dubai_phil

3 weeks away from the Command & Control Centre. Fantastic trip, while I was sipping Litres of beer for 1.20, visiting Salt Mines & Aushwitz, getting blown on Lands End and BBQ on Sandbanks beach, this thread managed to add something approaching 30 pages. Seems I can sit here happily and feel jet lagged AND smug this morning, looks like Their Corporate Compliance processes are what will come back and burn them and also, surprise surprise, the mess is starting to be shown to have spread far and wide with some red faces in the PL heirarchy. Add to that no doubt some of the previous previous and the shady dealings and owners, I wonder just HOW many people in authority sat up when they heard the few's QC said - "If you let HMRC win the club will die..." (MAYBE a lot of "people up there" actually HOPE this will happen - death is the simplest form of cover up - shame with a club though you can't just "fix the brake cables") Who really has skeletons still left in the cupboard? What other areas have they walked all over? What do Mossad and MI5 think of the old money laundering games? Arrogant fools get away with a great deal, but soomer or later they always upset one influential person too many. So far HMRC, the other PL clubs and now the PL themselves are showing they've been allegedly "misled" (yeah right). It is very difficult for a drwoning man to draw a breath when 30 or 40 people have their feet on your head to keep you under. They may get away with this one, but that looks more and more as if it will just mean a whole sucession of "Corporate Compliance" related court cases and continuing pain. AA is held in great esteem by the Insolvency Practioning world as being the one person that they collectively wish was gone. Glad he & PCFC found each other. Oh, and yes that beer WAS wonderful

Are they dead yet?

Definitely need a centre forward to cover for RL. Barnard is a fine forward but he showed against Reading that he isn't a ball wining holder upper. He got into great positions, and scored a really well taken goal. But a like for like replacement for Rickie he isn't, which means IF RL gets injured or goes to Celtic then we have to change our game plan. DC is useful and quality BUT he isn't going to win anything like quality ball in the air and hold it up against L1 lumps. So yes agree with Alps we need that forward. Wotto9n tried well and EVEN managed a step over during the Reading game, his passing was better than I have seen and he looked a few pounds lighter BUT he is our only CM cover. Don't like it we need someone in there as we won't get through the season without MS or DH getting suspended or a knock. Dickson on the left was quality great siging, and Butterfield looks to have a great delivery from set pieces and a solid RB with a good head on his shoulders. Young Double Barrelled looks a danger when he comes on so I think we need 2 more to cover CM & CF and I will relax a bit. We held Reading up until the subs came on, the youngsters like Doble (And God forbid) Pulis (lol) aren't up to it or ready yet, Martin looks solid with experience alongside and Taff isn't ready yet but looks the part. Damn it times up in the library back online Thursday y'all

Where can we buy the "I saw Pulis play at SMS T-Shirts?" Has to be up there with the lucky few who saw Claus (or Benali) score. He has a good head on him. He read the game and made sure he moved quickly to cover gaps spaces and angles. Seemed more mobile than Wotton towards the end. Damn shame he seemed to be covering space when we were attacking with the ball,..... Seemed to be a totally trained automaton with a total ability to be where the ball was not. Unfortunately, IMHO he wasn't the only one of the subs with that problem, young Doble managed the same trick of being in the right place at teh wrong time. Still What a moment, will dine out on that one for years to come.

Not sure if this was answered but I haven't5 been near internet for weeks I went to Mega Store last Friday I bought the GF her first shirt - luckily she fitted into an extra small mens size I asked the guy in the shop what had happened. He said - they did not know the exact numbers BUT they had sold MORE Home shirst in 7 weeks than in the previous TWO years, Somewhere between 12 & 13,000. Umbro themselves were caught out by the totally unprecedented demand and had no fabric in stock. They were working tor esolve the situation as fast as possible, but we both agreed it was fantastic. Their belief was that the take up is as much about the fact that people are now wearing the shirts more often and that because they don't scream @FOOTBALL SHIRT@ more a statement of pride in the club, we are seeing many more of them. I felt great walking up to the game on Saturday and seeing so many around me. So the cretins were the 12/13,000 mean and evil people who decided to go buy the shirts before a few of the not in the country types could get somebody to the ground. I'm smug - I got mine

Sweet I knew somethin that AA said or didn't say at the meeting was it - need to find the question that was ignored. Would love tor ead more but only so much pedalling I can do to power the windup internet here. BUT big news coming soon - a MASSIVE shock I now know why Alpine is so Grumpy all the time... Fecking European radio - Non-stop Europop. It's driven me suicidal & I've only been over here 6 days - Alps - you are a hero for staying sane so long mate - more on that when I find a reall connection

Been Soooo out the loop down here in rural southern Poland, only really have time to sneak a quick over view. Has anyone mentioned in this entire HMRC appeal thingy the reference to the actual minutes of the CVA meeting? IIRC at that meeting HMRC's rep asked one clear and specific question of AA - "please explain the way that you got to xxxxx figure" or words to that effect. AA then refused to answer the question. You have to love that one, AA HIMSELF caused the appeal simply because HMRC wanted an answer to a simple qquestion. AA didn't give it so HMMRC appeal to court to get the answer. That shows how useless AA is - that act alone was guaranteed to delay the ability of the new manager (now SC) to sign players. HMRC may or may not have grounds to win a court case about the whole Football creditors ruling, BUT AA handed them a "Appeal for free and no danger of losing" card Priceless. Once they get the answer to the question AA didn't answer, THEN they can appeal against THAT decision as well. This could last until Christmas

Yep, missed the obvious one A fit chick

In a nutshell. but then just about every country is riven with corruption, from the UK (being one of the worst - Old School Tie and all that) through Asia, Africa etc. The trick is to understand that it exists beneath every surface everywhere and not to be judgemental. As a particularly eloquent Bar Manager once said to me in Thailand - You English, you not born in hut by river with 3 family in one room and no electricity or education, why you think is wrong for girl to take money from Falang for sex? Bars in Thailand - the way for old retired Westerners to turn a nice pension into peanuts by buying one and being ripped off by the protection rackets fees and scams (Quote from the Aussie bloke who used to own Hollywood Carousel in Nana)

Pah, wait until you discover Fire Ants. Now THAT is a day you won't forget

Mistake. You should NEVEr go on a driving range to work things out after a bad round. If the basics are right and you are an average hacker it can be something as simple as rythm/timing that is off by a milli-second. I regularly shoot a 9 hole 55+ on a Monday and play the same holes on a Wednesday in 42 (or vice versa) it can be anything from a delay at traffic lights getting to the course to an annoying phone call. Once the fundamentals are there grip stance etc it is all about the rythm so never take a bad round out on the range - you'll just leave your next good round behind

Find that Top Gear special from Vietnam then follow their basic route by bus train or plane. Land in Ho Chi Minh City and head down to the Mekong Delta before turning north up the coast seeing Ho An Hue & Danang then Hanoi up into the mountains for the villages with weird big houses and then finish up in Halong Bay. End of. Oh if you like cheap beer then my current whistle-stop tour of Southern Poland is to be recommended. I landed in Wroclav and will depart from Krakow. I have no idea what I have seen or where I have been since I landed but any country that serves beer for breakfast deserves a mention

So, I go off on my hols and nothing happens again then. Are they Dead yet? Sorry smirk smirk. Got a txt msg about HMRC just as I landed in Wroclav, made my week so far. Never ever ever ever ever saw that one coming, same as I predicted 30,000 posts which this wind up radio internet thingy I'm having to use will miss out on that big moment. Merrily onwards for more Zubrowca and may the thread enjoy the climb to 50,000 posts

Just had a txt from EoA Apparently if Spain win they'll be the first team to win the WC without anyone with the letter Z in their name playing for them ever Apart from Zavi

Torres. Over rated, fat, slow, can't trap a bag of cement and can't even get in the Spanish team anymore. He's no good it was just that at Liverpool the other players around him were so bad they made him look a stand out. His goals were all just luck. Don't want him at SMS. Anyway, Paul the Octopus says he's off to Chelski to support Adam Lalana up front. We get Drogba in exhcange plus 8 mil

Hmm Saints fan working on laying a new pitch for another team... So just remember to dig out an old Saints shirt and bury it under the centre circle

Can't believe they've made it with what seems to be a round neck collar. Boo Now IF it had the England style mock polo collar could have worn that on the golf course and justified getting Home & Away, but now it will be one or the other in the Mega Store Monday

Boo - looks like another managerial c*ck-up.... So they completely messed up the planning of how to get the players to the training ground and had to resort to bikes. Why can't we afford a coach? What would Health & Safety say? highly valuable footballers (well apart from Pulis who luckily isn't there anyway) are simply NOT trained in the dangers of mountain biking along such a narrow pathway. What happens when they are tired. We could lose a star player for the season or worse through drowning! How could they get him out that river, the banks are so HIGH? Stupid, unprofessional risk taking, look how terrified that player is in the first picture. Everybody OUT

Stop it. Just remember the Skates may still owe us some money, so he still has a critical part to play... Pay us our money or we lend you Pulis for the season in a caring, sharing, neighbourly fashion

Wonder if they posted the videos I made of their set at The Boathouse back in May

Yeah that works Except that I am flying home on 4th August (phew!) Looks like I'll have to manage a pre-season friendly (Reading) Now I'm also flying back from the US overnight on 1st Oct and landing at 7:35am, and cleverly I am flying on to Dubai at 21:40 that evening (lot smarter than my trip out of here on Monday morning - I forgot about the WC Final being at 22:30 local - just the exact time I have to check in ), so all I need is a volunteer with a fast car to get me from SMS & the Bournemouth game back up to Heathrow.... And I get to watch us thrash LifelongCherrypip's mob :vuvu:

Hmmm not long to Oktoberfest and the Blonde German Wenches clutching 8 Wonderfully big glasses of beer with those serving wench tops on their dresses... Oops meanhwile Any spot Michael Owen on the flight today?

I know this threads been going a long time, so long infact that I can't remember if it's Pantomime Season yet.. As in Oh No they've not....

Ah yes the Singapore Bird. Makes you then wonder (based on the laws of probability) how many millions of TV camera crews are standing in front of animals in various parts of the planet trying to to find the next psychic. Discovery channel must be doing their nut that there are 300 camera teams parked outside Meerkat Manor. (Or were they Pepsi Advert Camera crews?) I dunno, get all my animals mixed up these days since The Muppet show stopped being on TV here and went on the forum instead

Think you're on the wrong thread mate - monkey chicken petting zoo is 5 threads below this one HTH