Newcastle United v S.C.Braga match highlights

78 Responses

1. Worky says…

   “If there are any Yanks out there, can anyone please explain why some of you are comparing the London Olympics to Hitler’s Olympics of 1936 because the opening ceremony celebrated “Solicialized medicine” (whatever that is?), and also why some Americans are saying that we’re all dying in hospital corridors?”

   I suppose I qualify since I have lived in the USA, USA, USA for 21 years.

   We bailed your asses out of 3 world wars. And me and Chuck know as much about football as me and Chuck put together.

2. And I don’t believe the “physioroom” rumours you put on here. You say Ferguson has a “groin/pelvis injury” but he doesn’t look old enough for that.

3. One guy asked me a few years ago if I got the 4th of July off as a Holiday like the rest of America, since “we beat your limey asses”.

4. I don’t get Christmas off either since I wasn’t nailed to a cross.

5. You bailed our Limey arses out as always, after all the hard
   work was done so don’t give me any of superior being bullshit. If you don’t like the situation, F**k off to another site and be Holier than thou. Tossers.!!

6. Porciestreet: read what I said again @3. I live in the US, but I am from Newcastle. I was repeating what some American said to me a few years ago.

7. and Porciestreet @5: I thought you might have understood I was joking when I referenced THREE world wars.

8. Sorry mate, accept my app’s. thought you were a septic with a grudge. Just defending my own .Catch ya lata. P.

9. If theres one thing Iv’e learned in life , it’s never be afraid to say sorry when yr in the wrong.

10. It’s all good Porciestreet. Does the Percy Arms still exist and that Arcade that had all the hippie stuff that was nearby? It has been 30 years since I was on Percy Street so I am a bit out of touch.

11. GS
    Gotta load up on smiley faces, when putting on the Brits, they dont quite get your hammer-like subtlety, or fine distinctions and tend to be sensative to the fact they have become a little Engerland, with the Jocks and Taffs looking to devolve.
    And by the way, whats the story on the Taffs and Jocks not singing the national anthem at the start of the game against Senegal.
    I blame phsyco. for not checking before to ensure they all knew the words and dropping anyone not roaring out the anthem.
    Just not cricket, is it ?

12. Dahn a pub larst night to watch the game, thought they had switched to the Olympics following Cisse’s dive, which i would rate about a four.
    Look guy if you are gonna dive for us, i gotta tell ya, you need to practice, cause your never gonna get many calls for crap dives like larst night.
    And oh! who needs a striker we got two Ameobis, young Sammy had a hell of a game.

13. I’m living in Cyprus now but my best mate of over 50 years is staying with me at the moment and funnily enuf, we were talking about that arcade thismorning with it’s smells of joss-sticks and scruffy gits that couldn’t play a guitar properly. Those were great days eh. I used to go to the GOGO club which was next door to the arcade and saw the likes of Stevie Wonder Jimmy Hendrix and a host of Tamla bands b4 they became famous.The Four tops, Sam and Dave,and loads more including Eric Burden and the Animals who’s home venue it was.
    I’m talking about early to mid 60’s so may be a bit b4 yr time.
    The Percy is still there after various refits and so is the Three bulls. Good to talk .!!

14. Chuck: there aren’t any Scots in the GB football team. What do you think of the tactic of putting Sammy on the Goalie for corners, it might work when he puts some weight on as at the moment they can just look around him?

    He looks like an incredible talent though. Him and Ferguson. I am getting excited now about the season as we did well against two Champion’s league teams and we might have a few player additions if we are lucky.

15. P S. Pretty sure the Arcade has undergone serious refufb although the facia, like so much of the city is listed.

16. Porciestreet: I was back for a week about 18 months ago for the first time in 15 years. I had plans to drive up to Alnwick and go to the Farne Islands, but it was the week of the big snow. I did manage to get to the Haymarket to get a Greggs pasty.

    My dad used to do delivery driving for Greggs. He would stop off on the end of his run and give me and my friends pasties and strawberry cake things that would be thrown out otherwise. Then the next door neighbour reported him and he was sacked.

17. GS 16
    This is so spooky. My mates and I used to live about 300 yds away from where Greggs built their first factory on a new trading estate in Gosforth. As the majority of baking was done throughout the night, most of the stuff was left outside at the back to cool off before the drivers would load up around 4.30 or 5.00am.
    Before they arrived however, me and the lads would approach from the railway embankment and pig out on the most amazing ket you ever had . Pasty’s sausage rolls (foot long ) Mince pies and washed down with a peach Melba or two .
    There was a hole in the wire fence behind a stack old pallets so we went totally unnoticed so it may have been us that got him the bullet. Hope not !

18. @17 :)

19. Porcie Street
    Sorry to inform you the vandals who are the city planners knocked it down years ago (the arcade), along with other historical buildings in order to make way for a parking garage and a plastic mall.
    The Three Bulls Heads, the official name is still there and has been re-vamped, and still draws a crowd on match days, as does the Greffs shop noon the street (hey a few pints gives you an appetite)
    The sad thing about the Toon is they have absolutely Fkued it up entirely, a city filled with great regency style buildings and in the case of Percy street, older historicl buildings, mostly abandoned by their owners and tennants, because of plastic malls.

20. Gray Street still looked the same when I was back Chuck. And the Quayside is a lot better now.

    Hopefully they got rid of that badpipe museum at the top of the old “New” castle. Seriously, they had a bagpipe museum up there back in 1983.

21. Anyone remember the Neworleans jazz club which was in the Hawthorn pub on Forth Banks, behind the Central Station. used to come out of there on a Wednesday night after closing, and roll up to Bowers for a Berger, then get the all-night No5 round the west end and back to Gosforth. Does the all nighter still run.? I think there was also a No 4 that went round the East end in the other direction. ?
    Once I got my scooter there was never a prob. I was a Mod you know !

22. GS 20,
    Have you ever heard the Northumbrian pipes. ? Quite melodic unlike the Sweaty version.

23. GS
    Whaaaat ! no Jocks in the GB football side, now we are getting to the center of things, it’s obviously the Taffs alone then, involved in the refusal to sing the National Anthem.
    Perhaps if we allowed them to pin a leek to their shirts and sing “Abide with me” in the dressing room they may be more co-operative.
    And give them a sheet with the words of the national anthem on it.
    In the case of any Jocks being chosen, would’nt advise any thistles pinned to their shirts,(bit uncomfortable) but a rousing chorus of Floor o’ Scotland by all in the dressing room aughtta do it.
    We cant let this lack of Patronizing, woops sorry!
    Patriotism become a trend among the Celts, hell they may demand their own fecking anthem and who knows where that could lead to.

24. Porciestreet @22: they had some in the bagpipe musuem. It is funny, but I was showing my then girlfriend around Newcastle and had never been to the castle before (or since). That’s when I discovered the wonders of the pipe. Oh, and the bagpipe museum.

25. It’s a bit early in the morning to be getting this ornery Chuck.

26. GS
    You really oughta get out a bit more son. Sounds like you led a bit of a sheltered existance there boy.
    Where are you stateside. ?

27. Chuck,
    I’m afraid I’m with you mate. Jocks were so pleased to accept the invitation to the Games then treat us like Sh!t .
    Just heard that Murray and his bro got knocked oot the pairs. Shame eh !

28. Porciestreet @26: Chicago, greatest city on earth if it wasn’t for the weather. Scratch that, London and Munich are just as good. And I would think cyprus will be nice for a codger like yourself – Sam and Dave, who they?

    I did see the last ever show of AC/DC at the mayfair before Bon Scott died though, it seems like a long time ago now.

29. Kath the Tea lady exclusively spills the beans to the Sunday Stun on Toon’s tea and coffee secrets but reveals that her life will only truly be fulfilled when she gives Ashley a nice cup of tea (she hasn’t served him yet, apparently).

    http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east-news/2012/07/29/toon-tea-lady-would-love-to-serve-mike-ashley-79310-31496857/

    I’m sure I’ve read this story before. Is it an annual tradition or do they just wheel it out on slow news days? Did they get the idea from Father Ted because she’s an Irish tea lady? Ah go on, go on, go on…

30. Worky, please don’t interupt on YOUR blog. There is some serious reminiscing going on about pies and sausage rolls here.

31. See Worky, this is why you should keep your blog going. Everybody has a connection to the Toon and a love for NUFC. Even getting off on the wrong foot cannot hide that.

    Your blog is so different to the others. Toonsy writes some great stuff but his site is populated by ingrates and Ed has a bunch of kids.

32. I haven’t read this until now for some reason (it’s from a few days ago)

    “WHEN Mike Ashley renamed St James’ Park after the sportswear company that had turned him into one of Britain’s richest men, the menacing warnings that emanated from a wounded Tyneside were stark.

    “Over a century of history had been tampered with in favour of the crudest form of commercialism but bubbling beneath the backlash, a curious thing happened. Sportsdirect.com recorded more traffic than at any point in the history of its online retail operation.”

    http://blog.sundaysun.co.uk/2012/07/mike-ashley-andy-carroll-and-f.html

    Does this make it a good thing for Newcastle United then, bearing in mind they’re getting f all out of it and have lost the name of their traditional home?

33. Yes, the richer Ashley gets the better it is for us. As I have said before, I don’t think he is stupid enough to not see now that what is good for Sports Direct is also good for NUFC. So, if it doesn’t come through to the NUFC bottom line he knows it comes through to the Sports Direct bottom line.

    Smart guy that Mike Ashley.

34. GS says:
    July 29, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    “Yes, the richer Ashley gets the better it is for us.”

    You mean like Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall, GS? Of course, they got considerably richer out of exploiting Newcastle United too. But of course, the better it was for them, the better it was for us :lol:

35. GS
    Ornery moi !
    Just browsing through the origins of the bagpipes, with some claiming Sumaria, or The Fertile Crescent, as their origin, spreading both east and west with the migratory Celts, the instrument in varying forms was known in India,ancient Greece, Rome and was thought to have been brought to the UK and Ireland by the Romans, though the Romans never actually invaded Ireland.
    Of course we are also aware of versions still played by those remnants of the once dominant racial group in western Europe the Celts, in the North west of Spain, the Austurias and Gallicia, plus their cousins in Brittany (many of whom left the UK and resettled there wishing to remain under Roman patronage and protection) during the Roman withdrawl from Britain.
    Of course the Northumberland versions along with the Uilleann pipes are operated via bellows, whereas the great or war pipes of the Scots highlands are as we know inflated via the mouth.
    Did they explain that to you in the bagpipe museum of old Newcastle, located in the upper reaches of the old castle’s remaining keep.
    There is also a number of arms and armour, with an original Claymore, that has a blade at least five feet long, how big were those Jocks in the day ?
    Couldda used some of them against the Senagalese the other night.

36. No, not them. They were users of NUFC and had their fortunes tied to NUFC. Ashley doesn’t but can benefit from the advancement of NUFC. What was that straw man argument that somebody was talking about the other week?

37. Chuck @35: What? That is almost the funniest thing I have ever read :)

38. Did anyone read the article, that stated it would be benificial for Ashley to spend heavily this year.
    Cant remember whether it concerned taxes or the approaching UEFA regulations, that have to do with a balance between profit and spending?
    But could it be he may be parking some of his ill gotten gains in the club.
    What do i mean?
    Well surely he has reached the conclusion that a successful club earns more than a mid table club.
    That and is more in the public eye, ergo a better vehicle for advertising and to be involved in European football reaches a much wider audience (for his main business Sports Direct)
    Sure he is still tight with a buck, but hopefully will, now he’s seen the light, begin to stock the side with a better quality player.
    As for the renaming the ground, it’s a done deal, nowt we can do.
    What does the future hold ? more of the same, but the majority of the fans dont give a shit as long as he produces a winning side and thats the bottom line.
    I’m pretty sure he believes he can revolutionize football management, by making a profit with NUFC as an adjunct to Sports direct, therefore profiting from both, that plus the satisfaction of acheving his goal, an ego trip you might say.

39. Tunyc:

    You are totally wrong! Don’t read anynore if you don’t want to get pissed off.

    The American health care system is unsustainable. It takes up about 20% of the economy at the moment and the costs increase at double digit percentages every year. It is simple maths that this will consume the productive capacity of the whole economy if it continues like this for about another 30 years.

    50% of all health care spending in the US is spent on those close to death. That is not sustainable. Either medicine and science advances to account for this or the system goes broke.

    I you have ever been to a hospital in the US you will know that the care is not 4 times as good as it is in New Zealand and yet the cost is 4 times as much.

    However, Doctors make 4 times as much and hospitals are situated in swanky downtown locations.

40. Well enough casting pearls already lunchtime.

41. So you agree with me Chuck @38. I am going out to buy a lottery ticket.

42. Sh@t Tunyc: I reread what you said and cannot figure it out, so, sorry if I took you the wrong way.

43. OK Tunyc: I read your post @45 again 6 times and still have no clue what you are talking about. I should stick to NUFC.

44. What I don’t get about the Ashley regime is their mendacity when they try to be benign and Llambias is always so loquacious, and sometimes even obsequious to Ashley. I think Ashley is a bit quixotic when you boil it all down.

    I don’t mean to be pollyanna or facile. But I think I have the perspicacity and prescience to see our season unfold.

    As Hitler said, Nihilism aint what it used to be.

    This may be sophistry, but my misanthropic tendancies are showing up here and I must admit to a special pleading at this point.

45. GS @ 44
    Sorry mate but what the F##k are you goin on aboot. ?

46. Not a lot Porciestreet :) When I was in school someone showed me an essay where a friend of theirs was describing a book review as having “perspicacity”. I always remembered that word and wanted to fit it into a sentence.

    I never found the right place to use “perspicacity” so I thought I would bury it on here with a bunch of other obscure words.

47. GS @ 44
    Did you by any chance used to introduce the acts at Balmbaras ? Your so full of sh!t it just has to be you. and here’s another spooky for ya. my bestest mate went to Chicago on buisines some years ago, and as a gift, brought me back the bears uniform shirt with perry on the back. The following season, the Bears won the Conference and went on to win the Superbowl. Iv’e been a Bears fan ever since. no time for the Cubs as I don’t care for Baseball.

48. Will the Fridge eh, classic.

49. Worky,
    Sent you a few words. check yr e-mails .P

50. GS
    What you need to do is sober up and get a life and take the dog for a walk, thats why he’s sitting staring at you.

    Tuny C
    50% of all old cars also are in the shop a lot and do we cherry pick our comparisons, New Fecking Zeland, is the only comparison you can come up with.
    Sure the health care system is a nightmare, perhaps it has something to do with rapacious Pharmecutical companies, doctors who expect to have two homes a boat, two or three cars, etc etc. who plead that mal-practice insurance is beggerizing them, the truth is it’s a small percentage of their income, almost equal to the cost of medical insurance, for the average family.
    Then there are the hospitals who insist on using every proceedure they can, the more proceedures, the more profit.
    Then we get to the Fecking insurance companies, who if eliminated in favor of a much smaller bureaucracy run on the lines of medicare.
    It would eliminate approx. 30% of the present cost.
    Who do you think funds the political parties and put pressure on them to prevent a government or even a part government organization from happening.
    Hell they are not about to have themselves go outta business, in order to have a health care system that works.
    The problem exists, simply because of the difference’s
    in regards to the approach to life.
    In the US it’s all about becoming wealthy, thats the carrott, the belief that if you apply yourself you can become if not a millionaire, certainly close to it.
    And yes it’s constantly brought to the publics attention when some poor immigrant becomes wealth, in order to re-inforce the idea.
    But we all know that everyone cant become rich, fact is the top ten percent are increasing their share of the wealth, while the rest for the most part are getting poorer.
    For those with jobs, it’s the best of times but for the unemployed it’s horrible, worse than the great depression, when everyone was in the same boat , so to speak.
    American healthcare (we have the worlds best healthcare for those that can afford it, that includes those who come frm outside the US)
    The Canadians have a good affordable system, that the US could copy, but the hospitals, AMA, pharmicutcal companies and insurance people, want to make obscene profits and pay the politicians to keep it that way it is.
    They also have an PR system, which it seems has convinced the American public that ” Socialised Medicine”
    (read communist medicine) is about paying for those tossers who refuse to work and pay for their medical problems.
    Same with Wealfare, there has never been a case other than during wartime, where full employment was there for all.
    So what do countries do with their unemployable populations, they sweep em under the mat by giving them a pittance, now with the end of welfare, they either become the criminal class or beg.

51. Porciestreet: I gave up on the Cubs as I can only support one team that has won nowt forever, and that is NUFC. I lived 300 yards from Wrigley Field, but I wish I had memories of living 300 yards from the bakery.

52. Chuck: my dog has been sick, really sick and I couldn’t take him out because of the heat. No offense because you didn’t know. He is much better now, but I am still worried.

    I sometimes write shite when I am sober.

53. Oh, and Chuck @50. Have an opinion, you can’t just sit on the fence :) :) :)

54. GS @52
    So obviously time for a few sherbets !

55. GS says:
    July 29, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    “No, not them. They were users of NUFC and had their fortunes tied to NUFC. Ashley doesn’t but can benefit from the advancement of NUFC. What was that straw man argument that somebody was talking about the other week?”

    Well so far, GS, Ashley and the other shareholders of Sports Direct have received many millions worth of free publicity from Newcastle United, which has undoubtedly been a factor in Sports Direct shares tripling in recent years and making Ashley and SDI over a billion pounds.

    The club was relegated and suffered a huge financial penalty as a result. It has lost the name of it’s traditional home, which is now smothered in cheap, tacky signs which even blot the landscape of Newcastle itself.

    It is more in debt than it was when Ashley took over the club in 2007 because the club, not Ashley himself, will have have to pay the debts Ashley inherited when he took over.

    The revenues of the club’s merchandising has suffered because Sports Direct has been ruthlessly undercutting the club’s own shop, if indeed it is still is the club’s own shop. It certainly looks from the site as if it has been comprehensively Sports Directified if you look at the two side by side.

    Even if the club suffers, it has been beneficial for Mike Ashley and SDI though because his 71% Sports Direct holding is certainly more important to him than his 100% of the much smaller NUFC.

    Now what have the benefits been so far from Ashley and Sports Direct? Not the benefits from people like Chris Hughton getting us out of the Championship, reshaping the scouting operation since Wise and the other Ashley and Llambias cronies left, not the benefits from Graham Carr and the abovementioned scouting operation, not the benefits from Alan Pardew and most of all, the players themselves for getting us into European competition, but from Mike Ashley and Sports Direct?

    I’m afraid I don’t understand your allusion to a “straw man argument” at all.

56. Porciestreet says:
    July 29, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    “Worky,
    Sent you a few words. check yr e-mails .P”

    Aye, I’m just going to have a good look at it now, Porciestreet. Cheers!

57. Sorry about the inscrutable comment. Basically we have a shitty private healthcare system run primarily for profit. (I’m mortified if I came off as denying/defending that.) Some as a matter of ideology or rationalization explain this away by saying public health is inferior, regardless of how untrue that is in light of actual facts. Since our corporate overlords profit from this understanding they do not discourage it. Since the same class of folks control mainstream media, they find subtle and not-so-subtle ways of engaging in public health-bashing.

    That’s the best explanation I can give for U.S. commentary on the NHS involving such nonsense as everyone dying in hospital corridors. From the perspective of a yank who doesn’t believe everything I see/hear on tv. In general, I found the NBC commentary on the opening ceremony and their editing of it to be vile.

    Now, back to football…

58. chuck says:
    July 29, 2012 at 5:46 pm

    “For those with jobs, it’s the best of times but for the unemployed it’s horrible, worse than the great depression, when everyone was in the same boat , so to speak.”

    Chuck, from everything that I’ve heard and seen, you seemed to make a very good assessment, but are you quite sure about the bit above? According to most assesments of both the US and the UK, both workers incomes and rights have been declining in real terms despite huge increases in productivity, with added profits all going upwards to the top end. The “best of times” for workers in real terms started to grind to a shuddering halt quite some time ago.

59. tunyc says:
    July 29, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    “That’s the best explanation I can give for U.S. commentary on the NHS involving such nonsense as everyone dying in hospital corridors.”

    I think I know the case these Republicans might be referring to now, though it is hardly recognisable the way it has been told over there. The most salient points were taken out and some untruths were put in too for dramatic effect.

    On the other hand, my niece, a small child at the time, was once left screaming in agony in an American hospital waiting room until my sister or brother in law (who was an American citizen) had the proof that they could pay for treatment.

60. I apologize for my ignorant compatriots, GS. As you well know, most of them have never left the country and have no first hand experience of the larger world around them. They have thoroughly bought into the concept of “American Exceptionalism” and assume that we have the best of everything. Those of us who have engaged the wider world know what a load of rubbish that is.

61. When I was very ill as a bairn I was treated by the NHS. I was put into the care (amongst others) of one of the world’s finest heart surgeons, one of the first in the UK (and the world) to perform a heart and lung transplant and also one of the founders of the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

    Since those days it has been degraded by the introduction of ideas from across the Atlantic, most notably the introduction of private companies and the profit motive, with some health secretaries subsequently taking up “advisorships” on the boards of the companies they have awarded huge government contracts to in the past. “Advisorship” is another word for corruption as thay are paid a fat annual salary for doing absolutely nothing.

    It’s somewhat ironic that odd incidents which have been exagerrated and held up for ridicule by the American right have been the result of that increasing Americanisation of the system, with private companies who have picked up contracts, frequently under corrupt circumstances, completely bollocksing things up. Something called “PFI” or “Private Finance Initiative” will almost certainly prove to be the biggest future catastrophe for our health service.

62. tunyc @57: thanks for clearing that up. I was a bit confused but I am fine now. Living in the US, I find it amazing that people believe some of the shit that is said on their behalf.

    The best example is the Tea Party where there are a bunch of old people lobbying to cut goverment services and their own pensions. They want to get rid of food stamps for Gods sake, the only safety net for the poor that this country has. And cut education and abolish the Environmental Protection Agency???

    Tripp, you don’t need to apologize to me. There are some great things about the USA and some great people here. Unfortunately, there has been a massive grab for the money and the least able to fend for themselves have been left behind.

63. Worky: you know I am with you for the most part about Ashley.

    My problem is that they have such a cheap and nasty logo. If they are going to plaster it everywhere, you would think they could pay somebody to get a better design. You know, like they did for the Olympics :) That worked out well.

64. Chuck @50: by the way, you are right about me having too much time on my hands. I had to walk away from my last job because I saw some things that were probably illegal. It is difficult to find the motivation to get back into the rat race but the money I have won’t last forever.

    Unless Worky bans me, you are stuck with my drunk or sober shite in the meantime :)

65. GS says:
    July 30, 2012 at 12:55 am

    “I had to walk away from my last job because I saw some things that were probably illegal.”

    Lots of companies do things which are probably illegal, the recent example over here of one of the world’s biggest banks, Barclays, manipulating the LIBOR rate which affects millions of people is just one notable example of many. I’m sure that there are many more over there, several of which have made the news.

    Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct stores used to constantly deceive their customers with totally fictitious closing down sales, and the 50% and 70% off tags on many of his products in Sports Direct have been shown to be applied in the far eastern sweatshops where they’re made. That’s all illegal too, supposedly.

66. It is not only health care that is suffering. I am watching Inspector Lewis at the moment and it has come to my attention that Oxford is the murder capitol of the world. The education system in Britain must be in tatters because between John Thaw and Kevin Whately they have witnessed hundreds of dead Dons.

67. Worky @65: where have you been? There are stores around the world who are always having “closing down” sales, it is the simplest sales tactic in the world and practiced in turkish bazaars as we speak (type).

    Every tat sports shop from Ibiza to Miami is always flogging their shite at “50% off”.

68. Worky: I was reading your link about Kathy the tea lady when I noticed this article at the Sunday Sun about a “shy stunner”.

    Talk about a slow news day between that and Kathy the tea lady.

    http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east-news/2012/07/29/miss-sunday-sun-hopeful-turning-her-life-around-79310-31497959/

69. I am watching a cooking show now and wondering when chefery bacame competitive. I understand it is a business and you have to work hard, but these Gordon Ramsey type shows are trying to turn it into a sport.

    The dinner lady at school never got all worked up about her mashed potatoes.

    Anyway, I support Hugh CravinsWorth-Smyth United in his battle against Marco-Pierre Gooseliverpate City. Let the poshest chef win!

70. I know a secret about Gordon Ramsey.

71. Not botox, or he cheats on his wife or had gay sex with his father-in-law? They’re all old news.

72. Or, he didn’t really play for Rangers?

73. GS says:
    July 30, 2012 at 4:15 am

    “Not botox, or he cheats on his wife or had gay sex with his father-in-law? They’re all old news.”

    No, no, no and no.

74. Worky, you can e-mail me. I get a bit silly season sometimes and I hope I don’t spoil your blog in doing it.

75. No, you don’t mean…he’s Catholic.

76. No.

    GS, I’ll send you an e.mail tomorrow along with everyone else I need to reply to, though not necessarily about that.

    I saw Vurnon Anita again in Ajax’s game with the Saints BTW. He still looks like a very good player. I still quite like this Adam Maher gadgie too though of the Dutch players we’ve been linked with.

77. Workey
    The best of times ?
    For the fortunate few, mostly in banking and financial services (same thing nowadays)yes! it is the best of times.
    Though not all.
    I have a Swiss friend who worked for a Swiss bank, great job, untill he found himself unemployed after working for the organization for twenty years.
    The following months were (for him) a nightmare of sending resume’s resulting in a few interviews.
    Point is his skill levels were off the scale, but unfortunately that was not what most would be employers
    were looking for, plus his age was a drawback.
    Most recruiters were looking for young Ivy League educated stars, starting at low salaries, with a lifetime of work ahead of them.
    Usually those with great grade averages and of course being the sons and daughters of friends, relatives or colleagues, never hurts.
    There are to-day, many highly qualified people who because of their age, find it nearly impossible to find employment, due to downsizing.
    The sad fact is many will never be employed in a position anywhere close, salary wise or close to the positions they formerly auccupied, having to settle for
    less on both accounts.
    A ruthless system, with no redundancy payments, with possibly only unemployment benefits (which run out after twenty six weeks) and a lump sum from a 401k (a private tax defered saving system)if in fact there is one and perhaps a pension (non portable) with all liable to taxation, both federal and state.
    Both the uk and to a greater extent, the Irish social systems are what can only be described as benevolent.
    You certainly dont want to find yourself on the skids in the USA, cause you get no sympathy or assistance.
    With most (those still having jobs) believing if you try hard enough you can always find a job.
    Not a country for old men!

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