Why you're absolutely correct - quite obviously, passion and football knowledege are distinctly English phenomena. You arsehole. On to the game. Well I'm one of the last ones to say it, but Souness seems to be doing his very best to shake my confidence in him. The team was a complete mystery again. Hopefully (*hopefully*) we'll get a proper side out next week.

It's one of the most wince-inducing chart tracks I've heard in some time.

Cause he's got big flippin' ears! He's actually had the nickname for about 30 years up here. I thought you were his biggest fan? Anyway, with some tough games coming up, this is a game we really have to be looking to win. Hopefully the formation will be sorted out (you should have seen the look on my face trying to puzzle out how Gray, Gresko and De Pedro were goin to fit into the team on Saturday ) and we can get past a Saints team left shaky by all the internal turmoil going on down there just now. Where's Tim Southampton Rover when you need him?

That's a bit harsh. He couldn't break into the Celtic team because they used only one player on each flank - the way Alan Thompson played last season he never had much chance.

....I wouldn't. She's always been hacket.

1. Rovers 2-20. Who cares? Seriously, though, I never waste my time trying to predict these things anymore, there's too many X-factors involved.

Agreed pal but my point is that if we had not seen his past form we may find it easier to appreciate what he can do today. Possibly I am alone in this but I believe he is good enough to warrant a place in the team. I'm sure Souness wants to play him as much as you want him to, Al, but the fact is he can't be impressed enough with what he sees in training to do so. He was one of the first names on the team sheet before his injury, and he was given a run at the start of last season where he, fantastic stike vs Liverpool aside, failed to shine. We've already tried loaning him out idea and that didn't seem to work either. I keep hoping he'll prove me wrong, and if he does I'll gladly eat several kilos of humble pie, but I still can't see it. All very sad.

The new NightWish album, Once, is something I'm listening to quite a bit now, it's great to finally hear their music with a serious budget (and, accordingly, a full orchestra) behind it. I'm a bit worried, though, about how popular the single Nemo (nothing to do with that bloody fish ) seems to be becoming with the Evenesence/HIM/Rasmus crowd.

Try and Edit your way out of this one!

That's not on.

Radaghast try get yourself a copy of Incubus Japan Live 2004 might be up your street... Incubus? Noooooooooo.

...well what with the codpieces and shiny steroid-pumped muscles you could be forgiven... (I just realised how gay Manowar are..... )

Not a cover of the Manowar song by any chance?

Ipicked up a copy of Stratovarius' compliation album, Intermission, which is quite good and a tape copy of Master Of The Rings by Helloween which is surprisingly enjoyable if you ignore the crap title. Velvet Revolver's album still isn't quite doing it for me yet, I still think Sab Bach would have been a better choice as the singer than Scott Weiland.

Big and fat he certainly is. Stupid? No. He knows there's an awful lot of pseudo-political types out there for him to exploit with his shamlessly slanted propaganda "documentaries", all eagerly queing up to hand him more publicity and money.

Gray 3, Fergie 4, Dickov 9, Matteo 21, De Pedro 11. The rest, go figure. This is all a bit sad, is it not?

A promo copy of Arch Enemy's Wages of Sin for £3.99? Yes please.

neophox - are you completely sure of what you're implying here. God I hate bandwagoneering pseudo-Leftie comments like that almost as much as I hate racism itself. Talk about looking for something that's not there - if you heard hooves beating in the distance I bet you'd cry zebra. On the subject of Cole, I'm really disappointed that he's gone. 27 goals in 30 months isn't exactly a fantastic record, but a player that can finish like he can is never worth binning. Of course if his relationship with Souness really has become untenable (for whatever reason) then I suppose he had to go. The only real plus point I can dig out of this is that there is now £60,000 (allegedly) not being used every week. The club could pay three players weekly wages with that and still be saving money. A striker now has to be a signing priority.

......grgh.....control yourself Radagast.....just let it go....... (deep cleansing breath, deep cleansing breath) Got my tickets on Saturday to see Mortiis (everyone's favourite Norwegian Goblin) and Dragonforce at the end of September. Now I just need to somehow scrape together £30+ sharpish to see Dio and Velvet Revolver (and possibly Magnum).

Dee Snider...grumble....false metal....grumble....sell out

I read somewhere that Stevie Vai appears on the new Motorhead album.

mmmmmlets see england in championships ,scotland ?lets see oh aye i remember they was watching with the faroe islands,wales and all ireland:P never mind theres always the 2199 w cup. Sorry, Abs, but when did I say Scotland were better than England? At least we know our limitations, eh? youandwhosearmy your claim that England have the 'most' (what the hell do you measure it on, some sort of barometer? ) is just so painfully easy to rip the arse out of I think I'll just leave it having said as much.

AAAAAAARGH!!! Ahem, anyway, following on from reading Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card (and not quite seeing what all the fuss was about) I read the next in the series, Red Prophet, which was a much more complete and enjoyable book with a particular chapter that's possibly the best 21 pages I've ever read.

......I try but I can't. youandwhosearmy, I'm one of those dreadful porridge wogs.

Oh, pass the sick bag... Jesus Christ