Sheaf Saint

FIFA confirm they are opening disciplinary procedures... http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=6/news=disciplinary-proceedings-opened-against-luis-suarez-2384766.html

Lesley King?

Gerrard will undoubtedly retire from England after this WC, which at least saves Roy from having to have the balls to drop him. Rooney, on the other hand, will continue to cling on in desperation like a massive turd that just won't flush away.

Well, well... where to start with that? I don't place all the blame with Hodgson. A chef can only create something special with the very best ingredients - Hodgson had Aldi's out-of-date cast-offs to work with. We simply lack any quality and pace going forward. All of our attacks were slow and predictable, with the final ball always hitting the first defender or going tamely to the keeper. Compare that to the pinpoint cross for Uruguay's first goal, and the outstanding finish from Suarez for their second. Had that chance fallen to Rooney or Sturridge they would have missed it. I really don't know where England go from here. It's clear that Gerrard should have retired from international football long ago. The last time I remember him having a great game for England was in the 5-1 against Germany, and that was 13 years ago. Rooney finally got a goal at a World Cup with the easiest tap-in he'll ever get. He just isn't the world class player everybody hoped he would go on to become when he was 16-17. Henderson looked out of his depth completely, as did Baines. Wellbeck offered nothing going forward and Sterling was largely ineffective as well. The only player who, in my opinion, gave a decent account of himself tonight was Gary Cahill. He made some good blocks and timely interceptions, and when Gerrard retires after this WC I think he should be made captain.

I really don't see how there's any way Lallana could retain the captaincy if he stays. It would be such a bad message to the rest of the squad to have a captain who has made it publicly clear he doesn't even want to play for the club any more.

It's almost as bad as people saying Holland, when they actually mean The Netherlands.

He sounded like he was reading the shipping forecast

Very poor from England. Just can't hit the target. Rooney's miss in the 2nd half was unforgivable for a player of his supposed class.

Dear god Phil Neville is a boring monotonous c*nt isn't he!

I know footballers live in a completely different bubble to the rest of us, but why on earth would Dejan be upset that the club are not talking to him about his future when he still has quite a lengthy term left on his contract? The time to get p!ssy about it would be as that contract draws to an end, not three years before. If he isn't happy with his current contract he shouldn't have f*cking signed it in the first place.

Oh wow, this ties in nicely with something I heard from someone else. Must be some truth in it then.

My daughter (first one) is nearly 4 months old now, and last week I had her for a full day for the first time while her mummy enjoyed a well-deserved spa day (a birthday present from a group of her friends). Having done that for just one day, I reckon my lass deserves a frickin' medal for dealing with it day in day out, but I absolutely loved it. I took her into town for a bit then we went out to the park for a few hours. It was challenging, because she chose the day I had her to do the biggest sh!t that it's possible for a 3-month-old to do, and she tends to get a bit screamy when we have to change her nappy anywhere other than at home. But it came totally naturally to me and I can't wait to get the opportunity to do it again. I admit though that it doesn't come naturally to all men, or indeed to all women. I often see blokes pushing buggies looking extremely uncomfortable, usually wearing chavvy-looking sportswear, giving off the "I hope none of my cool mates see me" vibe, and it makes me chuckle.

Don't forget to roll a couple of dice to see if you win a fight with Osvaldo before proceeding.

I think we have found a ready-made replacement free kick taker now Lambert has moved on. That was special!

This being the case we would definitely need another CB in the summer. Even taking into account the potential for Koeman to show favouritism towards a fellow Dutchman, I can't see Hooiveld ever fitting into that system.

Come on... that's far too reasoned and rational for this place mate.

Yeah I saw this. Given the competence record of companies like G4S and ATOS, this has to be one of the worst ideas that this Tory party has ever come up with.

Another horrific example... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/apostasy-woman-in-sudan-sentenced-to-death-forced-to-give-birth-with-her-legs-chained-9451088.html I really hate humans sometimes.

Maybe you missed my previous post about the likely effect of his GCSE reforms.

Any situation where one single government figure can be allowed to impose his own opinions on the entire sector for which his responsible, with the slightest hint of consultation with those who actually know what they are talking about, should be a cause of great concern to us all. If Cameron can allow his education secretary to impose his ideology unchecked on his department, then what is stopping him from doing the same with defence or home affairs? Imagine if Theresa May was allowed to introduce sweeping reforms to the justice system, based on her own opinions and without consultation. The British people simply wouldn't allow that, so why should we accept it when it comes to the education of our children? Gove's ideology is a danger to society, because his simplistic, statistic-based policies will leave an entire generation of kids feeling completely betrayed by an education system that has failed them.

This dependence on league tables is precisely my point. The progress I'm referring to is the recognition that kids are not just statistics; that different kids have different learning needs and require different approaches to their learning. Gove wants to undo all of that in favour of a one-size-fits-all approach, which may well improve the UK's literacy and numeracy statistics, but it will betray a sizeable percentage of school children who will not be given the chance to excel in other areas. The GCSE reforms are a key example. They were introduced in the late 80s in recognition of the fact that an awful lot of intelligent children weren't getting the grades they should because they didn't cope well with exam situations, so a different approach was required - one that graded them on their abilities on long-term projects rather than just how well they could prepare for a stupidly stressful situation that they would never face again in the real world. Gove's reforms have completely undermined this progressive approach, and will leave a lot of children completely disillusioned about their own abilities.

In a nutshell, he has stripped our education system of all the good progress made in teaching methods over the last few decades in favour of a return to Victorian teaching standards. The fact that he is still in his job after four years, despite overwhelming public opposition and the lowest approval figures for any education secretary ever, is a sick joke.

Forgive my laziness. I've been trying to avoid the forum altogether for the last week or so thanks to the hysterical nonsense about the board/Poch/Lallana/Shaw etc... and I really don't fancy trawling through ten pages of a political thread, because they always descend into petty name-calling and I have better things to do with my time.

I don't know if this has been covered further back in the thread, and I may risk looking a little naive here, but there is something about UKIP's recent success in the Euro elections that is bothering me... UKIP basically campaigned on a single issue - that of exiting the EU and limiting immigration. Farage himself has been extremely critical of the EU as a political organisation in the past, claiming it is a bloated, undemocratic beast that is not fit for purpose and drains Britain's resources rather than boosting our economy. He claims that too many of the people in power in Brussels are just corrupt fat-cats with their snouts in the trough and no democratic mandate to be in their respective roles. The very existence of his party is based on the notion that Britain should extricate itself from this behemoth and focus on supporting its own people. Why, then, does this party even bother to put forward candidates for election to the EU parliament? And why would people vote for them to participate in the workings of an organisation whose very existence is an affront to them? Farage is just as guilty of skimming from the EU as those he criticizes. The voting record of his MEPs in the EU parliament is agonisingly poor - case in point: Farage sits on the EU fisheries committee and in all the years he has done so he has only ever bothered to turn up to one meeting out of 48. He is just another fat-cat crony, pandering to bankers and city traders and taking a huge salary and expenses from the EU. Why would anybody vote for such a blatant hypocrite?