afar

I'm not sure what the rules are on a club going totally out of busines, it's highly unlikely that it would happen to Cardiff at this stage, they may go into recievership but the process of actually dissapearing from existence takes a little longer than the 3 months or so we have left in the season. Just look at how long the pompey debacle has taken. Anyway not sure the rules it's certainly not fair to the teams, like ourselves who've done well against Cardiff, and impacts other fixtures, you would take a different approach to a game knowing that you had less points than you did. But like I said it's a moot point, as it's not going to happen. The reasoning behind writing off all previous fixtures is because you can't have some teams playing less games than others. Would be a bit of a sickener to miss out on promotion by 2 points when you had a game in hand. If it ever happened, which like I said I don't see in this case, they could fall back to a different method, for example, awarding the average points a team has gained per game to the teams unable to fulfill their fixtures, or getting those teams short to make up their fixtures by playing other teams that are short again. Not fair but neither is just discounting all the fixtures from the team that had trouble. What if your player was booked or sent off, or picked up an injury in one of those games against the team ? It would be a nightmare to sort out. But I don't see it ever happening, if worst came to worst, the league would probably step in to ensure that the fixture list is completed.

Same, would be very nice to get a win and pop back to the top. Impossible to predict after recent results really. Yeah got to agree with this, think we'll lose, hoping for better, snatch the hands off of anyone that offered us a point for this game.

I'm not sure what the rules are on a club going totally out of busines, it's highly unlikely that it would happen to Cardiff at this stage, they may go into recievership but the process of actually dissapearing from existence takes a little longer than the 3 months or so we have left in the season. Just look at how long the pompey debacle has taken. Anyway not sure the rules it's certainly not fair to the teams, like ourselves who've done well against Cardiff, and impacts other fixtures, you would take a different approach to a game knowing that you had less points than you did. But like I said it's a moot point, as it's not going to happen.

Just did the predictor, had us finishing with 92 points which was only good enough for 3rd I was being cautious with our results, predicting a few losses at Swansea, Watford, Boro and Bristol City and failure to beat Forest at home. I was also probably over estimating West Brom and Forest, predicting WBA would only get beat 1 more time this season, and just 2 more defeats for Forest. Last year I ran the predictor an number of times, and almost every time I did it it had West Brom, Boro and Hull being relegated. So I'm not going to panic just yet.

I think I'll set the PVR and watch it when I get up. It's 5.30 kick off for me on mountain time.

Unfortunately, that's true, would love to see him get sent down, but it's not gonna happen

Tell me about it, I have the same problem in reverse, my mum sends me regular supplies of Bisto gravy and mint sauce, it costs her more in shipping than it does for the items.

I don't think it's corrupt at all, it's in the best interests of the player to be chosen as highly as possible in the draft. The higher he's picked the more moeny he'll make. There is not the attachtment to clubs there is in our game, and there are not teams like Manure or Arsenal or Chelsea, that win things year on year. The salary cap helps a lot of that, the more successful your players are more money they want, and the more likely you are to have to trade them because of the impact on your cap, thus weakening the better teams. So form moves around a lot more, players influence that and if you have a true great playing for you in an important position you are going to challenge as long as you put some decent players around him. The Clots are an example of this, they were bloody awful for years prior to Peyton Manning being drafted, it took a year or two but now they make the playoffs every year, they just got lucky that that year where they picked first (because they were the worst team in the NFL, the previous year) the best QB probably of all time was available to them. That is one of the great things about the draft process, you can literally change you team's fortunes around in one year's draft and the way the system works, the odds are stacked in favour of the worst teams. I've often thought that a draft system would be great for the PL, obviously we don't have a college system., but we do have free agency (bosmans). A draft could be employed for that with the worst team picking first. The thing that probably makes it impossible though is the competition from other leagues, the NFL has no competition, it can dictate the rules. If a player in our football though is not picked by the team he wants, he can go off quite happily and earn the same if not more money at a foreign club.

Excellent point RE the NFL, there are so many things the NFL do better sounds good if we werent trerated to stories almost every week about rapes,shootings,drugs etc from the nfl roster. after that it's the usual thing about the best going to the better teams (where you have the draft system) and the rest having to hope they pick up one that sklips through the net....that works in the nfl aswell. out of curiosity what happens if someone is drafted but doesnt want to go to that team ? The reason we see some high profile convictions with NFL players is that general player base comes from some of most deprieved areas in the country. Admitidly our football too is a working class game, but the difference is that there is a greater percent of players coming from really bad areas, areas where, drugs, gun crime and gangs and stuff are a way of life. These people are suddenly thrown into a different world and often it does not mix, Michael Vick's just returned from a 2 year sentence for Dog fighting, Donte stallworth just completed time for killing a pedestrian in his car while Plaxio Burress is currently doing a 2 year stint for holding an unrestgistered gun supply. Generally speaking though if these character concerns become apararent before the player enters the draft, then their draft stock drop significantly. For example Carlos Dunlap, is an excellent defensive end coming out of Florida, he was projected to go at the top of the first round, however he was arrested a few days before the SEC championship, for DUI and is now projected to perhaps fall into the second round, the difference in money between the top of the first and the 2nd round is huge. As for the question about a player not wanting to go to a team, well it doesn't really happen very often. A few years back Eli Manning was drafted by the Chargers as the first player in the draft, but said he had no intention of signing for them. For the top draft picks you have already talked to the player well in advance before they are picked, for the first overall pick, a contract is usually agreed before the draft starts. Anyway Eli wouldn't sign, so the chargers did a trade with the giants , who had drafted Philip Rivers, Rivers went to the chargers, Eli to the giants, I think the chargers also got a draft pick from the giants too. Ironically Rivers has IMO turned out to be a much better QB than Eli, even though Eli has won a superbowl. This year Michael Crabtree wouldn't sign a contract with the 49ers, despite being drafted in the first round by them, it wasn't because he didn't want to go there, more because he felt he was worth more money than he was being offered, anyway in that case, he is not allowed to negoiate with any other team, it was October I think before he eventually signed. If he hadn't signed he would not have been able to play that entire season and would have to re-enter the draft the following year, I think also San Fran would have gotten a compensatory draft pick. The thing is the money is so huge for the 1st round picks that it is stupid not to sign with any team that drafts you, if you are in the lower rounds, here often you are just happy to get drafted. The highest paid player in the league right now, is not Payton Manning, or Drew Brees or Tom Brady, it's last year's number 1 draft pick Matthew Strafford of one of the worst teams in the league the Detriot Lions !

Swansea game is vital now, not a must win, as we'll still be ahead of Forest with a game in hand, win, lose or draw but from a momentum POV we need a morale boost again, Saturday's game on paper is our toughest away test left on the season, a win would be huge.

Wow, just got back to my desk, awful result, we drop to 2nd right ? Derby, really seem to have our number, perhaps Hughton should have stuck to his negative away tactics.

Fuck, shit and pop, got to go to two hour long meetings back to back, what makes it worse is I arranged the first one Lets hope things improve, it'll be over when I get back.

Wow 71% possession to Derby according to the Beeb.

It's been 6 mins, since the kick off to your post

Looking at the fixtures you would expect both Forest and Brom to win their games, obviously important we do the same.

LOL, the Gaytriots don't play in that kit when they play us (the Dolphins) in Miami unless it's a night game, we always play in white and force the opponents to sweat it in the florida sun in dark colours As for the England strip, it's a bit bland, but still it's ok except for the cuffs, like someone above said not worth the price tag, I would deffinately consider buying the home shirt though, and I never buy England shirts.

I'm surprised by huis team choice, but happy with it, seems like he's going for the win instead of trying not to lose, which is of course what he should be doing.

I know we aren't suppposed to mention fixture lists and such but, so I'll try and steer clear of naming teams. March looks like a tough away program for us, the 3 games there away from home are all against teams that are the type that could beat us. April looks easier, and our last game of the season is a good opponent. Feburary is the crucial month for us, there's a lot of games but if we can come out of the month with a cushion of 7 or 8 points on third, it would take a huge efffort from both of the other two and a terrible run of form from us to not secure promotion. Still find it hard not to think 85 points will be enough, but a lot of that depends on Forest not being able to sustain their run, I think WBA will beat 85, but if Forest continue in the form they are in they will too. I really pity the 3rd place team whoever they end up being, because all three clubs are a lot better than the rest of the league, and unfortunately it's rare that the 3rd place team wins the playoffs, as happened to us in 91.

The issue I have with playing Carroll in this one is he seems incapable of putting 2 good performances in a row together. I think Hughton will definately go with his usual negative away tactics, and that'll mean one striker, Best being his new signing may get the nod, but he could also go with either Shola or Carroll for sure.

I started going to games around 1977 or 78. I am a Geordie so following the Toon was in my blood, but as a very young child I also had a soft spot, like a lot of kids growing up in the 70's, for Liverpool. NUFC and Liverpool were my teams. It didn't take me long to get over that nonsense, though, I was reguarily attending games from the early 80's onwards. We were crap back then, you think we have it bad now, but it was much worse in those days. KK's arrival was a huge shock, and lifted us for a while, but as ever we couldn't sustain it and by the end of the decade we had self destructed again. One of my first memories of supporting the toon was the Mick Mahoney Super Goalie song and also how big an appeal Supermac had, he was a huge icon, alot of today's generation don't appreciate how much of a hero Malcom MacDonald was, all they know him from is his presence on Radio.

id be happy with 2 or 3 points from our 2 away games. The problem is Brom and Forest don't look like dropping too many points at the moment, generally speaking winning your home games and drawing your away ones should be good enough, but we may need to do a little better than that in the short term at least, to remain top.

I think this will be a lot tougher than the Cardiff game, Derby seem to like to play against us, going for a 0:0 once again. Hope Brom and Forest slip up too. As for team I would go with (assuming Colo is not fit): Harper Simpson Hall Williamson Van A Routledge Smith Guthrie Jonas Shola Loven CH will probably go with: Harper Simpson Hall Williamson Van A Smith Routledge Guthrie Jonas Nolan Best

Since I've lived in North America, for 8 or the last 12 years, I've become more interested in the NFL. Now the super bowl is over the focus shifts to the Draft. The draft is a fasinating process, it's basically like over a weekend your club adds 7 or more of the best young players in the world, the worse you did last year the better your choice. The reason I bring that up here is that it struck me how much better the scouting is for the NFL than for our game. The scouting combine comes up at the end of this month, here the draft hopefuls will be tested and interviewed by the teams. The GMs and scouts of the teams have already been to see the prospects they could be interested in, watched hours of tape on them and started to prepare their draft boards, rating prospects from best to worst. I already know more about the strengths and weaknesses of some of the best prospects that my team (the Dolphins) will be interested, than I'll ever know about a player NUFC might sign in the summer. Another important aspects is that their scouting does not limit itself to talent or size and shape, they also scout the "intangibles" such as character, leadership, off the field issues, something I think we've been guilty in the past of not looking into or just glossing over. I really think NUFC should take a leaf out of the NFL teams investment in scouting and really invest heavly in it. Ashley and Wise and the rest of the fools in charge, had the right idea here, scouting and finding hidden gems is how you build up a strong club, I hope with the fall out from the last year or so we don't sink back to the old days where scouting was practically non existent. I've been reading Sir Bobby's autobiography, and he was pretty harsh on the state of scouting prior to his arrival, the clud didn't even have a chief scout, he brought in Charlie Woods for that role.

Thanks, dead ringer for Ferrell IMO, could be his dad, you never know.

perm signing for the middle of midfield.....................has to be john trewick. POWER TO ALL PERMS http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00040/keegan_40259d.jpg Who is that guy with KK, at first glance I thought it was Will Ferrell with a beard. Obviously someone from his Hamburg days.