The9

Could be, Jason Roberts is probably beyond the point of usefulness in the Championship by now. Mind you I said that about Lambert in the Prem.

I don't think the lino did either. He should at least have spoken to him. He did definitely flag for a foul (flag pointed up the pitch) and not the ball going out (flag pointed at the 6 yard box for a goal kick) didn't he ?

No "fairly" about it, my mind is absolutely made up. Modern football is full of wusses, illogical interpretations of the laws, pandering hive-mindset media whores and referees who issue cards based on outcomes not actions, which frankly, is not the point. I'll treat every incident on its merits, pertaining to the contents of the actual Laws of the Game, not whether someone gets injured as a result of a fair (albeit mis-hit) clearance.

I hear there were people forking out to reserve their ticket for this match BEFORE THE SEASON EVEN STARTED ! Can you imagine that !?

I'd be very surprised if Adkins doesn't try and pick up Dean Hammond from us.

I've seen it plenty of times, either there's nothing in the laws of football that says you can't hoof a ball hard in which case it isn't a foul, or there is, and all players hoofing the ball need to be expected to get sent off for people running into their boot occasionally.

It is one of the world's great mysteries why Markus decided to buy us, and what the purpose of Cortese's continued presence in the absence of his friend is. Markus had enough money that it's difficult to reconcile it being financially based, especially as football is a fairly minor industry in terms all of but the largest clubs and notoriously difficult to make profit from. Although if you do it well enough, as we seem to be seeing, it all appears rather easy. One explanation is that he was winding down and may have known he was ill, and wanted a project to bring happiness to himself and maybe plenty of others, and that Cortese is just continuing Markus' altruism, but in the businesslike way he knows of achieving success. The lack of fan-friendly policies does somewhat weaken the overall fuzziness of this view, however, and the first fan unfriendly decision (no instalments on STs) happened before Markus left us. Cortese's repetition of the goals of European success and the appearance of the stadium regeneration on the ST DVD suggests he's going to be around for at least another few years yet. Whether he chooses to sell THEN is another matter, because that would be a hell of a profit.

Sounds reasonable.

Halsey might have disallowed Rodriguez's goal at Reading, there was at least an argument that it was dangerous - no such argument can be made for Lallana's goal and it shouldn't have been disallowed by any referee. That's not an even argument. Not sure anyone's actually said Halsey was disciplined. For the record I didn't even think the McManaman clearance was even a foul, never mind a red card and the worst tackle in the history of the universe or whatever boll0cks spin the media tried to put on it. It was just a clearance, proportionate force was used for whacking the ball up the pitch so there was no recklessness, he GOT the ball, then Haidara ran into his outstretched boot afterwards, and it was mostly Haidara's fault he got injured. There's no way McManaman's actions were "dangerous", or every non-tappy clearance ever made in football is a foul. As a comparison, Zamora's boot up red card was much worse, he knew the player was there, he knows raising your boot that high is likely to be a foul, he still decided to wave his leg in there and likely kick the bloke in the head for some reason. All McManaman did was clear the ball and have an accidental collision with the person trying to block the clearance.

I wonder if he has anything to say about that ?

It just shows what a bunch of 50s boom period leave your doors open glad the war's over where's me washboard let's all be friends small-timers they are, doesn't it ? I bet some of them have Saints STs for alternate weekends... the ones not pretending to hate anyone within a radius of 100 miles paying them the remotest attention, anyway. They could start a heated rivalry with Guernsey FC I suppose...

Now now, can we stop picking on the small kid ?

EDIT : Proclaimers already covered above.

To be fair 90% of them were rugby fans 5 years ago and south walian fans are some of the most one-eyed bullsh1tters I know of when it comes to bias, so I wouldn't put much stock in what they say . All the tv replays showed was that although Lallana jumped with his arms up, didn't touch the keeper and didn't handle the ball. The lino clearly flagged for what he thought looked like a foul which didn't occur, the ref should have gone to check what the foul was for with the lino and then decided if he had a better view. Long and short, if that had happened with two outfielders in the centre circle the amount of contact wouldn't have been worth a free kick. The only thing it could legitimately have been disallowed for is unsporting behaviour for Lallana waving his arms in front of the keeper's vision, but Lallana didn't get booked, and it's a heck of a stretch anyway. I can't be bothered to go back and see if the ref gave an indirect free kick (arm up) but I bet he didn't.

Because it doesn't make the blindest bit of difference what the results are in the last few matches and we want to see players getting experience in what should be a competitive game ?

Theoretically there will be a lot of people hoping we lose a few games to look right with 14-16, me included in that lot.

Worth a bump, ya think ?

Don't knock it, if we can get him to reply we'll be almost drivel-free for a day. In that specific instance...

On the bright side, that'll lead to him getting relegated again.

Actually it was after they beat us, the quote is in here : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2286975/Southampton-1-QPR-2-match-report-Loic-Remy-Gaston-Ramirez-Jay-Bothroyd-score.html

He hasn't managed it in any Saints or England U21 match I've ever seen him play RB in. Nice to see him double his tally of decent shots for the season on Saturday though.

Are they just nicking articles from other papers a couple of months later ? Didn't we already have this discussion in Feb/March when it was in a broadsheet ? I can't see us flogging Mayuka and getting rid of the rest of them will have very little impact.

Q1. What are your opinions on Southampton's season so far - has it gone how you expected? Sort of, we could see the fixture list wasn't going to do us any favours early on, but it's turned out to be a blessing which allowed the players to drop points against the top sides whilst learning how to play in the Prem, and then start picking up points against the teams around us when it mattered. I have to say I didn't see Lambert carrying his Championship form on as he has, or a squad that didn't have many players with Prem experience doing as well as they have. The sacking of Adkins however was always a possibility given the Chairman's previous. Top half is dreamworld, even 12th will vastly exceeds my expectations. Q2. What are your opinion on WBA's season so far? - Have we exceeded your expectations? I thought Clarke would struggle to take forward Hodgson's effective side last season and the team has done superbly well - who knows where you would be if Mulumbu and Yacob had been together all season ? Q3. You made a controversial change not so long ago. What are your thoughts on MP and what difference has he made to your side? Pochettino stuck with the basics Adkins had instilled, his policy on developing youth players seems to be in line with the club's philosophy and he's got us pressing all over the place and beating top sides. It will be interesting to see who we sign in the summer and where he thinks we need to improve. Q4. What are your opinions on West Bromwich Albion Football Club and its supporters? Setting aside your Portsmouth love-in when we got relegated in 2005, West Brom are a decent club that have pushed on from the yo-yo years. Sorry, I don't really have any particular preconceptions other than that ! Q5. Peter Odemwingie became a laughing stock during the transfer window. What did you make of his antics and how our club dealt with it? He's an idiot and I think West Brom dealt with it very well. Q6. The game at The Hawthorns finished 2-0. What were your opinions on this game? We didn't get a kick and it was typical of the sort of result we were coming to expect at that point. Q7. Which players should we be wary of in your side and who do you fear in our side? Jay Rodriguez seems to be on a run of form at the moment and is thriving under Pochettino after being a bit of a bit-part player for the future under Adkins. I think the midfield is the key for the Baggies, how Cork and Schneiderlin match up with Mulumbu and Yacob could be the key. Q8. What side is MP most likely to choose for Saturday's encounter? Boruc; Clyne, Hooiveld, Yoshida, Shaw (if fit, or Fox otherwise); Schneiderlin, Cork; Rodriguez, Ramirez, Lallana; Lambert. Though there's a chance we might start rotating a few out as we're all but safe and need to give players like Mayuka a run to decide if he's got anything to offer, he's barely played this season. Same goes for Forren at centre back, signed on the day we fired Adkins so clearly a "committee" purchase, has not kicked a ball for the first team yet. Steven Davis deserves a start, but Ramirez needs time to get used to the Prem, although we're running out of excuses for his mediocrity at the moment. Q9. And finally, score predictions. Saints to win 2-1. No probs.

I want Villa to go down, firstly because I called it in about October, secondly because they could get good again and have far more resources than Wigan, so in the interests of improving our chances of success, we want the worst teams in the league. On the bright side, none of the teams coming from the Championship look even remotely decent this season.

transfermarkt is probably the best resource : http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/southampton-fc/kader/verein_180.html