DJS

Well much as i wouldnt want Mascher go get pissed off, he'd get over it in time. If the loss of him, Babel, Lucas etc causes us to lose points, we cant get those points back.

Neither's Mascherano.

If it's incorrect, then someone should tell FC Barcelona.

Blatter (the loon) might well have personally backed it, but in terms of official FIFA recogition, the Olympics has none - as mentioned by the Barcelona statement, with regards to not releasing Ronaldinho.

In all seriousness, £12m is the absolute maximum i'd pay, in the circumstances.

I havent been following this thread in full but you're spot on 100% and this is exactly why i dont want us to proceed with this signing. Now that Barry's burnt his bridges and is insisting on coming to us (United and Chelsea dont need him, Arsenal might but he'd probably favour us & a linkup with Gerrard), we should immediately drop our bid to £10m and leave Villa up the creek. We hold all the cards in this and yet, we're still looking like paying £16m or more. Ridiculous.

In footballing circles, it's a no mark competition. Not even recognised by FIFA - and they'll recognise most things where there's a buck involved.

Not even 23 then

I thought he was 22?

We seemingly arent remotely obliged to... I presume it's merely to keep the player happy, but how much of a fall out would there really be? Lucas AND Mascher not available, it could leave us a little short of options, especially if we pick up an injury in CM too.

If that Echo article is correct, then the original post wont have been a blag.

It'd basically take a catastrophe for one of the top four, and for one of the rest to have what'd be effectively their best season in decades. Cant see it myself.

Even Schweinsteiger had a brief grin on his face. I think it's fecking hilarious.

Never more has the expression 'robbed' felt so appropriate. What an effing joke that night was

Ok, well since you're seeing it from a sensible and serious point of view, i'll obviously agree that you're correct. I tend to buy the tickets first though and then sort out ways of making sure i get to the game. In your shoes though, let's not be naive and claim that, upon realising you cant make the game, you're unable to sell that particular game to one of your mates. There's always someone waiting to go and stop you from being out of pocket. The fact of the matter is, it works both ways. ST holders know they've got a ticket, but sometimes wont be able to make it. They also know that they can make most of the games, otherwise they wouldnt purchase the ST. Non ST holders would love the luxury of not having to get up early every time a game goes on sale, logging in and continually hitting refresh before the madness commences at 8:30am. And that's if you opt for the 'easier' online option

Indeed i can. I dont though. I could also have swerved a fogged out cuptie against Arsenal. As it turns out, what i tend to do is reach the last junction of the M62 before swerving onto the slip road and beginning the long journey back

Buying tickets on a game-by-game basis costs me more than your ST costs you. So maybe i should have more say on when they play the matches?

I'll be honest and say, from my point of view, travelling to a 3pm kickoff is preferable than travelling to a 12:45 or even 5:15pm kickoff simply due to not having to leave at 5:45am and/or not having to get back after midnight. For a 3pm KO, i can leave at 8:30am and i'm home by 9:30pm. But that's just preferences.

I can understand that mate. From a financial point of view, the more televised games we have, the better. And i personally like to watch the game back on tv even when i've been to it. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be in a position to get to all the games, and Anfield only fits 45k so by all means, if tv enables more Reds to watch the games, i wouldnt object to that.

But that would suggest we're paying £8m outright and up front for Dossena, which i would be surprised at. Rarely do we pay the full fee up front for anyone we sign.

He wouldnt really need to face Toure, Vidic, Terry or Ferdinand. He'd have a field day against the likes of Hull, WBA, Fulham, Bolton, Stoke, Boro etc.

Depends if you believe the reports prior to Euro 2008 which claimed Valencia were happy to sell for £17m. I doubt they'd let him go for that amount now.

Without wishing to point fingers and make unnecessary claims about you, i make that commute from London every other week (actually more than every other week if you count CL games and away games, of which i usually get to half) so it's not impossible. Obviously not everyone is fortunate enough to be in the position to do that, which i understand too.

Can open....

I'd like to know how this 'safety certificate' malarky works because the arsey ones will preach on about that, whilst the majority just let you stand. Surely the rules must be the same across the board, in the PL certainly. Odd how some enforce it, yet most dont bother.