brummie

Sorry, I meant gross, like the rest of us plebs (possibly the only thing they have in common with us). Before tax. Tis late. Beers taken. Etc etc.

£35k That's €2m-ish a year, isn't it? If those are net wages (always get confused if PL wages are net or gross) Real Madrid's and Barça's starting left backs aren't on much more. (Marcelo's reportedly on €2m net/year, Abidal reportedly on €2,5m net/year). Wages over here are quoted net.

One of the names mentioned was Villa, they have less chance than us of reaching Europe. I'd also add that I can't believe any player on the planet really aspires to playing in the Europa League. "Oooh, the glamour, I get to play against FC Titwank (Albania) on a Thursday night in front of 21,000". Don't get me wrong, they should do, but managers, directors and (largely) fans don't give a shit about it these days, it is hard to believe the players do.

It was interesting to see Arsenal win tonight, but absolutely nothing will take the shine off, or outclass, Spurs' magnificent win over Milan last night.

Oh, and Mike Parry is a cunt.

The only way in which i could imagine Alan Brazil making a positive contribution to breakfast in any way shape or form would be if a family of hungry lions were tucking into his lifeless, bloated corpse. Early in the day. His constant references to people at *insert name of wanky corporate body here* "really looking after us" the night before / slavering about expensive golf courses he's played at / witless fellating of the City and all it stands for when they get that shitheap from Barclays Capital on to do the financial news / persistent belief that calling Ronnie Irani "Chicken" is amusing all make me want to pull my fucking ears off. Ronnie Irani - I would say he's the most desperately unintelligent person I've ever heard on the radio, but Darren Gough makes him look like Stephen Fry by comparison.

I was pissed, so were my housemates who were egging me on, it was a wind up, "go on, ring Night Owls, make some shit up!" - that kind of thing.

The insidious American term "assist" which has crept into the game over the last ten years.

He was very soothing with me when I rang up in 1988 to tell him I had moved to the city as a student ("From your accent, I can tell you're not from the north east, am I right?") and had been placed in a house in Jesmond with five predatory homosexual students who were making my life hell. I was exceptionally drunk.

Anyone spotted this beauty yet? http://rideyourpimp.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ireland_51.jpg

Ah, thank you. Bizarrely, I was going to say "And i bet the Boro "legend" is Bernie Slaven".

This "legends" thing - I've no idea what it is. I presume it's a radio show, but the only radio show i ever remember listening to when I lived up there was Night Owls with Alan Robson, so I assume it wasn't around then, I take it the premise is that a "legend" of each club represents said club in an on-air discussion which makes Darren Gough and Adrian Durham on Tawk Spawt sound like Frost / Nixon. Is this correct? If so, who is this Micky Horseshit character, and under which criteria does he qualify as a "legend"? Oh, hang on, the only other Legends thing I can remember about the north east was a bar down by Monument Metro, but that was the late 80s, so I assume it is nothing to do with that.

He's a very good player coming forward, he reminds me of John Gidman (obscure reference), but he's highly questionable defensively.

All clubs are selling clubs at some point, which is why the term is a nonsense. Man United when Real Madrid come looking for Ronaldo? Off he goes. Spurs with Berbatov when Man United come? Off he goes. Any club in the top flight when Man City come and start waving insane money at their best players? Off they go.

he wouldn't have done that in the Prem Wayne Routledge is the dictionary definition of "really good in the Championship, nothing like good enough in the top flight"

Footballers these days have such a comprehensive disconnect with supporters that they can barely comprehend why comments like those might be offensive - not just before they make them (which might cause them not to, if they thought about it) but even after they've made them, and it has kicked off. Nolan's "if fans don't like it, I apologise" line seems to suggest that even now he doesn't "get it" why people might be fucked off. It's like Houllier saying "if i am going to lose 3-0, I would rather it was against Liverpool, because I like Liverpool" comment after we lost to them earlier in the season. People in the football industry can't even start to understand why the average match-going punter might get the hump. We're supposed to see things like they do, in their 40k a week dreamworlds. The entire football apparatus sneers at supporters, whether it be Sky and their skin-creepingly horrible presenters, the players slouching around doing fuck all for life changing sums of money and shrugging things like relegation off like you or I would a headache, or managers with their seeming entitlement to a well paid job on a never ending merry go round of mediocrity - because, frankly, that's what most of them are, mediocre. There's no point even hoping someone like Nolan would understand why people are upset. He didn't get it before he made the comments, he didn't think that maybe keeping shtum was the best thing to do, and even now he clearly can't see why you're bothered. Frankly, he doesn't give a flying on, and that is the saddest thing of all.

Our squad is tiny. We didn't even manage to name 25 players at the start of the season, we only names 23, and a good number of those were untried kids. Our issue was a large number of players who contribute fuck all, but were on very generous, long term contracts, thanks to MON. For example, who in their right mind would give a 32 year old Habib Beye a 3.5 year 40k a week deal? How much will Habib Beye be contributing aged 35? Because he's going to be snarfling 40k a week, regardless.

ha ha ha, from Luque's Wiki page

£20k/week? Wow, I bet we'll attract some right talent with those wages. Maybe ten years ago. So the severe salary cap has been lifted? Even if 20k is a little on the low side do you see it really being higher than 35k? A long spell of attempting to unearth cheap foreign talent is in our future. I've never seen confirmation of a rigid salary cap. I'd based my figures on £35k/week which I reckon is probably about the standard going rate these days, particularly for players that I assume Ian W meant would be going straight in and around the first team. I wasn't having a go at you btw, just making the point that the £35m won't actually go very far at all when you include contracts. I'd have thought it would be an overall limit, linked to turnover. That's supposedly what we're doing - say, keeping wages at no more than 60% of turnover. So as you say, you're looking at a couple of big contracts. The more people like Smith you can shift, the more room for manouevre. It is amazing how people so often ignore wages and focus on transfer fees. That is what Lerner asked MON to do - work on the wages bill - and the media took it as "stop spending". it isn't about that. We've shifted this window: Carew - 55k Sidwell - 30k Davies - 35k Ireland - 45k (a rough stab towards what you're paying of his 70k pwk) 165k a week. that's the best part of 8m a year. As Leffe said, the issue isn't "max earnings = xxx thousand a week", it is looking at situations where you have large numbers of players sapping decent money for little return. Unfortunately, MON left us with nigh on an entire squad of them.

Nice to see James Milner get a start. The gigantic cunt.

... and, incidentally, if I were offered 17th for my team right now, I'd probably take it, so volatile is the league this season

If you look at the table right now, the spread between 8th or 9th and 20th is very, very small indeed. There's no point saying with any confidence you won't go down, because right now, every single team between 8th and 20th is at risk, and all it takes is a duff run of results from a team at the upper level of that range, or a decent run from a team at the bottom, to totally change things. The worrying thing is, I've seen teams like Wigan and Wolves play this season and thought they actually look pretty good. They've even picked up some impressive results. It is the tightest PL for fucking ages, and quite frankly, anything could happen. Look at Everton, for example. Or Blackpool, who seem to be sinking fast.

I think it is a different definition of the word "plastic". The plasticity is not the lack of dedication to following sport - not at all. It is the looseness and changeability of allegiance to a team. Like the reprehensible, spineless turds who emerge from god knows where when Man U win the league, talking about their "beloved" United, when they've never been anywhere near Old Trafford. I could talk about this for hours, it winds me up so much, but I can probably explain it all via the use of a photograph, so here you go: http://www.footballtransfertavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Tim-Lovejoy-001.jpg

I was at that game. Your goalkeeper kicked Gordon Cowans into the back of the net after he'd had the temerity to score a penalty. It didnt make me dislike Barcelona, though. Just your goalkeeper.

I watched the match and, unfortunately, he is back. They were really very good, more convincing than I've seen them so far this season.