stevegrant

We owe Watford's fans team a return match after they travelled down to us last season, this game has been pencilled in for Saturday 8th June. Venue and kick-off time are yet to be finalised, but it's likely to be a mid-morning kick-off. If you're interested in playing, please let me know. If you're a newbie, please let me know your age, preferred position(s) and vague standard.

There will be a big firesale at Malaga this summer as they have massive financial problems so I'd expect lots of clubs to be looking at their players - we certainly won't be the only ones.

But that would involve someone else having already done the research for that "investigative journalist" to then collate and pass off as their own work.

Metro Bank (mainly in London but starting to branch out elsewhere as well) don't charge fees on overseas withdrawals and payments

Somewhere like Purley or Coulsdon are quite nice and are both handy for London Bridge connections via East Croydon

IIRC, we've only had one scheduled midweek home game this season (Norwich), plus one moved to a Monday night for TV (Everton).

By SFC standards in recent years it would be very moderate. I've had a £110 increase in each of the last two seasons, although naturally the rise in the level we're playing at has had a large impact on that. Last season, I paid £465 for 23 Championship games at £20.22 per game. This season, I've paid £575 for 19 Premier League games at £30.26 per game. While the actual rise for this season was 23.7%, on a cost-per-game basis it rose 49.7%. For many seated elsewhere in the ground it was an even bigger rise. It'll be interesting to see how people judge whether next season's ST prices are fair or not - would they judge them on the amount they've increased this season, or would they simply look at the price in isolation? Clearly looking at it from the angle of a 9% increase makes it look not completely horrendous, but then pushing it through the £600 barrier for renewals might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for some.

Of course it shouldn't, especially with a 50% increase in TV revenue next season, but the reality is that football clubs will do all they can to drain every last penny from the fans. For the most part, at the highest level, if one fan isn't willing to pay the going rate, there will be another one ready and willing to take their place. The only way prices will drop is if people stop going and attendances fall.

Straight to the top of the leaderboard of his most insightful tweets.

My renewal was £575 this season, I think... would expect a moderate rise to £600-625.

In terms of standard, it's not that high I would suggest that reasonable fitness is more important as we'll have 4 group games (15 minutes each), potentially followed by up to 2 knockout games (20 minutes each). Drop me a PM if you're interested

We're now up to 6, and one of them is a keeper!

This win takes us into 3rd place but now relying on Liverpool losing their remaining two games (away against Arsenal and Man United) for us to qualify for the final stage. If we do qualify, we'll play Man United in the semi-final. Spurs, having won the elite group, get to play the winners of the playoff between the winners of the two other groups (Everton and almost certainly Newcastle) in the other semi-final.

I've got a team entered in the aap3 charity 6-a-side tournament at AFC Totton on Sunday, but at the moment am slightly struggling for players (we can have a squad of 10 but only have 5 right now). It is an all-day event, starting from 10am. If you fancy playing, please let me know.

Also, Sheffield United would probably have stayed up at West Ham's expense that season had they not been allowed to get away with fielding an ineligible player (Carlos Tevez) all season.

He was decent for a young Championship centre-back learning his trade but I've seen nothing from him in the last year that suggests he's anything better than that. Brendan Rodgers obviously worked with him for a while when he was (briefly) Reading manager so knows him from there, but he's hardly the signing that's going to turn Liverpool into a genuine contender to qualify for the Champions League.

Watford away, June 8th

Just like Portpin was just Balram Chainrai's vehicle for loaning money to the football club?

Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss

When did you send it? I've got nothing in the inbox that's not automated going back more than a month

Couple of late withdrawals, if anyone else fancies a game, be at Fleming Park (football changing rooms are by the tennis courts) for 10am tomorrow

Just call him Big Nose, that'll work

What about those who spend the same amount getting to home games? Why should those who, for argument's sake, live nearer to half our away grounds than St Mary's reap the benefit of cheap tickets at the expense of others? Let's face it, if clubs are forced to reduce tickets for away fans, where do you reckon they'll make that money up from? Home fans.

This. The FSF campaigned for years to get the FA and the leagues to make it mandatory for clubs to charge away fans the same as home fans in comparable areas of the ground rather than blatantly ripping them off, and now they're happy to toss that away in order to piggy-back onto the fact that the league champions kicked up a fuss after they failed to sell their allocation for a game against one of their fellow "big 4" members. Empty seats at the biggest games (if Man City as a club were so concerned at the price their fans were being asked to pay, they should have bought the tickets they were going to hand back and just left them empty - not as if they couldn't afford the £60k-odd it would have cost them) is the only way the authorities and the clubs themselves will take notice, a petition harvests thousands of email addresses for the FSF and the clubs being emailed but won't force any sort of action.