revolution saint

To be honest I've given up believing any economic forecast from anyone - it's just guesswork, mostly representing some interest or another, and mostly wrong. All I know is that I have less disposable income than I used to have, things cost more, my pension is worse off and jobs are more scarce. I'll start spending more when I have more money and I guess that's what most people will do. I'd like to add that Dune can feel free to use this post as an exit point to froth at the mouth about those damn Marxists, or the book he read about Rhodesia once, or indeed post some funny youtube irrelevancies - in these troubling economic hard times he's the only thing that makes me laugh.

Fantastic! A Left Vs Right pointless argument. I've missed these so much - they hardly ever happen.

I think he'd be perfect for Arsenal and I'd love to see him go there. I reckon he'll probably end up at ManUre though.

Agreed, pre-season games are so far removed from competitive games that it's hard to make any kind of judgement.

It could also mean we're waiting on other clubs to get replacements in for the players we're signing.

The majority of the money the US owes is to US based companies so defaulting on payments only harms themselves. I agree though - sooner or later they'll have to pay.

Fair play to you, hope you enjoy the big day - and at least it's your day and not financially dependant on someone else. That's something to be proud about.

Never thought I'd agree with you but I ignore wedding lists. In many cases they're not necessary. My sister got married after living with her future husband for a few years, they decided to get married but there was nothing domestic they really needed so we were asked to chip in for their honeymoon instead. My Dad paid for the wedding and they got a free holiday. I can understand the tradition but in this case we were talking about two top rate tax payers; a solicitor and a senior teacher. Obviously I was happy for them but the decision to get married was a financial bonus for them.

The word "Like" is quite often abused. In the context you've described it's a redundant expression - there's no need for it. It's also used as a substitute for "similar to" as well which annoys me. For example, "steve de Ridder is like Chamberlain". Like is a form of approval, nothing more.

I think Bill Bryson wrote a book about exactly these occurences. I'm fairly sure that "fall" was used in England before "Autumn" was - America kept it though.

Absolutely and to be honest I'd much rather go for a player like Vossen than Jerome, Maynard or Sharp. The overseas market can be much cheaper and have more talent so it makes sense to exploit it. As you say, Vossen is exactly the type of player we could be looking at - would be nice to think there's something in it.

Jelle Vossen was mentioned on here earlier in the week as some kind of training ground rumour but I haven't seen it reported anywhere else. I guess the fact that we've signed de Ridder shows that we've been scouting the Belgian and Dutch leagues so it's not too far fetched. He would be a bit of a coup though and has been linked with Bolton and Fiorentina so probably a bit of a long shot. There's plenty up on YouTube that shows how good a player he is.

Insurance companies are blood sucking scum. Even the whole excess idea is a joke - I had my CD player nicked years ago when CD players were still cool and it wasn't worth claiming. Worst thing though are those sods proclaiming to be courtesy cars after you've had an accident when in fact they are hire cars that claim the money off the other insurance company. If you read the small print that's only applicable if the claim is settled within 12 months, otherwise you are liable for the cost. Gits tried to shaft me for seven grand, luckily I could prove I was mis-informed.

To be fair he did provide some pure comedy moments with his completely absurd pronouncements, who can forget, "That Butterfield, good kid, got a great future......"

Cheers - it did seem a strange turn of events.

Did anyone clear up the mystery about Guly and the no.10 shirt? If that's true and that number is vacant then it would suggest the club are pretty pleased with whoever they plan to bring in.

That's probably reasonable. I don't think we'll see too many teams winning away from home that much though. I think a lot depends on AOC - if he stays till at least January then I'd say we've a pretty good chance of play offs. If not then it's more like mid table. Famous last words but I don't envisage us spending too much time around the bottom of the table.....

Jack Cork?

No one is saying that though, are they? Some people think that accepting a makeweight that doesn't look like he would obviously improve the first 11 is grounds for debate. Doesn't mean they don't rate him at all, just that it seems strange that QPR would offer such a alledgedly good player plus cash for Puncheon. Not hard to follow that argument is it? Now get off your high horse.

Gomez did a great cover of Wichita Lineman. I also liked Dubstar's version of St Swithin's Day. Oh, and whilst I'm on a roll, Natalie Merchant's Space Oddity

Difficult to tell about Gorkss. He sounds like a solid, good champ central defender; good in the air, 100% commitment, not so great against pace and not so good at passing. That's Jaidhi, isn't it? You'd also have to wonder why QPR are keen to offload one of the mainstays of their promotion campaign. That said, I wouldn't be complaing but it doesn't look on the face of it as if he improves the first 11 much.

Well it even contains the typo of AOCs name so I'd suggest this is just a copy and paste job.....

Gotta love copy and pasting from football rumours!

Nope, I'm serious - I really don't like it. It's just an opinion and probably not a widely shared one but there you go.

I agree. This really winds me up when a player signs. You can argue it's essentially harmless except for the fact that some people start to think that players have the same emotional attachment to a club that a fan does. Obviously that's rubbish. Problem with that is that when a player leaves (or wants to leave) it's perceived as a betrayal.