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FormerScouser

Listed below are comments made by FormerScouser between Thursday, 9th October 2008 and Friday, 9th October 2009.

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Barnes gamble was doomed from the start 2:36pm on 09 Oct 2009 Truly the responsibility does lie with the chairman. As the club has been for sale for a while now and he really wants to take about £5m out so that he can retire, his forward planning seems a bit off. Would not a club pressing at the top of the table with a competent manager and a seasoned group of pros be a better bet for sale? If so why sack Moore and let a number of the first team contracts expire so that the core of last years team left in the summer.

As it is many managers would have struggled this year but few would have made the mistakes that Barnes did in such a short time. During pre season and August transfer window we kept seeing more midfielders and forwards being bought but no defenders. Tranmere already had on their books a pair of useful young forwards and a couple of emerging talent in midfield. The requirement was always for additional defenders but they were not bought or it appears even looked for. Currently the worst goals against record is a result of having availabe for the back 4 only3 teenagers and 2 over 30 and no cover. The goalkeepers are 21 and 17 (athough the youngster looks to be a useful shot stopper.

Regardless of who ever turns up as manager they must immediately go out and find at least a right back and a center half who know this division and are in their mid 20's.

As for J Barnes future career, stick to the TV and radio please. This does look rather like a case of his not being able to relate to / coach players with less skill than his own.
Barry gets England talking 4:45pm on 03 Jun 2009 Lets look at this from an England point of view - seeing as it's on an international blog.
At City Barry will play about 10 to 15 games fewer next season compared to at Villa due to no Europa league. Will Barry be the only one of the probable regular England midfield not playing in Europe next season ?
Is this not a good thing - less knackered when the world cup comes around. Personaly I think so. I hope City buy a few more England regulars and rest them on thursday nights next season.
Convincing the rebels 12:55pm on 24 Feb 2009 Speaking as one whose post office pension is due to start in 2015 I have a few points.

As far as i am aware the Post Office Pension Scheme is not largely tied to stock markets , however a sizeable proportion of the value is tied up in UK and overseas commercial property. Shopping centres and industrial estates and the like and their value is currently not much stronger than the housing market.

The main reasons why there is a short fall are two fold. First when the stock market was high in the 80's and the mid 90's the fund was theoretically overvalued and post office management took the opportunity to stop all cash payments in - which boosted their profit figures - which went straight to the government. If they had continued with the many milllions a year as they should have paid there would be a much lower shortfall now. Secondly as has been mentioned previously the tax regime changed by mr Brown in 1997 did a lot to reduce all pension funds and the post offices was no exception.

And for those asking yes it is a final salary scheme but based on 1/80ths so you have to work for 40 years to get a max pension of half your final salary. So for most workers who are ordinary postmen / postwomen this would mean 40 years of long hours on pretty low pay. I think you will find that civil servants are on 1/60ths and so have to work a shorter period to get max pension and most get better paid too.

Not all final salary schemes are alike!
The perils of Football League management 09:48am on 02 Jan 2009 Having supported tranmere since the 60's I can fully support Ronnie Moores view that success doesn't always mean promotion.

Historically Tranmere have successfully operated in the middle upper reaches of the 3rd tier, with lapses into the 4th tier. I can remember standing with only 1500 fellow die hards for some games and taking less than one bus load to away fixtures. They and many others seem to do best financially when pressing for, but not achieveing, promotion as they can then generate gates of 7000 or so. When in the bottom reacheds of the championship a few years ago they were getting only 5000 gates. It must be preferable from a ££'s point of view to operate on league one wages and 7000 gates than championship wages and 5000 gates.
Connections and patronage 1:54pm on 10 Dec 2008 I believe that the practice of Governors appointing senators or congressmen to fill vacancies is a product of the size of the country in 1776.
At that time with no communication faster than a horse, organising ad hoc elections would be costly and time consuming, mind you it still is. Also when the educated, literate people suitable to stand would be few and far between, and most were known to governors and current legislators, the appointment would likely be a matter of a quick local consultation.
I have a question - do senators still refer likely local boys/girls to west point and annapolis ? Should this tradition also stop ?

As for rights here in the UK, Niall-g is quite correct. Without a bill of rights we can do anything we want so long as there is not a specific law against it. This fact greatly concerned my wife (who hails from a controlled society) recently when we moved house and didn't have to inform the police where we lived! Also when she took citizenship she worried about how to spell her name or whether to include patronymics and was quite confused when told that her name would in future be what ever she decided to have put on her naturalization certificate.
Map of the week: Booze, cost and consumption 4:27pm on 10 Nov 2008 Do you have any data on the difference between beer drinking and wine drinking?

It could be argued that binge drinking is a part of the Northern European beer culture of Germany, Holland Scandinavia and British Isles.

Even though drink is expensive and harder to get hold of in Scandinavia the population will drink to excess when the opportunity presents as binge drinking "Northerners"

It is possibly much harder to binge drink in the wine culture of Southern Europe ie Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal.
Defending The Delapidator 1:08pm on 04 Nov 2008 If any premier league team needs practice against long throws may I suggest hiring Dave Challinor as a consultant.

This lower league journeyman still apparently holds the world record for long throws, and used them to good effect to annoy Big Sam when the Super Whites played Bolton.

Oh and he is English and available !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Challinor
Classic bunkum from the blazers 10:03am on 03 Nov 2008 The point about a naturalised british passport being available to play for any home nation is well illustrated by that well known Welsh player Pat Van den Hauwe.

If Almeunia or Nacho Novo or anybody else has a british passport and had not previously played elsewhere they would probably be legally entitled to play for any team that would have them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Van_Den_Hauwe
Harry in a hurry 3:09pm on 27 Oct 2008 For Redknapp the question is why Spurs and not Newcastle.

Easy answer is he lives in Dorset in a very posh gaff in what is said to be the most expensive village in the country. He can get to Spurs in a couple of hours up the M3 and
I don't think his missus fancied a move to the frozen, or is that flooded, north.

I know my "better half" wasn't impressed with talk of going up north. Arguments about cost of houses, cost of living, ease of access to Prenton Park etc didn't cut much ice.
Give 'em hell, Michel! 2:44pm on 09 Oct 2008 Sorry "swerdna" but I don't think Manchester fans will support Tranmere or Wigan. They are too far from London!

Although Tranmere could do with a few Scousers who actually live nearby to stay on their side of the water instead of taking the "Ferry Cross the Mersey " to Goodison or Anfield at about 3 times the cost.

Perhaps in these credit crunched times attendance at smaller local grounds will improve as Premier prices get ever further beyond regular working folks ability to pay to cover the silly salaries of these nice young african boys.

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