Crab Lungs

Have to defend Bale on teh first goal. Whilst he allowed too much space between him and the defender, the clearance before hand was absolutely diabolical. Agree with you about Delph, he was absolutely superb. He's got everything and should be a future England international in the future... but he might have to do the traditional step down to make a step up.

Brilliant call... to be honest, I actually always prefered him over Shay Given!

Have to say, I think I made a bad call on Owen... which leaves one space free for one of my stand by's...

He's been awesome for the past 3 seasons IMO. :-) While we're on the subject on England... can I just underline how much I hate Jermaine Jenas?

Wayne Bridge was never the same after his injury. At Fulham he did OK but when he returned to Chelsea, he looked like he'd lost more than a yard of pace and alot of confidence. At City he's got even worse. Sadly, it looks as though his best days are well behind him now. Gareth Bale, however, has far, far more potential than Wayne Bridge and is of course, much younger. Redknapp's stripped him of confidence completely and you can see that in his performances. A move to a club where he would be encouraged by the manager (Hodgson, Pulis etc) and not pillored would invigorate him. Bale, for me, still has the ability to become a world class left back/wing back/winger - he just needs an arm round his shoulder and a manager who believes in him. Whatever you think of Burley, he gave that to Bale - as he did to Kenwyne Jones. Who remembers Kenwyne's dramatic transformation from League Two clogger to Premiership potential? It was almost overnight... I remember watching him the weeks before the Birimingham home match and wondering if he'd ever reach beyond 'raw' - within a few weeks, he did. Touch, movement, heading, shooting - everything suddenly all clicked into place. I guess what I'm trying to say is ... don't write off any raw but naturally gifted footballers. On the other hand, I actually think Theo is far more of an athelete than a footballer - and it still shows. He's still got far more developing to do as a footballer than Bale, Jones etc..

Poor old Storrie-teller.... going on holiday whilst this colossal bugger-up of a football club sinks further. Something tells me he's sensed the **** is about to hit the fan and he's doing a runner...

Haha, I agree. Never rated him.

Take Jamie O'Hara out and I honestly think there isn't much to them. He appears to be a bit of a driving force...

Just wondering also whether there will be the late panic in the papers around April time saying that the stadia 'isn't ready' and SA's football association has been thrown into turmoil - with the FA ready to step in (roll eyes!) and save the World Cup! The of course, nothing ever materialises... because it was all ********.

http://caroline4gosport.co.uk/your-local-candidate/ cracking video.

been maintaing for a long time we'll get to the final - but we'll lose. Something bugs me about the Italians... i think it might be them who we face and lose 2-1 to. Spain will go out in the QF's. Mystic Lungs has now finished his reading.

:-o

Can we have a 'keywords/phrases' watch? Let's face it 'gate' 'group of death' 'nelson mandela' 'apartheid' and 'colourful' are all going to be maxed out in Summer 2010.

I think we'll get a decent return from the next 8, but I would expect some surprise results! Probably lose at Colchester and win at Leeds - which will keep us all guessing!

Wow, some really, really interesting stuff on here - I concur with many who have said so before me! OK, for today's poser: What if ze germans had developed and succesfully piloted a jet fighter by the end of 1940? Would that have made a significant difference post battle-of britain? would that have enabled them to turn the tide back in their favour?

Cueta and/or Melilla?

Had a weird side-conversation to this thread yesterday regarding another wayward, but nonetheless interesting subject. What if Spain seized Gibraltar and GB declared war on Spain after exhausting all possible diplomatic avenues? Reason this came up was that I work in Spain and I wondered what would actually happen to me and all the other expats out here? I'm hoping we wouldn't all be rounded up and moved to Benidorm to be imprisoned :-(

I have to say, apart from Corp Ho's incessant bull****ting - his retort was actually quite funny... er, well I found it funny, anyway "tractor driving pony fiddlers"

Kingsland Codger - thank you so much for all the information, it's going to prove very useful! I'm back for Xmas so if you're in the platform tavern for the Exeter game I'd love to hear a bit more first hand, if thats OK? :-) and Stevo, ha.... I've flitted back to 'emos' now...

Oh jesus, that's awful - I never knew that! Putin, to me, has always came across quite well though I've spent very little time paying any attention to Russian politics, so that's perhaps why I am a bit out of touch So, what is today's 'point of divergence' !!!!???

For those of you who fancy a stab at changing WWII history... http://www.direct2drive.com/8323/product/Buy-Hearts-Of-Iron-III-Download Hmmmmmmmmmm, as for the Falklands, I'm not sure what would have happened SS - can anyone else elaborate on that conflict?

Cheers, I've actually got the book at home in the UK but haven't read it yet! Read quite a bit of alternate WWII fiction, A Thousand Suns by Alex Scarrow was quite chilling, and it definitely ties in quite well with the 'what if' genre

OK, it is a 'what if' then... As for Sealion... the window of opportunity for the germans was very, very short. They simply had to win the Battle of Britain to stand any chance. I'd imagine that they would seriously have to reconsider helping the Italians in North Africa/balkans (might be wrong here) and pooling their resources from their other operational theatres (Barborossa etc.) It's still bizarre as to why Hitler stopped prematurely when they could have blitzed BEF/allies at Dunkirk... some believe that had we been routed, we might have never recovered and would have paved the way for an invasion soon after by paratroopers on the UK mainland. That said, the germans would have also have had to established quite a naval presence/invasion force in the channel too to follow up any invasion by air. In fact, they'd proably have to dominate the channel to counter the RN.... no mean feat if achieved. Would that have been possible? (I'm assuming if they had taken control of some of the french naval vessels it may have been possible?) How far would the germans have got, assuming they had total control over the airspace of the UK? Would they have only been able to establish a beach head and nothing more?

Was engrossed reading an alternate history forum the other day - all the possibilities, theories and opinions from a broad spectrum of knowledgable and some not-so knowledgable people. Regardless, it was an entertaining read which really left me wondering "what if" - so I wondered if anyone else had contributed or was at least interested in 'alternate history' theories? http://www.alternatehistory.com/ http://www.atomicarchive.com/Example/Example1.shtml So, without further adieu, the first 'what if' - and serious answers only please - what if, say, terrorists deemed Southampton an easy and viable target and detonated a stolen russian nuclear bomb (50kt) in the city, say outside Fawley PP? What would our government response be? How would the local emergency services counter-act this? What would be the response be from the international community, in particular the United States and our 'allies?' What would be the damage and casualty count be? What about the fallout? Where would citizens be evacuated to? Of course, thankfully this is only for hypothetical reasons but I'd have to wonder exactly what would happen if it were our city? If that is a little too 'close to the bone' then I apologise, but after reading a myriad of interesting and varied responses from that forum, I know there is plenty of intelligent and 'clued-up' posters on here who could give an equally measured and realistic explanation of events as they unfold :-o Don't know if I've broken any rules here with this topic, though I have skimmed the forum guidelines and couldn't find anything which indicated that this topic is a breach of forum rules, though delete this if so. Morbid topic, but genuinely curious...

Wow, thanks for the help everyone, amazing stuff! There's a few places I want to go to (Shinjuku, Roppongi) plus I'd like to somehow make my way to Hiroshima for obvious reasons. Has anyone ever been there before? Plus, are the rumours true about "Love hotels", sleeping capsules at train stations and of course, train groping? I'm not a gal but does this seriously, honestly happen!? :-o Japan has always romanticised me by it's wayward, somewhat unique culture - don't know what I'm going to do for food though - can't imagine me living on fish for a couple of weeks! :-o As for karoake - I hope you're wrong about expecting me to perform - unless they want a really bad rendition 'Matt Le Tiss - gets the ball and takes the ****'...