Lighthouse

The problem with that being if they give Austin that wedge, everyone else in the dressing room will want it too.

People playing music, TV shows and games on their phone/iPad in public, without using headphones. No I don’t want to listen to your Spotify playlist and neither do the 10 other people sat in your vicinity.

F**king awesome! Now I just need to find somewhere in Switzerland showing the final.

I know it was only one game but the FA Cup game against Wigan, in which Carrillo was anonymous, left me wondering just how bad a player we’d spent £19m on. Adjusted for inflation, I’d say the fees we spent on Delgado and Osvaldo were as bad but at least they had one good moment apiece and against decent opposition too.

He could keep his current wage if we agreed to subsidise it for a year, that was my point. I can’t see why we wouldn’t try and do that.

If someone is out there offering him a two year deal on reduced wages, why would we not sell him and pay the difference. Pay him £70k a week, or pay him £20k and get an £8m transfer fee, seems a no brainer.

Seems odd that Man Utd would be interested and we're barely asking for what we paid for him, let alone any sort of mark up. Should be looking for at least £25m IMO.

No, we just have lives/jobs. Anyway, let's keep it on topic everyone.

I quite like the look of that teal training top, so I had a look on the online store. £85 Hilarious

Somewhere in a house in the New Forest, Shane Long has just got the shining.

I think you’d be surprised as to the number of people who have been affected personally or had issues with close friends and family. I confess to not being an expert but I’m pretty sure bullying and harassment aren’t a cure for anything.

The difference is though that I'm not interested in the WWC and never have I claimed to be. I was just posing a question about how much genuine interest there is and how much is just the gender politics flavour of the month. I don't disagree with the rest of your post and I honest hope the WC leads to an increase in young women playing football. I wont be watching but anything which encourages young people to put their screens down and take up sport has to be good. As for your daughter, if the Blades are the closest team then surely Hillsborough and Rotherham are also proximate? Take her to both for a while until Utd get relegated again.

That's the question I was originally asking though. Is there an actual genuine interest in watching women's football or is this just a flash in the pan because gender equality issues are a hot topic? If we're going to compare the women's game to men's leagues, it's probably Evo Stik League (or whatever it's called now) standard at the very best. I don't personally know anyone who watches football at that level, unless a friend or family member is involved and certainly not 11 million people. So that leads to the question, will people who watched the WWC continue to watch football of that standard JUST because there are women playing? If you're not interested in that standard of actual football, is having women on the pitch enough to maintain a consistent fan base? I'll give you an example, Natalie Portman posted a congratulatory message on Instagram, with a couple of standard feminist catchphrases. Fair enough, no problem with that but how often do you think we'll see her and other Hollywood actresses at the proverbial cold, wet, Tuesday night game in whatever their equivalent of Stoke is (Iowa maybe)? I fear this momentum and increased interest in women's football may be the same as our increased interest in South Korean rap, after the success of Gangnam style.

What a 10 years it's been!

The England men's team donate their wage to charity anyway, as they should. Representing your country should be purely about pride. I've no idea what the situation is in the USA but that should be the standard for several sports in most countries IMO. It still comes back to the same issue of where the money will come from. The WWC will attract nowhere near the viewers of the men's WC; fewer viewers, fewer sponsors, less money. As you say, it's a mad argument it's not going to happen.

No denying there is a pay gap between the top male and female players, the problem is it's just so subjective. There is no standard for men's pay, just whatever an agent can negotiate; and that can be anything from Alexis Sanchez down to some Isthmian league player, working part time as a welder. The pay gap is also often quoted without any suggestion as to where the money will actually come from. Plenty of empty sound bites, hardly anyone actually willing to buy a £800 ST and pay Sky/BT an extra £20pm to watch women's football.

I was on twitter earlier and the WC final was obviously trending, so I thought I’d take a look. Hundreds of tweets about the pay gap and how USA women have won four and get paid less than the men who didn’t qualify. Plenty of stuff to about Rapinoe and will she, won’t she go to the White House. Almost nothing about actual football. Literally nothing about, for eg. France’s problem RB position or should Sweden have played three at the back. The viewing figures have been decent but I do wonder how many of them have a genuine and sustained interest in the game and how many are just on the bandwagon.

I feel a much greater connection to players like Pahars, Lundekvam and Tessem than I do to Austin. In fact I remember him acting like a cocky idiot when he played against us for Swindon in League 1.

You do know it’s exactly the same ref that makes the other decisions? It’s literally the same person just having a better look.

One of those stories where there’s clearly more to it than is being reported. You’re lucky if the Police can spare four vans for an air raid, let alone a woman asking her husband to do some vacuuming.

How is Adam Clayton?

Why should we, "make his life a living hell," just because his agent managed to mug Les right off with that contract? He’s done nothing wrong. Leaking stories about him sitting out his contact isn’t going to achieve much anyway, we all know that’s what’s going on and nobody is angry at him, this is Reed’s doing. He’s not going to be chased down Above Bar Street with pitch forks any time soon and nor should he be.

TBH That would be my preference if he could find a club. Even if we have to pay 50% of his wages to play for another club for three years, it's better than paying him 100% to do f**k all here. I don't know him but I suspect he would take a move if there was no pay cut involved.

A complete myth, we don’t concede any fewer goals when he’s on the pitch when off it. He was on the pitch when we conceded 3 against Bournemouth, West Ham and Liverpool, not to mention all 6 at Man City. We sent him on when we needed to score at Newcastle, ended up conceding again. Everton at home, 2-0 and cruising - brought Long on with 15 minutes left and ended up clinging on to a 2-1 lead. He does not put pressure on anyone. He gives the ball away, he’s offside, he falls over. Cardiff at home was one of the most pathetic displays I’ve seen, throwing himself to the floor at the lightest of contact and winning nothing. If I want to see closing down, I’ll go to Homebase. From a Premier League striker we need an awful lot more than that.

Fair point, I’ve not watched either of their news coverage recently so I can’t really comment. I’m just generally wearing of anyone reporting the news who may or may not have an agenda.