stu0x

But this simply isn't true, you just seem unwilling to accept it. Midwinter festivals existed in pre-Christian society for a *long* time. Christianity (although it's not strictly accurate to call it that - more appropriately, Saulist/HRE Catholicism) spread so quickly precisely *because* it appropriated pagan tradition and ritual and rebranded it with a Christan ethos. Jesus was not born in midwinter (even by the accounts of primary gnostic Christians, which are to say the least 'flakey' in their authenticity). The vast majority of 'Christmas' traditions - including the concept of gift giving and the feast - have far more to do with these pre-existing festivals than Christianity. Christmas exists when it does because of Yuletide. Not vice versa.

These things go in peaks and troughs. It wasnt all that long ago that he was quite good. His confidence is obviously shot, you can see him second-guessing and hesitating in everything he does instead of playing with instinct, which just makes it worse. A couple of years ago, most people (non saints fans) thought the same about Gareth Bale, remember...

Im not surprised really. The internet has been full of socially unacceptable behaviour for years now. Its just that, with the relatively recent phenomena of Twitter and Facebook bringing it to the masses, the population at large is starting to hear about it. Some of the things i have read on supposedly innocuous internet forums over the years are way off the scale, this would barely register. Not that i am saying it is acceptable of course, quite the contrary. Unfortunately something very odd called Online Disassociation Effect (or GIFT ) happens to some people when they go online. Well actually it happens to the vast majority of people to one degree or another, hence some of the behaviour on here - whilst not as abusive as the example posted, some of the things said on this very forum are outside the boundaries of how that person (or a 'reasonable person') ordinarily behaves. There are appropriate statutory instruments to deal with this sort of behaviour. Its a fairly clear Communications Act offence. Unfortunately organisations like Twitter and Facebook tend to be so rabidly anti-law enforcement they make it as hard as possible to obtain the relevant evidence. In reality, the user is probably otherwise a normal, socially-adjusted lad, to the extent that a visit from the local old bill and 'words of advice' would probably be appropriate and sufficient.

Your neighbour is a cretin then, as is anyone who would suggest bidding *more* than the value of a release clause. What would be the point in it, exactly? By meeting the release clause you meet the demands of one of the parties (ie the team). Offering more will do absolutely nothing to meet the demands of the other party required (ie the player).

Driving not an option? M40, A40, left at Hangar Lane is by far the easiest way

Right, these sorts of problems are usually quite easy to diagnose, and are more often than not down to a loose connection rather than a faulty part. So you turn it on, but theres nothing on the screen and the monitor light flashes on standby? That means theres no video signal coming through. When you power up the box, can you hear the fans coming on? And the hard disks spinning up? If so, the problem is almost certainly the graphics card. Try re-seating it.

Seems to play primarily as a left back?

Its an urban legend

Ironically enough, Novatech are from Portsmouth... However, they are very good. I live just down the road from one of their 'clean' (ie non-skate) branches and as a result get most of my kit from them, but used them for mail order prior to moving here. Found them to be excellent in every regard.

No you aren't. Stereoscopic (as that's what it is, *not* 3D) is as old as the hills, just as pants as it was back in the 80s the last time it came around, and involves some massive compromises (about 20% colour loss for a start, not to mention some very odd tilt-shift-like effects when watching from a 3/4 angle like football) for the 'benefit' of pokey-pokey effects. The very newest of the emperor's new clothes. 3D was *actually* the industry's latest 'fight back' against piracy - on the basis that if they shot everything in 3D, pirated copies would essentially be useless/unviewable. It failed spectacularly. 3D will be dead within 24 months. The glasses that came with my TV are still in the box.

Personally I would build it myself. You will always end up compromising somewhere along the line if you buy a pre-built machine, they will invariably be sold by 'headline' figures (ie processor, quantity of ram, quantity of hard disk space), and the company drops in sub-standard components where it can to make the margin - "1TB hard disk" means very little when you consider the performance gap between various hard disks, for example. It's a lot easier than you'd think, and once you've done one, you'll wonder why you ever paid anyone to do it for you. If you really don't want to do it yourself, use one of the smaller 'enthusiast'-based companies (eg Novatech, Overclockers.co.uk) as you will have far more flexibility over specifying components, and you are far more likely to get an honest answer about whether component A represents better value than component B.

Presumably theyre looking to replace Bale then? What a load of schiesse.

As a legal professional for the past 13, I am offering this counterpoint: The phrase 'active case' has no special meaning in policing. He's just made it up. Utter nonsense. The case only becomes sub judice (note correct spelling, which would be obvious to anyone with an iota of legal training) after someone is charged. A police investigation is obviously not sub judice. Contempt of Court is, oddly enough, an offence against a Court. The clue is in the wording. As the matter is not in the hands of the Court, you would struggle to be found in contempt of one in any way, shape or form - let alone simply by posting on a website. Perverting the Course of Justice is, oddly enough, when you interfere with a criminal investigation or trial. The clue is in the wording. Again. I can't think of how someone could possibly do so by posting on a web forum - unless they, for example, provided false evidence by doing so (and even so, they would need to back it up in the form of a signed and 'section nined' statement). In conclusion, I'll leave it and tell him to f*ck off, I think. (ps: if this is the quality of legal knowledge possessed by the print media industry, it's hardly a surprise they thought wholesale interception of communications was 'not that big a deal'...)

Needlessly self-destructive wilful contrariness? How unexpected of you...

Good point Mr Suarez.

Maybe because in real life its more complicated than clicking 'Sign Player' and he turns up the next day... we are obviously working on signing players, as shown by 1) the Lee announcement and 2) Adkins' very forthright statement of expecting transfers before the next league match. But these things take time.

Demba Ba was injured and failed the medical at Stoke, and then moved to West Ham a couple of days later. He seems to have turned out okay. It amazes me how many people are still happy to write a player off based on what happened at another club. Didnt we sign a Celtic reject recently? How did that go for us?

As far as i understand it if the current proposals are implemented, there will only be about a dozen clubs currently capable of achieving Cat 1 status. The only one outside the Premier League is Southampton. Watford and Palace have absolutely no chance unless they spend fortunes they dont have on their academies to significantly update and upgrade the facilities, and (perhaps more importantly) employ more coaching staff to fulfil the requirements for full-time coaching. On this basis, the EPPP should be very good news for us, as we will be (for once) on the up side of a very uneven playing field. Having said that, theres a tendency to get all 'Football Manager' about it and just recruit everything in sight, which is not an approach that has served Chelsea well at all.

Igor Bican disagrees with you

The best football moment of 2011 had nothing to do with Saints. Bib-otelli.

The current format of FLS is dreadful. The whole 'empty Crimewatch studio' thing is bizarre. Manish is utterly redundant, which in a way is a good thing (the 'presenter' should not be doubling up as a pundit), but it means that with only one other contributor, the entire show hangs around Claridge. Despite the fact that he is actually very knowledgeable, he rivals Hansen/Shearer in the 'charisma-vacuum' stakes. The thing that makes it odd is that the BBC already uses a plethora of very good football journos on the website and the radio (apart from that cretin McNulty), and they are the exact sort of people who should be doing spots on FLS. It would leave Manish to be purely the anchorman, Claridge as the permanent pundit, and a revolving roster of guests who actually know what they are talking about and could provide a breadth of insight and knowledge. It would also give the BBC a viable opportunity to properly exploit a multi-channel offering. There is arguably far too much football across the three leagues to do anything more than a simple clip-show, and given the tribalistic nature of football supporting, the obvious thing to do would be provide a summary show on live TV supported by smaller more in depth focused segments delivered via on-demand, iplayer, etc. You never know, it could even provide a desperately needed template of reform for MOTD...

Thats true. After all, look at how well it turned out for Venkys when they pitched up at Ewood Park and said they were going to sign Ronaldinho and Beckham

It is no more or less possible than the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Happy Yuletide

I understand the sentiment, but if you think about it logically, that makes no sense at all. 1) our away form has been dreadful thus far. It is unlikely to continue to be so bad. 2) even though it has been dreadful, we are top. So on the basis that we are currently top with awful away form, which will most likely improve even modestly, how does it bear out that we'll perform the same or better, but achieve less, going forward?

Clearly explained, but inaccurate and completely useless.