AyeDubbleYoo

That's an urban myth. Everton fans broke into applause when Alan Ball died, Man United did similar when Best died. Nothing to do with people acting out, they were spontaneous and seemed a better way to show respect than the tired silence. Personally I prefer it. I agree. it obviously comes down to individuals, but i think a better way of remembering a glittering career is 1 minute of clapping and cheering rather than 1 minute of silence. I see what you're saying, but for me it's not just about remembering a glittering career. It's also about reflecting on a young man who felt he had no option but to take his own life, thinking about others who might be in the same situation and sending thoughts out to his friends and family. Anyway, neither one is better or worse, shame it has to be either obviously.

Given that it was paid for, yes. I would say these circumstances are exceptional enough to have left the advert off for once.

I know, .

I would just add on an extra game suspension to cover the game the player would have returned for.

The rules don't really provide for this, and nor should they. When the rules of a sport are written down they aren't thinking about how people might fix things like which games they're suspended for.

Me too, I was convinced he would injure himself immediately then he went on a scoring run the likes of which has never been seen. I went from top of my league to the bottom half, basically just because of RvP.

Seemed like quite a low scoring week for FF, Van Persie didn't score and a lot of good teams didn't keep clean sheets. All of my players actually played, so that's an improvement from recent times.

Jonas missing is a real shame, no sure how we'll set up the team now or how we'll protect Ryan Taylor enough. Tiote missing as well and we're looking at a real struggle to take points.

The punditry on TV is something viewers just have to endure to get to the actual football. Very few of them actually add anything.

It's not really a loophole, it's fixing what happens in a game to benefit your team. What about the game that the booked player will miss? Why should the opponent in that game get an advantage instead of the one he would have genuinely missed? I just think it's a bad idea to condone fixing events in a football match like this.

I think HBA should be left to concentrate on football, he's too talented for doing the laundry.

Don't understand how anyone can condone this. How far do you take it, is it OK to concede a goal on purpose so you'll finish second in a group if you want a better draw? Or draw a game on purpose so a hated club won't win the title? I just want footballers to go out and play.

Then again, we reached a decent stage of the Champions League with a back four that looked embarrassing on paper. A well-drilled defence can surprise people.

I'm not saying people who actively save the ball with their hands should get away with it, obviously people who put their arms out to block the ball would fall under the definition of "deliberate". But deliberate can't be based on whether the arm is 30 degrees or 60 degrees from the body.

Same. There's something far more poignant about so many (generally rowdy) people in such a small space falling totally silent IMO. I also wonder whether the modern trend towards applause is a way to avoid actually facing the reality of sudden and early death, and just turn it into another episode in the entertainment. I'm not criticising any particular instance BTW, I would just rather everyone took a minute to think about things.

Personally I find the applause strange, for me the silence is a better opportunity to reflect. I would rather save the singing and clapping for after.

With Jose he was more tucking in to allow him to overlap IIRC, where with Raylor he has to work very hard to stop the opposition. If Raylor was exposed to as many 1-on-1 situations as Enrique, he would be crucified.

I don't think Raylor's was a penalty TBH, I hate to see those given. There's no rule that says you have to keep your hands glued to your sides. If your arm is out and the ball is kicked off it IMO it's still ball-to-hand. The issue is with whether the handball changed the direction of the ball or not. In Taylor's case it definitely did. Not in Evra's though as his arm was tucked in. That isn't the issue though, the issue is supposed to be whether the player deliberately handballed it. In Raylor's case, and a lot of other penalties you see given, there's no way it was deliberate IMO. Raylor's hand was not in natural position Well that's arguable, a "natural position" for a sportsman isn't to have his arms stuck rigidly to his sides.

Aye, an injury to one of our CB's and it's curtains. This is the fourth time ive heard this in two days. Santon can play anywhere over the back 4 cant he? Also, let's not forget that we have already arguably suffered an injury to one of our main CBs (Williamson) and one of our most promising young ones as well (Kadar). To have more than two first-team-squad CBs injured at once would be pretty unlucky. Saying that, I would feel better if we signed another!

The young players definitely have the potential to do our squad a lot of good. I don't know why Ferguson has disappeared off the planet mind, and I'd like to see more of Kadar and Vuckic as well. Abeid looks a player as well.

Don't think anyone could be legally obliged, except people connected to NUFC who could breach the sponsorship deal. They might piss off the club, get banned from the ground etc though I suppose.

Excellent. It is important BTW.

I don't think Raylor's was a penalty TBH, I hate to see those given. There's no rule that says you have to keep your hands glued to your sides. If your arm is out and the ball is kicked off it IMO it's still ball-to-hand. The issue is with whether the handball changed the direction of the ball or not. In Taylor's case it definitely did. Not in Evra's though as his arm was tucked in. That isn't the issue though, the issue is supposed to be whether the player deliberately handballed it. In Raylor's case, and a lot of other penalties you see given, there's no way it was deliberate IMO.

Only a tiny number of clubs have a genuinely quality squad anyway. It's probably only Man City and maybe Man Utd that can replace first team players with people of equal ability. We don't have a massive amount of quality beyond the first team, but unless we were to suffer 3 to 4 serious injuries to key players at the same time I think we'd be OK. Like you say too, we can't realistically expect to have players who are as good as the first team but also happy to sit on the bench for a midtable side.

Looking objectively without too much mackem hate, what is there problem? Just a lack of hunger so they can't kill a game off?