dubai_phil

Boo someone else nicks the thread I posted before we even kicked off the WC. Total Balls Up the football has been rubbish. Football is NOT about passing the ball 3 feet in EVERY game

And it was NOT based in Dubai. HTH

But why did Fry have to ask Leon????????????????????

Marc St David & St lee had a conference call with a supposed consortium in Dubai that they reported on the old forum Tricon I believe it was called. That was a long time before even the alleged interest from that Blackburn supporting ex-pat bloke and a long long time ago. FWIW like many on here at the time I did some digging and discovered that no Trade Licence existed for any such named company in Dubai. The contact was just a broker trying to get information to tout around locally the guys got conned. A similar event occurred closer to our Admin announcement - the broker in that case indicated that he was fronting up for Sultan Al Fahim (of course it wasn't worded like that - more like Very Successful Businessman from Abu Dhabi who has an excellent track record in investing in Premier League Football Clubs for Middle East Sovereign Wealth Funds - which narrowed it down a bit)

Wrong. NC never had any involvement in Dubai or consortiums or investment management. Recheck Wiki it was all on there

What happened on the Friday before the Charlton home Match in the Wilde Bunch Years is one of the key moments. Those with memories will recall there "seemed" to be battles between "The Execs" and "The Shareholders" which were well commented about. The Execs made a statement about the club not being fiscally sound and having to take decisions. The Shareholders and Fans reacted with anger AND the next day, the team put in the first of what became a number of dreadful performances. None of us knows what went on, the Bad guys were the Execs Hone Dulieu etc. In the Wilde & Crouch year(s) we had probably 5 different boards, Execs, non-Execs, MC, LM, each week it seemed a different Chairman. Again, that to me shows a problem in decision making and corporate strategy/planning. Wilde & Crouch recruited "Experts" and then argued with them and found they were stuck sitting outside and looking in. What would have happened IF Crouch had not come back in? Who knows, maybe Wilde would never have answered Lowe's phone call. Maybe Leon would have answered Lowes' calls, maybe Dave Jones would have won Euromillions, maybe I'd have met Charlize Theron...... The path to admin was set in stone though, our only way out was the PA Yacht takeover sailing in, and despite the best efforts of some of the greatest minds in the country (Salz, Seymour Pierce etc) and during the BIGGEST boom and Cheap Credit period in history, NOBODY came up with the cash to buy or invest in the club. No blame game, it was a series of events that led us to where we are now We were bloody lucky

This is a nailed on Dead Cert deal. The source is the same impeccable one that told us the Season Tickets were going to be 125 quid

But that was the real problem. He DIDN'T. It was like one of those old Hollywood Horror Movies, where the good guys win but forget to drive the silver stake through the Vampire's heart and you get "The Return of Lowe and another set of nightmares

Sorry, not going to join the love-in. Leon bought into the club by buying shares from other shareholders (not from the club). He then made a decision to vote to remove Lowe which led to the overspend during Burleys reign on a promotion or bust strategy. His 6 months in charge were populated with embarrassing Churchillian speeches and "Investment is Coming" as we sailed to our financial meltdown He was not part of Pinnacle, but joined the group by putting up their 500k. I fully accept that act ensured that the club survived, BUT in his own words, he did not pursue any Due Dilligence and that decision to me will always be tainted that in fact it was his attempt to remain a part of the club "and keep his hands on the controls of the train set". For a supposed succesful Businessman, he made one heck of a continuing trail of poor decisions. So yes, his money saved the club, yes his actions led to ML & NC coming in to buy the club, and so for that he has an important place in our history. But backing Pinnacle without at least checking on their source of funds? Come off it, he was in too big a rush to stay a part of the action. To me his poor decision making led to the BOTCHED ATTEMPT to remove Lowe, led to our financial demise and two seasons in league One. I will always believe that he made those bad decisions for Egotistical reasons, NOT business (ie The Club's) reasons. History will no doubt show that the nett result of his time in the limelight has been a good thing, being part of the journey of fate/karma/luck that led to ML. But we got here by Luck, not by design, and we were days from playing in the Conference through his decision making. I'm sorry but I will never accept he did what he did for anything other than Ego.

Lol as I mentioned on the other TV pundit thread, Al Jazeera seem to have nicked ALL the best pundits. (Apart from Trevor Francis who was awful) The only non-manager we have had has been Scott Minto but everyone else has been quality. Gus Poyet was probably the funniest, Glenn Hoddle the best at really drilling down at tactics, Peter Reid & Big Sam were also quality. We even had Graham Poll popping in from time to time. Haven't worked out whether their studio is in London or actually down here in Qatar. The latter seemed more likely as the guys pop over here to host different evenings at a local bar The reason? being Managers rather than aspiring TV celebs they probably know what they are talking about. I suppose purists would moan about "being the old generation" or "not in touch with the Yoof" The match coverage as I said before is also better, just the one commentator calling the game - the analysis is in the studio. John Helm does go on a bit about "what might happen" and how this could go to penalties, but then that was just copying Motty. I guess Sky or the PL global coverage company must have "rented" their commentators to FIFA for the internatinal ENglish Language coverage. Oh and the studio guys spotted Charlize (& Merkle) straight away but also made the joke that they were not experts on Hollywood. Only complaint we have is that the satellite signal itself remains patchy (they were hacked) and pixellated and that some games just cannot be watched on HD as the signal is so bad or the English commentary is full of static at times

NEXT Monday morning muppet:-) ie in one week BA 1:40am thingy Meanwhile I have to go to SMS on Monday afternoon to buy my shirt. Will the new machines take Dirham Coins?

Meanwhile, back on track. We all know that the club are sponsoring the extension of the runway at Eastleigh so that EoA & I can land there with Emirates for all the big home games. Also, as NC & ML are both Johnny Foreigners they are limited to the number of days they are able to stay in the UK or they have to pay UK taxes. As a result they will be building the new Monorail driect from the airport to the Stadium (It will be a temporary structure as they will eventually re-locate it to link the new stadium up with the Airport Free Trade Zone and housing complex at Jacksons Farm. All of which is to be announced at a press conference on a Friday

Nah that's boring - just join EoA for a day spotting airplane numbers - he's a huge fan of it, goes just about every day

Well played Paraguay, their coach got his tactics spot on, they just ran out of steam. Agree with Alps they should have been one up at half time Commentator cliche "The tournament will be relieved Spain are through) Santa Cruz - looked about two yards off the pace when he came on.. The Officials made mistakes so one less group for Howard Webb to compete against for another match

They've probably bought the Industrial Estate from The Coal Board Pension plan or who ever it is and in 2011/12 you will be able to have an installment plan for your season tickets as all the apartments they will build there to pay for the Jacksons Farm Superdome will come with a free ST. Or we've signed our missing extra CM (we got him as we were the only club to offer to play him in the middle) GoldenBalls Oh, & I'm with St Landrew on the "If it's big keep it queit" approach, that moment in the press conference when KK signed was a real fall off the chair one

That was an enjoyable second half of football. Good shout from Hoddle at HT who said Germany could murder them on the break Now this football malarky isn't that difficult is it, so how come THEY can play like that and we Oh

Lol We have an All ex Saints studio panel this afternoon - Hoddle, Souness & Dowie And not one of them has commented on the Philip Lahm signing as our new RB on Friday or was it Michael Owen.

:vuvu: Hooray at last a cure for Boredom. The return of the It's all gonna happen on Friday threads!

We've signed a current England player Emile Heskey as cover for RL? Our entry into the Swiss Premier League has been accepted and we're moving to Interlaken More likely we've signed some global partnership deal for the Academy to link up with let's guess? - a Brazilian Club

He's probably glad he isn't a Nigerian - would probably being 20 years hard labour by now on the orders of his President. Changing tack a little Stoke seem to have found a decent defender for their style in the Ghana CB Varson or someone, also glad they're out as I am sure John Helm was the agent for their Keeper, every 20 minutes in every game he kept reminding us he was Wigan's 4th choice and was looking for a new club

+1 I'm off home on Monday Night..... Business Class all the way for 120 quid, don't you love marketing bulls*t competitions

As WSS says above leave the driver at home. So you MAY get an extra 20 or 30 yards but it messes your positional play. If youa re leaving the ball shorter then simply spend your range time making sure you can nail 3 through to 5 Irons OR get your 3 wood & 5 wood working off the fairway. Have a golf lesson every 6 months and it will completely screw your game for 4 months before it becomes second nature - the MINUTE you start to think about your swing you are ruined. Over the years the following have been causes of my slices according to experts My grip is too far behind the ball, in front of the ball, too high on the shaft, too low. The club head angle is too flat too lofted. I'm breaking my wrists too early, too late, not at all. I am pausing at the top of the swing, I'm not pausing (Actually try that on the range at the top of the back swing mentally say AND before you start the down swing). The ball is too far forward in the stance, too far back, my feet are pointing left, pointing right, I'm too close to the ball, not standing upright enough... Fact is after playing regularly for 15 years down here I solved it by Using a 3 Wood for about 7 years, then using a 2 Hybrid and eventually now using a Driver. Henrik Stenson isn't a bad golfer and he hardly ever uses his driver! In reality, the slice is all about timing being a micro second out at contact with the ball caused by any one of those faults. Eventually it starts to work and then you get into a whole heap of new problem area. Nowadays I will pull a drive, snap hook a drive and slice a drive. But on the other 11 or so Par 4/5's I'll nail it, but it took time Golf is really about putting and chipping worry about THAT in the early days.

Lol at the debate. It wasn't fair, they got away with it. Well life ain't fair either. As for introducing hanging or whatever as an extra punishment during a game, at what level do you write the law? When a player is standing on the goal line? What if he is an inch in front of it? When he is the only player between the ball and the goal? There was another player all but on the line. Would you hang someone for a handball by the penalty spot? The problem with implementing these types of reactive laws is that they are still open for interpretation by humans. How often have WE seen games where the last man has done a professional foul and NOT been sent off? OR has NOT done a professional foul and HAS been sent off. It's a bit like reading the comments pages about "Rebuilding The England Team" in many of the online papers. Everybody tells you who Cappello must never pick again, but not one of them actually suggests relacements that could win an international match. The real culprit here is not the laws and the penalties, it is that poor Ghanian forward Gyan. He had had a damned good game, and he held the hopes of a Continent on his shoulders. He failed. Not the laws, not FIFA, one poor dumb footballer failed. That burden will be on his shoulders for the rest of his life, that when he was needed, he was a failure. Sod the laws, HE is the poor sod I feel sorry for, he'll be re-living that horrific moment every time he goes onto a football field and probably every time he goes to bed. No one person should have to suffer that.

Good grief. I wonder what football used to be like before CNN, Sky News, Sky Sports News and The Internet all started up

Lol... Just back from one of my occassional trips down to an area called Karama (home to fake watches handbags and sunglasses) and well known on the tourist route down here. They have a selection of shops that do sometimes sell interesting odds and ends - a 1000 Euro ski suit for $100 as an example. Anyway, their latest fake specials are Ralph Lauren Polo shirts by the ton, and guess what, yep in the middle of them all I found a range of ralph Lauren Polo shirts in our sash design. The "genuine fake fakes" actually have the US retail price sticker on them - US$85 and they are in the Umbro style. http://www.ralphlauren.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=1760809&cp=1760781&ab=ln_men_cs1_polos A similar version is on their web site but more blue trim on it than the ones here So, what to do, pay 40 quid for a shirt I will wear about three times or pay Aed 30 (about a fiver) for a decent looking Ralph Lauren Polo? No contest really, will be at the meg store Monday week