Cornish Steve

That's what I was remembering.

Based on these numbers and adjusting for this season, he's sixth among current managers: 686 Wenger 628 Redknapp 409 Allerdyce 364 Bruce 220 Pardew 200 Martinez

And I thought I was going to be the only one predicting Eto'o as first scorer. I suppose MikeO has him down too, along with the rest of the team.

The distrust of this guy is ridiculous. If we can't trust a professor in this field, who would be putting his academic credibility on the line by brown-nosing, then who can we believe? From my perspective as a businessman, the numbers do look good. You only pay off debt when you're confident about the future.

Distin rested for the Lille game.

Specifically, it looks like we'll climb above both Liverpool and United.

Today is Roberto's 200th Premier League start as a manager. How does this compare with other current managers in the league? Does anybody know?

Fernandez is now available to play for Swansea. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29820061

The club made more than 28m in profit last year and were able to pay of 17m in debt. This is fantastic news for the future. (I just hope this doesn't prompt everyone to demand more players, because financial health is just as important to long-term success. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29843746

The point is that sometimes even people you believe are the consummate "good guy" do something stupid and shock you. And often someone perceived by society as a "bad guy" does something truly heroic. The media, and we too I suppose, love to label people. In the US, this is so obvious in the whole debate over guns. "Ensure the good guys all have guns and take guns away from the bad guys." But good guys can run riot and massacre others, and bad guys may stop a tragedy from happening. The potential is in all of us, at every moment, to be good or bad. On the point of what people do in private, I once managed a project where about 12 members of my team had to work on site. At the end of the assignment, I got to pay all the hotel bills. Mistakenly, the hotel printed the names of movies that each person watched - and I was shocked. Also, at a conference once in Europe, I accompanied a powerful CEO and major personality in the industry and again paid all his bills. Once again, I was shocked by some of the things I had to pay for. You just wouldn't believe it - obviously done in what he thought was the privacy of his own room.

Everton 3-1 Swansea Eto'o

And to summarize what came across to me as the main message: Under Moyes previous seasons: 71 appearances, 595 crosses (8.4/game), 7 assists Under Martinez just this season: 9 appearances, 44 crosses (4.9/game), 6 assists

What is it someone wrote? "We are what we choose to do when we're alone and in private." Some, thankfully, take some distasteful things no further. Others take the risk and sometimes pursue the most vulnerable in society. If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that you can't label some "good guys" and others "bad guys". The split runs right through each one of us.

In a recent report, corruption is strongly correlated with (i) higher than average government spending and (ii) that spending being on law enforcement and construction and not hospitals and education. So the answers? Cut taxes, reduce police powers, and more education. The state of Georgia as a whole is not too corrupt, but the city of Atlanta is notorious. Books have been written on it.

OK. For a bag of crisps, I asked him. His response was "Qu'est-ce que diable parlez-vous", which is a definite 'yes'.

I came across that same article the other day and had the same reaction. We face it in our area. Fulton county, which includes the (majority black) city of Atlanta, is an odd shape and encompasses rich (minority white) suburbs in the north. The latter want to break away and form their own county, thereby paying less in taxes and not having to subsidize the city. At least they have history on their side, because there did used to be such a county. Also, city government in Atlanta is notoriously corrupt, and they want to escape this - which goes to show that movements of this type are more complex than they might seem on the surface.

I'll bet you he'd take half that if it meant he could start playing. Every survey ever done on job satisfaction points to compensation being quite a way down the totem pole.

Related to this: There are so-called "red light" cameras all over the place now in the US. They are money-makers for the local authorities, and one state in particular has reduced dramatically the amount of time allowed to get through a junction before cameras take a picture. This means that even people who drive through a green light are now getting tickets. That in turn has led to cars slamming on their brakes the moment a light turns yellow, which has led to a huge increase in the number of rear-end collisions at traffic lights. In other words, the authorities are already using technologies like this to take advantage and to raise money. It doesn't take too much imagination to see how the authorities could start picking on their "opponents" or blackmail individuals based on activities they spy on.

Personally, I find it overly intrusive. There's virtually nothing we can do these days without the authorities knowing - using phone, including what is said and from where; using bank or credit cards; driving past cameras; and so on. Now there is talk of drones flying over neighbourhoods with cameras like this. It's a huge infringement of personal liberties. If it means that "louts" can get away with some things, so be it. It's got to the point in some toll roads in the US where they calculate your average speed based on entry and exit points and send you speeding tickets in the mail. At this point, I always stop at a services area so they don't know my speed.

And if we think it's frustrating, just think how the player must feel. It has to be almost unbearable to want to prove yourself, to hear fans question your abilities, and be told to take time to properly recover.

The Fenway group have backed Brendan Rogers with impressive funds, so they'll expect better. While I don't see them playing musical managers, they will most definitely hold him accountable. I can imagine there have already been some uncomfortable conversations.

But such a setup lacks width.

The points system is different than last year's - and, I think, better. For sure, though, I'm open to suggestions to improve things even more. Maybe there could indeed be a bonus point for predicting the exact score and 2 bonus points instead of 3 for getting everything right. During the World Cup, you were able to predict half-time scores, but, for the Premier League, this would be too time-consuming. I'm trying to find the right balance between what's fair, what's a true reflection of a person's ability to predict, and what doesn't create too much work each week for me!

You're right that it's confusing, and I'll change it the next time. Previously, I had a line there that showed 5 points for a correct score - totalled as I mentioned above. I changed the wording to clarify, but all I've done is make it even more unclear. Sorry. Rest assured, though, that the points are calculated consistent with the rules defined at the start of the thread. It's my explanation in the box that is wrong.

The colour code explains why 6 points. 1 point for a correct outcome 1 point for the correct home score 1 point for the correct away score 1 point for the correct goal difference 1 point for a better-than-average score That's 5 points - which is always what you get for predicting the correct score. 1 point for predicting one of the goal scorers (Lukaku). If you had predicted Eto'o, you would have received 2 points - plus 3 bonus points for getting everything.So where's the problem?