Exiled in Texas

Maybe he is in Mauritius after putting £20 on Kinnear being the next manager

Ah, but the problem is that you do have to stop the game for reviews. You can't let play continue because what if something else happens during the period that the referee is reviewing the play. (And I am assuming that the review will be by a 4th official and not the guy in the middle). You can't go back and erase parts of the game based on a previous decision. What happens if Blue team creams a shot off the crossbar, ball shoots down onto/over the line and bounces back out. Blue team protest to referee, but meanwhile Red team breaks upfield and within 10 seconds of the ball hitting the crossbar at one end, the other team has scored. Now what does the referee do? Goal for Red or goal for blue. We already have the situation that once a re-start has taken place the decision cannot be reversed even if the referee admits/acknowledges a mistake.

Not a direct comment on Cahill (didn't see it), but I think all appeals should be based on a "Double or Nothing" approach. If you're banned for 3 game, and you want to appeal then you would risk loosing the appeal and sitting for six. It's too easy and an automatic reaction to appeal every red card. Go on a Double or Nothing approach, and you might not see so many appeals. Got to be a waste of the FA time. Would Cahill or Terry have risked sitting for 6 games, or would they just take their three game ban and get on with it. Obviously if the card was frivalous then the appeal would be worth it, but if not then perhaps the risk would be too great and they would stay away from possible red cards.

I'd like to see an automatic yellow for any defending player struck by the ball at a free kick when they were within the 10 yards. Primarily aimed at stopping the defenders standing over the ball to allow their team time to retreat and get organised. So many times you see the attackers wanting to take a wuick free kick with the defender standing over the ball preventing the quick kick...book 'em. I know this was tried, and then removed, but I'd like to see dissent at stopages of play (i.e free kicks) penalised with a further 10 yards towards goal (or at least the option of taking the free kick at the point of the original foul or the place 10 yards closer - whichever is more benefitial to the team).

US highschool Soccer, who have their own set of modified rules, have a great Injury rule. "If one team is clearly in possession of the ball when the game is stopped for an injury, then they restart from the position of the ball, when the game was stopped, with an indirect Free dick. (If no team in possession then drop ball)" This means that a team breaking up field or in on goal, when the game is stopped, gets the ball back in a similar position and with a similar advantage. It stops the meaningless act of a drop ball giving possession back to the goalie of the team on the break when they had advantage way up field.

I wonder if Ashley/Wide had expected to confirm Poyet or one of the spanish pair as manager, and has been suprised at the rejections. Is he now thinking "what have I done??" I'm sure that he wouldn't have been talking to KK if they were getting positive vibes from their spanish speaking coaches.

We'll just have to make do with Arturo Antunes Black and White Army

He resigned ffs Resigned/Forced Out - Same thing. Ashley didn't keep KK around so his asset just took a big hit. Just look at all the Happy Customers right now.... they can't wait to spend their money in his business now. The fact is that Ashley would be a terrible business man if he was looking to sell the club and then made such a short sighted decision to make the club less attractive. If he wanted to sell he would have polished up the club, put on it's best face - it's Sunday Best, hid Wise in the cellar and promoted the heck out of the "love" relationship between his team manager and his teams customers. Allowing the situation to fester to the point that Keegan walked, was not good for the short term value of his NUFC asset. All Ashley has done is reduce the value of the club to any future invester, so that's clearly not a run up to putting the club in the shop window. Of course he might feel forced to sell now that the city has a bounty on his head should he ever cross the Tyne, but what a stupid businessman he would be (which he isn't) to wreck the very thing your trying to sell for the highest price possible. That would make him more famous than Gerald Ratner in the competition for dumbest business move.

If Ambani was coming in then Ashley would have left Keegan in charge - which is more valuable....the club with it's Geordie Messia in charge or the club left headless and in shambles. Ashley is not selling out to Ambani.

Yep, that would explain him missing the early games. He still isn't leaving Boca though.

Or the people who read all 8 paragraphs and still didn't cotton on mackems.gif

Riquelme is back home in Argentina and had a great season with Boca Juniors. I think he is currently injured as he missed Boca's preseason games and missed the opening game or two of the Apertura (sp??). I think he is settled back home in AR, is a hero for Boca fans and won't be leaving again.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts on the game. That game and Spurs last season showed that you can either play their game or play your own. And Keegans game is one that is worth playing (and watching).

Very impressive debut. Loved seeing his work rate and the amount of backtracking and defending he did to help protect the defense. And he really is fast....blew past a couple of Manure players quite easily. Only one smudge on his debut.....whenever he felt a defender was closing on him from behind he reached back to push them off, which only gave the defender something to grab on to. Looked like he was doing a "Madison Cycling" event.

Giggs and Rio.......I loved how the commentators described that as "two players challenging each other to raise the level of play" whereas you know that it would have been Turmoil at the Toon if they had been in Black and White. Oh, and clearly the fact that we didn't use one Substitute was due to our lack of depth in the team.....Keegan dare not risk dipping down to his bench to bring on inexperienced players. While Fergie was able to blood some youngesters and give them playing experience. Two faced twats!!!

Bugger......damn American Spell checker that I'm using!!!

As we might have guessed......Louise Taylor's piece in todays Guardian

I liked the simple celebrations from early days........Mick Channon's arm whirl. And of course, Shearer's One arm salute. Standing still, hard-as-nails with his arm in the air. With a look that said "F*** you....I just scored against you, and what are you going to do about it"

what luisao rumour ? This one....

Peasepud Industries

The Luisao rumour doesn't have any quotes or even a half decent source to my knowledge. So I doubt it for now. But it doesn't hurt the Depor negotiations

So is the Luisao rumour designed to show Deportivo that NUFC has other options, and that our offer for Colloccini may not last??

The idea of a Salary Cap comes up frequently, but is entirely unworkable in the Football landscape. It works in the NFL because that league because there is no where else for the players to go - so they have to accept the NFL contracts. If there were another NFL league that didn't have a cap and was close to it in terms of size, prestige and salaries then the NFL would collapse because the players would simply switch leagues That's what we have in FIFA/UEFA.....similar leagues. Cap the Premier League, and Italy and Spain will take all the top EPL talent. And how to to attempt to implement a single cap businesses in different countries with different economies. A simple salary cap is just unworkable. Even trying to link it to a percentage of revenue is almost impossible. First, it favours the big clubs like Manure, Real etc and penalises smaller clubs like Newcastle. And no way could you trust these clubs to report their revenues honestly when their spending was tied to it. They would all inflate their revenues to increase their allowed spending. Doomed to fail. The roster limits seem to be the most workable option....put limits on the max number of senior player contracts allowed, allow more young player contracts, and allow only a limited number of the players to be loaned out. Want to sign a player....you'd better have roster room or you have to release/sell someone. To me this would be the best way to stop the biggest clubs from stockpiling players to their bench.

It's amazing what some of the people (incl TV pundits and commentators) think are the rules. As a referee for the past 4 years some of their comments are laughable. The Van Nistleroy goal vs Italy was a good one......very few knew the rule, and most seemed to want to muddy the water by asking the referee to rule on the seriousness of the "injury" and then make decisions if the player was in/out of play. What a joke. The laws of the game already covered this situation. The funniest comment was that "the AR couldn't possiby have known the ruling and been able to process it so quickly...no way could he have know that ruling". To get to be a FIFA referee the number of games worked must be well into the many thousands, and you can bet that during those games many many wierd things have come up, that he either talked over with his colleagues, went back to the rule book to process or more likely.....sparked a round of "what if this had happened...then what". Even in my first season of refereeing High School games in Texas, this situation came up in a "what if" session. And don't even get me started on what is/isn't a penalty.....to the commentators ever little thing in the penalty area is a Penalty kick.....what they never think of is if the action was clearly enough to warrant a game changing decision. Most likely it wasn't. I'd love to see these Talking Heads work just one season of local youth games as a referee to learn the LOTG and how game management works. (As for the scenario....play on....nothing wrong. And if you want a good read/ask a question try www.asktheref.com

Or also it could be the Canadian Aircraft manufacturing giants? Bombardier are the Canadian aircraft company, but they also manufacture trains, which is probably why they are sponsoring Derby. They make various Inter-City style trains and city trams.