The9

Gosh, what a well thought out argument. So you can point to the bit where he said QPR were bigger than Saints then ? Or not, seeing as according to you he only said they'd "prefer to play for Harry" ?

He didn't actually say QPR were a bigger club then ? Glad we've cleared that up.

We need a mobile striker who can offer a threat alone in away matches as well as give us what Lambert currently does. Wonder if Llorente would come...?

Obviously, because having a creative midfield and no one to pass to is really effective... We're hardly solid enough elsewhere to be giving away the opportunity to create and finish chances, are we? Only one clown here, and he thinks the word "are" has an apostrophe in it.

Two centre backs, a defensive midfielder and a mobile target man, plus a GK if someone obviously excellent becomes available.

Has no-one made the link between this policy and two years of being on the bus and moving forward together? Why would we change that now after 2 years of success?

Two, Phil. Fulham and Stoke. Can see us potentially winning at Fulham but no way in the world we're getting anything first time out against Stoke, guaranteed at least one "keeper in the net" goal.

Surprised Van Persie knew who to throttle, given that he was lying down facing the other way.

I'm still injured from a tackle 12 years ago, and busted my shoulder just heading a ball at the same time as someone, so I'm not quite sure how that feeds into the "can't get seriously injured playing football" argument... Honestly couldn't care less about a footballer hammering a ball in frustration and it accidentally hitting someone else - it couldn't have killed him because it didn't. What would needed to have been different? If anything was, it would be a different incident so I'm not sure what he's complaining about. I haven't actually heard at what point the whistle went anyway, which could be affect intent and execution of Williams' clearance..?

I've only missed two league matches this season and I think you're massively overstating the use of the long ball to Lambert. Didn't go on Saturday but we've only used that excessively in maybe 2 matches this season and Man U was one of those, because it was actually working. Most matches we play it low and link him in the build up but standing it up at the far post or generally whacking it at him isn't something we've done much this season.

Absolutely agree, it's nothing to do with passion, and all about effort and motivation.

Worth me pointing out that in Wessex's attempt at demonising the word retard he actually posted a definition which most people would find perfectly acceptable (other than the definition claiming it was offensive without any supporting evidence or clarification of whom it is offensive to).

So you can't tell the difference between abuse and encouragement then? You have problems.

Di Santo scored against us so they have decent cover.

Fwiw, that inclusive approach is straight out of the FA Coaching Handbook, much of which is written by Les Reed...

He played ALL of his best games for us through the middle, playing him out wide just blunted his effectiveness for us and there were plenty of people harping on at Redknapp for wasting him in midfield for a chunk of the 6 months he was with us...

I disagree, there are plenty of reasons people might be interested in the results of more than one club. Newport County used to be my "first" club, then they went bankrupt and I became a student in Southampton and started following Saints whilst keeping an eye on the non-League phoenix club. I've now been watching Saints for 21 years, and I was only a Newport County fan originally for 16 - but I had a Newport Season Ticket in 1995/6 and I've had Saints ones since 2001, but I'm in my home town for Christmas and I'll be watching them tomorrow instead of Saints. Pick the "first" and "second" clubs out of that. My dad also took me to Anfield and Wembley a load of times in the 80s to watch Liverpool, but it was after taking my dad to a Saints v Liverpool league match in 1992 that I knew there was no plastic affection lingering there. The other scenario of course is that people in the game regularly follow the fortunes of their previous clubs more closely than other clubs, and it's a bit of a push to say they "know f*ck all about football". I still have a soft spot for... never mind.

He was top scorer for his country as they became African Nations Champions THIS YEAR, with them beating Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal on the way. It's not much of a reach to find him on the list, and not having heard of him just means you don't know much about African football, rather than that he's suddenly a great player - if anything he's been tumbling down the list since January and he'd have been much higher on a comparable list from February 2012.

I don't recall Francis Jeffers scoring any goals in winning the Euros ?

I don't remember what they played like, I only remember what WE played like.

Nope, this year they're playing at Craven Cottage as they finished the building work quite some time ago. Though it might have been a way to reduce the train hassle... maybe.

Who are you calling a ho ?

FA have a Xmas party to pay for or something ? Suppose I'd put up with a minor restriction on my freedom of speech for the sake of £50k a week. As for the use of "gay", I'm beyond bored debating it, but do people with a limp feel the same about the derogatory use of "lame" ?

If Carlsberg did Christmas football we wouldn't have pitched up on Boxing Day at Loftus Road and get utterly dicked by Fulham in the next match. Rumour has it Strachan told the players he was leaving in between the two games, certainly looked like it on the pitch.

Don't forget they were also refusing to play kids in League matches last season in order to be able to bring in emergency squad members, as they don't count towards the number of senior players until they've played a League match.