supergrass

Having a father who was quite into that genre of film, my favourite Arnie films are the ones I watched when I was growing up. Conan the Barbarian remains a favourite to this line, Arnie's delivery of dialogue never getting old, and it had James Earl Jones as a giant man-snake. Twins is another, I used to watch that all the time as a kid, the notion of Arnie and Danny de Vito being siblings (let along twins) never failing to excite. I watched that again over Xmas when it was on TV. Then of course the Terminator films which you couldn't miss at that point.

Nothing can surpass those two goals of his. But that's a very close second.

Went to the Emirates tonight, there is a lot to be done with Newcastle. I'm sure they were a little dejected from the cup defeat on the weekend, but they didn't pose any threats going forward and were, as we've come to expect, worse at the back. Not many make Senderos look steady, but as I watched Cacapa I was suddenly grateful that we've got Philippe. Sat right next to the Newcastle fans too. Perhaps it was just me, or how they came across tonight, but I've never seen an angrier group of people. Walking stereotypes, they were - great fun to watch.

Wenger has come out now and denied all interest in Woodgate on the club website. Looks like we're back to nobody coming in this January.

There aren't many Premier League teams left and we draw away to Man United. Ah well, will make for another good game if nothing else and takes one of the big four out of the equation. I'd say there's a decent chance for a smaller team to make it to the final this year.

I'd be happy enough with that. Getting a defender who's good, yet willing to play second fiddle to Toure and Gallas isn't easy, condering Woodgate only plays about one in five games I suppose it takes care of that issue. We've got enough money to spend with sales of players and our recent good finances, worth taking a shot.

I have booked The Cribs and Lightspeed Champion for this year thus far. I am being taken to see Air Traffic tomorrow night, not my choice but it'll do for a midweek night out. Reading Festival will be booked unless I'm off travelling at that point. With a lot of favoured bands scheduled to release albums this year I imagine there will be plenty lined up in the coming months.

Arsene Wenger disagrees.

I think the winner could come out of Group B. Given the inclusion of Toure and Eboue, I will be hoping for an Ivory Coast victory - although at the same time if they failed to get out of the group and had to come home early I wouldn't complain. Highlights are on the BBC every night at 7pm I believe (might be on the BBCi/red button thingy), should be decent enough.

Mark McGhee, he's doing well in Scotland currently, managing up there now would also give him the edge and a better knowledge of the current crop of players (those in Scotland anyway, which is a decent chunk).

Didn't the kids break out of the safe zone and go to an area that hadn't been searched and approved yet?

Not what he was, but the still the kind of player I'd imagine a Derby or Sunderland could use, particularly Derby. I think he'll do ok there. Again, I'll assume he's fine with Championship football next year, good move to prepare them for the return.

Moving back to the rage virus (though not back to THAT discussion), it's been quite a while since I saw Days, but is the virus explained in any detail? I may have not been paying full attention during the lab seen where the virus is unleashed, however the general premise was: there is a virus, it is rage, the monkeys have it, now we have it. Was ever anymore detail given as to where it came from or how/why these monkeys in the lab were infected with it? I can remember watching the initial lab seen (and while clearly the content didn't sink in), I recall thinking that the film looked quite low budget and not something I particularly wanted to be watching. Then you get the isolated London scenes and the rest of the film in general and all is good.

If Jewell gets the people he's looking for and they can perform well enough (question marks remain over the likes of Ghaly, Robert and this new South American) - he'll have a good chance of coming back up next year.

Or just "Shit".

If their players haven't returned from Africa by then that's exactly what they will be.

Before Roy Hodgson I would've tipped you to go out, however if he can do a bit of work with the team and bring some decent people in I think you'll be ok.

Surely that's what Fulham thought about the Bristol Rovers game? Home to Stoke or Newcastle will do, always nice to be at home and I suspect the next round will see the continued mix of first and second team players. The reserves did the job at home to Newcastle in the Carling Cup, so there's cause to be confident whatever the outcome of their tie with Stoke.

It's the motivation. How would you feel having to get out of bed on a cold boxing day morning for a crappy 100 grand a week?

Exactly, everytime they say we should have a winter break, not one attempts to solve the problem of how this would impact the summer. Especially when it comes to a European Championships or World Cup, then players moan that the summer break is not enough. The Christmas games are great, maybe drop one out and play just two if you have to, but ultimately it doesn't make that much of a difference. How hard it must be to perform for 90 minutes three times in a week.

Virtually all of my music listening is on the mp3 player. I travel a lot and can't do it without some music to entertain me. However, when I get a new song I actually want something I can physically hold, not to pay 99p for a file on my computer (and given the nature of my shitty pc it could crash and burn at any point - losing me files). Albums I get on CD and transfer to mp3 player, any singles that I like I get on vinyl. As has been mentioned I much prefer my vinyl singles collection to my cd album collection - there's just something so fantastic about them.

I think I started on the Now That's What I Call Music... series, around the 35 mark I think. Either that or East 17, I got to meet them a fair bit due to some loose family ties, it was fantastic. The most recent CD purchase was Think Before You Speak by Good Shoes, although I'm picking up The Blinding LP by Babyshambles on the way home as I want it for my mp3 player and only have a vinyl.

When he took the job he was keen to talk about the possibility of going down and building for next year - I guess that's a given now and anything he does will be with a view to winning the Championship.

I'd imagine he'll probably get a bit more of a run in the cup games coming up if he can get fit in time, with Burnley and Tottenham coming up it's the ideal chance to get him match fit and get that little bit of experience into what will otherwise probably be a young team on both occasions. Can't say he's being missed too much right now, which is not to say his return won't be more than welcome.