stevegrant

Who would qualify, though? Looking at their squad list, there's only 7 who would be eligible. Two of those are Garry Monk and Alan Tate, who are very much reserve centre-backs (10 and 2 starts this season respectively), Kyle Bartley has been injured for most of the season but is supposed to be quite a prospect, Luke Moore has only 3 starts up front which then leaves three midfielders, Leon Britton, Nathan Dyer and Wayne Routledge. Britton has featured in most of their games this season, but I think most would accept that he's a lightweight and not-quite-as-good version of Michael Carrick. Dyer hasn't been anywhere near as good as he was last season (cup final performance aside), and I don't think Routledge has done enough to deserve a call-up. That said, Chamberlain's barely featured for Arsenal this season... For those rubbishing the Carroll selection: people want an alternative to the short, nippy "finisher" type attacker, with a view to shoehorning Lambert in there somewhere, while Carroll - who already has international experience and a goal in a major tournament - has been in good form in the last couple of months. That selection makes total sense to me.

I've also heard similar. The club sent out a marketing pack to some hand-picked companies at the start of the year which contained a cleverly Photoshopped image of the team celebrating in a kit with said company's logo on the shirts...

Newcastle are going to be sponsored by Wonga.com, aren't they? Those Liverpool change shirts

No, he's been arrested on SUSPICION of rape. Fundamental difference.

I suspect "only saleable asset getting caught up in potential off-field scandal" would have been pretty high on any "what else could possibly go wrong?" list drawn up by QPR this year

While I've already stated my position, I will add that people seem to think that our back-to-back promotions to the top flight were some sort of unheard of miracle when we're not even the first club to do it this decade. As admirable an achievement as it was, Norwich did exactly the same without needing to convert £33m of injected funds to equity.

I've not voted - as with so many things, I don't think it's a case of black or white, there's a murky shade of grey in there which largely represents where I stand. While I fully appreciate the good work that has been done over the last 4 years, particularly on the pitch, I don't think the club (or the Liebherr Trust) should be held to ransom (if indeed that is what is happening - we simply don't know for sure) and I also believe there are many other people out there who could do a similar job and even improve on things in the future. No one person is bigger than the club, so if Cortese did bugger off I'd say thank you for the many good things he's done, **** you for the many (much more minor by comparison) **** things he's done, and look forward to the club's next chapter. Should Cortese stay? Yes, if it's in everybody's interests to do so. If it's not mutually beneficial then a parting of the ways is probably for the best.

We're only worth what someone is willing to pay, and if someone is looking to make money from a football club, we're probably no longer a "great prospect" as the vast majority of the required investment and development has taken place in the last four years.

Exhibit A...

There's certainly a great deal of weight in the "better the devil you know" argument in this scenario. No reason why we couldn't find another chairman/CEO who is equally or more capable than Cortese, but also just as likely to find someone who's useless.

The Football Editor of The Times lapped up a completely made-up story by a French blog site about a Qatari Super League and ran it as a major exclusive, so I wouldn't read too much into his endorsement

To be fair, with our current cost base, we don't need to cash in on anyone, especially with an extra c.£20m in broadcasting revenue next season.

****s sake, how many people are going to continue to assume that because someone has "journo" in their Twitter handle, they're actually genuine? Look at that guy's profile, go to the website that's linked there... It's a fake.

While that is entirely true, there's absolutely no reason why a new chairman/CEO couldn't possess an equal (or greater) amount of drive and ambition. Given backing, it's a role that I'm sure would be highly desirable.

Would rather Sunderland went down, but they won't. Wigan will be gone, which is a shame as they're quite entertaining and a decent away day. Watford or Palace to come up, I don't think I could stomach an increase in the Brighton smugathon, to be honest.

Not sure that's true, they've converted around £35m of "loans" to equity - somehow I can't see them selling the club for £350m.

Spot on. The devil is in the detail, but it's a detail we're unlikely to discover until after the event, if at all.

Difficult to make a call on anyone from 9th downwards at this stage as some teams you'd predict to do well could lose key players to bigger clubs and some who you'd expect to do badly could make some good signings. Man City Chelsea Man United Arsenal ------- Spurs Liverpool Everton Newcastle Swansea West Ham West Brom Saints Aston Villa Fulham Sunderland Norwich Stoke ------- Cardiff Watford Hull

Nail on the head there.

We comfortably sold out more than 2,000 at Newcastle. Sunderland is more or less the same travel distance, the same nonsensical up-in-the-gods seating, and also happens to be the last away game of the season. I'd say it's pretty ****-poor, to be honest.

1415 of the 2200 allocation sold as of this morning, apparently.

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.