KelvinsRightGlove

It's funny how everyone on here suddenly loves him. Prior to his sacking there was barely a day that didn't see threads questioning his 'pulling power', tactics, selections, substitutions, press-conferences and ability. The usually loud voices that often distort opinion around here were calling for his head. I certainly took a lot of abuse in staunchly standing by him. Odd how things switch, still love the bloke, and will never forget what he did, or the shoddy way the replacement took place, but it did. Time to look forwards now. We have Poch, and Adkins will most likely get another job, and probably play against us, and probably win, the git. Wish him all the best.

Class player in his prime. Shame that prime was basically 18-21, seriously unlucky with injuries. That said he has a rotten attitude, seriously patronising and condescending beyond belief. Clearly hasn't given a stuff about football for quite some years, far more concerned with horses and watches.

It's a tough one I think. Players like Matty, Tim Cahill, Ronaldo, and even Lampard are often classed as Midfielders, but really, they aren't. Perhaps Lampard to a lesser extent, but they rarely do little midfield duties, let alone the defensive duties of a midfielder. All still very good goalscoring options from deeper positions.

Ha yeah, also just remembered I'm seeing Cold War Kids & Lana Del Rey in May, all around my trip to Dubai. Plus Stone Roses and The xx in June. No wonder I am constantly broke - totally worth it mind. Sounds like you had a great time at Richard Ashcroft. He just never did it for me. Don't really know why, though I will never forgive him for the amount of ***tty Mancs bowling round London like him now. As an aside, I nearly had a scuffle with one of these on my lunch t'other day. Was stood on Oxford St, replying to a text, when some scrawny Manc just drops his shoulder straight into my chest as he walked past, knocking my phone into the road. I grabbed him on the shoulder after he ignored me, and threw his ****y trilby in the road before smugly walking away. That said, I just found it a bit hard to get all that excited by his sets, I never really loved The Verve, and when I have seen him solo, it's basically been a Verve set. For me, Stones was one of those great gigs. All about opinions I guess. Either way, glad you enjoy RA, and keep sharing bud

Sounds plausible. He kind of alludes to it himself. It may be a case of who blinks first. He half suggests he might buy himself out of the contract. Silly bloke, he was doing really well there this season, til he got his head turned by QPR. Must fancy Championship footy next year** **Yeah i'm sure it was more likely the £1m p/w Harry was probably prepared to not know about paying him

Uff, all kicking off today ent it chaps? @OdemwingieP What has gotten into this guys head? I don't think I have ever seen anyone as hell-bent on wrecking their own career. Maybe he should be a full-time Liverpool fan, always the victim it's never his fault, bless him.

In fairness, I actually think hew did an ok job in tough circumstances down the road. Though you have to question someone's judgement when they go to a place like Blackburn with what has been going on there.

Blimey, he don't stick around long does he?!

Please can we get rid of Billy Sharp. I really like the guy, but the endless talk of him coming back/playing in the Prem just does my head in. Struggling to get a look in at Forest now, yet people will still want him in the Prem. There must be a reason he has not been given a crack at it before. Both parties should just move on in my opinion.

Savages are brilliant, would really like to see them. Totally disagree on Palma's though. Granted, they are a bit derivative. But, they have good songs and great energy.

Fair enough pal. There may well be merit in that. As I said, I think right now, his form is below that of JRod & Lallana. Not an awful scenario to be in though really, Jrod Lallana Gaston starting, with Davis/Punch to choose from. Not bad for a squad with no depth

A few weeks ago people on here were saying we would be lucky to get £6m for Jrod & Gaston combined if we were relegated.

Mate, I'm not remotely ashamed to say I would go gay for Becks in a heartbeat. Unbelievably top bloke. It seems trendy to knock him now, and say he held England back (cliques etc), he single-handedly dragged the national team by the collar for about 4-5 years. Easily the best England captain by a mile, he, unlike most others in an England shirt, seemed to genuinely care. Yes, he messed up sometimes, but you could see how hurt he was when the team lost. Passion you just don't seem to get from JT, Lamps, Gerrard, Johnson, Rooney. Again, agree entirely with your post.

Haha. Fair enough mate, football and forums are all about opinions, yours is more than valid, even if I am inclined to disagree.. I do honestly think in his last couple of appearances, he has been below of the high standards he has set at times this season. I think MP seems to prefer JRod to JP, though he does also seem to like to shuffle the pack. Personally, I think our best '3' off the striker are Jrod, Lallana & Gaston. Though I am also a staunch believer in playing a team that suits the game, so certainly still see the use of having JP in the squad.

Don't disagree with any of this pal. Though that said, they are kind of damned if they do, damned if they don't. I still can't get over the stick Beckham got for donating 6 months wages to charity. "Oh he's loaded anyway, what does it matter?!" "Should have given it to an English charity" Both genuine and just a small selection of people I knows comments. Pathetic. Whether he can afford it or not is irrelevant. He is under no obligation whatsoever to donate (what should we estimate? £100k p/w, for 6 months? £3mish area?) that sort of money, it is an extremely generous act. Plenty of others, with much more than him, and are much more vocal in telling us all how we should live do a lot less (yes I am looking at you Bono).

Really? Punch's last few performances really have not been up to much. Lallana was brilliant on Saturday, probably should have scored, but caused so many problems. I think JP has been in good form for spells of this season, but I do honestly think he still flatters to deceive. For all his running, he is pretty one-dimensional, and a bit of a one-trick pony. Loses the ball so often it is infuriating.

Fair enough, I haven't really heard of such a story before. Just thought it was a nice touch from the bloke.

This is kind of my point about the ratio of officials to players/size of pitch. Compared to tennis it's simply staggering. As many point out, linesmen seem either incapable or unwilling to intervene, effectively leaving one referee trying to officiate 22 players on a pitch often around 60m x 100m. It's crazy. Without extra support they are bound to miss things, even the very best referees are going to miss things. It's just inevitable. UEFA have been using these extra officials in Europa League games the last few years, but they are not allowed to bring things to the refs attention, making them about as useful as a fishnet condom.

Indeed, even a clapper such as myself will admit I transferred to the flappers after that goal. Although, from about 60 mins on I started to feel much better. Davis' introduction was the right call for me. Seemed to settle us down, imo.

I quite agree. I'd be fuming if I was Pardew, a potentially career-ending challenge (I don't necessarily think it was malicious, but dangerous and reckless undoubtedly) & and a blatant handball giving a goal away - neither spotted. Fair Pards, he was far more restrained post-match than I would have been, I'd probably have been much more akin to John Carver. The joke is, if he went off on one, it would be him, not the ref (Halsey?) that would be fined and punished. I appreciate it is a hard job to ref a game, I find it bizarre that a game like football has less refs than sports such as Tennis, played on a smaller area, with less players. Refs need more help. I don't doubt that the majority of their cock-ups are just honest mistakes. They have a split-second to make a call, and not the benefit of the endless slow-mo replays that help us make a decision and criticise the ref. I think video refs wouldn't be as damaging as some suggest. There was what, a 5 minute interlude yesterday when Haidara was receiving treatment, a video ref could easily have made a call in that time, heck the ref could have gone and got a cuppa, sat down and analysed it from every angle. In a large number of contentious calls, there is an inevitable break in play where players crowd the ref and protest (fruitlessly anyway) their case -again, 10 seconds wait on a replay isn't going to be that big a difference really. I do think refs need to be more accountable, such poor performances should incur reprimands from their bosses. But, I also have to commend Halsey (I think it was him) for admitting, he simply could not see the challenge, due to a player blocking his view. If you can't see it, you really can't give it. Hence the refs needing as much help as possible. Ofcourse, these are just my humble thoughts on the matter.

That's very selective nit-picking there. Perhaps it could have been 2-2 at HT, could just as easily been 4/5-0.

Ipswich player giving free tickets to a fan that was too skint to make the game. Obviously a one-off incident, but still nice to see a player giving something back to fans. Nice story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-21821696

Any regular visitors to The Arts forum may be aware of me banging on about this band Peace. I have seriously not been as excited by a new band since the days of '05, and trawling through fan pages finding dodgy Arctic Monkeys demo's. Anyways, they seem to be on something of a roll at the minute, and spearheading Birmingham's assault on the music scene. Debut album In Love is up on NME if anyone cares to give it a listen, I will be doing so, on repeat, possibly for ever. http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=1&title=peace_in_love_album_stream&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1