Altamullan

Man, can't get me head around the chosen bit. Most of us have the get-out clause of having no real choice. Choosing the toon... phew. Don't let self-loathing win Deuce, you're a good person, all of ye are good people! (repeat 10 times per day, until season fades from view...)

I don't mind many of them, bar the four that nobody else seems to like/be ambivalent about, and Swansea. A new aversion; Shelvey related. Man U = braggards who don't like it up 'em (Capt Mainwaring...). My prejudicial view is they're all a bit Bryan Robson: can dish it out, but can't take it. Chelsea = we have history. Palace=a recent disaffection. Sunderland=like to be in same league as them, but why would you/goes without saying... and we have history.

Prosecution called Johnson a liar, now defence are calling her a liar. Whose lies to believe Yep, "Whees lees are thees liese?"

Away end? Unless you're a "Homebase' fanatics wanna-be, all SAS meets Huey Newton channelling Monty Don. You're not those chappies are you Ian? ... disturbing.

Whole thing stinks. Deep rooted and frankly scandalous. No better than Blatter's patter. His mind-bending spinners have even infiltrated football fora around the world to get fans 'on message', even got family members involved; add nepotism to the list of ‘-isms’ and ‘-eries’: look who started this thread!! Noodles bears a striking resemblance to Gianni Infantino. FIFA, pah! Stinks like a fresh nappy. Scandalous!

Quoted so you can't deny you posted that.

Wonder if the prosecution would exclude any jurors from Sun'lun'... shame. really. Might have found an honest, outspoken, albeit possibly retarded foreman/spokesperson "Wheese lees are thees liese?"

Let's get shot of jurys all together. Judge Judy decides! That said, what if she's nonce-(im)partial? A bit of a perve too... https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/cf/83/f8/cf83f8e9b9dbfb90fc590efb9b24e444.jpg

Just catching-up with views on the assumed 'buffering' qualities of loads of dosh. Premiership players don't create the societal injustice/market forces which lead to the amount of money in football. It generates a lot; they earn a lot ( thanks Jimmy H-- genuinely: rather this than limited-salaried serfs to the overloads, much rather true talent received the benefit). Although the standard banter is a version of 'oh, money doesn't make you happy, but I'd like to give its try/find out.' Anybody who thinks earning a lot of money makes you immune to depression or anxiety-related problems, or in its self gives you self-esteem and confidence, doesn't understand people very well. Thauvin or the multitude of other young men who find themselves lucky enough to be the best of the best ( and thus preyed upon by clubs, agents, family and others) aren't psychopathic robots, or fully rounded 'self-actualised' wise philosophers. They are just young men, in all their normal varieties, who are unusually good at football. Most of us have no idea of the stress of appearing in front of the world (pretty much, or the bits that are interested) in an arena where your every move is scrutinised. ( oh what about soldiers! Blah! Blah! Been one. Being able to face conflict doesn't make you immune to fearing negative evaluation by others, or feeling the glare of the spotlight burning into you, and still being expected to play your best, make the right decision, beat your man, hit the net). There will be players who couldn't care less what people think, and are laughing all the way to the bank; and to be fair, you probably need a bit if that to survive, but in the extreme I assume this is exception rather than rule. I have been disappointed by Thauvin, as many have, we had high hopes, but that doesn't prevent us feeling for the lad on a basic human level; however much he earns.

For goodness sake, don't let him wear flip-flops...just asking for a meta-tarsal massacre.

Can't figure out how to show predicted end of season table but I had Arsenal winning on 79pts, (Spurs 78, Man City 74, Leicester 73). Us on 39 pts in 16th, followed by Swansea 33, Sunderland 31, Norwich 30 and Villa 17 (!!). First look at Sports Predictor website, thanks for sharing the link.

That is just wrong.

http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/TimelineGenerator/bin/img/1433941277498/Steve%20On%20Pitch.jpg Gregory's Girl or what! "It's only a game" "A game! Eight games in a row you've lost" "Can't lose them all..."

The two offences that he's pleaded guilty to probably wont result in a custodial sentence on their own. At the moment he's a low-risk nonce that just talks to and kisses little girls, rather than a higher-risk nonce that forces them to touch his pale willy. We need to bump the betting thread as we are pretty far apart on this one like Why, do you think he'd go down for the two guilty pleas? I'd imagine for grooming and kissing kiddies a suspended sentence and sign the sex offenders register for x amount of years. Although, if he gets found guilty of the other two then I'd see a 2.5 year custodial sentence. Some people have gone down for less, If you choose to take that as meaning for a red & white shite shirt, then that's you're own flithy mind doing that, it is you know.

Would it be socially unacceptable for a footballer to have a fit bird/wife and just be like a normal couple? Probs not the best time to recreate the Stokoe coming out of the bushes like a pouncing paedo stance there Adam. I was thinking more House of Fun by Madness. " I'm sorry son, but we don't stock... " ... "well, anything illegal like, so do one." He also looks like he's wearing a teenage boy's suit.... Oh f***, there's more to come out, I just know it

Well said mate. RIP.

I'd have Moyes or Rodgers, over SMc. If we're dreaming, then why not dream big: how about Mourinho , coming back to manage his mentor's home club. Jose and Cashley...ego-wrestle-fest!!

I said that the other day and felt like I'd created it, this is the point when someone digs up a post from years ago when someone else said it and calls me a word nonce. If I keep posting about Geet, does that make me a nonce-sequitur

Aww, he was happier when he had more hair.

Just teaching my (Manc) 7 year-old essential Geordie phrases so he is prepared for forthcoming hols with Gateshead cousins. He currently sounds like a cross between a South Central LA rapper and Happy Mondays Bez: "Yo-YO! Been do'nutting me bike in th' kaa peark...CITEH, CITEH..." (shit you not) He's nailed "why aye man; canny; nee bother; & ah divvent knaa." In honour of your dilemma Grant, I am adding 'geet' to his genetic-lexicon ( ). I'm not preaching, but can only encourage you to follow suit.

The question of what difference a manager can make, in footy or other 'team' activity, interests me. I do think that some 'teams' can vary in arange of important characteristics. Off teh top of my head, things like: how self-motivated/engaged with ‘the task’ they are, how much sense of team identity/camaraderie is present, how highly competent individuals are, how self-managing they are/how many natural leaders there are ‘on the pitch’, seem important. If this is right, then a manager’s impact could be quite irrelevant, or could actually mess-up an otherwise high functioning team. However, I assume that even the highest functioning team could be helped by an excellent manager/coach (Shankly came to mind for some reason) who (more often than not) gets the balance right between knowing when to say nowt/take them for a game of golf, and knowing when to take them apart. I think teams like Wenger’s Invincibles, or Dalglish’s Liverpool double-winners (when he was still playing/managing) would probably have done just as well without a manager, but worse with a crap one, particularly one who stamped his authority/made sure he had an influence.

West Ham 3-0 Sunderland Leicester 2-0 Norwich Southampton 1-0 Chelsea Stoke 2-0 Aston Villa Watford 2-1 Bournemouth West Brom 0-1 Crystal Palace Man Utd 0-1 Arsenal Spurs 2-0 Swansea

Anyone hear Carver on the radio today? He said that Colo is not a leader and that he only plays for himself. Both points were responses to leading questions, but still... . I think Janmaat is a leader, he has a bit of bottle and drive and I can imagine him as a good link between the English and the Dutch. Hope Steve nee-nuts has a change of perosnality; or has a change of captain thrust upon him.

Still think this, TBH. Though getting more twitchy about the Macnamaras... but more confident about Palarse.

All scores to be confirmed by Magpie. Week 26 A poor week scoring wise, we averaged 13.5, which is around three points below the norm. The Baggies unexpected (undeserved?) win at Everton didn’t help. All 26 of us went for a home win, and it was the most popular nomination (10). It returned a grand total of 2 points... It wasn’t just the Toffees’ banana-boots to blame though. Only 19% of our predictions returned more the 2 points; 2nd worst this season. There was only one 10-pointer (NUFC54, for the Arsenal double over Leicester) and 18 five pointers (six of which were for the same game). Suspect we’re going to see a change at the top. Magpie has maintained his good form, third highest scorer in last five weeks (95 points; joeyt second—passport needs well and truly renewed—on 96 points), and joint fourth highest scorer (62 points) in last three weeks (NUFC54, second on 68 points). However, BeloEmre has maintained a wonderful midseason run of form. Top scorer again this week. 124 points in five weeks, which is 42 points more than the average for the rest of us (82 pts), and 28 pts more than the next best. In fact, he has scored more points in the last three weeks (87) than 17 of us have scored in the last five! Phenomenal. Well done, you must be delighted. Turkish de... (can’t bring myself to type crap joke, at least not in full). In terms of the predictability of particular teams, Arsenal are still pissing it: averaging 67 points per game involving them (62 this week, but we were a player short). Man City are clinging on to second (58 ppg) with Spurs breathing down their neck (57 ppg). We are now 13th on 45 ppg, catching West Brom. We’ve definitely become more predicable (not to me, mind... or South Cheshire Toon [distance breeds loyalty... "I'd wark th' streets aal day, aal neet..."etc etc]) but unfortunately I suspect it mainly means predictably, and tremendously, s****. Lawro would have scored 14, and had his arse kicked off his guest Ed Skrein (20 pts). The BBC Sport Predictor game’s most popular scores would have also returned 14 pts, and our Malcolm in the Middle/Group Guess, 9 pts (ouch). Lawro’s total score would now be 464, leaving him falling adrift in third.