Del

Straight swap

Sell Torres for £50m. Buy Carroll & Suarez for £58m. Sell Carroll for £15m. Buy Sturridge for £12m. So, Liverpool end up replacing one misfiring striker with two excellent strikers for an outlay of £5m. Sounds like excellent business to me.

In SignalEngineer's photo, the pipe would have been self-coloured orange plastic (not painted) when new, and has got quite heavily 'weathered'. The cables themselves wouldn't be coloured.

I often wonder if our best hope is a European Super League. Let all the big clubs disappear to some hermetically-sealed, no-promotion-no-relegation, never-never-land (just like the NFL) and let the rest of us get back to some proper football. All the top players would go to those clubs, leaving the ones that are just very good for everyone else. They can come back and play in domestic cups if they want, but I wouldn't miss it if they didn't. It'd take all the pressure off just battling for four CL spots (because they would in effect be the CL). We can go back to a proper European Cup just for League champions, and have a proper Cup-Winners Cup and UEFA Cup again. Would West Ham fans really, honestly, care if we never played Manchester United or Liverpool in a league ever again? Arsenal and Chelsea maybe, but new rivalries would take their place (and we'd still have Spurs!). Get rid of six top clubs (e.g. Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton, so they all have a local derby still), have four divisons of 21 (which means one team gets a bye every week) and let's have football like it used to be.

I'd rather be a bigger fish in the small pond of the Championship, and give a manager some time to build a proper West Ham team. Not this. Not survive at all costs, Premier League or nothing.

Not to Shenfield, but Norwich! It was called 'London Crosslink' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Crosslink

Now, guess who was the Newcastle manager when that Derby side, widely regarded as one of the worst teams to play top-flight football (sorry Derby fans!), registered that solitary win? They managed a draw in the reverse fixture too. Step forward, Samuel Allardyce, Esquire!

I don't mind being beaten. I don't even mind being beaten 6-0. What I do mind is being beaten 6-0 with an almost total lack of intent and commitment from the players and even more so from the manager. I watched both those heavy defeats and I cannot recall, at any point, Allardyce getting off the bench and trying to pass any instruction or to inspire his team. Weak, insipid, spineless. Taxi for Sam? I'll drive him myself.

Shocking from Allardyce. I have no problem with him playing youngsters today, but he played the wrong ones, too many of them, in the wrong system and picked the wrong senior players to support them. Managers talk about 'a strong spine', goalkeeper - central defence - central midfield - centre forwards. But Allardyce's most experienced players, Jarvis and Downing, were out on the wings. Jarvis is out of form (partly because Allardyce hasn't given him an extended run in the side) and Downing is only just back from twenty stitches in his ankle.

It's not that much though. Even if a team started in the first preliminary round, and won every match to win the Europa League, the prize money is still under €10million. You can't even get Andy Carroll for that

Time for Sam to go, and for his captain (lapdog?) to follow him.

Page's of Barkingside had a trainset layout in their window (this would be in the mid-70s) and you could put 2p in a slot to make it work, even when they were shut!

I do remember seeing the O-gauge 'Fisher Street' in RM, but seem to remember it was a very brief article, with only a couple of photos? I still can't work out how you managed to get that OO version into that space!

I still love 'Fisher Street to Victoria Bridge'. It was in the April 1985 RM, it's apparently only 7' 6" by 7' 6" but fits so much in, whilst looking great. Main line diesels and electrics, carriage shed, washer road, scratchbuilt catenary and even details like sand drags. It was built by Ian Blackburn, which I assume is the gentleman who built the Rhydwyn Fawr steelworks layout featured recently in RM.

I was looking for a new car a while ago, and whilst idly browsing eBay during a night shift, I came across a car I'd always wanted, a Vauxhall Viscount. And not any Viscount, but one I could easily find the history of, as it had belonged to a member of another forum I frequent. Unfortunately, since leaving his care, it had been abused a little so I decided against it. But then I came across this instead: It's a 1992 Ford Granada Scorpio, 2.0i automatic, full leather, electric everything, cruise control, heated seats, heated front screen. If it had a telly, it'd be like driving my lounge! It's had one driver before me, a chap who had it as his company car then bought it when he retired. 139k on the clock, and serviced regardless of expense. he even ruled extra boxes in the service history book so it could be stamped!

You guys might be interested in the shots I took in Malta a few years ago, some in the local classic car museum, but quite a number out on the streets: http://s1101.photobucket.com/user/E7_Del/library/Classic%20cars%20in%20Malta?sort=2&page=1

Newmarket - the home of horse racing and a well-known card game.

As someone who has travelled through Swanley more times than he cares to remember, and who started his working career at Chislehurst 'box, I'll be taking a very keen interest in this one!

There was a story the other day about Sir Geoff Hurst, England World Cup hat-trick hero, looking for film footage of his six goals when West Ham beat Sunderland 8-0. A copy turned up, and Sir Geoff admitted he'd punched the first one in. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2257176/Sir-Geoff-Hurst-finds-West-Ham-8-0-Sunderland-tape-Twitter.html

Joe Cole comes back to the Irons. Interesting move, in that Sam has form for picking up flair players who are looking for a last hurrah (Djorkaeff, Hierro). But then again, West Ham's record when it comes to those returning is less than stellar. As to where Joe will play, I would guess he'd be playing wide-right as cover for, or in rotation with, Vaz Te, unless Sam pulls Nolan back into more of an orthodox midfield role and Joe plays in the hole behind Carlton Cole or Andy Carroll.

McLeish has got it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20855227