Ken Tone

If that is a serious question ..... It would surprise me greatly if we did. My own personal criticism of Cortese is that he is not very good at p.r and marketing (hardly surprising as an ex- Swiss banker) ... and what is more doesn't even seem to think they matter very much. I very much doubt he cares one jot what people on here think about him, so why would he spend money on p.r. plants?

Exactly, and then pillocks come on here not only believing every word from the Sun in the order written, but also adding their own prejudice, either way. If Cortese does indeed buy his own ticket, it's hardly surprising he expects everyone else to do the same. End of story ...big deal.

Blimey ..talk about convoluted reasoning. 1/240 is the chance that saints v newcaslte is drawn first, or in any specified place in the order. (1/120 if you don't care if it is home or away). I'm with the 1/15 probability (ie odd of 14 to 1 against) of playing Newcastle. Or 1/30 (29 to 1) chance of it being at home.

Some serious advice, Bridgey, since you seem to be asking seriously. All the research shows that you really can damage a child's future by giving it a silly trendy name, so first rule is go for solid and mainstream. Also, don't forget to consider how names sound or look with your surname or initials. Someone earlier suggested Arthur for example -- a fine name in itself, but avoid Arthur with any surname that could go with 'half a ....' eg Arthur Legge, Arthur Day, or Arthur Mow, will get irritating nicknames all their lives. So practise saying the name out loud, with and without any middle names, and surname. Think about how the name might be shortened. Consider initials. It's amazing how many people give their kids the same initials as themselves without considering the confusion it causes when they are older and get letters, bank cards, etc at the same address with the same initials. ... or whether the initials spell a word, eg George Ivor Truscott. And maybe controversially, if you give a child a name that is usually restricted to a particular ethnic, religious or national group, you may lay the child open to future discrimination. So Niamh may be fine in Ireland, but is it traditionally associated particularly with Catholic or Protestant Irish? I don't know, but it may well matter in NI.

Were you there mate? It wasn't just 'raining', it was chucking it down in lumps, to the extent that there was flash-flooding on some roads, and at one point I seriously wondered if the game might not start on time because of waterlogging. I suspect that will have put off a few 'walk-ups'. I was a bit disappointed that no one took up the chant that one bloke near me started in response to 'red army' -- 'red navy!' What really surprised me was how poor the Birmingham turnout was. Less than a thousand from a recent premier league side less than 150 miles away was pathetic.

For example you can't work in education with a conviction, even after it is officially 'spent', ie out of date. This is not just to do with offences against children, or anything else that might put childen directly at risk; it is pretty much any criminal offence --eg the first convicted looter who was an assistant (not a teacher as such) in a primary school lost his job. This is presumably about setting a moral example because those in education are seen as role models by children. So for me the question is are footballers also seen as role models? And I reckon the answer is yes. At my club I don't want to be cheering for a player who is a **** like King, and if I was a Birmingham fan, I'd not be happy that Brum had employed him.

This is brilliant stuff. Have you tried seeing if a newspaper will publish daily updates? Or maybe run it as a cartoon strip? I particularly liked post #276 where the ghost left in your mate's van, but only for a while! Genius! How much longer do you think you can keep this up before you're laughing so much you can't type any more?

Nearer home maybe, but hardly near. It's at least a 3 hour drive from Newcastle to Liverpool, more in bad weather ... only about 50-60 miles closer than Southampton. However, whilst I'm sure he is settled here, if any premier league team bid for him he'd have to be tempted. At 30 he won't get many chances, apart via from us being promoted of course. What is far less likely than him being tempted though IMO, is Newcastle actually bidding £5 million for a 30 year who has never played in the top flight. Surely this is just the standard "link any decent Saints player with Pardew" lazy journalism? They were supposedly going to buy several of our players last window too weren't they?

I take your point but I guess if the majority of people were faced with say this guy as their doctor, or their child's teacher, they'd be a bit put off! So someone looking like him simply ain't going to get a job as a teacher or in just about any profession, regardless of whether he may or may not be capable of doing the job. Nor is any employer (other than another tattooist) going to want him as a receptionist or salesman. In the end any visible tattoo or unusual piercing will have something of the same effect, albeit to a lesser degree if not as extreme as him. Even a small tattoo on the hand or neck will stop you getting many jobs.

And indeed you're entitled to your opinion. It is the case though that the majority of people view tattoos negatively and associate them with a 'type', as many comments on this thread confirm, in the same way as they do say bright green hair. So in the same way as going for a job interview with bright green hair will almost certainly lessen your chances of success, so will a visible tattoo. The difference is of course that a tattoo is permanent. Anyone getting a tattoo that can't be discreetly hidden under clothing is making a decision that will almost certainly damage their career chances in many walks of life.

So in spite of whatever massive salary West Ham are paying him, he has to moonlight too? Hard times.

You might first want to read the thread on 'the lounge' about how difficult it is to remove a tattoo later! http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?32564-Tattoos Love Mum x

Always strikes me as weird that people spend time and money on clothes, hair, make up, etc and then make themselves look uglier with a tattoo or strange piercings. At least most piercings will heal up if allowed to, but tattoos are not easily removed. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A534791 which is usually a pretty reliable source of health info. So it may well take a series of treatments over many months, will be painful and costly (several hundred pounds according to other sites), will carry a risk of infection, and may be of only limited success. You have to be pretty stupid to get a tattoo of any sort IMO, but to get one somewhere easily visible, so for example it will be seen when going for a job interview, is pain downright nuts.

Whilst it is true that rubgy refs are given much more respect, let's not pretend all is well in rugby either. There are rarely incidents of deliberate eye gouging or stamping on an opponent's face in football, like there are in rugby. There is cheating all the time in rugby -- it's just that most of it is violence towards an opponent, not dissent or cheating to score points. Nonetheless, as someone else said it's a real shame they dropped the 'move back 10 yards if you don't retire from a free kick' rule from football. And I do not understand why refs are expected to put up with foul-mouthed abuse from players. Of course they make mistakes but I think even the most fanatical supporters realise that actually they are doing their best and are mostly doing fairly well. I'ts not as if we have corrupt refs in this country. I couldn't be a ref -- I reckon I'd send off half the players for dissent within minutes.

Of course you don't need one massive immobile defender .. I didn't say you did... but you do need at least one who is tall enough to cope with the average opposing team's strikers. The ideal is two tall and mobile defenders. Failing that, one big and one small generally works better than 2 small.

That would be a logical conclusion, but actually if you look at the UK as an example , although English is of course the dominant language, the Welsh and the Scots have gone to great lengths in recent years to keep their own languages, and indeed the Welsh effectively force many of their children to speak Welsh in school and use it in official situations. Welsh is probably spoken more widely now than it was a generation or two ago. There seems to be a level at which the state or the nation or whatever the group is , becomes too big for many people and they want to sub-divide and keep a separate identity. Look at all the supposedly 'Irish' Americans ...many times as many as there are Irish in Ireland. See also how passionately French Canadians stay 'French' So personally I don't think there will ever be a common language, and even if we approached one there'd be local dialects and accents that made it different in reality. Apparently Geordies speak English for example, but ....

I still think he is class. The problem on Saturday is that he was drawn out of position covering for his full backs

Surely the only sensible answer is that we can all have a fixed term of retirement, say 10 years? You can retire when you like, but after the 10 years, euthanasia. Society would welcome some early retirers, because their organs would still be worth re-using after their 10 years are up. Or maybe we just stop funding the NHS completely and raise the death rate to the level of our third world competitors? The trouble with these politicians is they chicken out of the logical extension of their ideas!

I think it could indeed be a problem. UK degree + pgce is pretty well accepted in most countries but GTP is a bit more dodgy. Fine for the UK itself. The rationale, whether ones agrees or not , is that a B.Ed or pgce has academic rigour in pedagogy but that GTP is just 'learning by sitting next to Nellie'. That is a bit unfair IMO, because some GTPs can be excellent and some pgces can be pretty rubbish, but it is the perception nonetheless. You might want to explore the option of an open university pgce whilst working full-time or almost full-time instead of the GTP as such, especially if you have good degree. But I'd check with the Canadian embassy first.

So did Jason Dodd, but neither of them are permanent left backs.

Cranie is another Chris Baird type player. He wants to play centre back and indeed plays well there, but is too short unless he pays covering for a hulking great brute alongside him, and is not quite as fast as you'd want a top level right back to be ideally. Definitely good enough for the championship but not much use to Saints IMO because he'd be competing to play in Fonte's place, not to play with Fonte, and he wouldn't want to come here as a RB. Personally I always thought that Matt Mills was the more promising of the two when they were breaking through into our first team as youngsters.

Oh, well if you were serious, then if it's for a good job or something don't think twice... go. Salford Quays etc and roundabout are now gentrified areas with loads of flats and restaurants near the city centre, and there are many decent suburbs further out. Plus the public transport system isn't too bad, with the new tram. Basically it's a big city with all that entails, good and bad. Good nightlife, shops, arts and culture, etc but also some rough areas. Avoid Moss Side and much of Salford especially Weaste, but that'll be obvious from the relative property prices, for sale or rent. Places like Chorlton, say, give you a bit of both worlds, an inner suburb so easy travel to the centre, but also out of the problems that any city centre can have. Tone down the (to them cockney) accent, don't act all southern and superior or ask where all the slag heaps are, sound impressed now and then, and you'll be fine. The cliches about northern people being friendly, especially as neighbours, have some basis in truth in my experience.

Turkish this thread has lost you the last shreds of credibility you had, and btw the word you want is 'lightning', not 'lightening'. Unless you were referring to some new sort of diet?

How about Rob Hulse as competition/cover for Rickie? 31 going on 32 so obviously not one for the future, but a proven goalscorer at this level and more of a target man than the other forwards we have. Just left out of QPR's 25 now they're rich again. Stop gap, until we move onto the next level in every sense. Not sure of his wages but doubt he is on a fortune.

Lived on the outskirts for 7 years and have relatives living there now. Perfectly decent city, with good bits and bad bits like all cities. Have you taken against it for some reason? I'd certainly rate it higher than say Leeds.