4117 réponses à ce sujet

[Druss99]

Rage still pops up from time to time. More of a World Cup kinda guy being Brazilian and all. Auto and Garbage Master/Jedi Counselar Arian were here back then too but under a different names, some of the others pop up from time to time. This all started out as a World Cup thread that got closed down.

It has to be the worst penalty ever, the best part was him getting booked for it. I know your not allowed to dummy your shot but I wasn't aware its a bookable offence.

Is Earnshaw actually decent at all? He seems to score alot in the Championship but any time I've seen him he has looked a bit pants.

Did you happen to see the alledged third paragraph of the Gary Cook email? If its real then it kind of destroys his claims that it wasn't him that sent it. I wonder if they are calling it Cookgate yet? Or Cancergate maybe?

[OBakaSama]

Ah...OK. If I ever change my username I'm 'promoting' myself. *Cough* I also notice Kimosabe early on as well. And...they closed down a World Cup thread? Well...limited in scope I suppose.

Kicking the turf and completely fluffing your shot warrants a yellow card apparently. Personally I would have thought the embarrassment and subsequent humiliation would have been enough. Did Pedersen ever get booked for the worst ever dive?

I think Earnshaw is one of those form players; pretty decent when he's in form. His fitness levels I think have been questioned. It would seem that Championship is his level really. (Having stated that I am still wondering how Grant Holt will fare over the course of this season.) I'm pretty sure he played for someone in the Premiership at some point; I get the impression it may have been for Paul Jewell at Derby, though I could be making that up.

Haven't seen much more on the Cook incident. *Goes and checks* Right...it looks somewhat dodgier for him then with respect to his denial. Also sounds like this will drag on for a while as yet too.

[Druss99]

Promoting yourself? Captain Obaka?

I don't really remember Pedersons dive. I just vaguely remember thinking about Gerards dive where he went down nowhere near the player and dived in the wrong direction was worse.

Yeah I remember Earnshaw in the PL too, thats where I mostly remember him being crap.

If thats true then Cook is fried.

Have you seen this...

http://www.football3...rmative-Action-

Seems utterly ridiculous to me and I think the two main people to blame for lack of black managers are Paul Ince and John Barnes. The pair of them did absolutely terrible jobs and needed to be sacked, as soon as they were sacked they start crying racism.

[OBakaSama]

Continuing with the Japanese theme it would be 'Dono' instead of 'Sama'.

Pedersen; when he looked around before flinging himself to the ground. Except there was no-one near him. Too many Gerrard incidents to recall.... Come to think of it there was a Vieira dive as well when someone just shook a leg a few feet away and he just collapsed; never was able to find a clip of that though, might try again.

Cook has had his bacon then....*cough*

Yeah, I saw the blurb. I am surprised we're following the American wording of 'Affirmative Action' though. When I were a lad we were taught that it was 'positive discrimination'. I can also sort of see why as well (I'm somewhat paranoid in that respect). Thing is though...has there been any, and I do mean any, evidence to suggest that in football that black people are discriminated against when it comes to getting a managerial job? If there has been, then fine; press on with affirmative action because they shouldn't be discriminated because of their colour (actual stipulations and stuff to be decided). If there isn't...well...why bother? It just seems to be the case that they're not of the calibre required for the job. As much as I would like to see ethnic minorities in certain jobs, I believe that it should be based on merit (but then affirmative action has an argument against that anyway). Oh, and there was this fairly recently which shows that discrimination does take place, but again we would need to show that it has taken place in football. So again, depending on that there may or may not be a case. There are other factors as well. While there are say X number of black players, how many go on to pursue a managerial career? As far as I'm concerned we don't know. In that respect the point she (Winterburn) makes in the article does make sense regarding the representation levels as it were. Can we be sure that blacks do not want to pursue a managerial career? (And what really gets me in these debates is that it's almost always blacks, what about the other ethnic minorities? Don't they exist or something? That's discrimination right there if these people want to debate these issues. *Hmph*)

Wait a minute...Chris Hughton's black?!? I know my eyesight's dodgy..... I guess it shows the whole fluidity of ethnicity thing I was reading about with respect to critical race theory then.... Anyway...I thought Hughton was doing a good job at Newcastle before Ashley got rid of him; I'm not really convinced that Pardew did a much better job, though given what is happening at Newcastle now we will see what he's made of (read the thing about him considering walking away?).

Paul Ince did a very good job at MK Dons the first time round I recall; but taking him from League One (I think at the time) to the Premiership is a step too far. Ince wasn't really ready for that level at that time. Later maybe, but not then. Look at Martinez. It's somewhat debatable whether he took the step up to Premiership from Championship well. Only a league above where he was, but Wigan have struggled after avoiding relegation in the season following their promotion (I think); they've certainly struggled in recent (hazy) memory. Would it have been better for him in terms of his development as a manager to have stayed at Swansea, gained promotion with them and battled it in the Premiership? Like Pulis I suppose with Stoke. A natural progression of their talent. Some might not be able to achieve those sort of heights, but at least wouldn't be seen as skipping a part of their education as it were. There's also the case of Paul Jewell who got Wigan promoted to the Premier League from League Two; quit after preventing Wigan from being relegated from the Prem. Then later went to a struggling in the Prem Derby side and couldn't do anything to save them. Perhaps the Premier League was a step too far for him even though he went through the natural development route. Having noted that it remains to be seen where Paul Lambert's abilities lie.

Don't recall Barnes from memory, but I assume that if he was good he'd still be managing. *Checks Wikipedia* Right...not a very convincing track record there.

Last few posts have gotten rather lengthy.... And we've gotten rather serious as well. Need some mood lightening. Hm.....

[Druss99]

Haha thats collective stupidity, why didn't one of his own players stay in the other teams half so they couldn't kick off? They learned that the hard way.

They don't seem to take into consideration that before the mid 80's there weren't alot of black players in the league. They might make up 25% of the players now but that 25% are playing not looking to manage. The percentage from 10-20 years ago where you'd be more likely to get these managers from seems more relevant to me. I also agree that unless theres some sort of evidence that black managers are being discriminated against then theres absolutely no reason for this. Plus theres only 93 jobs.

They are determined to make something out of nothing and forcing clubs to interview black managers is going to get them nowhere, if they weren't willing to interview them in the first place then why would they suddenly hand them a job? Of the black managers I can remember Gullit, Tigana, Ince, Barnes, Powell and Hughton(really?) if all 6 applied for a job managing my club I'd interview Tigana, Powell and Hughton. I wouldn't even entertain the other 3 and if they were the only black applicants then forcing me to interview them because they are black is absurd. It would be insulting to both me and them. Barnes is an awful manager who blames racism for all his faults, Guillit has never managed with any success to my knowledge and I've always hated Paul Ince with a passion and never rated him as a player or manager.

I agree too that they are being even more ridiculous by insisting its only black managers that should be getting this affirmitive action. Isn't there an even larger Asian population? It kind of reminds me of the whole Resident Evil 4/5 fiasco. Its ok shooting Spaniards in Spain but not Africans in Africa.

Whats this about Pardew walking away? Will they need a new yes man?

Thank god the PL is back this week to put all this nonsense aside. Although I have no idea what the fixtures are.

The Gerrard dive involved him collapsing against Bolton I believe like he had been hacked down but not a being was near him. He probably still got the freekick he wanted too.

[OBakaSama]

Indeed they did; indeed they did.

That's a good point you bring up there, Druss. Following that thought we'd need to look down the line another good 15 years or so; but again this depends on whether they have the interest to manage. It's all a moot point if they don't. Or they can start grabbing people off the streets at random to interview...which is what the BBC done at one point (if you remember the incident). Also I think it's often mentioned that just because you're a great player it doesn't make you a great manager; those are few and far between I think.

I was shocked to read that F365 article that mentions Chris Hughton as being black; because to me he doesn't look black. I'm going to try and catch the Football league highlights and see if he gets interviewed to get a better look-see. Mind you, 'Caucasian' is also quite wide I suppose. Taking an example from WWE especially Sheamus and compare him to Randy Orton. They are both Caucasian but their skin tones are vastly different in my eyes. I do recall Sheamus being teased about being so white. Another example of types would be when you have a singular person of a different accent speaking amongst a group of people speaking with another accent (Helen Baxendale in Friends is a good example) and it sounds really odd. OK...maybe not such a good example.

Gullitt hasn't really had much success as a manager as far as I'm aware. And wasn't he sacked the other time? Mind you, the whole 'sexy football' thing was in vogue when he was at Newcastle? Or was it Chelsea?

Ah...I remember the outrage about Resident Evil (never got to playing them mind you). If it's set in that part of the world...it would seem strange if they weren't of that race. Mind you, there have been several game related outrages, the most recent as I understand it is with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. There was one in...which Grand Theft Auto? Things need context; without it things can be grossly misconstrued.

Someone at Newcastle came out with a statement that the rumours were nonsense; that just because they didn't get any strikers in during this window doesn't mean they won't in the next. Though I would wonder what Natt would think about that.

Indeed it is. Wondering if we'll get a result against West Brom.

Hm...Benitez not ruling out Inter return. Would they even want him back? It's made to sound rather simplistic. Right...I'm not ruling myself out from managing England to World Cup glory. Anyone else want to not rule out something for themselves?

[Druss99]

I had never considered Chris Hughtons race until they started calling him a black manager and I was like hang on a second here is he not white? If you remember Perry Saturn my mate was convinced he is black, I believe he is still convinced to this day. Seamus is offensively white, he is almost hard to look at it. I notice they added an H to his name so as not to confuse Americans.

Ha you watched Friends! Your secret is out Obaka! Although I caught an episode of Buffy last night and there was a woman with the worst accent ever it seemed to be half Dublin and half Jamaican yet neither. It haunts my dreams...

Gullitt kept talking about sexy football but never seemed to deliver anything, although if I remember correctly it was dropping Alan Shearer that got him sacked from Newcastle.

The thing about all these controversies is that its just one small group being idiots then the media pick up on it and run with it. No one ever just says "Your being an idiot go away." The worst one I've seen is probably the Hallmark Black Hole controversy. It was......mental.

Something tells me that if they do get another striker it will be bargain basement at best. Aren't teams allowed to sign loans still?

The CL returns next week too. Excitement.

Benitez has been spotted turning up to a few grounds with a file with him. I think Stoke was the last one I saw. I'd like to not rule myself out of sex with Shakira.

They kept trying to ask Warnock about Beckham on SSN today he clearly didn't want to talk about it and had nothing to say but they kept asking. It was painful to watch.

Modifié par Druss99, 08 septembre 2011 - 09:31 .

[OBakaSama]

I know of Perry Saturn, and I thought he was black. This skin colour thing is confusing....

Back when I were a lad I watched Friends. I admit it. Also watched Buffy, and I sort of feel the character you're referring to is Kendra. Only one that comes to mind anyway.

Ah...yes. I forgot that's what got him sacked. Goodness forbid someone should get the sack for choosing their team. Did even Raul have that sort of power at Real? I knew he and a few others were extremely outspoken about certain matters (sometimes for the players), but to get the manager sacked though....

Usually that is the case. Also not aware of that incident; I'll check on that later to see what it's about.

Not sure. I thought all deals ended with the closing of the domestic transfer window, though I did see that Turkey's was still open and Gyan might be a target. Mind you, I'm also under the impression that even loan signings are only allowed if it is as emergency cover and requires the FA's approval.

Indeed.

Benitez might need a brochure rather than a file...

Read about the Beckham thing. I think it's been mentioned that Tottenham are interested as well. Didn't they try to get him a season or two ago? It's probably also arguable that anything concerning Beckham might be painful to watch....

[Druss99]

Are you mad too? Perry Saturn is white. Well he is kind of a strange shade of red but still...

I think this woman was called something with a K. Her accent was the most frightening thing I've ever seen on tv.

I'm pretty sure Raul got managers sacked, weren't there rumours of him picking the team?

Here is one version of the incident...

I think you can still loan out to lower league teams but I'm not sure. I thought I'd heard word of Newcastle still being in for Macheda but I may have imagined it.

I kind of assumed his file was his list of true facts about Sir Alex. Its taken on a life of its own now and is like a list of Chuck Norris facts.

I love how Beckham is the biggest transfer news if he does sign, when he is well past his best and his best was never quite great. Very good but never great. His PR department is truly one of the greatest ever though. They truly are remarkable.

[OBakaSama]

I believe I have never claimed to be sane; I have claimed to be an idiot though.... He is a peculiar shade though. I know Martin Luther King wanted people to be 'colour blind' but I think it's working in a different way for me....

Yeah, probably Kendra. She was a Slayer, or officially the Slayer after Buffy died, and before the introduction of Faith.

Possibly, and I wouldn't be surprised if he did; he went to the board enough times anyway. I remember it was suggested that players like Raul chose the tactics. During the Del Bosque years, the main Galacticos era I believe, I think he only chose who was in the team and that was it. The team just went out there and played.

That's...just bad listening. Though a section of America didn't like the Teletubby Po saying 'faster' in Cantonese either, and claimed Po was saying 'fatty'. I remember...er....stumbling upon Teletubbies, and thinking 'cool' ethnic diversity. It's just...eye rolling stuff at times with those sorts of claims.

I think you're right there, that does sound familiar. And Newcastle could probably do with some reinforcements considering.

It's taken a life of its own, true. In a bad way too. Make any claim which is clearly an opinion, stick the word 'Fact' at the end of it, and the assertion becomes a fact. Brilliant reasoning. 'Two plus two equals forty-three. Fact!' And others will have to accept it.

Of course 'Arry doesn't know how it might progress with the interest from Tottenham. Doing his usual stuff.

And interestingly the Butcher of Blackburn is requesting patience after a bad start. Still beggars belief he was given the job in the first place. I'm still half expecting Blackburn to go the way of Portsmouth.



Huh. I was expecting the Cook incident to drag on a bit. Seems that he's resigned now.

[Druss99]

Someone should hunt down Perry Saturn and ask him. Though something tells me he won't know either, I get the impression he doesn't know the answers to alot of questions.

Buffy is all very complicated, I never really got into it but SyFy have started reshowing it and theres not alot else on. Plus its got a small woman who stores nuts in her cheeks for winter kicking stuff in the face.

Its selective listening from people who want to take offence. The very existance of that group is questionable... The Teletubbies had an ethnicity? We are taking a strange detour through shows that OBaka has watched lately...its quite the enlightening journey...

Thinking back to football manager actually I think you can loan players out to lower league teams but not bring players in unless they are out of contract and even that is up until a certain date.

The day Benitez listed his true facts was priceless though, it was almost as good as Joe Kinnears first press conference as Newcastle manager.

Ah 'Arry he could be Barca manager with his ability to talk about players under contract to another club. Not sure how Levy feels about adding the massive wages of an over the hill player they don't need though.

If they get beat on Sunday then BoB could well be heading back to the meat counter of Asda early next week.

I think it will drag on until Mrs/Dr gets the compensation she is looking for. I believe I said a couple of pages ago that Cook would get the boot or be forced to quit.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

OK, so this weekend and next week we will have club matches in Europe rather national matches. right?

[Druss99]

Jedi Sentinel Arian wrote...

OK, so this weekend and next week we will have club matches in Europe rather national matches. right?

Aye and Champions League matches on Tuesday/Wednesday too.

[OBakaSama]

Yep. The proper footy will be back on our screens. I think it's the international matches that had put me off watching the game a fair bit a short while ago; I'll stick to the club variety I think. At least with international highlights most of the dross would have been left on the cutting room floor.

It is selective listening, like with the Hallmark card (thanks for the link by the way, Druss). The Teletubbies didn't have ethnicity per se, but Po did speak Cantonese (a Chinese dialect) when she(?) was on that scooter and saying 'faster'/'quicker'. Most of the time it's just babble really. (Then there was the whole Tinky-Winky was gay thing as well....but let's not get into that.) Ah...misspent youth....

There's an article on F365 mentioning that Bridge and Onuoha could be loaned out to Championship clubs still. So that has effectively answered that question (such that it was), but it does mention Man City still need Onuoha to make up the numbers for the home-grown regulation. Really can't be much fun being at a club that doesn't need you, or perhaps doesn't even want you. Harsh.

On 'Arry though. Goodness forbid anyone from the upper echelons of Barcelona's management should see that comment of yours, Druss. Can you imagine what that combination would do? *Shudders to think*

BoB. Couldn't help but think of Blackadder there.... Big game for him certainly given how well they've done so far. Whether Allardyce's teams play attractive football or not (usually not) is perhaps not a big issue if the team is struggling near the foot of the table because he tends to be quite effective in that respect. Could never see why they replaced him with Bob (not a typo) who hasn't really shown himself to be any more effective or got the team to play attractive football. Who else could they get on the cheap to manage Blackburn?

Oh...and along those lines. Do you ever wonder whether certain owners who interfere in team business should just go the whole hog and appoint themselves the manager of the team without pretending that they don't want to be?

Modifié par OBakaSama, 10 septembre 2011 - 08:40 .

[hotdogbsg]

Thank god that particular international break is over. That was painful stuff from a Norn Irish point of view.

[OBakaSama]

Indeed it was.

Was going to edit previous post, but since there's a post after mine it wouldn't make a great deal of sense to do so.

Still waiting to see whether F365 will use the Tevez-Blanka comparison....

On Tevez though, I read on Ceefax this morning that he has been stripped of the captaincy; and that Kompany is now the captain. To think that it took a few weeks for that to come out.

[Druss99]

Oh yeah City let Michael Johnson go so they would probably need Onouha to make up the quota, kind of ruins the point of the quota thing if its stalling a players career just so he can make up the numbers. He would get in the team at alot of other clubs.

Luckily 'Arry is a sh*t manager who has won one cup in 30 odd years so would never get the job at a club who don't subscribe to the English media.

Bob was on SSN at about 5am talking about how he is the right man for the job, he is seriously creepy looking with his odd grin and beady eyes. There was something very fishy about the sacking of Allardyce and I just don't trust him. Either he was involved in ousting Allardyce or he is simply a yes man.

Wasn't there an owner who actually did name themselves manager? I thought that was one of the reasons they brought the coaching badges in. I could be wrong though.

Ceefax? Bloody hell. I forgot that existed until I wound up in hospital a couple of months ago and had to rediscover its blocky charms on the ward tv. I read that about Blanka on F365 and laughed, he missed a penalty today too so I laughed more. Who shall he blame and how long before he accuses Mancini of stabbing him in the back by stripping him of the captaincy and now he needs to leave because of it?

I'm interested to see the review scores of FIFA 12. I'm convinced more than ever that EA Sports pay for reviews after reading reviews of and then playing NHL 12. Its still the best sports game around(not alot of competition) but things that the reviews specifically said where fixed are infact broken more than ever. Anyone seen any reviews for FIFA 12?

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

Fifa 12 release date: 27 september
Good, I can see matches from tomorrow with our new satellite receiver.

[OBakaSama]

Somehow they'd still need to make up the numbers in future, unless there's someone they have in the academy that Mancini hasn't promoted to the first team yet.

I now stand relieved. *Phew*

I still recall that Allardyce suggested that something was going to behind his back which led to his dismissal. Being speculative, it does seem to be Bob he wasn't naming with connection with that.

I don't recall that. Still would expect someone to make that move if it hasn't already happened yet.

My habit is I check Ceefax in the morning. Primitive internet as it were.

Nope. Not yet. Haven't picked up a footy game on the 360 in a while. PES 2008 put me off a fair bit; and the demos I have checked out just don't really feel right. I'll wait for the old GameCentral reviews myself. I think their reviews are well informed and critical.

Will check out the highlights as usual when MOTD is on; but it does almost look like a...er...urinating contest between Man Utd and Man City at the moment.

[Druss99]

They will most likely just buy young English players. Mancini mentioned thats why they signed Hargreaves to meet a quota but he wasn't trained in England so I got confused.

Unfortunately we will probably never get the truth of the Bob fiasco, unless some day it involves Redknapp, then every paper will hear his ever changing version of the truth.

Fifa always has something horribly broken or unbalanced that leaves the offline version somewhat unplayable but reviews never seem to mention them at all. You'd think last years manager mode equivilant having players who never developed thus ruining the point of the mode would be worth a mention. NHL 12 has similar problems, I'm struggling to get XP because I can't get any ice time because the manager wont put me on the powerplay or penalty kill, I've sat on the bench for entire periods. This despite me getting an A+ rating in every game and leading the league in goals and points. All the reviews mentioned a revamped Be a Pro mode but didn't bother to mention any of these issues.

Just caught a bit of MotD. Carragher getting called for one of his rugby tackles? Whats next? A handball against Terry?

[OBakaSama]

Aww....looks like we lost to West Brom at home. Phooey.

Hargreaves is technically English, so perhaps that was enough.

That would be somewhat disturbing.

I remember playing the first FIFA on the Megadrive. It was fun to shove the referee out of the way, foul the keeper and sticking the ball in the back of the net. Thems were the days. Anyway...does it sound like they're going to patch those problems, Druss? Sounds like the game is badly broken. Even less reason to get them for the time being.

Yeah, Carragher was doing his rugby player impression. Again. (Still think it's more like wrestling at times...) What was worse was Alan Hansen's denial that it was a foul of any sort because there was 'hardly any contact'. Really? (Just the one.) Having your arm wrapped around the waist of another player does not constitute contact? Riiiight...... However, Terry handballing to be recognised... might be a stretch too far.

EDIT: conspiracy theories...well, theory, abounds. Wonder if Dalglish will be warned or fined for his comments on the refereeing.

Modifié par OBakaSama, 11 septembre 2011 - 02:43 .

[Seeker Sparrow]

Felt Norwich left it a little late to make a prolonged attack at goal for the equalizer, goalkeeper did well to make the penalty save; that has to be a confidence booster despite already conceding goals. Canaries had a few penalty shouts themselves, Vaughan got elbowed in the face inside the box and was bleeding a fair bit and very surprised the the ref didn't catch that one.

Debating whether or not to pick up FIFA 12, whilst at college/university I'd just go round to a mate's house and play matches there. Not particularly good at the game though but still intrigued to play it myself. Is manager mode broken Druss? That's probably the mode I'm most interested in to be honest.

Having watched MotD last night and seen the Carragher challenge and then when asked for Hansen's comment on it he started off saying "Without being biased..." then blatantly said that it wasn't a penalty and there was no contact. Brilliant.

Also could be just me still being extremely tired but during the Norwich match I'm pretty sure I heard the commentators at least once call Hoolahan 'Hula-Hoop'. I nearly spat out my drink.

EDIT: Dalglish's comments; that's just him using the classic Liverpool expression "Why is it always us?" whenever they feel hard done to. If other managers are getting touchline bans then don't see why he shouldn't get the same treatment.

Modifié par Sparrow Hawke, 11 septembre 2011 - 03:11 .

[Druss99]

I only caught bits of the Norwich game...it was very sunny, thats about all I noted...I thought I heard a crazy comment during the game too but I can't recall what it was now.

Aye FIFA on the Megadrive is where its at. Although the copy my mate had was haunted. The last few years FIFA's manager mode has been broken in different ways, couple of years ago the CPU would randomly give your players to other teams and it was far far too easy. I was winning all my games 5-0 on the highest difficulty with Spurs except when the CPU cheat obviously. Last year your players never improved which rendered the whole thing kinda useless, buying youngsters was pointless. I reccomend waiting a few weeks and checking forums for people complaining about about these issues as reviews will never mention them. I should have done that with NHL 12. I'm still enjoying it, I love it but its driving me up the wall. Also in both games the CPU cheats. In FIFA it will just run through ur team and theres no way to get the ball back, its decided its scoring and theres nothing you can do about it. NHL is slightly more subtle but the CPU takes massive liberties. Why would they patch them when next year fixing these issues will be one of the 400+ improvements? If they actually released a finished game then it would impact the yearly sales.

So is this what Liverpools reaction will be to every defeat? Always an excuse? I thought the ref got all three decisions right. The only one I'd question is the first penalty but it happened so fast and Delaps arms weren't flapping about so it would have been hard for him to be sure. If he isn't sure then its not a penalty. Their players reaction surrounding the ref and linesman screaming in their faces if that was United the back pages would be full of it. Good call too Obaka, if Dalglish isn't punished then something is clearly wrong at the FA.

He is also lying. Quite obviously so, they scored a goal against Arsenal were Suarez was clearly offside and that went their way. The penalty against Sunderland that they got looked to me very much like a Suarez dive, he clipped his own heels. Dalglish feels hard done by that a player wasn't sent off when his own player dived. Brilliant. Also Charlie Adam conceded a freekick last week when the ref caught him diving, he wasn't booked. Absolute joke of a club.

Are the FA really this stupid? They can't possibly be...

[ur]http://www.football365.com/news/21554/7169531/Arry-For-The-Euros-[/url]

Modifié par Druss99, 11 septembre 2011 - 04:37 .

[OBakaSama]

I'm sure I've heard Hoolahan being called Hula-Hoop a few times, or something similar anyway. Could be worse? Hm..... Sounds like some decisions went against us then, but we got a few the last couple of games so I'd expect things to even themselves out during the season (to use a cliche).

Ah...cheating CPUs in games... Don't think I've encountered many of late.

Hansen's comment on Stoke's penalty award was daft. Have to state that the first could have been a penalty, but...well...difficult at that speed I would guess, and Delap didn't really move his arm much. Probably why it wasn't given.

As for Dalglish's comments...I think we'll have to wait for the FA to evolve into a vertebrate first. Hm...maybe I should have stuck with 'grow a spine'. And perhaps they're trying to harness the power of English moaning into more, er...productive avenues.

As for the FA's intelligence...er...I really wouldn't be surprised; but Gordon Bennett, let's hope not. And we wonder why the England team can't really compete with the truly top teams in the world. If those at the top are supposed to somehow provide a model...

[Druss99]

Thats doing my head in now, I heard the commentator say something but then thought "Nah he couldn't have said that." Pretty sure it wasn't hula hoop, it was something else twisted to sound odd.

Ex-pro's will always be biased though, it only gets annoying to me when they pretend not to be biased. What really bugs me is Linekar, the way he has to pretend to know nothing about football because he is hosting. Does he not have opinions anymore? He isn't as bad as he used to be in this regard but it still gets to me.

I'll be surprised if Dalglish does get punished. The FA don't want Scousers releasing a video about how they have been persecuted.

I'm surprised by the amount of people that think Redknapp is a good idea because he is English and will bring Englishness. Something which was never good enough before. But then sacking one of the top coaches in the world who has got you to the tournament in favour of someone who has only won one cup in 30 years simply because he is English could be the best idea in the history of time. What do I know?