melia

it's got nothing to do with me. I know nothing. The guy on RAWK may be connected and he may have the same user name but he isn't me (feck, if I was him I'd be gutted not to be me).

Everywhere I read I see the same story - Rafa is stubborn. How do people arrive at this conclusion? It seems to me that if he doesn't respond to the demands of the British Press then they label him as 'stubborn'. People seem to have picked up on this and it gets chucked into every discussion (and probably will continue to do so until he turns into the manager the Press wants him to be). I'd hate to have a manager that didn't believe in what he was doing. I just don't get this 'stubborn' tag.

Can't wait for the David Peace version of events. Will make the Cloughie book look dull, I reckon.

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I'm guessing empty. Can't imagine me hoofing a full can; as well as being wasteful it would be dangerous. I would imagine safety would have been the overriding value (besides drunken greed).

I can't even remember whether I was there or not. I went to most games in the mid-80s but the specifics usually got lost on the ale later that day. I can recall re-enacting many a Molby or McMahon screamer (always the screamers) on the dancefloor of 'the State' with a can of Red Stripe as a ball. But, alas, I couldn't tell you which games I was at. My default answer is 'I was there' because I usually was, but this goal sounds so special that I'm sure it would have been burnt into my head if I'd witnessed it.

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Does anyone remember "Rocky O'Rourke"?

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Why is it that I'm s***ting myself that Rafa will be poached? Surely he wouldn't go to them?

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Was he a reserve at his previous club? Or, don't you understand that a left back is a full back? Please answer 'yes' to the second question, I'd love to spend a few hours taking the piss out of you.

If we would have signed Barry for 18 Million and consequently missed out in Keane, where would we be now (assuming a budget that wouldn't accommodate both at selling-club value)? If Barry didn't shine, would we have written him off after half a season? Would the option of shifting a midfielder after half a season seem absurd? Would there have been uproar that we didn't sign Keane?

There's 3 ways this can go: 1) Keane stays and starts to justify his fee. 2) Keane stays and continues to under-perform. 3) Keane goes. Only options 1) and 3) are acceptable. If you were the manager, how would you deal with it? I'd go for 3 and, failing that, pray for 1. We wouldn't be in this situation if Keane played like a 20 Million pound signing. He's a good player but he has to justify the fee.

That's just silly. Sami deserves a place in the squad.

Does that really make a difference if it is Parry deciding how much we should spend on each player? Rafa may have a bigger budget but, if Rick is deciding player's value, it is not entirely fair to hold Rafa wholly accountable for how it is spent.