OTF

Ameobi makes his claim for the most casual player title. Somehow it backfires as we win a corner.

...and Sol is leading the most casual player out there competition. Spared blushes by a poor finish from them.

It's almost like our players are having a competition as to who can look the most casual out there.

Commentators have already shown they know nothing.

Far from semantics. Deserve is an emotive word, my arguments for the absurdity of the decision is grounded in logic pure and simple. You don't come across as stupid or ignorant, but here you're being nothing but.

Where did I say that? Straight out of the LeazesMag school of argumentation TBH. It's always been my point that money should be spent on developing the game in places that don't have the existing infrastructure and resources in place.

Yep, so far as I know.

This should be a good attacking game. They were the one team last year in the Championship that we never really got a handle on, and like us this time around they have had mixed results. Hopeful of a win but I think it may be a score draw. I think we should see Barton in the middle alongside Tiote, I just hope Hughton leaves Routledge on the right instead of using Guthrie there. A bit of pace outwide could unsettle their fullbacks.

You act as though there is some sort of entitlement to have it in the Middle East. Why? Firstly it makes scarce sense to live in the desert let alone host a World Cup there in the middle of a scorching summer. Without the oil and natural resources of the area they would not have even had a look in at hosting the World Cup, you can't deny that. Ergo, the decision was made based on natural resrouces and had nothing to do with football. Egypt is in Africa, but who cares this is the World Cup, not the Middle Eastern Cup, or the African Cup or the European Cup. If you were deciding where to host the event the criteria needs to be spelt out. There is no comparison between the Qatar bid and that of America or Australia, or even Korea. Simple logic should have ruled it out at the first hurdle. Playing soccer in the middle of a desert does not make sense. Put it indoors and make the ticket prices inaccessable to locals and why does it matter that it's in the Middle East? Answer - It doesn't! So again why have it there? A World Cup in Australia or Asia opens up the timings to the lucrative and booming Asian market which emcompasses the majority of the World's population (China 1.3b, India 1.1b, Indonesi 240m, Bangladesh 160b etc) numbers which obviously dwarf those of the Middle Eest where the largest population is Iran with 71m (Turkey which you ruled out of the Middle East has 73m, Egypt 77m), after theat Iraq is the next biggest with 31m. As a reminder Qatar has 1.6m, a small percentage of which are actually Qatari. ...and don't get me started on their 'carbon neutral' stadiums. How carbon neutral is a stadium that was built on money from oil? They're having a laugh. On top of that how carbon neutral is actually building a stadium for no pupose other than to host an event that could easily have been hosted elsewhere where the stadiums already exist and actually serve an ongoing purpose? Qhat about the envrionmental and financial cost of shipping in the materials and migrant workers to put it together? Then the cost of disassembling it, shipping it elsewhere and putting it back together! Carbon neutral my fucking arse.

Just imagine if every Qatari riyal and Russian ruble that will be spent was redirected towards developing the fundamental infrastructure and resources required to play the game in impoverished countries whilst the World Cup was hosted in places where the underlying infrastructure and venues are more or less already present. In Russia at least there can be a legacy from their World Cup with the improved grounds, training facilities etc, but in Qatar what's the point when you have such a minute population and live in a desert? If it truly was a World Cup for the middle east then they should have bid together for it and leveraged their collective resources - fat chance of that happening! ...and I love how they talk about how the ground will be zero carbon emitting, what about all the carbon emissions required to build them in the first place? Or to deconstruct them immendiately after the World Cup because there's no ongoing use for them, or to rebuild them elsewhere in the World?

It will no doubt be a spectacle because no expense will be spared, but that's hardly the point. How exactly this will be good for the middle east as a whole is beyond me, because the hatred amongst countries in the middle east is essentially ingrained in their people from birth. No doubt the Qatari elite will use this as bragging rights over their neighbours. Seriously the facilities that would be required to foster Football participation that's accessable to all Qatari's is excessive. What's next? Antarctica? Why not? The Qatar World Cup will essentially be an indoors event so the actual venue is more or less irrelevant. Likewise it will be irrelevant to the non-elite Qatar and general middle eastern population who won't be able to afford to go to matches. That's before you even consider the general feeling in Qatar towards women. I mean seriously, any Qatar women who wishes to work in her own country needs to register in order to be able to legally do so. Firstly though the company must make an application in order to employ a woman. Anyway, FIFA is beyond a joke, the corruption there is obvious. The whole selection process is ridiculous.

I wonder what the Qatari national team will look like in 2022. They've clearly bought the World Cup, now will they attempt to buy the trophy as well? If they don't then I hope Australia firstly qualify and then get drawn in the Qatar group.

This is honestly ridiculous. Seriously, Russia a place with massive racism problems that plague their game, a huge country with poor infrastructure and they win it. Then the cherry on the top of FIFAs corruption cake - Qatar! Seriously, WTF! 1.6million people is their population - why? Because it's in the middle of a friggen desert! They're the highest energy users per capita in the World because living in the middle of a desert makes no sense unless you're one of the mega rich few who's sitting on their vast natural resources. If it weren't for their oil and gas exports and the fortune that some Qatar'ies have made on the back of it (with no tax on income), that they won this bid. There is absolutely no two ways about it. Without those riches they would not be able to afford to build the ridiculous air-conditioned stadiums that will be required to allow players to play in relative comfort. Stadium's that will costs ridiculous amounts of money to build and that will server no purpose after the fact, so will be deconstructed and shipped off elsewhere. Surely this makes no sense when you compare it to playing in improved existing stadiums that will continue with functional use after the event, in climates where playing sport is actually possible. The whole of Qatar is built around indoor living, which begs the question what's the point of having it somewhere where you need to be constantly indoors in order to not be uncomfortable? How exactly are they planning on hosting the visitors? Surely they have limited guest accommodations (again because who takes a trip to Qatar for anything other than to extract money from their mega-rich in a business context?) that will need to be expanded vastly for the express purpose of the World Cup. Expansions that thereafter will be useless. ....And what about the women! FIFA have a lot to answer for. They should have to come out publically and state which bid each of the voters supported, and put forward their exact reason$ for doing so.

Sadly more spring to mind that we got that I wish we missed out on.

I don't think that's actually what he was trying to say from memory. Something about it being a stepping stone in a move to a bigger club. Was complaining about not getting opportunities at Newcastle, which was right, but how much of that was down to his attitude and the fact that we didn't have a manager who could keep him in check (Joe Kinnear FFS).

Man City will get rid of Mancini before they get rid of Adam Johnson.

Is that the first caricature of someone where their head is actually smaller than in real life?

More meant feels that his goals warrant him being out there despite his otherwise poor contribution. I'd have Tiote and Barton out there in the middle. Nolan if played would be used behind Carroll.

Harry Redknapp talking up Tottenham's chance at winning the title. For all their million midfielders they've not got a decent defensive one. Noone shielding a shaky and constantly changing defensive line means they'll ship loads of goals, too many to compete for the title.

I was just thinking how far off a PL player Guthrie looks. You just reminded me, during the game I was thinking how disgraceful it is that a player of Guthrie's ability is rewarded so handsomely that he can buy a fleet of Mercedes and Range Rovers and Lamborghinis. He was struggling to beat the first man today on our corners. Still, a great result and an encouraging performance with many key players absent. The Guthrie slagging in here isn't really warranted in my opinion. He's on a quarter of what Smith is, gets played out of position more often than not, had a decent first half and yet cops a slagging like he's shagged your Mrs. Never a world beater, but a decent schemer who like anyone in that position would benefit greatly from consistent playing time in that position. He won't get it though because Barton's a better player, and Hughton will use Nolan there just because he feels he can chip in with goals.

His passing and vision in the first half were good I thought. Well off the pace in the second and his free-kicks were definitely more miss than hit the whole match. Not to worry though as Barton is back in the next match. I'd like to see Barton in the middle to increase his involvement.

I can only guess that Hughton was telling Carroll to stay back a little to help out in defense, everytime they got the ball off us no matter from how deep they made it look like they were on the counter. Seemed to me we had some tired legs towards the end, unfortunately Tiote was one of those who faded along with Guthrie.

As much as it was a horrible stuff up between Alex and Cech, Carroll still earned his goal. Had to be putting the effort in there where plenty of others wouldn't have been bothered.

1-1 I'll take that. They would have torn us a new one I reckon with Lampard and Essien available. Ramires and Mikel two of their weakest least involved players. Guthrie's second didn't match his first, but I think it shows that Barton would be handy if played in the middle. For all his shortcomings having Routledge out there can be handy. He has the pace to look much more troubling than he really is, which will play on defenders. He seemed to be enthusiastically tracking back as well, treat em mean keep em keen.

Ivanovic, so honest there