Wes Tender

A healthy dose of cynicism probably based on years of experience of journalists either making things up, or just plain lying. I like your style.

Starting to see stuff appearing on News Now within the past few minutes from Man Utd, Chelsea fans, stating that Shaw will sign a 5 year deal to stay with us. Great news when it will be announced officially

I agree with all of this, but Carroll actually has THREE qualities that Lambert hasn't, although the third is not exactly what you might label as a "better" quality. Carroll has the ability to fall down like a sack of spuds whenever a defender breathes heavily on him, conning numerous referees to award WH free kicks in dangerous areas. I really cannot remember another player who was built like an Ox, but who could be floored as easily. Perhaps the ponytail is a clue; he's really more suited to the Womens' game. Lambert is far too honest an individual to fall down every five seconds and has defenders climbing all over his back, pulling his shirt, holding him down, but he stays on his feet and gets nothing from the referees. As such, he is useless to the England team, who rely on divers to gain them an advantage.

Strange, isn't it? Probably has lots to do with the tribal psychology so that people will wear the tribal outfit which has been decreed for them by the tribal elders, and liking or disliking it doesn't enter their minds. Whether we would have accepted such a complete change in our colours remains to be seen. The sash kit was quite a departure and very successful, but there were unusual circumstances for the change and it looked good and had some basis in our past history. If we were to switch from red to blue though, I wonder what percentage of our fanbase would buy the new kit, especially as they are the colours of our closest/distant rivals. It would be nice to believe that it would only be a small percentage, but as you say, that is not a certainty. There's nowt so queer as folk as they say oop North.

I agree, but I must have expressed it in terms that Dorkish didn't understand. There is an element of the fanbase of any club who will buy the new kit regardless of whether they like it or not, just because it is the new strip of their club. As such, they lack the mental strength to decide not to buy it on principle. Acts of principle require determination, therefore a degree of mental strength. These people are like sheep, with no mind of their own, similar to the plastics that support the glory clubs. If they are not prepared to boycott a kit they despise, then they deserve to have it inflicted on them.

That's what I'd do; continue to wear the traditional colours and boycott the new kit in colours that were alien to the club. Either their owner doesn't care whether they have poor merchandising sales, or he arrogantly thinks that he can completely disregard the opinions of the fans and ride roughshod over them, and they'll blindly buy whatever rubbish they are presented with. A stadium full of blue shirts and a shop full of unsold stock would quickly disabuse him of that opinion. The trouble is, there will always be a percentage of fans who will buy the new kit regardless, because they don't have the mental strength to make a stand on a matter of principle. Big clubs with loads of plastic fans can get away with that philosophy far more easily than the smaller lower profile clubs, although as their marketing initiatives produce millions of £s of revenue for them, they employ marketing experts who would throw their hands up in horror at such a crass policy. If it were to be applied to us, it would have even more significance, as a change of our colours the other way, would put us in the colours of our main rivals.

Video quality much improved on the earlier one I watched when the news of Ron Davies' death came to light. Thank you for your efforts.

I've never failed to find a space close to the Stadium during a working week day, so it's hardly a matter of being on the off-chance. During weekends when there is no match, one can also park on the industrial estate adjacent to the stadium on a single line all day. And of course, presumably when you attend matches you could visit the store too. So excuse me if I consider the reason that you will not buy goods from the shop because of the stadium car parking charges to be a bit petty.

You can easily find a free parking space in Britannia Road outside the stadium more often than not, so your protest lacks credibility.

Who cares? Really. Just because Delldays usually ran rings around you, you come across like a dog gnawing at a bone. You give it up.

Journos will twist anything that has been said in cases like this to sensationalise it, in order to maximise sales.

I believe to to have been a typo; he really meant p issy

Haven't you heard of a menage a trois?

Even as I write, Mr Gimp is probably emailing the fat journo pointing out that our evil Chairman had his photo on the programme cover, that the players have to mention him periodically in a favourable light, for fear that they are not selected for the team or sold off, and that the fans have been seduced by this megalomaniac into chanting his name at matches.

I've had no respect for his judgement ever since he paid £1 to buy the Skates and didn't expect to have change from the transaction. But regarding his predictions for this past season, I expect that he'll be a bit reticent to step up to the plate predicting next season's placings, as he will come in for massive ridicule on how badly wrong he was here.

Come to that, this journo who some consider to be objective, doesn't appear to have written much in the way of condemnation of the Skates, does he? I might be mistaken, but I don't recall him questioning their ownership by gun-runners, Arabs who don't exist or who are penniless, Russian Mafia, or Hong Kong loan sharks. Where were his articles about the massive spending beyond their means, cheating the taxman or charities, buying the FA Cup, with players they couldn't afford, etc. He's very selective about whom he wishes to be objective about and even then his objectivity is based on his conjecture about our situation rather than hard facts.

Nice to read your response, Frank which I thought was very objective, but no doubt will be construed as bleating by Misguided. He's an arrogant sod, isn't he, accusing most posters on here of lacking the ability to be objective.

What a surprise. Martin Samuel's axe was getting blunt, so needed grinding.

What a shame that we couldn't sign off the campaign with a win, as although it was nice to have nothing to play for apart from league position, we limped over the line with recent results. We should have beaten Stoke today with the possession we had and the chances we created, but having scored first, Stoke were happy to park the bus and we didn't have the creativity to undo their defence. Hopefully we will add that type of player in the Summer and be capable of taking dross like Stoke apart.

If I recall correctly, we should have been awarded a free kick for a foul on Shaw? just before the ball went out to Jerome, who was marginally offside when he received it. His finish can't be faulted, but the goal was a result of poor refereeing counting against us. That 3 points would have been very valuable to us.

Depending naturally on what our investment is on new players in the Summer and what happens at Liverpool, Everton and Spurs, there is a possibility that we could finish at 7th or even 6th. Bale's goals at Spurs are the difference between them finishing where they are and finishing several places lower. Can they keep him? The same applies to Liverpool with Suarez. Who knows how Everton will fare without Moyse? There are several imponderables before a firmer conclusion could be reached.

Another couple of articles by bloggers insisting that Chelski have the upper hand in the race to sign him, ahead of Arsenal and Spurs. And then the idiot bloggers suggest that £10 million should be enough, not even considering the basic laws of supply and demand which suggest that if all three of those clubs wanted him, the price would be inflated upwards. Cretins. And naturally these idiots don't know enough about us to realise that our ownership and ambitions do not necessitate the sale of players we wish to keep. If we had a player worth £10 million or £15 million or whatever, we would probably need to spend that amount to replace him. And why would we do that when we already have him here? Of course we could spend that money on two or three players costing lesser amounts, but would the sum of the parts add up to what the likes of Shaw brings to the team now and in the future?

How often is it that one twin is left-handed and the other right-handed?

Like you, I don't have a very high opinion of journalists, having had years of enough experience reading about stories that have either been twisted or fabricated and this has made me very cynical about them. But according to our resident expert with insider knowledge of things journalistic, the scenario above is most unlikely. Given that both Cortese and the Liebherrs have before now been reticent to talk to the press, it is a bit odd how they got to hear about this, but in the same way that posters on here have been capable of coming up with all sorts of conjecture as to the how it all came about, the press are equally capable of getting the wrong end of the stick too in my opinion.

But as far as I'm aware, you never stated what those right circumstances were. Egg all over your face.