Rich

Probably not all people are basing it on...

Are you fucking joking? That's exactly what he'll be, a guaranteed starter for another year. He's not a bad squad player, but if he's around no British manager will put him on the bench. Another year of stagnation guaranteed. If we're looking at a £6m-rated CM as it stands (and if we get one) and then Barton gets back from injury as well, do you still think Butt will be an automatic starter? I think phasing him out is the best way to go about it.

What a fucking legend. He's stolen the show on the last 2 videos as well with his "wife" comments re: N'Zogbia/Bassong and his love of Michael Jordan in the first one.

They'll surely not take him back?!

Done his groin in and could miss the Xmas period according to Oliver in the Chronicle today (assumed from quotes by Hughton). He had treatment on it yesterday though so hopefully he might be able to play through it.

Anyone who watched that programme will realise his family still lives in Chester, surely?

He can't talk to other Premiership clubs until the end of the season iirc. No, he can talk to other clubs when there is six months left on his contract. Olof Mellberg had signed a pre-contract with Juve in early January last year, yet played on for Villa until the end of the season. Note the "Premiership clubs" bit mate. He can talk to clubs abroad, but not in England (until around May 21st - 6 weeks before his contract is up).

i think he's far better than parker at doing that! parker would have to spin round ten times to get some space and then pass it back to the centre-half. I think that's a huge overstatement. I rarely saw him get tackled, not taking into account where/why he passed the ball. He was the best ball-retaining midfielder I've seen at the club, though he was hardly a risk-taker. He had the ability to swivel away from opponents while keeping the ball close-to-feet, much like I've seen Guthrie do on a few occasions. Guthers is quicker across the ground, but his technique isn't as polished yet.

The thing is, for me personally, he's already shown a great deal more than Jenas showed in his time here. Jenas had the technique and vision, but hardly ever applied himself. IMO Guthrie is the real deal in terms of application, and long may it continue to improve. The key is for the player not to believe his own hype and just get on with things. My Jenas-loathing aside (which has subsided considerably, it must be said), I'm not sure Guthrie has quite yet matched what JJ did for us here just yet. He was very, very good at times and scored some hugely important goals.

That makes sense. Surely everyone has something blue/blue-ish when you consider how many away kits we've had in that colour, even just since getting into the PL!

He seems to have a rather deceptive turn of pace at times too, and is capable of wriggling out of tight spots with his fleet-footedness, which is really impressive and something that Scott Parker used to excel at as well. Given more experience the lad could develop into a very, very good player for us. At the minute he's above average, easily, but there's surely no reason from an ability/age perspective why he shouldn't push on and keep improving. Let's not get carried away with him though and make him another victim of hype at SJP.

Whites/colours? Nah, just say one team in B/W and the other in white. everyone must have at least one of these. Black/whites and colours then, could just be any away kits then (apart from white/black ones obviously). That'd be easy enough. Daft having black and whites versus whites IMO as a couple of our kits that people might turn up in are more white than black.

Whites/colours? Old school, shirts and skins. January. Newcastle. No chance!

Whites/colours?

Yeah, it's only a game. ... are you new to football?

How fucking serious are people taking this!?

Surely if he's the editor though, then his view does represent TF? Crazy foo'.

Since when was carded a word? Always annoyed me. Go on! Crush that grape!

Isn't the bit you've quoted an editorial from the bloke who effectively runs TF?

6 days to go, aye. Things seem to have dried up a fair bit! Still got some good entries though.

Not taking anything away from today - my post had nothing to do with today's result. It does seem that some people are 'letting him off', in some respects, for this reason though. To me anyway. I'll shut up though, just for you Diablo. Congratulations Joe on realising that you need to have midfielders on the bench, and that you don't have "LM -- RM -- CB -- RB" as your midfield. In fairness to Fat Joe, he admitted in his post-match interview that he got it wrong against Stoke. I haven't heard many managers say that like, so more credit to him for that. I want him to succeed, obviously, as that means we'll be doing well - but I still don't think he's a "good manager".

I'm just seeing if I remember my anatomy to be honest. I was expecting to get well and truly shot down! Papers are calling it a groin strain, as is PhysioRoom.com. He has had a couple of those in the past IIRC.

If he's holding his ribs how the bollocks did he do his quadriceps!? Is this an assumption or taken from a source somewhere? Also, the abdominal is a group of muscles, not a singular muscle (unless you meant transverse abdominis, which is where he was grabbing at, although it's more likely to be his external oblique) He is doing well though, but I'd be surprised to see him against Spurs unless he gets painkillered up.

Interesting reading maybe, but it's a very dodgy comparison!!