Carroll, Nolan, Gutierrez. Gutierrez especially has in the last season learned how to cross and is striking the ball a lot better. Every time I see Carroll he gets better, he's grown in confidence is bossing centre halves and now imo looks more than capable of playing at Premier League level. We are showing a character and fitness levels that mean we are getting a lot of late goals and rescuing a lot of games. He's got rid of the right players and made some shrewd purchases and our injury record has arguably improved. We have just set a club record for the number of clean sheets in a season. We could well go a full season without losing at home. We are 8 points clear of forest with a game in hand and about to get promoted, which is exactly the aim at the start of the season. Look at Boro, we've arguably sold more regular first teamers from last season than they have and look where they're languishing. Do you think all of this happened by luck? It's incomprehendable to think that replacing him with Mowbray (a man who proved tactically naive enough to think that playing good football with average players would keep his team in the prem) is going to help us. I personally think Hughton has done more than enough to keep his job, but if Fat Mike wanted to replace him I would hope it was for somebody with premier league pedigree or a much better CV than Tony fucking Mowbray. Robbie Keane is a different conversation entirely and regardless of whether hughton, keegan, mowbray or the lord jesus christ were in charge his wages would still be far too high for fat mike. *Soap box tucked away* Well said, Hughton has done a superb job this season given how the majority of people thought we would fare. Would be completely wrong to replace him next year. He's also done it without resorting to the shite patter we used to have to put up with Souness, Allardyce and JFK.

I've lived down here since 1999 so aside from a couple of years in the US, have lived here for nigh on 9 years. I have to say, I absolutely love the place. So much choice, so many different places to go drinking/eating, so many things to see. The main thing for me that I love is that it is so multicultural, you come into contact with so many different types of people, the variety is amazing. The nightlife is great (so long as you avoid the West End) and not that much more expensive than the rest of the UK. Public transport (rush hour aside) is really comprehensive. Regarding the people, I don't find them as bad as people make out. I'll always found that Londoners have a certain affection for geordies also. I certainly find them friendlier than anytime I've ever been to places like Manchester. They are not as friendly as people in Newcastle but (and I'm obviously biased here) but I think geordies are fairly unique in their live for today outlook which makes them so warm. Having lived here for so long, I really couldn't see myself living anywhere else in the UK. When you come here from smaller places you tend to be out of your comfort zone (it took me about a year to get used to the place) and it can be quite daunting. For that reason, I can understand why people don't like it.

I think 99% of that lays squarely at the feet on that evil bastard Bush and his advisors. I hate him as much as I hate Hitler, and I have no doubt if he had been in power longer the potential for WWiii was very real. By the way there was a lot to take in, don't beat yourself up about wanting to watch some football but a fuckin shitey defensive Italian side??!?!? I was the same when Princess Di died, I was more upset about the toon game at Anfield being called off. You're right there, instead of trying to at least make something positive out of a tragic situation and pull together with the rest of the world, Bush and his daddie's cronies used it to pursue their own agenda and we all saw how well that worked out. As for Roma, I didn't have HBO so the TV was so unbelievably shite that I would watch anything.

I lived in Manhattan at the time. I was sat on the 20th floor of a building in Times Sq (which is miles away from the Twin Towers) watching it all happen. After the second tower fell our boss came round and told us to shut the blinds, not sure they would have stopped a jumbo jet like. We all went home and I remember being delighted that I would get to watch Roma v Real Madrid (I think it was that game) in the Champions League as kick offs were at 2.45pm NYC time so I'd usually be at work when they were on. All channels, including ESPN, were showing footage of what was happening though so I couldn't watch it and was furious. I don't think I was being cold, it was just a bizarre day and didn't seem real. It was only until I saw people at work who had lost people that it really sunk in what happened, it was extremely sad and totally senseless. It was a very strange place to be in for the next few months. After that the majority of the world showered the US with sympathy and goodwill but in the end, I felt that, the US threw it back in everyone's face, they turned nationalism into xenophobia and that was a large part of the reason why I moved back to the UK a year later. It was the perfect opportunity for the US to patch a lot of things up with the rest of the world but they properly fucked it up, and the UK stupidly joined them for the ride.

Are my eyes deceiving me or does that bloke also have his zippo lighter in a leather pouch clipped to his belt?

Fuck me, when did that gobshite release a book? Safe to assume that will be an tissue of absolute lies.

eh ? There's always a lot of bitterness in these threads whenever anyone leaves so I thought I'd try something different! I like the guy as a player and appreciate what he did for us last season so I wish the lad good luck.

Good signing for Spurs, good fee for us. £7.5m profit for someone with only one Premier League season behind him isn't a bad bit of business for us. I don't begrudge the lad a transfer at all. He was our best player last season and was also our lowest paid. If I was in the same situation, I'd have done the same. I hope he does well at Spurs.

If we are going by Viz characters, surely Aldridge Prior would have been more appropriate. JFK always had a tendency to be a bit economical with the truth when he was our manager. He just comes across as a mentalist on the SSN interview.

Exactly, the wiki-warrior is back and he's still a tedious bastard.

I agree with most of the posts in this thread. With the exception of Butt, most of our central midfielders went missing last season leaving Butt to provide the creativity which never is and never has been his game. It fell to him to do this along with his normal defensive duties. His defense splitting balls were pish but he's wasn't supposed to be the one providing them. However, he was still willing to take the responsibility as nobody else would. He was one of the very few who came out of last season with any credit. He's clearly past his best but was still our best central midfielder by a country mile last season. Given the tiny amount of commitment shown by the majority of our squad last season, some of the abuse he gets is staggering.

Great manager, excelled in both club and international football. However, above anything else, I'll remember him as being quite simply a wonderful human being. The world has lost a legend. RIP Sir Bobby.

Good luck to him, I really hope he beats it. He always comes across as a really nice bloke whenever he does the punditry on Scottish football.

Well said, he didn't say anything wrong if you ask me. Also backed Shearer for manager even though Shearer dropped him.

RIP, absolute legend, very first album I ever had was 'Thriller', actually fairly gutted.

Is banning US TV genuinely a policy of these halfwits?

They'd clearly done quite a bit of research, they produced figures for several banks (NR is the only one Fop remembers and it was the biggest - at least 1/3 more although it could have been as much as +45% - ask Gemmill) showing over all bonus payments had gone up not down in the last 12 months and then said that this was actually the general trend despite public perception and a few headline grabbing bosses not taking bonuses. As I said, I'll try and find the report that you are referring to. You should try out the link I posted as that will tell you about the bonus trends at most of the global banks.

It was on the fucking news, they gave quite a few specific examples and said it was the case in general too, blame them. Like Fop said you'd think it wasn't true, but apparently it is, unless the BBC new was lying (personally Fop thinks Fop made the BBC news lie.... but then of course clearly Fop is lying so.... ) I dont think he was accusing you of lying, just imparting his point of view. Why you need to piss yourself laughing is beyond me. It is possible for the BBC reporter (as thats who you are agreeing with, not the institution) to be focussing on some true elements without the overall picture being reflected in the story. it was in the same report as looking at non-execs and their lack of teeth and their club few 100 issue. They then looked at current bonuses, NR bonuses had increase by more than 1/3 (could have even been +45%) since being nationalised, they named several other banks where there was also an increase (could have been Lloyds too, but ) and then said that contrary to popular believe there was no real mass slashing of the bonus culture and in fact general payments had still gone up since the beginning of the credit crunch. Now where this is true or not , but the media generally does at least vaguely research it's fact for reports like this. As Chez said, I'm not accusing you of lying, I just think the source may not be the strongest. I can only go on the figures I have seen in the financial press and from speaking to pals who work at most of the major banks. Fairly simple really, I'll go off the evidence I've read and you rely on your evidence. I'd be interested in seeing the stuff the BBC is talking about so I'll check it out.