jamesbuchanan

Here's some of mine from a trip to Austin the other week. Nothing too technically proficient I know (), but just a few pictures that are favourites of mine for various reasons:

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Err, right. I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but you are all deluding yourselves if you think anything other than the number 24 was drawn. You suggest that the reaction of the guy who drew the ball is the reaction of someone who realises the true implications of what he has just done. I agree - he was probably aware that the number 24 was United, and was probably also aware of recent FA Cup 3rd Round Draw history!

Des'ree

GMTV have been fined £2million for allowing viewers to enter competitions they had no chance of winning. How much are the Premier League going to be fined for letting Derby in?

The girlfriend fell asleep so I was left alone with just my beer and camera I get thirsty just looking at it!

Just got back from 2 weeks in Portugal and Spain. A few of my favourite pictures - I'll post the album links if anyone is interested.

Hi General, Just wondering (and apologies if this has been asked/answered as I can't see it on the last couple of pages) - is Randy in the UK at the moment? I was curious as to whether he has allocated specific times to be around at VP this summer, or whether its entirely a case of as and when he's needed? Thanks - James

Promising news on NRC - would take him over Barton. Saw him when the U21s played against Italy against Wembley and he impressed me a lot. Also, so MON has been on holiday for the past week or so? So nothing was ever going to happen over the course of the last week? Remind me again how many pages of speculation there have been in this thread in that time....?

Went to Paris yesterday....got all the usual touristy shots obviously, but took these too which I really like... Arc de Triomphe access staircase... Detail on the Eiffel Tower... Looking down from the tower... Tower again - I like the way it's framed by the trees here... Lamp on Sacre Coeur hill... My favourite... Rest are here if anyone is interested.

Bale would certainly fit in with our policy of only signing left sided players whose names begin with B.....Barry, Bouma, Berger.....

Woodgate has just signed a permanent deal with Middlesbrough so we can rule him out...

Drawn, General, drawn

*Searches for post made on Friday telling people to have some bloody patience...*

West Ham have bought Davenport and Boa Morte. From people's comments on here (I'm generalising...) we as a fan group are expecting bigger name signings than that (SWP, Young etc). These take more time to push through, because of the money involved, the other competing clubs involved, and the fact that they are a bigger loss to the team selling them (thus the sale is harder to stomach without replacements being lined up). Naturally, West Ham buying Boa Morte (wanted to leave Fulham, no other clubs in competition) was always going to happen quicker than us (hypothetically) buying Young (reluctant seller, clubs in competition). MON knows exactly what we need, as does Lerner. I'm sure they have a plan A, plan B etc. Lerner isn't going to risk his investment halving in value due to that 'R' word. We have a board member telling us not to panic, and to place our trust in 2 people who we've been given no reason not to trust. These are all convincing enough reasons for me not to panic. If, IF, we haven't signed anyone by February 1st, then is the time to maybe reassess things. Prematurely questioning their (MON and Lerner's) judgement 7/8 working days before the end of a transfer window in which the majority of the activity occurs in the last 7/8 working days is a bit of a waste of time, in my opinion.

FFS people. Pretty much nothing has happened so far in the transfer window, for any club. Anything that does happen will take place after this coming weekend (the last round of premiership games before the window shuts). All it takes is for one club to gamble on selling a player before they've finalised his replacement and we'll be off. As a guide, here's last year's January transfer window activity - link. Very little happened until around the 20th / 23rd Jan with the exception of 1) Portsmouth going crazy buying average players with their new found wealth 2) Man Utd signing Vidic and Evra. Stop panicking. Jesus.

Not a rumour as such (link) but Xavier was mentioned somewhere on these pages before - haven't got time to find the reference. I'm sure the original discussion was something like 'we'd have to pay a couple of million for a 34 year old so no thanks'. He now appears to be free in a few days time - answer still no? (It is for me - just thought I'd bring it to peoples attention...)

Yeah I just read that and felt exactly the same. :evil: How someone can get away with spouting so many lies in the space of a single article is beyond me.

Yes - correct - 90% The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced this is an internal Rothschild's deadline. If they receive any bids before close of play on the 23rd then they have to first evaluate them and then put them to the board. So they have to give themselves some time to do this - hence a deadline tomorrow. The breaking of rules could be a factor in this timetable, meaning that now they've gone public, AV06 have to get a bid in sharpish. However I think this Rothschild deadline is the over-riding issue. Hopefully somebody more well versed in these matters can confirm this tomorrow - and that's coming from an economist!

Hmmm.... Where have they got that info from, that if AV06 don't approach Rothschild on Thursday then they've run out of time? Is this some sort of internal Rothschild deadline which they've set so they can properly consider any other bids before the 10 days are up?

5pm next Wednesday (23rd) - LSE shuts and the 10 days are up. If no other bid has come in then the 'soft irrevocable undertakings' become 'hard' (so to speak) - Ellis / his family / Petchey share transfer to RAL will go through and he will own 58% ish. From that point onwards, the 11 days left out of the initial 21 day period can then be used by Lerner to buy the minor shareholdings that you and me own (75% and 90% being the critical points here). If he gets 90% then he can buy your shares whether you like it or not (I think). You hypothetically not selling your 100 probably won't make a difference, but why chance it. After all, if everyone thinks that way....

Although I've also proven that I can't spell 'calendar' - thats 3 different ways I've tried it now and none of them look right!

Ok. 10 calander days - bid went in before the stock exchange opened on the monday morning so we have... mon / tues / wed / thurs / fri / sat / sun / mon / tues / wed i.e. when the LSE shuts at 5pm on Wednesday 23rd, that will have been 10 calender days.

On the bright side, at least we know they have to make a move in the next 10 days - no more of this 'something should happen in the next 48 hours' business!

Is it? I thought today was the day he was meeting with his consortium, not Ellis?