chipdawg

Yorkshire look like winning back to back titles as well. Even with half their team playing for England they are some side.. Hell of a knock by Bresnan again - that's at least his second ton of the season.

At the close of play yesterday I think Bresnans average was 69 and a bit. I have no idea what it will be after today. Similarly Bairstows average should be over 100 in Div 1 now. This is with Finch playing garbage and Root, Lyth and Ballance off with England. Oh, and we get Kane Williamson soon too for the run in. This is a very, very special Yorkshire team- runs and wickets come from all through the team and I fully expect us to win the championship again this year. Just need to translate into a little more consistency in the shorter forms

He bats way too low for england. His batting is effortless. Class act.

I think for the test team 6 is about right; you need to plan positively and hope there's 400 on the board when he comes in so he can play his natural game and give it some tap. In the shorter form I'd be thinking about him coming in at 3 or 4

I know he's formerly of your parish and he did some damage to mine last night, but those last couple of overs from Buttler last night... wow

Gayle seems to genuinely be a great lad: "I'll be celebrating with the lads and a few ciders tonight for sure". What a bloke!

Awful news about Kieswetter too, destructive player and great cricketer on his day. Such a shame that he's missing probably 10 years of his career because of something that could have happened to any player

Aren't Brighton meant to be looking at him? I n which case he clearly has the chance to play at a higher level and is unlikely to want to join us as a backup. As previously said if this rumour is true then I would suggest Cotts is working on a different formation but the local papers tend to pick up anyone who is linked to the championship atm and suggest we are interested..

Seems like quite expensive back up. You may be right on formations though; against better teams, Cotts may want the option of playing 3-4-3, with a front three of (for example) Murphy-Wilbs-Freeman

JET's replacement perhaps ?

Possibly, but JET was more often than not played as an out-and-out striker. He could be cover for Freeman, or maybe we're looking to have the option of 2 AttMid behind a target man? I think he's a decent player actually, just not sure where he fits in

Isn't Murphy a winger/attacking mid/no10 type player? Unless there's a change in shape or Freeman is off, I'd struggle to think where he might fit in

I don't support Blatter, but I'm beginning to feel sick of the British media coverage of this. We live in a country whose Government supports small countries with oppressive regimes like Qatar for instance. Qatar is a petrol station masquerading as a country, yet we back major sporting events there (e.g. the Grand Prix, cycling etc). We support Saudi Arabia - one of the most brutal dictatorships, whose population suffers , whilst the rich Saudi princes roam around London visiting brothels and drinking champagne. It's about getting cheap oil and seems to fit in very well with the promotion of Prince Ali for the new FIFA President.

Also, the US fraud inquiry and the timing of arrests is interesting. Presumably the inquiry has been going on for a long time. Is it coincidental that arrests have been made a few days before FIFA Presidential elections?

Finally, there have been comments that England should have more of a say than smaller countries in the running of FIFA. Well we can't have it both ways. We can't go around the world backing small countries, but on the other hand not give all countries equal votes. We need to get over the fact that we are just a small wet island. If UEFA pulls out of the World Cup it will be a disaster for world football. Maybe that is what the USA wants. Their main sports are not truly international and they envy the World Cup - it is the best tournament in the world. Be careful what you wish for.

You are of course right on the two-faced nature of opposing a World Cup in Qatar and, for example, supporting an F1 race in Bahrain, though the scale is obviously very different

On the timing, the US has a relatively straightforward and beneficial extradition treaty with the Swiss and all the relevant people were going to be in the same place at the same time. It also helps that the 'place' were also carrying out a parallel investigation into similar crimes. It's much easier to extradite 9 people from one country which is going to be cooperative than it is to extradite them from 9 different countries with 9 different police forces and 9 different extradition processes

It may not have immediate effect, but I truly believe just us and Germany would carry enough clout as sponsor's markets to pull the rug from FIFA.

I also believe even England alone probably would be able achieve that, although I acknowledge it would be a huge risk. Imagine this: the FA breaks away from FIFA. Mid November and its the last game in qualification for the World Cup (which we don't participate in). The FA has scheduled a full fixture list for that evening - including Man City v Man Utd and Chelsea v Arsenal - and doesn't require any of its member clubs to release any players for the FIFA competition which it no longer recognises.

Don't get me wrong I know that would take huge front and well it just isn't ever going to happen, but I truly believe the Premier League itself harnesses enough power as a global brand to bring FIFA crumbling. Therefore I don't think we should fear what would or would not be too much for FIFA's resistance - if the English FA were involved I think that would be too much for them to resist whatever the rest of the composition.

I'm not sure we could do that. If we refused to release players, FIFA would take legal action that would a) cost a fortune and b) probably involve an injunction against Premier League matches being played. Plus, there may be contractual stipulations and it ignores the fact that many players do actually want to play for their country

The only ways UEFA can bring down FIFA will be through getting sponsors to withdraw support or through a viable alternate competition to the World Cup. If the major European nations could convince Argentina, Brazil, The US, Australia and perhaps Japan or S. Korea to withdraw from the WC and play an invitational comp in Europe, it would bring the whole house of cards crashing down in a financial sense. England leaving FIFA would be an annoyance and would probably cost them a bit of sponsorship money, but not enough to bring down Blatter

The FBI only have jurisdiction in the US, presumably they've obtained documentation from US-based media organisations, etc. that implicate those officials. I'd be amazed if any of that paper work directly implicates Blatter. However, I'd be equally amazed if none of those arrested have nothing to link Blatter to any corruption or none of them are prepared to testify against him for a bargain. This is the start of the process against FIFA and it's officials, not the end

Fair enough. IF they succeed with investigation and successfully try the charged party, then I suppose there is scope to bring significant pressure to bear on Blatter, purely on grounds that he was supposed to be overseeing an organisation where this stuff was going on. Getting a resignation that way, would all smack a bit of Al Capone being found guilty on charges of Tax Evasion though!

However, if it does go to court it will take years to resolve, more than enough for Blatter to award himself at least one more presidential term!

It's fair to say, Blatter's never lacked self-confidence, so I would not be surprised that if somehow they did get to him, he'd play it out as brazenly as every other challenge he's faced.

Oh yeah, if this is all proven then it will make Blatter's position very difficult, but he's been in 'difficult' positions before and come out smelling of roses. The best hope is that one of those arrested offers up bigger fish in a plea bargain. The Yanks LOVE a high profile bust and bringing down the president of the worlds wealthiest and most powerful sports organisation would be right up their street. But I don't think Blatter is the prime motivation as things stand

It's not Warner who's been arrested, it's his successor Jeffrey Webb- along with others- who IS a Blatter ally as far as I know?

I don't think this has anything to do with Sep trying to strengthen anything, it's being driven by authorities in the USA. The Americans have no investment in Blatter so I wouldn't be surprised if they go after Blatter given the chance, but as Webb is chief of CONCACAF, I imagine it's got more to do with bribery and money movement on their own continent rather than globally

On the bus on the way to Chesterfield, looking forward to the game but expecting the home team to win. However, I don't really care, I'm mainly going to applaud the 2015 LEAGUE 1 CHAMPIONS!

3-1 to Chesterfield I reckon

There's a feature on Lee Johnson on Football Focus today apparently, if anyone is interested?

Just to pick you up on the comment regarding Dickie Bird. He's a season ticket holder at Oakwell, a regular attendee and true Barnsley legend (he has a statue in his honour in the town). Michael Parkinson is a tit and yes, that was his only appearance at Oakwell.

He gets his season ticket free though from what I understand

Barnsley and ITS ENVIRONS i thought covered that my friend.

I have added a further few words in my OP to cover that so I hope the wrath of god is no longer a boiling anger

THAT'S WHAT I MEAN! If you went to 'Wakey' and claimed it was an 'environ' of Barnsley, tha'd get a clout rand t'eer-oyles

I have to stop you in your tracks there Havana, you and Sir Richie wrong I'm afraid. Lord Geoff of Boycott was from Fitzwilliam, which is very much in the Wakefield/Pontefract environs. A mistake like that could get you in real trouble up in God's Own County.

While there are many kernels of truth in the cliches about Barnsley, it's actually a place that has a lot going for it. I have a lot of affection for the place so I'm hoping they win the play offs and we play them again next season

One of my favourite things about t'Tarn is the dialect; coal is pronounced 'coy-el', boots are 'boo-its-is', down is 'darn'. Love it.

Have a feeling we might slip up today though, I'm afraid I'm going for 1-2 t'Tarn flower. Thas know wat ah meyn cock?

Not sure we even had to get out of third gear to win that, we looked a division above them. Hope everyone had a good day out. Made the decision not to go on purely financial grounds, right now I'm a bit annoyed I didn't whack it on the credit card!!!

SC isn't one for sentiment and needs both Wilbraham and Agard fully match fit, that is so important for us.

 thats a fair point

 

SC just said on RB that he wants Wilbs and Agard to come up to scratch and it's possible depending on the position that Matt will come on at some time.

That's also a fair point. I just think Smith would probably be pumped for the game and it would get the crowd going

I'm a bit surprised Smith isn't starting. Wilbs is pretty much guaranteed to start the next game and while he did pretty well on Tuesday, Smith has probably earned a start in his final game over the 3 months he's been here

Alli has had to go off injured for Dongs

Think this Vine says it all about that Ayling handball......referee needs re-assessing as a Select group official to be honest..

https://vine.co/v/OUmMpgvFleD

Can't really argue that it shouldn't have been a penalty, though from all the chat (I wasn't there) about it on here and sky sports, I was expecting it to be a lot more blatant. I can understand how an official would miss it, not that it doesn't make it less of a bad refereeing mistake

They won't threaten automatic with that clown in charge. A very boring clown at that as well

Got his football management skills from his mum

If they're going to get to the playoffs.......

They're not showing any signs of it, 0-2 at Gillingham today and just 39 points with a +2 GD.

I expected a lot more from them.

I didn't, they've got Nigel Clough in charge

Great point, onwards and upwards. We need to keep the momentum going, play offs would be a disaster now having been top two for pretty much the whole season

Jonny Philips on Sky Sports just said "it's Bristol City playing all of the football at the minute"

No centre half on the bench, but great options up front and in midfield. Cotts is obviously setting us up to score goals and win!

COYR!!!