Wes Tender

No, I am not. You might reach that conclusion for much the same reason that I might ask whether you are still a juvenile. The importance of something like good use of language, is the impression it gives to others, isn't it?

That is the line put about by all those whose prowess with grammar is well below par, either because they had poor teachers, were poor pupils, or just plain thick. Mind you, poor teachers is not a valid excuse really, as it is not beyond anybody to catch up by reading books. Unfortunately for those poor saps whose grasp of the English language is so poor, a lot of the old people they disparage are employers, so their job prospects are slight or non-existant should they apply for a position where language skills are necessary.

You've been very quiet recently. Holiday? But inevitably you couldn't resist responding on this thread to raise this particular point in defence of the Skates' own version of you. Undoubtedly there were quite a few who boycotted the Lowe regime, although even then our attendances have often exceeded those at Krap Nottarf, even though we were a division below them at the time. If they have fans who as a matter of principle boycott their corrupt regimes of the past season, then I respect their position. It's the ones who are in denial about their low attendances that make me laugh. In defence of the Ho, he does admit that it's surprising that attendances at their dump have remained even at that poor level, so he clearly believes that there is a strong element of boycott with them too for similar reasons to ours. Our boycott rid us of the charlatans who had run the club for the past decade and brought about the arrival of the man who has changed our fortunes for the better. But we still had a decent stadium and infrastructure and low debt levels that made us an attractive proposition to a buyer. Ho knows if he is truthful that the Skates are a basket case. All this defence of his poxy club is not unexpected, but he knows in his heart that it is all bluster.

I wonder whether the European Super State will also be changing us all to speak German or French eventually? And if so, will your use of the language's grammar improve, or will it still be at primary school level?

It was a patchy game. It was a shaky start by us, looking very apprehensive and slow out of the blocks. They scored in the second minute having had a decent opportunity in the first 30 seconds. At about the ten minute mark, we had settled a bit and started to play attractive passing football and I felt that it was almost inevitable that we would score, given the amount of possession that we had. So it proved. But with the loss of Jaidi, I wasn't as confident that the defence would be impregnable and following an injury to the LO player, well, two of them actually, they really started to come back into it, for a period very much the better team than us. It was only through some dogged defending and a magnificent save by Kelvin that we managed to hold on. Even when two up through Lallana, one of the few bright spots of the match, it looked as if it was eminently possible that we could throw it away. There have been rumours I noticed on another thread that several players were out on the lash late last night. If true, it certainly looked as if several of them were suffering from the effects of something like that. If it was not an excuse that they could use, then they should buck up their ideas, as generally with one or two exceptions, they were poor. It is reasonable to expect that the Brighton game could be used as the Wembley hangover and with that out of the way as a distraction, they would be concentrating their efforts onto the remote possibility of the play-offs. If they feel that it is not feasible to get there and have given up trying, then Pardew needs to disabuse them of that idea and kick some arses, perhaps play some fringe players who do give a damn.

They have only been kept going because it would be a major headache for the Premiership to pull the plug on them before the end of the season. As soon as the last kick of the ball has taken place in their last match, they will be flushed down the toilet. Whatever happens in the FA Cup is not detrimental to the FA. Either they get beaten and everybody shrugs their shoulders, or they win it and the fairy tale Cup idea gets a boost. They are already relegated bar the shouting and will start the season in the Fizzy Pop with a massive points deduction, as they will not come out of it with a CVA because of the Customs and Revenue. They still have the court cases for Storrie and Redcrapp to come which could mean further deductions. If you can make out any sort of cogent case as to why anybody would want to buy them under those circumstances, I'd be pleased to hear it. Also, if you believe that some or none of those things I have mentioned will not happen, again, please tell me why not.

What are you on about? It is a simple matter of Parliamentary democracy. The English electorate are disenfranchised on matters affecting certain parts of the United Kingdom, whereas Scottish and Welsh voters are allowed to vote on matters affecting the Englsih. Do you think that is fair? A simple yes or no will suffice.

The matter is a simple one. Many years ago, Tam Dalyell tabled what becamse known as The West Lothian Question. It is patently ridiculous that MPs representing Scottish and Welsh constituencies are able to vote in Parliament on matters affecting England, yet MPs representing English constituencies are not able to reciprocate in Scottish or Welsh matters. It is a cause of massive resentment amongst the English electorate and until it is corrected, that resentment can only fester and grow. As far as I'm concerned, we either return to the Union in its former guise and get rid of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh assembly, or else we give parity to the English by disallowing Scottish and Welsh MPs to vote on English matters. As it stands anyway, the number of Labour MPs representing Scottish and Welsh constituencies gives Labour its majority to govern us, so there is no particular incentive for a Labour government to introduce reforms. Perhaps the Conservatives and Lib Dems ought to call for a referendum on it. It is long overdue. Matters are not helped by the main ministerial posts being filled predominently by Scots too over the past few decades.

You make assumptions that Chairnrai is an astute businessman who somehow had the wool pulled over his eyes. In which case he wouldn't be an astute businessman, would he? If it is to be believed that he has no interest in owning a football club at all, there is even more reason for him to be cautious. Personally, I believe that the circumstances that have arisen give more credence to the theorists who reckon that the bad blood between Chainrai and Gaydamak senior was the reason that Chainrai got involved. What are the chances that the Skates will have somebody come forward to buy the club to somehow put Chainrai's nose out of joint in the same way? Otherwise I can see no reason whatsoever that anybody would want to buy them. Accepting that if any buyer is not an idiot with more money than sense (i.e. TCWTB winning the Euro Lottery) due dilligance and forensic accounting will reveal so many maggots in the apple that any reasonably sane businessman would run a mile. There are many more clubs that could be bought that represent far better value than the Skates, clubs that have better stadia, better training facilities' less debt and probably better fans too.

Greatest fans in the World? What a joke. Their hour of greatest need and they have deserted like rats from a sinking ship. Avram Grant asks for the chance to stay under the new owners and plan for their return to the Premiership in three seasons or so. He obviously isn't aware that the probability is that they won't exit administration with their CVA and therefore will be docked a further 15 points or so in the Fizzy Pop division and perhaps even more depending on whether the courts find some illegal dealing by Storrie and Redcrapp. Even so, they will have lost any players of any quality and will have to start again building a new squad. And that's all dependent on whether these new people aren't put off once they have completed their due dilligence and forensic accounting searches. The likelihood of them finding a buyer/s with more money than sense are pretty remote.

The other day? I must have missed it. This is a change of tune from you, isn't it Dalek? I don't seem to recall you championing Glen Hoddle before.

That's because Brighton played a defensive formation too. Personally I do not consider playing one striker up front to be a mainly attacking formation. Do you? It isn't as if Barnard was injured, or even that Papa wasn't available to play up front with Lambert either. The main criticism that is held by many, is that the substitutions that tipped the balance in our favour were made much too late in the game. Do you disagree?

Surely the purpose of this FOOTBALL forum is to debate the team, the players, the manager, the matches, the owner and the chairman. Is there an edict gathering strength that is going to disallow discussion on the team when it doesn't win?

Is that why they're above Carlisle in the table then? Oh, sorry, they're not. It's the other way around. Look at the matches this season and Carlisle have beaten teams that we didn't and lost to some teams that we beat. The same can be said about Brighton, but tellingly we have only taken one point from Brighton from the six and yet we are above them in the table. So presumably we are a better team than Brighton, with decent enough away form, but still gave them far too much respect. For all that Pardew says that we bossed it for most of the match, it didn't sound like it from the commentary and seemingly it wasn't a case that Brighton are better than us, but that we got it wrong tactically and snatched a point from the jaws of defeat.

And we recently beat Huddersfield and Walsall even more convincingly and Morgan wasn't playing at Wembley when we beat Carlisle 4-1. The trouble was that the home team tried to pack the midfield to negate the threat of two of the most potent strikers in the division and it was only when we were on the verge of defeat that we dared to play them together and also introduce Papa Weigo too who is also a capable striker. We lacked guts and Brighton probably couldn't believe their luck that we were only playing Lambert up front until they had almost won all three points.

This seems to match the Solent commmentary. Therefore the question needs to asked. Why was Pardew so negative in having Lambert alone up front? We seemed to have played into Brighton's hands by not playing to our strengths and putting them under the cosh. Eventually, when the substitutions were made, it was too late. On the face of it, Gus Poyet outmanouevred Pardew tacticallyfor three quarters of the match, especially when his two substitutes in the second half produced a goal between the two of them within minutes. Pardew's triple substitutions smacked of a last desperate throw of the dice. At least we pulled back one point, but I fear that our chances of the play-offs depended on us getting three points from the likes of Brighton and we have blown it. We are far more dependent on others tripping up now, rather than it being in our hands as it was a few games ago.

Yes, quite, it's a compulsory levy that most decent tax paying citizens have been paying all their lives. Most have a quite reasonable assumption that because they have paid all this tax and insurance, they will be able to gain state assistance in their twilight years should they require it, without having to sell up their home. Furthermore, should they decide to move abroad, they mostly assumed that their pension entitlement would be the same as if they carried on living here. Instead, they find that the government has moved the goalposts and will not be increasing it in line with inflation if they live abroad.

Qualified psychologist are we?

Exactly. How he can make this assumption (for that is all it can be when there are so many different opinions as to what the cause of the booing even was) is beyond me. If he has any inside information to back up his assertion, let him publish it here. Otherwise, he is just an ordinary fan with strictly his own opinion, which has no more validity or basis than anybody else's.

In case you had not noticed, this is a forum. In other words, it is a place for people to express their opinions. Now, you might not agree with the opinions of other posters, but do you therefore challenge their right to express them on here? In any event perhaps you could kindly assure us that you know the difference between what constitutes argument and what is debate? Rolley-eye thing for you too.

Hopefully he will continue to treat the self-important tw*ts of the media with the contempt that they sometimes deserve. I trust that the local hacks and their friends higher up the feeding chain of vultures and other assorted carrion have got the message; if they wish to have access to inside news about their local club, it is a two way street. They scratch our backs and we'll scratch theirs. Cortese has nothing either to apologise for, or to feel contrite about, either in the way that he handles the media, or indeed in his expectations about how the club should be run. How does your assertion in your last sentence fit against a background of what we do need? Would you for example trade in our chief executive and by proxy his billionaire friend for somebody else whose relations with the media were impeccable, but his financial wealth was distinctly lacking? Regrettably, the chairman for most of the past decade was defficient on both counts. As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to give our chief executive quite a degree of latitude because of what he has already done to turn around our fortunes in just under a year. If others wish to be critical, they ought to consider what the alernative could be without Liebherr and Cortese before opening their mouths.

Agree that Monpellier is a lovely city and that the area around there is very pretty. I have only a couple of little niggles about that stretch of the South of France; you have to be careful where you walk in many of the towns because the French dogs can sh*t where they like and nobody cleans up after them and secondly the number of North African street hawkers and tinkers is a bit of a nuisance sometimes. Other than that, I have also considered that area as a retirement option too.

It's time for a change is a reasonable standpoint for the electorate to take. They voted in Labour based on a set of manifesto promises that they have largely failed to deliver. In particular, they tried to gain the votes of the middle classes with promises that they would not increase the tax burden on them. Having been re-elected for a second term, they have had ample time to have put in place nearly all of their policies promised since their first election into Government. If the electorate make their judgement on that basis, it could easily be construed quite reasonably that it is time for a change. Please do let us mention the inheritance tax. It might have been a tax on the very wealthy when it was first introduced, but as the level at which it is levied has not been increased to keep up with inflation over many, many years, it now falls as a burden onto the shoulders of a much larger section of the population who are not wealthy, but who live in houses in expensive areas of the country. As most of these people have paid their taxes all of their lives on their income, it increasingly becomes scandalous that they have to pay this death tax too. The same thing applies to the policy of forcing the elderly to sell their houses to pay for care homes in their old age. What exactly is the point in being prudent with one's finances, paying off a mortgage, saving and being debt free and owning property if the state forces you to sell it all? I can entirely see the point in them selling up and moving abroad, as even if they have to pay for care over there, it would be much cheaper in most countries and they would have the satisfaction of knowing that those money-grabbing socialists back home couldn't get their sticky fingers onto their hard-earned dosh.

They say it's impossible to tell them apart, as they're identical.

That's amazing! I just got one of those too. How did we both get so lucky, eh?