Rushian

Who the f**k has said that all is right in the team? I was just correcting the false impression that Chelsea had the better of the game before Ballack was sent off. They clearly didn't. And Bellamy's was a good chance given it was on his right foot - he should have done better.

That and Bellamy's chance ... oh and Gerrard's chance ... so basically up until the sending off it was a very even game between two very evenly matched sides. Just as it should be at the top of the table.

You go to work in spikes?

Plenty of obvious candidates if you look outside of the sports the media obsesses with. Their ignorance shouldn't be a bar to world class athletes winning the award. My top 5 in terms of world class achievement would be (in alphabetical order): Ben Ainslie Joe Calzaghe Nicole Cooke Tim Don Zara Phillips All have won at the very highest level in their chosen sports. It says a lot about the narrow focus of the UK sports media that they keep suggesting people who shouldn't be anywhere near the award e.g. Monty Panesar - two decents Tests out of seven v Pakistan and Sri Lanka and England don't trust him to bowl in a one day match. Seems to be popular because he wears a head scarf and has a beard and the fans don't really know if they're laughing at him or with him yet. Giving the award to Monty would smack of tokenism when there are players in the same side such as Ian Bell and Alistair Cook who have had better years than him. Andy Murray - had a great season for a promising player, but that's what he remains. Only one tournament victory and nowhere near in any of the grand slam events, which is where real achievement has to be judged. Give him the young sports personality award if you have to. Jenson Button - yes let's reward someone who took 113 races to get his first win. While you're at it why not give the overseas award to Felipe Massa, after all he only took him half as many races to do the same as Jenson. And don't get me started on the bloody Ryder Cup. Already seen people suggesting that Europe should win the team award if they win the Cup next week. It's the Emperor's New Clothes of sporting events. Two teams invited to take part every two years with a roughly 50:50 chance of winning. Great achievement that. Might as well give the team award to Oxford as they bravely defeated Cambridge in the boat race this year. The Ryder Cup is an over-bloated corporate beanfeast which lost the plot as a sporting contest years ago. Oooh give it to Colin Montgomerie if he sinks the winning putt ...

Here's the original story of the news that Diao would join - it broke before the World Cup started: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/...000/2010574.stm

Top clubs and agents in dock over new TV investigation By Sam Wallace Published: 08 September 2006 Premiership football will be hit with a new corruption scandal later this month after at least one leading agent and three top-flight clubs were targeted by an undercover BBC sting that will make serious allegations about the probity of transfers and financial dealings in the national game. The agent involved is understood to be considering leaving the country following the probe while the clubs involved have all been contacted by the investigators on the BBC's Panorama programme to answer questions about allegations of "tapping up" players and corruption. These latest findings are due to emerge as Lord Stevens prepares his report into transfer bungs that was launched last season. Crucial to the programme's success in breaking into the tightly guarded world of agents and clubs was a whistleblower from inside the agents' industry recruited by the BBC's investigators. It was he who carried out much of the undercover filming that took place at meetings between agents and club officials. So far no one from the agents' fraternity has been prepared to go to such lengths to expose wrongdoing and the BBC is confident that it has a very strong case against a number of individuals. Lord Stevens' company Quest, which is carrying out the investigation into transfers at the behest of Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, is understood to be eager to see the BBC's evidence. While the identity of the key agent in question is known by The Independent, it was not confirmed by the BBC, which is still finalising the programme that is scheduled to be aired on 18 September. Lawyers acting on behalf of those with allegations against them are still preparing their defence but some details of the charges can be outlined. At least five agents have been contacted by the BBC via letter detailing serious allegations of corruption. Three officials at Premiership clubs have also been contacted by the BBC over corruption allegations. As well as those officials, three Premiership clubs have been contacted by the BBC over what is described as breaking industry rules. That charge is known to relate to "tapping up" players, which is the term used to describe an illegal approach to a player without the permission of the club to whom he is under contract. The investigation by the BBC has become the talk of the football agents' world as word has spread about the names of those who might be implicated. With Lord Stevens expected to report to the Premier League possibly before the end of this month, there is genuine anticipation that the former Metropolitan police commissioner will have some serious allegations about high-profile figures in the game made to him. With the BBC investigation likely to coincide with the Premier League inquiry, there will be greater pressure on Lord Stevens to make sure his report is not perceived as a whitewash. His inquiry has interviewed numerous figures within the game and had access to clubs' paperwork concerning transfer deals. In an industry that thrives upon rumour, there is anecdotal evidence about wrongdoing in transfer dealings but little hard evidence that could lead to a criminal conviction. Scudamore announced the bung inquiry in January, shortly after the Sven Goran Eriksson "fake sheikh" sting. On that occasion, the then England manager and his agent Athole Still made suggestions to an undercover reporter that three clubs were guilty of corruption. Eriksson was interviewed by the FA but is thought to have dismissed the sting as idle gossip. At that time, transfer "bungs" - illegal kickbacks paid to managers by third parties for buying certain players - were top of the agenda after then QPR manager Ian Holloway and Luton manager Mike Newell made similar claims. The remit of the Stevens inquiry originally stated it would only investigate transfers going back to January 2004, including five transfer windows - not including this summer - and only potential illegal payments between employees or officials of clubs. It is not clear how many individuals Panorama will target as it edits its findings into a one-hour show. Premiership football will be hit with a new corruption scandal later this month after at least one leading agent and three top-flight clubs were targeted by an undercover BBC sting that will make serious allegations about the probity of transfers and financial dealings in the national game. The agent involved is understood to be considering leaving the country following the probe while the clubs involved have all been contacted by the investigators on the BBC's Panorama programme to answer questions about allegations of "tapping up" players and corruption. These latest findings are due to emerge as Lord Stevens prepares his report into transfer bungs that was launched last season. Crucial to the programme's success in breaking into the tightly guarded world of agents and clubs was a whistleblower from inside the agents' industry recruited by the BBC's investigators. It was he who carried out much of the undercover filming that took place at meetings between agents and club officials. So far no one from the agents' fraternity has been prepared to go to such lengths to expose wrongdoing and the BBC is confident that it has a very strong case against a number of individuals. Lord Stevens' company Quest, which is carrying out the investigation into transfers at the behest of Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, is understood to be eager to see the BBC's evidence. While the identity of the key agent in question is known by The Independent, it was not confirmed by the BBC, which is still finalising the programme that is scheduled to be aired on 18 September. Lawyers acting on behalf of those with allegations against them are still preparing their defence but some details of the charges can be outlined. At least five agents have been contacted by the BBC via letter detailing serious allegations of corruption. Three officials at Premiership clubs have also been contacted by the BBC over corruption allegations. As well as those officials, three Premiership clubs have been contacted by the BBC over what is described as breaking industry rules. That charge is known to relate to "tapping up" players, which is the term used to describe an illegal approach to a player without the permission of the club to whom he is under contract. The investigation by the BBC has become the talk of the football agents' world as word has spread about the names of those who might be implicated. With Lord Stevens expected to report to the Premier League possibly before the end of this month, there is genuine anticipation that the former Metropolitan police commissioner will have some serious allegations about high-profile figures in the game made to him. With the BBC investigation likely to coincide with the Premier League inquiry, there will be greater pressure on Lord Stevens to make sure his report is not perceived as a whitewash. His inquiry has interviewed numerous figures within the game and had access to clubs' paperwork concerning transfer deals. In an industry that thrives upon rumour, there is anecdotal evidence about wrongdoing in transfer dealings but little hard evidence that could lead to a criminal conviction. Scudamore announced the bung inquiry in January, shortly after the Sven Goran Eriksson "fake sheikh" sting. On that occasion, the then England manager and his agent Athole Still made suggestions to an undercover reporter that three clubs were guilty of corruption. Eriksson was interviewed by the FA but is thought to have dismissed the sting as idle gossip. At that time, transfer "bungs" - illegal kickbacks paid to managers by third parties for buying certain players - were top of the agenda after then QPR manager Ian Holloway and Luton manager Mike Newell made similar claims. The remit of the Stevens inquiry originally stated it would only investigate transfers going back to January 2004, including five transfer windows - not including this summer - and only potential illegal payments between employees or officials of clubs. It is not clear how many individuals Panorama will target as it edits its findings into a one-hour show.

and Micheal

I'm pretty sure I've seen "acoustic maps" in the past of the new stadium. If I can find them I'll dig them out. It's the same sort of thing they do with opera houses to ensure maximum resonance/clear sound.

Given that we owe the best part of 50m on transfers (combination of last accounts and recent spends) I think they have gone out on a limb.

Case - I'd also suggest writing directly to Parry regarding the lack of responses when using the Contact Us form and the dreadful service with the online merchandising.

The Mancs, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs have all started new deals (of varying lengths) this summer which has seen the value of sponsorship rise by 50-100% on previous deals. Basically a seasmic shift in the market. Our current deal ends summer 2007 so our next deal will be negotiated based on these new benchmark values. We're just a year out of phase really.

With the size of Liverpool we don't need an investor though, it'd have to be a "super investor" to take us over hence the reason the "little clubs" are getting picked off. Chelsea were incredibly vulnerable because of their debt situation and what the Glazers intervention will mean for the Mancs long term no one knows.

I can confirm he's quoting Rafa Benitez there, not Benitez the ynwa poster

We don't get any Cisse money until next summer at the earliest.

Can't believe we're going for the man who injured Baros, Cisse, Carragher and shot JFK.

it is wrong - I added the date and mistakenly typed April.

Houllier was sacked on the 24th May and the Benitez stuff started to be discussed on the 19th (I trawled through the old posts on RAWK last night to check). As an example on the afternoon of the Houllier announcement Ladbrokes briefly suspended betting on Rafa and these were the odds on betfair: Benitez 2-1 O'Neill 4-1 Curbishley 5-1 Mourinho 14-1 Dalglish 35-1 And a poll on RAWK that same day gave these results: Benitez 41 (27.7%) Curbishley 7 (4.7%) Dalglish 9 (6.1%) Mourinho 38 (25.7%) O'Neill 32 (21.6%) Ranieri 8 (5.4%) Strachan 2 (1.4%) Other (please state) 11 (7.4%) A few names I've not seen mentioned who were doing the rounds at the time were John Aldridge, Gary Mac, and Steve McMahon (in conjunction with Kenny).

Given that we already knew through various sources that Benitez was joining before Houllier got dumped, isn't the question a bit redundant?

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Normal clubs make calculated gambles every summer. This was no different. It's the level of the gamble that was important. And this one would have meant no spending in January and maybe 5-6m less next summer. One of the criticisms I've seen levied at Parry and Moores recently is why they don't take more of a gamble given that we're "so close" under Rafa. The argument runs that if we weren't able to back him to the financial hilt this would be his last season here, and world class managers don't grow on trees in Stanley Park.

Very old invented quotes.

BBC Caversham? Played cricket there quite a few times - very pleasent with the old house in the background.

They're month old quotes which were again questioned as to their authenticity at the time.

Yes. Even though the quotes are fake they've made the local Geordie newspaper The Journal. Here the lads behind it: Geordie Spoof

since the 70s ...