Louis

I don't see the point.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed

No.. he would have been 800k whoever bought him. His contract had expired, although he had been offered one - which activates the compensation clause.

Bad day for him today, scores an own goal within 5 minutes and later concedes a goal from someone called Immobile http://www.uefa.com/under21/season=2013/matches/live/day=29/session=1/match=2006922/matchcenterlight/index.html

That was actually pretty good

Game of Thrones finale tonight

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jHjHvD40cUHen038i4gT3-d6NU5w?docId=N0071721338762129455A

The new AC looks ok, I really enjoy the series. Has anyone tried the Arkham City DLC yet?

I've just come on to post that. @TyrrellPaul on twitter He says less than 300 toddlers kits were sold and Nike have a minimum order amount that surpasses the amount sold, thus makes little sense financially.

There was a lot of praise from the players because Nike was a brand name, it seems quite strange - does it matter to the players?

I'm sticking with the fake story, just look at the gold trim, it's not even close to the scrolled banner text on the bottom right yet it's pretty tight on the left side. Unless that the's the problem that caused the recall.

The badge looks fake to me, there should be a gradient and the gold trimming is slightly off.

Northcroft’s Match of the Week: England v Belgium WE’VE JUST seen an incredible Champions League final and an incredible climax to the Premier League. The way this season has been going, will it be tied up by the ultimate story, an unfancied England team winning Euro 2012? There’s more calmness than usual, going into a tournament, on England’s chances. I’m not hearing the old triumphal calls or hyping of the players. That might help. England have always travelled to finals with good squads and been unable to win but I reckon, this time, with the pressure off, the players will be thinking: “You never know...” In their minds will be Chelsea in Munich, Manchester City winning the Premier League in stoppage time; it will seem to them that 2012 is the year anything is possible. Of course, the problem is that other teams will arrive in Poland and Ukraine even more full of positive thoughts. I’ve been speaking to Johnny Heitinga, and Holland fancy themselves, the way the Dutch do. They’re in a really tough group with Germany, Portugal and Denmark, but they’re my tip to be champions. Most people fancy Germany or Spain but I’ve a sneaky feeling that the time is right for Holland. They have Robin van Persie — arguably the best striker at the tournament — in the form of his life. Then there’s Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben; you look at their attacking creativity and think they’ll be difficult to overcome. In the forward positions even the less glamorous players are excellent. There’s Dirk Kuyt, of course, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Luciano Narsingh, a left-winger who’s had a great season for Heerenveen. And there’s Ibrahim Afellay. I was trying to sign him in 2010 but he had such a good World Cup that Barcelona came in. Bert van Marwijk is an experienced coach. Their keepers are good, the midfield options solid. If the Dutch have one weakness it might be that they’re short at centre-half — apart from Johnny — though the Dutch style means they use their centre-halves to start the play as much as to defend. Van Marwijk can call on most of the group who nearly won the World Cup two years ago. It’s hard to say exactly what “tournament mentality” is, but you know it when you see it and Holland had it in South Africa: efficient in games, play, get the result, on to the next match. Tournament mentality is the thing England have lacked. With other countries it just seems to run smoother. That doesn’t mean the players all get on with each other, or never feel frustrations, but there’s less drama. They treat the tournament like a club trip, as if the normal season has just been extended by a few weeks and they’re there to do a job. Tournament mentality is something the Dutch had to acquire after problems in their camps. If Holland can, England can — and Roy Hodgson, who took Switzerland to a World Cup, knows what mindset is required. Germany, of course, are famed for their mentality and I might have put them ahead of Holland as favourites before the Champions League final raised doubts. Bayern Munich have eight men in the Germany squad, most of them starters. No country draws more key players from a single club. Yet after watching last weekend’s final, I just wondered if maybe those Bayern players didn’t look invincible any more. It’s true, though, that the Germans also have Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose. To their World Cup squad they have added some young players I admire from Borussia Dortmund, the likes of Mario Götze and Mats Hummels. There’s a feeling Spain aren’t as good as they once were but I can’t agree. They’re a little superior to everyone else, in terms of talent. My reservation is that it’s been a long three or four years for those players, especially the Real Madrid and Barcelona guys. They’ve been playing 50-60 games a season for their clubs, fighting tooth and nail in La Liga, getting to the final or semi-finals of every cup they enter, playing in World Club Cups and Super Cups. On top of that, at international level they’ve played in World Cup finals, Euro finals, qualifiers, Confederations Cups and friendlies in countries such as Venezuela, Costa Rica and Mexico. It’s been a heavy, heavy schedule and I just wonder at the end of it all whether those Real and Barça players — among whom there is tension — really want to come together again. I also worry for Spain in terms of goalscoring, in David Villa’s absence and with Fernando Torres in a trough. Even peaking, as they did at the World Cup, they weren’t winning 3-1, 4-0 — they won every single knockout game 1-0. Because England beat Spain at Wembley, Chelsea beat Barça and because Pep Guardiola, the architect of so much, has quit there’s a feeling that a golden Spanish era is ending, that they do not strike fear in the hearts of their opponents — though anybody who beats them will have to be exceptional on the day. The assumption is England must win their group to avoid Spain in the quarter-finals but I’m not so sure; the Spanish have a habit of starting tournaments slowly and could finish second in Group C, behind Italy. The Italians are also contenders. There were signs in the way Juventus played in Serie A and in the Champions League performances of Napoli and AC Milan — who almost beat Barcelona, not playing the Chelsea way but with a high-pressing and attack-minded game — that Italian football is on the up again. It points to a difficult tournament for Ireland, who are in the same group as Italy, Spain and Croatia. The Croats, in Slaven Bilic’s last finals, could be dark horses, with their squad refreshed by the emergence of Nikica Jelavic and Wolfsburg’s dangerous striker Mario Mandzukic. History suggests that the European Championship is a tournament for dark horses. Can England be one? Like Greece in 2004, Denmark in 1992? I feel Roy has at least done everything to give them a chance. His squad is nicely balanced between senior players and some of the youngsters everyone wants to see. I like the selections of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Andy Carroll. Both are the kind of fresh, unpredictable types who opponents won’t know much about and who can make an impact at a tournament. My one disappointment is that Phil Jagielka is only on the stand-by list. When I had Jags and Joleon Lescott at Everton I felt I had the next England centre-back partnership on my hands — and I still see them as such. Jags’ speed and recovery abilities give him something different from England’s other defenders. I like the look of Roy’s backroom staff, especially Gary Neville. At Everton, his brother Phil has been really good with the mechanics of what needs to happen behind the scenes — socially, in the dressing room — to bring a group of players together and achieve results. Gary will also have a good smell for that. The decision to cancel the training camp in Spain and give players extra rest is clever and the best thing that Roy has done is to give Wayne Rooney time off. At the end of a Premier League season, players need a break and Wayne has gone away, is having his holiday and mentally he’ll have no reason not to feel as fresh as he possibly can be. That’s especially important since he’s going to have to go to the tournament and sit on the sidelines for the first two matches. What position England will be in when he returns for the final Group D match with Ukraine is difficult to gauge. We’ve seen Roy’s new England in only one friendly. But we’ve also witnessed Chelsea’s miracle in Munich and City on the final day, and we know this season has been incredible. Could there be one more unbelievable English fairytale?

I recommend Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Do you fancy yourself as a bit of a 'Robert Neville' Dalziel?

NASL, not MLS as I said:

Japan used to do that, after a draw the teams would have a penalty shootout, the shootout result would be an invisible weighting that would be used in sorting league order. MLS had something where a player would dribble from the half way line and try to score past the keeper similar to ice hockey.

It does seem like a lot of money but I imagine it pays for itself after a while, saves on the hassle of ordering road closures etc.

Tonight at 10:25 on RTE (Republic of Ireland) Documentary about Ireland vs England relations and features the 1949 game at Goodison Park.

I didn't Mike. I'd like to get an Android phone but I'm in no rush to get one.

Kosovo can now play friendlies against FIFA recognised nations. Quite a result. 8 UEFA countries voted against it.

This is much more like it:

I forgot to mention it, Connor Roberts joined Fulham.

He's signed for Brentford permanently.

A stat I saw.. of the 27 games he started this year.. he was subbed off in 15 of those. Pearso 17 I wouldn't bother getting it printed until the deadline is over.