MKSC

The fact that he will never don the NUFC shirt again makes this the best loan deal in the history of football. The fact we are paying most of his wages is irrelevant. Let's be honest, most of us would have paid him more if it made him go away. Speaking of which, I saw this on the M1, obviously being used to collect the rest of the cash they need to pay him. http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/8610/mkdons.jpg Good luck Smudge, you're a decent enough bloke, but shite at football.

And Liverpool also need to win the Carling Cup, a truly disgusting set of circumstances. I'd almost rather we didn't qualify. Almost.

Hey, I was just putting the facts out there, as I saw them. Somebody else put it up here as some sort of definitive guide to European qualification. I did however completely overlook the possibility of Arsenal or Chelsea winning the CL and finishing outside the top 4, I guess I didn't see it as a possibility.

Shit, how could I have missed that.

Quarter Finals Newcastle Chelsea Tottenham Rubin Kazan Basel Benfica Fenerbahce Lazio Draw for the Quarter Finals takes place on Friday 15 March at 11.40 AM, the event will be streamed by UEFA.com . The draw is open (all teams can play each other) Round of 32 Draw for the Round of 32 and Round of 16 takes place on December 20th. Our home tie for the Round of 16 will be on February 14th 2012, with the reverse fixture on February 21st 2012. Seeded Lazio Рубин Kazan Металіст Kharkiv Fenerbahce Lyon Дніпро Dnipropetrovsk Olympiakos Chelsea CFR Cluj-Napoca Benfica Bordeaux Liverpool Plzen Steaua Bucaresti Hannover 96 Genk Unseeded Tottenham Hotspur Inter Milan Napoli Sparta Prague Bayer Leverkusen Borussia Mönchengladbach Ajax Динамо Kiev BATE Borisov Зенит Saint Petersburg Newcastle United Анжи Makhachkala Atletico Madrid VFB Stuttgart Levante Basel English European Competition Qualification 2011/12 - Updated 07/05/12 1st Champions League Group Stage (currently Manchester United) 2nd Champions League Group Stage (currently Manchester City) 3rd Champions League Group Stage (currently Arsenal) 4th Champions League Third (Final) Qualifying Round (currently Tottenham) 5th Europa League Third (Final) Qualifying Round (currently NUFC) League Cup Winners Europa League Qualifying. (Liverpool) If Liverpool qualify via League Position this slot goes to the highest placed team not qualified via other means. FA Cup Winners Europa League Group Stage (Chelsea). If Chelsea win the Champions League the Europa League Group Stage spot will go to the highest placed team not qualified for the Champions League. (5th or 6th probably)This has been clarified by a bloke who works at UEFA, who knows a bloke who knows "withabrick". How can NUFC get in to Europe? **UPDATED** Champions League: NUFC Finish in the top 4. Unlikely. Less unlikely than before, but still pretty unlikely. It might just f***ing happen. BELIEVE [/Rich] We need to win our last game at Everton and hope Spurs drop points (Draw or Lose) OR Arsenal lose to finish 4th, or BOTH to get 3rd. 4th does not guarantee CL as Chelsea could win the final and claim the final spot. Europa League: NUFC finish 4th and Chelsea win the Champions League Final NUFC Finish 5th NUFC win FA Cup NUFC reach FA Cup Final but lose to Champions League Qualified Team NUFC finish 6th NUFC finish 7th and Chelsea win the Champions League* *The current understanding is that should Chelsea win the Champions League and finish outside the top 4 they will take the 4th CL Qualifying place. The team finishing in 4th will be given a place in the Europa League, this will be in addition to the 3 Europa League places awarded to England. Eh? how? Chelsea would get the 4th CL spot and as compensation the 4th place team would be granted a EL place. This would be an ADDITIONAL place and not take away from the other ones awarded to the English FA. It would go a bit like this. 1 Man Utd/Man City - CL 2 Man City/Man Utd - CL 3 Arsenal/Spurs/NUFC - CL 4 Arsenal/Spurs/NUFC - EL - Additional Place 5 Arsenal/Spurs/NUFC - EL 6 Chelsea - CL as Winners 7 Everton/Fulham/Liverpool - EL - FA Cup place allocated to highest league place 8 Everton/Fulham/Liverpool - EL - Carling Cup place. Everton or Fulham could finish 8th and get it as long as Liverpool come 7th. If I've missed anything, and I probably have, feel free to let me know. The bottom line is that we are now guaranteed Europa League next season. Well done everyone at NUFC

Fuck tickets, just squat in a crack den on the cambridge estate. You get a great view from there, and you're less likely to catch a disease than if you actually enter Kingsmeadow.

He's dead in my eyes.

Reina Johnson Skrtel Agger Jose Adam Gerrard Bellamy Suarez Downing Carroll Are you telling me if you get them playing together they couldn't challenge? Half of the defence isn't good enough, the forward isn't built to play the way they do, Bellamy's too old and Downing doesn't create enough goals. Oh and Adam's overrated. They sort all that out and they're a shoe-in for the title though Their defence is superb, in fairness to them. It's probably the only part of their team currently functioning. Bellamy might be getting on but he's shown enough this season to suggest he has 60-70 minutes in him, considering his work rate that's pretty impressive. Downing has quality, but it's inconsistent. He's been one of the top creators over the last few seasons, it's dried up for some reason. Adam is overrated, but that doesn't mean he isn't a decent player, just not as good as the media would have everyone think. I think they'd rather play Lucas in there but as he's crocked that isn't an option.

I'll buy that Carroll has been playing poorly, but nowhere near as bad as is being made out. He's being held up as a scapegoat to excuse the shitness of Dalgleish. I haven't seen loads of Liverpool this season but I've have seen a few occasions where Carroll came off the bench in place of Downing, which made little sense to me. 'On Paper' they took good players and made them play average. It's the managers job to get the best out of them, to find a way that to make it work. I'm not saying I know how they should play, just that I can see quality in there that isn't being realised. I'll also buy that the current team is inferior to the one of Alonso, Mascherano, Torres et al, I'll even buy that Benitez was a better manager, but in my opinion he was the reason why they didn't win it. He made some ridiculous decisions at times and undermined the quality of the team. It speaks volumes that he has been out of work as long as he has. For me the only team with real strength in depth is City. The rest are much of a muchness. It's a mediocre premier league and the top teams have been getting steadily worse over the last couple of years. It's why we should be pushing on as we have a great chance of achieving something, mainly due to how piss poor the rest of the league is.

Behave. I hate Liverpool as much as the next guy, but that's as good as the current shite being turned out at all the other 'Big' clubs, with the possible exception of Citeh. Only difference is the manager, The King is so deluded he can't see what everyone else can, he's rivaling Wenger in the deluded stakes.

Mine are going to Wrexham a few times and still have never seen us win. Going to Cardiff a few times and seeing us win, the highlight was still getting home in one piece. Going to Swansea and having our game called off and sleeping on a bench because the game was played next day and all of the B&B's were full. Hundreds of us just slept on benches as we were all in the same position and unable to get anywhere. I'm sure you all rallied round and pulled through, that's what happened in the old day's, isn't it?

Reina Johnson Skrtel Agger Jose Adam Gerrard Bellamy Suarez Downing Carroll Are you telling me if you get them playing together they couldn't challenge?

Liverpool have the players to challenge for the title, they just can't figure out a way to get them to play together successfully. It's been pretty much the same story for them for the last 10 years frankly. Long may it continue.

Harsh on Carroll IMO. How many goals has Kuyt scored? And Suarez has 2 goals in his last 11 Premier League starts. He's hardly been the success he was being touted as before the ban. Downing has 1 cup goal, Henderson? Adam? Nobody at Liverpool is scoring at the minute, not just Carroll. He could be a success there if they just played to his strengths. Ridiculous to think that Chelsea and Liverpool have both spunked so much wedge on strikers and then completely ignore them when setting up their teams and tactics.

Is it definitely on ESPN Classic? That's a lot of pressure to put on the participants.

Have you seen the new advert for Room 101? Frank Skinner lists a load of things he doesn't like, included in the list is "Ray Wilkins co-commentary". ;D

the guardian rumour mill (i think? or the bbc one?) said yesterday we were going to jump in on portsmouth's deal for dan thompson, funnily enough. any cop? To update on this, Dan Thompson signed schoolboy forms for Pompey for the rest of the season with the view to a pro deal in the summer. It's caused a bit of a stir as they have taken him and made no offer of compensation to H&RBFC at all. Legally they had no need to as he wasn't contracted to us, only registered for Blue Square games. Non-League clubs aren't allowed to offer contracts to players until they are 18, league clubs can at 17. It's been confirmed that he definitely came for trial up here though, and also at Liverpool and Stoke. He chose Pompey though, but they could still boot him at the end of the season with no cost incurred. They've loaned him out to Havant and Waterlooville, who are in the same division as H&RB.

Would love him to get back in the national side while playing for us. Would give me a good reason to get a new Italy shirt with him on the back. Fast becoming one of my favourites.

Last train from Brighton is 23:37, gets in to London Bridge at 00:52. If you were planning on getting back to Newcastle you could get the coach, Megabus leaves Victoria at 23:00 (currently £15), National Express at 23:30 (currently £11). Last train from Brighton to get back for these would be the 21.49, gets to Victoria at 22:40, (currently£5). Worth booking now for that price if you were inclined to do the journey. Will no doubt be more once the replay is over.

Jobsworth cunt should have just left the lads alone in the Premier seats. Why? He hadn't paid for them.

Bagsy your sofa. He lives in Brighton, he'll probably want payment in kind. I'll bring Jon. That should sort him out. I'm in, literally. But only just, literally.

Bagsy your sofa. He lives in Brighton, he'll probably want payment in kind. I'll bring Jon. That should sort him out.

Bagsy your sofa.

I obviously haven't been for years but I found them really friendly when we used to go down. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=frontline Still going strong. More football banning orders in place than the majority of league clubs, I believe. I'm just looking that info up.