pandarilla

I miss ice-cream vans.

I know its been said many times but I can't recommend the 30 for 30 ESPN films enough... My favourite might just be June 17, 1994 - about the media reaction to the OJ Simpson manhunt, and how that appears to have been a turning point in US Sports/broadcasting/celebrity culture. V cool. Also Michael Moore deserves more menchies on this thread. That is all.

Its the sheer giantness of the man I love. What a cuddler he must be...

Thanks for the kind words folks - very much appreciated, and some excellent advice to boot. I'm just walking about grinning. The head-wetting session is already in the pipeline, beer and sausage rolls the order of the day.

Just brought home our first from the hospital - a wee girl not yet three days old. Quick question: What do we do with her?

Clint Dempsey Michel Roux

Again, we're debating in entirely the wrong thread so this is my last point. I never realised I was so optimistic about the game. You make some very sound points but it all hangs on the definition of cheating - and semantics can get so boring. For me, diving and play-acting have been slowly ruining the game for many years - and Suarez is up there with best/worst of them.

Seriously? That's a fairly pessimistic view. Don't get me wrong all sorts of 'cheating' goes on but every player? on th planet? harsh.

Wildly inaccurate statement. I also disagree about the media point. I think people are far angrier about diving than the media seem to be.

Diving destroys the integrity in football - the idea that it is a sport - with sportmanship at its heart. Hard tackling has all but been removed from the game if you look back to pre-1990s football (there are plenty of individual exceptions obviously but the point still stands). Diving has only got worse - and the authorities aren't interested in the one thing that would make a significant impact - retrospective bans for diving. I love the game - but all too often the actions of those who play it embarrass me (especially diving and play-acting) I've just realised I'm getting away from the topic of the thread but for me Luis Suarez epitomises the modern game - although he is by no means the only player happy to 'cheat' to win - I have absolutely no sympathy that he gets all the attention.

When you put it in those terms you're right, he had no other option. I guess my problem is that he didn't deal with the incident at the time - obviously because Suarez is so vital to the team - but still... I just really despise diving, its been slowly ruining the game for many years, and very little is done to stamp it out. So frustrating.

I can't really understand Rodger's reaction to this. Acting like its some massive deal that he admitted to diving. Did Rodgers not see the incident? Surely at that point Suarez was bringing the club into disrepute? The whole situation makes him look a bit feeble imo