coxhoedave

So Mike Ashley has decided to take NUFC off the market as no-one will match his £80 million price tag......but that's not the best bit. He has taken the decision to sell off the stadium's "naming rights" for next season

Personally I would love to see it simply THE ASHLEY STADIUM.

Some other ideas I've heard banded about are

The STADIUM OF DARKNESS..... THEATRE OF DELUSION......MARY POPPINS PARK or maybe something simple such as THE SAN GIRO.

Any one out there got any ideas?

McClaren last night refused to rule out signing the Formula One world champion, Jenson Button, to partner Lewis Hamilton next season.

Button has yet to sign on with Brawn, with whom he won the world championship. He has said contract talks will not begin until after the season's final grand prix, which takes place in Abu Dhabi on 1 November, but it is believed there is a gap between what he wants to be paid and what Brawn have in mind.

Asked by the Daily Mail whether there had been talks between McLaren and Button's representatives, the McLaren team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, said: "We've talked to a number of drivers. It wouldn't be appropriate to say more than that. We'll hire the two best drivers available to us as we always have."

Kimi Raikkonen, who is being replaced at Ferrari next season by Fernando Alonso, had been expected to join McLaren.

Ever since 2004 when the rules were amended to allow the top 4 English clubs to compete in the Champions league, the same big four clubs have competed. Only in 2005 when Everton finished in fourth was the top four strangle hold broken. However fifth placed Liverpool still competed in the Champions League as holders.

Is it all about to change?

Given the weak pound and the 50% higher tax bracket, a football club run on any sort of commercially viable basis is going to struggle to afford the real superstars of world football ahead of the likes of Real Madrid & Barcelona.

With this in mind it would be interesting to see how one of these clubs would fare if they failed to qualify for the Champions League and face life without the benefit of the huge amount of cash generated in the competition.

At the moment the most fragile of the top 4 must be Liverpool. They were a very poor second best against Sunderland last week and the fact the goal should have been disallowed shouldn't mask the fact.

Man City, having spent a net total of £98 million in the last transfer window is the obvious candidate to break into the exclusive club but Spurs and Villa also look strong. Sunderland are maybe another one to watch albeit in the coming seasons, if they can hold on to Steve Bruce and of course continues to benefit from Ellis Short's millions. They were the second biggest net spenders in the last window so it's maybe not as daft as a lot of non Mackems think!

Whoever it is it should be a welcome change for the majority of non big four supporters.

Many thanks to the wonderful fan who threw the ball onto the pitch.

Even more thanks to all the officials who didn't know the rules concerning foreign objects on the pitch.

Thanks must also go to Rafa the Gaffa for playing a ludicrous 3 man defence.

:D

Steve McLaren took over the Boro in 2001 and it has to be said he did a half decent job. Not only did he win their first ever silverware in 2004 when they lifted the League Cup but also guided them through 2 UEFA cup campaigns, even reaching the final in 2006. Boro were seen as a good, hard to beat Premier League outfit.

After the UEFA final McLaren left and in came Southgate. It was seen as a great appointment, he was hardworking, skillful, intelligent, articulate, Gareth seemed to have it all.

However have not worked out so well and after some horrendous work in the transfer market the Boro dropped out of the top flight last season. Maybe it's because of the man's popularity that Boro faithful still didn't call for his head.

After a promising Championship start it began to go wrong when they were routed 5-0 by West Brom and some voices of discontent were heard from the Boro faithful.

Southgate's response in today's Guardian was in parts staggering!!!

"Clearly my relationship with some supporters has changed. I have my own feeling on that but I'll keep them to myself. The modern way seems to be that if you're drawing at half-time you get booed off and if you lose at full-time you're booed off."

All of which is fair enough but he sounded ridiculous when he blamed the plethora of internet forums and radio phone-ins devoted to football for making supporters over-critical. "Everyone has an opinion now," said the manager, who has been savagely constructed online, in print and on the airwaves. "It's opinion without accountability."

OF COURSE PEOPLE TALK AND HAVE OPINIONS YOU T**T. If there was no such interest how the hel_l do you think you ended up a multi millionare.

Maybe, just maybe the voices of discontent to do with where you are taking Boro!!!

It would be great to see a little more of the TPV Rob Brown in Chiang Mai. The guy seems to speak a lot of sense.

As for the drunken couple who had the motorcycle accident, imagine doing that in the west. He'd be done for drink driving and she would be done for drunk and abusive behavior. The Thai police officer showed a huge (too much) amount of patience with this pair of idiots.

The series reflects very badly on certain morons who leave their brains at the airport upon arrival.

I can understand forum members questioning whether or not the TPVs are overstepping their mark. However if I was a first timer in the country and unlucky enough, or as in most cases here idiotic enough to become involved in some sort of trouble, the presence of the TPVs would most welcome (and not just in the police station).

Lots of people are saying keep her away from other Thais. I would disagree with this. My wife came to the UK in 1991 and the Thai community has grown significantly since. Within the Thai community there are some bad, but within my wife's circle of friends and colleagues these are far outnumbered by good people. I have to agree however that there are many Thais in the UK with serious gambling problems.

One thing is vital, get her through her driving test it will give her a sense of independence

Good luck to you.

Sad sad news indeed. A great character.

RIP Keith.

thanks for the history lesson guys, now back to argentina, can you believe this crap that Madonna is gonna fly to Europe to tell the likes of auguro, mileto and possibly messi that they wont make the bench for their next mach?

OK sorry about that little diversion James. So to get back to the topic - Maradona is a man driven by emotion. As a player he was legendary but he was able to channel his emotions into physical activity.

As a coach his emotions clearly get in the way of common sense. Three goalkeepers in six games, strange substitutions, strange selections. The guy has already selected over 60 players in his brief reign.

If Argentina's possible exclusion from the world cup can take some of the shine of his reputation in his homeland EXCELLENT. As I said in my OP I have a long memory.

The exclusion of the likes of Tevez and Messi from the competition will be a small price to pay

and there's no such thing as 'british'. that's some made up imperial crap that scots, welsh and northern irish people had no say in, hence as you say why they generally do view the english as the enemy.

Hi Steve, from my schooldays.

The union of the Scottish & English crowns in took place in 1603 when Elizabeth I was succeeded by James VI of Scotland, who also became James I of England. From that point the two were ruled by a single monarch, but through separate governmental systems. The Scottish king's dream however was a United Kingdom in the parliamentary sense.

This did not happen until 1707, after much debate in the Scottish parliament.

To suggest that it was some imperial crap that the Scots had no say in is incorrect.

As for no such thing as British - The Lyrics of Rule Britannia were written by a Scotsman, James Thompson.

Well you need not worry anymore the thai authoroties have put a stop to big trouble being aired funny jjs out on bail the program is halted by the thais mmmm thats a strange 1 to savvy what do you think people in high place's perhaps do the thais not realise that trying to ban a program will make it more intersting to watch.

Where did you hear that? How did they intend to stop a show being shown in the UK?

The second episode of the series has just been aired in the UK.

As an England supporter with a long memory it's great to see Argentina struggling under the leadership of Diago "Hand of God" Maradonna. They are fourth in their qualifying group. With the top 4 going through and the fifth placed team going into a play off they should make it but we can always hope they don't. Last night's home defeat at the hands of Brazil certainly didn't help matters.

The problem is as follows:

I am 33 y.o. expat living in Thailand and really not wanting to go anywhere else in the future. So far I have lived my life pretty much on a day to day basis, which now can be summed up like this: savings - 0, investments - 0, assets - 0.

I currently hold a job that pays about 1,000 US a month, which is enough to get by quite comfortably. However, i had a bit of a wake up call and now start to be really concerned with the future to come - if i keep living like this - there never will be a time when i can retire... well, i cant really afford to get sick either...

i completely lack the knowledge on the saving-investment strategies.

Please advice if you think there is a way for me to somehow start walking the path towards some sort of financial independence.

Any piece of information will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

33 years is an age where you reach some sort of crossroads. The joys of youth is being replaced by the fear of what is to come in one's latter years.

I guess the OP knows the answer to his question already.

If you cannot afford to get sick, how can it be possible to form a realistic retirement strategy?

You're a lucky guy living the best years of your life in the LOS but it comes at the expense of long term security.

Maximize your income. If it means leaving the LOS so be it.

One thing is for certain, earning $1,000 a month is a guaranteed way NOT to walk down the path of financial security.

Best of luck whatever you do.

Yes No Problem

They were probably stolen as babies and their parents killed just to entertain a few farang for a night .

The vast majority of the visitors are Thai.

Most people from the west would be pretty appalled to see endangered species treat like this.

Are you Thai?

• An old report from Monkey World Primate rescue centre in Dorset UK
  
• The Monkey World and Pingtung teams returned to Thailand to investigate further reports from wildlife parks in and around Bangkok.
  
• The team went to Safari World and found more than a dozen (12+) orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and several chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) that were dressed up and made to perform a Thai boxing match. All these orangutans were juveniles and there were no adult orangutans found in the park.
  
• 

  
  

• If there are no adult orangutans at Safari World, where did all the young orangutans come from? Safari World staff were asked this question. The replied that there were no adult orangutans at the park. All the orangutans in the Safari World show were clearly smuggled from the wild.
  
• After the boxing show the orangutans were taken to a public area where customers were allowed to have their photos taken with the orangutans. For the photos the orangutans were forced to "kiss" each person. From this type of contact with the public it is likely that the animals will catch tuberculosis from the people and then they will pass it on to other visitor that kiss them. This disease risk is very dangerous for both people and orangutans.
  

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Back in the eighties myself and a now departed and sadly missed friend had a wild night out in Pattaya and ended up much the worse for wear. At around 3:00 am he asked if I knew of any 24 hour tattoo artists nearby.

Back then there was one in walking street so in we staggered. As he was a Leeds lad he wanted a L.U.F.C (Leeds United Football Club for non Brits) tattooed on his leg. The tattoo artist was having real problems understanding my friend's drunken attempts to explain what he required so he handed me a piece of paper and a pen and asked

"What he want"

Have any of you out there tried to write when you are having trouble standing up?

Anyway the upshot was that for the rest of his days my friend walked around with a large LUFE tattoo on his leg.

I'm a Sunderland supporter who's been going to Roker Park then the SOL for 40 of my 49 years and I've just witnessed the finest performance by any team here.

We started well and the game was evenly poised when Bent opened for us but as soon as you went behind you started to turn the screw.

There were times when the midfield was really crowded but every Chelsea pass found it's mark.

In the second half it was hard to pick out a Chelsea Player OTM as it could have been any one in blue.

When Deco was subbed towards the end of the match he was even given an ovation by us Sunderland fans!!!

Truly outstanding football!!!

Since the end of last season it's been party time

Yes i here Lambrini, White Lightening and Babycham sales have gone through the roof on Wearside!

Bu**er the posh stuff I'm on the meths.

If anyone in Sunderland had the freedom do to as they pleased ... the first thing theyd do is leave!

Sanmiguellight if only you knew how much those words hurt!! They cut like a knife ...However I'll have you know the City of Sunderland was featured on TV the other night, and, credit where credit's due Crimewatch made the place look quite presentable!!!

PS Surely you Mackems prefer being in the same league as Newcastle as at least then you get 2 games a season where your giro covers the metro ticket .... is this not the case?

Obviously it's great to have the M**s in the Premier for the atmosphere and the easy points. Same goes for the Smoggies (apart from the atmosphere). However, I konw it's not big and it's not clever but I have to admit I find it physically impossible to cheer either of them on.

Since the end of last season it's been party time

I think they might go back up if they get a steady manager, even if this ownership problem isnt resolved but they do need a manager in asap.

Im still amazed no one has slapped ashley like lol

Hate to say it Chuppachops, but I agree that they may go up given some stability. However the situation isn't helped when good players are still leaving the club. Duff's just gone......who next?

There were almost 37,000 there on Saturday which is tremendous given the turmoil at the club, and if they keep on winning the attendances will rise.

As for Ashley, I think it's about time we gave him the FREEDOM OF SUNDERLAND

Perhaps it's just me, but isnt it kinda hard to have a silent coup while being quoted in the breaking news section of a newspaper?

Or is it one of those, nudge nudge wink wink say no more kinda silent coups?

it was so silent that in fact, it has already occurred.

Those in the know have already read (not heard, because hearing would imply that it wasn't silent) that a group of rogue robots from the future wearing those very very thin shoes that emit almost no sound while walking, have already assisinated the entire cabinet and replaced them with robots.

And that one of the robots, is a man's body, but is actually a lesbian robot.

And that the robots are now intending to wage war with any non robots, to make listening to Devo every morning mandatory and to insist that all foreigners walking to work must do so using the 'robot' dance step.

It is a brutal, brutal tyrant's way to rule, and one can only hope that the robots will give in to their lesbian desires and make robot love, not robot wars.

But on a more serious side, I would just point out: does she go know what I mean?

At least if they're Devo fans they can't be too bad.

Regarding an easier method of making bookmarks with FF (and possibly other browsers), here's what I do:

1. Click and hold the URL's icon

2. Drag it to the "Bookmarks" menu title (which opens the menu)

3. Drop it into the folder of choice.

Simple and efficient.

BRILLIANT!!!