nzlatic

How do you rate England's chances in the RL 4 nations coming up? The aussie squad looks stupidly strong again, even with Folau out, and NZ are confident after winning the world cup (still not sure how they did that!). Have England improved since the world cup? They show the super league on sky over here but usually early on weekend mornings. Not my most lucid time of the week.

I was reading one an over-by-over report of one of the Ashes tests. England were well on top and on their way to a win but just about every comment from readers and the commentator was one of how it would be possible for England to lose from that position. Granted, most were tongue in cheek but it showed a general attitude among the British - one where we expect to lose. We almost prefer it if we do. A plucky loser with a hard luck story gets much more public backing than a hard-nosed winner. Henman vs Murray, Damon Hill vs Lewis Hamilton for example. This is the attitude of the general public, so it probably spreads to english sportsmen too. We do do pretty well overall by making the closing stages of most tournaments but our peverse enjoyment of being a plucky loser could be our undoing. I don't know, but I'm guessing the likes of Lance Armstrong, Michael Schumacher and Ricky Ponting are loved in their respective countries. If they were English they'd probably be slagged off to the point where they fell off their perch pretty quickly.

Spencer Pratt and his spooky flesh coloured beard. Has this board sunk to a new low?!

Is it Sean 'P Diddy' Combs?

I have AVG and get it too. It started once THE thread got to about 40 pages.

The only thing more unbelievable than Laker girls becoming Latics fans, travelling across the world to watch them (I needed the cartoon in the Sun to fully grasp what that meant), baking Latics cakes and making videos about OWTB posters is the fact that the Corp hasn't commented on this thread about the inevitable spiraling of the club into obscurity. I've seen everything now.

When you stand up and slag them off, call them c**nts and all that, does it make you feel better? What is it you want to achieve by doing it? Presumably for them to play better. When has that ever worked? I've no problem with people coming on here and having a go, fair enough, but at the ground it's totally pointless. It's been going on for years and it's too easy to sit back and say that they should entertain us. How about everyone gets behind them, even when they play :censored: and maybe try embarassing them into thinking they owe us more. Fans should do everything they can first and foremost. Then if the players don't perform you can blame them. At the moment they can just as easily turn round and say "why should we put more effort in if those bastards slag us off at every mistake?"

With regard to the Eardley fee, there's been plenty of suggestion and rumour about the fee and how TTA have let him and others go for next to nothing. But has anyone said why they've done that? If they have gone for less than market value then why is that? Something sinister, or that they're just dumb? Or maybe they've just accepted the highest bid? I doubt the tribunal system is as simple as finding the middle ground between the 2 club's valuations as if that was the case then every transfer would go that way - "Now then Blackpool, what's your valuation? 50k? Ok. Latics? 10million? Ok, We'll call it 5 million then. NEXT!"

I don't really understand the argument against regionalisation on the basis that you will get the odd anomalie regarding midlands clubs. Yes, there would be the odd 1 or 2 big journeys but that is an improvement on having half the teams in our league way down south. In fact, why not go a step further, make the championship 18 teams, then have a div 1 north, midlands and south. Each with 18 teams in. That should cut down the anomalies and you could have an end of season tournament for promotion and relegation involving teams at the top and bottom of each league. Say the champions go up automatically and the next 4 from each league play off for 1 remaining place in the championship. The bottom 3 from the champ go down automatically and the 4th bottom team joins the play off tournament.

I've brought this up before and I think it has some merit. It's a little bit selfish for it to be dismissed because a handful of fans would miss out on southern away trips, or exiled fans would have less games on their doorsteps. Don't get me wrong, the fans willing to travel the distances are the hardcore and the lifeblood of the club so they shouldn't be ignored. But, we're not talking about ways to attract those fans to games, they're already there. It's about attracting MORE fans to games. And travelling less distances would lead to an increase in away crowds. Less travel would also reduce club costs. The major stumbling blocks are the deterioration in quality and the promotion/relegation places. In the early days there would be a drop in overall quality, but this may level out over a few seasons. There would be a big problem getting the Championship to agree to more relegation places. But if it could be worked out I think the idea is worth looking in to.

I think they've gone a little bit Morecombe and Wise. They have all the right players, but not necessarily in the right order. At least I hope for our sake they have. Gregan on the wing?? GK Brill DL Taylor DC Gilbert DC Hazell DR Holdsworth ML Gregan MC :censored: MC Furman MC Worthington MR Parker AC Abbott

Fantastic. I'm one of those sorts who like to read about/watch games without knowing the score when I can't see them live. So logging on to the official site this morning here in new zealand I was able to read the half time and full time reports without knowing the score or being told it in the headline of the page. Good stuff! A good read too. Our webmonkey youth academy seems to produce a lot of talent. We could have another big money mover on our hands.

You're being deliberately selective here to try and back up your incessant argument. The question and subsequent answer that led to the mention of 3000 crowds was: Q's: What if the new stadium does not happen, would TTA leave the club in administration? A's: SC - We would not leave the club in administration, we would work the budgets down so that the club can be self-sufficient with the level of income it is attracting. If that means working on an attendance of 3000, the club may get relegated but we cannot afford to continue subsidising the club to the tune of £40k per month. So they aren't "anticipating" crowds of 3000, they are talking about a scaling down of budgets if a move to a facility with potential for bringing in non-match day income doesn't happen. Do you prefer the sort of owner that will walk through the crowd slapping everyone on the back boasting "premier league in 5 years fellas!" rather than ones that make apparantly more realistic plans? Building oversized stadia and talking a good game doesn't make it happen automatically. You seem intelligent enough to realise this which makes me think your constant posting of the same opinion is more mischief making that actually suggesting anything worthwhile.

It's a real bugbear of mine that the ball is kicked out at the first sign of a player hitting the deck thus stopping the game for what is normally nothing at all. It should be the ref's call - if it's a head injury and the guy isn't moving then stop the game. Otherwise the onus shouldn't be on the other team to stop the game for the injured player. It could be stopped by stricter refereeing. Add this to the annoying lack of any action on play acting/diving etc. This could easily be stamped out also by incidents being reviewed post match and bans given out to someone faking or cheating. But it won't. Sepp Blatter is too concerned with trying to get women footballers to play in skimpier outfits.

Latics 3 - 2 Stockport Parker 6159

To suggest they wouldn't read this board is a little bit like suggesting a restaurant owner wouldn't read their reviews. As the fans are the customers of the club I really hope they do read it. On the flip side I would hope the playing side of the club don't!

I hope not to be honest. The TTA will read this board and know that there is a lot of support. I'm fairly positive about the move but I'd much rather the forum be about people voicing their concerns and the TTA answering with facts, figures and proposals. I'd also hope that too much time isn't spent arguing about post codes etc. If we are to move away from BP I'd want to hear about the stadium, income streams, capacity and future scope for development.

Hang on, who has resigned themseleves to this idea? I don't recall reading many, if any, posts saying this. Feel free to quote and prove me wrong. The posters accepting the stadium capacity of 12000 all seem to expect provisions to be made for the capacity to be increased if necessary, preferrably in a close season so no games are played under reduced capacity. If the owners aren't planning for future increase then there will be a lot more people agreeing with you. You talk about seeing who gets proved right or wrong. How about you approach the owners and ask them this question directly? Whilst you're at it, ask them whether the 16000 development of BP had plans for increased capacity. Until we know for fact one way or the other it's just one opinion vs another.

After 24 pages of reading I may as well dip my toe in as well. First of all, it amuses me how people dismiss the opinions of those who question spending extra millions on seats that will rarely get used because they are apparantly making the figures up to suit their arguments or using "fag packet maths". These same people then go on to say with utter certainty that 12,000 seats would not be enough should we make the Championship. Based on what exactly? Feck all, that's what. After cup runs, a league title and 2 seasons in the top flight were rarely sold out at home in the premier league. So all of a sudden we need a minimum of 16,000 if we go into the champ? Rubbish. Taking last years average attendances in the champ only Doncaster, Blackpool and Plymouth were under 12000 and finished 14th, 16th and 21st. Plymouth being the lowest have been in that division for a while now. So you can survive on those crowds. Then there's the Corp who's answer to the suggestion that it makes sense to build within our means but allow for a close season upgrade if required is something along the lines of "it won't happen". Brilliant. This then gets repeated to every person who mentions upgrading in the future (probably about 30 unnecessary posts). I'm not saying the upgrade argument shouldn't be contradicted, but just with something a little more substantiated than "it won't happen". I've been of the opinion for some time now that football is going to disappear up it's own ar5e eventually to some extent with the amount of money flying around that could all disappear overnight if the arabs find something else to play with. It might even come down to a scaled down restructure of the leagues or something like that. If this does happen then I would much rather have a club that has a modern, appropriately-sized ground and is financially self sufficient rather than one struggling to meet interest payments on loans used to buy a quarter-full-fancypants stadium. One might suggest we all have huge wangs and are shooting for the stars, but the other will probably have a better chance as continuing as a professional footballl club.

How did the team play as a whole? Style, effort, passing etc? Any major changes from last season?

I think this would be the perfect move for Owen and England. Any other club and he'd be the main striker and would likely get crocked again. At Man Utd he'd be a squad player, would get game time (and most likely goals) at the highest level which will hopefully bring him in to England contention. Granted, we've been doing well without him but it's all good and well Defoe and the like banging them in against Andorra and Kazhakbeijan or whoever. But Owen has World Cup goals against the likes of Brazil and the argies. I'd back him (if fit) over all England strikers except Rooney.

Bullet header from a set piece and a pen that the keeper should have saved. NZ have had 3 shots on target and have done the Italians on set pieces. 4-3 now though so the dream is over. Wellington Phoenix (NZ's team in aussie A League) are trying to sign Killen to partner the recently acquired Chris Greenacre(!) It looks unlikely as he has a year to go at Celtic. They're praising his committment to seeing out his Celtic contract though. I'd say it has more to do with the wedge he's probably on.

There are often threads asking for ideas of how to get more people through the gates and in my opinion this is the idea with the most chance of succeeding on a consistent basis. Average attendances will definitely increase with regionalised leagues IF the powers that be sort out the promotion/relegation issue. There needs to be enough incentive for promotion and a bit of a safety net at the bottom. I would suggest 2 up from each league with the next 4 from each playing off to find 1 more. A total of 5 to get promoted. This would mean 5 coming down. Maybe you'd need to increase the championship by a couple of teams to make it work. But at the moment 4 go down from league 1 so it's not a massive leap to have 5 from the league above. As for relegation I think it should be a similar thing - 1 from each definite with the next 2 from each playing off for the final relegation spot. You might even need a season or 2 of no relegation at first until the leagues settle. The idea in general may have flaws, but i'd rather look for solutions than just dismiss it out of hand without offering another suggestion. There's too much of that sort of attitude which doesn't help.

I was thinking about this the other day. I'd like to think that if I had a very long career at the highest level, winning many trophies and earning millions of pounds, I'd want to spend my last season or 2 playing for the team I supported. More than that, I wouldn't want to take a wage. Whether I would do that is another thing. And realistically, how many players actually do that anyway?

To be fair Windass and Kabba had great debuts according to a lot of those that went, Omerod had a proven record at this level and many were pleased with his signing. So what happened after they settled in? They all seemed to go to . Or was it the service? On paper, most of the loan strikers would have been welcome signings but none of them have fired. In fact the only strikers that do fire in our games are ones we've let go scoring against us.