Mike O

Ditto for me. I gave my seat up after 15 years in 05/06 because the numpties couldn't get their heads around my wanting to move to the family section with my boy. Having said it wouldn't be a problem, they then reneged on the deal saying no seats were available and sold my original seat off behind my back. Ultimately, they made me feel that I'd be the stupidest twat ever to spend money with them again.

Following all the debate on Rangers and Celtic joining the Premier League, the thought crossed my mind as to what would happen if you started the whole thing from scratch, with the brief that all major cities in the UK are represented. Who would your inaugural 20 teams be? Based on size of population, I'll kick off with the following: London (pop @ 7.2 Million) - Arsenal, Chelsea Birmingham (992000) - Aston Villa Leeds (720000) - LUFC Glasgow (560000) - Celtic Sheffield (512000) - Sheffield Utd Bradford (467000) - Bradford City Edinburgh (450000) - Hearts Liverpool (440000) - Liverpool Manchester (420000) - MUFC Bristol (380000) - Bristol City Wakefield (316000) - N/A Cardiff (310000) - Cardiff City Coventry (305000) - Coventry City Nottingham (285000) - Forest Leicester (280000) - Leicester City Sunderland (280000) - Sunderland Belfast (280000) - Glentoran Newcastle upon Tyne (259000) - NUFC Brighton (248000) - BHA FC Hull (240000) - Hull City All of which goes to show how woefully crap LUFC are at representing the third largest city in the UK (also bearing in mind that rugby league town Wakefield is on their doorstep), and how cities / towns such as Portsmouth, Stoke, Wigan, Blackburn and Boro should be very grateful for punching well above their weight of population.

I got the box sets of series one and two and frankly gave up after 6 episodes. I'll give it another go soon but it frankly bored the pants of me.

Firstly a big thanks to Charlie B for gracing our boards. Your comments are intelligent, sensitive and relevant. All I wanted to add to the debate is to consider the reputation of football fans in the 80s. On the whole, fans were considered 'en masse' as a major social problem. The behaviour of Englad fans abroad was the scourge of the nation, firms like the ICF, Headhunters et al were serious blots on the landscape and Heysel was almost the nadir of the entire phenomenon. I remember serious calls after Heysel to ban football entirely from our social fabric. As far as most police forces were concerned, fans were fair game for a decent punch up. I have many mates in the Met who either joined it for 'the violence' or have mates who did. Other forces will tell you the same. Fans for them were not groups of friends or families, they were potential armies waiting for the first stone to be chucked so they could wade in to crack some heads. They enjoyed it, and so did many of the fans if truth be told. The Bradford Fire and Hillsborough were major wake-up calls to the nation that football fans weren't just entirely comprised of stanley-knife wielding 19 year old skin-heads. Kids, grandparents, mums and daughters all died in both tragedies. The trouble is that 'en masse', groups of football fans tend to behave in a manner suited to the lowest common denominator amongst them. And so do police forces. Perhaps this is the cause of Hillsborough. Fans were prepared to be herded about like unthinking cattle, probably shouting abuse at all and sundry (God knows I've done it), whilst the police continued to regard them as a de-humanised homogenous mass. Only when individual bodies started to be lifted onto the pitch did all parties wake up to the fact that real people were there, and that real people were being killed. If there is one difference now to 89, I would hope it is that the police and sociologists might stop considering a club's fans as a single body. Recognise the families, the yoiung teenage boys, the elderly, the middle agers and the troublesome elements all separately. When that starts to happen, then some of us might start to consider that not all policemen are thick fascists with a penchant for night sticks. And hopefully, when we come to recognise human beings in a crowd - or in a uniform, then the likes of Hillsborough might never happen again.

Arsenal v Chelsea 18/04/2009 17:15 BST Manchester United v Everton 19/04/2009 16:00 BST Aston Villa v West Ham 18/04/2009 15:00 BST Middlesbrough v Fulham 18/04/2009 15:00 BST Portsmouth v Bolton 18/04/2009 15:00 BST Stoke v Blackburn 18/04/2009 15:00 BST Sunderland v Hull 18/04/2009 15:00 BST Tottenham v Newcastle 19/04/2009 13:30 BST Manchester City v West Bromwich 19/04/2009 15:00 BST

Clarence Seedorf

Because it doesn't matter which club it happened to, Because it doesn't make a difference in the end whose fault it was, Because it's about people - not tribes, Because it's still, still, still a nightmare to recall, Because it could have happened to any one of us, And because it even now makes me cry Twenty years on... RIP The Hillsborough 96. April 15th, 1989, 3.05pm

I think Ivanovic is the only choice - God knows who fills in at RB. How injured is Bosingwa?

'They've given the Chelsea fans flags to wave to help create an atmosphere. The Liverpool fans don't need them, they bring their own' Well done Scousers for bringing your own flags. Now f**k off back to whatever scum habitat you call home, take that c**t Tyldsey with you and don't darken our doors again. Oh, and remember to f**k up your chances in the EPL as well. f**k all. You're going to win f**k all....

Take that Tyledsey you f**king c**t.

Bollox - that will teach me to miss the first 5 minutes (negotiating with Microsoft to get my Xbox repaired). sh*t - it's all my fault...

There's a big shout here in Kingston to get Stoch on - someone young enough to still have some belief. I think we're all probably agreed that Frank's talents do not lie in captaining a team...

For the first time in probably his entire career, Cech should be subbed off. The first goal got me thinking he was on the take, so poor were his reactions to the shot. since then, he looks as if he's shat himself

My son's Xbox 360 has finally succumbed to the '3 red rings of death' after about 2.5 years of play. Leaving aside how bloody annoying this is, we don't want to switch to another platform since we've got loads of games for the Xbox. I've checked out loads of youtube clips on how to repair the thing but doubt that the electronics expertise in our household is advanced enough to do a self repair. So my questions are as follows: 1. What is the simplest and most effective self-repair solution (which doesn't involve towels and blankets) 2. How do you actually contact Microsoft to get them to repair it? 3. Does a Microsoft repair actually work in the long term? 4. Have Microsft addressed this over-heating prob in Xbox 360's on sale today? 5. Are there any non-Micosoft repairers in the London area and how much do they cost? Any help would be greatly appreciated Mike

No, we can't win it. Move on, son, let it lie, it's over. But we can win the CL, particulalry as the Scousers are going to cack their pants about 'winning the EPL' and take their eyes off the European ball.

Don't even bother pal. The road outside the ground is a busy country lane with little in the way of pavements and is a very dangerous place to hang around on. Players are on strict instruction not to stop and sign anything outside the gates. You will be at best disappointed, at worst involved in an accident.

Newcastle fans are like the majority of X factor entrants. They think that just because 'they want it so bad' and they're 'so passionate' about it then they deserve success. This is irrespective of factors such as 'having any talent', 'patience', 'hard work', 'having a plan' and 'vision'. The appointment of Shearer is on the face of it yet another stupid attempt by the NUFC board to keep on the right side of their fans, possibly the most inept bunch of supporters on God's earth. It is only marginally more intelligent than bringing Keegan back (another crowd-pleasing move) or Joe Kinnear. But not by much. I feel for Shearer because he has been a great professional and undoubtably does love the Toon. Unfortunately, he'll probably get about 3 matches before they start calling for his head. What Geordies should do is look back over the last 40 years and ask themselves what, taking into account different owners, managers and players etc, is the only common factor in such a massive lack of achievement. The answer is, of course, the fans themselves and their city. They seep failure from every pore and pass on a total lack of success genetically from generation to generation. Their streets and buildings are built on foundations of never getting anywhere whatsoever and their lives can be measured by a succession of disapointments interspersed here and there with little pockets of unfounded optimism. God bless them.

As I said, the best way of 'honouring the dead' is to ensure that the football community as a whole does everything it can to see that it never happens again. For me, that starts with focussing on this generation of Liverpool fans who are, as far as most people are concerned, the worst perpetrators of the sort of activities which would prompt a re-occurence. I stumbled across some news clips of Hillsborough today and still can't really watch more than a minute or two before I start crying. I don't think any of us should belittle the event at all in terms of the human tragedy. Hwever, I agree wholeheartedly that the FA's plans for remembering it are ill-thought through, and bearing in mind most of our views on current Reds fans, more provocative than compassionate.

Hillsborough was an awful human tragedy, one that will be felt most poignantly by anyone who's taken a child to a footy match. We should never forget what happened or how it happened, so that we can ensure that it never happens again. With that in mind, a couple of points: 1. I don't think there's a football fan alive who doesn't suspect that the Liverpool fans were as much to blame for the incident as the police, if not more so. The actions of Liverpool fans over the course of the last twenty years have certainly helped put their probable culpability under the spot-light. A proper testimonial, therefore, for the Hillsborough 96 could be the most intensely srutinised study ever of Reds fans when they come to ours for the CL QF. We (fans / the club / media / the police) should video their every move leading up to the start of the match to put together the mother of all dossiers as to whether 'the world's greatest fans' have learnt anything over the last 20 years. Furthermore, the police should operate a zero tolerance policy to any Red fan entering the SB area without a valid ticket, to any Red caught touting or trading, to any Red seen barging or pushing etc etc. Any arrested Scouser should then be named and shamed in the media. That would be a fitting tribute to 96 of the most senseless deaths in recent years. 2. I think that asking people to clap for a minute in remembrance is completely ridiculous. I share Loz's angst that fans can't be trusted to keep quiet for 60 seconds but the idea of clapping is to celebrate people's lives, not to mark a mass human tragedy. Would we bloody clap remembrance day, or clap to remember the holocaust or clap Lockerbie etc.? No, of course we wouldn't. If the FA are nervous about adverse fan reaction to remembering Hillsborough, take it off the agenda altogether, don't ask us to cheer a complete horror show.

And your point is?

I think this draw will throw up a lot of surprises boys. Don't expect Barca to cruise past Bayern or for the cocky Gooners not to implode as usual. I think you can safely say that United will go through to the semis and as for us - well I wouldn't want to be meeting us at the moment, expecially if we're home second...

See what he did there? Clever, very clever....

Nothing beats Get Yer Ya-Yas out for me. I basically learnt guitar by playing along to every track ad infinitum. 'Think my trousers are going to fall off... no-one wants to see my trousers fall off now, do you?'

Ok so lets hope the draw is: United vs Liverpool Chelsea vs Porto Arsenal vs Villareal Barca vs Bayern That will give us semis involving us, United, Arsenal and Barca. We then stuff the Gooners and meet United in the final with them having half their squad missing for picking up injuries and cards in 180 minutes of hell against Barca. Could happen...?!

My prefered order would be... Porto Villareal Arsenal Liverpool Barcelona Bayern Man Utd The way they're playing, it's United's to lose but I wouldn't fancy Bayern too much either. On the other side of the coin, I reckon most of the oppo would have us as second worst option to draw after United.