Wednesday 10 April 2013

Mancini Blames Everything Else

So there he is, that Roberto Mancini, with money sloshing around him like a great watery ocean. When he opens his front door a great flood of coins spills out of his house. When he gets out of his car, the gutters and drains turn into gentle rivers of Abu Dhabi dirhams. When he swings open the portal to his squad’s dressing-room it’s like he’s just pulled the lever on the world’s largest one-armed bandit.

So given this bottomless trough of wonga, and the fact that his team were very much the better side at Old Trafford, why are his team so desperately adrift? 
Well Mancini was getting his excuses in early on Monday.

The main one is that he didn’t manage to buy any good players in the summer. He says it like it wasn’t down to him… as if the players he missed had never quite had the opportunity to be entranced by the Italian’s oozing charm.
Clearly the likes of Rodwell and Sinclair were enchanted by him and the club. Or maybe they’d just had enough of all those prying eyes watching them work every week and fancied a year of utter obscurity. There was a time, you know, when Jack Rodwell looked like he might be a really good footballer. But you can rely on the moneybagses of the Premier League to relegate British potential to a watching brief.

There were other pleas from Mancini but none of them wash. The weediest was that teams are scared when they play at OT, which is pretty much the managerial equivalent of 'the dog ate my homework'. He is in charge of a squad which should win the Premier League from here to eternity. He certainly shouldn’t be overseeing Champs League failure every year. He’s fortunate he’s not working from Abramovich. Or Venkys.
United on the other hand may well be wondering how they get things so easy this year. The noisy neighbours finally delivered their first born league title last season and, as with many a new parent, have been distinctly quiet ever since. Ferguson’s champions have Van Persie, yes (hardly a masterstroke really, without old Longface Arsenal would have disappeared up the A1 last year). But not much else has changed.
United are in transition. The midfield is a creative wasteland. Carrick’s had his best season ever but he’s no Pirlo. When Modric trotted on to the park for Real and tucked home that equaliser you couldn’t help thinking that United had missed a trick there. Kagawa’s a delight – and let’s not pretend, he’s good for the Glazers’ Far East income - but he’s a bit of a butterfly amongst all the pounding hooves in the Premier League midfield.
Given the stifled orgasm suffered by United last season, you can’t deny Fergie’s enduring brilliance this year. But United’s success this season is a reflection of other’s failings as much as their own ability.

Down in the depths, Harry Redknapp’s face was a picture of grief. It normally is but this weekend he had good cause. It’s not a good year to wear blue and white hoops – as opposed to all those other years, right. QPR are done for. Reading are out. There remains one place and a hell of a bunfight for it. 
Me, I hope Wigan and Villa escape if only because they’ve shown more faith in their managers than the rest of them. I appreciate that in the case of Villa that’s a new concept. But the rest of them – chairmen moving chairs on their respective Titanics – well you can but hope it doesn’t work out.  

Of course there is one club slowly descending who I’d rather didn’t join Boro in the Chumpionship. Hump it Lump it Thump it Bump it. Stoke City. Here’s a team who make Sam Allardyce sound like a fey 18th century French poet.
No one wants to watch Stoke. Unless it’s peripherally, like you do when you drive past a car accident. But there’s always been this patronising pat on the back for the Potters and the pragmatist Pulis. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Every now and then, pundits are given licence to purr as Stoke prove they can ‘get it down and play’. This is usually when they’re 2-0 up and Matthew Etherington gets the ball. The rest of the time we’re left to grimace at the pounding plodding clogs of Glen Whelan, Robert Huth and Ryan Shawcross. And the rest.
There’s nowt wrong with playing to your strengths of course. Delap’s absence, whatever you doughty Potters say, has robbed Stoke of 50% of their attacking options. Ryan Shotton can’t throw it so far. The Potters should get another six or so points and get out of it. And I really don’t want ‘em down the Riverside despite the fact that we all have a bit of fondness for the Panzer Huth.

Of course all this Premier League pales into insignificance when we think of the great woman we lost this week. She saved the country, Cameron said. Saved? In a Rob Green v USA way I presume.
Lots of folk round our way were delighted to buy their council house. And sell it. A third of one-time council property is owned by private landlords today. She misunderstood the concept of social housing but not the concept of greed.

I’ll be honest. I fucking hated her. The union-bashing, privateering, Mandela-cuffing, patronising big-haired piece of shit. But her death has come too late. The damage has been done. There’s Dave and George, twin Thatcherite sons crying ‘bitty’ as they suckle on her full-fat me-first milk.
So I haven’t been partying. They’ve no respect for society’s etiquette. But then there’s no such thing as society so what did the great blonde thug expect?

Up the Boro! What's left of it.

322 comments:

  1. Up the Boro...!
    First too, impressed with ma'sel.

    Mowbrays' red and white army

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  2. Riveting Robbo, as always.

    I think Mancini prefers the one-legged bandit, Rodwell.

    I'm staying out of the Thatcher fracas, aside from adding that I don't remember Geoff Cameron weighing in on her passing. (But given he plays for Stoke, he wouldn't have much to say about it.)

    Also, admittedly a repost, but in case you guys missed this at the tail end of the last blog discussion, Mourinho has been caught being nice to one very, very lucky/brave/devoted/crazy fan.

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130410/real-madrid-fan-jose-mourinho/?sct=sc_t12_a2

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    1. Stephen, thanks for the link, truely an amazing story, I can't imagine something similar happening in the EPL. I had to check the story to make sure 1) it wasn't dated April 1st and 2) It wasn't Bells in disguise pleading with the Special One to come back to the Bridge.

      Spider

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  3. Great stuff Robbo and this priceless gem almost caused a spill....."Stoke City. Here’s a team who make Sam Allardyce sound like a fey 18th century French poet."

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  4. Looks like my Robbo league team will be hot to Trotts this week, on the back of our poetic 33-23 Stoke-v-West Ham-style victory.

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    1. hey ho, is it you this week? I'd just like to say that the people who advised me on my team, the bloggers, my kids, the websites, the TV commentators, all did a crap job. We'll be ready for a title run next year.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. "I’ll be honest. I fucking hated her. The union-bashing, privateering, Mandela-cuffing, patronising big-haired piece of shit."


    Oh dear, best do something about my hair then ....



    Belated thanks for your birthday wishes - How did you know I was 21, Trotts? Mr BHB said to me 'There's no way you look 21' - sadly it was more in a years-of-too-much-wine-haven't-done-you-any-favours way as opposed to 'Gosh-you-hardly-look-even-18' way

    Well done to Colchester on their promotion - Bloggy I am silently wishing you well but everytime I wish another team well, the opposite seems to happen. Even said Good Luck my Man Poo supporter neighbour on Monday and look what happened ...

    And to my huge delight every day there seems to be more rumours of the Yummy Ones return to Chelsea. Woohoo and other such stuff that hardened fans might say.

    Right off to check FFL to see who has thrashed me this week

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  7. https://twitter.com/Castmana1/status/322254521059397633/photo/1

    Glenda Jackson has had her wiki updated.

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    1. Shame she's rubbish as an MP though.

      Despite the fact that he was a political loony Jeremy Corbyn did a far better job in Islington than she ever did in Highgate (mind you her consituency did include Hampstead and loads of rich people so there isn't a lot you can achieve for the rich and famous and there was nothing she wanted to do for those in her constituency that weren't)

      Given the fact that she was a famous actress since the late 50's and had loads of money I don't think sh ehad any first hand knowledge of homelessness, working or any form of change in society.

      Delete
    2. Couldn't you apply that to the current front bench as well though Adam?

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    3. Yes you could. In fact you could probably apply to it to 95% of serving MPs which is probably why the country has the problems it does as they are far too removed from the issues faced by their constituents

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  8. I hope QPR go down.

    Can't stand 'arry Redknapp.

    He's the sort of bloke you'd ask to change a £9 note for and give you 3 £3s back.

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    1. That is funny,

      I think they and Reading are doomed. On current form I think it will be Stoke or Sunderland that join them however

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  9. There's loads left in the Boro Robbo.

    While the coal mines have gone the process sector is booming as the ICI works has broken up into several different companies generating wealth rather than one monlithic organisation

    The port is doing really well with loads of expansion and there is success in Oil & Gas, Automotive supply chain and high-technology instrumentation and materials.

    All started off by Thatcher's policies in the 80's and then built on by Tony Blair

    There is still the Potash mine in Loftus if you feel nostalgic for that sort of thing.

    You are right about her underestimating the amount of people who would sell thir house at the first opportunity though and the councils should have kept building social houses but Thatcher's Britain was far better than Heath, Wilsons and Callaghan's when unions could hold the country to ransom.

    1979 was an awful year in terms of union activism, no public services, power in short supply, wave after wave of strikes and Tahtcher put a stop to it which along with the Falklands were her best achievements.

    People refer to the miners strike as her destroying the industry but as several historians have pointed out more pits closed in the 60s and 70s than in the 80s and if Scargill hadn't reacted to the closure of the first couple of pits in South Yorkshire (Barrow colliery at Worsbrough Bridge and Ackton Hall colliery at Featherstone) with an illegal strike, violent flying picket lines and secondary action the mining industry may well have survived in better shape than it did.

    They had been closed for safety reasons rather than because they were uneconomic

    Mrs T could probably have handled it better but for the state of mining in the UK Arthur Scargill, Dave Hopper and similar figures need to take theor share of the blame as well. Closing pits that were making hue losses and couldn't be modernised was something that was always going to happen. The Nottinghamshire pits stayed open longer as they had adopted modern mining equipment and working methods which had caused some redundancies but meant that the majority of people kept their jobs.

    Granted Labour strongholds are always going to hate her and everything she stood for but there is also an unbalanced perception and account of what went on that people are not encouraged to question and analyse and they really should because she achieved a lot of good things economically as well making possible the move to Wearside of Nissan which would never of happened under a union dominated labour government

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  10. Well said on Thatcher Robbo and well said Glenda Jackson too. Anyway, you miss out the possibility of the Mackems joining the Boro next season, if they lose to Stoke and Villa they could well be sunk.

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  11. Emerging From Gorse11 April 2013 at 13:04

    That's all well and good, not to mention very eloquently argued, but......Ding Dong The Witch is Dead! Partay!

    Must be worth a national holiday, surely?!

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    1. Are you really that sad a person.

      There are loads of Labour politicians that I disagree vehemently with but I wouldn't party if one of them died even someone like Scargill or Margaret Hodge who's actions in Islington were far more heinous than anything Thatcher did sweeping systematic child abuse in childrens homes under the carpet and letting the perpetrators get away with it.

      People are entitled to dislike her and her policies but she achieved a lot of good things in office as well.

      All you do is look bitter and chippy. Were you even alive in the 80s as some of the people I've seen protesting weren't even affected by her policies.

      Delete
    2. Emerging From Gorse11 April 2013 at 13:23

      I was indeed alive and had the misfortune to suffer her entire reign. And her policies didn't just affect people in the 80's...they still have a profound effect to this day. There's a lot of people in this country similar to those you mention who've fucked with the lives of many, but never anyone who, on an unprecedented scale, fucked up the lives of millions.
      I think you'll find there are a huge number of people who've been looking forward to this news for many, many years.

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    3. The economy of today is mainly affected by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's government.

      Every period of government will have good and bad bits but you can't tell me that the economy was great under Heath, Wilson or Callaghan.

      It was dreadful and Thatchers economic policy improved it although there were still lean periods on the whole it did well until late 1988-1991 then it improved again under Major and Blair until it went wrong in 2008-9 but it was the financial sector and the lack of controls placed on a national or European level that caused it.

      Too many Labour supporters blame her for everything while forgetting the incompetence of the Labour governments prior to her taking power

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  12. As for Thatcher?

    Well I didn't like her or her policies.

    However,I'm not getting into a slanging match over this.

    There will be those,such as Adam has argued,that saw her as a force for good.That's his opinion and I'm not going to change it just as he won't change mine.

    She is someone's mother after all.

    But then you remember that it's Mark Thatcher.....

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    1. Good point. I was shocked when I saw Mark T on TV the other day.

      He actually got the right directions to the funeral.


      Jedi

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  13. Are you talking about Middlesbrough in England, Adam?

    The Middlesbrough with the highest rare of unemployment of any local authority and the lowest rate of employment?

    You surely can't mean the Middlesbrough which was recently rated 324/324 local areas which ate last resilient to the public spending cuts about to crash in on the area like a tsunami.

    Really what planet are you on?

    That delusional bit of nonsense was of a piece with the push-button Thatcher apologia in the test of your posts. And you accuse someone else of lacking first hand experience?

    i TRIED not to post on this topic, I really did

    But i can't let you get away with that travesty of the facts, Adam. This is where the real battleground is - over this sort of hageographical (and hag is right) mythologising.

    If you genuinely believe Thatcher saved British Industry, Adam, you are on another planet. There's almost nothing left. 9% of gdp. Thats NINE PERCENT. The statistics are clear - even the posh boy coalition can see the need for rebalancing.

    Focusing on financial services has been a disaster for this country.

    To say she "could have handled it better" seriously makes me question your understanding of how this woman behaved. Of course the coal industry was doomed. Globalisation, innit. The 3 billion tons left in the ground will be dug up when we need it, I guess. But the way she "handled" it was a declaration of war. The unions needed democratising, by through legislation on a secret ballot, not through civil war. She was a bad prime minister. Half the country (at least) still hate her. I actually think she had so little imagination or capacity for empathy she must have been a psychopath. You've got to admit there's something wrong if your death provkes.widespread celebrations (which I don't condone btw, but I have signed the petition to privatise her funeral.I believe it's what she would have wanted)

    The pack of lies you dutifully repeat here was built on debt, the wasted proceeds from privatisation and squandering the one off windfall from North sea oil.

    The Japanese firm Nissan located here because the currency was and is weak after two fucking massive recessions, the second even Ken Clarke admits was self-inflicted (cutting taxes and interest rates at the same time).

    I don't mind all this actually, because people are remembering the brutal reality of Thatcher. the people who don't understand it, the deluded apologists are, I assume, people who didn't pay the price or thought it was worth to create the indebted, philistine, materialistic, selfish spiv Britain we have today.

    Blair was Thatchers true heir. He "handled it much better".

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    1. I do talk about Middlesbrough in the North East, where I go regularly and there is a lot of technology based industry up here that is growing substantially.

      The process sector is driven by engineering expertise and has seen major growth in new businesses established with extensive commercial and residential developments around stockton, thormaby and the surrounds.

      It si not as bleak in the North East as people think. I know exactly how Thatcher behaved in that period and it was no more worse than the union leaders whose practices were holding back the economy.

      Nissan came to Sunderland not just because of the low pound because other currencies were just as weak but because Thatcher sold them on the work ethic of the region, engineering skills and some tax breaks to make it easier to do so.

      Manufacturing is worth far more than 9% if British GDP

      Major primary industries have been replaced by secondary and tertiary sectors and a lot of those are doing really well. Vacancies in Engineering are increasing with Net Fee Income up between 7-14% amongst most major recruiters and placements increasing month on month in those areas.

      The unions were never going to demoractise unless forced to and if they had ballotted their members and not had flying picket lines and secondary actions, not threatened dockers with dismissal if they handles coal they would have had far more public sympathy but too many people remembered the union dominated 70s and wanted no more of it.

      Balance is needed when looking at things historically and too many people lack perspective when looking at it. Yes there were some policy mistakes and quite bad ones but industry privatisation, innovation, right to buy and union legislation weren't among them.

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  14. Yes there should be a statue to Thatcher.

    It will be a slavering brain-dead monster, lazer beams for eyes, its foot smashed into a model of a northern city, holding the severed head of a miner, caught in the frozen moment of handbagging a tiny cowering figure representing 'society'.

    On a plinth.

    Lest we forget our own monsters.

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  15. One more thing , Adam, you criticise Margaret Hodge, maybe rightly. But again you've forgotten, or prbably didn't know, the extent to which Thatcher perhaps unknowingly facilitated her great friend Jimmy Savile.

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  16. Good stuff Robbo.

    Mancini's sour grapes are all of his own making,pathetic. Boo hoo I've spent billions, but the players I wanted didn't come. MEH.

    At the other end, I'll agree that Reading and QPR look doomed, 'Arry's been twitching even more then usual lately, his head almost exploded after that Wigan free kick went in, I bet Taarabt got an earfull later on in the dressingroom, if not then why not? They too have spent a fortune on players, proving that you can't always solve problems just by throwing money at it. They've looked more like Queens Park Strangers, then a team. Good luck with shifting all that "talent", especially on the wages they are on, Chris Samba is on a ton a week ffs, and word around the campfire is that most of their players don't have relegation clauses in their contracts, yikes!!!

    As for the last relegation spot, well, there's way too many variables to make an educated guess at to who may fill it.But as I'm pretty unedumacated here goes;

    I'd like Villa to stay safe, I'm not really a Lambert fan, but he's stuck to his guns and tried to mould a young team playing some good stuff. Wigan are always in there, Martinez always get the praise for saving them, but honestly, with so much experience why are they there in the first place? I also think that they are not such a great advert for the PL as their stadium is always half empty and their away contingent is barely non exsistant. I wonder how many "fans" they'll get down to Wembley in their upcoming semi's?

    I saw Sunderland against the Chavs on Sunday and they looked a different team to the one that have got sucked into the relegation dog fight, they actualy looked like they gave a shit, PdC must have put the fear of Mussolini into them, I think they may survive now, but if Wigan win their game in hand they'll be in the bottom three and have it all to do.

    Southampton looked to have pulled off a master stroke by swapping the popular Adkins for Pochettino, they are now at the dizzy height of 11th in the table and looking good doing it, Still only 6 points above the drop zone, but I think probably safe, as are Nouveux Chateau and Wet Spam.You never know what you're gonna get with Norwich, their record against the bigger teams is pretty impresive but then they drop points to the teams you'd expect them beat, very confussing. That just leaves one team......

    Stoke. it may not surprise many to find that I don't like them. I don't like the manager and I don't like the way they play, they are tedious to watch and for me the worst team in the league and I'd love it if they went down (sorry Jacks, mate.). Pulis is a hypocrite and a nasty piece of work. He's always made no apoligies for the way his team plays, and believe it or not I respect that, but to claim he has to because he doesn't have the money for flair players is just bollox and has now been shown up for the lie that it is by teams like Swansea, Villa, Southampton and many others that manage to play an atractive game on even less of a budget then he has. I'm glad to see that the fans are finaly begining to wake up to this fact too. You've all been brainwashed and hoodwinked into accepting that this was the only way you could play because of financial restrictions, total tripe!! It's because it's the only way he knows.

    Still all to play for with 18 (21 for some) points up for grabs and with the rewards available for PL next year, in the form of increased tv revenue, this could be the make or break of all those mentioned above.... Bring it on.

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    1. No worries H.

      I think Sunderland will join QPR and Reading in the Championship next season.

      I suspect all 3 will go straight back up as well,owing to the massive disparity in parachute payments given.

      http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1161-april-2013/9641-new-parachute-payment-could-ruin-the-championship

      Here's another read for you as well H.

      http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1161-april-2013/9637-former-arsenal-players-fulfilling-their-potential-abroad

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    2. Probably right about that although I do hope they stay up so all the Barcodes at work don't get too insufferable

      It could be Wigan do a Bolton and fall apart if they lose to Millwall. The next 2-3 matches are critical as although Sunderland are away at Newcastle, Wigan are at City and will probably get hammered

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    3. big difference is that Stoke and Bolton were both prem teams, losing to Stoke by the odd goal wouldn't have been a problem it was the 5-0 drubbing that did it. 5-0 to Stoke, at Wembley, fuck me, it's still tough to grasp. We managed to partially bury the ghost but by the time we reversed that score line it was too fuckin' late!

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    4. true enough but Wigan's fixtures are City away, West Ham away, Spurs at home which is not a kind sequence and they still have to go to Arsenal.

      Sunderland also have some hard fixtures as well though so will be close especially as they face Stoke and Villa

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    5. they'll struggle v West Ham but should pick up points v City, Spurs and Gooners!

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  17. I think Cyril Smith was more of a facilitator in that respect. I don't think Thatcher knew anything about Saville's behaviour (there was a retire senior met inspector lifted on child sex charges today and it was people like him who shielded him). Hodge was directly informed by abuse victims and some social workers what was going on and she branded the victim a delusional lunatic and threatened to sack the social workers if they said anything .

    This is from her wiki page

    In 1985, Demetrious Panton complained about abuse that he had suffered while in the council's care in the 1970s and 1980s. He did not receive an official reply until 1989, in which the council denied responsibility.[11]

    In 1990, Liz Davies, a senior social worker employed by the borough and her manager, David Cofie, raised concerns about sexual abuse of children in Islington Council care. Correspondence between Hodge and the director of social work indicates that she declined a request for extra resources to investigate. In early 1992, Davies (not to be confused with the barrister and former Islington councillor) resigned from her post and requested that Scotland Yard investigate the allegations. The Evening Standard then began reporting on the allegations of abuse in Islington's children's homes, shortly after which Hodge resigned to pursue a career with Price Waterhouse. In 1995, the "White Report" into sexual abuse in Islington Care Homes reported that the council had failed adequately to investigate the allegations.[12]

    In 2003, following Hodge's appointment as Minister for Children, Demetrious Panton went public with his allegation that he was abused in Islington Council care and had repeatedly raised this issue with no effect. He accused Hodge of being ultimately responsible for the abuse that he suffered. Davies also went public with the issues that she had raised concerns about while working for the council.[13] Following a media campaign conducted by several national newspapers calling for her to resign from her new post, she responded to Panton by letter, in which she referred to him as 'extremely disturbed'. Panton then passed the letter to the press which planned to publish it, only to be judicially restrained from doing so at the instruction of Hodge. The letter was eventually published, mainly on the grounds that the blocking of the letter was seen as disproportionate. Hodge was forced to publicly apologise and offered to contribute to a charity of Panton's choosing as recompense.[14]

    and a couple of other links

    http://google-law.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/margaret-hodge-covered-up-child-abuse.html

    http://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/the-orwellian-minister-for-children-margaret-hodge/

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2003/nov/21/childrensservices.schools

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  18. Nice one Jacks.

    Ialready knew about the fortunes of the two abroaad, but didn't realise that the payments for relegated teams were so large..

    That's one hell of a parachute. ;)

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    1. Less a parachute and more a Boeing I think H.

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  19. Adam, you are obviously a devote Maggie fan and I respect your choice, when and where I grew up we were way too poor to be conservative and she was not loved in my area.

    I reacted to a comment you made on the previous blog, but as it was past post 200 I'm not sure if you got to see it, so;

    I´m not sure if you actualy went to games back then, but it was a very small minority that was involved in houlaganism, not `a large portion`. Yet we were all treated like second rate citizens, hurded like cattle into unsafe stadia. Hillsbourough was an accident waiting to happen and nothing short of a miracle that it didn´t happen earlier.

    Back to this time around, you ask;

    Were you even alive in the 80s....

    That seems a bit rich to me coming from someone who has made a point of criticising the previous govts of Heath, Callaghan and Wilson. How old were you when Maggie came to power? From the information I have garned over the last few years on this blog ,I estimate that you were probably around 6, maybe 7 years old, 8 years old at the most.

    I'm not going to get in a political pissing match with you over the virtues of whatever U.K govt, they're all tossers to me.




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    1. I was 8 when she came to power. To be fair I've lived most of my life in Labour strongholds (I think Southend and Fareham are the only Conservative represented areas I have lived in) and I'm fully aware that it was a minority of fans involved but unfortunately they were the ones that the media focused on and that people reacted to. I do remember my parents finding the 70s really difficult and while the 80s weren't brilliant for them there was more opportunity and job mobility for them.

      I do have a slight advantage of having looked at the Labour govts of the 70s during the politics modules I did at University (we took 4 optionals a year outside our own departments).

      Your point on Hillsbrough was 100% right. When I was younger I did go to the odd Arsenal game with my friends at school and it was a minority that were in fights but it was those that the Islington Gazette would write about but I enjoyed going (unless UNited lost then it wasn't so much fun).

      I accept that people don't like her but also feel that it needed to be pointed out that some of her policies were a reaction to what had happened under previous governments and that the celebratory jubilance of some people is in poor taste but yes she did get a fair amount of things wrong but also a fair amount of things right and that needs to be kept in perspective.

      Not looking for a peeing matchjust to provide a different viewpoint

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    2. blogdignag: Yes there should be a statue to Thatcher.

      Let's stick to uncontroversial figures for statues. Michael Jackson, for example.

      This debate is becoming oddly coherent. I feel I might understand something about recent British political history after reading this.

      I'm worried.

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    3. The funny thing is you have the Lincoln memorial representing one of the most polarising people in US History yet no-one argues that he doesn't deserve the respect he is accorded even though at the time he pursued divisive policies that alienated half the country.

      He was right to do so but even his opponents respected him and its a shame you don't get the same approach over here really

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  20. jacksofbuxton: I think Sunderland will join QPR and Reading in the Championship next season.

    Glad someone agrees with me, though my predictions are only the least bit accurate when I don't put any money on them.

    Stephen20 March 2013 11:33 (Getting to Rio)

    QPR, Reading, Sunderland to go down.

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  21. Ok Adam, thanks for that.

    I am not one who will be celebrating or dancing in the street, as Brand said in his article it, is basically, now, the passing of a little old lady.

    History will judge her as it sees fit, times change as do opinions. Good point about Lincoln, another would be Christhopher Colombus, revered and loathed by millions alike.

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    1. Chris gets a wee bit too much credit over here. The only reason anyone here reveres him is because he gets us a day off work. Otherwise, no one has any clue of who he was or what he did(n't actually do).

      Thomas Jefferson would be a good example. Not only a slave-owner but fathered children with a slave. Odd they leave that out of most of the mainstream history books.

      Delete
    2. As Al Gore would say, "An inconvenient truth". However, I think it a bit unfair to call Lincoln "divisive" when it was actually the southern states who left the Union giving Lincoln no choice but to go to war to preserve it. Given the tensions in the US at that time, it could be argued that the ACW was inevitable sooner or later regardless of whoever was President.

      Spider

      Delete
    3. I was referring more to his initial policies during Reconstruction as a lot of the Northern states thought he was too soft and the Southerners were unhappy about the rights he was extending to blacks and felt that they were unfairly treated but in truth the war was always likely.

      Andrew Johnson wasn't exactly popular either though

      Delete
  22. Just read the comments thinking, good to have different viewpoints then, Adam, you draw an analogy between Thatchers devisiveness ie rich vs poor, north vs south and Lincoln's .... modern legal/rational state vs slave-owning wankers.

    IT'S NOT THE SAME

    How much more of this bullshit apologia?

    Take the point about Hodge, though. Always looked like a psychotic headmistress with thyroid problems to me.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I would love it if stoke went down. Love it. I actually think it will brew Wigan this time though. Season after session they escape by the skin of their teeth...not this time, zurg.

    My ideal season - vale up, stoke down. Fingers crossed (thanks Bells!).

    Stephen that Michael Jackson statue at craven cottage is bizarre how about Thatcher outside Anfield?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stephen won't give a shit Blog, he's a Chelsea fan! Are you gettin' yer yanks mixed up?

      Delete
  24. http://laptopiniran.tumblr.com/

    This made me chuckle.

    ReplyDelete
  25. You all live on the internet as far as I'm concerned, Trot.

    'Thatcher outside Chelsea' seems a reasonable proposition...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meh. I'll never make it to a match. They can make the stadium shaped like her backside, for all I care. What was it Dori said in Little Nemovich? "Just keep winning, just keep winning..."

      Delete
  26. mark steel....'The disrespect was inevitable, as millions were opposed to her not because they disagreed with her, but because she’d helped to ruin their lives. If someone robs your house, you don’t say: “I disagreed with the burglar’s policy, of tying me to a chair with gaffer tape and stripping the place bare, even taking the pickled onions, which I consider to be divisive. But I did admire his convictions.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But she also improved the lives of others.

      Her economic policies worked for the middle class and a fair amount of the working class.

      The fights with the unions were always going to happen considering whay happened when Heath was in power and the left wing militancy of a lot of the union activists.

      Has the unions been more worried about the actual closures than political struggle then the events would probably not have been as severe or in such a concentrated timescale.

      As I've said before she made mistakes in some aspects of that strike but the blame wasn't just hers. The only life Scargill didn't ruin with the miners strike was his own as he did pretty well out of it financially and politically

      Delete
  27. Hump it Lump it Thump it Bump it. Stoke City. Here’s a team who make Sam Allardyce sound like a fey 18th century French poet.
    loved that bit

    never liked mancini after he patronised zola on post match interview, the latest comments about not been able to get good players is just too much lol

    ReplyDelete
  28. Fine blog, as always, Robbo. Spurs' European adventure has come to an end for this season. Can only be proud of the effort put in all season, and especially tonight (Adebayor excepted). Now it just remains to be seen which competition we're playing in next season. Weekend off for Spurs this week, so they'll be able to fit and refreshed ready for a good finish in the league.

    I think Wigan may go down this season, but it'll probably be decided on the last day, as will 3rd/4th.

    Fucking golf on tv.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. are you enjoying it as much as me Noel?

      Delete
    2. If you've been thinking about throwing the tv off the balcony, then yes, I've been enjoying it as much as you.

      Delete
  29. Breaking News: Celtic's Victor Wanyama has Paisley red card rescinded

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22115282

    Scottish football certainly is colorful.

    And Noel, thanks for explaining why people watch golf. Had I known it was so graphic, I might have volunteered to be on the course instead of working behind the scenes when I still lived near Quail Hollow. I was there when Rory won his first PGA tour event. Had no idea who he was. Still don't care, honestly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Neither do I, mate. It's one of the few sports that I can't stomach. Golf and gymnastics. I'd rather watch Stoke play West Ham every week.

      Delete
    2. heathens. Truth is golf puts me to sleep on tele, at least until it gets interesting on a Sunday afternoon.

      Delete
  30. I'm not english, so I wonder if Maggie Thatcher was like 'M' in James Bond movie, the one played by Judi Dench?

    Good result by Chelsea btw. Seems Rafa has something to prove before leaving.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No,she was more like Jaws.

      Both the Bond one and the large fish one.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for that ... I now have weird picture of Maggie with shark teeth in my head

      Delete
  31. Just reading the weekly Falklands newspaper and the front page story is obviously about Maggie dying, with a quote from someone who met her when she last visited; 'she had an aura of power, a memory like a filing cabinet and surprisingly sexy'.

    I'm not making this up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You don't have to, the late Christopher Hitchens (not know for his right-wing views) writing in the New Statesman, described her as "surprisingly sexy" (following a meeting with her). Francois Mitterand also described her as "beguiling". As he was subsequently accused of being a Nazi collaborator during the war, Blog can add that to his list of evil people Thatcher once met (Jimmy Savile, Robert Mugabe etc. etc.)

      Spider

      Delete
  32. Neil Kinnock was hardly the greatest leader of a political party either,but he did once say this...

    If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you. I warn you that you will have pain – when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance – when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty – when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can't pay. I warn you that you will be cold – when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford.
    I warn you that you must not expect work – when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies. I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet – when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. I warn you that you will have defence of a sort – with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. I warn you that you will be home-bound – when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. I warn you that you will borrow less – when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
    If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually sounds more like Labour under Gordon Brown

      His bit about the streets after dark was just scaremongering I felt loads safer in London back then than I do now.

      The bit abbout credit is also just as relevant now. He was correct to alarge extent about the economic uncertainty of the late 80s and early 90s but a lot of that was caused by Europe and John majors insistence on being in the ERM.

      Right scenario but his bit about fuel and transport has really only happened over the last 5-6 years

      Delete
  33. I can only picture Neil Kinnock as his Spitting Image character. Same goes for John Major.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Couple of things about Spitting Image.

    What will Steve Naylor do for work now?

    And secondly.....

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPzzgE34YQY

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spitting Image was great.

      Shame there isn't a show like that any more. Have I Got News For you is as close as you get to decent satire these days

      Delete
    2. HIGNFY is one of my all time favourite shows. Especially when Boris Johnson is on.

      Delete
  35. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/mark-steel-you-cant-just-shut-us-up-now-that-margaret-thatchers-dead-8568785.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He has an interesting viewpoint but like a lot of these columns there is no balance.

      The steel closures like the mine closures weren't "a plan to break the unions" they were a plan to make an industry under national ownership profitable and competitive. When the unions reacted violently to that she decided to break them once and for all.

      The workers got caught in a political vice with neither side willing to back down and sadly they were the ones that suffered as the top union boys all moved on to nice jobs elsewhere

      Delete
  36. You're more narrowly defining your apologia now, Adam, which is progress. good that your not trying to defend her record on social and regional divisiveness (which is incontrovertible) or reptilian personal qualities. As I say seeing this bizarrely grandiose cortege passing protests and the statue of Mandela (who she called a grubby little terrorist) will I hope be very damaging to the tories (and possibly also the monarchy btw).

    Still with the myths though

    1. myth that she somehow saved British industry in the name of efficiency.....she didn't improve efficiency, she wrecked it. Your counter examples are small businesses and a large JAPANESE car firm.

    myth 2. It was in long term decline because of the unions alone....actually because of low invest ment, low innovation and shit management

    Myth 3 unions were greedy ..they were trying to establish a living wage and job security. You've clearly no idea how little miners were paid for a dirty and dangerous job upon which, lest we forget, the industrial revolution and ipso facto Britains preeminence was built.

    myth 4 britain is better because of Thatcher.... Britain is fucked because of her promotion of the City and spiv finance. britains infrastructure it's in much better nick, roads, rail, schools, rebuilt hospitals, all of which is due to labour investment, which I'm sure you'll be the first to say, was funded by debt.

    you're significant silences on her social and cultural impact, her friendships her squandering of the proceeds of (often botched) privatisation and north sea oil -pissed up the wall in welfare payments to the mass unemployment she intentionally created (see myth 1-'efficiency') -are duly noted

    Your argument seems to be that now we have a more entrepreneurial country and that justifies everything. Half my mates are small-businessmen and fair play to them, but we can't all be carpenters, computer engineers and picture framers. The state needs to play a greater role in i.novation and the creation of employment as it does in Germany and Japan. Enough of this fatalism (evident I your posts -you often refer to inevitability) which is a consequence of this quasi-mystical faith in market forces. It's just another form of social darwinism.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. point 4 is more Blair and Browns fault as they sold off teh gold reserves and removed the remaining controls on mixing investment and retail banking.

      I never said that unions were greedy and their points on wages were sometimes well done but there have been situations where strikes have been unjustified and just down to trying to get the most money for the least work but it has mainly been Bob Crows RMT that have been like that.

      Britain is better in many ways as there was legislation needed to control some aspects of union action such as stopping secondary action so only workers in unions directly involved could strike so if the RMT have an issue Unite can't just call a strike to back it up because they want to play politics.

      North Sea oil money being wasted on benefits is a Labour policy not a conservative one and most of the privatisations were actually well managed although legislation should have been brought in to prevent utilities firms being majority owned by foreign companies or investment vehicles.

      Yes Labour did invest well in infrastructure but so did Thatcher. The fact it was funded by debt isn't really the issues it is more failure to plan to get rid of the debt as swiftly as possible.

      My both my grandfathers were miners and both died due to respiratory diseases brought on by coal mining with my mums dad dying in his 50s from it so I know what sort of job it was but the miners strike wasn't about wages it was about closures and working practices.

      Economic policy has to have a mix of private investment and innovation and state funded capital projects and one of the failures of the last 4 governments to fund a substantial housebuilding programme on a national basis has been a massive oversight and something which embarked on would create loads of jobs

      I never said she was right about everything just a decent amount of things

      Delete
  37. The steel closures like the mine closures weren't "a plan to break the unions" they were a plan to make an industry under national ownership profitable and competitive. When the unions reacted violently to that she decided to break them once and for all.

    The Tory party had long planned to break the unions Adam.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridley_Plan

    Unions were too far to the left and a balancing was required.What her government did was take the balance too far the other way (one of the consequences of which was to create arsehole like Bob Crow)

    How could her policies improve the lot of the working class?She decimated towns and cities throughout the middle and the north of the country by creating a London-centric economy based on the city.

    The example mark Steel gave about Corby can be levied at all cities that were based around the manufacturing industry.Coal,steel,cars all gone.To be replaced with what?Industry should have been modernised not removed.You've mentioned the Nissan plant at Washington a couiple of times,other car manufacturers in this country include Toyota at Derby,Honda at Swindon and BMW at Cowley.Where were the financial encouragements for British Leyland/Austin at Longbidge?

    You felt safe walking the streets of London?Good,how safe would you have felt if you were black?Or poor?Or homeless?How safe was Liverpool,or Manchester?

    Two things keep coming up about her legacy,right to buy and The Falklands.

    Great idea to get people on the housing ladder,but where did the money go?It should have gone on building more social housing,but because it didn't it created a housing bubble and Rachman style private landlords.

    (with apologies to Noel) The reason the Junta of Argentina felt safe to boost themselves at home by invading The Falkland Islands was because she left the door ajar by removing the naval support in the area.

    The biggest problem she created was one of attitude.She held the Victorian attitude that Wealth Creators would (to use the modern Tory phrase) lead to a trickle down effect benefiting all regions of the nation.Well the days of people like Titus Salt were long gone.She allowed people to get wealthy (no bad thing) but only in the city of London and there was no trickle down effect but a massive 2 fingers to society (which she didn't believe in ) and an I'm all right Jack environment for the rest of the country.The rich got richer all right,but the poor got poorer.

    Her final coup de grace was the Poll Tax.Where the Duke would pay the same as the gardener.Think that's fair Adam?We all have to contribute to the society we live in,but it should be a proportionate contribution.Not nailing the low income bracket to spend far more of their income on tax.

    She was divisive and begat many of the ills we now have to deal with.

    I don't like the parties and the ding dong the witch is dead nonsense .Picture in The Times this week of kids who weren't even born when she left number 10 celebrating which you may think is odd,but her policies still affect those people now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No the Poll Tax wasn't fair and was a rubbish idea (council tax isn't much better). The old system of rates worked well and should have been left alone although I did agree with ratecapping of the percentage increase that could be levied.

      The lack of a trickle down effect I'm sure she found just as dissappointing as many others and your point on the Falklands is accurate but she did show strong leadership in remedying it.

      As for Automotive LandRover are successful as are Vauxhall, Rolls-Royce and McLaren. Rover and Leyland went due to poor management and would have gone regardless of who was in power as it was down to the people actually running the companiesa involved.

      I have no idea what councils did with the money from right-to-buy but it is a valid question but Iw oudl say economically that it is Gordon Brown's policies as Chancellor that we are suffering from now not Thatchers

      Delete
    2. Land Rover are Indian owned (as are Jaguar).Indeed Rover was badly run,but they were state owned.Bring someone in that knows what they are doing.The Chinese have the right idea,bring someone in to show them how to do something,training up local talent and then doing it themselves,not flogging it off or killing it off.

      As for suffering from Brown's economic policies,Thatcher created the London-centric money based economy.All our manufacturing was closed or sold off.Brown wasn't perfect,but she created the problems.

      Delete
  38. I was going to try not to do this, but Adam's theoretical bull has got to me. I grew up in 1960's and 1970's Britain, I didn't just study it in a political module at University. My wife is the daughter of an ex Durham miner (all Durham miners are now "ex" - there's no mining there any more).

    Thatcher undoubtedly set out to destroy the NUM, and, if the coal industry got destroyed on the way, so be it. She was helped in this by Scargill, who was an incompetent egomaniac. She stockpiled coal before goading Scargill into a strike he could never win, then used a politicised police force to assault the miners* (or "the enemy within" as she put it).

    I've been to a fair number of the old pit villages, and seen what happens when you throw a community on the scrapheap.

    *As a footnote, the most famous police assault on the miners was the attack on the picket line at Orgreave Colliery by the South Yorkshire force, which resulted in a large number of miners being arrested (amid great publicity) for "assault" and other crimnes. When they were tried, they were all acquitted (with much less publicity), and SY Police were severely criticised by the court for false evidence, perjury, etc. Claims depressingly familiar to those who have looked at the history of Hillsborough. Thatcher basically gave the police licence to do what the hell they wanted in exchange for their support of her.

    Shall we ignore Thatcher's support for Apartheid South Africa and the murderous General Pinochet while we're at it? I think we should not.

    Sorry for the rant, guys, just trying to set the record straight.


    Jedi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No we shouldn't ignore her support for their regimes but every government we have had has allied themselves with people less than ideal over the years.

      Thatcher was determined to have coal reserves to ensure a strike could be got through but she didn't set out to "destroy the NUM" but definitely limit unions ability to behave in that fashion again.

      A lot of mines in Durham had closed in the 60s and 70s and more closed in that period than Ian McGregor ever closed.

      How many miners were arrested for assault, gbh etc and were convicted of that.

      There were wrongs on both sides. Pit villages can also be re-vitalised. I remember growing up in Whitburn and South Shields both of which had several local collieries that had closed over the years and these weren't miserable places and have seen investment and regeneration but the councils have the job to drive that forward and all these pits are in Labour areas so why did the Labour government and councils not spend their taxes alleviating it?

      Simply because they knew they were always going to get elected there anyway so why bother.

      What did David Milliband ever do for his constituency? Nothing it it was just a way to get a seat in parliament so he could make a bucketload of cash

      Delete
    2. I'm sorry Adam,what on earth has David Miliband got to do with this?ALL major politicians,front bench or shadow front bench,are very rarely in their constituencies.How many people of Witney get to see Cameron?They have staff and offices to deal with this.

      She destroyed our manufacturing base when she could have modernised it.

      She sold off our utilities,so now the massive profits British Gas make go to shareholders.She failed to invest in this country in any way shape or form.

      She set Britain against his fellow Britain,marriages and lives ruined.

      Delete
    3. The point with Milliband is that the last Labour government of which he was a prominent member had a great opportunity to push state investment in the North East especially as it was his constituency area and they didn't

      Labour never do as they will always get in regardless and the Tories never do as they will never get in regardless leaving everyone as pawns in an interminable game of chess with neither side folding.

      Delete
    4. Pit villages can also be re-vitalised. I remember growing up in Whitburn and South Shields both of which had several local collieries that had closed over the years and these weren't miserable places and have seen investment and regeneration

      and

      the last Labour government of which he was a prominent member had a great opportunity to push state investment in the North East especially as it was his constituency area and they didn't

      Which one is it Adam?

      Delete
    5. In a way it is both as the majority of projects have been smaller local ones.

      The one area that Labour do deserve credit is their Building Schools for the Future programme as it has definitely improved facilities and alongside the current governments Academy programme is bringing real improvements.

      But there hasn't been any large scale funding as even the Tyne Tunnel 2 project used mainly private funding as have the majority of developments.

      There have been few infrastructure improvements and all the house building has been private (even social housing is done by profit driven companies now)

      Delete
    6. Adam, I take it your University politics model forgot to mention the local authority capping that started under Thatcher. This meant local authorities were not allowed to spend large amounts of money regenerating run down areas, like pit villages. They couldn't even spend the proceeds of council house sales replacing the stock.

      And the current Labour party (or "New Labour") is broadly Thatcherite in its economic approach. The only money available is private money (or "partnerships" under the PFI programme, which will saddle the country with huge and expensive debt for decades).


      Jedi

      Delete
  39. with apologies to Noel and all the other Spurs supporters, here's a new angle of Adebayours run up from last night

    http://footballfunnys.lockerdome.com/articles/107201577


    On a more pressing and important note, I think it is only right to mention that it is now a full 23 months since there has been any sightings of pictures of Mourinho on this blog

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There needs to be at least one for your Birthday

      Robbo can we have a picture of the man on the next blog just for Bells please

      Delete
    2. Very good Bells. Adebayor is an expensive and massively overrated striker. Wonder if Abramovich would pay us a stupid amount for him?


      Jedi

      Delete
    3. He's probably got his cheque book out as we speak Jedi

      Delete
    4. Haha. That's my best dance move on a night out too. What's scary about Adebayor is that his wages are still heavily subsidised by City, but next season we'll be paying 100% of them. He has to go over the summer, but I can't see who would buy him.

      Delete
  40. Did you just call me a yank, Trotts ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes, well, yesterday. Are you not? Are you a transplant too? Are you a real scouser?

      Delete
  41. Champions League semi-final draw:
    Bayern v Barcelona
    Dortmund v Real Madrid


    Europa League semi-final draw:
    FC Basel v Chelsea
    Fenerbahce v Benfica

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Easy tie for Barca then - smells of a fix somehow as bayern would have given Barca a real test.

      Would definitely like Madrid to win this year

      Delete
    2. ??????

      Bayern will play Barca.


      Go Dortmund!!!

      Delete
    3. Go on then H2 - predictions for Europey final?

      Delete
    4. I predict either an all Spanish affair, or an all German do, if not then a Spain v German final.......

      Yeah, definetly one of those.

      Delete
  42. right have to actually do some work now so will leave it where we have and agree to differ

    ReplyDelete
  43. Whatever you may think of Maggie (and I've made my views pretty clear, I think), surely Whelan and Madejski's idea of a minute's silence for her at football games is a bad one. It would be particularly stupid at Reading (v Liverpool), given her role in supporting SY Police over Hillsborough (whose anniversary is also remembered this week), and there little chance of it being respected at Newcastle v Sunderland.


    Jedi

    ReplyDelete
  44. So - jaffa cakes...cake or biscuit?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cake

      no, no

      biscuit


      ask me another.

      Delete
    2. You're certainly courting controversy on here today Adam :)

      Delete
    3. It's a cake!! Biscuits go soft when stale, cakes go hard. Leave a jaffa cake out for a few days and see what happens!!

      Delete
  45. I think the Millay funeral is an expensive mistake and distasteful but i also think the plan to turn backs during the procession, the ding ding song at #1, the street parties, the dancing 14 year olds etc are pathetic, childish and stupid btw. I think people should fight the legacy but respect the dead or it hands back the moral high ground.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Any excuse for a party I guess when you're 14

    ReplyDelete
  47. well nearly home/wine time so have a good weekend everyone

    would wish your teams well but a) either I don't really mean it and b) those I do genuinely want to win, I will of doomed them to failure

    ReplyDelete
  48. FollowingBoroHurts12 April 2013 at 17:59

    Hiya chaps an chappesses.
    Long time no speak. Twitter got me.
    Loved the blogs robbo.
    Two points, as for footy I suspect the boro won't be promoted, as for Middlesbrough, still struggling to recover from the brutal policies as a place and as a people.
    Lovely to see so many familiar and not so familiar names.

    ReplyDelete
  49. FFFFFBBBBBBBBBBHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

    Wassup big man!

    ReplyDelete
  50. FBH, welcome home, son. How's it going? Have you been elected for somat yet?

    ReplyDelete
  51. It's a little known fact that Margaret thatcher was a massive Charlton Athletic fan. She was an innocuous barely known back Bencher that fateful weekend 40 years ago tomorrow.

    She had travelled north with the latics ultras and had given some Hartlepool fans a good kicking when she saw a Small group of monkey hangers coming out of a cake shop.

    That fateful night in April, 1973, Margaret Hilda Thatcher took massive took offense at their chants of "Jaffa cakes Are cake cake cake, jaffa cake cake cake cake" and vowed to wreak vengeance upon the North (as you will be aware, Charlton fans are famous for their unshakeable conviction that jaffa cakes are in fact biscuit s).

    the rest is history in fact Im reading a book about the Brixton Jaffa Cake Riots and the Death of Concensus ....
    Once Thatcher had lit the flames it all began to spread out of control.The moslems insisted that jaffa cakes were neither cake not biscuit but in fact little orange pies, there were mass pogroms over the jaffa pie heresy. This was all about the time of the cake libel that Jews were eating christian cakes and the hundreds and thousand s heresy over the true nature of the chocolate topping.

    Without Thatcher, none of this would have come to pass.
    there were sporadic outbreaks of violence thought the early 80s, culminating in the picketing of the Aldi own-brand Joffy Coke plant at Orgreave, brutally suppressed by a politicised police.

    i myself consider that the Thatcher inspired schism of cake v bisxuit was tragically misguided as it is an entirely secondary consideration to the issue of toppings

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's also a little known fact that she is Ryan Shawcross' mother.

      Delete
    2. Her favorite meal was Lobster Thermador apparently.

      Delete
  52. They didn't win trots but they did hang what they thought was a monkey but it turned out it was actually Joey Barton speaking English in a French accent

    ReplyDelete
  53. Jaffa cakes and lobster Thermidor are to this blog what threats of thermo-nuclear watt is to Kim Jung un. maybe it's just a translation problem, we think he's saying

    -thermo nuclear war will train down on you're capitalist heads

    But Korean is an inflected language, (when I was there I went around greeting everyone with the words 'hello wizened old man') so maybe he's actually saying

    -give us lobster Thermidor, Jaffa cakes and other trappings of capitalist luxury and we will love you long time blondie

    ReplyDelete
  54. Amongst other comic misunderstanding s this week is this sight of rugby/basket ball fusion comedy street theatre act 'stoke city' passing themselves of as a football team

    ReplyDelete
  55. I've never met a Charlton fan who had a bad word to say about Maggie.

    I've never met a Charlton fan who hadn't stood side by side with her in a ruck.

    I've never met a Charlton fan who didn't believe that Jaffa Cakes weren't biscuits.

    I've never met a Charlton fan.

    ReplyDelete
  56. There's only one Liam Fontaine!

    ReplyDelete
  57. ..looks like vale are promoted .shit they've equalised...arsenal get an unlikely victory...Bolton back in the play offs ...

    ReplyDelete
  58. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Ipswich and Col u should both be ok..

    ReplyDelete
  60. Sorry tone I think you've missed out

    ReplyDelete
  61. Scrub that...not yet you haven't

    We need one point from 2 games to be certain...

    ReplyDelete
  62. Yes I know, I cant count

    but looking at the fixtures
    Millers
    Bradford (a)Plymouth (a) Shots(h)
    Brewers
    Bradford(a)Gills(h)
    Cheltenham
    Exeter (a) Bradford(h)

    ReplyDelete
  63. There's only one Dreary Flophouse!

    ReplyDelete
  64. Hello, I just want to say, I disagree. Your own article doesn't make any sense.

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    ReplyDelete
  65. Di Canio's celebrations almost as entertaining as Vaughan's goal.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Inspiring story there. What happened after?
    Good luck!

    My web-site ... fitness tips men

    ReplyDelete
  67. I can't help but believe that the market for products with photos imprinted on them, now made accessible by the Internet, represents a truly enormous opportunity. It is hard to imagine how athletes can do such entertaining and funny facial expressions, but apparently the desire to win is more important than image. Laughter is the finest medication, and we need to partake in it as typically as we are ready to do so.

    Have a look at my web site :: lol pictures

    ReplyDelete
  68. Indeed Stephen.

    But he's definetly made an impact, you could see it already last week and from what I saw of todays game (I had it on in the bar, but was too busy to pay total attention) they were good value for their win.

    ReplyDelete
  69. With the New Year quickly approaching, many people
    are setting their sights towards total physical fitness.

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    up. If you have never exercised in the morning, then we
    urge you to try it at least for one week.

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    ReplyDelete
  70. H, are you gettin' enough fluids?

    Wigan v City eh, should be a classic.

    ReplyDelete
  71. In the run up to new year?...Thatcher pissing off half the country, while the other half says I'm alright jack, football riots, threat of nuclear war...is this new year 1982?

    ReplyDelete
  72. Did you watch Dr Who - it was indeed 1983...

    Still time to see Blackburn and Wolves take a tumble to League 1 Good wins for Huddersfield and Peterborough to keep the pressure on.

    Looks like Cardiff and Hul to go up but wouldn't be surprised to see Leicester sneak into the play-offs

    ReplyDelete
  73. im a massive dr who fan, adam. bit disappointed by the new ones so far and i dont like mat smith. they keep regenerating as younger and younger im worried well end up with perry out of Diversity as the doctor with susan boyle as side kick

    ReplyDelete
  74. That is a scary thought.

    Matt Smith would be a bit better with stronger scripts but the episodes are too short they should be a full hour could have done with more and the episode before this weekends was rubbish.

    Matt Smith's best ones were the 2 part Impossible Astronaut/ Day of The Moon and the Weeping Angels ones. More of those would be better as the storyline develops more the way Silence In The Library and Forest of the Dead did.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Asylum of the Daleks best one for me, adam.

    new ones seem less inventive and a bit more bog standard,old style formulaic - monster wreaks havoc, monster escapes, we are invited to understand and sympathise with monster, monster gets away etc etc.

    But enough of this margaret thatcher talk

    ReplyDelete
  76. I liked that one but again felt that more could have been done with the Daleks in the intensive care section that had survived previous encounters with the early doctors.

    Really good but lacking that little bit extra

    I don't like sympathising with the monster I like the monster being beaten but even Tom Baker could be a bit soft like in Genesis of the Daleks when he had the chance to kill them before they had ever existed and refused to.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Its a good debating point tho - is it ok to kill a tyrant. If you could stand next to baby hitler's crib with a gun, could you pull the trigger? Could you really massacre all them baby daleks who just look like cute little matchbox toy daleks with little wheels? If i had a tardis id travel back and smooth talk young Maggie then persuade her to be kinder to the northern working classes and bring a bit of humanity into those cold seagull's eyes by dressing as a miner by deploying my well honed sexual technique. She's walk a bit funny afterwards tho.
    Or maybe the daleks are right and nothing is more real than nothing or in other words, what is not is not necessarily non-existent.. Or was that democritus. I get them mixed up sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Influences are always important. Imagine if Hitler had loads of Jewish friends when growing up would have he accepted the anti-semitic propaganda in Vienna he came across so readily?

    As for the Daleks maybe a ladle and a spatula would have made them more compassionate than a plunger and whisk?

    ReplyDelete
  79. heh heh or a ken dodd feather duster and a vibrator?

    ReplyDelete
  80. Not if Ken Dodd was using them - that would scar them so bad even the Doctor wouldn't be able to beat them

    ReplyDelete
  81. Also I think extermination would be far preferable to whatevert fate they would be inflicting with those appendages

    ReplyDelete
  82. Di Canio on his recent goal celebrations:

    "It's the second pair of trousers that I lose, but I would like to lose my trousers every weekend," he said.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22142068

    As opposed to Pulis, whose trousers go brown at the seat when goals are scored, given they're all at the wrong end of late.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Who the Fuck would bomb a marathon?

    ReplyDelete
  84. A cousin of mine and his 8 year old son were among the spectators yesterday. Fortunately they left the scene about 45 minutes before the explosions. Madness.

    ReplyDelete
  85. it has been brought to my attention that there are only three types of people in the world; those that can count and those that can't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The three types that I have down are those I can count on and then my wife.

      Delete
    2. are you saying you can't count on all those you can count and that you can't count?

      Delete
    3. 1 = 3 * 1/3
      1 = 3 * .33333
      1 = .99999
      --------------------------------
      I know. Its just a fraction away.

      Delete
  86. Replies
    1. another lead given away, There's only one Dopey Fucker!

      Boro done good though, we're in the mix!

      Delete
  87. Great result at Bradford
    Could it be Gills, Vale,(by far the best) and Millers
    Lets see

    ReplyDelete
  88. Fucking hell, the Welsh are coming. And Pompey fall down another tier. Shambolic ownership. Are they showing QPR their own future?

    Good result for Spurs tonight with Arsenal and Everton drawing. A win would have put Everton into 4th, while an Arsenal win would have moved them clear in 3rd place. It's going to go down to the wire!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Them and Blackburn - Apparently QPR have taken out a £15M loan secured against the stadium

      It is Portsmouth again but with Barclays rather than Portpin

      Delete
    2. Squeaky bum time all round Noel I think.

      Obviously not at our expense but wouldn't mind seeinG Everton in Top four - mind you with still having R*f* in charge we could soon be fighting for mid-table mediocrity by end of season

      Delete
  89. RIP Colchester united community sports trust.

    This charitable facility provided fantastic opportunities for thousands of kids to get involved in sport (my own son included) as well as other great work with war veterans, kids with learning difficulties etc etc. as well as employing 40 people many of whom will now be claiming benefits.

    This is the real face of the cuts. But as long as the bankers get their bonuses, due to their vital work for others, that's ok.

    Meanwhile the council has hundreds of thousands to spend on a stupid, failed road scheme that no one wanted and the government buries £10 million in the funeral of much hated politician.

    I'm appalled.

    ReplyDelete
  90. All in this together apparently Blogidy.

    Yet it seems the people only really affected are us normal folk.

    I'm sure Philip Green is still getting on by,the tax cut he's just received will help us all.

    ReplyDelete
  91. spot on jacks. we're becoming a kleptocracy of almost post-soviet union proportions

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interested to note this morning that I've paid more Corporation Tax over the last 3 years than N-Power.

      Delete
  92. SPL2 on agenda as Hamilton call First Division summit

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22173162

    Once again Nero fiddles while Rome burns

    The only problem with SPL 2 is none of the fans are interestd in it so why bother

    They need a top flight of 20 teams playing each other twice with winter break

    2 regionalised divisions of 12 below that with 2 from each going up (1 automatically and 4 playing off for teh other place) and 4 down from the top division which would make for more interesting games and then have 1 down from each with a non-league pyramid.

    Or go for 2 divisions 20 in the top flight and 24 in the next) like in England with promotion being decided exactly the same way and with the same places and in the sceond tier have 3 relegation places and one from each of the top 3 non-leagues going up.

    Fans would go and see it and it would be more interesting than the play each other 4 times nonsense they do at the moment

    ReplyDelete
  93. Congrations to Cardiff on their promotion.

    They will become the third Welsh team in the top tier, joining Swansea and GalenBale Hotspurs in the PL next year.

    ReplyDelete
  94. Arsenal v Everton last night was a very good game, extreamly fiesty in the first half. I have no problem whatsoever with how Everton play, they are hard, but fair, if they cross the line then it's up to the ref to sort it out....... He failed.

    Like Bells said, I too would like to see them get a top 4 bearth (but not at our expence), but I think it's beyond them now. I can't see the Chavs dropping out, that would mean the last spot is between us and the Tiny Totts. History tells us that the wheels come off around this time of the season on their wagon, Bales injury won't exactly help them either.

    Still, the fat lady hasn't even started her warming up exercises yet, so still all to play for.

    ReplyDelete
  95. How did Robbo foresee Osborne crying for mummy? HOW?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. im looking out for lottery numbers hidden in the next blog, spits

      Delete
  96. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4892408/Millwall-hooligans-cocaine-New-Den.html

    SHAMED Millwall fans are snorting cocaine in the toilets at their New Den ground — under the noses of police and stewards, a Sun probe reveals today.

    Shouldn’t they be using their own noses.?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it was very polite of them to share H2


      Have to say that was a distinctively average goal from David Luiz last night

      Delete
  97. OOoh and a very belated welcome back FBH !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very interesting to see what happens when Nando and Rafa visit this weekend.

      Delete
    2. They'll have their hubcaps nicked,just like anybody else that visits Liverpool.

      Reminds me of the man who parked his car near Anfield and was approached by 4 or 5 young lads.

      "Tenner to look after your car mate"

      "I think the rottweiler in the back will do the job lads"

      "Why,can he put out fires?"

      Delete
    3. Hopefully a back 4 of Terry, Ivanovic, Cole and Luiz, a Suarez hat-trick, 2 from Gerrard and 3 from Mata

      Has no bearing on my FFL team at all

      Delete
    4. You could probably replace R*f* with a hubcap and nobody would be able to tell the difference

      Delete
    5. I read that a frog left his car outside anfield but it was toad away

      coat!

      Delete
    6. hear about the scouser who nicked a calendar?

      he got 12 months

      Delete
  98. A young mother was pushing her baby along the street in Manchester when suddenly a huge rottweiler dog lunged towards the pram, gnashing its teeth. The young woman thought for a moment that the dog would kill them when suddenly a man rushed over, wrestled with the rottweiler and broke it's neck with his bare hands.

    Another man rushed to the scene and said, "I am a reporter and I saw everything that happened. Wait until I put the headline in my paper. It will read 'Manchester United fan saves baby from savage rottweiler!"

    "No you can't write that!" replied the man.

    "But why not?" said the reporter.

    "Because I am not a Manchester United fan, that's why!" replied the man.

    "Oh, okay then," said the reporter, "I will write Manchester City supporter saves mother and baby from savage rottweiler!"

    "You can't write that either," said the man.

    "Why not?" asked the reporter.

    "Because I am a Liverpool fan!" replied the man.

    "Oh I see," said the reporter, "How about this then, 'Scouse ******* kills family pet!"

    ReplyDelete
  99. St. Peter was manning the Pearly Gates when 40 Liverpool fans showed up. Never having seen anyone from Liverpool at heaven's door, St. Peter said he would have to check with God. After hearing the news, God instructed him to admit the 10 most virtuous from the group.


    A few minutes later, Saint Peter returned to God breathless and said, "They're gone."
    "What? All of the Liverpool fans are gone?" asked God.

    "No" replied Saint Peter "The Pearly Gates!"

    ReplyDelete
  100. A man arrives at the gates of heaven, where St. Peter greets him and says: "Before I can let you enter I must ask you what you have done in your life that was particularly good."

    The man racks his brains for a few minutes and then admits to St Peter that he hasn't done anything particularly good in his life.

    "Well," says St Peter, "have you done anything particularly brave in your life?"

    "Yes, I have," replies the man proudly.

    St Peter asks the man to give an account of his bravery.

    So the man explains, "I was refereeing this important match between Liverpool and Manchester United at Anfield. The score was 0-0 and there was only one more minute of play to go in the second half when I awarded a penalty against Liverpool at the Kop end."

    "Yes," responded St Peter, "I agree that was a real act of bravery. Can you perhaps tell me when this took place?"

    "Certainly," the man replied, "about three minutes ago."

    ReplyDelete
  101. Here's one just for you Jack

    What do you call a man under a car?

    Jack.

    ReplyDelete
  102. A guy with a seagull on his head?

    Cliff.

    ReplyDelete
  103. A guy with a hotel on his head?

    Norman Tebbit.

    ReplyDelete
  104. A moslim with a slice of bacon on his barnet?

    Hamed.

    ReplyDelete
  105. A moslim with two slices of bacon on his barnet?

    Mohamed

    ReplyDelete
  106. A turkish guy inbetween two house?

    Ali.

    ReplyDelete
  107. Man with a plank on his head.

    Edward

    ReplyDelete
  108. I was walking through the park the other day when i saw a Liverpool Fc Season pass nailed to a tree, i thought fuck it and took it, you can never have too many nails

    ReplyDelete

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