BlueBeard

I haven't voted, as I couldn't make my mind up - it could have been any one of options 2, 3, 4 or 5 - maybe even the last one, as God certainly ain't a Chelsea fan

It's not exactly a tradition, or is it? I'm not too sure. I thought Fergie just did it to rile his players up for next season. Perhaps - but Newcastle did it for us too, don't forget. Have precedents been set? And as I said in another thread, the Press may well be all over us again if we don't do it. I don't agree with all this 'guard of honour' crap - it's humiliating for the players who provide the 'guard', and antagonises their fans. I might be in favour of it if the players were happy to do it, but what player worth his salt would be happy to applaud his rivals before a game? It was very clear that the Manure players were unhappy when they did it for us at OT, and I don't blame them. Even the Newcastle players looked embarrassed, the previous season. It'd be more entertaining for the fans if the opposition players were to stick the boot into the 'champions' as they walked onto the pitch - more a gauntlet than a guard of honour Although I can see the advantages, media wise, with the honour guard, your thoughts, BlueBeard, were exactly the same as mine. Although, I must admit, mine involved JT stomping on Rooney. Absolutely - plus of course, Essien steaming into Ronaldo, and Drogs giving Scholes a good kick in the b*llocks

Excellent post, 2k - or can I call you Mike? As I told Fansince65 the other day, I'm heading to the west country soon - I'll be sure to pop in and buy you a pint!

It's not exactly a tradition, or is it? I'm not too sure. I thought Fergie just did it to rile his players up for next season. Perhaps - but Newcastle did it for us too, don't forget. Have precedents been set? And as I said in another thread, the Press may well be all over us again if we don't do it. I don't agree with all this 'guard of honour' crap - it's humiliating for the players who provide the 'guard', and antagonises their fans. I might be in favour of it if the players were happy to do it, but what player worth his salt would be happy to applaud his rivals before a game? It was very clear that the Manure players were unhappy when they did it for us at OT, and I don't blame them. Even the Newcastle players looked embarrassed, the previous season. It'd be more entertaining for the fans if the opposition players were to stick the boot into the 'champions' as they walked onto the pitch - more a gauntlet than a guard of honour

For me, the hatred thing is more to do with the fans of the clubs, rather than the clubs themselves. It's still got to be Spuds for me. I've hated them since I was a young lad, and the recent cup games against them hasn't exactly helped their cause. The scousers come a close second though, along with Leeds & Manure. My hatred of the Arse is still there, but it's never been as strong as my hatred of Spuds or Leeds As I've mentioned before, Chelsea & Millwall were allies on a few occasions in the 70's, so I've got quite a soft spot for 'em - except when we play 'em of course And where is the Septic option???? I hate them easily as much, if not more than any of the others!

Thanks for that, Loz, cheered me right up!

He was useless at crossing, but his speed with or without the ball terrorised defenders. He was at his best running at a full-back, then cutting inside. I also loved the way he'd tackle back and help out his own defenders. Despite his sh*te crossing ability, I was really sorry to see him go.

Excellent post, couldn't have put it better myself!

Good to see you back, Star - and you're certainly not alone in your opinions (well, most of 'em, anyway )

That earthquake must have come as a bit of a surprise, Glory! Watched the news last night, and most of the locals initially thought that the Channel Tunnel had been bombed. I'm not that far from you in Folkestone, but I don't remember any tremors - might have been different if I'd had a curry on Friday night though

Exactly, mate. Ferguson has been guilty of all the things he's accusing Mourinho of, for nearly twenty years, the f*ckin' hypocritic! And Mourinho was dead right about the penalties. The two recent non-penalties at OT were a disgrace - if the offences had been against United, there'd have been no hesitation, clear penalty. Nothing new there though, it's been going on for many many years at OT, and also at Anfield - away teams have rarely got penalties at either ground. I'd love to see the stats of how few pens have been awarded against Manure & the Scousescum in their home games in the last 30 years, in comparison to other games. Some people argue that it comes with success - that's b*llocks, we've just won the league title twice, and we're never gonna get preferential treatment in the way United & Liverpool have always had - in fact we get more bad decisions against us than in our favour.

Brilliant stuff, haven't seen that in ages!

Watched MOTD last night, and Jaqui Oatley was commentating on Fulham v Blackburn. Just as I expected, I found her commentary extremely annoying - not because of what she said, but because of her voice. I just can't stand a woman commentating on football, either on TV or radio - I don't even like them doing match reports. To me, the female voice just doesn't sound right in that environment. It's not a totally sexist thing, there are plenty of male commentators whose voices make me wanna kick the TV screen in, or throw the radio out the window! So, in conclusion, women should stick to doing the housework and shagging their partners, rather than worrying their pretty little heads about important things like football.........

It's a step forward, but they really need to take it further. If a player is caught diving, ban him for two games, as Adriano was. The next player from that same team to be caught diving, ban him for five games. Any subsequent diving from that club's players should then incur a ten-match ban for each guilty player.........and the club be docked 3 points. That'd soon stop all the diving and cheating. Should also make the transfer market interesting - Deco, Ronaldo, Robben, Gerrard, etc..., would all suddenly find themselves on the transfer list, and no club would want to take them! Change it now, UEFA - show us you've got some b*llocks!

Any relation to the C*ntface f**kAss B*stard who was the referee of the 1994 Cup Final ? Pretty sure he's a direct descendant

Ronald Dix (Derby) in 1938

Does he mean Freddie Cox, played for the Arse in the early 50's? Skip that - I just found that Freddie Fox (Millwall) got just the one cap against France in 1925

Just been browsing the web to try and find some more. Found John Cox (Derby) who got just the one cap in 1892 against Ireland. Slightly off subject, I also found that the referee of the 1878 FA Cup Final was a certain Segar B*stard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segar_bar steward Still searching.....

Does he mean Freddie Cox, played for the Arse in the early 50's?

Great stuff! What we need now is for some defenders to take notes, and start tackling Ronaldo like that.

I can't stand women commentators! I'll have to watch MOTD with the sound turned down - well, admittedly, I already do that when Motson's commentating! I don't understand why women commentators are even being considered - whenever I've heard a woman covering a game on the radio it just doesn't sound right. You just know that when theirs a lull in the game, she'll start wittering on about a pair of shoes she saw during the week, or asking her co-commentator if her bum looks big when she wears headphones. Women should only be allowed to commentate on women's football (bloody awful waste of time that is, too!), and men should only be allowed to cover the male game. Right, I'm off to hide now.......

Is that a real team? Sounds like a well-known Glaswegian phrase to me

Huge Ones (as we used to call him) was abysmal! And Wolstenholme wasn't up to much either, to be honest, apart from his legendary one-liner. Question of taste, I suppose. I liked Wolstenholme because he never got over-excited, and was very knowledgeable about the game. Compare that to Motson, who just reels off meaningless statistics whenever he can't think of anything sensible to say - which is far too often! His childish sniggering makes me want to kick the TV in, but the worst thing is that whenever Wayne Rooney does anything remotely skillful, Motty has an enormous orgasm, rasping "ROO-NEEEY" as he soils his y-fronts yet again ::WhyMe:: I'm not sure whether Hugh Johns was the other one I liked - I can't remember the name of the bloke, but he was around at about the same time as Wolstenholme (or maybe just after).

Today's radio and TV commentators are pathetic when compared to their predecessors. I haven't heard a decent radio commentary in years, and TV is just as bad, if not worse. I can't stand any of today's TV commentators, but then I couldn't stand them years ago either. Barry Davies was a prize pr*ck, and Brian Moore was extremely irritating. I can only think of maybe one or two really good TV commentators, but they were in a different age - Kenneth Wolstenholme and possibly Hugh Johns.