oxfordshire_saint

Saw this lot way back in Feb, still loving it

Wish I could go, spent time around there last summer and it's breathtaking. Two decent friendlies and the fresh mountain air should be ideal preparation.

Right, it's 12:40 now and there's still no signings, this is unacceptable, WE WILL GET RELEGATED! EVERYBODY PANIC! CORTESE OUT! PAYMENT PLANS IN! LONG LIVE THE DAILY ECHO! Oh.....wait....it's the 1st July, not the 1st August, in which case, I take it all back.

Due to Sochaux releasing the friendly details ahead of it appearing on the OS, Cortese will now cancel the friendly, ban Sochaux players, officials and fans from ever setting foot inside St Marys and never deal with them again :-P

KD is bit of a mixed bag as a keeper. His shot stopping and reflexes are brilliant and he's got better at dealing crosses since he's dropped a league, but what gets me is that his distribution is still so poor. He's a brilliant pro, but as a keeper easily replaced IMO

I agree to an extent about the players being crushed by the expectations, but these are elite professionals who play in massive games in the Champs League, Premier League and to a lesser extent the FA Cup. They get conditioned by sports psychologists etc to deal with that sort of pressure. If they can't hack it, they shouldn't be there. This is the greatest stage on which to prove yourself as a footballer and last night we learnt that they haven't even got the ******** to go for the jugular against spirited but limited opposition. All the other major nations deals with similar hype, if anything the Italian, Brazilian, Argentinian, Spanish and German press are as bad, if not worse, than ours. I've got the utmost respect for what Capello has achieved at club level, he's absolutely first class, but he's been tactically inept in South Africa. Last night was the perfect opportunity to introduce Joe Cole, because we were short on ideas going forward and Joe Cole has the flair to change that, look how Brazil benefited from Robinho's creativity against a stubborn N.Korean defence. Also, what's the point in bringing on Crouch on 83 mins? By the time he's settled into the game, it's over, so a pointless change. I really hope we can't get any lower than this, but Rooney's reaction afterwards suggests the players are going to blame others rather than admit that they were disgracefully poor. If you were Capello would you tear into them after that or put an arm around the shoulder and take the softly softly approach? Maybe he needs to show them the Carlsberg teamtalk ad before they run out against Slovenia?

One man who definitely won't be going there now is Marcus Tudgay, not unless his missus has a big say in where he goes....

We should set the Yoof on anyone who enters St Mary's with one next season

Do they do the N-Power League badges for the sleeves yet? I'll probably leave them anyway, sponsor free!

The band are indeed ghey, they don't even do requests. They refused to do "No Surrender to the IRA", "10 German Bombers" or "Two World Wars and one World Cup", spoilsports

I'm doing a drinking game during tomorrow's games. Shot of tequilla every time a commentator says the word "Vuvuzela". I fully expect to be in the hospital having my stomach pumped by half-time in the Greece - South Korea match.

Yes they're annoying, yes they will sully the experience of watching World Cup football somewhat, but I'm getting bored of hearing journos mention them all the time. What's the point in them? (both journos and vuvuzelas)

I believe Barry Hearn labled us cheats when we came down with -10. I hope Orient go down and he loses a shedload of money.

Diana Ross' penalty always makes me laugh, no matter how many times I see it

I'd be interested to see how FIFA would react if someone nowadays tried to give another player some Frank Rijkaard "hair product"

1986 - Hand of God 1990 - Gazza's tears, penalties 1998 - Beckham's petulance/Simeone's cheating 2002 - Ronaldinho's free-kick 2006 - Ronaldo's wink, penalties Seems that over the last few world cups, we always have some sort of controversy or scapegoat. How boring would it be if we just got knocked out 1-0, by a better side and with a perfectly legitimate goal with nobody really at fault for it?

To be fair that was in the host nation though. I was there for Brazil vs Croatia and it was a similar amount of people, crazy atmosphere. There were screens in London for 2006, but the amount of public disorder means they won't be doing it again this time, the morons ruin it for the rest. I've heard the police are also citing the problems in Manchester for Rangers vs Zenit as a reason, which is crazy, as that was the sweaties going on a rampage, not us. The problem here is that every time we get trusted with large public events, the minority ruin it, that's why fans in the Bundesliga are allowed to get boozed up on the terraces in Germany and how you're more likely to see hell freeze over before we get terracing back here.

I rate a lot of America's players, Bradley, Donavan, Dempsey, Howard and even Altidore (despite him being a bit of a flop in the Prem, but then again he was playing for Hull). The problem they have is that there is such a gulf in class between the best and worst players in their squad. They've come in leaps and bounds over the last 10-15 years and I think it'll continue, with the continued amount of money going into the game there I think they could be a genuine threat within the 20 years someone stated earlier. This year though, like someone said earlier, out in the first knockout round methinks.

I've had fish & chips in Seascale, true story

To be honest, in his previous job Cortese could probably be a real bastard and nobody but a few people would care because it's not as public as being chairman of a football club and he was damn good at what he did. This has been his first season in football, so let's see how he adapts to it over time, because let's face it, Lowe never understood it.

The Best of Chet Baker Sings

Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't Swindon got some decent financial backing nowadays? (obviously not on our level though!) As someone mentioned above, Austin may find it a bit harder 2nd season as he'll be a marked man, people know what he's about now and also his partner in crime, Billy Paynter, has let his contract run down and will be buggering off. Danny Wilson is a good manager though and I expect them to be in the mix for the playoffs.

That makes sense, I took a drive around the area back in December on my way to the Christmas Market in Aachen and all the houses around seemed to have a lot of land. Out of interest, what tickets did you go for? We've just got the bog-standard bronze area weekend tickets for €150, couldn't justify paying silly money for the grandstands, no matter how tempting it was to sit at Eau Rouge!

Would love to take you up on the offer but I'm going with the missus! Any idea what parking is like at the track or do most of the local towns offer shuttle bus services?

Just booked my tickets for it, gonna be my first F1 experience. Planning on camping, has anyone been there? Any recommendations?