Troglodyte

It's because their 'analysis' is "look at that striker there, he's running forward [forward pointing arrow appears on screen] into the space between defenders [empty zone of pitch is highlighted and defenders are circled, just in case you didn't know that they're the guys between the striker and the goal] then scores a with a lovely finish [other pundits agree in horribly laddish fashion]. He's curled it right out of the keeper's reach [in case you don't have eyes or are blind]." This kind of stuff is easily repeated when describing the goal.

Lineker defending Match of the Day in the Guardian today. Mostly bollocks:

I can't be the only one whose first reaction, after reading the first half of the article, was to try to deduce what position they were in.

To me playing in different conditions is part of the experience, though. I don't like playing in rain at all, but I wouldn't quit a game just because of the weather! Each to their own, I suppose.

Completely agree that it needs to be there because of lag and/or kit clashes, but you quit games if it's raining?

You measure age in tenths over there?

Really struggling to decide whether to watch Barça v Ajax or Napoli v Dortmund. No doubt I'll choose the dull one and the other will be a thriller.

Think I'm going to get something not quite as sporty or exciting as the RX8, but still a quick car that's pretty reliable and economical, and go with a Seat Ibiza 1.9 TDI FR. I'd thought about them before and started looking again after darrenm's suggestion of a Cupra. I don't really want to stretch to one of those financially, but the FR still seems pretty quick and 53mpg is great. Tax and insurance won't cost a fortune either.

I'm currently watching Copenhagen v Juventus, which means it's Olof v Pirlo. Never has there been such an epic battle of sporting beardry. All games tonight in the Champions League: Group A Manchester Utd v Leverkusen Sociedad v Shakhtar Donetsk Group B Copenhagen v Juventus Galatasaray v Real Madrid Group C Benfica v Anderlecht Olympiacos v PSG Group D Bayern Munich v CSKA Moscow Plzen v Manchester City Several Championship games too: Bournemouth v Barnsley Burnley v Small Heath Huddersfield v Charlton Ipswich v Yeovil Leicester v Blackburn Millwall v Blackpool Forest v Middlesbrough Watford v Doncaster Bolton v Derby Kidderminster are also away at Tamworth in the Conference. Tomorrow night's Champions League games: Group E Chelsea v Basel Schalke v Steaua Bucarest Group F Marseille v Arsenal Napoli v Dortmund Group G Atletico Madrid v Zenit St Petersburg Austria Vienna v Porto Group H AC Milan v Celtic Barcelona v Ajax Also QPR v Brighton and Reading v Leeds in the Championship. Thursday sees the Europa League group stage begin, with matches including Valencia v Swansea, Zulte Waregem v Wigan, Frankfurt v Bordeaux, Betis v Lyon, and Spurs v Tromso.

something HANDCUFFS something.

The moaning... it is endless. I know more about my fiancé's colleagues than I do my own! She does work long hours though. She gets in at about 7am and never leaves before 5pm, and then proceeds to mark/prep until 8pm at the earliest. She also works all day on Saturday or Sunday, sometimes both. I am glad of the long holidays or else I would never get a break from cooking and cleaning up! I'm an English teacher at a secondary school, and it's a hell of a lot of work. I'm fairly new to the job so spend a lot of time planning, and always have a huge pile of marking, especially during big assessment periods. The holidays are great but much needed, and I still spend a lot of them working - although I don't profess I work the equivalent of full working days during any of them, and the six weeks during summer is largely free, and brilliant. It can be massively challenging (particularly so in the current climate and under Michael Gove, who certainly belongs in this thread) but also very rewarding when things go well, not just in terms of improving pupils' academic grades and helping them get qualifications, but also helping them out with life skills, seeing them respond to you as a role model, etc. In fact, during my training and first year I hated it - it wasn't really a career I wanted to go into in the first place, but seemed less risky than other options - but I'm beginning to really enjoy it now, despite the workload. However, I completely agree that many teachers can be boring, whining, moaning dullards. There are so many of them (dare I say more women than men generally, too). I generally don't like being in the company of teachers. I do have many close friends in the profession, but most of them are pretty relaxed and interesting in general, and will talk about things other than teaching, unlike most seem to. Lots of teachers get extremely defensive when teaching is criticised, too. They often face a lot of stick, and on top of it there are plenty who use the holidays and 'short' working days as a stick to bash them with. It's daft, but some teachers get themselves really worked up trying to argue so, and rarely manage to change people's minds.

Same here!

There are no grammatical errors in this post at all, and I don't really understand why people are trying to pick holes in it.

PS4 to support Rockers.

Very emotional scenes. We love you, Stan!

Out of my price range, as far as I can tell. Sold! Although I don't think the missus would be very happy sat on the back.

That's the thing, generally I'd be happy with something like that, but just for a couple of years I'd like something a bit more exciting, without having to worry too much about costs etc - I just don't know if that's possible with my budget.

Hello fellow Villa supporters and occasional random internet people. I know next to nothing about cars, but I'm soon going to be needing a new one. I'm almost 25 and currently have a W-reg Fiesta, which is the second car I've owned, the first being a P-reg Fiesta. Clearly, I'm not a particularly thrill-seeking type in general. However, the car's on its way out and I'd like to get something slightly more exciting before I become boring and have to spend all my money on children etc, and I've moved house recently so will be driving a slightly longer to get to/from work (little over an hour a day though, so not a huge amount of time really). I'm probably looking at £4k tops, although I'd possibly stretch to £5k for something ideal. Basically, I want something that's fairly reliable (I'm hardly wealthy, being in my second year of teaching at the moment, and know very little about maintenance/repairs myself) but fun/sporty, without looking ridiculous, costing too much to run, or being too big. I would love an RX8 - I've always liked them and apparently they're great to drive - but the economy is terrible and, from what I've read, I fear that I'd be paying for expensive repairs after a few months. However, I've not really seen anything else that I really want. I thought about a Fiesta ST but they seem a little boy racer-y, and an MX5 but they look a bit like a woman's car to me, and I've heard they're awful in poor conditions. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

That's his right I suppose. You can't force someone to leave the country. I dunno, I reckon I could...

Apparently it's a re-hash of something he said ages ago about Man City being interested in Begovic. Didn't mention Hart or to what extent they went after Begovic, but I imagine if they'd have really wanted to bring him in, they'd have been able to.

Yeah, he was excellent at pressing play and ocassionally pressing players to put circles around them, because without that we wouldn't have a **** clue who he's talking about.

Joe Lolley, Kidderminster Harriers player and regular VT contributor.

Actually, yeah. Bannan for captain.

Shit, someone should probably tell that to this guy: I recognise that argument that an outfield player should be captain as they're 'closer to the action', but a goalkeeper can still have huge influence from his position. Also, you can have other outfield players that are influential in a similar way to a captain, even if they don't have the armband, which is more symbolic and means more than simply being able to communicate on the pitch. You want someone who's not just vocal, but also representative of the club and sets an example in terms of mentality, through a combination of their own attitude and experience, as well as ability. Both captains at the last Euros were goalkeepers, and there are plenty of other examples - Yashin, Zoff, Shilton, Schmeichel, Kahn, etc. - of famous and successful goalkeeping captains.