AyeDubbleYoo

He could make it in as a CB if Man Utd's injuries get much worse.

I'm terrified of this transfer window. I'd hate to see our promotion chances ruined by letting go of a couple of our top players. If we lose, say, two of our defenders it would be a major blow.

Agreed. The problem will not go away without consistent action, and hard action at that. Talking about it and saying how it's wrong will get us nowhere. It's a dirty trait in the game that takes away a lot of what football should be about. The key debate is whether we should take action within the game (red cards?) or have action taken afterwards. The latter would be easier, through the medium of an independent committee as you have suggested, but it won't be much consolation to the side that is cheated out of a win/draw. Yeah, I would rather do it within the game but the refs would need to know that they had total support in handing out a lot of yellow cards at first. Also, that would put a lot of responsibility, and probably abuse, on the shoulders of individuals. I know doing it after the game wouldn't help the cheated teams directly, but we need to look at the bigger picture. Everyone would benefit eventually from the reduction in diving. The weirdest thing is that there doesn't seem to be any recognition of the problem in the game or a real desire to address it.

Diving is my worst pet hate by far, as far as I'm concerned it's disgusting and there is absolutely no excuse for it. It has been allowed to spread through the game basically because accusing people of cheating is seen a something that shouldn't happen (even when they obviously are). Because of the reluctance to accuse people, from referees, and the lack of support they have from their superiors, the only way I can see to address this is to review videos and punish people after the match. I would appoint an independent committee to look at top level games and hand out punishments, and they would have the absolute backing of the powers at be in football. I'd also like to see managers calling out their own players and ceasing to excuse their behaviour, but that will never happen.

Or if they both do.

I rest my case. Seriously though, I haven't watched Duff very much at all.

Everyone is thought of as better when they leave Newcastle, and every one of our players is judged too harshly by a section of our fans, it's the way of the world.

Just seen Shola's goal on BBC website, his first ever well-struck finish?

You can't be serious.

Very talented but never properly developed because of constant injuries. Feel really sorry for him, must feel like a massive part of his life has just gone. Hopefully he will be able to get back to running around so he can be involved in coaching etc if he wants.

It's not bad, Shearer only had about 10 pages per goal.

Straight like a motherflipping banana.

Think so, aye.

Go go Nile Ranger!

Not really, that would mean that their would be far less goals against every team, which there isn't.

If I was an Arsenal fan I would be ecstatic to be developing brilliant young players and playing great football. I honestly wouldn't give a fuck about winning anything... just going every week would be a joy. This is why I think it's a stupid thing to criticise them for basically not being a different club. They are what they are... there are only so many trophies and they'll win one eventually.

They haven't transformed, but they've made a lot of progress and are much more equipped than ever before.

:-[ She strikes me as a bit of a dickhead when I've seen her on TV, and arrogant with it. Some of that article does makes sense, but the bit about Ashley is bollocks. She is right that he probably thought it would be easy/a bit of fun to own a football club though, I've always thought that naivety was his worst fault.

Bit of a stupid objection from them really, you don't need to have 100% concrete proof, you just need a decision by committee.

I would introduce a panel to look at every Premier League game and retrospectively punish diving. I would actually consider getting rid of the penalty kick completely. A foul in the box could be punishable by a card (as now), but the effect of it on the game would be reduced, as would the incentive to cheat. I would back the referees to the hilt to enable them to enforce the dissent laws.

Until recently it was Souness, now probably just about Ashley. I also hate Sam Allardyce with a passion for peddling his non-football here, and refusing to admit he's anything other than incredible.

Yeah, interesting, I would never criticise a creative pass that goes wrong. I would much rather be patient and look for opportunities than lump it forward and lose the ball.

That 'mindless' passing is brilliant, unless it results in a pass back to the keeper who humps the ball up field and loses possession. Then you've wasted your time.

This is a good one actually, if everyone aimed at the middle third of the goal every game would be 0-0.