Whitey Grandad

I think that's going too far, our defence was dreaming at the time. Mata was ambling back towards the midldle of the pitch and so were our defenders. If Mata had been one step further on he would still have been picked out and the result would have been the same. The problem was that our back four were not used to playing together in that formation and there were a lot of misunderstandings.

Likewise. I was thinking of going but then I had a word with myself and wiser counsel prevailed.

He wasn't knocked, he slipped whilst trying to turn because he was off balance having been caught in the wrong position.

A couple more thoughts on yesterday: I thought our game perked up a lot when Long came on and his first time pass out to our right wing set up our second goal. The papers today are full of Martial, even calling him a '£36million bargain', perhaps ironically, yet Graziano also scored two goals without the benefit of a gift. I wouldn't make too much of the lack of an offside decision. It was close and the sort of thing that only gets picked up on the tele and during the game nobody even noticed it, none of our players appealed at the time. What was more significant was our slowness in getting back upfield which would have made Mata's position more obvious. He was ambling back in a great big gap between Maya and José and one of them at least should have been more aware of him. He was obviously going to be a target as soon as we lost the ball again (yes JWP, this means you).

Exactly. At the moment it seems that we don't have a first-choice right-back, someone whose name is one of the first on the team sheet.

What annoys me the most is that this game was there for the taking and we just didn't seem to want it.

I thought so too. There were a couple of occasions when I forgot Tadic was playing.

There were a few occasions in the first half when Maya chose to turn and pass backwards instead of going forwards. It caught up with him eventually.

Thanks. About what time? I was at the game and have just got home and am going through the recording.

When was this? I can't remember anything obvious.

He was playing for Man Utd. There were several fouls today that should have been yellowed and that might have given us a few more opportunities later in the game. We lost because we backed off them in fear after the first 30 minutes and tried to fall back to ten yards outside the penalty area. That and another serious case of passbackitus blindus. The supposed offside was marginal enough for most to miss it. It worked in our favour when Pellè scored against Norwich.

Why would anybody need to leak this information? Any contract discussions would normally be kept private. I suspect ulterior motives.

Now you're being silly.

I meant to imply nothing of the sort and I'm surprised that you should have taken it that way. 'Everything that has happened since'? It would take an extreme leap of belief to lay the blame/credit for the creation of the state of Israel at the doors of the Conservative Party.

Not all clubs pay for insurance. The premiums are so high that they bear the risk themselves. I don't know if that's the case in this instance.

The 12th is s an estimate.

Different calendar of course. There wasn't a July or August when Julius was born.

I haven't used any of these words. Are you really, seriously, blaming the Conservative Party for the state of politics today in Israel/Palestine? I don't think you'll find one person on either side who would even think of that.

I would. They are much better able to cope than a window cleaner.

You are letting your prejudices run away with your arguments. The rise of Zionism and anti-Jewish Arab feelings pre-date the First World War and any British influence was very minor. The rise of the Nazi party was a far greater factor in causing the surge in Jewish emigration to Palestine than any letter from a Conservative Foreign Secretary operating in a coalition government with a Liberal Prime Minister.

Spanish unemployment is very high but to blame it on the Euro and suggest that everything would be ok if they could only go back to the Peseta is just grasping at a convenient scapegoat. These countries are doing better as part of a large monetary union than if they had gone their own ways.

The Arab-Jewish business has been going on for a lot longer than the Conservative Party. There's much that you can blame them for but laying the problems of the Middle East in with them is going way too far.

Good luck. Your intentions are good.

Ouch. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. Depending on the soft tissue damage he could be back early next year, but it's a big case of wait and see. I wish him a full and speedy recovery.

That's their fault for overspending and running a bloated public sector. As far as the powerhouse of Germany and France are concerned it's working fine. Spain, Ireland and Italy are all coping comfortably. The point about doing business within Europe is that you can have a uniform pricing structure across all countries. Can you imagine an Argos catalogue, for example, produced for every different country? I have a French bank account and I can use it all over Europe with no charges, it works wonderfully. We are in Ireland at the moment and I haven't seen any problems. They also use kilometres which seem much better.