markavfc40

A picture tells a thousand words.

Come on Tony there is still room for a little humour which is how I read it in Jons case.

Nice one!

Congratulations to America. They, and the rest of the World for that matter, are much better off not having a Republican President. It is only going to get tougher for the Republicans. Whites will with in the next 20 years become the minority and with historically anywhere between around 80% and 95% of African Americans voting Democrat and 65% and 75% of Hispanics voting Democrat, with both figures rising, the Republican party is going to have to change dramatically or get used to losing.

I don't remember calling all Tories w*nkers or similar on many occasions but aside from that I agree with you and I'll own up to having been a dick and join you in a pledge not to be again.....well maybe not ever again

And when that is the case and it is relevant then fair enough but you know as well as I do that it is very often simply not the case and instead of answering the point raised about a current issue it is deflected on to something totally unrelated that happened in the past. Like I said it is trying to justify a wrong being done now by bringing up a past one by the other side as if that makes it all right when in fact it simply doesn't and adds absolutely nothing to the debate. In fact in most cases it stops all debate and turns the thread in to a farce something this one will turn into if we continue to go off topic

I agree and I'd say that about sums it up.

One things for sure Watson most certainly won't let this drop. That is a very well worded letter and puts the ball firmly in Camerons court. Interesting times ahead.

Chindie you are spot on and I feel pretty much the same. I am sick to the back teeth of everytime I look in the ConDem thread there is a comment there on something they are doing and its "oh but Labour did so and so" when they were in power as if someone how that makes it all OK then and two wrongs make a right. Its very rare the actual issues are discussed without massive deflection.

Fair play to Tom Watson. Pity we don't have more politicians like him.

Yes I agree. It is a balancing act and you have to be wary of getting into the comfort zone of lifting the same weight and becoming lazy/kidding yourself that it was all you could do. Its a bit trial and error I guess and don't be afraid to attempt more weight and conversely don't let your pride get into the way of dropping a few kg's to ensure good form. Also no problem on the tip with the protein website. I was genuinely shocked when I read how much you were paying Not sure if you have received it yet but they are very good with delivery and often come next day and definitely with in a couple of days.

To build a team he wants? he built a team to compete in the upper echelons of the Premier League which is where we and at the time the owner wanted us to be. He spent 70-80 mill doing it and we have since recouped approx 60 mill by selling three of his signings. For that we got three sixth place finishes, competed for a top 4 finish till the last month of the season a couple of times, had a couple of good cup runs, played in Europe a few times and reigned supreme over our local rivals not losing a derby game during his tenure. All whilst having the 8th, 6th and 6th highest wage bill. A fair return I'd say. The fact that the club could not sustain having the 6th highest wage bill whilst finishing 6th I put down to the board. You can pretty much guarantee that your wage bill will pretty much reflect, with in a couple of league places, where you finish. Certainly in terms of the top half dozen places. You will of course get the odd case of over achievement. One things for sure if we are to again consistently finish amongst the top 6 we are going to have to have a wage bill that reflects that position.

At the end of the day if you've done your best in every session then progress is terms of the weight you are lifting will run alongside that and come naturally. However that can't be the bottom line though. I know what I am capable of lifting but at the end of the day if it just doesn't feel right at that weight on a given day and I'm doing my best but I know that the form is suffering then I don't struggle on regardless I just drop the weight and ensure the good form. You'll get far more out of a session doing the exercise right with a weight you can manage than carrying on regardless with a weight that you may have lifted the week before but are struggling with now. Thats where the not basing your session simply on how much you are lifting comes in. We have all seen people in the gym struggling with a weight that is clearly too heavy for them. They'll come out thinking they have lifted so and so but at the end of the day due to poor form they may as well have not bothered. In fact I've been that guy.

Just like you shouldn't become obsessed with doing a certain amount of reps, as some people do, you shouldn't become obsessed with feeling you have to lift a certain amount. The first thing to go with doing that will be good form which is way more important than either how many reps/how much weight. I've been training since my mid teens so the best part of 22 years and been very consistent with it for the last 11 years and its probably only in the last 3 or 4 years that the penny dropped. Now all I do is give my best in every training session be that weights or cardio. I set targets obviously and have a program I follow but how much weight/how many reps/ distance or time is not the bottom line as I know regardless of that at the end of the session if I have given my all. Feeling sluggish some days could be down to a number of factors - poor diet, over training or just simply one of them things and being a little run down. At the end of the day you still trained so could do no more.

Some good investigation work there! I suppose if you consider that we currently have Bent and NZogbia picking up around 110k a week between and they can't get into our starting 11 regularly then Sunderland paying Johnson and Fletcher 85k a week seems like decent business.

I doubt very much O'Neill negotiates player contracts. I also can't see Fletcher being on any more than 40k a week as that would be around double what he was on at Wolves. Danny Rose is on loan so they will just be covering what Spurs pay him and that will not be anything like 40 - 50k a week. If the Sunderland owners let the wage bill get to a level they can't sustain then they must be stupid and very poor businessmen. Much like our owner has been.

Looking at the league table there are I think 5 managers that took over Premiership Clubs in the summer - Lambert with us, Rodgers at Liverpool, AVB at Spurs, Laudrup at Swansea and Hughton at Norwich. AVB has made a decent start but we are with in a couple of points of Liverpool, Norwich and Swansea and Lambert inherited a far bigger mess than what the others have faced at their new clubs. Rodgers like Lambert is trying to impose a new style on Liverpool and seems to be getting a fair bit of grace whilst trying to do it. Given that Lambert inherited a total shambles in comparison he at the very least deserves the same from our supporters.

Has he even played half a dozen top flight games yet? I think its way too early to judge him. He has looked decent at times and not surprisingly a little naive at others.

Spot on Richard. I think a lot of us are guilty of expecting new players to hit the ground running and being too quick to judge at times and I'd include myself in that.

Spot on! Bottom line is that if Lambert doesn't fancy Bent then of course he should be sold. We are not in any position to be having players on 70k a week spending most of their time sitting on the bench. Not many clubs bar the elite are. As others have said we currently look a better side with Bent out the team than in it. For that reason I don't see him getting much game time any time soon. In fact I suspect that Bent simply isn't part of Lamberts medium to long term plans and he'd be more than happy to have the 10+ mill and 70k a week in wages to spend on other players.

I'm not so sure he should have. From what I remember he was around 30 yards out and hit it first time. It was a hit the target 5 out of 10 times for me.

I just think he needs to calm down a bit at times. He can be very rash and yesterday he gave away around half a dozen needless free kicks due to petty fouls.

Totally agree. He gave the ball away a few times yesterday in the first half but he worked his bollocks off, had a knack of getting into some lovely positions finding space and him, Bannan and Westwood linked up very well together.

If we can get 12-14m for him be it in January or next summer and that money and his 70k a week wages are reinvested then I have absolutely no problem with him being sold. He has had a whiff of billy big bollocks about him since he arrived. No player is bigger than Aston Villa and Darren Bent certainly isn't.

He wasn't injured. Lambert took him off before he got sent off. He made numerous petty fouls but for me was on thin ice with the ref having already been booked. Lambert made the right decision. If Lichaj was a bit pissed off tough. With Lambert its all about the team.