Red-Robbo

She should go on Mastermind. Name: Mrs Ajax. Specialist subject: The Bleeding Obvious.

I think I may have mentioned before about this East Anglian fella who was renting a room in my local boozer. He was called Ten Pint Ted because he had the ability to drink 10 pints of strong lager and still get up for work at 6am the next morning. Then one day he tried 10 pints of "Thatcher's Red": He shit the bed and took two days off work.

Saved the FA paying his travelling expenses, as he obviously gets to games on the QPR coach along with his mates.

I think he's just a minor shareholder now, but the company only employs people to make profits, as it would when Steve was co-owner. Both he and I live off the surplus value created by others' labour. Which is fine. Nothing wrong with that. He put in the hard yards to build to that. I just don't credit entrepreneurs for "creating jobs". You employ the minimum people you think is necessary to run your business. The fact the employees pay 20% or 40% or 45% of their income in tax doesn't absolve you as an owner from paying yours. I'm not slagging Steve Lansdown off for choosing to leave England for tax purposes. If I left, keeping more of my money would be very low down the reasons I'd have for making such a move. But maybe that's why I'm not as successful.

I employ people, but let's be clear here, I employ them because they are necessary for my business to operate, not as some altruistic scheme to benefit the community. I pay them enough to retain their services and a bit more so they know I'm a fabulously nice guy and don't write nasty graffiti about me in the bogs. Lansdown deserves plaudits for co-creating a globally mega-successful business and retaining in interest in Bristol, his city of birth. I don't particularly give anyone credit for how many people they hire. If employing people means you are great, then the government are the most wonderfully benevolent people you could cite.

Made me think of....

On the other hand, there have been lots of terrific Swedish players plying their trade throughout Europe. Many of these will have started in domestic football, but rapidly outgrew it. Maybe the club were hoping we'd found a new Ibrahomovic and Ljungberg.

I think Getty actually used to like to sit down and physically count and recount his bank notes and other paper assets for fun in a Montgomery Burns style, so he might be an exception there!! The payphones thing is amazing though, isn't it? It reminds me of a time years ago when my home had flooded and we stayed overnight with a friend of my then-wife. This friend's husband was a successful executive and they lived in this huge apartment in a gated community near Barnes Bridge, which had a dedicated guest wing. We were there about 28 hours before we were able to move back to a bit of the house and on letting the hubby know we were about to depart back for our home and thanking him for his hospitality, he presented us with a bill for £3.87 which he said represented our share of total utility costs for that period of time. Just to **** him off, I wrote a cheque for it!

My interest in our Dec took an upswing after I read his autobiography Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink a couple of years ago. Although quite a bit of the book is about his father and EC's relationship with him, he comes across as a man who you'd like if you met. His philosophy on life, his love of all types of music, his humour and view-of-self are things you would look for in a friend.

Probably true in most cases, but you do get some individuals for whom avarice is a way of life. Like Paul Getty insisting his house guests use pay phones when he was the UK's wealthiest resident.

I always wonder why anyone wants to be a billionaire. You can live an eternal life of luxury and accomplish all you want to do without accumulating such a big pile of wealth that your ancestors could live on it for hundreds of years. During the lockdown, I remember reading a Tweet saying that if you earned $5,000 a day, every day since 1492 when Columbus landed in the Americas, you still wouldn't have a (US) billion dollars or have earned as much as Jeff Bezos earns in a week.

My dad was interviewed by him for a job at Oxford United which, thank ****, he decided not to take.

Not sure about that! When the new Avon sign went up outside Farrington Gurney, it took 24 hours before someone crossed out the Avon and painted in Somerset. The sign was ten resprayed by the council and altered by the public multiple times until someone used a JCB to knock it down. Our postman used to cross out Avon on letters he delivered and write-in SOMERSET.

As well as setting aside 15 minutes to find the information you're looking for.

The south shore of the Humber Estuary has very little in common with the rest of Lincolnshire. Grimsby used to be a county borough, like Bristol was, and in '74 both it and Scunthorpe (and Hull) formed the now defunct county of Humberside. The Imps are having a mixed season this term, but came within a play-off goal of joining us in the Championship last year. So not all is bleak in Lincolnshire football.

Already posted Silvio, but great use there of the Italian phrase "schifosa". You only have to be in Italy for a short time (or watch the Sopranos) to hear Italian's shouting at each other "che schifo!" - 'that's vile!"

@VT05763 is correct. There are always going to be some players that bond more closely with a particular gaffer and others who don't like his style. That's as true in football as any other industry where you are in charge of other people. I remember loathing my line manager at one particular employer, but some others thought he was the bees knees. At City, I think some of the summer departures might be in part down to players not buying into what NP wants to do. You could call it a personality clash (Nigel is clearly quite a forthright, plain-speaking guy) but it will probably be less dramatic than that: They were just unconvinced by his project and saw their future elsewhere. In some cases, the impetus to leave would come from Nigel and the club, rather than being voluntary, of course! What's important is the players here this season have faith in him and are responding to his coaching and advice. I see signs that they are. It was a long time coming, but we are starting to have a style, starting to develop intuition on the pitch, starting to grind out points when earlier in the season we weren't. Long way to go yet, mind, but as long as the direction is forward, then I'm happy with Pearson here. We might be two steps forward and one back, but at least we're moving in the right direction. IMO of course!

Generally speaking we defend corners and deep free kicks worse than during the Johnson years and Fam was a major part of that. I don't think Martin offers quite as much defensively, although, despite his rep for being as slow as a sloth on valium, he does actually break quite quickly when there is an opportunity to counter-attack and doesn't hinder such attacks as much as Diedhiou, who always seemed to need to stop and take two touches to bring the ball under control. At least we seem to have abandoned the crazy "everyone back in the box" tactic which meant we had no upfield outlet if the ball was cleared from corners and we just had to wait for it to come straight back at us. The set piece issue is something Pearson is going to have to look at, but, in fairness, the last 2 months we've been (generally) better there compared to the previous 2. We have a Baker-shaped hole in our back line though, which is something NP is doubtless keen to plug.

I think I've found a picture of our defensive coach getting ready to coach our set piece routines:

I don't actually think Max's kicking is any better than Dan's. It's just he will usually try to get the ball recycled and back in play quicker: A short kick or a decent throw to a player in space. When O'Leary tries a longer kick to a player on the touchline, it's just as likely to go out of play as when Bents does. The quick release to allow a rapid break out of defence is an aspect of the game when MOL is in goal that Bentley could learn from.

He's got some really good elements to his game. Can tackle well and lays some lovely weighted passes forward. It's just that when he ****s up, he really ****s up! Being a defender is an unforgiving trade.

If they play poorly, they lose their place. Every position. Including between the sticks. With a preventable goal on Saturday and at least one tonight, questions must be asked of Max. Nigel's decision, but it's more a question of current form than one being superior to the other. They are different type of keepers, that is clear, but at the end of the day, if you're in goal your main job is to keep the ball out. Whoever can do that best should get the nod. No higher consideration.

There's been many a night I've settled for an average bang...

Gimme a C! Gimme an O! Gimme a... no, on second thoughts, don't bother....

I never know whether it's because I'm growing old and deaf that I can't make out the words of new chants, or whether it's because it's genuinely hard for anyone to hear the singing section from where I'm sitting. Maybe both.