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stevegrant

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Everything posted by stevegrant

  1. Venue: Green Park, Millbrook. Kick-off: 10am Provisional squad: Aaron Austen Sev Roberts Kev Thornton Ian Austen Dan Ridout Lee Chamberlain Keiron Hatcher Stu Holloway Mike Florit Chris Knight Rich Barnes Steve Grant Scott Griffin
  2. stevegrant

    Bond

    Administration has been coming for years, last season's spending didn't really accelerate things too much. It was obviously the final nail in the coffin, but they'd started throwing the soil onto it long before last season.
  3. Yeah I know, but it would probably be even more unworkable to do it that way. Can you imagine ManYoo accepting that they can only pay the same amount in salaries as Wigan, Hull or Stoke, when they bring in 6 or 7 times their revenue? They would (quite legitimately from a business perspective) class that as a restriction of trade. There is no "fair" way of doing it now. With clubs generating their own revenue rather than clubs generating revenue for the league as a whole (as I believe is the case with other sports that operate salary caps), there is absolutely no way they could impose restrictions designed to even out the playing field. It works in various American sports because the restrictions have (as far as I'm aware) been in place ever since the competitions began, although quite how LA Galaxy fit David Beckham into their wage structure I'm not too sure.
  4. But then there would be only a handful of teams in each league. Michel Platini was saying the other day that he wanted to investigate the finances of clubs and only allow those who have unsustainable debts to enter UEFA competitions (presumably another of his ways to prevent English clubs being successful, if you listen to the conspiracy theorists ). However, I really don't see how that could ever be enforced. Those in charge would just say "I'm the owner, it's my money and I've written off the debt to the club (except for that secret IOU for £500m that's locked away in the safe)", and there would be nothing UEFA or anyone else could do about it. Salary capping is a waste of time, what's the point in enforcing a 50% wages/turnover ratio when Arsenal (not a particularly world-renowned club) bring in £200m revenue? That means they're still free to spend £100m on wages, which is equivalent to 40 Emmanuel Adebayors on £50k a week.
  5. stevegrant

    Bond

    Where's the inaccuracy in that? AFC Bournemouth have not paid a transfer fee for a player for years. That's a fact. I'm sure Anderton's not giving his services for free, but he's also very clearly not the reason they went into administration.
  6. Also the fact that Real were, pretty publicly, touting Robinho around as a makeweight in any potential Cristiano Ronaldo deal probably told Robinho that they weren't all that bothered about keeping him, so no, it's probably not a "sporting reason", rather a "morale" reason insomuch as he's now at a club who are quite clearly absolutely delighted (and probably a bit stunned!) to have him.
  7. Do MacBooks come in a "mini-MacBook" flavour? If so, I would be potentially interested. However, as a lot of my work involves testing websites on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari under different OS environments, does it support the ability to dual-boot into Windows and Ubuntu? If the answer to that is also "yes", what's the battery life like on it? Ideally, I'd like a new laptop with a battery that will last at least 3 hours before needing to be recharged. And then of course, where's the cheapest place to buy one from?
  8. stevegrant

    Bond

    I suggest you re-read what I wrote as I never said that :confused: In particular:
  9. It's all so hypocritical. There's something inherently wrong when Berbatov, who had been solely granted permission to speak to Manchester City, is spotted by TV cameras shaking hands with Alex Ferguson and David Gill at Old Trafford...
  10. stevegrant

    Bond

    As much as I couldn't give a toss about Kevin Bond, I think he's had so many mitigating circumstances in the last two years that have led AFCB to where they are currently that this decision can be seen as a bit harsh. Someone told me a few weeks ago that they only have 9 players registered on their payroll, and even then they are probably still spending more than they can afford. The remaining players are loans, so they don't have to pay the wages. They were deducted 10 points last season, which was pretty much the cause of their relegation. They went down by one point. Administration can often be attributed to the manager spending loads of money on crap players on high wages. Bournemouth haven't paid a transfer fee for a player for about 10 years. Their financial situation has been teetering on the brink for a long time, pretty much since they came out of administration back in the mid-90s, and the sale and leaseback of Dean Court as well as the contracting-out of the catering and merchandising departments (so basically the sale/giving-away of every part of the club that generated revenue!) meant that it was only a matter of time before they ended up in administration again.
  11. As evidenced by going for a relatively cheap manager and putting season ticket and matchday ticket prices through the roof.
  12. 81/7, Billy Taylor takes the catch 131 needed off 9 overs
  13. Play will resume at 9.05
  14. I'll keep off this thread for now then...
  15. Not that I can see.
  16. Hampshire won the toss and are batting. 32/0 off 3.5 overs, Lumb and Adams opening. Lineup: Lumb, Adams, Carberry, Benham, Dawson, Ervine, Pothas, Mascarenhas, Tomlinson, Tahir, Taylor
  17. Heskey will stick to his position and is a decent link-up targetman. Rooney tries to be about 5 different players at once, and unfortunately it makes him completely ineffective for England.
  18. I wonder who his agent might be...
  19. Yep...
  20. With the central midfield options being him, Jimmy Bullard (clearly not good enough) and Jermaine Jenas (likewise, but without the attitude and commitment), there really wasn't any other option If Gerrard was fit, I'd have him in there instead of Lumpoflard, but he's not...
  21. Jermaine Jenas? David Beckham? On form alone, my team would be: Green Johnson - Ferdinand - Terry - A Cole J Cole - Barry - Lumpoflard - Downing Defoe - Heskey However, clearly David James isn't going to be dropped going into important qualifying matches, and clearly Wayne Rooney won't be dropped either, despite being utter ****e for England for a long time. Realistically, I'd expect James to be in instead of Green, Brown instead of Johnson, Beckham instead of Downing and Rooney instead of Heskey. Defoe will score a couple as he's playing against a tinpot nation, which will secure his place for the bigger games, where he will continue to be found out.
  22. Yep...
  23. My laptop has decided it's going to start playing up. The problem is as follows: At fairly intermittent points, the right-hand side of the screen (about an inch and a half in from the right) wobbles and I have to adjust the screen a bit to restore it. I think it's probably a loose connection or something like that - any ideas how to fix it?
  24. A bit of a wake-up call. Credit to Blackpool who played very well in the second half (although somewhat cynically with some of the timewasting, but we wouldn't be complaining if we were in their position). If we'd taken one of the handful of pretty decent chances we created in the first half, we'd have probably won quite comfortably. No complaints with the penalty decision from where I was sat, and also no real complaints with the final result. While the last week has seen two excellent performances and results, it's important to remember that it won't happen every game. We perhaps tried to be a bit *too* cute and nicey-nicey with our football, trying three passes when one would have been sufficient. Blackpool looked like they had more energy in reserve, which is hardly surprising given they've had a week off, and they made the most of it. It was said that we made Derby and Birmingham look rubbish in our last two games, and in the second half Blackpool did the same to us. It happens, and we've now got two weeks to improve the fitness and stamina before our next game.
  25. That's the one... couldn't find it on the stadium guide I was using for all the foreign grounds I've been to
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