Hughesy

Think he shook Nasri's hand as well when Nasri was subbed.

Agreed. Should never have sold him. Ridiculous decision.

I feel I deserve some praise for Shola's revival. I took him out of my Fantasy League team to ensure that he scored. And he did. It was a sacrifice worth making.. On a serious note - I just hope he can keep this up.

Totally agree with that - go to get inside his head and make him start thinking too much about his game. When he was playing from instinct, he was always far better.

What I love about the Sunderland forums is how they keep protesting that Carroll isn't fit to lace Quinn's boots. Quinn's record in Premier League for Sunderland - 129 games, 29 goals.

Pretty much the same for me - I have lived in Kent most of my life, but my Dad has always had 3 season tickets, no matter how often we have gone up (rest of family all live in Newcastle so they use tickets when we can't). When I was younger we used to go up to see relatives a lot so saw quite a few games. Started to tail off when I had to go to school on Saturdays. Then uni at Durham so saw pretty much all home matches for 3 years. Now working in London - so probably 6-7 home matches a year and all southern based away games. Going up for home matches is literally the entire day taken out - so whilst I love it - it's just too much to go that often.

He looks like he needs a good dinner for a start - but I suppose its a fine balance between retaining your speed and increasing your strength Always remember reading that Milan had banned Seedorf from putting on any more muscle as he was at the optimum level before it would start to adversely affect his speed.

Thought the atmosphere was pretty good myself. Not sure how the accent of the songs would make a difference...?

RTG does make for interesting reading. I think the teams are pretty much even (I've tried to look at it as objectively as possible...) but the majority of them seem to reckon at least an 8-3 man for man. I obviously haven't seen enough of the Sunderland magic this season. The only definites from them would be Onuoha, Gyan and Bent. After that - I can't see much quality there. They do have more strength in depth currently though. However, if we had HBA, Gosling, Harper, Campbell, S Taylor all fit, I can't say their squad would be much stronger.

Bent - I agree. Bar that - can't see what they have over us. Hence why they struggled the year we went down, struggled the year after and are currently sitting one point ahead of us.

They're going into the derby game at yours for the first time in a while as, what they consider to be, favourites, and a clearly better team. Personally, I think they're getting ahead of themselves - their 2 wins have been a debatable last minute penalty scuffed in by Bent, and an own goal (in a game they were by some distance 2nd best). I think they're just putting on a face of confidence just for the hell of it. Are Sunderland really a clearly better team? Man for man, I really don't see where they are clearly better. I'm not sure how many of their squad I would take to be honest. Their team for their last match was: Sunderland 22 Mignolet 02 Bardsley 04 Turner 15 Onuoha 19 Bramble 06 Cattermole 08 Malbranque 10 Henderson 27 Al-Muhammadi 11 Bent 17 Welbeck (Gyan 65) Substitutes 01 Gordon, 05 John Mensah, 14 Da Silva, 29 Ferdinand, 07 Zenden, 16 Riveros, 33 Gyan

I want to see a replay of it.

5 out of 10 is an average mark. Unsurprisingly given after an average performance..... I get the concept of 5 being an average mark. Thanks for letting me know though. In the marks that were given - Jonas scored our lowest with a 5. There is no way anyone watching that game could have said Jonas was our worst player. He was one of our better players and had good game. He was a constant threat to the West Ham defence and took a huge amount of pressure of our defence with his ball retention and energy. Worthy of a 5?? Bollocks.

As if Jonas deserved a 5. What a load of rubbish.

Jonas a 5?? Seriously...??

But was amazingly quick when doing it...!! Maybe we should get Nolan to use Tiote's running style?

He was absolutely brilliant today. That's all.

Think you are going to have to explain that one. I didn't like Dyer as a footballer or an individual. I certainly don't regard myself a bigger tosser than Dyer.

Selling Dyer was a brilliant move. Not that I want to start a Dyer debate again, but even at his 'peak' he was hideously overrated. As people have pointed out - he is now bound to score against us.

Thoughts on the chipped ball Carroll fluffed? Wow, one nice ball in 90 mins of football. Well worth 65k a week he's on I fear entering debate with you could be a bad idea but here goes. I didn't say he was value for money, nor did I say that his 65k a week is money well spent, but when we have a midfielder who can produce a ball of that quality just once in a game that is deemed a poor one, I'm happy for now. Like much of the squad he's had an indifferent season, when he's played well we've won. He's far from a fantastic player, but he at least seems to hold a semblance of ability when it comes to playing through balls and creating. It appears to be a bit of a theme here but players are either very good or very bad, there is no middle ground. Personally I rate Barton as a solid player with potential to be very good, Wigan is the worst I've seen him play. Exactly this. When Barton plays well, we play well.

Minimum salary cap and maximum salary cap. Those teams which want to max the cap out can, those who choose not to, then fair enough. But it will have to be agreed with The clubs and players union. and I hate to say it but TV money would probs have an influance on it. How does the minimum salary cap work?

Maybe I was taken in by their constant announcements about how they planned to break even in x number of years...!! I still think their finances aren't as bad as they were though.

Alternatively you have a system which FIFA have proposed which could be interpreted as being made to maintain the current status quo. Can't say I've read the plans in detail, but if the amount you can spend on wages is linked to 50% of turnover, that pretty much ends (however unlikely it is anyway) anyone without 50k+ stadium the chance of EVER winning the league. At least, as it currently stands, a billionaire could buy Blackpool and buy his way to the title by spending huge sums. But I agree - there isn't exactly an easy answer.

I see your point - but the hypothetical company wouldn't go bust if the same hypothetical rich owner was supporting it. It would be exactly the same situation we have now. I suppose Chelsea is a good example. I don't have their latest financial figures to hand, but I assume that they are now closer to having a sustainable business model than they did 4 years ago. So... Roman invested money to propel Chelsea to a situation whereby they could start to run themselves properly. The only way to do this was to invest heavily and take heavy losses on the chin, until they could become a club that broke even. That is a perfectly legitimate way to run a business. There aren't any regulations stopping you doing that in business. But we can leave it there. I sense I am fighting a lone battle.

Again - an example of how the showbusiness market is currently working. In 10 years time, they might be earning more or they might be earning less. It will simply be a calculation of what the market thinks they should be earning. Maybe football will go the same way and salaries will start to be linked to the financial performance of the club...