pap

Hopefully not big enough for them.

Well, the timing is great from a Saints perspective. Nige not currently proven in the Prem, so hopefully not on their radar.

Terry is a great individual player, but many of his England team mates have had enough of him because of his non-footballing proclivities, such as chick-nicking and ye olde racism. Was apparently given the cold shoulder at the last set of friendlies. Would rather have a lesser player in a more united team.

Really don't want him to take Terry.

Ah, apologies - slipping into old ways, Bearsy. Many people are happy when you drop them a couple of e's. As for Game of Thrones, they start to mess with a few details in season two, but if they didn't cut some of it out, you wouldn't have the boning.

I lost my original but spotted one in a charity shop going for 50p Very funny book, although I didn't get all of it when I was ten.

The Greeks are apparently heading into new elections, having failed to form a national unity government. According to this Guardian article, some are concerned that Greece will run out of money before the June elections. I've also heard some commentators speculating that fresh elections will only exacerbate the chances of a resolution with the EU, saying that the nascent hard-left parties will get an even bigger share of the vote when the Greeks go to the polls, and they are resolutely against the bailout plans. Once again, it's a f*cking shambles for capitalism. Whole country messed up, parents putting their kids into care because they can't afford to keep them. I know, I know - the Greeks have brought a lot of this on themselves - spunking EU cash on swimming pools instead of the infrastructure work it was intended for was bloody shameless. Also not sure whether its equivalent of the Inland Revenue was entirely on the ball. On a pure debt front - I have a bit more sympathy; you can never get into debt if no-one lends you money. We're all assessed on our ability to pay back bills, yet somehow, Greece was able to borrow billions with no clear means of paying it back. It's a clusterf*ck of failures, basically. The Euro evangelists wanted the project to work so badly that they ignored the obvious disparities between various economies, and were blind to the fact that there will always be some that will wilfully abuse any systems you put in place.

Another article. Still nothing from LFC. http://whatculture.com/sport/kenny-dalglish-resigns-as-liverpool-manager.php

The missus would have been one of those die-hard Kenny fans, but even she's come around to the idea that he hasn't done too well. I can sort of understand the calls to give him another year, especially given our previous revolving door policy - but you're right - he hasn't made the most of the resources available to him - no matter what spin you put on it.

Most substantial thing I've read so far on the subject:- http://www.koptalk.co.uk/201205154458/Liverpool-FC-News/fsg-think-tank-advise-henry-and-co-to-replace-awol-dalglish.html Still not conclusive though.

The scary thing is people lap that sh*t up every day.

Rumours on twitter atm. Nothing more substantial.

Derek Acorah is in hot water over claims he has made.

Someone who works for one of my clients has the surname Fightmaster.

Well called, TopGun.

They will possibly subtitle him, as they did with the film Trainspotting.

Kenny is over in the US at the moment to explain the season's performance to the owners. Hmm. Will have talked himself out of a job by tomorrow, I reckon. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/14/kenny-dalglish-liverpool-owners-future

Just watched Game of Thrones. The show is now definitely starting to deviate on the details from the books, which means I now have to hold two very similar but slightly different worlds in my head, but it's to be expected. The books are massively long, have tons of characters and it'd take about ten times as long to do them all justice. HBO is covering a book a year, and they have ten episodes. They've done a really good job of containing the core of the story by fusing a few characters together. Classic example of this are the Tywin/Arya scenes. Not sure they ever cross paths in the books, but she definitely didn't serve as his cup-bearer. At this point, think Tywin is out in the field chasing Robb Stark. Arya served as The Mountain's cup-bearer. Nevertheless, it's a real smart move. Tywin is a major player in the books. The Mountain is a bit of incidental detail to Arya's story. Plus Charles Dance is a much better actor than the bloke who plays the Mountain, who I suspect was auditioned using a measuring tape. Tonight's ep? Very good. There's a clear shift on the nudity/claret slider into the claret section. Also, and in deference to Bearsey - Ygritte (the girl hanging out with Jon Snow) looks like a young, fit, Bianca from Eastenders. I know that sounds impossible, so please, dubai_phil and Bearsey - back me up here. It looked really good too. Nice contrast between all the different locations. There's a shot than pans over the ruined castle of Harrenhal which looks bloody stunning. Next few eps are going to be action-packed, I think.

Who will replace Alex McLeish at Aston Villa? (Guardian) Their rogues gallery is Hughton, Curbishley, Lambert, Martinez and Bob Bradley.

You are mental to suggest this for two reasons:- 1) Why deny yourself the entertainment? 2) At least if Joey is playing you know where he is for 90 minutes a week, sometimes more* *International weekends excepted.

Ah, c'mon. We can't go around denying democracy to people on the basis that they might not do what we want. Thought it was bloody shocking that technocrat governments were imposed on Greece and Italy in the first place, from a pure point of principle perspective.

Avram Grant has been relegated with two different clubs.

Surely got to be in the running for worst Premiership manager of all time. Got Brum relegated, was given the job at Villa and managed to turn a mid-table side into genuine relegation candidates. Might be a harsh assessment, as he won a trophy at Brum and I get the feeling that not all is well at Villa. Still, there's no way he can look at his work there and say that they're in a better place now than when he started.

I'd agree. I've long said that the problem isn't immigration itself, just the volume of it and the problems that bring. We've needed to catch our breath as a country for around 40 years now. We do need to move away from multiculturalism ( as used in the sense that Britain can support multiple, simultaneous cultures ), and start thinking about national unity and identifying the things that we share. That's impossible with an ever-expanding EU that creates millions of economic migrants every time a relatively impoverished country joins the European Union.

Deary me, don't suggest that big clubs might be interested in our highly successful manager. Hanging offence around here