stevegrant

I think the issue at the time was that where we were a fairly comfortably-in-midtable Premier League side, Strachan probably felt that he could do without his attitude when his ability didn't yet match those of the first team, particularly when a proven player arguably with at least twice his ability could be (and was) bought for £3.25m. I certainly saw nothing when he was on our books to suggest that he was as good as what we already had in the first team, nor that he had the desire to improve his game so he would be at that level. It seems he has improved a fair amount, but I still don't see many English Premier League clubs linked with him. While he's scoring loads in the SPL, it's a completely different kettle of fish to the top flight in this country.

I think PayPal's subscriptions are fixed at the amount set when the subscription is created. If we were to change the price (which I'd think is very unlikely given the amount of extra work that it would then entail), we would contact all subscribers and cancel the PayPal subscription (but obviously not the forum one!) so they wouldn't be automatically charged an incorrect amount. Currently there is no mechanism within the forum software to notify users when their subscription is about to expire. However, one of the modifications we'll be adding tonight is that very functionality.

Emile Mpenza?! Now THERE'S a fall from grace! Folly has played a few games this season, but none since the end of September, so it's possible he may have been using the game as a fitness exercise after an injury rather than having been dropped.

Fulham have a proven Premier League goalscorer, Sunderland don't.

It's going to be really wide open this season, I think. At the start of the season, everyone was expecting the three promoted sides to go straight back down. However, Hull have already got half the points they need to stay up and Stoke's home form is excellent (and still nobody seems capable of stopping the Delap throw-in tactic!). West Brom, who most people probably expected to be the most competitive have actually been the opposite, and have struggled to score goals so far while not being good enough at the back to keep enough clean sheets. Spurs and Newcastle have had dreadful starts but with the players at their disposal you'd expect them to be out of trouble eventually. Fulham and Bolton continue to struggle, particularly in front of goal. Neither side have conceded many, but if you don't score goals, you don't win games. Wigan have played well for most of the season and have got the find of the season in Amr Zaki, but somehow they found themselves in the bottom three before Saturday (and would be bottom now but for Heskey's last minute winner at Fratton Park). I have doubts over whether Steve Bruce is the right man to keep Wigan out of trouble, particularly when he keeps picking Titus Bramble... Sunderland have spent a fortune but are still rubbish, yet barely anybody in the media is questioning Roy Keane's managerial ability or his judge of a player's ability/value. Blackburn aren't the force they were last season and both Pompey and West Ham look as though they'll be conducting a bargain basement "everything must go" sale in January, so it's going to be very very tight. For what it's worth, my prediction: 1. Chelsea 2. Liverpool 3. ManYoo 4. Arsenal 5. Aston Villa 6. Man City 7. Everton 8. Tottenham 9. Blackburn 10. Middlesbrough 11. Newcastle 12. Hull 13. West Ham 14. Pompey 15. Wigan 16. Fulham 17. Stoke 18. Sunderland 19. West Brom 20. Bolton So Pompey will be safe, but I think the margin between 12th and 18th will be in single figures.

"And a great source of Omega 3"

This is my main problem. Found that having done some "right-clicking" by using Ctrl+click to pick my team, I was then completely unable to click continue, so gave up. I've said it before and I'll say it again... when are Sports Interactive going to actually go through a proper and thorough testing cycle? Even a basic testing cycle would have found the vast majority of these issues, and I'm sure they didn't release the demo knowing that there were such fundamental errors within the code. They cannot afford to rely on the goodwill of the community of users for much longer as they will simply, like me, get fed up with doing their job for them. At the moment, I won't be buying FM09.

Despite having a ridiculously good week or so, Spurs will be bottom of the table again tonight...

That's one way of doing it, I guess, but even then if someone was particularly interested in seeing what was on there they could probably piece it together. As well as battering the hell out of it, I'd suggest at least formatting it before doing so. I have a feeling that formatting, while it appears to wipe everything, still retains some sort of fingerprinting from its previous states. Someone with more hardware knowledge will probably be able to confirm/deny that...

Although a slight inaccuracy in my comment as we were 3-1 down, not 2-0.

Last time we won when 2-0 down in any game was against Fulham in October 2002 when we won 4-2 (Beattie hat-trick + Ormerod). Last time we won when 2-0 down away from home, I think, was the epic 5-4 win at Norwich in April 1994!

I'm sure a £45 "fine" will really hurt them.

I'd expect the likes of Chelsea and Pompey to hoover up a fair amount of the local young talent at the moment, so you're right in saying that our league position will cost us a fair bit in terms of the talent available, although when the **** inevitably hits the fan down the road they'll be in an even worse situation than us and without the "giving youth a chance" reputation that we've established. Speaking of Ajax, one thing that astounded me when I was watching their game against Villa recently was the "expert" co-commentator (can't remember who it was - might have been Chris Waddle) said he couldn't understand Ajax's long-term strategy of bringing countless technically-gifted players through the youth ranks in order to blood them in the first team and then sell them on for big money. It seems as though some people in football still don't have any appreciation of the real world, even when they've been out of the Premier League bubble for a number of years.

Also, Bolton's defence isn't really much of a problem for them. They've only conceded 13 goals in 11 league games this season, which isn't too bad. Their problem has been scoring goals, they've only scored 10 so far.

Sinclair actually made his senior debut for Bristol Rovers, and then saw playing for Chelsea's academy and reserves as a step up... quite a sad state of affairs. It's interesting to note that there are actually two entries for Sinclair on Soccerbase - one of which notes his two substitute appearances for Bristol Rovers in the 04/05 season, the other of which suggests his career began at Chelsea.

I think there may well be some sort of rule, but there's nothing that states how much needs to be invested into youth development. We've spent a hell of a lot on it since the Academy in its current guise was launched, and I'd certainly argue that we've reaped the benefits of that investment both in terms of bringing through players who have contributed to the first team and their subsequent sale price. It just seems such a futile exercise, and the only reason young players go to academies at the likes of Chelsea is for the prestige and possibly money. They get it into their head that they've actually got a chance of getting into the first team when the reality couldn't be further from the truth. They'd be better off going to a club where it wouldn't be quite as prestigious but where the chances of getting first team football are infinitely higher. I agree, and I suspect he'll end up leaving Chelsea at the end of this season in search of permanent first-team football. I don't imagine it's much fun being shipped out for a year or six months to different parts of the country, particularly for a young player.

Given that our youth team beat theirs 4-3 last month, I'd suggest that may not be the case I don't see why the likes of Chelsea bother with a youth set-up, now they've got a seemingly-bottomless pit of Russian Roubles to spend on players, I'll be very surprised if any player breaks into the first team from their youth academy. The last player to come through Chelsea's youth system and get a regular place in the team is John Terry, who made his Chelsea debut ten years ago.

Particularly given that the players they'd be looking to buy shouldn't really need "scouting" in the true meaning of the word, i.e. the player's an unknown and they want to learn a bit more about him before deciding whether to try to sign him. All the players Chelsea would be interested in buying are already high-profile. It doesn't take a scouting network to know who the top players in each of the European leagues are, to be honest.

That would be the same Daily Mirror who reckons we're going to be spending £1.5m on a player in January... I wouldn't read too much into it.

Is that number 41 I can see on Pearce's shorts?

Well it was a second-half thrashing... Cracking result.

Not quite true. Luton were "only" deducted 20 points for failing to agree a CVA, which is a requirement under the Football League's solvency rules. It's the same rule that saw Leeds deducted 15 points last season and Bournemouth and Rotherham 17 points this season. While you're technically correct that it's a rare case, it's only a rare case because the precedent was only set in the summer of 2007 when Leeds failed to agree a CVA due to HMRC getting fed up with "Football Creditors" (i.e. players, staff and other teams) getting 100% of the money owed while they were left with 10% or so. HMRC blocked the CVA at the three other clubs mentioned in the summer just gone, which led to their additional points deduction (in addition to the 10 points penalty received last season when they entered administration). Clubs who owe significant amounts of their debt to HMRC will find it impossible to get a CVA agreed by 75% of the creditors as HMRC will block it regardless of the circumstances. As I understand it, we aren't in arrears with the taxman as yet, so might not have that problem as things stand. Luton's other 10 point deduction was due to the charges they were found guilty of relating to payments to agents that didn't go through the football club's accounts.

How?! The interest rates have only been moving in one direction in the last year, and it's not up...

Exactly. The fact that absolutely nothing has happened on that front only backs up the "tyre kicker" theory, whether Fulthorpe and co like it or not.

You might as well have just said "Have you heard whether Dominic Matteo is supposed to be coming here?"