benjii

Racism and homophobia in the same post. Congratulations.

True about Owen being young but, sadly, he was pretty much at his prime!

at managers coming suited.

There's no way in the world MLT should have been in the England starting team in '98 - Shearer, Owen, Scholes were world-class consistent performers - but he's surely exactly the type of player you want in a squad. If Capello leaves J Cole or A Johnson behind in order to take some no-mark like Carrick or Huddlestone to this year's world cup he will have made the same mistake.

I'm voting for Dennis Wise

You can't go from a bankrupt entity being run on a shoestring to a company with top-class hospitality, a brand new training facility, the ability to recruit top people etc.. without money coming from somewhere. A slightly higher average gate (at cheaper prices) is not going to do the trick. It seems to me the strategy is to establish a business capable of running according to sensible business norms when it reaches the trading environment capable of delivering that: the top division. In the meantime, I think the plan is for Markus to put the infrastructure in place to make that viable when we do get there.

Cheers JRM!

TBF mate, you can probably avoid catching AIDs easily enough. HTH.

Sounds awesome. Cheers guys.

Just make sure that Dennis Wise is taken off FFS.

They could still exit administration but they would be in breach of league rules and would get a penalty. Any buyer would have to stump up enough money to keep Chanrai happy though and as we know, no one is going to pay £14m for that crock.

So is it easy to get Besiktas tickets?

I've fixed the last line!

Cheers mate. I won't be there for long so will be limited in my venue choice by who is at home when I'm free to go but I've had a look at Fenerbahce's stadium and it looks cool so will probably try to head there although Besiktas also looks pretty lively! I suppose the main questions are: is it easy to get tickets (is there anything quirky about the system) and are there any unsafe or best avoided areas for neutrals and are there are many matches that might be best avoided (ie, if there's a derby will it be a war zone etc)?

nobhead@nobtowers.nob?

Oi! Leavemyarcealona.

Noted thanks! How about wearing a perm and tache?

Hi all I may be in Istanbul later in the year and was thinking of checking out a match. As far as I'm aware there are three clubs in 'bul: Galatasary, Fenerbache and Besikstas. Does anyone have any experience of going to a match at any of these? Any hints/tips, dos/don'ts/ recommendations gratefully received. Cheers!

Not strictly football related but Danny Baker's show on 5Live and Fighting Talk on the same channel (both of which may be about to have a summer break but hey-ho!) are both worth checking out if you haven't already.

Cool. "the best-in-class standards" now demanded by the club.

Why do football commentators always use "ironic" when they mean "sarcastic"? I've never got that.

Exactly, which is why the only way they can be of any value is if they go that extra mile in their analysis and actually write something worth reading or add a new slant on things. Merely rehashing information available more accessibly and freely elsewhere is a pretty duff business model.

Right decent in-depth articles rather than banal pointless guff. Something that exhibits some sort of better-than-average high-school-standard ability to write? Then again, I think the Echo is probably aimed at the over 50s and the dim and that is what they seem to like.

I am going to start a group called: Saints Moaning About Other Fan Groups And How Their Leaders Are Attention Seeking Muppets But Doing It In A Way That Smacks Of, "Look At Me, I Have An Ever-So-Slightly Affronted And Impressive Viewpoint On This". Or SMAOFGAHTLAASMBDIIAWTSOLAMIHAESSAAIVOT if the above is a bit of a mouthful. Stuart and Turkish are welcome to be honorary members.