Scott McFly

Saw this today. Brilliant film. Don't go to see it expecting a comedy, because it isn't. But it has a great story (that does drag towards the end, admittedly) that really has a lot of serious issues that it addresses. Loneliness, contentment, friendship, mortality, relationships, celebrity, personas and lots of other nuances that will probably need a few viewings to appreciate. Great, great performance from Adam Sandler (and I really am not a fan of his previous work to say the least), but he absolutely nailed this character. Yes there are some jokes in there that are genuinely funny, but most of it seems to be just there to demonstrate that these people are comedians. But that's irrelevant, the film gives a very good insight into what the life of a comedian could be like and that it is very real stuff behind the stage persona and person that they are in public. Definitely recommended if you haven't seen it already.

Likewise. Would've liked to have fitted Carrick in too, but I need something up front since I'm loaded up on defenders. Only two complete squads so far by the looks of things.

Yep you are, but you have to carry on building your squad until you get 23 as far as I know. I presume there'll be a cutoff date or something.

Yes, I'm waiting to see if I get Benni McCarthy. But you're right, I'll put a provisional team out just now and can edit it later if I get him. Most surreal moment of this game so far - getting into a bidding war over Bobby Zamora of all people, who ended up going for £41m. I'm still quite happy with my team though, although I'm severely lacking in the goalkeeper stakes and attacking midfield is a bit weak too.

Since I don't want to touch the other two with a ten foot pole: Bet 1 - 20 on Blackburn to win. Bet 4 - 5 on that. Doubler: Sunderland 2-0 Hull

I'm sure this was in an old Codemasters football game too (This Is Football or something else maybe?) whereby your team just got progressively worse and worse for no reason regardless of what you did.

At no stage did England lead in that game. We didn't lose to Macedonia either. Good point though. I apologise, upon checking I think I'm getting confused with England fighting back from 2-0 down to be drawing and therefore qualifying for the tournament only to throw it away. And it was a draw at home with Macedonia in 2002, not a loss, so close again there. Either way, they seem to be going great now so I wouldn't expect the same hiccups for a while. And Scotland have given it a good shot (and should've scored) but in the end nobody can expect us to beat the Netherlands when we can't even beat Norway at home and lose to Macedonia away. It was all hope and clutching at straws. Heck, Netherlands are one of the best teams in the world right now after all. So the upshot is we can only hope George Burley gets the boot and Gordon Strachan actually wants the damn job. Got a feeling he wouldn't touch it though.

Ugh, I wish they'd shut up too. But you know what it's like with the media, they just have to clutch at what they can. To be honest, I've not heard one Scotland fan bring up that game for exactly the reasons you mentioned - the teams are completely different. Not to mention the second leg. I mean, we'd love to win and be in with a shout but we know we've shot ourselves in the foot with our bad results previously (or rather - George Burley has). Honestly I've just had enough of his shitty tactical decisions and team selection. At least if we don't win it should be the end of him. But I'd at least partially eat my words if we manage to beat the Dutch and get to the World Cup via the playoffs. Darren Fletcher brought it up too in a press conference with Burley (it's on BBC website). He first says he and some other guy are the only ones still active in the Scottish team from the 2003 team, but then he starts analyzing the game, even going as far as saying they did decent in Amsterdam too and had McFadden's denied goal counted it would have been 2-1 and they would have had a chance.....it's f'n six years ago Darren, let it go! I also like how Frank de Boer, Gio and Loovens have been asked what they think of McFadden not being able to play and they all say something like; yeah, he's a good player. But to be honest if McFadden was such an amazing player he would be playing for a top club and he's not, the Dutch team doesn't give a shite. McFadden is a good player by Scotland standards and he is playing in the Premier League which is something. He's not world class by any stretch, but he's one of the most creative and skilful players we have and it is a big loss to not have him. Whether that would affect us probably being completely trampled is another thing. Every nation tends to remember the good results and forget the bad. "Hey, remember when we beat Holland 1-0? And France? Both home and away!" But what never gets mentioned are our losses to countries like Georgia, Macedonia and Norway. Same with England beating Germany during a successful period but yet losing to Macedonia too and even the defeat by Croatia that England had the lead in twice IIRC that led to them not making Euro 2008 tends to get brushed aside as "oh, Steve McClaren was manager then.". But yet it was more recent than said Germany game. Every country does it and I wish they didn't because it makes us look like jackasses for mentioning it when it's totally not the same scenario this time around. Anyway, I'm predicting a rampant Netherlands victory after reading about the Scotland team with Kenny Miller UP FUCKING FRONT BY HIMSELF IN A GAME WE HAVE TO WIN. I can only hope Burley bangs his head before kick off and changes things because a 5 man midfield with a bit of width is going to mean jack shit.

In which case, Ellis has 13 leading bids in for 11 spots. Bentley, Onuoha, Koumas, Wilshere, Pienaar, Riera, Ebanks-Blake, Thomas, Ridgewell, Emerton, Diouf, Gardener, McCartney. Although he's just been outbid on the last one. EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not tryna snitch on the guy or anything, just making sure we're all on a level playing field since he may not know you're not supposed to do that.

I take it if you're outbid on one player then that frees up one of your potential slots again and you can choose to bid on someone different?

Ugh, I wish they'd shut up too. But you know what it's like with the media, they just have to clutch at what they can. To be honest, I've not heard one Scotland fan bring up that game for exactly the reasons you mentioned - the teams are completely different. Not to mention the second leg. I mean, we'd love to win and be in with a shout but we know we've shot ourselves in the foot with our bad results previously (or rather - George Burley has). Honestly I've just had enough of his shitty tactical decisions and team selection. At least if we don't win it should be the end of him. But I'd at least partially eat my words if we manage to beat the Dutch and get to the World Cup via the playoffs.

lol, talk about stuck in a bidding war! 45m and I can't even get Paul freakin' Robinson, what's the world coming to.

Cool, will do them first when my attribute points build up again.

Updated my guy, was gonna just spend it all on tackling and marking but I gave some to playmaking stuff too so he doesn't just give the ball away.

It wasn't a dive. It was just a retarded decision from the referee. Forget just sorting out the divers, sort out these fucking appalling officials. Decent game. I'd still like to see Defoe/Rooney being paired together more, because I think there's great potential there. SWP starting continues to annoy me though. It wasn't so much an obvious dive as it was just trying to get the penalty when he knew he wasn't getting to the ball. If anything Rooney had a fistful of the other guy's shirt. It's hard to believe that Wayne Rooney would be muscled to the ground by a lanky Slovenian defender, so what the ref gave that for I've no idea.

Got a fair few players that I wanted there - Gallas, Barry, Carrick, Bent. Only goalkeeper I got was Myhill though. >_< Shit, Pesci got Kuyt for £15m?! Bargain there. EDIT: And I spend £41m on Darren Bent but nobody bids more than £30m for NICOLAS ANELKA? EDIT 2: Just for kicks, top 5 most expensive players so far: Fabregas - £102m - Hackerjack Lampard - £102m - Hackerjack Torres - £100m - Bryn Davies Arshavin - £92m - Frank Grimes Rooney - £85m - Jagger

In the post match interview he thought it was due to lack of fair play with something to do with the corner, but it turns out it's more probably for pushing someone in the scuffle that followed the Brown incident that the linesman spotted and ran over to separate. They only brought that up in the post-match highlights with the pundits, probably because it hadn't been spotted before then.

And are you kidding me with that penalty?

I think all Scots are pretty aware we're not gonna win the World Cup. We'll be lucky if we get there at all. Unlike England who actually do think they're gonna win it every time around, only for them to cock it up right on cue every 4 years.

God were we bad in the first half though. Thankfully got better in the second half once we'd gotten used to the 4-4-2 system we should've been playing from the start! I just cannot understand why Burley persists with this "Kenny Miller up front and two wingers" shit. It just never fucking works, he gets left up there by himself and he can do fuck all. But yeah, even with that win I just can't see us beating Holland on Wednesday. I hope it does and I'll be cheering all the way, but I'm not holding my breath. Especially without McFadden. And that interviewer's a mong - "was that the greatest goal you've scored in your career?". Well, he did score a fucking SCREAMER against France in Paris, but obviously dribbling past two Macedonian defenders and rounding the keeper when they're throwing everything at us is just as special. And what the fuck happened just before half time? Couldn't we have just stuck it out for a throw next to the drop ball instead of Scott Brown being a smarmy bastard about everything? Because you got James McFadden booked, well done.

Or just to fuck with the scores how about "1-0"?

Team name. Em... Real So's-Yer-Dad. Although if it won't have our names next to it I'll maybe change it to something with McFly in it.

Ugh, can't we just give him Porsmouth's squad?

That's a £7.5m fine for you. And no Wayne Rooney in goal either.

God almighty, Ellis.