Pandamninator

He was heavily involved in France's 1998 bid wasn't he? The same bid Blazer has said he apparently accepted bribes for. Uh Oh.

There is a precedent - Columbia was removed as host and replaced by Mexico for the 1986 (?) one because they couldn't pay for it. Personally I think Russia won't be moved - too close to the event and they've done a better job of covering their tracks. Only a matter of time for Qatar though, still 7 years away, and since it was awarded to them so early, the replacement host would get the same amount of time you'd normally have to prepare anyway.

Good time to be selling paper shredders in Zurich.

I reckon there is a book in this somewhere.

No. It was Keegan trying to get Ashley to spend money by putting public pressure on him. Keegan just doesn't understand how bad it used to be. If only he had been around in the 80's or when we almost got relegated to Division 3.

I'm sure they would have him looking like a solid if unspectacular Premier League level defender. Look at how Terry has gone from a slow, tired and washed up old man preparing for the MLS on the Chelsea bench back to being gone of the top centrebacks in the league under Mourinho.

3 league titles in 15 seasons (soon to be 16) managing Juventus, AC Milan, Chelsea, post oil money PSG and Real Madrid is average no matter how you look at it.

I think that's what angers him the most. One is lauded, the other is an angry but lovable chap on the internet.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/196157.gif http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lydygcLKkC1r57t8v.gif

9 goals in 94 games in his final 3 seasons for us

So have Verlin Rainwater Solutions... Lawl.

At least Demba Ba made sense from a Chelsea perspective, quality striker to provide competition for Torres for only 7 million. City are already in deep shit with the FFP regulations as it is, and they are going to drop 30 mil on Bony sit behind Aguero and Dzeko?

So much http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/04/accrington-tickets-manchester-united-never-happen

Three seperate pitch invaders in the first 40 minutes, ref has had enough and has halted the game

They should rename this season the year of the epic own goal. That Argie Mackem against Southampton, Christoph Kramer against Dortmund and now this one.

They've had opportunities to sell him for a profit as well. TBF they wanted to, but Borini wouldn't sign on the dotted.

:lol: I like the fact that the Russians are saying they never kept any documentation. They just rented a load of computers and didn't back anything up to external drives, or print anything out, or keep any emails The whole thing is just insane. Russians in 'lying through their teeth' shock RussianTimes version will no doubt claim evil western hackers destroyed all documentation to fit agenda. With a photo shopped picture of a Ukranian jet launching missiles at the Russian bids external hard drives.

Imagine Willo and Colo against Bayern

Well I think a guy who managed Lille for 5 years and Roma for one is slightly more realistic than Ottmar Hitzfeld who a) won the Bundesliga a million times and the Champions league twice and b) just officially retired - and yet Hitzfeld is in the poll. I agree that Garcia is probably unrealistic given the current relative situations / league positions of Newcastle and Roma and because he's just begun a new project at Roma. However, I don't think that we should underestimate the draw of the Premier League and the opportunity to compete with managers like Mourinho, Van Gaal, Wenger, Pellegrini etc. Van Gaal almost went to Tottenham which and while they are definitely a more attractive option right now, I would consider Spurs a comparable club to Newcastle. In any case, Garcia is the kind of manager we should be trying to attract (i.e. a manager who plays entertaining attacking football and has consistently led teams to over-perform) rather than picking from the same old Premier League merry-go-round of managers (Pulis, Sherwood, Mackay, Steve Clarke, DiMateo etc.). Lucien Favre is another one who fits the Garcia mould and hasn't yet been poached by a massive club. Hopefully he's one we'll look at if Pardew leaves. Hitzfield wasn't actually serious, was a reference to this I'm guessing - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/30000-hitz-1524241 Rudi Garcia would probably choke on his laughter if Mike Ashley rang up his agent.

lolwut? I'm no fan of saggy chops, but maybe you should look at the spending before he got there under Mark Hughes.

Cheap bastards will probably just hook it up to a laptop and illegally stream footage of the game off the internet.

Warnock did a decent job for Palace previously.... in the Championship. Would've gotten a side with no cash to the play-offs if not for the club going into administration. There's not many decent PL experienced managers around tbf. Warnock doesn't even really have Premier League experience. Hasn't he only got the 1 season with Sheffield where he got relegated and the 6 months with QPR before he got sacked?

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/aug/07/celtic-champions-league-reprieve-legia-warsaw-ineligible Celtic looks like they may be able to slither back into the Champions League. They really are the jammy kings of going through on an administrative technicality.

I'm sure 45 minutes of Pardew ball will have people binning their All Blacks jerseys in no time. If that doesn't work, theres always Big Sam to convert the masses.

He cares about getting as much as he can back, so why would he let his most valuable asset go for anything other than the maximum he could wring out of someone.