St Marco

Far Cry 3 get's it from me. What a game!

Actually that is a good point. If they finish in the bottom 4 and go down won't the points deduction then go on next season like what happened with us?

Forgot to mention being half Italian I sort of follow Juventus as family from Turin. However if they ever played Saints I hope Saints would fecking stuff them

Not worried at all because all we have to go on is rumour and we have had billions of those which have turned out to be false. The loans are un-explained and could be for anything. I think it would ne nice if we knew what they were for and if we are still being funded by Markus family. If we are not then tell us. That is what I would like. The PL is different from when we were last there. The money is sky (literally) high now. Next year it get's even bigger so I can understand the gamble. If we stay in it we can push on. If we go down then we lose the players we have bought and re-group. We are in a different place from when Wilde did his gamble. He put the future of the club on one last roll of the dice. If we spend £20m on players and go down we will sell them off and get some of the money back. These are not over the hill players near the end of their careers like it was before. We have grouped together a young squad and a lot of those players have great ability and great potential. So no not worried at all. If we get the players in we are linked with it will take the club forward even more. If we do survive in the league then next year we will not need to spend anywhere near as much as most positions will have a quality player playing there.

The thing is while results may seem better in reality we have only won once in our last seven games. If we get stuffed here then lose to Villa that would be nine games. That no matter how you look at it would not be good. I think it is pretty safe to say if that happens then the positivity of the last couple of results will be un-done. For me it is all about momentum. Martinez said on the radio just now he will pick his main team (including two new players) because a good cup run can bring confidence to the team as it acts as a distraction which makes it enjoyable.

Plus it would put Adkins under huge pressure again if we got beat like Villa did.

Chelsea to pick strongest team and give Ba his debut according to Rafa. It will be interesting to see what Adkins does here.

Sign more players or pay rent on your training ground? Pretty much sums the whole saga up

Of course they are against it. They don't want the money they get to be shared out amongst more teams.... The problem is the competition itself. The champions league is fine as it is. But Uefa have always had this feeling that they don't want the Uefa cup/Cup winners cup/Europa league (sure there are more names) to be considered second best. They keep chopping and changing it to try and make it sound better. When in reality it never works as it will always be seen as the second competition. If you look at how the money is raised/given out they rely on 75% of broadcasting rights and the rest through sponsorship. Those numbers are getting smaller and smaller. Meaning there is only so long until the money is all from broadcasting. And how much money do you think they will be getting from people like channel 5? So this is why they are talking about changes....again. It is down to money and increasing opinion that the competition is not worth it for the bigger clubs. Only a few years ago AVB was saying how teams getting knocked out of the CL should not be allowed into it because you should not be rewarded for failure. Moyes said clubs in England would rather not play in it as it is like the league cup but with air miles etc. Uefa want money, thats how it is. They know the CL is a huge money making machine and the EL is not. It would not surprise me one bit to see sooner rather then later cup winners (the main cup i.e fa cup) be given a CL place. The only idea I have heard that could make the Europa League better is by actually turning it into a sort of League/playoff. There would be regional mini leagues which stops the whole someone in Scotland has to travel to Israel thing. Then the winners of them get a CL spot. For the tiny teams nobody has heard of they have to play more qualifying rounds just as the CL does now. Then eventually you get to 4 groups of 4 teams. The winners of the groups are then drawn into 1 game against another winner both home and away and the two winners then get a CL spot for the following season. This way it makes clubs take it more seriously. If they take it more seriously then the fans will take it more seriously and thus the tv companies might.

It will happen simply because right now bigger clubs see it more as a nuisance then something worth winning. I think i recall someone talking about (might be Pardew) pulling the team out in the future. If teams would rather bail then enter it shows something is wrong. It is now sort of seen as the league cup. A cup that isnt very important until your in the final. Uefa know there is really no reason for it. The big tv companies dont care about it and wont pay much to show it. I doubt there was anything they could do to make it more appealing.

Strong team. You wont see the other clubs picking weak teams and neither should we. While the last few results have been decent they have not been wins. If we get beat badly tomorrow and then fail to beat Villa the pressure will be back on big time. I think Adkins will be aware of that. With one game in ten days i think thats plenty of time for them to recover.

If the rumour of uefa killing the europa cup and expanding the champions league are true then it isnt daft to think we could get there one day. If they increase it to the top 8 and the two cups winners get a spot then we have a far better chance then we do now. Who knows what they will do or how they will do it but to think it is daft we could play in it is wrong. People probably thought we would never play in the uefa cup.

Totally disagree. Firstly recent history shows not just the big clubs get to the final. Cardiff were there a few years ago. Secondly what benefit would it give to fringe players to play in a game like that? League cup against a lower team I would agree but in a game where they will play some of the best players on the planet and a few of them world cup winners and recent champions league winners there is no point. All we will see is them get destroyed and people saying they are not good enough. The benefits of playing our strongest side is that they gain another game of playing as a team. Over recent weeks we have improved a lot and have started to gel especially at the back. We need continuity and we more then anyone over recent seasons should know playing a settled side even in the cups creates confidence. If we want to give people experience then send them out on loan, don't put them in against the reigning champions.... That's like putting a young boxer who has just started in with the champion. He is going to get killed. Won't learn anything other then being under pressure non stop and then eventually getting knocked out. It is the same thing here.

Chelsea have left a few players out tonight I.e Hazard, Cole, Mata, Cech, Ramires, Mikel etc Think it is pretty safe to assume they will be back on sat. As I said before I don't see the logic in playing a weaker team. If you want to give people experience then send them out on loan. As a club our chances of winning anything for the foreseeable future is in the cups. Playing the kids against the current European and fa cup champions would be suicide.

They have been playing a full strength side in the league cup and as current champions I expect they will do the same here. We need to play a full strength side or we will get battered. Makes no sense putting kids in against the European champions as they will be on the back foot as soon as the whistle blows. Getting stuffed will not teach them anything. We have one game in 10 days so plenty of time to rest up after this one. I think a good cup run would do the team the world of good.

First time I been to Stoke so very happy to come away with a point. I thought their fans were pretty decent and the ones I talked to around the city were friendly and good natured. The game itself was really a game of two halves. First half was maybe the best I have seen us play this season. Second half we were hanging on for dear life. Watching our game on motd and seeing Fonte do a bit of volley ball I think we can count ourselves a bit lucky. Which makes a nice change! All in all was a good trip and hopefully get to make it again next year!

I don't think he will want to leave as he is getting first team football here. He is a great prospect but is still very raw. Personally I felt he was to blame for the first goal today as he chased the ball out to the wing and got left for dead meaning there was a huge gap for the player to run into in our box.

Was at the game and waited to see motd before I commented but have to say he was ****ing **** today. The last two games he has really cost us. I hate having a go at players and rarely do it as it serves no purpose but that HAS to be the end for Kelvin with us. His reactions have become really slow/poor especially his parrying. So many times he flaps at it and pushes it towards the penalty spot. His passing is dire and he can't catch the ball. He has been a great player for us over the years but that is it now. He is not a PL player and we need a keeper badly in the transfer window. If we had a keeper who can get on the ground quicker and keep hold of the ball rather then parry it we would have a lot more points.

Pretty sure an honorary position isn't really a job. More of a reward for years of service. Think of it more as a title. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_of_honor But hey any excuse to get a bit of Cortese bashing in there hey! You guys are unreal.

Legend. He could live on mars and he would still be worthy of the title imo.

Got a smoking hot deal here for sleeping dogs limited edition http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sleeping-dogs-limited-edition-greenmangaming-66-off-with-code-7-14-3-cashback-4-1420528#post16631925 Go to greenmangaming, put game in cart, add code GMG30-DPLIM-DN831 at checkout. Select £3 cashback means it works out at .......£4. Or choose the £4 credit option and works out at £3. Awesome! It is activated on steam so hence counts as steam sale

Why do you think that is then? Because the quality of discussion has dropped or because most threads turn into a troll wonderland?

Remember though don't buy any unless they are in the flash sale as eventually they will get put in flash deals. If you buy something that isnt in there yet you run the risk of it getting discounted further. Last year they had FM12 for around a tenner. They change every 10 hours so just keep checking back. You can also vote for certain deals to be put up. Like right now you can vote for either Limbo, Braid or Monkey Island. All three of those games are amazing and will be major cheap i.e £2

Had not even heard of Snow Dog until reading this thread! Lucky I did! Will record that.

Just noticed getgames are doing Batman Arkham city goty edition for £4.99 http://getgamesgo.com/product/batman-arkham-city-goty-edition Sure it will be in steam sale for around £3.75 so probably better to wait though