Sheaf Saint

Remains to be seen I guess. Maybe he genuinely has learned his lesson. Either way, what he says is true. Premiership footballers don't live in the real world. As Bill Bailey described them 'A bunch of vain, illiterate, borderline rapists whose job it is to shepherd a piece of leather into an outdoor cupboard'. The reality they live in is completely alien to that of the fans who idolise them. The money that they now earn as a result of the ridiculous increases in ticket prices over the last 10-15 years is just obscene. I remember WGS musing on how he is supposed to motivate a dressing-room full of millionaires, and I can see his point.

Now now. For all you know he has quietly been learning his trade ever since he left Saints, and he may well go on top become a very successful manager with Bolton. There again, he may well fail spectacularly and get them relegated. It's hard to say really.

Yeah I did get it thanks.

Not that I know of, but it should be!

Grilled haloumi. mmmMMMMmmmm.

While I would not normally find myself agreeing with Delldays, I do think that some people on this thread should be ashamed of themselves for their 'holier than thou' attitude towards him. Persdonally, I think he makes a very valid point on this subject. It seems that only after this guy's arrest and conviction has so much been made of his mental condition. If you scratch the surface you find a bankrupt guy with a history of dodgy business dealings, so I'm not entirely convinced that he did not know what he was doing, because if his condition was as serious as some people are making out then how has he made it into his 50s without being institutionalised? If he was genuinely incapable of knowing right from wrong or understanding what he was getting himself into then how was he able to run his own business? Now, whether or not you agree with it, the fact remains that China still uses capital punishment for drug-trafficking, and anybody who puts themselves int that situation must face the consequences. The argument that Shaikh didn't know what was in the suitcase these people gave him just doesn't wash with me I'm afraid. For somebody to be so oblivious to the dangers of carrying someone else's suitcase through customs without bothering to check the contents of it, they must either be monumentally stupid or have the mental-age of a 7-year-old. Clearly Shaikh was neither of these things. I don't think you can pinpoint bi-polar disorder as being responsible for him not knowing what he as doing. I think in all probability he knew exactly what he was doing. Now we might all agree that the sentence was overly harsh for his crime, but as I said, that is China's laws and they must be respected regardless of whether we agree with them or not. If you can't do the time then don't do the crime.

Make sure you have some Prozac at the ready!

Merrington thinks that was an important goal for Southampton. I'm so glad he shares his little nuggets with us because I would be totally in the dark about the whole objective of this game they call association football otherwise.

Lloyd James you beauty!

Just thought I would share this mashup video that a mate of mine has done... And yes, he does have too much spare time on his hands!

Snowing again in Sheffield and lots more forecast overnight. Thank god I don't have to drive anywhere now until next tuesday!

Maybe if your posts weren't so provocative and you didn't bite back so hard then you might find people would stop doing it.

Are you on a mission to get yourself banned today Delldays?

It's alright, no need for them to panic. Riquelme will be signing on a free in jan. He'll save them.

At least he won't have to face the Iraq inquiry until after the election... http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8428074.stm Not sure whether I agree with that or not. If Brown's testimony to the inquiry shows him to be in any way guilty of any kind of misconduct in the run up to the invasion, then the public deserve to be told about that before deciding whether or not to vote for him or his party IMO.

I heard on Radio 2 news on the way home last night that there was going to be a huge national shortage of sprouts this christmas due to the crops freezing over in the cold snap or something. Lucky for me I can't stand the damn things

Always up for a bit of 'scampi-pampy'

Squid fiddler? Pike poker?

Neither am I. If you bothered to read my original post you would see that what I said was I would be far more impressed IF they did it. I didn't say I expected them to.

I didn't realise this was a 'I'm better than you' contest. What are you doing?

As it happens, I enquired about volunteering for a soup kitchen over xmas but they already had all the volunteers they needed. Homelessness isn't actually a problem in my particular area of Sheffield, as far as I'm aware, but if any homeless people come knocking over xmas I will gladly share some of the modest goodies I have been fortunate enough to buy in (as long as they don't stink the place out!)

Well no, seeing as I have a two-bedroomed terrace house that will be full, as opposed to living in obscene luxury at the expense of UK taxpayers.

I would be far more impressed if the royal family opened up a few of the hundreds of empty, unused rooms at Buck house to give the homeless people of london somewhere to sleep during these cold winter nights. That would genuinely make a difference to the homeless rather than just serve as a crap PR stunt for William.

Seeing as it was referred to so heavily in the recent Star Trek film, I decided to dig out the DVD of Star Trek II - Wrath of Khan while I was bored tonight. They don't make 'em like they used to eh? I remember being taken to the cinema to see this film and looking at the release date I must have been 7 years old, but I still remember distinctly being blown away by the grandeur of it compared to the original series and the first movie, that it was probably this film that sparked my love of sci-fi. Ricardo Montalban played the part of Khan perfectly: Almost over the top but just not too much that he wasn't menacing with it. Delightfully dramatic with all the literary quotes, particularly from Moby D1ck on which the storyline for this film was based. OK it looks a little dated now with some fairly poor special effects, but it stands the test of time in other ways I think; most notably the soundtrack which I think is possibly one of the best original soundtracks for a sci-fi film ever, with the possible exception of 2001 as discussed earlier in this thread. There have been 9 more ST films made since this one, including the recent one, and although some of them had their moments and were visually impressive, I don't think a single one of them can touch this one, nor do I think another will ever be made that betters it. 8.5/10

I think you underestimate the voting public. Believe me I know how shallow people can be at times, but I have never yet known anybody admit to voting for somebody just because they like his haircut or his voice. Though I have never voted Conservative in my life, I must confess I like William Hague as a public speaker. But his biggest problem while he was Tory leader was that the party was on its knees after the utter whitewash in the 1997 election. He regularly humiliated Bliar in PMQT, but ultimately he was on a hiding to nothing.