lookers87

It isn't really a problem. More than likely registered to ensure that they can take action (if necessary) against counterfeits probably mainly the ones for which there are huge markets overseas for Premiership clubs in particular. The legal process with trademarks can be such a long and drawn out affair (not to mention the fact that our use of the trademark happened before them) that they would never challenge the official club (ours) use of either. We'd have heard by now if they did.

The only other team whose results I follow/have a genuine affection for are the mighty Doonhamers (Queen of the South). Been following them for years. I do like to see dale doing well, but I don't personally see how you can really 'support' any teams in the english leagues other than latics. Just a personal view, each to their own though, there is usually a family/location reason for it so fair enough.

Very badly worded piece of 'news' from the club...why say 'if you don't want to be sat near the drum avoid the RRE'. Surely the more sensible approach would be (as I've said earlier) to specify an area for the drum/drummer and his mates, and make it public as to which seats they are in. That way those who don't want the inconvenience of the thing can chose their seats elsewhere in the stand. The wording of the story basically makes it look like they are just saying - drummer has more clout than anyone else so if you don't like it go and sit somewhere else. Again, nothing against the drummer, just think the club could/should take the lead on this and organise/publicise things better!!!!

Usually with these deals the player is given a value - tax purposes more than anything (ex agents fees etc), which then triggers the % to be paid. As it is classed as 'outstanding finance' on the purchasing club it is usually the case that the % clause is one of the first things to be paid. However, you would expect (for such an amount) that citee would probably look to strike a deal with us to pay the % in installments. That's of course unless Frank gets involved in which case it could get interesting!! The other thing that might cloud things is the fact that the new contract he signed in Feb has probably got all kinds of clauses in there...they may have an impact on things. At the end of the day I'd gladly take that amount over a couple of years!!!! That's my understanding of these things anyway. I know these rumours have been circulated before, but they have never been this regular and (perhaps most tellingly) in several different papers. Believe it when I see it though.

..see what you've done there, good work sir!

Wigan's appeal for a penalty - definately. player stood well inside the area moves arm away from body and towards the ball, ball strikes upper arm. Referee looking directly at incident (see later replays from behind the goal)...gives corner. Agree with the others...but would Scholes have been on the pitch to win it?? Bennett had a shocker 1st half, and as I said to my mate whilst we were watching...'I didn't realise that the scum had a new black away shirt for next season' ...to which he replied..'He could've done the decent thing and worn it under his shirt'. No fixes involved, just a poor refereeing display 1st half.

I don't have a problem if there is/isn't a drum and whether it is RRE or Chaddy, although I do tend to err on the side of it being pretty unnecessary. What I would like to see is a bit more common sense from the club and drummer. To be fair to the drummer he was better this season in that he pretty much stayed in the same place (and he is entitled as anyone to get a season ticket), as opposed to the previous season when it was almost a lottery as to where the drum would be...for which I ended up 'unlucky' on one occasion in my season ticket seat. If he/club would make it public as to where the drum was being located we could all ensure that we aren't sat in the 2/3 sets of seats in front of the thing (incidentally it should also be towards the back!). That way anyone who gets a ticket does so by choice, knowing that the drum is there. Whether the drum is then responsible for drowning out songs/stopping them...well that is a different question altogether.

...I'm really looking forward to those Donny reactions then

His own contemporaries have voted him into the PFA Team of the season for the last 2 seasons (and I suspect in other seasons when he was running the Lashers midfield)...so I guess all these other players overrate him aswell? Personally I think he is one of the best midfielders in our division and one of only a handful (from this division) that I think would improve our current squad. He won't come back though, and there are plenty of other targets out there. Shame he went, but I'm not one of those that dwell on player moves - after all it is just a job to them. He's an excellent league one midfielder don't see anything 'overrated' about that. I'm pretty sure people on this thread are commenting on the slightly odd situation of him playing in Ernies kickabout yesterday and yet not turning out on Friday for a crucial Donny game...plus the fact that he was reported as missing due to hernia and yet the Donny site contradicted it's own earlier statement (hernia) by saying it was a bad back...seems they aren't entirely sure???? Love to see the Donny fans response when they find out...but I reckon Donny must've known - he was obviously going to be photographed on such an occasion, no way he'd have got away it.

Here's one to ponder. During my vain hope that wigwam might just get an equaliser to ruin the scum party it got me thinking... If that game had been a must win for wigwam to stay up who would I prefer to win? The scum to win the title and send wigwam down or wigwam to stay up and deny the scum the title???? (I cheated and plummed for the fencing-sitting option that they drew and neither got what they wanted)...

I think we should get 23 min if past seasons are anything to go by

As an aside, it is really good to see Billy back to full health, my friend looked after him whilst Billy was in intensive care in Dale and seriously ill. As a club legend I'm just happy to see that he is fighting fit. And if he is going to be working as a scout/youth scout then all the better...it increases the potential for us to spot the next star. Incidentally, Billy had numerous stories that my mate relayed to us about his time with us particularly the Ritchie and M***e (chris) era.

There was a fantastic book out a few years ago called something like Footballs What If's??? One of the chapters was "What if Mark H****s' volley had cleared the bar..." it then went on to outline how, after winning the semi we went on to win the FA Cup final against a chelsea team we'd already done the double over that season. The following season saw a relatively successful european campaign aided by some quality players bought in the summer and a challenge near the top of the table. Meanwhile the reds were distraught by the semi-final loss losing the title aswell that year and hitting a spiral as Fergie kept some of the older players from that season to challenge again, Blackburn winning the title the following season by a mile and left united languishing. It was an excellent read and kind of made you think just how significant split-second events can have such a knock-on effect....I'm going to try and find that book! If Littlejohn hadn't injured Pogs? If we'd never installed the plastic pitch? ...If Ken Bates hadn't left us when he did?

He's got a long wait then seen as he signed a new 5 1/2 year deal in Feb of this year. Said at the time it was great news for us and it would only be a matter of time before the big 4 came knocking. Hopefully it might just happen this summer!

Been saying for absolute ages, all this talk of a creative centre mids isn't really necessary in our division as long as you have a balance of defensively sound centre mids, who are good passers (along the lines of Allott/Livermore/Jarrett), combined with good wide players/proper wingers. If you look at the teams that have been promoted from our division over the past few years they have tended to have a good combination like this rather than 1 stand-out creative CM. The only caveat to that is if you have a really top quality creative cent-mid...and that is a big cost/risk. I'd be more tempted to be looking for a wide midfielder (L or R), allied to some cent-mids to fill the gaps left by Macca/JP - and for me if you get them with a touch more quality that would be even better. Livermore and Jarrett fit the bill perfectly.

FAILED - NIL POINTS!!!!

just to be podantic, it is actually exiting via a CVA not entering admin via CVA. Admin is the process which ring-fences the club/assets etc from action whilst the prefered insolvency route is decided on. The FL rules state that clubs exiting administration (unless liquidated) must do so via a CVA which protects all football-related creditors (ie. players, clubs that Leeds have bought players from and not yet paid the full amount for, any FL etc etc). The crux of this matter is that IF this decision goes for Leeds completely (ie all points returned), it would in principle destroy this rule therefore meaning that a club could pay big money for players with no intention of paying the full amount for them...just wrong!! Then create the new club with said players and exit admin, get their league share back and carry on. Leaving all other FL members taking a 'hit' on their finances having done nothing wrong. Well it's decision time so...

True. Wonder if the swans were doing the same re: Martinez this season, after our somewhat fortunate win. Hopefully some will remember that Swansea didn't hit top spot properly until November, and look at them. It's a marathon (snickers -for the youngsters) not a sprint after all and there aren't many marathon winners that sprint off the line and still end up first. 3 or 4 signings added to what we've got, a decent physio in place and a bit of luck and we could be challenging whoever else is in the division.

I'm quite looking forward to losing the first game of the season...always seems to be those teams that end up promoted!! ps. no stats to back this up just seems to happen.

First sat in the lookers upper with my dad in the 87/88 season - then we got season tickets there from 88/89 until around 94 when I moved down to the paddock with my mates. So many memories from that time...the whole pinch me years, having OAFC in blue facepaint for the Sheff Wed game and after a couple of tears at 0-2 it being smeared across my face...then the glorious comeback! The Nicky Banger banner being unveiled when he finally scored (a row of A4 sheets stuck together). Annoying the two old guys behind us in the paddock (when it was seated) by constantly standing up...indeed trying to get to the ground before them just to make sure we got those seats - they were always there!!! I also remember during possibly the 98/99 season going to Wycombe game, it was absolutely hammering down (poss worse than Forest) got to the ticket office before the game and asked for a ticket for the lookers paddock. The response from lady in office was 'Are you completely mad or just stupid?' I went for stupid and then proceeded to have that quote ringing in my ears for the following 90mins as it was a dire 0-0 and it just didn't stop raining. Think I had the choice of about 500 seats aswell! Some of my earliest latics memories are in the lookers with my dad and they will stay with me for ages. the kind of memories that he can't recall, but I can in glorious detail because every game was just the best thing in the world. I'll always remember turning the corner round the chaddy to see the column of smoke/steam coming out from the side of the lookers on a night game, usually Womak and Womak playing on the PA and just loving every minute. So long to the lookers...here's to a fantastic new stand and a fabulous new ground to create some more memories that will last forever.

nope it was defo frankie bunn... scholes' real hero

it's Hughes not Arber (that's Mark btw!)

taken from the other thread on Jarrett... Crossley yes probably, but Bell that's just plucking youth team goalies names to make a point. C'mon just because O'donnell isn't from our youth team and bell is doesn't automatically mean Bell would've saved it and O'Donnell wouldn't. Badly positioned yes definately, his fault for the goal - well the few seconds the ball left the strikers foot and went past him - yes. BUT the 90+ yards from our own damn corner - not his try the other 4/5 latics players who had a chance to either deliver the ball, get a challenge in or at least hold a player up!!!!!!!!!

Stats for Wolfy. In his miniscual minutes on the pitch this season he's managed 9 shots of which 6 were on target and 3 of which resulted in goals - best goals to shots ratio of any of our other strikers and better than Porter's last season. I agree he hasn't progressed as well as he should, but it should be remembered that his early appearances a few years ago around the 1st team was down in a lot of ways to the huge problems we had at that time. He should've been out on loan before this season (I think he would've been this season but for the constant striker crisis we have had). I think the point with Wolfy is that he is obviously one of those strikers that is v much a box player, but never having had a run in the team no-one is quite sure if he is a league one/two/conference or unbelievably a championship player (unlikely!!) - the lad just hasn't had a run of 1st team games for anyone to make a sound judgement. For me he's the youngster (along with pearson) most likely to go in the summer - but I wouldn't mind keeping him and shipping him out on loan for the first few months of next season to see how he develops.

Crossley yes probably, but Bell that's just plucking youth team goalies names to make a point. C'mon just because O'donnell isn't from our youth team and bell is doesn't automatically mean Bell would've saved it and O'Donnell wouldn't. Badly positioned yes definately, his fault for the goal - well the few seconds the ball left the strikers foot and went past him - yes. BUT the 90+ yards from our own damn corner - not his try the other 4/5 latics players who had a chance to either deliver the ball, get a challenge in or at least hold a player up!!!!!!!!!