North Wilts Saint

Train means they spend less time sat down. Traffic to London on a Friday in August = bad. As athletes (and they are) this is actually a sensible move hence why other teams also take the Train. As said by others the coach meets them up there (the coach driver unfortunately is not such a honed athlete and can deal with it !) However bet Ronald will have been surprised how cr*p our trains are compared to the continent.

What about Gaston ? If fit the advanced middle of the three that seems to be pushed forward more (on evidence I've seen in pre-season) could be ideal for him ? Davis I see more in the "front three"

In the ST article this weekend it stated that Cortese got Shaw to sign last year bb getting him a new agent, a fat wage for this year and committing to sell in 12 months. No I can see that if true what this does do is get Saints a massive fee rather than the standard a development settlement, so in one way good sense. You have to wonder how many other contracts might have been signed with caveats or side letters, e.g. did Rickie have a you must sell me for £4M in Liverpool come in (and TBF at the time who may have thought it), or if Lovren's had some clause as well giving him a get out, even Cortese conceded last year he was surprised we managed to get him, perhaps that was how ? OK, this is pure speculation on my part (although I may tweet it then it will become TRUE :-) ) but I cant get why Chambers in particular has been allowed to go.

In answer to Saint Charlie and Shurlock overall I was a little disappointed, although I've been to enough pre-season games and should know better. I thought the warm-up was a bit shambolic. After some brief structured stuff just seemed to be groups of players kicking to each other with Jan looking on. TBH I've seen under eleven sides do more ! It was epitomised by the subs playing keep up and the one to "drop" the ball having their ears flicked by all the others. I know it was a friendly etc. but start as you mean to go on. Anyway if focus on the first 60 mins (read the same formation wise once all the subs made though) Cork and Reid "held" and JWP was pushed up the middle generally level with Isgrove and McQueen. Pelle was advanced and never strayed very wide, or dropped hardly at all. Probably JWP was the one feeding of him the most, although TBF he was feeding of himself more often ! On last night he was a Miroslav Klose type player, which his stats show. Was very good at holding off the Swindon defenders but he was about twice there size ! Isgrove and Mcqueen did cut in occasionally, more often though they got to the edge of the box and were looking to work it into Pelle or maybe JWP. Cork and Reid did push forward on occasion. Overall, looked like if we could have stepped the pace up a bit we would have created more, Did not look as sharp as thought we might in the box. I appreciate its early days but some of these lads have a great chance to stake a claim so maybe could have shown more. Perhaps they were told not to exert to much, hard to know. I should say though that apart from about five minutes at the end Swindon were not allowed to get near our box (although a couple of mis-comms between Gazziniga and Mccarthy (who was playing out of position at LB when replaced Targett) could have been worse. The Dm's (Cork and Reid then Stephens and Flanigan) plus defense snuffed them out very well. Key difference will be when we have possibly eight different starters come the opening game and how they implement the system. Maybe the JWP/ Sharp role from last night is tailor made for Gaston ? Not sure if Pelle's limited movement will make him too easy to mark, but Klosse shows it can be productive :-)

I didn't see it that way last night, they do get forward but I didn't feel on balance they were as far advanced as last season. The more "fixed" positions on the front players had an influence on this IMO. To be fair with different personnel, against different opposition things will no doubt look different, we have to see. One friendly game with only three or four who will start against 'Pool, L1 opposition and slow pace is not a definitive view (and my opinion and I'm sure others saw if different as ever !)

I think we may find "our system" is now less reliant on FB's for width. Last night Isgrove and McQueen in the first 60 mins, then Mayuka and Sinclair dd this much more than the FB's an operated like wingers. Clearly Tadic is destined to fill one of those berths.

Based on last night the Central Midfielder will play advanced on two DM's who will join in on occasion. The three behind Pelle (two wide guts and the CM) did not swap or rotate, and Pelle is not going to do any channel work, dropping wide or indeed short like Rickie did (although I think we knew that). Full backs will get involved on occasion. I believe this is how Feynoord played under RK so probably not a surprise.

Paperwork = Contract negotiations, length, remuneration, relocation costs, bonus etc. bit also severances, get-outs, assurances etc. These are the things that inventively take time. Imagine agent, lawyers and football manager ego's. Might also be assurances and compensation to another club if employed, non poaching agreements for players etc. as well.

A tearful Ben Smith of the BBC wrote on Wednesday night: '..... with club owner Katharina Liebherr installing herself as his replacement.' And this then widely reported on all BBC news, even through the statement clearly pointed out she would be non-exec and would be installing a CEO. When even the BBC fail to report facts what hope is there and it worded to imply something very different from the media shy reserved reality. So no chance of one of the key REAL points in this saga - appropriate and good corporate governance getting an airing, too damn dull that truth stuff. Enjoyed the post Jeff.

So glad to hear your Dad is doing ok, best wishes to him, yourself and family. I Hope he makes a full recovery. Was sat a few rows back, will put on record my respect for the professionalism of all the stadium staff involved,. Speedy and professional, focused on medical care and wider situation and those around (moving kids out quickly etc.). I say this as someone who has moaned about "jobsworth" stewards before. Clearly these days they do lots of training and drills for situations like this so full respect to them.

I had number 147, that never changed or counted down, got sign-on screen at 09:13, tickets bought, phew !

Went to see and support Danny Wallace making his début for Man.Utd. at Pompey. Recall Paul Ince made his début the same night. Standing in with the fishy peep's was not fun.........

You couldn't even have a friendly conversation with Foster (and was was he sniffing out of those bottles frequently) without threat, the stand supervisor should go on a smiling course ! Agree on whole that tone of stewarding was IMO inappropriate and disproportional to fans behaviour but guess witnessed a lot worse.

Hooiveld's slip was assisted by two handed "nudge" from JT - that's what his "experience" gets you

Made two great saving tackles today