norwaysaint

I think Bart has been given a hard time after one bad match. I think he probably is good enough, but for his own career I think he might want to move on as he never really gets a look in.

Not quite sure what you mean with this, but I would never, ever leave my kids unattended. I wouldn't leave them alone at home and when we're on holiday, once the kids are asleep we wouldn't go further away than to sit on the balcony for a glass of wine. I can't understand how some people put their need to go out above their kids' welfare. You choose to have kids, now you can look after them properly until they're old enough to look after themselves. If you have to give up pubs and restaurants for a few years, fair enough.

I remember when people on here were angry that we hadn't signed a million pound striker (Clinton Morrison to be specific, but it was the price thing that was seen as most important, not the player) and that instead we had bought a 90k player, Ricardo Fuller. People actually believed that this meant Morrison was more than ten times better than Fuller and that we'd set our sights too low.

Like I said, it was irrelevant who is right or wrong. In fact it's not a black and white issue, so there is no right or wrong per se. my point was that "young" Andy was managing to discuss the subject in by far the more mature manner, whereas you and some others were resorting to snide remarks and petty point scoring. He has both conceded points and supported his own argument. You don't manage to give credit where it's due and it weakens your position. You and others infer that Andy takes up a position of a know-it-all, but that could equally be applied to you and age is no excuse, there's always somebody older and more experienced.

It'd be impressive if some of those who started by trying to be snide and making weak, disparaging comments would actually give saintandy a little credit on this thread for working hard to give well reasoned and mature responses in the face of some quite petty point scoring. If he were older you'd have less trouble seeing this. Try to put the age snobbery aside and give credit where it's due. I have no idea if he's right but he's argued it well and supported his own comments. It'd be nice to see for a change.

If we were talking about right now, I'd agree about a lot of these players standing no chance. But don't forget that after the summer, we will be looking at a new manager trying to build a team that will be ready for a tournament in two years. There are bound to be a few friendlies where a few fringe possibilities are tried out and a few experiments are made, possibly a few of the old guard will be sidelined for a while. I can see Lallana getting a chance over the course of a year if he plays well. I don't think Lambert will be seen as one for the future, but Kelvin could be a decent shout. I don't think Sharp's stock is high enough for anyone to consider him yet. I think it will take longer than that for Cork and Morgan to get on the radar too.

Always easier to get into a national team when you're playing in the top flight, so who do you think will be called up by this time next year, first cap or adding to their tally. Always seem to be a few new names after a tournament too. Tadanari Lee will probably have raised his chances to get more caps once he's fit and I think Lallana will get a chance too. I also reckon that Kelvin will stand a chance of a call up if he plays well, probably just as a sub, but there's always a need for reliable experienced English keepers. Don't think Cork will get a look in, but maybe in the future, same for Morgan. I think Lambert and Sharp would have to do amazing things to get considered.

Don't understand how people can somehow separate staying in this league from the dip in the quality of football you could expect to see from saints. If we stayed in this division that would mean we'd have performed poorly enough to not go up. You can't have your cake and eat it, ie play the best football in the division and stay in it. If you want to see the best of saints, you want promotion form. to stay in this division means becoming a mediocre championship side sitting in mid table hoping for the play-offs. Not far off the situation we'd be hoping to be in in the prem, except there we'd hope to be mid-table challenging for a European slot and playing nicer football, and probably attracting and keeping more better quality players.

It was a bit of a throwaway comment, but for a club with such a large fanbase all to themselves, I always feel they should be more dominant. There's no other city of comparable size that only has one team that I can think of. I also like Villa. I lived in the area for about 10 years and there was only ever friendly banter and respect from them.

Villa are such enormous under-achievers. it's a bigger city than Manchester or Liverpool, yet they never really get anywhere. They don't have a lot of competition locally either, Blues? Wolves? Coventry? The only other comparable under-achievers are Bristol, an enormous city without a single big club and Leeds, the only really big city with only one club in it.

I've posted it before, but the problem isn't celebrating being British or patriotism. The problem is that there's a particular brand of negative patriotism, a patriotism that instead of just celebrating being British, has to express a dislike or even hatred of other countries and cultures, a patriotism that tries to make immigrants feel like they don't belong. In a couple of weeks I'll be celebrating Norway's national day. I'm an immigrant here, but I'll only be encouraged to take part and celebrate how great it is to live here and what i love about the country. It's not just because I'm an "invisible" immigrant either. There will be celebrations of all other cultures that have made their homes here. In the parade there will be participants from things like "The Sri Lankan Society", The Bergen pipe band, different oriental groups, all marching through the streets alongside traditional Norwegiand groups and all being cheered along by just about every citizen of Norway, lining the streets. It's an inclusive version of patriotism that's prevalent on the national day and if England could just manage to make that brand of patriotism work, the English culture would only become stronger as more and more immigrants would feel encouraged to become part of it, rather than feeling alienated. For kids, the national day is second only to Christmas. When it's done right, the idea of celebrating your nation being offensive to minorities is laughable, it's a day when they are truly made to feel welcome and helped to feel more Norwegian. I'd love the opportunity to celebrate being English in the same way, but the EDL are sadly the visible face of patriotism in England at the moment and it's an angry, hateful face that drives people away.

Who the **** celebrates saints' days except the Irish? You'd have to be some sort of religious nutter. If people want a national day, campaign for a national day, but Saint George? How irrelevant is that? Lol.

Really? You'd rate Harding's contribution over Chaplow's. Haven't been to a single game so I can't argue, but I'm surprised.

Oh. I'm a bit late and wrong on one.

Palmer Crouch Hirst Redknapp Bridge Dixon

I think there was a huge amount of pressure put on them to declare him sane so that he could stand trial. If declared insane, he could end up free again in too short a time. would you want to publicly be known to have contributed towards that? I have no knowledge of psychology, but what he was able to do automatically excludes him from my own concept of "sane".

The thing is, he MUST be insane to be able to do what he did, but nobody wants him to stand a chance of walking. Ideally he'd end up somewhere like the facility in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, for life. Death sentence? I don't agree with it and I don't want him feeling like he's martyring himself for a noble cause. Life in prison, similarly I think he'd still be proud of what he did and would almost consider himself a political prisoner. I'd be happy to see him confined to a facility with a padded cell where he was just dismissed as a delusional freak and given no respect at all and made to realise his are the actions and beliefs of a madman. I think that'd be the cruellest punishment, but obviously could never happen.

Brilliant to see McGrath in there, I'd almost forgotten him. I can't see MLT getting in compared to the amount of people who will back other players for CM. Some players are surely beyond argument though. I can't see how Giggs, Schmeichel or Shearer could be missed out and you really should have Beckham too, although I can see the argument for Ronaldo. I just couldn't bring myself to click on Neville though. I went for Dixon in the end, but that was mainly a nod to the Arsenal defence as a whole. Schmeichel Dixon McGrath Adams Le Saux Beckham MLT Keane Giggs Shearer Bergkamp

Has he been out long enough for us to build up his importance so much that he seems disappointing on his return yet? He may need longer.

Woah, touched a nerve there.

Wow, new levels of snidey vindictiveness. Turkish needs to get a hobby or a girlfriend or something.

This is where it's such a shame we didn't win League One, then we could still be on for winning three different divisions in a row. Now it'll just be two.

Attack the Block was a good debut, but was never brilliant. I love Joe Cornish and I'm really hoping he gets a chance to make more films and really get it right next time. They were always going to be in trouble making the monsters not seem silly on that kind of budget.

I suppose it's a bit different for me because i can understand them at least mostly without the text, but I do enjoy watching Norwegian and Swedish films just because it's nice to watch films that aren't at all "Hollywood" sometimes. American and British films are better when they're great, but have generally become quite lazy and formulaic and although they are often bad too, at least films from other countries aren't tied into the same formula. I watch mostly English language stuff, but the alternative is a refreshing change that stops it all getting boring once in a while.

How would you prefer Portsmouth's relegation? Would you like them to go down by more than ten points, so that they can't even blame the points deduction and have to admit they were one of the worst teams in the league? Or would you prefer them to go down by fewer than ten points, so that they have the pain of knowing that on the pitch they did well enough to stay up, but won't?