BOF

Why would the Swansea manager become the Liverpool manager. Really? Seriously? We are all football fans here. I'd like to think most of us know the lie of the land. I don't mind that sometimes some of us suffer delusion when it comes to the importance of our own club in the footballing hierarchy. But Swansea? And Liverpool? C'mon son!

dos Santos isn't physical enough for the Prem and he's not skillful enough to play around his lack of physicality in the way that a Silva or a Juninho would. He would flourish in Spain or Italy.

Plus, apart from Arsenal, of all the clubs in the Prem we probably have the worst rapport with him.

Mine was just a general point on the discussions around Lambert, Julie, not at anyone in particular

There seems to be confusion over the 'rolling' bit of it. He signed a contract in May of last year. You wouldn't need to do that if it was constantly rolling. There is the chance that it is a contract that goes from May to May. And as it's May 29th, we might find out soon enough. Maybe he had a standard contract before signing a rolling one on May 29th? Which was why it was announced? Or maybe we don't know and we're cluthing at straws that have 'speculation' written down the side of them

Again, that could be it too Richard. We simply don't know. But there's enough doubt not to assume that it's rolling without questioning it.

They're not. There might be a general national hatred between Germany and Poland but within football, England are seen as the masters of football violence. I doubt Poland would say no to a scrap with the Germans but England is the number one target.

There seems to be confusion over the 'rolling' bit of it. He signed a contract in May of last year. You wouldn't need to do that if it was constantly rolling. There is the chance that it is a contract that goes from May to May. And as it's May 29th, we might find out soon enough.

Give it a month and we'll be back to 'arry out a car window and Jim White shouting his own face off. Oh happy times.

Absolutely. I don't think the organised firms would have anything to worry about. The problem (if you can call it that) is that those firms will largely be prevented from travelling in the first place. And what's left over in Pokraine is families and guys who aren't there for trouble. Lambs to whatever slaughter is waiting for them. An unfair fight.

An exercise in 'things we already knew'. In number form. Some stats to back up the farce of the voting: A study of voting patterns concluded some countries recieve 12 and up to 50 points from neighboring countries regardless of the quality of their acts, amounting to 80 and up to 100% of their total points from neighboring countries alone 32 out of 42 (~75%) of participating countries awarded the highest 12 points to a neighboring country 13 of the 42 countries (~25%) awarded 12 points to the same neighboring country for the second time in a row or more 50% of countries that awarded 12 points to the winning song by Sweden, gave the next highest mark - 10 points, to a neighboring country Balkan countries were the worst 'offenders' of political voting in 2012, with 7 countries awarding 2 or 3 of the three highest marks to two or three neighboring countries. These countries were Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Albania, Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro. The findings concluded 65% of voting patterns by participating countries for the three top spots were influenced by block voting Now.....back to getting a life

That's the way O'Neill's works and it might very well be the way Lambert's works. Though that would mean an article on Lambert signing a new contract would have been unnecessary given that he signs one every day as it were. So that suggests Lambert's is a 12 month contract but not a rolling one. And given that he signed his last one in May 2011 ... he might become available on Thursday.

Quick check. Today's favourite. Paul Lambert @ on average 6/4. Good good. See you now. I'll be back tomorrow

I know you're not being entirely serious but I'd actually love to see him on the coaching staff one day.I'd love to see him on the coaching staff one day because that would automatically mean he had gotten over his illness

Jedward say Hi As shite as they were, they were no Turkey. Maybe with a little 't'.

I'll second briggaman's 'Fracture' as Gosling stars alongside the wonderful Anthony Hopkins.

While it is typical Panorama and they should always be taken with a pinch of salt, he did say he saw the nazi salute at every game he went to in the Ukraine. The other thing that would worry me was the official saying that they were merely 'pointing towards the opposition'. If that level of denial is typical within their FA then it is more likely that behaviour is widespread and is not being dealt with. The problem is that even if violence and fascism was on the fringes in Pokraine at the best of time, a major tournament is precisely the environment where it will come to the fore. Any under-current will blow up. The more worrying thing if you're English is that I've seen and heard elsewhere that the English are seen as the masters/creators of football violence and these Pokrainian 'understudies' want to show their English masters that they're just as good as them at it. So your George's cross will be a target.

Me neither. It would be a little on the underwhelming side.

The gothic moany whiny vote went to Albania Mike. That's what buggered up Iceland. I did think Iceland was very absurd, which is exactly the way an Icelandic song should be. Cuz they're all mental (in a good way).

What was worse than that? Your "Location:" has been noted

Ah right, Fahey. Well there ya go. Trap brings in someone he knows well. As limited as Green is, he probably won't be asked to do anything he can't do

Sweden won. The funniest was Turkey who clearly had the worst song by a mile coming about 5th or 6th overall

So is that your criteria for a manager? Somebody who is going to keep Villa up for the next 3 years. I'm going to assume you're not stupid enough to compare the abilities of Wigan to stay in the league with the abilities of Villa to stay in the league. Or to put it another way, Martinez has performed minor miracles at Wigan. If he can keep them up for 3 years with their resources, imagine what he could do at a club that is set up to be an ever-present Premier League side. So yes, someone who can keep WIGAN in the PL for 3 years is the kind of manager who should be looked at. Liverpool certainly seem to think so too and I'm going to hazard a guess that their ambition isn't only to stay in the Premier League for the next 3 years either. As I will no doubt have to repeat between now and us hiring a manager, Rafa has been a complete and utter disaster since he fell out with his number 2. You can pinpoint the downturn in his results to the point where he fell out with Pako Ayseteran. So there's no way I want that spent damaged POS near the club. I see you subscribe to the "let's wait until they're out of our reach before we go for them" school of management-hiring. If you can't see that Lambert is going to be the real deal at this point in time then there's not much I can say to help you. Let's agree to disagree and move on to something else.

You do know that's the traditional home top and that the fans generally hate when the club move away from that classic design. Most fans would go nuts if we didn't have a "design of claret body blue sleeves".

Green's not in the squad and he's a reserve for the same reason that Clark isn't. Trap likes Green because he knows what he'll get from him and he was used at times in the qualifiers. I don't rate Green but Trap is being consistent with who he picks and why.