hughieslastminutegoal

Nah. Using 'and' as a conjunction on its own suggests continuity of action more than does 'and then'. Adding 'then' conveys the feeling of delay to some extent between the first and second actions. Inserting the comma adds to that sense of delay by forcing a pause in the reading of the sentence, mirroring a perceived lengthier delay between the actions themselves. Commas are pauses which are used to control how a sentence is read, not to be used solely according to a dry and old-fashioned gramatical rule, but stylistically as well. See how the comma and conjuction reinforced each other at the end there for emphasis. It's a bit like having a straight run up to a penalty kick, or one that breaks its uniform rhythm slightly to engender a change in the expected response from the keeper.

Wasn't Pardew picked precisely because he filled the Cortese's bill of someone wheo could you exactly that? Ooh, so Cortese failed on his first appointment, and with subsequent assistant coaches? Not looking so heroic now, pehaps?

Glad to see you are excited with trousers on. Now if it was with trousers off, I'd say it was too much information. As someone said earlier, wait till players can't leave because of the window closure, then get rid. A logical tactic, but a moral one? With a chairman like that, many would think twice about coming. With the palava about the press and photographers, I'd think it would be a club I'd avoid joining, unless I had an eye for the severance payment. Oh, that brings us back to Sven....

A man who understands both the grammatical and stylistic use of the comma!

I thought the only people who said this kind of thing these days were wishy-washy white liberals. So I'm very surprised you got away with that tripe so easily. Two attacking players loaned from Italy at the start of a season would seem on the face of it to be where the two cases are the same. I failed to find it particularly important that they are both black, I'm afraid.

We only have your word for it, so its anecdotal.

Like, isn't that why we can somethimes borrow a player from a Prem club without necessarily paying all his wages?

Ha. Very good! However style is everything.

Do you think maybe it was mostly about Markus L getting on last look at us in Switzerland?

When your strikers are not doing it you need more goal threat from other areas, which is why, when your strikes are all marked up the CM players need to be a real threat. The best teams get goals from CM in these situations. We don't.

You spelled both words correctly. Your most accurate contribution to date. So well done to you, also.

TBH, I can't be bothered to go back through postings history, but IMO you have tended to excuse CM a bit by over-hyping Schneiderlin. He's skillfull, but lacks incisiveness and cutting edge.

Coaching what? How to fill in sick notes?

By the colour of him (as someone else noted, very yellowish) it looked like liver disease to me. I said as much to a mate of mine last season.

Hoo bloody ray. At very very long last, the penny is dropping.

I've been banging on about this CM midfield problem for ages, and often been shouted down.

I am not denigrating the job or the risks of being a soldier in Afghanistan, they are all too painfully obvious. To say that some jobs are "entry level" when a squady's is "highly skilled" is not really accurate. Very many recruits are working class kids where there is little else in the way of employment available. Highly skilled at 18 after 6 months or so of training? I don't see it that way. A friend of my son joined the marines recently and after about 4 or 5 months of his training I think, he got notified of his first posting - Afghanistan. He decided to quit, as it made him think very hard about what he was actually getting himself into. So politicians taking advantage of naivity and lack of other opportunity? Certainly. Would you be doing it in Afghanistan? Not me, not bloody likely. I absolutely admire the guys' bravery, but doubt that many of them really see it as "serving their country", more like supporting their buddies, loyalty to their unit etc. Their bravery and loyalty does not mean I can't question the political motives and reasons for what I see as an unwinnable, and therefore disgustingly wasteful war. There is no question that should the club support the suggestion for tickets, the move would deserve support, and I wouldn't get picky about any group the club might want to support in that way.

Risking the ire of West_Ender, I think centre-midfiled is still not strong enough and lacks real incisive punch - had Hammond been able to take his chances against Plymouth we'd have won.

Yep, I was wondering if I'd somehow jumped into a parallel universe where everyone takes everything anyone says (and themselves) entirely seriously. It's like listening to William Haig and Nick Clegg trying to explain an Eddie Izzard show.

Steady on mate - haven't you sussed yet that Deppo a) has problems with English and b) has absolutely no sense of humour or irony yet, as he is still under 11 and c) now thinks you don't like his granny's hairstyle

With respect SR, your own post is just as political as Professor’s, just perhaps more “mainstream”. People who take up minority or “unpopular” viewpoints are normally dismissed as “politically motivated” whereas the majority viewpoint is somehow not political. Personally the Afghan war disgusts me. We install a bandit as leader of their “government” and now we complain about corruption. We pay protection money to groups to allow our convoys through. Why would these bandits ever want conflict to end? They make their money from it, and pretty much always have done. Nevertheless I am equally upset about young men getting killed and horrifically maimed, and have no doubt our government will one day have to spin some story about how our aims have been achieved, which will be so much bullsh*t. But if some of our soldiers get a free ticket that’s fine by me. And if the club wanted to give a few tickets to unmarried mothers, OAPs with dementia or any other cause it wanted to support, that’s fine too. Justin, I’m with you, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but Saints are only as debt free as the owner(s) for the time being want it so. If (and I'm not saying it's on the cards yet) they put a "debt-free" club up for sale they will expect to get more money for it. If whoever bought it borrowed money to do it, and then secured the loan agains club assets, we wouldn't any longer be debt free. So being currently debt free guarantees nothing by itself. Have you been watching what has happened at Liverpool and Man U at all?

Is it necessary to put IMO in every post? Everything is only opinion. It seems a fair enough opinion to me. Do you not suspect that he'd want far too much, given that we are told we are being run along proper business lines? And because you don't know, does it preclude someone else posting their opinion?

All excellent stuff... but you need room in your model for Harry Rednapp, who somehow cons his chairman to pay whatever he's agreed with the player's agent, plus, plus. You see, we do need the Redknapps - they are the market ice breakers (to be relabelled some years later as club busters).

Interesting point. And when these "home growns" from the 25, used as they are to megabucks, show they aren't quite up to it, and are pushed out by the next batch of home growns, will they be affordable by lower league sides? Will those clubs still attempt (stupidly) to meet their outrageous demands? I realise this all has to start somewhere, but have the feeling that, initially at least, this will delay the wake-up call about excessive wages being paid to average players. But probably it's a good thing in the longer run.