The9

All I did was indicate that not everyone could see Lambert would be up to the Premier League. That is 1) not a criticism of him and 2) completely true, even if everyone else seems to be retrospectively claiming they knew he was going to be superb all along. There were plenty who weren't sure, and I think the majority would say he's done better than they expected. I've also done the irrelevance of being joint top English scorer to death already. It simply isn't important, it is barely important being THE top scorer.

Wacky stuff, which fails to take into consideration the changes to tactics that would occur if the matches actually were two-legged ties.

I think there's a lot of money to be made from merchandising in the US, NYC is one of the biggest markets, there's no great club affiliation so the Red Bulls probably won't have an effect on their popularity, and they can sell both NYC FC merch in Manchester, and City now have a foothold in the NYC market as well (where Arsenal and Man U seem to be the most popular from my most recent visit to the city). Even if it's not likely to topple NFL/MLB/NBA or even NHL, the soccer market is the US is growing hugely, and it's a bloody big place with a lot of potential sales. Plus, again, it's a source of income that raises their allowable wage spend under FFP.

2 laps of the pitch.

Same thing I said. Technically speaking the Skates weren't advanced anything from the parachute payments, but the PL instead reallocated £7m they were due to give PFC at the end of 2009/10 and instead paid other clubs they owed money to, rather than giving it to PFC. It wasn't a parachute payment because they were still a Prem team at the time, it was the last tv payment (i.e. the ones delivered at this time of season) before they were relegated from the Prem in April/May 2010. So they were not given PPs in advance, instead the PL paid off some of the football debts PFC had using money they were supposed to get. EDIT : Also noticed Pugwash has also noted this, above. Didn't even spot that his letter was from 2012, there's a whole new can of worms.

For those not quite sure why it's a racial slur : So basically suggesting a black person would want to eat fried chicken as a preference is harkening back to the slave trade, and evokes all of the connotations of "owning" people of another race. Garcia should have stuck to comments about conquistadors or something.

Well duh, but not for the reason you're suggesting.

This "likely to stay" stuff ? Do you mean "sign a permanent contract with" or "go back out on loan to" ? Because either way they won't be "released", that's what happens when your contract runs out and we don't offer a new one.

The thing about this "released" list is that it won't contain anyone who still has a contract. If they're playing below the Prem and are out on loan but have got at least a year left with us, they won't be going anywhere apart from out on loan again, as they're all on contracts which pay more than any team at the level they're playing can afford. So if Hammond's contract isn't up, unless someone wants to pay his wages on loan, or offer him a new, longer, or over the term of the contract more valuable deal, he'll just train with the U21s and take his money. There's a tipping point of course, where 1 year on Prem money is less preferable to 4 more years at Championship level plus the job security... so we might see a few "final yearers" moving on, but the rapid promotion and Prem bonuses have really left us with a bit of a legacy of reserves. We've moved on a bit from when we were mutually cancelling Wootton's contract to get him an extra 12 months as a pro at Yeovil, haven't we ? And so have Yeovil for that matter.

I suspect we'll shed Seaborne and Martin from the centre back position and keep the ones who are at worst decent backups at that level.

This link confirmed something like it happened : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8538457.stm "The Premier League also withheld £2m of transfer payments and diverted a £7m slice of TV revenue to Chelsea and Watford to cover the signings of Glen Johnson and Tommy Smith." Maybe "advanced" isn't the right word... they didn't give the money to Portsmouth at all, they sent it elsewhere, rather than giving it to Portsmouth to not pay Chelsea and Watford from money they were meant to be getting. So we're both right, they advanced money to other teams on their behalf.

Actually looking at the article http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11661/8646585/Premier-League-won-t-budge-on-increased-parachute-payments, it implies that there's a solidarity payment with the Championship clubs of "£2.3m", so maybe the "£8m" includes that, and you only get the full "£8m" from the £5.75m and (actually) £2.25m if you stay in the Championship. If not, your additional £2.25m solidarity payment was actually less than the (L1) £360k and (L2) £240k now proposed by the PL, which the article says are up 6.6% and 5.4% respectively on the current amount. So it sounds like the Skates will get £5.75m + whatever the figure was before £360k (for having been in L1 the past season) rather than "£9m" because they're not in the Championship. Anyone fancy blowing that theory out of the water, I am literally just making it up ?

That article only says the proposed increase in PPs would be 23/18/9/9, not that it had been agreed, not that there's any negotiating likely as it's basically a gift from the PL.

I'd hope it had already been removed from their payments and channelled to creditors as part of the CVA1, but most likely that would lead to hysterical laughter on here, and maybe it was annexed as part of CVA2 ? In short, dunno, but my theory is either that they already owe it to someone and the Prem have made sure they get it, or more likely, the payment is split over the year. Dunno, anyone know ? EDIT: I have a better theory, below.

Never mind that, did he get a hypothetical offer at the end ? How much for ? And how much was his deal ?

Worse.

I beg to differ.

Not just me that thinks that is likely then ?

I am considering sacrificing my "collection" for the sake of not buying the white kit which I still don't (yet?) have...

Make sure you don't spend too long having the photo done, you might get nailed for the car park fee.

It looks very uninspiring, and I don't think I'll be wrong in saying gaming has just plateaued with the Xbox One like tv did with Digital/HD and video did with DVD/Blu-Ray. i.e. it's got to the point where the only people upgrading are likely to be the geeks and those with cash to splash.

In addition, the Sky Sports interview with Cortese from Barcelona after Pochettino came in (from Jan 27th 2013), in which he clearly states "establishing" Saints in top 6 is achieveable. http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/premier-league/8445829/exclusive:-nicola-cortese-interview

Man City home now launched, and shockingly exactly the same as the numerous leaks everywhere. Also near-identical template to the new England shirt (which itself is near-identical to the US shirt).

I'm starting to think this is a wind up now, we've already done corner flags.

You just want to see a picture of man in a sash shirt looking stern with a bloke off Coronation Street looking over his shoulder.