And unlike Hughes Ferry Services, Sam Canaveral is a whopping big ride with a shuddering climax. And the moon may be Wembley.

Is there any chance of admin using the filter to change "Allerdyce" to "Canaveral"?

philip i've been in turkey for close to three weeks and dont get back till early tomorrow. Reception on radio lancashire is patchy here.

Perhaps you could update me?

Please don't make him quote himself again

Although he has gone strangely quiet on the Everton match thread.

I'm reading 'A Long Way Down' by Hornby at the moment. Tells the tale of 4 people who meet when all coincidentally go to top themselves from the same suicide point on New Year's Eve. So far it hasn't really got going so will reserve judgement.

Did you end up liking this, FLB? I read it a few years back when we were in Germany for the World Cup and there weren't a lot of English books to choose from. I enjoyed it - found it very easy to read. I picked up his latest effort the other day but haven't started it yet.

I imagine it may have been mentioned already (not going to trawl back through it) but one of the best things I've read recently is "A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian" by Marina Lewycka. It's an amusing tale of two sisters who try to help their 84 year old father who has married a 30-something Ukranian immigrant so that she can be allowed into the country. Took me months to bother to start reading it, but got through it very quickly once I'd started.

In the last couple of weeks I've read "Fatty Batter" by an amateur cricket obsessive called Michael Simkins. Very very funny account of his love for the game and the Sunday League team he organised. I'd definitely recommend it to any cricket fans.

Also finished "Football Dynamo" by Marc Bennetts, which is the account of an Englishman who has been living in Russia for the last 10 years. It investigates corruption, match-fixing, the big clubs and ultimately the psyche of Russia. He mostly keeps it modern which makes it easier to get into, and I found it extremely interested learning about all the aspects of a country that I hadn't really thought much about previously.

That's some good research Smithy. Any reason you left your mate thenodrog off that list of people you're trying to make look silly?

Berner's gone and was shown up as a mediocre player.

Which begs the question, why did he get the first team chance that Andy Taylor didn't? It all comes down to the prejudice that is seemingly indelibly engrained in football management - the mediocre experienced player is always a better option than the promising youngster. Never mind Berner's experience, caps et al, he was rubbish. If we've got, under our noses, academy graduate "rubbish" that have youth on their side to potential upgrade to "so so" - why do we sign - with money - foreign rubbish that have peaked and will never reach "so so"?

No youngster would ever get the chance to make the number of mistakes for the first team that Mokoena has. EVER. It's not right.

(Den, are you up for round 1233349013910293102930123?)

Let me have a go.

First of all, apologies to everybody for this. I know full well it's a bunch of clap-trap. Feel free to stop reading now (if you carry on then get annoyed, I warned you). I know football doesn't work like this, and that not everything can be number crunched. However, I can't help but read R6's sig and wonder how differently he watches the game - with players and situations being given almost quantitative values. It's certainly different from the 'norm' (for better or worse).

Forgive me if I'm wrong R6, but I'm going to have to make certain assumptions about your logic (I know you rationalise everything anyway so it should fit).

You seem to categorise players into brackets, but I don't think there are enough definition of a player under your rationale. Let's say you think a player is either a world beater; excellent; very good; functional; sub-par; awful; Aaron Mokoena. I think under your reasoning both Taylor and Berner were 'awful' (in the context of regular Premiership football). Berner, at 29, is never going to get back to 'sub-par' (he must have been at some point to play for his country) but Taylor has a chance of moving up to that next level, we'll say a chance between one in 5 and one in 10.

I think, stupidly hypothetical as this all is, in my definition we'd need to go further. Let's say there are ten sub-divisions within 'awful'. We'll just give them numbers, with 10 being the highest (btw taking that to its logical conclusion, each player is marked out of 70 - imagine being at the bottom of the Mokoena ladder!)

Berner, as bad as he probably was, is probably a lot closer to 'sub-par' than he was to 'Mokoena'. I think we're looking at 8 or 9 within his division. Taylor is looking at the arse end of 1 or 2. He never set the reserves alight, and I bet he could never play for Switzerland, if that were somehow possible. Football is more subtle than "he's great" or "he's awful", hence our sub-divisions. Everything is relative. Berner has actual international experience. He wouldn't need "showing the ropes" like Taylor would. Even if we gave Taylor 10 games what is his absolute maximum potential? Probably about the same level Berner is now. But with Berner you don't have the time lag of waiting for him to get up to scratch.

I think under your logic, and feel free to correct me, we wasted money bringing in a very mediocre player when a youngster might be able to get up to that level for peanuts? I think, realistically, the best we could have hoped for with Taylor was that he became as good as Berner. And that wasn't guarenteed, and that would have taken time in important Premiership matches. I don't think Andy's potential was any better than Berner's level of ability because Hughes simply hasn't used him. He's used Olsson, but never Taylor.

Is the economic trade-off worth it in this specific example? I don't think so. In a mini-league as tight as the Premiership's UEFA race is, giving away little advantages, even over ten games, could be the difference between winning one game a season and drawing it. Is 2 Premiership points worth potentially making our own Berner when we can get the real thing in guarenteed for practically nothing?

Is that fair and are you sure you are not being hypocritical?

Don't you consider economic reasons when applying for jobs?

Of course I do. However, I would choose a better job even if it pays less (within reason, of course).

As a multi-millionaire professional footballer he had the opportunity to go to a club where he had a higher (though not brilliant) chance of medals. I can't put myself in his situation so I can't know for sure, but I'd like to think I'd've chosen Liverpool.

I think Lucas sabotaged his last chance at performing at the very top level and competing for the biggest prizes in the game. IMO he was stupid for doing this. I can, however, understand why he did it. As I said before, he may well not give a ###### when he hangs up his boots, and just enjoy the money he has accrewed. No problem with that either, it's his life.

Which choice do you think you would have made?

Why idiots? Because they expressed an opinion that differed from yours?

I dont think that our captain making gestures of that nature to the supporters of the club that stood by him after he broke Jamie Carragher's leg is trivial at all.

They didn't stand by him when he wanted to leave though.

Don't get me wrong, the fact that he left for West Ham and not Liverpool does not reflect well on him, but his attitude on the pitch was perfect, and he was well within his rights to show his frustration at being boo'd by his OWN SUPPORTERS. Maybe if he'd criticised the club/refused to play then that's fine. The fact is, he carried himself very well whilst at the club, and he doesn't get any credit for that.

Choosing West Ham for economic reasons was stupid IMO, but only he will know whether that was worth it when he retires. He's probably not that arsed.

Granted they both look fed up with the situation R6, but the questions is - have you even seen them actually PLAY football?

I was listening to the Annie Mac show on Radio 1 earlier, she was saying about Ian Wright leaving MOTD, because it's become "dry" and she agreed and said there should be a seperate "highlights" show, but with laughter.

She said Russell Brand is a massive footie fan and even writes a column in the Guardian and she thinks he'd be a great choice of pundit to have on the show.

Maybe someone like Colin Murray being the host? he does a decent job on Ch5.

Someone suggested a show hosted by Alan Carr & the pundit being his dad (an ex-footie manager) and calling it Football Night Project

I'd love to see a show that talks footie, has no bias and takes the p*ss a bit... especially if the show mocks losers like Jamie Redknapp & Garth Crooks. I could imagine Russell Brand coming out with some corkers about those 2 alone.

I suppose Soccer AM a few years back when it was in its pomp was the closest we've come. I am actually a big fan of MOTD2 and think Chiles is an excellent presenter. I hardly ever see MOTD but MOTD2 is required viewing. It was disappointing that we weren't covered more, but usually it's an excellent show.

There was a call (on here I think) for Baddiel and Skinner to be made presenters of Soccer AM. Now that would have been worth watching. And they're a lot funnier than Alan bloody Carr

The four kids found it funny, the three adults were left for dead.

I imagine this would be the case. I've seen the advert and from the impressions I get of that, I would prefer to die than see the film. There are ways of doing trashy comedy and nothing about the trailor convinced me they knew how to do it.

Is the Wembley DVD out yet DMF?

HAARP is out March 17th. It's a CD/DVD package which has a CD from the first night at Wembley and DVD of the second. I love listening to the gigs so it's the CD I'm really looking forward to, especially as that was the one I was at.

Not sure I'm a fan of that. It just wouldn't be the same. Watching a gig shouldn't be comfortable. I think I'll save my money for V and a few more legs of the next tour.

Arrested Development is a quite wonderful comedy. One of the cleverest and well-crafted things I've ever seen. Absolutely wasted on Americans (). The prospect of a movie really excites me.

I've tried so so hard to like Curb. I bought season 1 and watched all of season 2 as well. I can sort of see why people like it, but I feel like I'm just watching the same episode over and over and over and over again. It's exactly the same every time.

Give me AD any day of the week.

Going to see a band from Seattie on Sunday called Band of Horses who are on Subpop records, on the leg of their 2nd album(which is a blinding album) tour. Sound a little like Pavement or a more upbeat The Shins.

They are well worth checking out:

Band Of Horses

I cant wait...Plus going to see MGMT and Radiohead later in 2008. Looking like a good year for music.

I have one of their albums - presumably the first - called something along the lines of "Everything All of The Time"? I may have made that up. But whatever it's called, it's very very decent. So you'd recommend the second album if I liked the first?

Hey -idiot-, the colour of anyones skin was never mentioned.

A blind man on a galloping horse could see what AESF's agenda was with the African Cup of Nations.

And you could say that we deserve all of the dodgy yellow and red cards that we get because we were a bit rough about 3yrs ago...

How far can you extend that? The personnel at a club changes. Andy Johnson, as far as I'm aware, is the same person. I don't think he dives as much as he used to, but his reputation now preceedes him.

Andy Johnson is still paying for a reputation he picked up at Palace. He has also been caught out at Everton, particularly in his early days. He now suffers from the same problem as Ronaldo i.e. many of his legitimate claims are waved away. This isn't particularly "fair" on Moyles because he had no influence over AJ at Palace, but I think this is certainly a big factor.

AJ does spend a lot of time on the ground, and he is known to go down - shall we say - easily. He is reaping what he sowed a long time ago, whether that is Everton's fault or not.

Aye mate, cos everyone from these Belfast estates are familiar with the cops im sure.

Im from the Braniel, and ive never been interviewed by the cops, I must have just got away with all the crimes ive comitted then yeah?

Bloody hell, it was only a joke.

I think the fact that Rover6 can't tell us which one of them should be playing speaks volumes for how much he knows about them.

Also, why would we want a player playing who kicks people on the floor? Isn't that a bad trait to have as a footballer? Sergio hardly has the most level of heads - this has to be one of the factors in Hughes not playing him.

At the moment I am loving the latest Foo Fighters album. Havent really got into their previous albums but the new one is great

I bought ESP&G without big expectations and have to say it has completely exceeded them. OK it isn't as good as the debut album or The Color and The Shape but it has certainly arrested the gradual decline since then. Didn't rate In Your Honor one bit.

What about a couple of seasons ago when we didn't have McCarthy and Pedersen was firing all cylinders? I think Pedersen is a good player but may never reach the form he had that season again. We've been waiting a while and it's just not happening for the guy.

A couple of seasons ago he had Bellamy who would do much the same kind of thing. Pedersen has never ever been about good performances. At his best he is an effective goalscoring midfielder who works hard. When the goals dry up there is not an awful lot left to see because the rest of his game (i.e. covering ground) isn't as noticable. The difference between Pedersen apparently "firing on all cylinders" and Pedersen "needing to be dropped" is whether his volleys hit the target. Recently they have not. In order to have a big effect on our attacking movement and build-up play, he needs McCarthy playing well.

I think unfortunately Pedersen needs McCarthy in form to be at his most effective. When Benni is confident he drifts out onto the left hand side and doubles up on the right back. The two of them have a very good understanding with short passes, backheels and when to actually cross the ball. It's even better when Warnock joins in. Jansen and Duff used to have a similar thing going on. The difference there was that Duff was outstanding and could win games by himself. Pedersen seemingly needs that bit of help to show off his good attributes. Now, as a result of a lack of confidence, every part of his game is suffering - namely his set pieces.

What hasn't helped is that his average performances are now seen as bad. Even when he was at his best for us, he had plenty of average games. Add a few goals to his game and not so many poor set pieces and he probably isn't playing too differently from when everybody was raving about him.

There is surely no way Fulham offered £5m for Roberts this summer. What source was that from Hughesy?

To be fair on this one, he's a snarling chavvy beast on the field but a friend of mine has interviewed him and says that he's a very quiet, shy, normal guy when not playing football.

That said, this does not mean that Eddie wouldn't argue that black was actually white.

If they had aimed at producing "singles" rather than just an honest album, they probably wouldn't have put it up on their website and made it a "pay what you want" download

That's debatable. I don't disagree with the point about singles - after all, I said that it was more than likely not a priority. But I think quite a proportion of the reason it was put for download on the site was to control an inevitable leak. By leaking it themselves, they made a bit of money and get to do something 'new'. The freedom they have by not being on a record label makes it very interesting, and I'd like to know if other major artists follow suit.