The9

Read the thread.

I've always thought goalkeepers should be the ones organising the defence, they can see everything, even the centre backs don't always know what's happening behind them, especially when the ball's out wide. Maybe it's just me that never shut up when I was doing a stint in goal then.

I quite enjoy seeing Saints pages inhabited with random arab-named people proclaiming their knowledge of all things Premier League and telling everyone how much they love Manchester United. (Or Taider

Interesting article - I'd take issue that the name "Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium" was controversial - the originally announced name "The Friends Provident Stadium" was controversial, but most people were fine once they had a non-sponsor name to refer to the ground with, and making that part of the official name was the key to that.

I'm still putting United's defensive improvement down to Schneiderlin's general awesomeness.

Monreal at left back seems to be a bit of a reach, doesn't it? Then again Cresswell had one of the worst games I've ever seen from a professional footballer against Bournemouth, so that undoes his claim. Shaw's injured, Man City leaked 4 to Spurs, Liverpool's left back is risible, Bertrand has been injured until recently, Davies at Spurs hasn't pulled up any trees and nor has Rose, I can sort of see why Monreal's got the nod now.

I see the club are advertising for someone else to do the tv bits (and presumably the mic bits): http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/20151111-vacancy-matchday-presenter-2796254.aspx So is the other bloke leaving, or are they adding to the wond'rousness that is the Show No-one Outside The Toilets Can Hear?

Good to see the old 4-4-2 being used for the team so they can ram in a load more attacking players than any team uses any more because it's easier to be lazy picking strikers.

I'd say "likely to be in decline", but that's the gamble isn't it? After the initial impact, Lambert was obviously going downhill from the winter of his first Prem season, much tougher toll on his body from the higher intensity and expectation, accumulation of years of playing at a lower level with more fixtures on worse pitches and against more overtly physical opponents, all featured in his decline. Pelle's not had the years of lower league slog and is also much more likely to have benefited from sports science throughout his career, he MIGHT have another year or two, but do we sell at his peak value or do we take a chance that he'll retain that level for another year and maybe try and sell then? I guess it depends who we identify as a replacement and how easy it is to sign and involve them.

Falcao - loaned to Manchester United, purchase price zero.

Actually it's a beautifully tarmacced and fully marked out little number, the access from the Burger King roundabout rather than the main Hedge End/West End Botley Road roundabout is quirky but understandable though. If anyone's bored enough to go back in this thread to the first time a Tesco development was mentioned, that would be a nice timeline to judge against. Also, we could benchmark it against the completely new shopping centre which has been built in Newport since they blew up the whole area in January 2014 (although admittedly they've been planning to get Debenhams in there by flattening the area since the 1990s so it's more comparable to the Mythical New Portsmouth Stadium than the Tesco next door to the current one). Or actually:

That was the most revealing of all in the Lovren transfer.

He's won a Champions League since then, alright he's not Ronaldo/Messi level but the only way Real are shifting him in the next 2 years is for an absolute wad of cash.

He's already been transferred for... well...

Blimey, they took their time, they've planned, announced, built and opened a TK Maxx in Hedge End in about half as long.

I see those in my feed when linked by other people, even with their quality filter reducing the volume of stuff they're stilll unfunny more often than funny, so I'd rather see them by proxy than sign up. Anyway, this thread's on the Lounge now, someone should merge it.

Basically, now we've got everything we wanted for when Cortese was around, without having to put up with him being a massive d11ck to get it... except the stuff Cortese claimed to think we could achieve but wasn't able to deliver either.

Give or take Bale being about twice the price.

Seems fairly clear to me that we have an information management system which has been developed under Reed which identifies possible targets for discussion. Then he, the people who hold the funds, and the managerial team discuss them. Obviously where a manager/head coach has personal knowledge of a player, their tendencies and character over a long period that is a significant factor in the decision, as it's better than any amount of third-party scouting and video, and Ronald and Erwin know a lot of Dutch and Dutch-based players. Funnily enough, I trust Ronald Koeman (and Les Reed)'s judgement of footballers a lot more than Nicola Cortese's.

It was a terrible idea then too, as illustrated by the fact no-one's done it again in the 40 years since. The problem with rotating your keeper is that part of the stability of your defence is everyone knowing what everyone else is going to do, regimenting their routines and movement and reacting off each other's actions in the most efficient way possible. As soon as you change any of those positions you lose some of your advantage and instead of being a stable unit reading what's happening in front of you, making attacking movements predictable and anticipating everything, the defence becomes more reactive to what happens because they don't know how their colleagues will react and have to wait to see and then adjust accordingly. To deliberately add a lower level of familiarity to that defensive unit by rotating the one person who can see EVERYTHING in front of him seems foolhardy - though obviously the effects can be mitigated by training with all the options so everyone is familar with all the tendencies of everyone else - but even then there's a delayed reaction compared to ALWAYS knowing what EVERYONE will do without having to think who they and what they'll do first. I remember the fear when Pardew switched in 3 new players to the back 4 at the same time (though in hindsight they were 3 of the best defenders in the division) - but as we showed against Villa and Bournemouth, if you also have enough protection in front of your defence, or the opposition are just ponderous when attacking, it also doesn't matter quite as much and you can get away with changes.

They'd also provide entertainment before the match as local urchins try to bunk in by running up the slide. In fact they could probably send everyone out there for the half-time entertainment too.

Must be all the incest.

I'm wandering around Winchester a couple of times a day a few times a week and my Saints sightings over the past 4 years have been confined to Le Tiss and Van Dijk.

The match isn't for another 3 weeks, I'm sure a lot of people who are interested in going haven't even noticed tickets are on sale yet.

Hell of an assumption that he lives in Woolston because he happened to go across the bridge after a match.