Ken Tone

One of the best April fools this year was one paper topping this by claiming that Fulham players had been instructed to make the moon dance their goal celebration

Lol ...fair summary! Overall I'd go with 'mixed and unpredictable'. If he was a young player I'd say he showed enough raw talent that one day he'd maybe be great. But actually he's 29(?) ,at his peak, and what is more on saturday he was playing in what is reportedly his favourite position, just behind the strikers. (We were playing a diamond with him at the front, so it is totally unfair to blame Guly for a weak right side as someone did above). This was a game in which he ought to have shone. But the fact is he didn't have a particularly good game, and we looked a lot better after the substitutions playing 4-4-2. To what extent that was due to the formation change or the player change is a matter of opinion -- bit of both IMO.

I thought Merlion had gone bust too, or was that just the Infinity Homes subsidiary? He has a real Midas touch!

cf my ....."If you are one of a whole load of people doing identical jobs, with identical skills and qualifications, LIFO is more likely to apply" above . Large airlines have lots of pilots, basically all doing same job with same qualifications and difficult to distinguish different skill levels. Mind you, age discrimination laws are making pay increments etc based on long service more dodgy than they were.

Errmm.... I took him to mean that Chamberlain's season was in doubt, not the whole club's. If he isn't even being assessed for 2 weeks he may well be out for the rest of the season. If I had to choose between Chamberlain and Lallana it would be Lallana every time for me too btw. In 2 or 3 years' time, who knows?

In such situations there are "good practice" procedures, "legally all right" procedures , and "sod it, so try and take us to an industrial tribunal if you can" procedures. IF your firm follows best practice it will either now consult with employees and unions to agree redundancy criteria, or it will have already done that and have some in place. LIFO is one possible and legally acceptable criterion. Unions tend to like it, so it is more common in highly unionised firms and the public sector. Even there though, it is usually only one of a list of criteria .. a 'tie-buster' if you like if all other things are equal. If you are one of a whole load of people doing identical jobs, with identical skills and qualifications, LIFO is more likely to apply. In most cases jobs vary and the firm will first specify which sub-category of jobs it needs to lose, then look at employees' suitability to do said job , then .... etc, maybe finishing with LIFO.

It's tough out there at present. No guarantee you'd get another job. And if your company like most, just pays basic compulsory redundacny pay, it would be a few quid.

I read somewhere that average speeds are dropping, as people try to save fuel. It is certainly noticeable in my car that if I can bear to stick to 60 mph on the cruise control rather than 75 mph, the difference in fuel consumption is dramatic.... can be 10 mpg or thereabouts. (It is also noticeable and slightly worrying that using cruise control in itself, at any speed, saves fuel ...the car's computer is apparently a better driver than I am!) Judging by the effect of the variable speed limits on the M25 at peak times, a slower but steady average speed may actually reduce congestion .. and that may add to the perception that the roads are less busy.

Preferably not till next season so any points deduction will be then. They'd not be relegated with 10 points off this year.

The legal position is complicated, and different from place to place. Some councils just paint the lines which have no real legal status on their own beyond 'advisory', whilst others put them there with proper traffic enforcement orders, signs on posts etc. The usual interpretation is that you can park on them outside of any hours shown on posts, or otherwise outside school opening hours..some say outside of 10 minutes either side of start/end times of school day. To be honest though, regardless of the legal niceties a) if an accident happens when you are ignoring a legally purely advisory sign such as these lines, you will receive very little sympathy from a court if charged with reckless behaviour in some form, and b) they are there to protect kids by giving drivers clear lines of sight of pedestrians, so anyone who parks on them during the school day is a selfish, irresponsible **** IMO regardless of the law, and that includes parents who stop on them for 'just a moment to let little johnny get out' ... by doing that they are putting other children at risk. I was always grateful for the zig zag lines outside King Edward's when we were at the Dell, because people tended not to park on them in evenings or at weekends even though the school was closed, gate locked shut, and it was perfectly safe and legal to park, so left me a nice easy space.

Sounding suspiciously like you're slagging off Tory policy there Dune. Surely you're all in favour of the free market in schools, rather than propping up lame duck schools by forcing parents to send their children there, rather than to a better one down the road?

Don't think it is that recent. Of course it has got more common but I can remember my father when I was a kid remarking on the roads being busier in term time than in school holidays -- and I'm 57! I remember this vividly because it really surprised me at the time ... especially since I went to school on the bus! My kids are now aged 25 upwards and there was congestion and bad parking around their primary schools (when I walked them to school!)

There is indeed some appalling, inexcusable, driving and parking near schools, but at the same time anyone who buys a house near a school must realise what it is going to be like surely? It will be reflected in the price of the house. On the plus side it wil be quieter and easier to park in the holidays, than if there were houses there instead of a school. As for anyone who buys a house next to an alleyway near a secondary school .. certifiable behaviour!

Yeah I read that, but has he actually paid for it as a gift, orhas he formally lent the money, as Abramovitch did at Chelsea? Makes a big difference if he loses interest later. Putting aside all the recent nonsense about a largely non-existent and manufactured rivalry, and Adkins's perfectly normal managerial comments, I am genuinely pleased for Brighton fans. They've had a really tough deal for years. What is it -- 7 years in a local municipal ahtletics stadium after god knows how many years travelling to Gillingham for 'home' games? Brighton is a solid second division football club town. They should do fine in the championship. It's just a shame that they've spent such a huge sum on a fancy-looking stadium but still ended up with such a low capacity --even if they have a good run and manage a further promotion, they will never be able to support premier league long term on 22,500 max crowds.

I presume that was a joke --difficult to be sure with no smileys and some of the crap posted on here at times -- but Peterboro' claim they actually turned down £3 million, not a mere £2 million, from a premier league club, so presumably we wold have had to pay quite a bit more than £3 million, not £2,125,000. Can anyone confirm what is says in the article on 'thisisdevon' linked above ...could he play for us this season even though the transfer window is shut?

What on earth possesses you to post such obvious drivel? Indeed what on earth makes you trawl other clubs' chat sites to find such drivel? I am hereby starting a rumour that Man U are going bust next week. Please will any lurking plastics on here put that on their site?

I've had pillocks standing on the seats, right in front of my kids at away games ...admittedly some years ago now, but I have a suspicion that things have not changed much since.. and no way could they have gone to the front, out of my sight, in that sort of crowd.

Or maybe 'Roch' ?

Oldham's own website player profile has his dob as 12/12/87,so I'm not sure how their press release could get his age wrong, let alone Sibley. http://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/page/ProfilesDetail/0,,10337~39236,00.html Anyway, never mind his age, what is that tattoo on his arm? It looks suspiciously like he's got a club tattoo. Surely no professional player is that daft?! He's not tall is he?

Google "football hooliganism 2010" http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=football+hooliganism+2010&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=CGCLTaHcA5GbhQf2hdm4Dg There is a long list of media stories about hooliganism only last year. I've been to going to football regularly since the early 70's. I know things have changed dramatically since then, but like I said media and facts are not the same. The non-fan public's perception of football is what is shown on those links. And they are the majority of the voters in any election.

To clarify, the BBC site says (my underlining) Transfers - March 2011 The transfer window is now closed for permanent signings for the remainder of the season. Premier League and Scottish Premier League clubs cannot sign any players, on loan or full transfers, until the transfer window ahead of the 2011/12 season opens on 1 July. Clubs in the Football League can sign players on loan outside of the transfer window following a seven-day period after the transfer window closed on 31 January until 1700 GMT on Thursday, 24 March. Outside of the transfer window, any club may still sign players on an emergency basis (such as if they have no goalkeepers available) with the permission of their competition's governing body, for example the Premier League. Players who are out of contract and do not have a club can be signed outside of the transfer window if they are unattached free agents when the window closes. The transfer window does not apply to clubs below Blue Square Bet Premier level.

Surely we can borrow from anywhere. The restriction is on the borrowing club, ie we cannot get anyone after 5pm today if we want them to play this season ...no restriction on where they come from.

You appear to be confusing fact with politics and the media, and with all due respect you have not really taken in what I said. I did not say that there would be any more chance of trouble in a 'safe' standing area than in a 'safe' seated area, which is how you seem to have interpreted my post. What I'm saying is that at the first bit of trouble or the first injury in a standing area (or actually even anywhere in a ground that has standing) the media would have a field day. No individual minister, nor government collectively, will take that risk of political suicide. Why should they? There is no incentive for them to do so. There are no votes in this. However many people sign such a petition, and it won't be all that many IMO, they will be hugely outnumbered by the vast majority of voters who haven't ever even been to a game and see all football fans as thugs, and many of whom would cheerfully vote to ban all professional matches, or to prevent all away fans from attending .... something we came perilously close to in Margaret Thatcher's day.

No minister or indeed government will do this. If they did, the first injury or the first bit of trouble and it would be political suicide for them. The media would crucify them.

Have you never heard of the Adkins diet?