Vedder

awesome!

 

How much did they set you back?

 

As an aside, Ridman, I'm hoping to travel through Poland at some point during the tournament. Where would you recommend that will be buzzing during the competition? Really, really want to go to Wroclaw but the guy I'm travelling with went last year so might not be keen (he's not a massive football fan either, the bellend).

I've been to Poland a fair bit and would imagine the host cities; Warsaw, Poznan, Gdansk and Wroclaw will all be great. I heard that Warsaw will have the largest ever fan zone and can imagine the atmosphere will be unreal. Gdansk and Wroclaw are both beautiful cities and are usually buzzing in the summer anyway. And I was in Krakow in 2008 when the last Euros and the atmosphere was great then. They had an outdoor area with a large screen and stands built up, loads of different nationalities enjoying the games together. Plus the centre of Krakow is all geared up for tourists these days.

I can't afford to make it over this year, but if you do go you will have an amazing time and most people are surprised how nice the country is.

Still buzzing from last night. My facebook page has exploded about Cisse, even from fans of other teams.

And how good is our goal of the season poll going to be!?

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=696720

 

It's like reading football rumours with Helen Keller.

Love how they make such a big deal about the airport. Can't ever remember having to revert to the 'well we've got an airport' line during football banter. Their inferiority complex holds no bounds!

Redknapp, openly gutted about not getting the job!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17893116

That picture they've used at the top of the article, sums up the article so well 

Harry Redknapp

Weren't we linked with Redknapp at the same time as Fat Sam though? I know who'd I'd rather have.

Do we know what the likely quarter final will be at SJP?

Aye, thats what I thought Haris.

 

Not sure if dahl tomasson played in that game.

Yeah, he started mate.

41.1% we're catching up, swietnie!

There's plenty of money involved in MoTD but it suffers from the "old boys club" syndrome.

 

Linekar, Hansen & Dixon are pretty good at what they do. Shearer & Keown are particularly terrible.

Not Lee Dixon surely. His 'analysis' of games usually revolves around 'he gets the ball in midfield, plays it out wide. The winger runs with the ball down the wing, crossed it in and the striker is there to put it in the net'. Yeah, thanks for that Lee, you are aware that you are on TV and we can see what's just happened!

Used to love the commentator for Serie A when it was on channel 4, he was on MOTD for a bit too. Must have replaced him with that woman commentator 

Those inter comments sound like nothing but I still think we need to help this lad settle in. Italian speaker who's meant to be a real hometown boy based on some articles. When he gets his first game in the PL I hope we show him some love

Exactly, in an ideal world I'd imagine he'd have loved to stay at Inter (a massive club in his home country, playing in Champions League regularly etc) and has moved to us to get out of a bit of a rut that he was suffering under his old management. But he's here now and I'm sure once he starts playing, and hopefully we're doing well, then he'll settle in fine.

hope santon plays....he is ready for the pace of the PL....which i think is silly to keep talking about! the lad is fast and its more down to his generel fitness!

Don't think people are talking about his pace, more the reading of game, which is hard for some foreign players as the game moves much faster.  That said, I'd still start him, he'll have to get used to it at some point!

Just been on the auction, why the f*** is one N selling for more than three times the other?

 

I presume it's because people think the first N on eBay is the N from Newcastle and for some reason they're willing to pay more for that despite the fact no one will be able to tell the two apart, but there's nothing in the auction that specifies it is and I'd imagine since they've been taken down no one's kept track of which one is which.

And the same picture is used for both auctions. Crazy people.

Could be a solid signing for them for a year or 2. 4 years is too long but I cant see him being there for that time, probably half of it before being sold on to a lower league club or a promoted side. Thats if the mackems are still in the Premier League of course! O'Shea is a solid signing though, if they got him for a reasonable price.

It's the type of signing a newly promoted club would make. But Sunderland are supposedly establishing themselves as a good Premier League club, so I'd have thought they'd be signing players for the future.

Unless their future is a 35 year old Wes Brown! 

Decent signings, but not enough to justify the major wank fest they are currently having. That said, if they get Zog and possibly one other good quality player, then they'll have a good mix of solid and attacking players.

So far, nothing to be scared of, just they've bought more players with PL experience which might settle better in time for the derby.

Fucking hate sunderland.

Except Ravenelli and Juninho were actually very good players. 

 

that got them relegated

More like stopped them getting relegated sooner.

Aye, there's fuck all they could do playing alongside Phil Stamp, Curtis Fleming and Steve Vickers 

Of all the players they've signed so far the only one I wouldn't have minded us getting is Wickham, and even then I wouldn't see him going straight into the first team.

Yeah, not sure if I have my anti-mackem glasses on still but I'm not sure what they're get so excited about. I can't say I've ever thought 'oh shit, we're up against Gardner and Larsson this week'. They'll be weaker this season than last (if you include the loan players going back as well as the loss of Bent and Henderson).

Still can't believe the bastards got Wickham tho, the girlfirend's family will be full of their usual pre-season bullshit when I see them at the weekend.

If Marveaux, HBA and N'Zog were all to play at once, we'd definitely need two defensive midfielders on the pitch too. Cabaye will have to stay back with Tioté, which is fine by me

Not necessarily, if you play 4-4-2 you would have the two strikers and two wingers as being primarily attacking players and could still accomodate a box to box midfielder. It depends if the 3 attacking mids were all given free roles or if they are expected to put a shift in going backwards as well.

I'm probably not the only one who instantly loses all respect for someone in the pub when it's reveiled they support one of those teams. Just cannot take them seriously.

Yeah, it's not just respect for their football knowledge/integrity either. As soon as the Man Utd shirt comes out I can't help but think complete w*****! Rarely do I stand corrected tho 

He played well the first half I thought, looked comfortable on the ball.

 

Haven't seen the challenge again but at the time it didn't seem like a red.    Have to see a replay first though.

I thought the same. I was getting annoyed that he was starting to drift infield a lot in the second half, then when he made that mistake I said to my mate "get him off now". Got a bit of stick off him once the red card was shown like!

Ranger really needs to work on his running off the ball. He holds it up well but once he lays it off he doesn't know where to run and often ends up just getting in the way.

Also, probs been monetioned already but Pardew should get Kuqi on a bit earlier, looked like the new Sibierski today!

Mine was Feb 1990 FA Cup game against Man Utd (lost 3-2). Was only 5 but can remember being moved from the Milburn Paddock to the Leazes (or the other way round?) becuase of over crowding.

Second and third games were both 1-0 home defeats to Millwall and Brighton, at least things got a bit better over the next few years!

Shearer's record breaking goal against Portsmouth was a special moment as well. The atmosphere for the ten minutes following was unbelievable!

Saw Pardew on SSN yesterday, looks like he's aged 5 years in the 2 weeks he's been here!

Phil Brown has just been spotted being a c*** somewhere.

Don't even joke about this cunt 

We all know it's going to be Pardew.

 

f***.

If it is Pardew, does Ashley seriously think that we now have a better chance of staying up thatn if we had stuck with Hughton? 

Fucking hell, I've been overestimating Ashley (and I've always considered him a useless twat).