Horus

I could give you 16 million reasons that Purslow is waiting for.

Forgive me, but all I remember reading last season on a weekly basis was some player or other (mainly Dirk) coming out and saying how it wasn't good enough and next week is the turning point.

It's only six lines!

Honestly, who can guarantee that even one of them will be here? Herein lies the problem. We will sell our best outfield players and about a third of that money will be reinvested in the team. On top of that, we've now got a manger that insists on playing the most defensive hoofball since the worst performances under GH, and before him, in my lifetime. So even with a bit of inspiration that's what we're at. Imagine the performances when we've swapped those three for Heskey, Mark Noble and Zoltan Gera.

Which was in turn helped by the fact that Giletts mate at the Telegraph just happened to get hold of a DIC document containing an exit strategy. Which was made out to be a "lets fuck over Liverpool" memo. Ironically, the fact that Moores wanted long term stability clouded his decision yet further, and he ended up selling to the worst possible people, whose sole business plan was to load the club up to the hilt with debt, build the stadium, and sell for £1billion. The most damning statement of the incompetence of Moores and Parry, in that whole Echo piece is this: The overriding message is: Don’t worry,” Parry said on the morning of February 1, 2007. “You can be certain (Moores) has done his homework carefully and will make the decision in the best interests of the club.” Trust Us

The Yanks' takeover was also labeled as £450-500m deal, incorporating the stadium build. They just decided that rather than borrow to build the thing, it was more in their interests to use that loan to pay for the club and they set up a nice little laundering business with the architects to order a production line of £50m drawings for a year or two.

He's definitely not for us. He needs to come out his shell a bit, first.

Yeah. I'm really into American politics and the bizarreness of the right wing, and I download "The Colbert report" and "The daily show" every day. I'm well versed in the mocking of O(Fuck it, I'll do it live)'Reilly, Hannity and Beck. I also watch the Rachel Maddow show online every day, so I guess you can guess my political leanings!!

One more time, your premise is based solely on the fact that he knew about the Hillsborough disaster. That's why I'm defending him, and that's why everyone deserves to be defended in this situation, regardless of whether or not they are funny. Nobody deserves to be castigated for a comment like that, unless they know what happened. It's part of due process that people are innocent until proven guilty. If he knew, it's unforgivable. If he didn't, then it is a complete irrelevance to a joke he made. We don't have the right to be thought police.

OK, I'll be happy to admit I'm wrong if you offer some evidence, as I've always understood that to be the case.

If he doesn't know about Hillsborough though, then it's no more than an exaggeration of European fanaticism (which is his character in a nutshell). Europeans are crammed into stadiums, especially when considering the sobering Hot Dog eating and big finger waving fans that attend American sports in brand new, sterile stadiums. Like I said, if he knew about the Hillsborough disaster, I'd be amazed, and I'd also lose some respect for him. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll email him tomorrow and post both my email to him on here, and any subsequent reply, and rather than this turning into 30 pages of increasing bile, we can try and wrap it up in under 10 pages. Does that sound agreeable to you?

Again, I think you've skewed it. I don't believe for one second that he knows anything about the Hillsborough disaster. I also think that if he did, he wouldn't have made that joke. And it's really poor form to compare Hillsborough to the holocaust. I also hope you retract your statement that he's been defended because he's funny. He's not, people that either know him or his work find it difficult to accept that he would willingly use an event like our fight for justice. He just wouldn't do that. I don't believe he would have any knowledge of the disaster. He's used a phrase to comment on the fanaticism of European footie fans, that just happens to hit our nerves pretty hard because of the situation. If I've got this wrong, and he knowingly used the Hillsborough disaster to make jokes that North American audiences wouldn't understand, then I'll be the first to apologise to you. We all vouch for people in our daily lives, and at the moment I'm vouching for him.

I'm sorry but you're using a complete false equivalence here. I'm not demeaning Hillsborough in any way, but there is no way anyone in their right mind would compare it with the the holocaust and the Christian-lead persecution of the Jews for over 1500 years. Your anger is skewing your perspective. He was making a joke about the fanaticism of the European "soccer" fan. He wasn't joking about the 96 lives that were lost because of incompetence on that fateful day.

Why doesn't he speak out anyway? After all, he got an extra £8 million pounds by selling to the cunts he did. I think he could hire some extra security if he did. It's also his only way out of this mess. If he shuts up and sits in the background, then he will not only be the man who fucked the club up, but he'll also be in some potential danger (there are some fruit loops out there), whereas if he talks and does the whole apology bollox, then at least people may call for some sort of closure. The absolute worst thing to do in this situation is nothing. He needs to man the fuck up. We're the ones paying for his mistake and he won't even say sorry.

If it was specifically aimed at us, why did he say Europe instead of England? Europe is well known for it's passionate stadiums packed with people. America is not like that because of the distance required to travel and follow your team. It's also part of the exaggeration he is well known for. How can you continue to be a fan of a sports team if you've been crushed to death (god I hated writing that sentence)? That's his style.

Stephen Colbert is an absolute gem of a person. I would be amazed if he'd even heard of the Hillsborough disaster, let alone mocked it. I guarantee there is no way he would have said anything like that if he knew the details of our fight for truth and justice. His father (who was a doctor) was heavily involved in the civil rights movement, and he's one of few Americans that isn't blinded by their right wing spin machine.

I think at the moment the problem we have is that if we start the season playing the famed 9-0-1 "hoofball" formation we played most of last season, then there will be empty seats anyway. The main issue with this is that the press won't even look at the ownership issue as a potential reason. It will be down to the footie we're playing under Rafa. It would need to be widely publicised as a battle against the owners and not against the dire football on offer.

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That link is broken

Repped. I really enjoyed this. Thank you so much.

Think he meant respective.

Nicky Tanner

As the founding member of "The former clubs of Fernando Torres association," we will be dishonorably applying for membership to your club this summer.

Really good, concise point. What are you trying to say?

Just not when there's an important match.