The Kraken

If anything I'd say that Adkins was one of the last names on the tips of peoples' tongues as to who we SHOULD go for; certainly the major national papers were talking up a host of other usual names that get trotted out. Adkins didn't seem to be on the radar of anyone but SFC, who clearly had him identified as the number one target. You only have to look at the amount of fans who were "underwhelmed" to form a picture of how high up the pecking order Adkins was viewed as being; to say he was the obvious shoo-in is just a blatant rewriting of history to suit a particularly bitter agenda.

Of course it isn't Docker; even the staunchest anti-Corteseite could tell you that you're talking out of your arse with that statement.

Aren't WUMs supposed to be, you know, funny? It's sort of the point. Dalek is just a bit thick, and thoroughly tedious. Annoying people by acting like a complete bellend is a bit different to being a WUM.

Mr Lallana

Being as there's so much whingeing on this board, have some happiness in your lives. From 00.30, comedy genius from our best ever manager. Gaaafferrrrrr!

Most people do that. Unfortunately there are people like DellDays mentions who can't work out for themselves that there are shades of grey in every debate and therefore have to polarise opinion into bite size chunks that they can understand. Hence completely needless sh*t threads like this one, which prove nothing at all and go nowhere. Sh*t i just got suckered into the nonsense. B*llocks.

I don't disagree, it will have very little overall effect on most games. That said, I truly believe that it's the extent of how far technology should encroach on the game. Unlike rugby, tennis and cricket, football is very much a continuous game and does not afford the natural breaks in play required to analyse video evidence to come to a particular conclusion. Were it to be introduced, then yes it would improve the accuracy of decision making in the game. But I also believe it would ruin the game as a spectacle by making it massively fragmented, and therefore it would have a massively negative influence.

Absolutely agree. I totally agree with Cortese's sentiment of clamping down on the amount of freebies that went out of the club; but there are some ex-players (not many) who, IMO, deserve a free match ticket for life. As I've said, I'm talking of the likes of MLT, Franny, Jason Dodd, Lawrie Mac, Jimmy Case; like I say, not many at all. Also, one of the best experiences I had at the club was a day in the Ambassador's Lounge. Hosted by Lawrie Mac, he invites some of his former players to join him, give a little speech, basically regale about the old times. We've now lost all that, and I can't help but feel the cutting away of that history must have an effect on the dwindling hospitality we're seeing at the club as it's all becoming a bit too sterile (and I have done the hospitality since then so I have a basis in comparison).

Yes, why on earth not? That's of course exactly the same thing. Good analogy.

Yet again; what is the point in not bringing it in if the technology is there?? The penalties and offside issue is a completely different scenario; they would require a break in play to analyse the video replay and requrie a human decision to be made. Goal line technology would be made in real time and would not require an independent reviewer to make a decision on it.

That's true. It was a great achievement, no doubt. I'm not saying it can't happen here; of course not. But I think Everton qualifying for the CL qualification stages was very much the exception rather than the rule. I also think, with the way the Premier League is right now, that it's much harder to achieve now than it was then. Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea are a shoo-in every year with the finance they have at their disposal. The you have Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool duking it out for that 4th spot. Everton, Newcastle, Sunderland, Villa etc, are really fighting it out and would consider 6th place a fantastic achievement. The only hope we can have is that the financial fair play rules put the league on a more even keel. But, being as the Champions League clubs will always have that extra revenue, there is the danger it could have the opposite effect and that we'll always have the same 4 bringing in the big money while the other compete for the scraps. In any case, we're a world away from all of that right now. It's fine to dream, I suppose, but reality is a long, long, long road from here.

I think you'd be surprised at the amount of freeloaders and hangers-on there are within the game, at any club. That SFC decided to do something about it was, IMO, nothing bad. That said, there are some players who, IMO, deserve to afforded a free ticket for every single game from here to the end of time. Not many of them, but the likes of MLT, Franny, Jason Dodd, Lawrie Mac, Jimmy Case. Fair enough limit the number of free tickets they can have to 1 (and they should pay for any more that they want), but we should show at least some respect to past heroes IMO.

Everton have never played in the Champions League group stages.

Again; if the technology is there and can be easily implemented without otherwise affecting the game, why not do it? I'm yet to hear a valid answer for choosing to ignore available technology.

Yep. We may have billionaires behind us but we know they're not going to tip all of that into a fruitless endeavour to turn us into the next Man City. We are to be a self-sustaining club, which is exactly what we were under Lowe.

Yep, I agree with this, and I found parts of the article quite cringeworthy. The positives of it are that it is a lifting of the media blanket that seems to have enveloped the club, and a positive editorial written not by the OS or the Daily Echo. Added to the recent BBC article about NA, it shows the progression made by the club and that what we're doing is definitely being seen ina positive light. I just think the tone of it comes across as a bit arrogant and self-promotional. A bit too much "look at me, I'm great, I stung Arsenal for too much money but I'm still ready to roll my sleeves up and clean the bus up 'cos I'm that type of guy". It's reminiscent of "Just call me Mike" in our Saints go Wilde abomination. I don't mind Cortese at all, I think he's made a few silly small mistakes but overall has made a massively positive influence on the club. But I don't think thsi article will do him too many favours, particularly amongst the neutrals.

Being as I've probably been to around 25% games at St Mary's since it was built, that's quite a staggeringly simplistic suggestion you've just made, so well done on that. But well done for completely ignoring what I was actually saying, just to pursue your petty little point. By doing that you're effectively suggesting that because I haven't seen one yet, there will never be a contentious goal-line incident at St. Mary's, and therefore technology is pointless. I disagree, so now that we both know where we stand, I think we're done.

Just checked it, extremely similar records.

Why is St. Mary's the benchmark? And just because I can't remember one, it doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Or that it won't happen in our next home game. The notable cases we've all seen on TV (Rob green at Old Trafford, Lampard at the World Cup etc) are examples where technology would have instantly highlighted an error, so it's not as if there is no problem to fix. Of course it happens in a very small amount of cases, i don't think anyone is denying that. I keep repeating myself; but if the technology can be implemented to stop that happening, even in a minimal amount of cases, then it should be done. I've tried to answer your questions, so how about mine. if the technology is ready and available, and easy to seamlessly implement, why not do it?

I thought I did answer it with my opinion. I don't know how many times it happens every season. However, if there is a wrong decision just once every season, and technology can easily stop that from ever happening again, then why not introduce it? I don't see that there has to be a threshold for the number of wrong decisions before technology gets implemented. If the technology is available, and if it can be easily installed, I fail to see a valid reason why it shouldn't be. Unless you can provide one? EDIT: I'll make myself clearer to the fact of "need", as I clearly haven't done that yet. Can the game survive without goal-line technology? Yes, of course. However, if the technology is there (and I firmly believe it is), then it will clearly improve the game. Therefore, if it can be implemented into the game seamlessly and will reduce the amount of mistakes made immediately, then yes, I do think it needs to be introduced.

To flip that; if it can be easily introduced and works almost instantaneously, why shouldn't we have it?

If it's one wrong decision per season, and it can be easily eradicated with goal-line technology, then it's one too many.

As much as MLG is a pedantic tw*t, I'm pretty sure he wan't accusing you of that mate. Although it was a poor analogy to use, I agree.

Calm down; barely anyone agrees with the OP that they'd prefer to stay in this division rather than gain promotion.

The massive empty corners at Brighton's ground just look completely daft. They can't do anything to help the crowd atmosphere either.