dubai_phil

Oh great couldn't get on to here last night and it's taken me 15 mins to get onto here again tonight. Well as I may only get one post. We had a massive sandstorm today. 28C so hotter than usual and quite warm tonight The sand has got into everywhere, laptop coated in it I'mn guessan our newbie will enjoy his day out, good to see Bart getting a game in the League.

Might have missed the first part of the selling club conversation out in that summary... OK, yes? You want to buy one of our players? You're offering 2 million? OK sounds good, so how much are you intending to pay up front? Oh. Yes, OK, so you want the whole deal to be down to appearances in the Champions League and International appearances, have I got that right? Oh. Look, I'm sorry, but based on appearances for which National Team? Oh. No, look, I'm sorry, I don't think you'll find that XYZ is actually qualified to represent The Maldives in the European Championships Oh, look, can I get your number and give you a call back?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8291470/Egypt-and-Tunisia-usher-in-the-new-era-of-global-food-revolutions.html OK so dear old Ambrose has been going on and on about the end of the world for ages, but he sums up the bigger picture quite well. Somebody somewhere has to start to think about the food supply. And this part of the world, well, the dominoes are falling but be worried, this is a scenario that was foreseen some years ago. Our friends across the water in Iran will be exerting their influence and pushing the Religious Autocracy line. Yemen next? Who cares? apart from the fact that the nutters will get an even freerer rein, but the Shia edges of Saudi, hmm now they are getting twitchy, and where is most of THEIR oil? Well done Tony & Dubbya, you removed the only real barrier to Iranian influence and a lot of people told you so. We're left to HOPE that the (well organised and funded) loony factions do NOT get a toe hold in these countries. Could be a lot worse than messing up a few people's vacation plans

And, let's be blunt, we got rid of players from the squad who simply weren't good enough for our first team

If only it was quite that simple. Down here when the Dbase freezes I get a mixture of a Dbase error page and then an Etisalat "This Site is Blocked Warning" Our internet is censored and Proxy Filters scan for repetitive "improper" searches - ie if you keep hitting banned sites they can your internet connection and ask you lots of unpleasant questions. So, yes it is more than a mild inconvenience

Ah bless, we mgrate into The Cloud. A minor issue, better check a couple of points with your lawyers Baj... with regard to liability and more importantly Jurisdiction. (There are thousands of articles & pages linked to this out there in the world) Don't want to be held liable for data theft or some disgruntled reader suing you for libel and finding the host in China isn't covered by your insurance. But a wise idea to move

Keeping AL & AOC grab the attention, but the really interesting "Statement of Intent" was our ability to turn down an offer from a PL team for a youngster who hardly plays and who many on here assumed we didn't really rate - Aaron Martin. Clearly the management have seen something in him that bodes well in the NPC, and yet a young lad unable to get a game in L1 isn't flogged off at the first time of asking. It could be argued that keeping AL & AOC is actually a financial decision, both are likely to continue to learn and improve during the rest of this season, and with promotion they will have added significantly to the asset value of the football club. Also AOC has gone from "Youth Team" to 10 mil in 6 months, so with another 4 months of football could add another 6mil to hi value. All of that simple speculation is wiped away by the fact we kept a potentially promising 21 year old, that shows it was startegy not financial. Happy days, now FFS go get us 3 points tonight

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Oh and how did Glasgow Saint end up pnwing you? Time do do something more interesting, think I'll watch pictures of lots of people standing around in a big square in Cairo doing nothing

It must be really cold, dark, wet and lonely up north at this time of year, we can tell

And I'm sure I heard Sky News say Holloway has taken Andy Reid from Sunderland to replace him...... PMSL Oh and on the Forte being loaned out argument, think you'll find by the criteria of that argument we don't rate Adam Lallana then, he went out on loan....

Obviously watched by large audiences in the Eastern Part of Hampshire

No panic, we could always (for example) loan him out after the window closes with an option to buy for 50 quid and charge a 250k loan fee Sort of thing Beattie on loan from Rangers, that would work if he could be kept out the nightclubs

Big lesson from the match, keep an eye on the amount of beer drunk by your GF if in the pub absorbed in a game... She's still hung over two days after We learnt that PL reserves have just a couple of inches of extra pace on the ball, hence so many mis-timed tackles (not defending the referee in the 2nd half BUT TV here did show it) We learnt that we are a good footballing side and that when he has time on the ball MS is class. We learnt that Harding & Butterfield are much better FB's than we give them credit for and have seen in a Saints shirt for a few years. We do not need to fear anyone IF we approach a game with energy & vision. PL teams will always convert chances to goals better than lower league opposition. We feel good and confident and now have to add the focus to go onto the pitch in our away games with that battling approach to "Win the right to play football" We also learnt that, yes, on balance it WAS good that we had the distraction of a big cup tie, but that we await with some concern whether we can take it forward into the game tomorrow

Oh, here's another idea of what to do in Newquay..... Fly to any of these destinations from the airport Bristol Cardiff Cork Dublin Glasgow Isles of Scilly Leeds/Bradford London Gatwick Manchester Newcastle Went there on a mate's stag about 7 years ago, we had a good laugh, drank too much, but after working out the cost & time of the travel down there, what we spent on food & beer & B&B we discovered we could have gone to Prague for less.

Drink too much & then vomit HTH

Just goes to show that there is always a new career choice for former PL club officials

Hahahahahahaha..... Chinese TV showed pictures of their new fighter in action. And it was from Top Gun! Bet the Producer's enjoying his new home in the local Nick http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8291729/China-red-faced-after-footage-of-new-fighter-was-from-Top-Gun.html

OK there was a lot of talk some time ago about the PL playing matches overseas. This evening the egg chasers beat Soccer to it by holding an LV Cup match Wasps V Harlequins in Abu Dhabi. Match was staged on "Man City's" training pitch at the Emirates Palace, a temporary Grandstand and standing, tickets were 18 quid to stand & 36 quid to sit. I (of course) only went because I blagged a freebie VIP/Dignitary ticket from a mate. Crowd of around 5,000 - all knowledgable Rugby "fans" from around the world - and Sky (who had thrown the kitchen sink at the event), but most important there was probably no more than 80 or so TRUE fans of either team who had come out to watch. And it was soulless bilge. Honestly, I've heard more atmosphere at a Sports Centre Cricket Match in the summer than at the event. Organisationally, the floodlights were poor, the "Whip up the crowd" DJ had no idea what was going on, no scoreboard, no announcements, Quins won but no idea still what the score was. My point is that these things (like the PL Abroad idea) are a Marketing Man's dream, but the players weren't on their top game - how CAN you get worked up when the only sound is the cash registers in the bars and people answering their mobiles. I'm glad I was able to watch a proper game of Rugby, but at this level, sport HAS to be about passion and atmosphere. The idea of travelling to Abu Dhabi in a few years time to see Man City playing Bolton just fills me with horror. It must NEVER be allowed to happen. Rant over, I'm sure Sky have been bigging it up all evening, but it was krap. If ANYONE in Football ever tries to re-create the idea, find them and to be honest duct tape their mouth shut. It sucks ps hope the lad stretchered off in the first few minutes is OK looked really bad and this place is a long way from home if he has to go to hospital

Lot of trouble in RB2 last night.. Trying to carry A out & into a taxi about 1am :

Luckily Portsmuff dug up it's airport so no need to worry

Fair point, but also as Viking says, many people would shudder at the thought. One example is my Mum who we took to Bangkok for NYE some years ago. Perhaps she had grown up in the Danny La Rue/John Inman "Camp" era and her first reaction at seeing the Katoeys in Patpong was one of horror. Eventually she understood better, once things were explained better, but she remanied really uncomfrtable. I also went with other Brits who simply refused to even enter one of the bars where they worked. So I was (in the purposes of debate) as Benji put it, I asking how our posters would react. Never mind, the moment's gone.

Yopu are having a laugh surely Souness Allardyce, myself and the pub all thought Harding ran Chaplow close but was our was MoM & IF he had a right foot he could have scored our winner

Yes it did. Except Manure looked like the L1 team for ,uch of the game

Just back from the Pub. fingers aren't working properly so apologies Wow. Coupled with a Holy Sj1t at half time. To quote Souness & Allardyce, WE played manure off the park in the first half, PLAYING FOOTBALL. Sad that Dickson made the mistake that led to their winner, but if ANY idiot thinks that our performance will detract from the League - sorry, bollix, we just gave SAF an almighty scare. Like others have said, VERY proud of our boys tonight, for an hour WE looked like a PL team. And respect to the plastic Mans down here who came up after the game and said Well done to us