Gladstone

Fuck you with your own opinions.

Well, there you go. I didn't realise he'd been on MOTD. He's more literate than your average (British) pundit, which coupled with a real knowledge of football could make for some decent punditry.

That's pretty great.

I may be wrong but I think Brand is an actual footy fan. West Ham rings a bell. He doesn't look like he'd be into football, but I think he is. Perhaps not so unusual that he's writing an article about the Man United manager. But yeah, I know what you mean - he isn't exactly a football pundit.

I didn't see the game last night - was it any good? The report I heard said that Bayern were probably the better team but Real had more of the chances and could well have increased their lead. Should make for an interesting second leg, but could be a defensive bore-fest. It's good that Bayern need to go and chase the game. Chelsea v Atletico will likely be a cagey affair. Predictions for the final? I predicted Atletico v Bayern but it looks more likely to be the exact opposite now. Chelsea v Real. If that happens, I will only be happy with a 5-0 Real victory and if I see the tears of John Terry on live TV.

Wenger for Man Utd. Fabregas his first signing.

Now they do. This genuinely happened a few years ago and Ant really didn't know what he was doing. Dec was loving it. They've since been churning out more often.

Holy shit. He totally practises that in front of the mirror every day and has done since, since whenever he did it officially. It's a bit like a few years ago, Ant n Dec were put on the spot to sing/dance along to Let's Get Ready to Rumble. Ant looked like a guy learning the dance for the first time, but Dec knew every fucking move.

I do believe they are acquainted.

Well done! I agree with Chris re: tech t-shirt and lined running shorts. Things I could absolutely not do without on top of the above are proper running socks. The double-lined ones in particular are great. Keeps my feet dry and helps to prevent blisters. My feet seem to blister very easily - it was always really bad in my football playing days but the running socks help a lot with it. That said, if you're sticking to 2 miles on your runs, it's probably not massively necessary. AND - I don't think everyone suffers from this blistering thing in the same way as I do, so could just be an added expense that you don't need (cos they ain't that cheap). Can't help with earphones though I'm afraid - I run to the sound of the chirping birds and sometimes arctic lorries. Again though - well done on keeping going and on making vast improvements! It's a great feeling! After my 9 days or so of no running a few weeks back to try and get my calf back in shape, I'm now on week 3 of getting back on it and it's going great again. The first week back was really tough going actually. After just over one week of no running, my legs were so heavy and stiff even after just an easy 30 minute run. I managed to do a shortened version of the hills session the next day, then rest day, then 30 minutes easy, then a progressive run, then a recovery run on the Saturday. My legs only started to feel okay on Sunday! Last week was a different story though. Ran 4 days in a row, including a cracking hills session and a good threshold workout. Rest day Friday and then 60 minutes easy run on Saturday which came out at sub 8 minute miles. Ace. So far this week, I've done an easy 30 minutes (came out at just over 8 minute miles) then an absolute beast of a hills session yesterday. Basically running up and down a fairly steep hill for 6 minutes, 2 minutes recovery 4 times. Ended up running up and down the hill 16 times over the course of the workout. Really tough, but good! 45 minutes easy planned today, then 60 minutes easy with 15 minutes of threshold (sub 7/mile) chucked in, recovery 20 minutes on Friday then first ever Parkrun on Saturday. Soft target is to go under 20 minutes, but with one eye on going sub 19. Will see how it goes...!

"Bugsy Brown? I don't know this chap, never heard of him. I have no idea what you are talking about." Well played, sir, well played.

That Gladstone "lookalike" actually looks more like a ginger Murr than it looks like me. Being ginger, I get compared to pretty much any ginger person. Being ginger with a beard, it's any person with a ginger beard. I've only ever seen a couple of really good lookalikes. John Hartson is the best. If I was fatter or he was thinner, we'd be identical.

I hope not - it would be great to see Martinez turn Everton into a force. It seems inconceivable that Everton could challenge for the title, but being up there challenging for the CL places every season would be a great start. I'd hate to see Martinez shift to a club like Arsenal and fail to win the title and then damage his reputation. Out of the "top clubs" Arsenal certainly seem like the most forgiving of short-term "failure" given their lack of silverware under Wenger, but you can't help but fear that post Wenger they may turn into raving idiots like City, Chelsea, etc. (I hope United don't fall under that category after the sacking of Moyes in just 10 months). I'd like to see Rodgers stick around at Liverpool for many seasons to come and keep them challenging for the title and I'd like to see Martinez stick around and keep Everton up there for a good few seasons too. Martinez to United or Arsenal in a few years time would be pretty good, but if he could somehow turn Everton into a team capable of challenging for the title, in the same way as Rodgers has turned Liverpool into a team capable of winning the title, that would be far better in my view. Just not sure if Everton are capable of that - but if you'd asked me at the start of this season if Liverpool were capable of it, I'd have told you to give your head a shake. Short version of the above - the more teams capable of challenging for the title the better. Martinez to stay!

Brendan Rodgers.

Tony Pulis for Man Utd.

Well, yes and no. Been busy for the past couple of hours, but just logged in here for a looky... Fair enough - I transport mine always in my gay man bag (which is designed with iPad specifically in mind), which protects it quite well. I decided to not get too bothered about the back getting scratched, although I am careful to not scrape it across surfaces etc.

I've got one of those smart covers. https://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/accessories/#smartcover In red. I like it. The only thing I don't like about it is when you have it "standing up" it's quite unstable - if you want to press play or pause on a youtube video or something, it's almost impossible to do it without holding the ipad in one hand and pressing the play button with the other. I understand that that sounds quite seedy, but my experience of this being a problem is entirely innocent. [Real life example] On occasion (usually on holiday), my young daughter plays up at bed time. There's a great lullabies video on youtube that really helps to send her off to sleep, and more lately, youtube videos of Peppa Pig help to calm her down. Usually, when this is being used, I'll have Ella cuddled up on one arm, rendering that hand useless, with the ipad set up at the side and I can only use one hand to use it. If she has nodded off and I'm trying to turn off the youtube video, it can be very easy to knock the ipad over and cause a kerfuffle and more noise than having just left it running. And the video is still running. [/Real life example] Other than that, the smart cover is great. It doesn't add any bulk to the ipad and it protects the screen well. You can flip the ipad round and set it down on the triangular prism shape that the cover makes when folded up so it's at an angle of about 30 degrees or so - which is good for typing on and is very stable.

The problem with that post is that there's far too much common sense in it. This is the crazy EPL. I would be surprised but not all together shocked into submission if Liverpool win the league and Rodgers got the dunt in favour of a BIG NAME manager to go off and win the Champions League. I know I'm being silly and that won't happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if City finish third and Pellegrini gets the dunt.

Can't help but think after last night that things are falling into place for Chelsea. I hope not. I don't want cuntychops Mourinho winning the league again. And Everton - what the fuck happened there? You see what's happening here though, right? I publish my predictions a matter of days ago and City and Everton inexplicably immediately drop points to give my prediction far less chance of coming good. The cunts.

You know what I did last night?I had that game on in the background but turned it off at 80 minutes to go and bath my daughter. Missed that bit of ridiculousness by Bale by 4 minutes. Unbelievable pace.

Hey - first one is easier to answer. I use a GPS watch which tells me in real time how quick I'm going. They're pretty expensive though and not entirely necessary. If you've got a smartphone there are loads of apps out there that do a similar job. Nike+ is supposed to be good as is runkeeper and there are others. Generally, the apps are free. Your shin pain could be some form of shin splints - give that a google and see if you find anything that sounds like what you experienced. It's (like most muscle strains) probably a result of upping mileage or speed or both a bit too quickly. It can in extreme cases lead to a stress fracture. Don't let that scare the shit out of you - it won't go from a bit if pain in your shin on this run to manifesting into a stress fracture quickly. But, you probably need to ease back a little bit and build up a bit more slowly (in terms of weekly mileage and in terms of speed). Next time you to out, take it really easy and see how your shin feels. Chances are it's a bit of stress on a muscle you haven't been using so much and it will be fine. But do keep an eye on it - if it gets worse, it's always a good idea to get it checked out. A stress fracture is no fun for anyone.

We can fill up 6 pages of an Ab-music thread debating the merits of it though...

I wasn't saying a lot of metal bands is a bad thing at all. Not my thing, but it is clearly the thing of a lot of other people. I agree that it shouldn't seem that hard to pull together 7 decent bands of varying genres - not at all. But try doing that once a month and it becomes more difficult. It's a lot of bands to put into one gig - fuck, when I was putting on line-ups of 3 or 4 bands, I was sometimes struggling to get enough available and last minute drop-outs etc. was always a pain in the arse. Now, clearly, bands will be far more willing to be available for someone like Captain Tom and for something like this, than the gigs I was putting on, but the point still stands. There is a finite number of "decent" bands available. Working your way through a unique line up every month of 7+ bands is not going to be easy. If you have a disproportionately large number of metal bands (which I'm not entirely sure if that is the case, but it seems to be), then trying to limit it to 1 metal band per month, you then have 6+ other spaces to fill with non-metal bands. It ain't easy is all I'm saying.

I agree with this. I thought I was the only adult on the planet that thought that McFly's songs were just good catchy pop songs.

Aren't there always a shit load of metal bands in Aberdeen though? Always seemed to me that there were perhaps slightly more metal bands than any other genre - well maybe that and your generic indie guitar bands (there are always a lot of them). So, Tom is going to have a difficult time limiting to only 1 metal band if he wants to put on more than 7 bands in an episode, once a month. That's a shit load of bands (especially if you want "good" ones) to find on a monthly basis if you want to keep the line up fresh. If my assessment is right that there are a load of metal bands, that would probably translate to their being a lot of metal fans - so they'll be all over it perhaps. I could be way off though - kind of judging that on the fact that there always seems to be loads of metal gigs going on with stacked line-ups and when we practised at Tom's there was always a fucking loud metal band in the practice room next door... and usually another one just up the corridor and another one round in room 4 etc. etc.