Chindie

Oh I agree it seems he's finally managed to turn everyone against him, and for anyone (like me) that didn't like Houllier from the word go and said we shouldn't hire him, thats a good thing as the pressure might help get shot of him. Sadly, I can't see that might becoming a will. I bloody hope it does though.

The fans have turned on him, I wouldn't rule it out. That he'll walk, or that we'll sack him? I'm convinced his pride will not let him walk away, he'll simply ignore the fans - I get the impression he doesn't have a great fondness for the crowd and I'm not sure he actually thinks he's doing all that bad of a job anyway. I don't think we'll sack him unless we do actually end up without a hope of saving ourselves. The club probably doesn't really give a shit about what the fans think, and I think the only way the fans voice would see him be sacked would be if nobody turned up games while he remained in place. I think the club are rather sold on Houllier and it will take a helluva poor performance to get shot of him. At best, if we stay up, he leaves in the summer imo.

Saying that, we won't be having a new manager any time soon. Houllier won't walk, his ego won't allow that, and we won't sack him before seasons end, if we do even then.

His record speaks for itself. Brilliant manager! I'd give anything for him to become our manager. His record is somewhat aided by managing teams that are dominant in their leagues. Here, I think he'd come in, piss everyone off sooner or later, and leave within a year. Besides which, I think he'd see us as beneath him, so wouldn't come. Koeman would be even worse. Not only would he piss everyone off, he'd probably even more successful than Houllier at relegating us, as he seems to have a knack for, eventually, making things worse at a club he manages. The Valencia debacle sums him up. If we were looking to spend money on a manager (or are we still following that line about not wanting to pinch someone elses manager? Snigger) I'd love us to get Coyle - he seems to have the balance of ideology and pragmatism that we would definitely need.

I'd go for Jol if we looked to properly replace him now. I wouldn't tocuh Van Gaal with a bargepole, everyone hates him in the end, because by most accounts he's a prick.

Curious post.

Not sure whether to vote in this. I still don't really approve of him, but he had a better month. Meh.

Even if accept that any footballer can be worth £50m or more, I don't think anyone could say, at this moment in time, Torres has a realistic value of £50m. His struggled for form for a year, he's picked up injuries for fun, and has looked lacklustre in the extreme for a good old while. Carroll for £35m is dumb, but I'm not sure Torres for £50m is far behind in the idiocy stakes.

The camera is another place it does fall down for me actually. A couple of shots taken in our living room (which is to be fair a fairly dark room) were not impressive at all. I'm not at all bothered by video but still images I am rather a lot, and it left a bit to be desired. But I'm told in better conditions it's quite impressive. I think I may just make the jump, the Nexus S seemed plenty fast enough for me (it's hard to describe but using it, it genuinely feels powerful, absolutely flies from program to program) and I can't see myself downloading any apps/etc that are going to test it's processor to the point I fancy dual core.

Brother picked up a Nexus S this weekend so got to have a good couple of hours serious play with it. Very impressed and sorely tempted to go for one myself. I'd like it to be less plasticy, and I'm not keen on some of the aesthetics of it (apps menu particularly) and also didn't much like the 'keyboard', but those asides I was entirely sold on it. Now weighing up if dual core is really going to make that much difference to me.

Blackburn sign Ruben Rochina from Barcelona.

He's done pretty well for himself in Spain iirc, but yes it's the ex United player.

Also, interestingly, apparently Suarez hasn't officially signed for Liverpool yet, despite agreeing all terms and so on. Perhaps he has the same agent as Houllier.

£35m for Andy Carroll? **** hell. I hope they've got a couple of mill on stand by for the numerous court appearances his time at Liverpool is going to involve. The bloke is like a magnet for trouble already.

Keane signed by West Ham, loan till seasons end.

Manchester United drawing the minnows, as ever.

Someone shit at home, excluding Crawley Town as having listened to their match yesterday I think I'd be inclined to murder most of their squad by the end of the match, incredibly dirty cynical side. And of course they're the non-league Man Citeh.

What an incredible game. Finished it in the last week, worked through the Shadow Broker since, will almost certainly pick up Overlord in the next day or so just to completely polish off the game. Well worth doing for anyone who hasn't tried the DLC. I'm actually quite tempted to 100% this, achievements and all... but I've heard Insanity difficulty is basically cruel.

Mass Effect 3 Skyrim if thats released this year. Portal 2 a bit Other than that I can think of nothing must own and pretty much everything else has a caveat on it (unconvinced by LA Noire for example).

A cover of the (brilliant) Postal Service song. Really, really, really good imo.

I don't think he'll go this window. Summer, different story. It's very much a sooner rather than later kinda thing I think though, long term Torres is not at Liverpool. His biggest problem could well the lack of clubs able to really buy him at the money Liverpool will want (i.e. far too much) I still reckon he'd like to go abroad rather that stay here if/when he does get a transfer

Yemen basically already is a 'failed' state (avoiding the talk of whatever one of those is...), the country's already a mess. It's hard for a country that undeveloped and facing that many problems not to be. It's a almost comical that a country that poor is surrounded by the Saudis to the north and Oman to the East. Jordan is indeed largely stable but has quietly been gaining civil unrest, which could grow quite easily, especially if this feeling spreads further through the region. With Jordan the worry isn't quite so much the kind of thing we've seen in Tunisia and Egypt, but rather that the poltical outlook of the nation will change and lend more power to groups that are less known quantities than those currently empowered.

Oh yes, them too. But in terms of the regional power balance, does any one country have more to lose from this than Israel, I wonder? (I mean countries in that area, not us or the US finding our time-honoured tributes being less forthcoming). In power balance terms, I doubt Israel will worry. In terms of power it dominates, it's effectively a Western country that finds itself in the middle of a bunch of countries that are developed but not quite on that level of might. What may worry it is that it'll chuck the dynamic of the region out of whack, as I said above the whole region balances on tension. Currently Egypt (and Jordan) get on rather well with Israel, a change to that may worry them. I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that Israel stands on top of a pyramid that holds itself together against the odds. This could change the odds, but Israel will still be on top barring a complete catastrophy... it just may not like the state of that position when the odds change. If Jordan goes pop that could raise some very interesting questions in the Holy Land. It's part of Eretz Yisrael, and a part that as they've become friendly they've given up on. I do wonder if Jordan collapses or finds itself heavily in turmoil, the Eretz Yisrael popular rhetoric changes...

Were this to spread to the Middle East proper (a bit of a 'Domino Effect' if you will) it could all get markedly interesting. The Middle East holds itself together, just, in a kind of unstable tension, making any change to the balance there have potentially widespread affect. Which could well happen as the Middle East pretty much across the board has a young population that is increasingly disenfranchised. I'm not sure we're quite at the level of the Islamic Revolution. But if it snowballs, while no individual change would match 1979, together it could dwarf it.

I daresay a fair amount of the Arab world's leaders are shitting themselves rather more.