Bad Mongo

Coloccini was rubbish, including his goal.

I wanted to say that Blob was playing well, but didn't want to jinx it.

Above Chelsea. Basically, we're gonna win the league.

He was limited like, and slow as fuck, I just always remember him being fairly tricky. Maybe it's just my shit memory as I haven't watched the season DVDs like.

Eh, he wasn't that slow. Not the fastest winger (wingers are often very fast), of course, but one of the hardest working, and moderately pacy. One of the things I noted when he played with Owen and Viduka (and Ameobi) was that his celebrated "dummy to cross, cut in side, dummy to cross, cut back outside" was needed while waiting for the strikers to arrive in the area. He was a good player for us, extremely dependable, just not exceptional in anything except perhaps stamina.

Personally, I think he was one of the most underrated players on this board. Of course, he was also very unexciting, except when he cut inside and launched a shot that made you wonder why he didn't do that all the fucking time.

Chelsea celebrating a 1-0 home win over Norwich like they've won the league

It shows they care.

I think this might be the season when we survive relegation with a record breaking 25 points.

No one but me gambling on McClaren? Oh, sure, they'll keep him as long as he doesn't rock the boat, but what if he starts to rock? For instance refusing to sell Janmaat without replacement in January. He could go for constructive dismissal. I know I would.

We should be able to re-vote whenever we feel like it in this thread. It would make for a much more dynamic poll. Currently, I think relegation looks most likely.

Did Allardyce have restrictions under Ashley? We sold who we knew would be sold anyway (Dyer...Parker), and signed pretty much everyone he wanted (Smith, Viduka, Geremi, Barton, Faye, etc).

He was very active in the transfer market, and then they stopped all transfer activity for some time when they did their belated due diligence.

Why couldn't that injury happen to him?

To be fair his legs went a couple of times, we were just to tight to buy th gun and shoot him.

There's just not that much glue to be had from a modern footballer. He wouldn't be worth much more than alive.

My initial thoughts on who'll qualify out of the groups. Pure bold directly, bold italic to knock-out.

Why so optimistic for Norway? (I'm asking out of curiosity. And also pessimism.)

Damien Duff to Shamrock Rovers.

So the only way Damien Duff can beat us in the future is if we both somehow make it to the Europa League. That's good, I suppose. We'll make 7th or a cup final.

I recall his substitutions being quite predictable in a lot of games particularly towards the end of his time with us. Was often bang on the 75th minute, 3 substitutions.

I choose to interpret it thus: either the wingers had done their job, were tired, and had to be subbed, or they hadn't, and had to be hauled off. And the team were always much better in the second half.

Eh, it's not as if contracts can't be broken. Mike Ashley will sue, claim the contract is worth zillions of pounds for him, the club will protest that it's only worth losses for them, and lawyers will battle it out for a compromise.

Finishing above Sunderland as it stands.

If we win this game (a cup final) and finish as NE top dogs, then surely we've fulfilled Mike Ashley's ambition of 'winning something'.

Article about Ashley in Norwegian @ NRK, the state broadcaster. Pretty fair and balanced. Google translate link: https://translate.google.no/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nrk.no%2Fsport%2Ffotball%2Fen-klovn-med-nese-for-penger-1.12374570&edit-text=&act=url

Original: http://www.nrk.no/sport/fotball/en-klovn-med-nese-for-penger-1.12374570

McClaren getting a payoff and a move to the premier league after fucking up promotion for Derby too.

That's exactly the winner type Mike Ashley is looking for.

Impressive pace from the physio.

That was good. A good goal.

I haven't seen much Norwegian TV. Any recommendations?

No, nothing. No TV dramas worth watching, at any rate. Watch Dead Snow I and II and Trollhunter instead.

And don't visit Oslo, it's a dreadful city.

He probably wants to rent it to future footballers who can't afford to buy that kind of property on their championship wages.

The pressure is off QPR, so I don't know what to expect.

If you can read Danish, you can read Norwegian and Swedish as well. If you can understand spoken Danish, you'll probably understand the others. But it would be better to teach the kids to speak properly.

Give me a self-centred prick like Ronaldo any day of the week. I want to watch football not nice people playing badly.

Of course. But if you decide to like or dislike players purely for how good they are at playing football, then this thread might as well be about how you rank our players.

I can't get myself to dislike a player for not being talented enough for our once very high standards, or for having lost his legs. I like Ryan Taylor. I like Shola Ameobi. I may dislike a player for his attitude, self-centered pricks like Cristiano Ronaldo who starts whining because a team mate scored a goal he possibly could have scored himself, or Kieron Dyer, who seemed to feel he was too talented to get himself properly fit.