The9

If you lot don't stop this I'm going to start a new kit thread. Something along the lines of "how would you feel if Saints didn't wear red and white stripes?" would probably do as good a job of getting the same kind of repetitive arguments.

I'd say the odds were quite long given that he rarely gets on the pitch. As for your complete nonsense about 04/05, unless you were planning on playing him out of position (maybe right back ahead of Telfer, Kenton or Nilsson would have worked), I doubt he'd have got many games ahead of Crouch, Phillips, Camara or Ormerod - the last of whom has a MUCH better lower league goalscoring record than Barnard on his best day. We scored more goals than anyone else in the bottom 6 and as many as the side who came 4th. Scoring goals was not the problem in 2004/5 and a glorified League One striker wouldn't have helped at all. In case anyone's in any doubt here, I think we extended his contract to get more money for him when we sell him to a bottom half Championship or top table League One side, and doubt very much he has the ability to make it in the Prem on a regular basis. He's not skilful or quick enough, nothing special in the air either, and his lack of pace means he won't get enough chances to use his good finishing skill. If he was part of the future plans we wouldn't have 4 strikers ahead of him in the queue already, and he'd have played a LOT more this season once fit.

Speak for yourself, personally I just ignore him, but him being on the same side of an argument as me just makes me uncomfortable.

Confident we're going up then, even though West Ham are on 80 now ?

Kevin Davies didn't score in his one England appearance 0-0 v Montenegro in October 2010. No caps for Saints, or anyone else for the first 13 years of his career. James Beattie didn't score in his FIVE England appearances in 2003 and 2004 (as well as the Australia 3-1 defeat most people remember, he played 2 minutes in a 2-1 win v Serbia & Montenegro in June 2003, came on for Heskey after 76 minutes of a 3-1 v Croatia, played 90 minutes in a 2-0 win v Liechtenstein (think I'd have fancied that), and got a half in a 3-2 defeat to Denmark in November 2003. Never capped after leaving Saints. Kevin Phillips played 8 times for England between 1999 and Feb 2002 and never scored. 22 goals for Saints in 64 "never felt right" appearances. No caps after joining Saints. David Hirst scored against New Zealand in June 1991 in a 2-0 win and has 3 England caps. 9 goals for Saints between 1997 and 1999. No caps after joining Saints. Carlton Palmer scored once in his 18 caps, for England v San Marino and 3 times for Saints in 45 matches. No caps after joining Saints. David Speedie is Scottish.

Even Soccerbase doesn't have all of his Saints Prem appearances listed http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=2074&season_id=122 but it does have his signing date of 19 July 1992 and leaving date of 19 Feb 1993, notes he played 8 times in the League (the Prem did indeed start in 1992/3 so they were Prem games) and he scored 2 League goals (and no Cup ones) for Saints in that time. Of course I'd forgotten he ever scored for England as well, but there you go.

I'd say they've got the most points, but as Friday (and our win at Leeds) showed, getting the most points doesn't necessarily always happen to the best team. In fact they've been pretty spawny since the West Ham game - but you can't argue with results. Might also be worth pointing out that we'd have by far the best record if you took out our 7 worst performances as well -say lose some of December and January from our season the way McDermott wants to drop August/September from theirs. That's kinda why there's a League table and everyone plays everyone twice.

As a mildly amusing bit of alpine spoofing, this deserves better than just sliding off the front page.

Competition's one thing, signing 3 left midfielders seems... strange.

Not to mention that Reading home was Lambert's best all-round game for Saints ever and we lost by 2 clear goals.

More to do with it being on the telly I should think. The post 5pm kick off actually makes getting there easier, and who cares about getting back if there's a party on ?

Hmmm... I think you could probably get away with if the home fans are outnumbered (or it's the placid bunch at Wigan).

That's the ultimate in "looking like a plastic" though. It makes it look like you haven't been interested in Saints since the Prem. Even occasional plastic wannabe kit-buying Saints fans have a sash shirt to break out for less JCL-factor. This is admittedly the kit equivalent of the "what we're allowed to sing" thread, but it's what we're all thinking... Break out 2001/2 or a Pony tick or a Sanderson or something, just not the Prem Relegation kit.

Would be interesting to see Eagles, did he play in front of Fox at Burnley in the Prem ?

You have to be some kind of mong to think you're getting on the pitch at an away game without getting banned or arrested, promotion or not. There's some chance of smpathetic stewarding at a home match, but away ? No. Incidentally, keeping people off the pitch would make them some of the BEST stewards.

I've been really impressed with Danns recently too, no coincidence that Leicester stopped winning when he got injured.

Bless.

Replacing 5 never-playing squad players with 5 Prem standard starters wouldn't be a problem would it ? Or do you think Jaidi, Dickson, Connolly, Seaborne and Reeves have been irreplaceable for Saints this season ? EDIT : Add Forte and Doble to that. I seriously doubt we'll be signing any journeyman mercenaries based on our previous signings.

Well yeah, whenever I post "replace" assume I mean "get rid of crap squad player and replace with starting quality player". Signing back-up is for idiots.

What about Sigurdsson though ?

Phillips played down the right against Saints the other week, Ince was their right mid. Though in a 4-3-3 I suppose you could argue they can have two wide "midfielders" on each side. Never seen Jarvis on the right (used to keep Surman out of the team a couple of seasons ago) but then I can't say I've been paying much attention to the Prem strugglers since we haven't been one. Is that Danns or Dann ?

Used to do it all the time before I moved to Southampton, home games too. I didn't know many people who went to games so I went for the footy not the social aspect. Basically when I was a kid in th'80s none of my mates went to matches (understandable then, especially in Newport) and I got used to going with my dad. However, being a Saints fan in south Wales was a lonely business even in 2002/3. I usually went on my own and sometimes met up with an ex-student mate and his mates. This wasn't helped by not knowing if I'd be playing on Saturdays until a few hours before Saints' kick off sometimes. I had some kind of revelation after basically spending 4 tedious days in Bucharest on my own once everyone else had gone home, and having met a few people via Saints Forever I'm now mates with lots of Saints fans and a particularly select group get to accompany me to matches, including my wife. For the record, the last time I went to Middlesbrough away to see Saints was in 2005, when I drove from Newport to Southampton, on to Middlesbrough and back to Newport basically in 24 hours. I fell asleep on the seats at half time and Javi (remember him) took a photo. I already knew plenty of Saints fans by then but the end destination meant I did the 15-ish hours of driving alone. At least we won though. I think my personal best was Bolton away in the League Cup the week before Christmas, extra time and I was at work Christmas parties the night before and night after. Drove there and back on my own. Delap hit the bar and we lost.

Not sure about Dann (basically I just don't know anything at all about him) and Roger Johnson has been getting absolutely battered by Wolves fans this season as McCarthy made him captain. Aren't Phillips, Jarvis and Whittingham all Lallana left-siders too ? How many left midfielders do you want ?

I think "ohhh matron" works in the way that "bird" does for a woman again now, it's been through being contemporary in the late 70s, cringingly out of date in the 80s and 90s and is now knowingly post-modernist. Even the comparable "oo-er" in a Mayall and Edmondson manner has not yet reached that kind of uber-status.

You just called me middle-aged, you wotsit.