PaddockLad

Have you heard "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" saying? Villa, & Citeh may have "lesser" individual players however they are a good team, villa especially. Milner is having a great season etc. Liverpool have gone on far too much relying on those two IMO. Yeah but recent history doesnt really bare that out does it? Gerrard and Torres have meant top 4 for a number of years (since 2006?) for Liverpool. I'm not saying thry're going to do it this season, but theres not much to choose between them and the other 3 going for 4th and they've not really done much to suggest that Liverpool are definetly out of the picture,especially when G & T get fit again.

It's Benitez fault the squad is shite. 12 of the 14 who played in their CL win were already there when he arrived. His appalling transfer record (with the exception of Torres) has been responsible for the squad being gradually weakened the longer he has been there, as well as an absolute fortune being wasted. Their spending is second only to Man City over the last three transfer windows. this Benitez's signings have been dreadful. £20million on Keane then sell him 6 months down the line for half the ammount? Aquilani 20m?? Babel 12m?? not a fantastic record at all. I think it's well known that Keane being signed was nothing to do with Benitez. I agree that many of his signings have been largely average but I've been told by various sources that he's been told to reduce the number of playing personnel. Evidently doesn't look good on the Yank's balance sheet... This is the other side of the coin, and it may also need pointing out that they're only four points off 4th place, and Villa,Spurs and Citeh are about as consistant as Derek Llambias. On paper the other 3 may have better squads, but none of them have two individuals as good as Torres and Gerrard. Getting them fit (neither have been all season, the main reason for their poor run) and getting on a run in the last couple of months of the season will see them there of there abouts. It may be irrelevent in any case, as the Yanks are skint and a buyer with the level of finance to sack Benitez & co, hire a new man and build a squad,not to mention a new stadium just isnt out there. Hicks, Gillette and Benitez are stuck with each other.

Wasnt he over there before xmas for a while seeing him? Shame. Hope his old man saw his goals from the other night.

Do you mean like representitives of the Taliban being sat in the offices of Haliburton in 2000 negotiating with Dick Cheney about an oil pipeline to be run across Afghanistan from the oil rich southern Russian republics to the north and failing to reach a deal?

this is what gets me.....at that price surely if we ever stood a chance of being sold to anyone it was last August? the thing that struck me was with our good start to the season the time to buy was November or December? Am not sure we're going to be worth 130mill in May if we are promoted considering Ashley was willing to go as low as 70 mill 8 months earlier with the same players at the club and near on a complete new squad to be brought in if we are to stand any chace of survival next season. The best time for a buyer to come in was last month when the price would have been perhaps 100mill?

"Conformalist" Would Suzie on Countdown let you away with that one? As to the content of your post, it's mostly the difference between grown ups and children, or grown ups and those old enough to know better.

The US are occupying or bombing 5 muslim countries now - occupation of Iraq, twice-escalated war in Afghanistan, rapidly escalating bombing campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen, and various forms of covert war involvement in Somalia. Fuck Yeah! They regularly bombed Iraq throughout the 90s under the UN no fly zone gig,and obviously the anti soviet activity in the 80s in USSR occupied Afghanistan where George Bush senior armed,trained and financed a racy young shaver called Osama Bin Laden......a lot of the problems we now have in the world are due to US foreign policy disasters in the recent past....makes you proud doesn't it? Does Yemen sit on a huge lake of oil by any chance?......

Why is it daft though? Like it or not, professional sport is big business now and it should have to stand or fall along those lines. More general business is being slowly strangled by the dreaded pre-pack and phoenix companies and it won't be long before it's happening regularly in football. Why should club's be allowed to spend billions they don't have, bump the company and the debts and then carry on with a major advantage over other club's who have managed their finances properly? Ultimately, that's where it's leading. Because it's immoral, but not literally cheating...like say a club like say Juventus for example. Who Michel Platini used to play for. If he wants a level playing filed in european football theres no fuckin way they should've been allowed back in the champs league for at least a decade. He should look closer to home if he wants worse examples of what he may or may not consider to be cheating your way to an advantage.

yep "up the bracket" could be a tribute to the fat lasses sex life? the whole 3 series have been completely overrated...its vaguely amusing but hardly Blackadder etc

As someone said about Killgallon coming in for Colo if theres anything in this it pretty much means that we're certain to lose Carroll or Ranger or maybe even both.

He's a fuckin hypocrite. Trousered thousands for himself whilst emotionally blackmailing the public in general into giving the cash to him. What a complete cunt. All brushed under the table though..."legend" "institution" "good old Terry" etc etc.....

Younger posters would not beleive the fun that could be had by sitting in a pub on a Saturday afternoon with your fixed odds coupon in your mitt waiting for the ceefax page to change....Jeff Stelling fuckin ruined that simple pleasure, the monkey hanging prick

Viewed at the distance of 17 years or so I dare say you have a point about it being a bit 6th form common room. But the actual content of the lyrics is about racism,police corruption and the KKK in the southern states of the USA I doubt if Zak and Tom would write a song in that way if they were to tackle the same subject in 2009. For me, back in 1992/3 it was very refreshing to hear something with a bit of attitude instead of a steady diet of jungle/happy hardcore or dreadfull covers of 60s/70s stuff like "Please dont go". And Suede were a bit camp for my liking

Too fucking right they do. The area around the ground/St. Peters is a right shit tip. The city centre isn't much better. any tourist with half a brain would stay in Newcastle and get the Metro/train to the SoS for a match. correct...I mean how could Darren Bent and Fraser Campbell be wrong?

look at the picture of Brian in the link...and we think Gazza's got it bad! http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/1...15875-21900512/

If he'd used his fuckin brain and signed for Villa he'd be going (if fit). O'Neil said last week he was gutted he didnt get him. But no Owen thought of the champions league and not the world cup (playing with Heskey every week would've helped as well) and went to a club where he was told he'd be on the bench more often than not. Silly cunt, its his own fault if he doesnt make it.

Single: too much too young by the specials...or it might have been another brick in the wall by pink floyd, who I can't listen to now Album:I remember the Police's Ghost in the Machine and AC/DC's flick of the switch, or maybe something by Adam and the Ants.. all bought from Woolies. I miss Woolies....much better than a fuckin download

Adrian Durham on talkshite: "Milton Keynes..the town that stole a football club" He's got a point like, its hard on football towns like Derby and Leicester Also Plymouth and Bristol get in due to geography, and possibly the lack of a bid from Southampton and Pompey. So will there be games at Anfield and Goodison? OT and Eastlands? which ones in London?

I think the mistake you make is assuming that x factor is largely to do with music...its chiefly to do with making Cowell, Fuller and a revenue starved ITV a ton of money. Apart from that I can't really argue with the points you make, other than Alison Clarkson wrote and recorded all her own material, and indeed produced most of her first album in her bedroom....all this after touring the US with Public Enemy with her first group,late 80s hip hoppers the She Rockers.She was hugely successful and popular and wrote, as you seem to have appreciated,great pop tunes.She also sold millions of records. Can you spot the differences between Betty Boo and Leona Lewis? I'm in no way a musical snob but Simon Cowell is stopping a 21st century Betty Boo coming through in the same way by saturating the market with a 3 month prime time tv promo campaign before the x factor single is released. He's strangling individuality and creativity at birth for a lot of pop artists, the only outlet for their talents is being lined up in front of a bunch of know nothing twats and possibly being humilated by them in front of 15 mill people on tv.Nice.

Fuck off and stop talking shit Jackson. How much did he get paid for that load of cobblers?

Doesnt fancy Cheryl Cole and insists he is straight. Well one of them is a fucking lie! Tbf what's he supposed to say? 'Yes, I do fancy the pants off my friend and mentor, who is married to a millionaire footballer. This will not make our working relationship in any way awkward'. "I'm 18, for fuck's sake. You work it out" would be a start. Well, any semblance of personality and autonomous thinking would be a start. There are millions of 18 year olds with character and the balls to say what they think and be genuinely funny, but none of them would be any good to Cowell. He wants automotons who are grateful for their ahem "break" and who will do as they are fuckin told.

Why are you helping to double the record sales of the company he works for then? You think a chart war where the public battle to buy up as many records as possible and both acts on the same label benefit from inflated sales is going to make Simon Cowell think again before starting another series....and in all liklihood generating a similar battle? fuckin hell, thats some intellectuallising going on there happy. if you dont want to buy it thats your choice. if you want to buy it, again, thats your choice. if you want to do neither etc., etc.. who cares if sony get the money. not me. it probably has been engineered that way but arent most things in life? as far as i can see this christmas no.1 is a 2 horse race. i'm choosing the song i like best. get over it!! The fuckin cheeky twat Cowell was on the radio earlier saying that those who set the facebook RATM group up were "cynical" Do you think he's familiar with the concept of irony?

That's what I say to folk who blame Tino for us losing the league that year. If Sir Les had scored in that game, we would have gone on to win the league imo. More to do with Derek Fazackerly going to Blackburn at christmas if you ask me,but as you say signing Tino was just a convenient thing for lazy hacks and pundits to spout like a bunch of lobotomised parrots for years after until it becomes the general public's perceived view on what happened.

Theres not a goverment on earth which could conceivably regulate the global economic markets, and that is precisely why we are in recession. In this country people can blame Gordon Brown until they are blue in the face but in reality theres fuck all he or anyone else could've done.

One word to describe us yesterday-complacent.Its an attitude we've been getting away with in this division, but one which was partially to blame for relegation last season. Not a lot changes really. The players know they are mostly head and shoulders above their opponenents in this division ability wise and usually do just enough to get by. So they dont mind doing this. Last season was a bit too much like hard work but being millionaires why should they care? Talk is cheap, they can say what they want in the press but for me the general attitiude is still one of indifference.Add to this the only reason many of the highest earners are still here is everyone in football knows they are chronically overpaid in relation to their ability and wouldn't bid for them if they were the last professsional footballers on earth. The only thing that has changed is the quality of the opposistion. If the teams we are playing are organised and have a better attitude to hard work than us (Blackpool,Forest,Scunthorpe) or we have "key" players out (Nolan,S Taylor,Colo) then we are found wanting. Shola it would seem is more interested in going to the ACN/WC with Nigeria,Butt is still inexplcably being picked in front of Guthrie (I really think Hughton actively dislikes Guthrie) in the centre of the park and we still have Ashley at the helm with an economic situation that makes a bid from someone or a group of individuals even at the lower end of Ashley's price spectrum distinctly unlikely. Having said all that, I am enjoying this season. But the elephant in the room is next season.Nothings really changed that much.