NJS

You could also say that Leeds from about 67 to 76 were generally one of the best teams but lost out to a series of one-offs (plus the Scouse Cunts) in terms of the real dominance that they could/should have had.

Holland in 74/78 were piss unlucky.

The problem is in my view is that the leverage that a bit of wealth gives people can be exagerrated - a a few more people being able to send their kids to private school means those kids get more of an advantage. A housing price bubble in the sout east is translated into more disposable income which can be used to fund buy to lets etc and of course its then passed on to kids. The expansion of university places was a good idea by Labour in trying to give more kids a chance. The problem is that the richer still have their advanatges which allow them to widen the gaps.

Generally see it as a chance to get rid of shrapnel (but not copper) but have never really thought about it too much. A few times I've got a taxi home from Stansted and paid for the taxi at the desk there on a card (£25/30) and felt awkward as to whether I should give the bloke a couple of quid at the end - usually I do.

I also didn't realise it was the bitch Philips - how about she apologises for the extra deaths from measles she contributed to with her MMR bullshit?

My angle on the Migrant story is that its another example to bring up if any fucker comes out with the usual shit about how much more moral this country was before it all started going down hill in the 60s/70s/80s etc - theres no way they'd get away with shit like that now. I do agree that its a bit gesturish to apologise now though.

When I saw the "Asks for VIP box" byline on N-O I guessed what the joke was going to be but the detail is quite elaborate.

The idea that exteremly fit sportsmen should cramp up and obtain injuries just from a "normal" plane is fucking ridiculous imo. If these planes were so bad, every flight would need ambulances at the end.

2002 Feyenoord (a) 3-2 (1-0) Champs League Match 6 Bellamy(45,90), Viana(49) Bombarda(65), Lurling(71) 45,000 Interesting bit in the .com waffle about the "highlights" of being a Newcastle fan: Apart from the first I was at all of those and would probably include Keegan's playing debut and the win at Liverpool from the 80s and a couple from the last decade but I certainly wouldn't argue about the inclusion of the Feyernoord game in the list. It was as about as good as it gets.

Was it him that was the cheating shit in the San Siro or was that some other Portuguese cheat? Are you not thinking of Conceicao? Or the referee? (Not bitter... absolutely not bitter...) Just talking about that the other day with a Fulham fan who went to Roma - he learnt a hard lesson that refs in Europe are fucking shit and that Italians are fucking cheats.

I'm not buying the myth as much as you think - but I do think you're over-dismissing it at the same time. On the Irish thing, my ex-boss suggested that in Eire at least it was more of a Man U/Liverpool thing with Celtic just clung to as a second team as mentioned as part of their overall identity - but that doesn't mean from a commercial view they could be dismissed even though they don't go to the games.

A bit of pedantry I know but there are a few minor teams in Glasgow - though I'd also say they both have a lot of Man U type glory hunters in the rest of Scotlland to balance that. There are also a few SAFC fans in your NE figure. I do agree on the Atlantic league thing though.

I think you're underestimating their fan base Stevie - Glaswegians are a bit like Geordies and you could say Scousers in that economic historyhas meant migration on a large scale. That's without counting Irishmen in place like the US who of course follow Celtic. The argument was always that their 50/60k crowds mwould always mean a large turnover - a bit like us - but I feel now that a few other clubs have that size of crowd and other wealth an assumed ability to compete is stretching. It would also be funny to see how they'd ract to 2/3k allocations for every away game - I think it would cause bother for a while as they would go in the home end. As for the football side I've always thought their key to success in Scotland was in keeping the other teams weak - something they would be unable to do in England obviously.

I saw The Strokes at Reading and it confirmed my general opinion - some decent tunes but the bloke simply cannot fucking sing.

I know I'm a sad twat but I still think his appearance as a pundit on ITV for the 85 League Cup Final when they didn't even ask him anything and just left him sitting there looking glum at full time after the Mackems had lost was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV.

What about the beer though?

Sex offenders like that usually don't make parole from what I've read - it's a notional figure for what is effectively a life sentence though from a complete amateur pov that looks like a mental health case rather than just being scum. .

Phil Collins and Elton John are the Karadzic and Milosevic in genocidal crimes against music in my view.

The singles always put me off with too many using the repeated (ad nauseum) phrases in the title. I think some of Sting's post Police solo stuff sounded okay though.

Any "Fleet Street" story which involves cocaine is rank hypocrisy given Journalist vices.

There were a couple we gave away last year where I think Butt and Collocini were the guilty men where even though I screamed it was a dive I almost thought they deserved to be pens just for the stupidity of the challenge - Collocini's on Johnson at Fulham being a classic. Of course it being Liverpool, I think Ngog should be hanged.

I suppose I don't really "use" London these days as much as I used to - I had a housemate for a couple of years a while ago which did lead to a lot of stuff there but recently I've been happy to just go to a few gigs and the odd night out after work. I sort of accept the prices but deep down I can't help feeling stung - even though I know from trips to Newcastle that there isn't a huge difference any more.

Isn't its whole ethos Phorm type ad delivery though?

I had a two week holiday in 1978 with my Mam & Dad where we stayed with relatives (in Grays, Essex of all places) and did all of the tourist stuff which was fantastic at the time. I can remember me and my Dad and Brother took one day where we did a tour of all the football grounds including Wembley which was shut as it was a Thursday - didn't really think at the time I'd visit them all with Newcastle later. I think there are two sides to trips to London - all of the traditional touristy things and then there's the "go out on the piss" side. Both are a bit limited if you only visit briefly.

Our relegation was completely deserved but I despair at seeing teams like Stoke having a chance/talking about Europe. It would really only have taken minimal investment in the last 2.5 years for that to have been us.