Siam Sam

Paul Scholes isn't even an option. He has no intention of going in to management. Pochettino will probably be the favourite when Mourinho is sacked but it'll take a lot of cash to get him to leave Spurs. I rate him but I think maybe now is the time not to go for a big name and to bring someone in that is an up and coming manager as the club needs a complete overhaul. United haven't won the title for five seasons now and it could easily be another five more if we start from scratch again. I'm willing to wait if the right manager with a long term goal is brought in. I have some sympathy with Mourinho as the club is run as a business and not a football club. The money required isn't being given to him but I can also understand the board's motives now as it would appear that it makes no difference how much Mourinho is given, no matter who he buys he can't get the best out of them. The management structure needs a complete overhaul - when Fergie left we didn't just lose a great manager, we lost someone who ran the club from top to bottom.

I've just booked through Skyscanner for three weeks end of January. £452 with Eva Air which is a great deal. The actual agent that sold me the ticket was Sumo Travel who I'd not heard of before but at that price I don't care. Roll on January 22nd.............

They started off well and put Spurs under a lot of pressure towards the end but it's just not good enough and I'm fed up with the excuses. This is Manchester United we're talking about and they shouldn't be making excuses all the fucking time. The truth is that Sanchez has been fucking awful since he arrived and he's had about four decent games in a United shirt. Too many players are just not playing to the best of their ability and continually putting in substandard performances. A lot of the fans are calling for Giggs to be given the manager's job again. I doubt he'd do any worse than Mourinho. At least he'd try to play more exciting football than the garbage that we're playing under this cunt. It would appear that Mourinho lost the dressing a while back and they don't want to play for him. Pogba has just won the world cup and was one of the stars of the tournament yet under Mourinho he's shite. Mkhitaryan is another great player that he couldn't get the best out of. I've lost patience with him and he needs to be fucked off now and not when they're 15 points behind at Christmas.

He is. The writing is on the wall. He is devoid of ideas and can't get the best out of his players. I can only imagine what Fergie would have done with this group of players because on paper it's a great squad. He signs good players and ruins them with his outdated, negative tactics that are no longer compatible with the modern game. I was always a fan of his and very happy when he became manager but three seasons later and the club is going nowhere under his leadership. By Christmas they'll be about 15 points behind the leaders and he'll be gone. But who do they replace him with?

Oh man I've been stuck there a few times. It's absolute chaos sometimes and if there are some particularly stubborn or selfish cunts caught up in it then it can take several minutes before it clears. I've nearly come a cropper there on a motorbike a few times.

Thanks. I often add books to my reading list not because I think I would be interested in them but because I feel as if they are books that I should read just so that I can comment from experience in an intellectual conversation. I've read many classics on that premise. There are so many popular contemporary authors that I won't read because I consider them to be too pulpy. A bit of a book snob but that's me. I've also been reading long enough to know that it's harder to predict whether you'll like a book than you think it would be - I've read many that I'd thought I'd like but didn't, and similarly, enjoyed many that I didn't think I would. That's why I have no problem with reading classics because many of them have turned out to be enjoyable when I didn't think they would be. I like poetry too - Byron, W.H.Auden, Rimbaud and Bukowski are very good. I like to think I'm quite intellectual but I'm probably more of a pseudo intellectual. I'm not a huge fan of Shakespeare either and have only read about five of his plays. If you met me you'd probably think I was stupid because even though I can speak eloquently and have a large vocabulary I rarely speak like that as it doesn't suit my overall character and most of my mates take the piss if I speak like that. Whenever I do get the chance I can surprise those that don't know me well and hold my own in an intellectual conversation. A shame we never met when I was living in Pattaya as I think we have much in common. Oh yeah - I'm currently reading "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It's a novel about a dystopian future where the world is controlled by a totalitarian state. It was the book that greatly influenced Orwell's magnum opus 1984.

I haven't stayed there but the bar was somewhere I'd often go to for a few cheap ones in the afternoon. The bar is a bit of a dive so it would put me off staying in the rooms. That part of the Soi is liable to be really noisy too because it's on a bend and a part of the Soi which is often congested.

Usually I book through an agent. I use Skyscanner and then I'll use whichever agent is selling the ticket for my preferred flight. However, the last two times I've been to Thailand I have booked direct from the airline because I wanted to by a ticket that was changeable because I wasn't sure when the return flight would be.

Billy Crystal

Awful film that starred Al Pacino

I'm not really the man to ask. The only contemporary fiction I read is by Irvine Welsh and Will Self. Both are brilliant writers but they're not everyone's cup of tea. Nearly all Irvine Welsh novels are written in a raw Edinburgh dialect which can be hard going to begin with. When you read a Will Self novel you need a dictionary close to hand because he has the largest vocabulary of any writer I've ever come across. A real character and sometimes very funny. I may check that out one day. I'll add that to my list. I'm a big fan of Christopher Hitchens and "God Is Not Great" should be compulsory reading in all secondary schools in my opinion. The books I've read since the last one I posted about are: On The Road by Jack Kerouac This is the second time I've read this classic and defining novel of the beat generation and counterculture movement of the fifties. This largely autobiographical novel is in five parts, with three of them concentrating on road trips across the entire width of America. It's the ultimate road trip novel and it's absolute genius. If you haven't read this highly influential book then you need to soon. The Dharma Bums by Jack Keroauc This is also the second time I've read this book and I actually like it more than On The Road. It's my favourite Kerouac novel. This book is also autobiographical. The book is mainly about a camping trip that Kerouac goes on with two intellectual friends where they go hiking and climb a mountain. During the trip they discuss the Buddhist philosophy at great length and the contrast between a simplistic outdoor way of life and their city life which is characterised by jazz clubs, poetry readings and drug fueled, drunken parties. Kerouac examines the Buddhist context within his experiences and those that he meets. In the latter part of the model Kerouac goes hitchhiking and camping on his own before working as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak, an isolated mountain in Washington State where he writes about the loneliness of his experience, religion and philosophy. This is explored further in the novel Desolation Angels. This book is absolute genius and I highly recommend it, it's one of my favourite books. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga This won the 40th Man Booker Prize in 2008. The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. In detailing Balram's journey first to Delhi, where he works as a chauffeur to a rich landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flees after killing his master and stealing his money, the novel examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India. It's a good read. The Stand by Stephen King This is a great novel. By far and away the best Stephen King book I've read and one that would make my top fifty of all time. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world where a deadly strain of influenza that has been modified for biologic warfare is accidentally released, creating a pandemic that consequently kills the majority of the world's population. This is followed by a complete breakdown of society. The story is set in America, where most of the remaining people are united into two groups, one good and one evil. The novel culminates in a showdown between the two. It's brilliant. How The Word Works by Noam Chomsky This is also very good. In this book Chomsky lays bare the realities of contemporary geopolitics. It explores US foreign policy and it's devastating effect on places around the world, how media is controlled and used to brainwash people, food and third world "economic miracles", the US, the CIA, religious fundamentalism, global inequality, equality, freedom, the myth of third world debt and manufacturing dissent. I am a huge fan of Chomsky and his work. In my opinion he is the most influential intellectual in the world today. Reading these sort of books however does increase my aversion for American politics, British imperialism and the political model that we have in the western world. I doubt many of the Americans that post on this site would read Chomsky though considering his opinions and that the average American is so patriotic.

I forgot all about this thread. Tom Wolfe was a brilliant writer and The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man In Full are two of my favourite books. I'd just finished reading another novel of his - I Am Charlotte Simmons when I last posted in this thread.

Hard Candy

Samuel L Jackson

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Eric Stoltz

I become less passionate about football with every year that goes by. It's been ruined by money. I think this is the least interested in a football season I've been in my whole football supporting life and last season was the first time in as long as I can remember I didn't go to Old Trafford to watch a game, although I was in Thailand for a large part of the season. As much as I hate to admit it, it'll be City that will win it again because their squad is so much better than every other club and the football they play is far superior to everyone else too. Liverpool won't be far behind, Klopp is a good manager and they'll just keep throwing money at him until he wins the league which I'm sure will happen at some point in the next few seasons if he stays. Until then it's 28 years since they have won it and an even more embarrassing statistic is that they've only won one league cup in 12 seasons which is absolutely pitiful for a club their size and I'll continue to take the piss out of all things Liverpool until they win the league again. I also hate to say that I can't see much change at United, they haven't brought in any world class players and Mourinho won't build a team around Pogba and get the best out of him and a few other players which will mean the same negative, bland and defensive shite that we've now become associated with. We'll be in the top 4 no doubt but our inconsistency against the teams in the bottom of the table, our inability to get results against them when our backs are against the wall and our so called "stars" under performing when it matters most will be the reason why they'll miss out on the silverware. If the season unfolds as I think it will, and United are 10 points behind City by Christmas then I think Mourinho could seriously be in trouble of losing his job, not that that's the answer at all but that's how ridiculous football has become these days.

Great film which starred Jared Leto

Yes that's just one of his many endearing credentials.

I wouldn't want to have any association with a forum where Mulphy is a co-owner or has any influence on the moderation or decision making of the forum. It would also go against the ethos of this forum considering Mulphy and Martin didn't get along. A no for me and I would stop posting if it happened.

So Mulphy doesn't own the forum any more and it's not affiliated with the Rock House now?

Mark Whalberg

Are you fucking serious? Don't you have to pay a subscription to Pattaya Live and kiss the arse of it's owner if you want to post on that forum? It's also heavily censored and anyone who disagrees with the owner about anything risks being banned?

Heather Graham

Waiting for my luggage when I go to and from any country is always an anxious time for me. Most of my clothes are expensive labels and except for the first time I went to Thailand I haven't had travel insurance since. A few times my luggage was almost the last to arrive which was stressful but no problems so far. Maybe my luck will run out one day.