PaddockLad

Peps’ ponces score v “plucky” Bristol City..

Did you see what they did to Gene in the other thread?... is it a full moon tonight?

Gene wilkommen backzi

You need to stop believing in all of them CT. Not only for your own sake, but for ours too Labour won't win an outright majority, the Tory press will paint them as communists and enough will believe that they will establish a secret police force to enforce doctrine and gulags for dissenters.

It wasn't the same person, I thought the same but this one had the posting style of a particularly dull insurance salesman. The one on NO was more of a regular lad iirc

He stood as a candidate in a general election somewhere in County Durham I think and lost his deposit He also said his son was part of a barbers shop quartet. I think that was the point at which I decided that reading endless reems of nothingness by The Fish on here was a better option . Jury's still out though

Fuck me CT you'll be telling us you're going to vote Labour next...

Jimmy Armfield, ex England captain. 570 games for Blackpool, squad member in 66 when England won the world cup. Often on 5live, came over as a proper old gentleman of the game. RIP Jimmy

Hes of a quality the rest of our players are light years away from tbf, but he's been touted around all month like a piece of fresh meat to everyone below 6th place. Fuck knows what happened to his dream move to Dortmund but we've got Merino, signed after a only loan had been agreed, they might be mates (THERE IS MY STRAW, LET ME CLUTCH IT!!) he might fancy working for a champions league winner... we just might be in with a chance

Britannia on Sky Atlantic... GoT/Vikings type stuff but it's right up my historical alley i.e. pre Roman paganism in the British Isles, McKenzie Crook is head Druid. Do as I do and slap a fresh bucket of wode around your chops just before it starts

Rafa, going on the rest of this seasons dismissals, should've been toast before Christmas. I think owners have a fair idea what's coming when the new tv deal is announced and they're getting jumpy as fuck. The new deal doesn't kick till 2019-20 but it would appear very few are willing to even contemplate gambling on survival.....apart from one or two notable exceptions http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/01/04/amazon-holds-talks-premier-league-uk-tv-rights/

Yeah if we stay up he'll probably sell for 300mill in the summer. This week has frankly been one pile of horseshit after another and anyone taking it literally is fuckin crackers

Is she tidy?

its been a long week....

Graham. Derek Carr is a pigment of my imagination

fyp

These comments were, the club said — again anonymously — reflective of Mike Ashley’s views. Staveley has been stung by that, irked by the suggestion that her pursuit of Newcastle, which has been very open, was nothing more than an exercise in self-publicity. “It is only right to let the fans know that there is no deal on the table or even under discussion with Amanda Staveley and PCP,” the source said, which was news to her. “I’m very much still interested in buying Newcastle,” she says. “And our bid remains on the table.” It is the first time that the 44-year-old has spoken publicly about Newcastle since she launched 1,000 headlines and more conspiracy theories by attending their home game against Liverpool on October 1. There has been a non-disclosure agreement in place with Newcastle since the middle of that month — her initial bid for the club followed on November 2 — but she feels obliged to defend herself. “I’m very concerned, I’m very surprised and I’m disappointed about what’s been said this week,” Staveley says. She is wearing a pale blue jacket, dark trousers, sipping water from a pink plastic bottle, and coffee from a mug. She is agitated and clearly upset. “The suggestion that we were either wasting time or not serious is absurd. It’s hurtful. Hugely hurtful,” she says. If she was not serious, why would PCP have made three offers to put Ashley out of his misery after his loveless, contentious 11 years at St James’ Park? Why would she have engaged Chris Mort of Freshfields as her lawyer, a man who worked as Newcastle’s chairman under Ashley? Why would she involve the Reuben family, who have an estimated worth of £13 billion and a significant property portfolio on Tyneside, in her bid? “This is something we’ve been working really hard on,” she says. “It’s not something we’ve just thrown together. I’m putting a lot of my own capital into this and our investors, who come from around the world, include sovereign wealth funds.” Her first bid was for £300 million, £200 million up front, the rest payable in two chunks. The second, made on Friday, November 10, was for £350 million, payable in instalments, as the sportswear retailer had encouraged. There would be £150 million on completion followed by £50 million every year after that, with the final tranche dependent on achievement, such as reaching the Champions League. For both were penalty clauses, in the event of demotion or Newcastle being stung by HMRC’s tax investigation into the club. There was a third offer on November 17. “Dear Mike,” it began. In this one, £250 million would be paid in full, no caveats, no conditions, no clauses. This was substantially below Ashley’s £350 million valuation, aside from one sense; Staveley is committed to investing another £200 million, at least £100 million on new players across the first two transfer windows and the same again on improving a tired training ground and ineffective academy. PCP brokered the deal that saw Sheikh Mansour buy Manchester City. Staveley has also attempted to buy Liverpool, but Newcastle fits, Newcastle works — so much potential, never realised — and she has been courted by supporters. “They’re such passionate fans and it’s a great club,” she says. “I’m a northerner. My family home is an hour away from St James’ Park. I just love football and Newcastle has a proper history and a real magic. “That passion of the fans is vitally important when you’re looking at a club, because you know that you’re a custodian. I’m also a passionate believer in investment in the north east, because I know it’s tough. A lot of great things are happening in the city — we’ve got friends, like the Reubens, who have invested there — and it’s a really special place, with its own identity. It is absolutely unique.” PCP is not a charity. “This is an investment, but it has to be a long-term investment,” Staveley says. “Newcastle would be run as a business, but we want it to be a successful, thriving business that is an absolutely integral part of the city.” Equally integral is Rafa Benítez; in each of PCP’s three bids, was a stipulation that the manager must stay and agree to a new contract. “Rafa is doing an incredible job,” Staveley says. “We want Rafa to be part of this project.” By November 20, it is understood that Mort was confident that a deal might be on at £250 million. At the start of December, Staveley met Ashley at an Indian restaurant in London, brokered by Richard Desmond, the publisher. Pictures appeared in The Sun. “The famous curry house is the only time I’ve met Mike,” Staveley says. “It wasn’t a formal meeting and it was arranged by Mr Desmond. Mike was engaging and interesting. I enjoyed his company.” And those photographs? Convenient, no? “I would never had done that,” Staveley says. “If I had, I certainly wouldn’t have been pictured smoking. I hadn’t had a cigarette for years. My dad nearly killed me. There has been a lot of miscommunication through the press, but that’s not my fault. This is football.” In the middle of December, Staveley was told that “another bidder” had emerged, prepared, according to Ashley’s people, to pay £350 million. Fine, PCP said, but come back to us if you want to re-engage. Since then, they have heard nothing. Not a single thing. Which, again, hardly fits with the Ashley-sanctioned notion of “exhaustive” discussions. “Where are the other bidders?” Staveley says. “It’s been for sale for three months.” Staveley had not given up. When people asked, the official line was that the process was ongoing, although time was ticking on and there were concerns; PCP would not be able to fund Benítez in this transfer window and the team remain in a precarious position. What happens next? A staging post feels like the next Premier League broadcasting rights. And beyond that, whether Newcastle stay up will be pivotal. In the meantime, supporters continue to wait; for something different, something better. It is the loyal 52,000 who squirm and suffer as Benítez attempts to find gold in a nettle patch. Perhaps Staveley could have been the answer. Perhaps she still can. But it has been a bruising week. Will it happen? “I don’t know,” she says. “I hope so.”

Barry from Watford used to be a regular contributor to the inexplicably popular 80s throw back Steve Wright in the Afternoon, I thought he was some sort of spoof character?......

1-2 v Spurs league cup live on sky 24th Sept 2008 : 20,577 First home game after the Hull City/"cockney mafia OUT!" game

It's was to stop a team getting to say a semi final then signing three or four (in theory better than what they have) players in order to win the cup. Fairly irrelevent nowadays tbh

Its changing fuck all on matters of opinion. Waste of time.

Don't fancy playing Norwich on this evidence... Morata appeals for VAR

So how are you measuring the standard of refereeing? By what some pundit in the media tells you? Perhaps you'd also like to expand on how VAR will change the way the game is played in a fairly significant way as changing the back pass rule did? I don't remember having strong opinions one way or the other on that tbh but if you had a goalie who could actually play a bit of football as we did with Pav it was easy to adapt to. What a change in the way the game is played has got to do with games being reffed from Heathrow fuckin airport am not sure though.