Red '84

clint dempsey is one of those cunts who i hate seeing score against us but love seeing score against everybody else. or maybe thats the same for every player.... the human penis has turned this game round.

danny murphini penalty 1-1

well getting a proven top level scorer at the moment is going to be tricky. seems like we´re going to have to gamble somewhat on a striker. talking about 7 million plus.

bbc scotland saying were in pole position to get jelavic. any use?

what do you work at? after 10 minutes running around a football pitch every part of your body is warmed up. i don´t buy it, never will. rooney loves the image lark so it´s no surprise.

golazo from danny guthrie. this newcastle problem just isnt going to disappear is it?

please please let it be the simple liver bird with the eternal flames either side. i´m quietly confident this is going to be the start of a beautiful relationship.

why the fcuk is leon best wearing gloves. he doesn´t come from a warm climate nor he anywhere near talented enough to warrant a fancy of that sort. i´m still sore that we actually lost against fulham, they are seriously there to be bummed.

[YOUTUBE]rfzMYY5oJ2M[/YOUTUBE]

indeed and so poignant as well with what was around the corner. in my view of the world at least, silvio lives!

Almost too many to choose from, almost every scene in pine barrens is pure gold and as has been mentioned chrissie´s intervention is ingenius. I´m gonna plump for Bobby and Junior I´m in awe of you as it perfectly sums up the very best of both characters, Junior the wily old fox and the harmless innocence of Bobby. [YOUTUBE]E-ClIxlVdlo[/YOUTUBE]

San Andres - San Andres Island

madness were a ska band and although this ain´t no ska track, it is the train to skaville... [YOUTUBE]0TNUeA-c45M[/YOUTUBE]

worst fcuking groundhog day ever. we have absolutley nobody in the team who just takes a gamble in the box and drifts into dangerous areas. static and predictable i would say and cumbersome and careless when the big man is on the pitch.

were a different beast altogether with stevie back. a savage beast actually.

painful to watch that second half but i thought we looked a bit leggy and didnt eaxactly have many options to change things. excellent result and i fully expect to see us on the front foot next week. a little bit closer to wembley.

Keith Duggan in the Irish Times FA's judgment opens up a Pandora's box In this section » Di Canio's fighting spirit not dimmed despite his new-found sense of calm Sterling effort to explain offside doesn't sit well with referees Henry thrilled to be back City in grip of strong man management Chelsea close to sealing Cahill deal No reprieve for United as Fifa rule on Swiss SIDELINE CUT: Evra’s decision to go public means that the thousands of muttered, multilingual conversations that go on during the season leave players open to accusation and counter accusation, writes KEITH DUGGAN MANY QUESTIONS emerged from the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra affair, not least this: how do Alex Ferguson and Kenny Dalglish, both of whom are prize members of the Glenfiddich rare collection of Scotch accents, ever make themselves understood in their multinational dressingrooms? The Football Association and Luis Suarez: Reasons of the Regulatory Commission is not the raciest title for a publication but, from the beginning, it is gripping in its examination of the brief, heated exchange which culminated with Suarez’s ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra during the match between Manchester United and Liverpool on October 15th. Even the first few pages confirm what all sports fans know to be true anyway: you never really know what is going on in the game. Even if you have the best seat in the house, there is the game that you are watching and then there is the game that is taking place in the minds of the players and the collective minds of the teams involved. So it was that a verbal skirmish after a humdrum corner kick in an autumn league match has led the hefty production of a 115-page report, a €48,000 fine for the Uruguayan, eight matches for which Kenny Dalglish must plan without the services of Suarez and the generally uneasy feeling created by the whole affair. The first thing that jumps out is legal formality mingling with the spit and mud of a Lancashire derby. “Mr Evra and Mr Suarez are agreed that they spoke to one another in Spanish in the goalmouth” sounds like the beginning of a wonderfully promising cultural moment during the big match. However, it would be about the only thing that the pair would agree on and the quick-fire exchange which followed – revolving around Suarez’s use of the word ‘negro’ and its connotations in Europe and South America – would form the basis of the case against him. That Evra was left genuinely upset and outraged after his showdown with Suarez is indisputable. He was perturbed for the remainder of the match, went straight to Alex Ferguson after the final whistle and reported, “boss, Suarez called me a nigger” and was in an agitated state when he gave an interview to the French television channel Canal, where he claimed that Suarez’s comments were designed to provoke him. “It still hurts. If it’s by the fans, I won’t say its fine because it’s still a shame but when it is a player playing the same game as you it’s even harder to accept. Especially when I think that he has played with team-mates who were my colour.” Evra’s belief that there was racial intent in Suarez’s remarks comes through very clearly. But the confusion over what exactly was said and the fact that none of the other players heard clearly what precisely was said – even those in the nearby vicinity were unaware of the exchange – leaves it possible to see the exchange from Suarez’s perspective as well. Paragraph 162 of the report delves into the daily uses of the phrase ‘negro’ in Latin America and makes it plain that it can be a term of affection or of degradation, depending on the context of the situation. Suarez’s claims that his intentions during the exchange were mainly conciliatory are undermined by his admission that he said, “No hablo con los Negros”. The connotation of ‘negros’ here is immaterial: the fact that he declared that he didn’t speak to people of Evra’s skin colour is the crucial aspect. But the clipped language of the report cannot fully disguise the almost impossible messiness of the situation. Like all sports confrontations, memories are blurry of who said exactly what and when. There are several ill-advised interventions from a Mr Kuyt, although Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is afforded no Mr in the narrative (is it because he is a Scouser?) as the report, in precise details, follows the row through the reminder of the match and into the dressingrooms where both Mr Dalglish and Mr Ferguson end up in discussions with the referee about the incident. If nothing else, the affair throws light on the demands of basic communication difficulties faced by football managers whose stars come from various corners of the world. For a time, the corridors of Anfield sounded like a foreign language school, with Kenny Dalglish explaining to the commission that his fluency was limited to ‘restaurant Spanish’. The idea of King Kenny discussing the finer points of paella on a balmy Marbella night never comes up for debate on Match of the Day and yet here it is, smack in the middle of an English Football Association legal report. In finding Suarez guilty of using “insulting words” towards Evra, the commission essentially had to believe the French man’s testimony rather than the Uruguayan’s. In paragraph five of the summary, the reasons for this are laid out. The finding was that the evidence of Suarez was “unreliable” and “unsustainable and quite incredible”. There is something about those words which don’t sit well: they stop just short of insinuating that Suarez was slippery under cross-examination. Decades ago, Frank Richards wrote Billy Bunter and the Man from South America during his classic series about the Greyfriars hero that presented the foreigner in just those terms: shady, dodgy, not to be trusted. The bottom line is that the commission decided they could not trust the word of Luis Suarez and it is yet to be pointed out that that punishment will live long after the match ban has passed. (The monetary fine is hardly of much consequence.) It leaves relations between Manchester United and Liverpool particularly delicate given that Suarez’s return coincides with the date of their next match. Evra was vindicated but he had to go through the turmoil of the hearing and has attracted as much negative comment as support for his stance; it can’t have been an easy time for him. And, ironically, by exposing himself as he has done, the Frenchman now becomes an easy target for the terraces. And Evra’s decision to go public means that the thousands of muttered, multilingual conversations that go on during the season leave players open to accusation and counter accusation. There is no doubt that Evra should not have to accept racially motivated insults. There is also no doubt that players in all sport say cheap and nasty things just to get under the skin of their opponents. English football has laboured long and hard to rid its terraces of the nakedly racist mobs and to transform its game into a product that commands a television audience around the world. The Suarez-Evra flare-up is yet another hint of the tensions that remain on the field when football players from different countries clash with one another leading to exchanges that remain unseen even though they take place in front of an audience of millions. The last paragraph of the report reads: “We conclude these reasons with the following comment. The charge against Mr Suarez was that he used insulting words which included a reference to Mr Evra’s colour. We have found that charge proved on the evidence and arguments put before us. The FA made clear that it did not contend that Mr Suarez acted as he did because he is a racist. Mr Evra said in his evidence that he did not think Mr Suarez is a racist. Mr Suarez said in evidence that he will not use the word “negro” on a football pitch in England in the future, and we believe that is his genuine and firm intention.” You can bet Suarez will keep his lips firmly sealed after this. But that won’t stop the conversations that we never hear from taking place all around him.

For the record if we were to take a punt on a Colombian striker i´d prefer it to be Carlos Bacca of my local team Junior de Barranquilla. Recently fired them to the title and has said he has to decide between staying for a crack at the Libertadores this year or a possible move to Brugges. Money would be less I´d imagine and he looks a better prospect.

Based on the two games i´ve watched him play at international level, i´m hoping that the jackson martinez link will beat it. Poor movement and very poor finishing. Granted it´s only on the basis of two games, one of which was on a waterlogged pitch but more pertinently not many people here really seem to see that much in him.

this plus the nostalgia of paying 100k and the possibility of having english, scottish welsh and irish lads in a side managed by kenny. we´re going to win the league!

Standing was never the problem in the first place, it´s the organisation and control of the standing that needs to be sorted. If it can be managed safely in Germany and on Hill 16 in Croke Park it should be a possibility in England.

just started to acquire seasons 1-3 of this. have a long christmas break coming up. happy days.

bit frustrating we didnt get one or two more to improve the goal difference but again we looked very good. i want three more wins for christmas and we can look forward with anticipation to 2012. overall we looked very good and i feel all the new boys are settling in rather nicely, with the exception of the big man!

that vargas lad is off to napoli according to the commentators of the chelsea game over here.

Warning! The following content is NOT WORK SAFE. Click the Show button to reveal. Well that was a twist, had a feeling it might have been a suicide coming for him as he left. There was a lot going on with Jimmy but to be honest I didnt really know where they were heading with him, he had some of the best but also some of the dullest scenes in the two series. Overall I liked the second series although it varied a lot. I have to say I don´t have much time for Margaret and her conscience and could have done without that particular storyline carrying on into series three. Will be interesting to see what happens to Richard Harrow now, he´s a great character but I always found his scenes with Jimmy a bit contrived. I suspect Van Alden will make an appearance at some point and there is definitely potential there with some of the other fringe characters. I´m hoping Rothstein in particular will feature a little bit more next time round.