The England national team and North-East players

UpperFramilode · 2012-05-24T22:58:29.475106+00:00

R. Taylor isn't even a starter for us when everybody's fit. Yes he's had a good season but he's certainly not better than Gareth Barry or Scott Parker, or Ashley Cole or Leighton Baines if you're talking about him for left back. He hasn't really played at right back for us very often, which is Martin Kelly's position.

Kelly's in the England squad because he's a player who is widely believed to have a very bright future. He could well be England's starting right back in a few years time, and he's also a player Hodgson will know well enough from his brief spell at Liverpool. He might get a run-out in the friendly -I doubt it personally, Hodgson probably has bigger priorities - but he's only really there to experience the national team set-up, like Walcott in Germany in 2006.

Butland is another one who isn't going to get a game, but is a highly-regarded young player who is likely to go on to big things if he keeps working hard. Fraser Forster's a decent keeper, but his best asset is that he's 6'7". If he were five inches shorter, his lack of real quality would be much more apparent.

When is Hodgson supposed to have come to watch a Newcastle game anyway? He only took on the England job proper after the season finished. Give him a bloody chance.

hatetom · 2012-05-24T10:52:12.036569+00:00

Yes they would have, see page eight.

HotThruTheShart · 2012-05-24T09:46:55.013584+00:00

Sod the layered Captain America drink, just go for something blue and call it Super Soldier Serum. There are countless clear drinks that could switch out triple sec for blue curacao.

The Hulk could be a blackberry mojito, which is both green and purple (to match the Hulk's pants).

Tony Stark is a whiskey drinker, for me a smoky martini with a red olive stuffed with something yellow would be a good Iron Man-themed drink but something like that doesn't have mass appeal so perhaps bourbon, Galliano and lemon juice over crushed ice with a drizzle of framboise.

Not a lot of places will have mead, and the word 'mead' practically covers as wide a range of beverages as 'beer' does so it's a foolish thing to even write without specifying whether you mean a sparkling honey-wine, a still honey-wine, a still honey-beer, a spiced honey-beer, and so on and so forth. Forget about mead for Thor, but don't forget about honey. Norse mythology says that the gods got their eternal youth from the golden apples of Idun, the goddess of youth. I think a Polish Martini would do the trick.

I don't really care enough about the peripheral characters to bother with the rest of them, though a black Russian seems the obvious choice for the Black Widow, who is Russian.

curvedbanana · 1 day

I grew up about seven miles from Sunderland and 12 miles from Newcastle. I support Newcastle United partly there was also a great deal of buzz around my area when Ossie Ardiles became Newcastle manager and because my hometown is on the same river as Newcastle. Sunderland is on a different river, and that was very important to me when I was six, for some reason.

I also support the following teams, though not to the same degree:

Real Sociedad: When I was 12 my school had some exchange students from San Sebastian who were all Sociedad fans, and they got me into them. They were doing really well at the time, and finished 3rd in La Liga that season.

Celtic: I've lived in Glasgow for about nine years and went to both Ibrx and Parkhead a bunch of times, and I just liked Celtic more than Rangers. Henrik Larsson had a lot to do with it, but so did Alan Thompson who is a fellow geordie.

Feyenoord: I managed them in Champ Man 96/97, and started to actually follow them due to that.

Portland Timbers: I only started paying attention to MLS last year and initially I arbitrarily picked San Jose to follow simply because they had the nearest colour scheme to Newcastle but I soon found myself rooting for the Timbers. The atmosphere in their ground looks amazing.

aintthatsumshit · 1 day

The FA logo is just the England badge with 'The FA' written where 'England' would be so perhaps not the best example, but I agree that the Germany crest should be changed.

jay4523 · 1 day

They already went to the Crag in the show, it just wasn't shown on-screen. They were there when Jaime escaped and was recaptured.

Riece91 · 1 day

Ginola on the right?

jknerd · 1 day

There's an even more special place for someone who makes a drink with "one part Cointreau, one part triple sec" - they're the same fucking thing.

Full_Of_Win · 1 day

If you were a real Grammar Nazi you would denounce the semicolon as impure. You would round up all the semicolons and the people who harbour them in their texts, and you would put an end to their miserable existence. You would also call them 'semicolon' rather than 'semi-colon'.

fleo33 · 1 day

Perch hasn't got a starting full back role, he started the last couple of games because Simpson wasn't fit. He and R. Taylor are better in midfield than defence anyway, for all that they can provide cover just about anywhere. Same goes for Ferguson, he's much better utilised on the wing than at full back.

fleo33 · 1 day

I know the idea that Berbatov supports Newcastle is commonly accepted as fact but he doesn't, he just idolised Shearer. Shearer interviewed him a few years ago, he said "I was a Blackburn fan when you became champions with them, I was only a fan of Newcastle because you were playing there".

sleepersapplepie · 4 days

English winners of the UEFA Champions League who do not qualify through their domestic position go forward as Winners to the group stage, with the team finishing fourth dropping to the UEFA Europa League. In this case, the national association of the title-holder is entitled to one additional place in the UEFA Europa League.

The situation here is that we already know that an English team is the Champions League title-holder. If "the national association of the title-holder" referred to the Champions League title-holder rather than the Europa League title-holder, why wouldn't it just say England?

pondfoot · 8 days

Well yeah, but Zabaleta is so fucking good and if he was English he'd have 100 caps by now.

pondfoot · 8 days

Terry knows Anton is related to Les Ferdinand, who is in the Richards category.

smokey815 · 8 days

The wolves hadn't exactly wandered off, they were just ahead of the group. They were easily within earshot when we saw them, and there was no indication that they wandered off.

smokey815 · 9 days

The fifth episode of the season, The Ghost of Harrenhal, just before Rodrik tells Bran that Torrhen's Square is under attack.

Serotone · 9 days

I think it's too early to call Marveaux a dud. Keep in mind that he very nearly signed for Liverpool before we signed him. He was nursing a groin injury when he came to Newcastle (depending on who you believe either this or a failure to agree personal terms is why he didn't sign for Liverpool, I'd be willing to bet it was the former) and later picked up a hip injury so he's been unable to play pretty much all season. He's fit now but it'll take some time before his worth can be judged properly. Remember Ben Arfa was out with a long-term injury when we signed him permanently as well. Fair enough on Obertan.

I have no love for Kenny Dalglish because of his awful spell at Newcastle, but I do think all of the players he bought since replacing Roy Hodgson are good players for all that he paid over the odds for them. I just think he isn't the right manager to take them forward. He seems to have an attitude of "oh well, you're all good players so it'll turn around eventually" where the squad need somebody who'll actively push them on.

shniken · 9 days

For clarity's sake, the Greyjoy sigil is a kraken and Lysa's son is called Robert Arryn. Her late husband was called Jon.

Also, Gendry can't be the true heir to the throne because bastards can't inherit anything.

shniken · 9 days

Eleven of the Thirteen were killed, the warlock and Xoro are the other two.

smokey815 · 9 days

Xoro Xohan Doxos (or however you spell it) struck a deal with the warlock to stage a coup. He used Dany and her dragons to get the Thirteen in one place so he could kill them off. With no ruling council left, he can proclaim himself king.

smokey815 · 9 days

I think if he does know who she is then he'd want to get a proper measure of her, and there'd be no real point sending her to King's Landing. With Stannis preparing his attack King's Landing won't be particularly safe, she's escaped from the Lannisters there once already, and he can keep a close eye on her himself at Harrenhall.

I'm not saying he definitely knows who she is, but I certainly wouldn't dismiss it.

smokey815 · 10 days

I dunno. We haven't seen Littlefinger since he came to Tywin, and he definitely recognised Arya.

sjgarg · 10 days

£12.70 VAT makes the original price £63.50. Where on earth did you get £140 from?

smokey815 · 10 days

I'm wondering if he already does, given his questioning of her and the "m'lord" thing.

Waja_Wabit · 10 days

Man United would have won the league yesterday if they got a better result than their local rivals Manchester City. When the Man Utd game ended in a 1-0 victory over Sunderland, City's game still had a minute or so of added time to go and they at 2-2 against QPR. City scored in that final minute to win their game and win the league. The is some Man Utd fans celebrating prematurely assuming they'd won the league, and their reactions moment the news came through that City had gone ahead.

JimmySinner

TROPHY CASE

JimmySinner

TROPHY CASE

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