Crusoe

Well, the latest I've heard is that we won't be signing Robbie Williams - he's off to Huddersfield Town, according to an acquaintance.

Not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but we can forget Clive Platt - he's signed for Colchester United for £300,000. A little bit out of our league price-wise, I suspect.

My current most played list: Well Thought Out Twinkles - Silversun Pickups French Disko - Stereolab British Mode - Goose Skylon! - Gruff Rhys Photocopier - Fujiya & Miyagi The Gruff Rhys track is awesome, a hypnotic 15-minute tale of a flight, an actress, a terrorist, a bomb disposal expert and a dilemma.

Robbie Fowler played 23 games last season, 21 games the season before, 33 games the season before that (and so on). Hughes may be physically fit but he hasn't played professional competitive football in a long time. I think he could come good but even then I doubt we'll see him in form until well into the Christmas run-up.

I'm not sure I agree. If all he does is sit there then no reputable club will be interested in him, so he can forget a juicy signing-on fee. And if he plays well, then clubs will come looking for him earlier and he'd be an idiot not to jump at the first decent offer.

I agree, and while I understand TTA's frustration they well and truly burned bridges here (not saying that Porter and his agent haven't, just that we gave up the chance to be the "bigger man").

What's the point of it? If he decides to stay, it's just embarrassing. If he decides to go, what does this achieve? It's understandable, but in my opinion unprofessional, toy-throwing.

Non-league: Farnborough Town FC (now sadly liquidated and reforming as Farnborough FC) - spent most of my time growing up there. Scotland: Dunfermline Athletic FC - knew a few Dunfermline fans at university. Italy: Brescia - they had my favourite player of all time, Gheorghe Hagi.

I had also heard the rumour about their interest in QPR. Bob, I wouldn't place too much reliance on that email you received.

There's nothing wrong with watching what you say to avoid calling offence - obviously there's an extreme element (although often exaggerated examples) but that doesn't mean the whole idea is worthless. Anyway, Inspiral Carpet has it right - doesn't matter what was said, Channel 4 got enough (deserved) abuse last time they have to be seen to be above reproach, even if it means being sanctimonious.

I'm not sorry to see him go. He never convinced me that he could make the step up to the first team, and since his broken leg I didn't get the feeling his heart was really in it. Good luck Chris, now let's see if Smalley or Alessandra or Wolfenden has more hunger and can make the grade.

My tuppence-worth reproduced from JKLatics (this website is blocked at work): "There are several questions around the Lee Hughes signing. I may not be saying much new here but wanted to get my own head in order and work out my opinion. (a.) Should he be eligible for parole? Has he served sufficient time? There are many debates on this area: should criminals be punished, rehabilitated or both? What is the appropriate sentence for a particular crime? If incarceration is an appropriate sentence, how long is appropriate for a particular crime? On what grounds should somebody be considered for early release? How should someone show remorse? Should familes have a say in sentencing and parole decisions or not? (don't get me started on that one) All of these questions have one thing in common: they have nothing to do with the club's attempt to sign him and are part of a wider debate on the criminal justice system that is unlikely to be resolved by mouthing off on a football fans' message board. This club didn't get him out of prison or set his sentence. (b.) Should he be permitted to play professional football again? Experience suggests the law does not restrict subsequent employment except on what seems to be common sense grounds (child protection, for example). If the law does not restrict him, then this is yet another question that has nothing to do with the club's attempt to sign him. It is not the club's role to set a precedent if the law has not. (c.) Should the club be attempting to sign him? This is the clincher and this is the one we should be debating. I am uncomfortable with the decision and leaning towards "no", but for a slightly different reason to most suggested here. If he is paroled then in the eyes of the law he is fit to re-enter society and continue his chosen career. It doesn't matter how reprehensible anyone finds that decision: the law does not tell clubs what to do here (and if we disagree vehemently with that, well, see (a) above). I am uncomfortable not because I feel Hughes should not be playing football... (that's not my call, and I'm also uncertain how far these restrictions would go - if he was banned from football and became a successful property magnate, should he have his earnings in that field taken away? Do we refuse to pay the license fee or watch EastEnders because Leslie Grantham served only 11 years of a life sentence for murder? Are we supposed to "cap" the success of ex-cons forever, and if so what does that say about the idea that the criminal justice system should rehabilitate? And if his crime was so significant as to warrant further restrictions, who makes that rule and can we really make it consistent across all crimes?) (sorry for the tangent) ...but because I think this smacks of a cheap publicity-grabbing manoeuvre by the club. Hughes may be physically fit but he's short of four years' match fitness and training. The club could expect well in advance that a storm of negative publicity would be generated, and that he will receive dog's abuse at every away ground, with no guarantee that his performances will help us win games. I won't be boycotting games or burning tickets because my real concerns are about the criminal justice system, and hurting the club won't change sentencing or parole procedures or our attitude to how to deal with crime and punishment one bit. I do think this is a very bad misjudgment by the club, though. Sorry that this rambles. Needed to clear my head on this and form an actual opinion."

Really? In that case I'd love him to stay here, but - nasty cynic that I am - I reckon it's a summer of free transfers and nominal fees for us, unless we give Blackpool a damn good thrashing on Saturday.

I'd love Leon Clarke here, but since Sheffield Wednesday paid a rumoured £300,000 for him in January I can't see them letting him go.

Hmm, Oldham in Championship/League One, or Gretna in the Scottish Premier - suspect he might choose the latter. Graham is a good shout but I suspect he may head somewhere familiar. Christie could be a bad mistake - we've had our fair share of crocks lately, and I assume he wouldn't be on peanuts so I think he'd be too much of a risk.

How much is Warne on now? If he's on high wages as it is, Sheridan may want to cut the wage bill, and a 34-year-old with a relatively low scoring record (let's face it - nine league goals this season and no goals since February) may be a prime candidate in that situation. I'm not sure why so many would be surprised - Warne himself said earlier in the season that he knew he wasn't first choice, so it seems Sheridan has always wanted an alternative but had no real grounds to pay Warne off before the end of his contract. Paul Warne has been a tireless, hard-working grafter who deservedly earned respect, but as has already been said, if we're looking for a step up on a limited budget - and to improve our cutting edge, assuming either that Porter leaves or that we'd be idiots to rely on him for all of our goals - I don't see Warne as the answer.

Tangerine's fine with me, but the red brings back happy memories! (I couldn't care less which other clubs think they look good in it...)

I'm not a huge fan of the white trim on our new home kit, but I've not yet seen a design I really love. That light and dark blue design looks way too much like a Wycombe kit. White away kit is alright but I'm still waiting for the return of the plan red away kit from the Bovis days.

Bloody hell there's a lot of ads and sponsorship on there.

I'm a technology auditor. I review IT projects, security, building security, disaster recovery, that kind of thing, for a company in London.

When he said "up for it" he meant "up for watching me post on an internet message board".

That Tiga song is awesome, particularly the DFA remix. Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire The Presets - Hung Down Explosions In The Sky - Catastrophe & The Cure (Four Tet Mix) Metric - Monster Hospital (Acoustic) Jerry Reed - East Bound & Down (heh)

OpenOffice - free office suite, replaces Microsoft Office, almost entirely compatible with Word and Excel, also prints PDFs Google Earth - photos of anywhere in the world, needs broadband connection Trillian - combines MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and AIM in one program VLC Media Player - free DVD playing software, not region-coded, great all-round media player Tweak UI Power Toy - lets you fiddle with hidden XP settings Ad Aware Personal - same as Spybot, I run both anti spyware programs together Windows Defender - ditto, free anti spyware software from Microsoft K Lite Codec Pack - decoders for all movie & music file types, plus Real Alternative and Media Player Classic to replace bloated XP software And if you download Firefox (listed above) there are some excellent add-ons for it: Ad Block Plus - filters banners and Flash ads, even Google text ads, from web pages No Script - blocks all scripts and executable content from web pages unless you allow them IE Tab - runs IE in a Firefox page, so you can open pages that don't like Firefox Mouse Gestures - navigate the web in Firefox using combinations of mouse movements

Five more: Tiga - Far From Home (DFA Instrumental Mix) The Sugarcubes - Birthday (Justin Robertson Mix) Silversun Pickups - Well Thought Out Twinkles The Presets - Are You The One? MF Doom - Cedar

Oh, and Stipe - it was the first guess - hopefully pregnancy is a long way off!