Interpolic

sacrilege. You've contaminated our colours. I must take this opportunity to agree, I've just hoyed up all over the shop and it's not pretty.

Yep, would like to see us get the ball on the deck because there's been a lot of hoofball so far. Will require a lot of patience though, Fulham will probably turn up with the intention of merely existing for 60 minutes then taking advantage of any frustration that may develop.

Just when you forget how much of an idiot Stifler is, he helpfully reminds you.

That's the significant point for me. Nowt empowers your manager more than announcing him a dead man walking before a ball's been kicked. And I never realised it was Bellamy although I'm not hugely surprised, the guy's a nutcase.

I agree that it wasn't right to expect Solano to quit international football. It was a pain in the arse yeah, but certainly not as big an inconvenience as the fitness records of Bellamy or Dyer for example. Nobby was a footballing god in his home country ffs, a real hero, and tbh you just have to let your players get on with it in that situation. Although I suppose if you look at the situation with Giggs and Wales and Ferguson then there's an example of a player putting club far above his country, but I do think it was unfair to expect that of Solano.

Bobby wasn't without fault though and people need to remember that. He was incredibly stubborn at times, the way he treated Solano for example was pretty mystifying tbh, and put Darren Ambrose under more pressure if anything. Fair enough, he thought Nobby was on his way down but tbh I think he was proven wrong later on because Nobby was still very useful for us in his second stint a couple of years later. It was the performances that were irking people more than anything else, we'd been a much poorer team for about 18 months before Robson was eventually sacked. Hindsight shows that we were mad to get rid of him, but if we'd done it in the summer just gone or the one upcoming then we'd have been able to get someone better than that joker Souness and we may well have gone onwards and upwards, harsh as it was to sack him.

In what sense?

And tbh I must admit that I was happy with every one of those appointments bar Souness and to a certain extent Allardyce. The idea that we could have hung around for Bobby Robson for 6 months until he finished his contract with Barcelona after Keegan left makes me die a bit inside though.

Exactly, I've said it before but Shepherd's appointments seemed very reactionary. Keegan's too cavalier, recruit the more pragmatic Dalglish. Dalglish has taken the fun out of it, recruit the sexy football merchant Gullit. Gullit has no idea what NUFC means to the city, recruit the local legend Bobby Robson. Robson's too soft, get that arsehole Souness in to smash some skulls. He kind of stumbled across Roeder and Allardyce being our manager always seemed to be on the cards for some reason, but the Souness appointment in particular was an example of bowing to public perception of how the club was being run and just getting a radgee in for the sake of it.

Just read them. I wonder what they were singing in the dressing room? Did ryan taylor join in? Can't imagine him singing like. He didn't need to, his desperate attempts at smiling are like beautiful music in itself. http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/5739/610xzsx.jpg Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Just read them. I wonder what they were singing in the dressing room?

If Man City don't win the league TaylorJ_01 will have gender reassignment surgery.

I don't think we've got a hope in hell of getting anywhere near Europe through league position. I'm really hoping we treat the cups with some respect for a change.

Exactly, there was a damaging perception that Robson was letting the young lads at the club get away with murder and Bellamy was a big part of that.

I didn't mean it Jon, your Ba posts are belter.

Scary. They're really beginning to look the part, a couple more in and they're in for a fantastic season.

Dyer will be mentioned. I think most presumed it was Dyer but then someone said it wasn't. It was a pretty ridiculous story in all honesty.

He's right though, imo. I know, yeah.

Will you shut the fuck up about Ba man, Jon.

Can remember when it was in the Chronicle that there'd been a photo taken of one of the players sticking their fingers up at Bobby Robson behind his back. They didn't print the picture and never said who it was, does anyone know who it was? Was quite near the end of his time as our manager.

0-0 or 1-1.

I get the feeling Fulham's a nailed on draw for some reason.

Silva talking through an interpreter.

I was thinking about this when I took the hamster for a walk this morning, think it's going to be as up and down as last season. A lot depends on Ben Arfa.

I'd like to see Silva in my team ahead of pretty much any other player in the league tbh, love watching him play.