Eddie

Having said that he could have come here and done very well. You never know with these sorts of things.

At the end of the day the only real solution to the problem is to implement an american style system. By doing so the money would be more evenly distributed throughout the league, star players wouldn't be stolen away nearly so quickly, player power would be diminished and the league would be more competitive. Until probably all of those key points are met then we won't see any major changes to the trend of falling attendances. Why go and watch a football team when you can only expect your team to win 30% of their games (if that)? Why go and support a team when any developing hero or star player will be stolen away within a few months of becoming a real talent? Why bother paying so much when you can basically predict the result of the entire season before a single ball has been kicked? Those are the problems that need to be addressed, I'm afraid price restructuring and more attacking football simply won't do it.

Can't see this happening, so I'll go for a horrible 3 or 4 goal loss.

Oh no...I think this thread is going to bring up just about all of the usual battles. Didn't take long for Souness to be brought up.

Thompson is out injured though should be back within a couple of weeks, the break should help.

25th of september I'm sad to say I'm going to be over your side. Start university the week before so I won't be in Paris, unless of course there are some unexpected changes, but I hope not. Good luck on the race, it's a nice place to run, if you need any good advice for post-race watering holes I can give you some.

Neekoy, over the course of the series we've all had some bad decisions. What about when Pietersen was given out caught behind after the ball had hit a few body parts, none of which were bat or glove, or when shortly after Bell then was given out caught behind when he hadn't got anything on it? Even in this test, though Strauss was actually out there was an inproper use of the third umpire. The third umpire can only be used to see if there was contact if the umpire is completely unsighted, which he was not, so he would have had to give the decision without the aid of the replay, meaning that he should have given the benefit of the doubt to the batsmen, meaning Australia don't look like getting a wicket, meaning Flintoff never even has to come into bat. It's always been thus in cricket. There will always be bad decisions, but they usually do equal themselves out over the course of a series, if not simply over the course of the match.

Well at least Neill will only be suspended for one match. Even that is a shame though as he is having a good start to the season. I'm pleased both with the performance and the result.

You get them all over, it's nothing too serious, it just means you lose 10 euros on a few pieces of string you probably don't really want around your wrist. Mine is still on after a year and I quite like it....

That's how it always works. We all have knee jerk reactions usually, but because this was the season opener against a team we would like to beat the performance had an extra affect.

Basically if anyone asks you if you speak english you should stay well away. It's just another way of trapping tourists, usually tourists get embarrassed or a bit scared and just give them money to bugger off, the french would just tell them where to go so they don't bother. On the metro they will hand out little cards but even then most are pretty much ignored. Even if a multilingual girl is the one who does you there will always be some huge fella someone in the background.

User : Shivni87 Team : Rebel Breezers Stadium : Stade de la Marche League : G.271 I'm up for the cup

No one really looks down on begging here. It can be a bit annoying if you happen to live in an area where someone has decided to make his home on the street, but you can't really complain about it can you? They get cleaned everynight by a crew that drive around and are pretty well taken care of, the odd euro just helps them out, if you ask the cynics then it just helps out their drug and alcohol use. The old "stick out your finger and we'll put a string on it" trick is a bit annoying, but the police don't bother because it would simply be too difficult to get rid of. There are so many of them, many of whom are actually normal looking students just trying to make extra money, often they'll get you by doing something like saying "do you know where.....is?". Sometimes the talent they have for languages is amazing. I was once done by a woman who was able to speak english, italian, danish and french (with their being a native of each one of those countries in the group i was in). Not only could she speak but each of us said that we couldn't pick up an unusual accent when she spoke. With that kind of talent it's amazing that she has to be doing things like that, but at least i was done by someone with talent.

Well it was reported that he was out of the Wales game with an ankle injury so that would be a bit surprising. I certainly hope it isn't true.

Right now I wish I could just stop supporting this club, that is just how upset I am with that team. Sadly, this is the same day that I'm buying myself a new shirt, the life of a footballer supporter eh?

Well, I've had a little time to reflect and I feel a little better about it, but only a little. I do feel very let down by the team, who we all hoped would simply continue as last season, instead we will have kept the bully boy tag and we've been played off of the park, well done boys. Let's hope we don't come across anymore 39 year olds, then we really might be in trouble.

I'll start it. 5-0 Fulham. (whenever I say we'll lose we win...so it's pessimism in an optimistic way.)

Well couldn't be much more upset. Totally let us down, especially after the first 20 minutes seemed to be us pushing for that workmanlike win. Can't believe, just wish I could each player a punch right now. We need to add players to this squad...optimism gone.

That gave me a good laugh, you'd have no idea how many fall for that trick. Best way to get out of them is to just tell them that they didn't ask you and that you have no money so tough titties.

450-500. The next partnership will really decide the sort of score we are looking at. If they put on 100 then a big 500+ score is there for the taking, anything over 500 would be great.

Well the previews are flooding in thick and fast it appears, three up now and we haven't even played a game. Do remember that when I wrote this I thought I wouldn't be putting it up until after the West Ham game, so thought the season would actually be officially underway. Well the football season is underway and life can once again return to normal. After a long summer of being linked with players left, right and centre and attempting to get that sporting fix from tennis, rugby, cricket and athletics we can finally turn our attention back to events on the hallow turf of Ewood Park. For a first home game of the season we face a Fulham side that has changed little during the transfer window from the side that we played in our last game of the 2003-2004 season. Apart from losing perhaps their best, if not certainly one of their most influential players, they have had a few relatively minor comings and goings. Perhaps the one piece of good news is that this year we need not fear the chance of Andrew Cole scoring a goal against his old club. Our encounters will Fulham over the past few seasons seem to have always turned out to be significant, and are almost always good indicators of the state of our season. Just last year our 2-0 away win was the turning point in our fight against relegation, the time when Souey’s Sissys turned into Hughes’ Heroes. While our emphatic 4-0 win at Craven Cottage a couple of seasons ago was when Souness’ side perhaps reached its greatest point, and the only game any of us will remember Hakan Suker for. In many ways though, our clubs are the total opposites of one another. Though we can both consider ourselves to be two of the smaller sides in the division, based on fan base, stadium and media coverage, they are the flashy Londoners and we are the unassuming boys from Lancashire. When promoted they claimed that they would soon be challenging the likes of Manchester United for the title, we just hoped that we would stay up. Harrods United have always been the slick team, nice to look at but never quite fulfil either the potential or the hype. We go about our business and no one really cares, apart from when we’ve done something horrible like upset an arrogant Portuguese man. Hopefully this season we can continue to separate ourselves from the likes of Fulham, teams who are exactly what the media and the rest of the Premiership would like them to be. We may not always be pretty, nor pack the stadium, but hopefully this year we will see a continuation of what we achieved last term, and that would include getting results. Finally, my last point for any visiting Fulham fans who may think I’ve talked ourselves up too much: at least when we had a sugar daddy we did it right…

Well I have my preview for the Fulham game all done but I was going to wait until Saturday night or Sunday to post it, but I guess I should put it up today, but after that nice long piece you've written I should probably add something to it, thanks for making my life even harder philipl! Great preview. I don't have a great feeling about it either, but who knows, have to see what early season form is like, but a game we could win.

If you have one of those little handheld radio things where you can listen to radio 4 longwave while there it's useful, depending on where your seat is seeing exactly what is going on all day can be difficult. Make sure you have someone to talk to. I don't think it should be too much of a problem because I expect this game to be much like the last two and be very exciting, but a couple of years ago I went to England against South Africa at Lords and sat there all day while south africa piled on the runs. No wickets were taken until the very end of play, if memory serves mcgrath bowled smith, this happened while I was walking out. Hearing the massive roar was the first time I found england taking a wicket depressing. The atmosphere and the great cricket mean that I'm sure you'll have do little to enjoy it, just hope for an england win!

The last time we had a great start to the premiership season we were total pants for the rest of it, so I won't read too much into the result either way.

I think most thought England were gone at that point, obviously they hadn't stopped trying, as the result proved, but a win was looking unlikely, so I don't blame him for saying it, he was just being honest. I know from playing sport that there are times when you feel the game running away from you and you know it, but you don't stop trying to turn the tide, but part of actually being able to do that is realising the exact situation you are in. When it comes to Brett Lee I actually think being dropped for the 17 months, or whatever it was, was the best thing to happen to him. Before then he was a total prat, since then he seems a bit less full of himself and does just get on with it. Couldn't stand him before, but he's alright now.