The9

...or he's going to unretire and put on the gloves himself? It's not like it would affect his ability to manage from the bench...

As it stands, it's 1) Skates 2) Cardiff City 3) Brighton 4) Reading 5) MK Dons Though the increasing irrelevance of 1) and the possibility of 2) coming up may switch their positions for the first time since just before the 2008 FA Cup Final when I realised I had to choose. And there's always the possibility 1) cease to exist of course. On the hate scale (10 = extreme hatred 1 = slight dislike), I have the teams above ranked at about a 8,7,5,5 and 4. Bournemouth score about a minus 3, lightly positive but generally ambivalent towards them.

This thread needs more Crab Lungs.

I was tipping them to go down as they were dire before they beat us at Christmas, then they beat Man City the match after, and I just assumed they'd be off into midtable somehow.

Ha, and we can talk !

This is more than enough of a claim to lame to get you in the IFC team for the West Brom game...

That would depend on whether he was given the time to turn it around. And some of Stoke's players are perfectly capable of playing a different style well, they just don't get the chance.

I can't see them not, tbh.

The errors were in direct response to someone challenging someone else to "name a goal-costing mistake", not much more to it than that. FWIW, 6 different goals were mentioned.

Delap at his best for Saints was better than Cork has been, though it wouldn't take much for Cork to outstrip him - Delap's longevity at the top level is also something Cork can't achieve for a while. Dunno where you got the Schneiderlin/Prutton thing from, I said the opposite. Fernandes has -to this point - been more consistent than Lallana at a similar level, and again Fernandes has played more Prem games. Clyne has been alright and fairly promising but Dodd played more than 10 years at right back in the Premier League and was very consistent. Like it or not, some of these players could yet be flashes in the pan and are being compared to players who were Prem standard over a much longer period with only sporadic good performances to compare to. I'd start on the ones I've said will NEVER be better than their equivalents if I was you...

I don't think any of the players on that list have too many caps for their abilities, except probably Gareth Barry. Bobbyboy is about right regarding Graham Taylor's lot, but it's not like there were swathes of better players being overlooked. How James Milner isn't on there though...

The key to that being that at the moment, only Shaw and Ramirez (and only because he was matched with Telfer) are better than their 2003 equivalents. Maybe 5 others will improve, but they're not there at the moment. As well as that, we may have to factor in not being able to keep hold of some of those improved players.

Other than not taking any other jobs and going to one of the bottom half sides next season ? Stoke will probably have a vacancy within a year based on Pulis taking them as far as they can go, that would be ideal for him at a side where they're suddenly getting narky about stagnation and their style.

Sunderland's momentum was as good as anyone's when they beat us and Man City in December, why is not that being taken into consideration ? Fwiw, my predictor thing oversimplified, I only had us to win 2 homes and draw 2 away, and we were still comfortable before the last match (which was the second win). Dunno if the Adkins thing will change much, other than Reading obviously beating us now...

I'm now 40, with a knackered knee and shoulder and haven't even played 5-a-side for a month, so I don't think you have much to worry about. Having said that, the first yard is in my head. And that's where it's staying.

I'll defer to Granty on squad composition... I'm sure he'll be back in civilisation in a day or so.

Or to some that up in as many words as is needed, football has changed in the last 10 years and managers don't have as much of a role in player recruitment any more.

[MLG mode] He was a Prem manager at Saints. [/MLG mode]

What he means is to put a semi-colon and not a comma. I'm shocked that everyone is suddenly so interested in correct grammar on here.

I seem to be typing this weekly at the moment, have the Mirror EVER got one of these right without everyone else already saying it ?

We rarely end up with too many...

Statement above clarifies what I was going to say...

Yeah, it's that "flavour of the month" thing though isn't it ? Villa have won 2 matches recently but at the moment people see Sunderland sliding and Villa rising up, but Villa have only beaten the bottom 2 and West Ham since December, and are still terrible. Having said that, I just did the predictor and had Sunderland/Villa/Wigan all very close - Villa v Sunderland and the last day Wigan v Villa will probably be key. I also had Reading 7 points behind everyone else. Saints, winning their home games and losing aways with the exceptions of draws at Sunderland and Reading came in a (close) 12th, 2 points ahead of 15th and 2 points behind 10th.

"With the most respect in the world", you have completely failed to read or understand anything he's posted. The original question was "why is hating the Skates frowned upon on here?", to which the correct answer is "it isn't frowned upon, but only Saints related things get posted on the Main Board, that's why the thread is somewhere else". Which is what MLG basically said. And then you went off on a complete mental at him for some reason.

Bit worried about Scott Sinclair's "big time" mentality due to him signing for City for the short-term cash at the possible expense of his longer-term career, but it's understandable, and there's no doubting he's a decent top flight player who will have a big upside if he's prepared to put the work in. Little bit of a risky one though, but having his brother here already might not hurt our chances.