The9

I see through your cunning method of reintroducing the flexible pricing mockery under another guise...

All clubs honour contracts until the end of the term - except Portsmouth of course. Why would any player be swayed by the likelihood having a contract honoured ? EVERYONE does it, and all it means is that we're overpaying a lot of people who aren't up to our current standard to do nothing. When players leave before their contract ends it's almost always because they will get more money elsewhere. The only loyalty is to adhering to the law of the land. Hell, even when Wotton agreed to a mutual termination it was so he could get a 18 month deal at Yeovil which paid more than the 6 months left of his Saints contract.

Most of them could manage a decent Prem run with the right players around them.

I can see all those in bold being perfectly capable squad players in the Prem for another year or so. The others are going to stay on the payroll until their contracts run out as there's no way any of them will get paid more in the nPC or League One than they are getting now, due to their promotion bonuses. You also left Steve de Ridder off that list - and Tadanari Lee... and Puncheon...

If he hasn't got an olive blazer and beige slacks combo lined up, he should step down immediately.

Worked for me.

I'm not going to Villa, but then I told This Charming Man that early in the season, so I'm sure it's been factored into the calculations. If my wife changes her mind and we both go, I'll be sure to arrange for someone else who wanted a ticket to be killed.

I heard a rumour that the system just doesn't DO that.

Actually I think the logical methodology which they'd chosen to do it was spot on, they have just proven unable to actually implement it into the online system. Agreed in principle with the point about it being wrong that previous attendance was not worth anything, but I don't think ST holding is necessarily the right criteria. It also wasn't why there was confusion for the Arsenal game. I'm not entirely sure there was that much confusion for the Arsenal game, anyone who wanted to go worked out very quickly that the only way to guarantee it was to go to the Etihad, and my whole group basically did that for that reason alone. Anyone who wanted to go to Arsenal could queue jump STs just by getting one for Man City, and a northern away which is on the box is a good way of sifting those who should have priority. IF the points system was working properly it would be fairer, and to be begrudgingly fair to the club, they have now put 90% of the information you'd need to work out your points on one page, which wasn't there earlier in the season. The ticketing page now has which opponent is in each category and how many points those games are worth - the only thing missing is the stuff about extra Man City and Sheff Wed (home) points.

They did say that, once, back when they were allocating points based on ££s spent and not games attended. My online account showed a number of points equivalent to the cost of my ST for a few weeks in the summer. They, presumably, then realised that meant the people who received concessions (including the disabled) would be discriminated against because their tickets were cheaper and probably due to that being against the law they dropped the whole idea. At the point when they realise that they're only making the disabled customers queue in the rain for away tickets because they don't offer an online system that actually works for them (correct price and number of tickets for disabled and carer), they might actually have cracked the "not discriminating against the disabled" angle.

Just the one against Villa, I think. He could also get injured or just stop scoring and stick on 6. I'm still not overly convinced he'll get 10, but at least the teams he has scored against are coming back around again soon... Man City, Man Utd etc.

Our League position suggests that's not true. As for the stats themselves, a mate linked them on FB, as I said to him : Doesn't tell you how many chances they create for others, or where their efforts were from, and the bewildering omission of Stephen Fletcher altogether means there's a chance to make some legitimate points missed. Interesting to see Kone's low conversion rate, but against Saints he created his own goal from nothing without anyone else within 30 yards, when has Lambert ever done that?

As I was saying... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=175587931930&set=vb.708351930&type=3&theater Dunno where Antonio's goal is, but Connolly's one is on my Facebook along with Lambert hitting the post and us heading off the line... for some reason Bristol Rovers seemed to have excellent 3G coverage.

I got absolutely soaked, we were in the 2nd row of seats, directly under a hole in the canopy, slightly to the left (our left) of the goal and there was a 90 minute deluge of pouring water directly onto the missus' seat which was coating everyone for about 5 yards in water.

Congrats to them both on the birth of Leo.

Whlst we're at it, can someone draw up a list of all the players under 30 who are playing above mid-table Championship level that Adkins has managed, just so we can automatically discount them whenever they appear in the press ? Actually, didn't I create a scale for rumour verification ?

Well, he did make hundreds of excellent off-the-ball runs to create space for Lambert, but other than that... Congrats to Billy and Jade on the birth of Leo btw, they deserve a bit of luck after what happened with Luey.

Surely the laziest of lazy rumours - he won't be leaving while Celtic are still in the European Cup.

Thinking about it, we were behind the goal at Bristol Rovers in the marquee for the Connolly/Antonio game when it chucked it down (I have Antonio's goal on my phone along with torrential rain footage) and we were in the side terrace for the Schneiderlin goal game - which was also the night some bell-end started a false rumour about the Walsall v Huddersfield match...

So... let's try that again. Schneiderlin Bristol Rovers (a) - Yes Burnley (a) - Yes Forest (a) - No Man Utd (h) - Yes Swansea (h) - Yes Puncheon Walsall (h) - Yes Huddersfield (h) - Yes EDIT : Bristol Rovers (a) - YES Stevenage (a) - Yes Villa (h) - Yes QPR (a) - Yes Reading (h) - Yes. Only missed Morgan's at Forest out of that lot - and if he'd done that at the relegation game from the Championship I'd have seen that too, but he didn't. But bizarrely I have seen every goal Puncheon has scored for Saints (and also the one he scored for MK Dons against us) - and so has my wife.

I was thinking Schneiderlin's was from a different game, as above. Pleased to say I was there for both, then. And Connolly/Antonio's ones in the rain ! I though Puncheon's one was from the game before Pardew got fired for some reason. .

Indeed he didn't.

Bristol Rovers (a) - Yes Burnley (a) - Yes Forest (a) - No Man Utd (h) - Yes QPR (a) - Er, this was an Anton Ferdinand own goal, not Schneiderlin's (though I was there). Swansea (h) - Yes Didn't realise Puncheon has only got 6 goals, 4 of them this season Walsall (h) - Yes Huddersfield (h) - Yes Stevenage (a) - Yes Villa (h) - Yes QPR (a) - Yes Reading (h) - Yes. However, it's actually 5 for Schneiderlin and 7 for Puncheon, as you missed his 75th minute goal in the 5-1 win at Bristol Rovers on 13 April 2010. I wasn't at that one, or for Schneiderlin's goal at Forest. Not bad though.

Seeing as he's played Rodriguez at something resembling left back already this season, I'm sure he's considered all the options.

That's actually a pretty decent idea, although I think I'd rather we try to get Ramirez and Rodriguez/Mayuka on the pitch at the same time with the pace to exploit Gaston's through balls than stick Fox on purely for slightly better free-kick delivery and giving the ball away more in advanced positions. That Lambert-far post routine is played out now we've somehow managed to work it against Man U, everyone's seen it.