stevegrant

It would be a very strange day when you make sensible comments

That was something that was put in place on the old off-topic forum, which migrated into two separate forums, one for sensible discussion (the Lounge) and one where pretty much anything goes (the Muppet Show). Threads on the main board should always remain "on-topic", although it's natural that many will go off on a reasonable tangent every now and then.

I'll copy what I've posted in another thread: I don't think the situation we find ourselves in is particularly new, it's just a relatively new subject that is proving rather divisive. The main problem as I see it is that those who are entrenched in one camp or the other automatically assume that anything posted by the other side has some sort of barbed meaning, when in actual fact if people took posts at face value rather than looking at who composed it, the discussion would be much better.

It's all very subjective, though - one person's "good point" is another's "wind-up", depending on which side of the fence you sit. I liken it to a decent referee (if such a thing exists), who would much rather let things flow rather than penalise everything, regardless how small and insignificant. The best thing I can suggest is that you add anybody who you feel is particular tiresome to your ignore list. You'll still see that they've posted on a thread, but unless you specifically want to read that individual post, you won't have to. Also, if anyone is clearly breaking the forum rules, whether it be by "e-stalking" (God I hate that phrase ), hurling insults, or any of the other rules for that matter, please use the "Report Post" feature (it's this button: ) and let the moderators and admins deal with it. Trust me, we're doing our best to keep things on-track, but it's always been the case that we try not to disrupt conversations mid-flow as constantly locking threads and deleting posts only serves to annoy people, which ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Where was Cortese mentioned in the OP? The subject is the Daily Echo. Rather amusing how some people constantly whinge how "every thread turns into a NC bashing thread", and yet it's actually them that are doing so. Try reading the actual words written in the OP rather than putting your own words in there.

Care to tell us how the Echo has been "taking the ****"?

If you're not bothered, why are you posting about it?

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/announcement.php?f=5

Are you genuinely suggesting that we were a defensive (the near-perfect translation of "pragmatic" in football-speak) team last season?!

I'm not too fussed about the trophy itself for those same reasons, but I would add the following caveats: 1. It gives the game a pseudo-competitive edge a week or two before the season starts, which helps the players, and also the fact that they're playing for a trophy will add a bit onto the attendance; 2. Assuming the TBT game is played against prestigious opposition (West Ham aside), it also serves as a good test for the team, and from my own perspective, I like to see us playing against the best players. Watching Luis Suarez tear us a new one in the second half was fantastic viewing, even though we ended up getting beaten. Prestigious opposition will always bring bigger crowds as well If they're going to scrap it, that's up to them, but they could at least communicate that fact, if only to save them the questioning on the subject as a result of their silence. The timing this year in particular was somewhat "unfortunate", coming only a matter of weeks after the death of Ted's widow.

What, a bit like a handling fee levied on tickets bought via the most common and convenient methods?

I wouldn't bother questioning it, apparently you'd have an agenda...

Just got back after spending an hour or so up there - unsurprisingly, Lancashire barely played any attacking shots in the time I was there, the one exception being when Smith tried to sweep Briggs but top-edged to Adams for 128.

That photo is brilliant

Agreed, but we won't be bringing 5 or 6 teenagers off the bench to replace our first-teamers in any competitive game, so I'm not too concerned by the last 20 minutes or so yesterday. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how well we coped without Lambert in particular, but also Lallana, Puncheon and Schneiderlin, as I think all four would be in the starting lineup if everyone was fit.

Pretty much sums up my take on it. The best thing to come out of today is that the players have proven they can still play well without Rickie Lambert against a decent side.

Being sent to Coventry, apparently.

ADO Den Haag (£83,151.64): For Le Havre (£176,269.00): For Paris St Germain (£106,961.41): For RC Lens (1,958,258.90): For Stade Rennais FC (£4,150,531.00): For All voted in favour, presumably on the basis that 20% is better than 0%

Nope, the football creditor rule only extends to payments to other English clubs (down to "tier 7", I think)

Yep, the football creditors rule is only applicable to deals involving clubs in this country. Hence why the likes of Udinese are only going to receive 20p in the pound if the CVA is ultimately approved.

There's no equivalent rule in other countries, as far as I'm aware. Real Mallorca qualified for the Europa League by virtue of finishing 5th in La Liga, but as they went into administration, they were refused entry to the competition.

So do I.

There's a minor update due to the forum software which apparently includes some sort of style generator which will (allegedly) make it quicker and easier to change the way the forum looks. I'm hoping to do that update at some point in the next week or so, once that's done I'll see whether the style generator actually works!

Some pretty lacklustre research gone into that piece, to be honest. Ben Haim and Boateng are both still under contract for at least another year.