benjii

When I was a kid, I liked 'Allo 'Allo.

Beer Sheva away will take some beating.....! Tel Aviv beach and city Jaffa old town Weird Police Escort to match alongside fenced off no man's land. Jerusalem: Mount of Olives Temple Mount King David's Tomb Room of the Last Supper Al Aqsa Western Wall Golgotha Jesus' tomb Judean Desert Bedouin camps Floating in Dead Sea Also, another vote for Wigan. Good night out.

Hope Leicester get relegated. Nasty bunch of thugs and cloggers. I can barely believe they won the league last year. It's an embarrassment to the national game. Hopefully they go down with Palace. About time a desperate Fat Sam escape bid failed.

Good post!

Exactly. We played quite well. We usually play quite well.

And Bournemouth away was worst of all!

Really? You thought we'd do better than last season, even though it was the weakest top division in living memory and we finished above Chelsea and Liverpool? We were pretty average last season and some of the revisionism about the football then compared to now is bewildering.

Don't be a helmet! I'm not claiming I'm not a helmet. I'm saying that collectively, this is a poor show from our fans. I think collectively we are exhibiting helmet like behaviour.

Franny was on Fantasy Football Club on Sky this week. Having talked about his charity efforts, Paul Merson said something sensible / intelligent / interesting ! What he said was, "if the Queen's watching, this guy deserves an MBE". Thinking about it, he's probably right. He's not a big celebrity really but he's raised about £400k for charity by putting himself through the mill. So, if people agree with Merson ("Merse"), you can nominate Franny for an honour. Details here: https://www.gov.uk/honours/nominate-someone-in-the-uk

Turnbull was sold.

Exactly.

I'm expressing my bemusement at some people's attitudes towards this semi final, second leg. If people have valid reasons for not going, that's cool with me and I wouldn't castigate anyone. What I find weird, and frankly quite dishonorable, are the people who aren't going for the stated reason that we've lost a few games lately or that they find us "boring".

You could say that about any league game we won in those seasons. Great days, sure. But not bigger matches.

Yeah, it was great. But it's not as important, viewed objectively, as a cup semi final.

I think you're struggling a bit with comprehension.

We got promoted through a cumulative league effort which led to us finishing second twice. There was no "promotion match". This is one match removed from winning an actual trophy. The point of getting promoted is to be one of the best. It's a means to an end. This is an end in itself.

Trump's just promised to "wipe out Islamic terrorism". Phew!

"Hipster vibe"? What the **** are you dribbling on about?

You've answered your question - it's because of commercial leverage and economies of scale due to size. That's a structural aspect of having a great big monolithic health service and, in this case, a virtue. It's not, in itself, evidence of procurement norms (positive or negative).

"The angst shown around the ground as the Geordie lad loitered on the ball in one first-half incident was jarring. It was an instinctive, perhaps even perfectly natural, airing of frustration to the glimpse of an opening disappearing. As one shrewd observer noted, however, it’s the sort of conditions which create a self-fulfilling environment for the striker." It gets better..... "It’s the ever-decreasing circles which eventually sees [sic] a player swallowed up in a vortex of sapped morale. Reports of booing as the player took to the pitch in the second half are indefensible, however. [The reports are indefensible?] It’s evident Smith is now bereft of the confidence he gained off the back of three goals in three [matches] going into December. All the signifiers there to show it. [sic.]" 100% pure crapola.

Never mind the actual subject matter; why is the standard of writing so poor at that organisation? It's abject, embarrassing stuff.

I don't. I can fully understand that. Norwich would have scratched the match beforehand if they were allowed - they didn't want to be there - and we were always going to select a low-priority team. It was always going to be insipid and lacking in competitive integrity to some extent. The match v Liverpool is a very rare chance to reach a major Wembley final and arguably our biggest match for the last 13 years.

The Europa problems were in the attacking third, not at the back. We failed to score in four matches out of six.

That first leg was so dull.

Yes, sorry. I was referring to your "dodgy DVDs", not your "DVD player".