St_Tel49

Remind me of the result of the Ipswich game?!

There might possibly be grounds for concern but no grounds for panic. We should all know by now that Cortese plays his cards close to his chest and you will only find out what has been going on is when it has happened. He also plays hard ball, so if one of our targets is overpriced he walks away - and so he should. Personally I am tired of fairly average footballers bought at stupid prices and paid stupid wages just because they happened to be the best available at one particular time. There is no point in Pardew bringing in people who are no better than what he has got. Better not to sign players than clog up the squad with people who will rarely get a game. I really think that it is waiting game if we want get the players who will genuinely reinforce the squad.

Well that settles it. Move along now folks, there's nothing to see here.

Is there any chance that Alpine can be given a whole area of his own where he can indulge in his petty areguments with other posters and allow threads to remain on their original topic?

I think that you should canvas opinion about it

Are you suggesting that there are footballers out there with Squad numbers larger than their IQ

Precisely - just what were the NHS Managers doing to justify their exceedingly generous salaries if they were allowing Service Providers to deliver such poor service.

Yes - the problem was that the Tories specified value for money with an implicit definition of "Cheap and nasty" or maybe just plain "Cheap" - the nasty was a natural consequence. I also work for a company that does work for the Govmt. Contracts have to be fair - the company must make a sensible profit but it, in its turn, must deliver what is asked for. It can be done but has to be well managed on both sides with a sensible amount of good will on both sides.

Surely that is what you are doing with your NI contributions? I'm afraid that with private health systems the weak go to the wall and you cannot dress that fact up. People of considerable means in the US have been bankrupted by getting cancer - that is in spite of having Health Insurance.

I was saw an interview in a US TV channel by a couple who had just returned from living in the UK. They complained that they had left a place where healthcare was free but poor and come back to a place where healthcare was very expensive and was still poor. The example of the US would provide little support for your argument.

BTF - even the most blinkered Labour supporter would have to acknowledge that the NHS is stuffed with inefficiency and levels of bureaucracy that contribute nothing to clinical outcomes. In other words not enough of the billions are ploughed into actual healthcare and too much is squandered on administrative layers who are little more than drones. And, it has to be said, the Tories were the first to start the whole gravy train. But Labour in their turn have only made it worst - measuring their success on how much money they put in rather than how it was actually used.(published figures don't mean a damn thing since they are easily manipulated, which is why performance targets are generally meaningless). I share your scepticism about the value that private company's bring - after all hospital cleanliness got far worse after cleaning contracts were privatised but if the financial targets imposed on the private company's are sufficiently rigorous, and if the cost of inefficiency is pushed on to them then they are generally better at generating cost savings especially by unnecessary layers of management. BTW - who ever thought that making nursing an all graduate profession would improve clinal care? The majority of graduates don't want to deal with bedpans and there was nothing wrong with the quality of nurses before.

Fans of relegated clubs have generally failed to grasp that the reasons why they got relegated are precisely the reasons why they are likely to make little impact in their new league. They also fail to grasp that there is a considerable overlap of abilities between the divisions. Top half league1 teams are more than capable of matching bottom half championships teams. Its not like the difference between the championship and the premiership.

It is still not certain that we are not going to sign him. I suspect that Reading have priced him higher than we are willing to pay and if we are going to sign him it will be a last minute "who blinks first". On the other hand they may have overpriced hime and we just walked away. I'm not ITK

Played good at WInchester

PLUS: He is getting all the important decisions right MINUS: Diplomatic skills a bit lacking OVERALL: 9/10

Probably none, except there is now money to back it up.

Another post lost to posterity

That's forums for you

He was constantly organising the people round him. He is obviously a leader and has ability too. His goal was a well taken, unstoppable header. The City keeper had no chance with it. I have to say that he looked and behaved a lot older than 18 to me. I was quite impressed with most of the players on the pitch. McGlashen's disallowed "goal" was a beautifully flighted ball bent round the keeper into the top corner. I thought he had a lot of potential. The young fair haired No 9 showed some nice touches and looked like he had the potential to be a "hold up" type striker. Still has work to do though. It might only have been the youngsters but I enjoyed watching them. They are obviously being coached to play it out from the back rather than hoofing it. (Not that they didn't hoof it at times!). The triallist keeper seemed pretty good but wasn't really tested.

A cool, considered and sensible post. I have no idea what it is doing on here

Yes!

You have to allow for some hyperbole

Yesterday I went on-line to renew my Season ticket. I now qualify for a concession (being an even older old git) but the renewal came up with the full price. I searched in vain for a means of telling them I was entitled to the concession - nothing. Apart from anything else - why should I have to tell them. They have my date of birth - surely the system should work out automatically that I was entitled to the concession. In the end I renewed on the telephone where I was charged the correct price. I just wonder - what is the online system for when buying on the telephone seems so much easier?

... as a good stand in should. I still haven't seen anything to justify the adulation that some seem pour upon him. For me KD is no 1 and Bart is a damn good back up.

Agree with all of this. (Should have had LD's quote attached. Still cannot get used to this new interface)