Crazy Diamond

Listening to Dover vs Palace... My God the Palace fans' one chant is annoying.

As soon as I saw this thread, I wanted to say exactly that. It was disgraceful.

A heart melt-down-ing story.

Interesting, not necessarily anything new in there - although Mo Gimpel talking about using the away team leftovers during the dark days is incredible - but a decent watch. Not sure about the host...

The natives are restless... Ex-Chelmsford City legend Ricky Holmes has been loaned to Northampton. Maybe he'll come back for next season, when they can capitalise on his non-league experience...

Hypothetical results, that's fantastic management consultancy/government spin doctor jargon.

Were you bored, or do you just have a lot of time on your hands in general thanks to a completely empty life?

That's just the thing - he didn't ask her out. Definitely cringeworthy though.

Or it might be a joke.

No fixture for the few today. Good result for them.

I'm no Dame Joan Collins.

Oh Christ it's worse than I thought, he sits near me...

This is just creepy.

Don't forget, you've more than a single brain cell, make sure to use all of them when imagining up these chants of yours.

I think the general point is the same as others have already said, the idea of what constitutes 'good support' is down to the individual. I don't find screaming and shouting is good support, whereas others think it's a very good idea. Take Palace for example. Their fans in that corner section of one of their stands with the banners, the 90 minutes of singing the same tune, is that good support? I find it quite boring to be honest. As I do with chants like 'feed the scousers' 'Johnstone's Paint Trophy, you'll never win that' and who could forget, 'Steeeeeve'. But yeah I think a lot of people are stupid too.

Nonetheless very descriptive.

Halo Stickman has inspired me to share my story, though it's different. A variation on a theme, you might say. I sit and watch games with a friend and his dad. The three of us are dedicated Saints fans - we've done the trips to Newcastle, Sunderland, Carlisle, Hartlepool, all that. What we like to do is sit and actually watch games. Admire the quality of the play, the players and the match itself. Two seats to my right however are two skin-headed gentlemen that like nothing more than to call the referee a c*nt when a decision is given against us, getting up out of their seats to yell and slam the seats with their fists when they don't like what they see. When a pigeon flew close to them last season, one of them tried to punch it out of the air. It's also hilarious to tell people as loudly as possible to 'sit down' when they walk up and down the steps. Behind me and slightly to my right is a man who loves to do nothing more than complain. Every single thing he sees, no matter how well we're doing, isn't the right thing to be doing in his book. Every referee decision is 'the worst I've ever seen in 30 years' and Saints players 'need to use the ball more'. To his right there are two younger fans who are unfortunately for them lectured with his words of 'wisdom' week after week. They look as if they want the ground to open up and swallow them whole, just to get away from him. He was still complaining when we were 6 - 0 up against Sunderland. Immediately behind me is a man who thinks singing is the most important thing at a game. Unfortunately he can't sing. His tone deaf shrieks make my skin crawl, but I realise this isn't a choir and everyone should be note-for-note perfect. He's also one of the ones that will call opposition players and the referee every name under the sun. Against Manchester United, he was so carried away at our equaliser, jumping up and down with such vigour that he actually fell on top of me and the person to my right. To save his embarrassment he turned it into a celebration, putting his arm around us both and in my case my neck. I took it off and he started berating me, saying that he sits behind me every week, we're like brothers. Why can't we have fun. All I want to do is watch the game, but it carries on and on. I really do feel at times that some people turn up just to have a moan or complain, or to act like idiots because they can't get away with it anywhere else. The thing is though, they will say that they're 'passionate' or 'showing how much they love the team' when they get so 'emotional'. Are they?

The song itself was funny about three years ago. We sing it EVERY time we play Chelsea.

The blogosphere has spoken.

A very descriptive post.

I'm disgusted by James Corden getting an OBE. He's just a c*nt.

Indeed. Disappointing given it was the first home game of the season too. Best guess for the low attendance and poor atmosphere is that there were those that saw what happened over the summer and thought it wasn't going to go well. They either didn't turn up or had low expectations. Plus, that was one hell of a frustrating game.

So, new year tomorrow, who's going to be dieting? We seem to have a thread on it every year... I for one shall be, and my diet of choice is the Dukan diet. I work with professional athletes and was inspired last year to give the Dukan diet a proper go, having flirted with it a bit for a while. Between May and July 2014 I lost getting on for a stone and a half by sticking very strictly to it. Medically speaking, I am a good weight, but working with athletes every day made me a bit more self-conscious than normal... Think about stick-thin divers and gymnasts. The problem? Having achieved my target weight and feeling a hell of a lot better about myself, I then spent ten days on a mad project away from home with silly hours and had little or no control over what I was eating. I then slipped back into bad habits and the weight came back. I now want to get rid of a stone, maybe more, and generally get fitter. If you're disciplined enough and can get over the boredom of no carbs (breakfast is special porridge, tuna for lunch, chicken for dinner), then the Dukan is a good diet and I think well worth the fiver or so that the book cost. Anyone else? NYE will be my last blow out meal for quite some time...

Fair cop MLG. I'll mention you in my prayers tonight.

Sadly £12m is the going rate. Proven goalscorer, we have the money, they don't want to sell, he's English. God knows what a club will pay for Danny Ings at the end of the season.