Trevor Hockey's Beard

I would love fer to be here for this season as Hughton completely wasted his talents last season, but let''s look at this from a business point of view: Will keeping Fer make the difference between making at least the play-offs or not? Will his talents be suited to the Championship? If the answer to these is yes then he is worth more to us than any realistic transfer fee. If the answer is no then the chance to make at least £5 million on him seems too good to lose.

The EDP in my sitting room waiting to go into the woodburner has the headline " Hughton, not on my watch". So they didn''t have to buy him a watch as he already had one. Thinking about it, it''s a pity Hughton couldn''t read his watch as the usual time for making substitutions is after 60 minutes, a time which Hughton mistook for 86 minutes. Not that it mattered - did a single substitute score for us under Hughton?

Wow, didn''t realise that "Ming e" would fail the moderation test.

Apparently the Binner fan who had "Minge 69" put on his shirt is keeping quiet.

Seems to me that the heat is getting to us all a bit. Maybe we should all take the day off from posting, get a cold beer, sit in a darkened room and watch the sweat glisten on Kathleen Turner in "Body Heat". Did I say that out loud?

Is Yobo still available? he had a good World Cup and seemed better than Bassong last season, so might he do for cover in this division?

Oh no, not another thread turning into a discussion about Grant Holt?

Another Hughton trialist: Count Hitler Barndoor (from This Distance) - a club in Bulgaria I believe. A Dutch signing for the U15s: Tiers Beforebedtime Now managing a club in the Midlands: Asa Hole

Maybe that''s the plan. Feed him up to look like Grant''s big brother and then, come the end of the transfer window, put him on the 5:2 diet. Only The Messiah buys lardy strikers, and he has no budget with which to do so.

At least JC only spent 40 days and night in the wilderness. Thanks to CH we are all condemned to at least one season.

With so much money sloshing around in the Prem - and so few of those clubs thinking about balancing the books - it is looking increasingly important to hang on to as many of our stars as we can - well those Adams wants to keep anyway. If Adams wants to keep Hooper then we must try very hard to keep him, as I cannot see us getting anyone else in for less money.

I cannot make my mind up as to whether Germany were that good, or Brazil that bad. It seems to me that even a Hughton side would have struggled to not score against a side with no left back and reckless centre backs. On last nights form Brazil were one of the worst sides in the tournament. I have really enjoyed watching some of the lesser sides which were so well organised as to give the big fish a run for their money - Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica to name but a few..

I''m with you Jenkins. FIFA could not let Brasil lose the opening match, despite being matched by a well organised Croatian team, so the ref awarded the softest of penalties.

Just how much has The Messier spent on players during his first two years at Villain? there was a time when I thought he could walk on water - now it seems he can barely float.

Own goal apart, didn''t Yobo have some good games in the World Cup too?

sign him up quick - we are short of strikers, and especially short strikers,

Fair comments, and I was on the road for the Germany/France game. My point, if I have any, is that the World Cup sets the tone for the next four years. Robben is such a talented player, who still feels the need to throw himself down at the slightest touch. How can we teach youngsters not to do that when they have such an example. I feel that last night''s game was somehow too important to both teams, and I just found the violence depressing.

I have enjoyed many of the Group games in the World Cup, but after that the games became too important, and we have been treated to blatant cheating and increasingly violent games. I was shouting for Columbia until I saw the assault on Neymar. Now I just want it all to be over. FIFA are destroying football with their insatiable lust for money. I would like to see UEFA break away and the European teams tell FIFA where to shove it. How long will we tolerate the stench of their foetid corruption?

That sounds like an old faithful phone kept somewhere in the back of a draw, which you''ve forgotten about until all the clever new phones go wrong, and you dig it out and spend hours trying to get it going again and finding out whether it has any credit left on the card. I actually see him more as the faithful old sheepdog who is racked with pain and can barely walk. It would be cruel to put him in with some sheep, but you can''t quite bring yourself to shoot him.

Snoddy would make a rubbish window cleaner. There''d be lots of promise and plenty of froth, but no end result. When cleaning a Country House he''d always insist on doing the wrong wing. At the slightest touch - from a fly say - he''d throw himself to the ground, even if up a ladder. If told to just do the outsides he''d still keep coming in from the right. He''d keep wiping the sweat from his brow and smear his work. He''d look in the nursery windows and frighten the children. Unless he was a sole trader he''d slow the team down.

£4 million does seem a bit cheap, but I''d still take it. Watching England on Saturday I was reminded of Snoddy every time Glen Johnson got the ball -countless times England were breaking and the ball was passed out to Johnson who stopped and passed the ball backwards, killing the momentum and allowing the defenders to get back. Snoddy is a good player, but we may be a better team without him - if we don''t have him we can''t pick him.

re the match... did anyone else think it was a bit like watching Norwich this season - toothless up front and very shaky at the back? I thought that Glen Johnson did a very good impression of Snodgrass - a quick counter-attack sees the ball played out to Johnson on the wing who proceeds to not take the fullback on, turns back and plays a short pass, thereby slowing the attack down to a snail''s pace. I know that I slept through some of the game, but did we have anyone on either wing? I liked the way we played through the middle - quite continental in style and not very English - but also not really very effective either. One last thought - these last two games have really not been very friendly - I thought last night''s game was like a Liverpool Derby - anyone could have seen red at any minute. Was it a case of playing too poor an opposition?

I still play FIFA 2005 on a game cube just because it has Motty doing the commentary (with Ali McCoist - best line is "It''s bad news Ali, there''s no chips today"). I hate Andy Townsend''s commentating with a passion (only just short of my passionate hatred of C*nt Arthur Strong), but unfortunately in this wonderful digital age you no longer have the option afforded by the analogue system of watching the pictures with the radio commentary - every digital medium in my house is out of sync. with the others.

Of those 28 goals how many were scored by centre backs, and how many from corners? What did we do well last season? Not enough things.

I''m not sure that Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler or Robert Mugabe have any football experience between them. I would suggest Albert Camus as goalkeeping coach, Len Murray to guide the strikers and Winston Churchill to organise the defense. Just don''t make Ed Balls the Finance Director.