DanW

I'm a big fan of Kelvin Davies, Steven Davies, and former player Kevin Davis.

C'mon Chappers. Pop your Prem cherry and knock one in. That'd be an unexpected winner!

He scored 4 goals in 16 appearances while he was there. When we were in that same league he was prolific for us so I was hoping for a better output than that.

In 2009 the New York Yankees opened a new stadium with new pricing tiers. Their most expensive seats were the ones right behind home plate and they were full leather seats with wait staff and a bunch of other amenities. These seats were priced at $2500. That is not a typo. After a few weeks with the seats remaining mostly empty, the Yankees didn't like that the seats which appeared most regularly on TV...i.e. the seats right behind home plate...were showing up as empty even as the rest of the stadium was full. So what did they do? They slashed ticket prices. Lesson: no one paid the ridiculous price, and the club cut their fees. Unfortunately, the other lesson is: the club will still do what it wants. They cut their prices by 50%(!) which is great. However, that means those tickets were still $1250, which means that they are still overpriced by approximately $1150. But hey, they get companies to buy them and give them to clients or whatnot and I suppose they sell a little better. Also, I think half the reason the club even cared was because of the impression left on the television. Those seats in the corner of the football pitch? Not as much on-screen, so the television pressure isn't as prevelant.

NICE! I just put it together that this is MLK Day, so I don't have to be at work. WOOOO! Love watching the Saints on TV instead of on a dodgy stream, even if the commentators are speaking Spanish. Totally stoked for this.

Lol @ lettuce. I'm less than excited about either the Ravens or Patriots being in the Super Bowl. Blech. The Ravens stole my Browns' Super Bowl, so eff them. And the Patriots...I only hate them because I wish the Browns' organization was as stable and well-run as theirs. My hatred used to stem from the boringness of them winning all the time, but now it's just jealousy. However, either Atlanta or San Francisco representing the NFC in the big game will be fun. I dig either side's recent (2-3 years) history and the personnel on their teams that I know of off the top of my head. I liked the switch to Kaepernick from a distance, and good for Frank Gore for still chugging away. And Matty Ice and Julio Jones and even Tony Gonzalez (still!). That game should be fun to watch for that reason, although I think the NE-BAL game will actually be closer and more dramatic.

I think we keep him around. HOWEVER, if one were to sell him, his value is at its peak right now. He's proven he can play in the Prem and he's 30. Soon he'll start declining and at the moment his 8 goals are quite impressive so everyone is thinking "hey, maybe this guy is better than we thought." Thus, if you want to sell it should be now.

Yeah there are always exceptions, and it seems to be even more exceptions lately (Giants last year, Jets over New England a few years ago, etc). But if you take the overall win-loss records of all bye teams in the playoffs, you'll find that their win percentage is much higher than normal win expectations.

I just don't think that Houston played all that well last weekend, or even over the last month or so. Schaub looks shaky. NE will win because of this. To win in the playoffs you need to have a great QB, not just a good one. And if Schaub plays like he's been playing Houston will lose. Statistically speaking, it's wise to bet on the four teams that have had a week off. Not only have they rested, but they were also theoretically the better teams to start with. I would like to see another Payton/Brady matchup, so I guess I'm rooting for DEN/NE. As for the NFC... I like the Packers a little bit and Seattle a lot...and the others I'm indifferent. So I guess I'm rooting for Seattle.

Crazy controversies regarding RG3 yesterday. Watching that game I was like "why are they even playing him?" ... especially after that bootleg for 9 yards to the sideline when he was visibly limping while running. He's done the moment I see that if I'm a coach. Idiots, the lot of them!

Chaplow and De Ridder have both gotten playing time in the Premier League, so while they may or may not be "good enough" they probably shouldn't be sold until NA deems them no longer useful. As for Martin, we seem to be lacking in CB so at least there's a chance of some action if there's an injury or two. I don't know where he ranks in the pecking order (I'd guess after 3) Hooiveld, or after 4) Seaborne...) but that's practically better chance than he was getting at CPFC. I also thought he played well during the winter spell last year when Fonte was hurt.

I should be glad to see the lad get some game time in a first team, but for some reason I feel a little sad to see him go. He seems to be our brightest young attacking threat and I hope to see him in our own first team before long. Maybe SRL can help tutor him in a year or two and turn him into the next big thing.

This is almost what I'm thinking. JRod, Lee, and Mayuka all up in attacking positions. Chappers and JWP in the midfield. Probably Steven Davis as the other, but it could be anyone I don't really care. I don't know what to say about our defense since we seem so thin there, and then I'd have anyone except Boruc in goal. Gazza, Davis, Cropper - all would be fine for me.

Jets or Cardinals for who? Andy Reid? I'd wager that if he's fired (highly likely) then he won't be in football next year. He'll probably do some kind of TV gig. If he's still interested in coaching (and I don't know that he is) he'd take a new job for the 2014 season. But yes, the NFC East and NFC Wildcard possibilities are quite intriguing this weekend - there are a lot of pointless games, but there are also a lot of scenarios which can play out. Should be a fun time.

This. HTH.

In England? Tottenham, I suppose, for no legitimate reason. I also like Bournemouth because of their proximity. In Spain? Team Messi, although I do feel like a dirty front-runner saying that. I still haven't found an MLS team that grabs me. I've been to a few RedBulls games but that's more as a casual observer. My first MLS game was at Columbus Crew vs San Jose Earthquakes with a young Landon Donovan. But no one wins my loyalty yet. Other sports: Cleveland Browns Cleveland Indians Cleveland Cavaliers

Thanks for the heads up Rut. I'm not sure what my plans are yet, so I might be watching that delayed version. It never does feel right, though...

Gazza Clyne - Fonte - Yoshida - Fox Punch - Ramirez - Davis - Lallana Lambert - Mayuka Bench: KD, Schneiderlin, JWP, Guly, Hooiveld, Chaplow, and one more I don't care who. Probably Jay-Rod, but I'm tired of him not doing much so Frazer or Ben Reeves would work, too. I think we need to see two guys up top and emphasize the wings. If Tadanari was fit I'd play him instead of Mayuka, moving him to the bench and taking out one of the reserves.

Eventually he might, but according to the BBC Preview for tomorrow's game: "Emmanuel Mayuka (ankle) is a doubt". I didn't know he was hurt, but Adkins has made it clear that he does not rush people back from injury.

Not gonna make it out this week, but welcome to NYC Will.

Our outfield bench's average age is...what, 13 years old? Wow. Sucks for SDR. I always liked him for that goal against Reading.

Looking forward to it. I'll miss the first few games due to conflicts, but I expect to make a few appearances this year.

Semi-related: The Cleveland Browns are owned by Randy Lerner, the same guy who owns Aston Villa. They have been terrible every year that he's owned them, and it's likely that he never really had his heart in owning the team. Right now the word is that he's trying to sell a majority ownership portion to a guy who owns part of the Steelers. He'd be required to sell that part, but then Randy Lerner would be down to only owning 30% of the team. I think this is great, and I bring this up because perhaps it means that Randy wants to spend more time working on Aston Villa. I don't know anything about this new guy, but no one can really be worse than all the years of being terrible that the Browns have put together.

The IOC has done away with certain sports due to a number of criteria, including but not limited to: 1) Unbalanced competition: read - one nation (or a small handful of nations) destroys everyone else every time...probably because that is the only nation that really cares about the sport. 2) The lack of the best players in the world participating: example - in baseball, players in the MLB are unable to participate in the Olympics so eventually the Olympics did away with baseball. 3) Okay, I don't know this one for sure...but I imagine that no one cared about Tug-of-War, and hence they got rid of it. So reason being "no one cares."

I'm proud to announce that I was at that game. I'm also proud to announce that as he was cutting across the field before his third goal I said to my buddy next to me "look at this!" and then when he scored I stood there with tingles. I just stood there. Tingles. I could not believe how amazing it all was. There was something sublime about the whole day, the 82,000 fans (pretty close to 50/50 in terms of crowd, too), and the whole "we know this is a friendly but it sure seems like we're trying to win this regardless" atmosphere of the game. This will always be a favorite memory.