pap

I've used http://www.hahasport.com before. Game is listed on there.

Very good shout from the people who recommended, seconded and thirded that Dawes album. As promised, I played a track on the school run this morning - "A Little Bit of Everything". Juvenile Unit #1 said "that's alright, actually", which is about as positive a response as is possible from a sixteen-year old.

What dismissive boll*cks. If you want to prove Andy is king charlatan when it comes to know-it-alls, defeat his arguments instead of calling him names, or a child.

Quit the drama, Sergei. Man Utd would have survived the loss of Rooney just as it would have survived the loss of other 'irreplaceable' players, such as Beckham or Ronaldo. Manchester United could have said "no".

I completely agree that both Terry and Rooney exploited the media and their clubs to get better contracts. What I'm not so sure on is why clubs kowtow to those demands. Take Rooney as an example. Ferguson could have gone on TV and said that Rooney was a greedy chancer, and 90% of the football supporting world might have agreed with him. Rooney on form is an amazing talent, but he's not irreplaceable - especially for a big club like Man Utd, who can essentially pick from the world's best. Chelsea should have had a Terry-replacement in yonks ago. United and Chelsea made short-term decisions that are going to hurt them in the long term. They've caved, and any other player who believes he is irreplaceable will look at those incidents as inspiration for better terms. No-one forces a club to sign a player or negotiate a new contract. Blackpool had the right idea, imo. Long-term thinking that gelled with their situation. I can just about understand why Man Utd might have caved in on Rooney, but I'm amazed that Chelsea haven't got a hungry understudy breathing down John Terry's neck.

Hehe. I read the UI version earlier this week. Good banter, nice to see.

And how does that help exactly? You keep telling us that Andy is inexperienced and not entitled to an opinion, and yet you are decrying him on an "Internet mong board" ( to use the Turkish parlance ) in the manner of a primary school student. "I don't like him. I like him instead"

To be fair to the bloke, I think he has the courage of his convictions. He sees these places as somewhere you can drop onto, take the p*ss a bit - and that's fair enough. But there's a fine line between the deft put down and the endless tedium which seems targeted at one or two posters. He could learn a lot from Jonnyboy. Just sayin'.

As I said, just curious. Which bit? I can't really take the p*ss. I grew up in Violet Road.

I only said 'A' because it'd be a laugh. But seriously, there are two outcomes here for Portsmouth fans, neither of them that bad. They either find a buyer that is capable of buying the club or settling the debt, or they become AFC Portsmouth and fight their way up the leagues. Over the long term, either situation is better than what they have now. You only have to look at AFC Wimbledon for the inspiration. I think the poster makes strong points and backs them up. I do have sympathy for the Pompey moderates, but equally, it would be a laugh to see their more venomous adherents get a taste of their own medicine. If they do end up doing an AFC Portsmouth thing, I'd have no problem going to a couple of games in solidarity.

Are you a Sotonian, Turkish? Just curious, like.

Deeply disrespectful, on a human level if anything else.

I don't think anyone is being held to ransom. The clubs have the ultimate say in whether they sign someone or cave in to contract demands. Most clubs do, but not all. Look at what Blackpool did last season. As a new entrant to the Premier League, they would have been a prime target for avaricious agents. Yet they relented, got relegated, but have a crap-load more cash than they did before, plus a couple of parachute payments to prop up future promotion charges. They played an absolute blinder in terms of their long term financial health, so I think you could argue that clubs aren't held to ransom. Most of them are just stupid enough to pay it.

To be fair Sergei, footballer's wages didn't rise in a vacuum and couldn't have got to where they are without people willing to pay them. There are many reasons that football is facing hard financial times. Footballers are part of that problem, but a lot of other people had to say "yes" for the wage rises to happen.

Listening to this now. Rickie's piece was very good - the interviewer asked some very good questions, such as whether there was ever a time that Rickie didn't think he'd make it to the Prem. Good podcast, which I didn't know existed before. Thanks for the share.

You say that like it's a good thing.

The food was edible, but they at least tried to incorporate a few British sensibilities. I can remember when Burger King and McDonalds opening was a big deal in Southampton.

I don't hate Pompey as much as the rest of you, but feck it, A - it'll be funny.

You ate a Wimpey home? I miss Wimpy burger joints, even though I only went once a decade and they were always crap. But in a quaint way.

Did a large percentage of these off-the-rails moments happen in Jesters, Plymouth?

My off the rails moment was much earlier than that, so perhaps the genuine midlife crisis is about to begin, or indeed, already happening I'm in the danger zone, age-wise - and I did buy a 5 series a few years back.

If you're ever over in the Western part of the US, you should check out the In and Out Burger ( referenced in loads of movies ). Complete opposite to McD's - they don't freeze anything and all their burgers come from local herds.

I have checked out that Dawes album - about six listens clocked up. I shall play it in the car tomorrow, and we'll get an idea of whether it's old man's music or not.

I had a pretty early midlife crisis ( mid 20s ), probably brought on by having kids so young. Split up with the missus, moved into a shared house with my mates, and went off the rails for a good three years. Although I still saw a lot of my kids, I feel guilty about the crap I put them through to this day. I would therefore echo Twentytwentvision's warning about the complications of kids being involved. Ms Pap and I have been reconciled for 8 years now, but whenever she refers to the period of time when I was not there, I invariably feel a shudder of shame for doing the offs. Think long and hard, mate - especially if wee ones are involved.

I've done nothing but C#, SQL and Javascript for the last 9 years. Was a Perl/Unix boy before that (and still may go back - the sort of awe you can inspire with a one-line piped command amongst juniors is worth it). My experience to assembly was limited to simple stuff ( parity checking, etc ) on the x86. Funnily enough, those 6502's are everywhere now - a mate of mine was doing embedded stuff for them - there is good money in it. Never did anything as hard-core as writing games. /bows