The9

My pleasure.

The spine, by definition, is the bit that runs down the middle. Wingers can't be part of the "spine", essential or not.

Yeah, what a Joey.

It was September 1st and February 1st last season.

I wasn't sure, but I checked and he signed in Jan 2008, when they were in League 1. They were only up for one season and it was the season before he joined. He did have 3 Prem appearances for Spurs (inc 20 mins at Old Trafford)...

You're right, their first Serie A match last season was 28 August 2010 against AS Roma and he was already at Saints by then.

Barnard made 3 starts for Spurs in the Premier League, though I'm not sure that really counts...

With all the discussion about the spine of the team and signings, who have we got who's been there and done it in the Championship (or better) already ? 1 GK Kelvin Davis - Prem with Sunderland, C with Sunderland and Saints 2 DF Frazer Richardson - Prem with Leeds ? C with Leeds / Charlton 3 DF Dan Harding - C with Leeds 4 MF Morgan Schneiderlin - C with Saints 5 DF Ryan Dickson - 5 C games with Plymouth in 2004 and 2007 6 DF José Fonte - C with Palace 7 FW Rickie Lambert - none 8 FW Jonathan Forte - C with Scvnthorpe 9 FW Lee Barnard - Prem with Spurs (3 games) in 2005/6, no other appearances above League One. 10 MF Jason Puncheon - Prem with Blackpool 11 MF Guly do Prado - Serie B with Cesena 2009/10 12 DF Danny Butterfield - Prem (2005/6) and C with Palace 14 MF Dean Hammond - C with Brighton 15 DF Radhi Jaïdi - Prem with Bolton, Prem and C with Birmingham 17 DF Aaron Martin - none 18 DF Joseph Mills - C with Doncaster 19 DF Danny Seaborne - none 20 MF Adam Lallana - C with Saints 21 MF Lee Holmes - Prem with Derby ? C with Derby, Saints 22 FW David Connolly - Prem with Sunderland ? 23 GK Tommy Forecast - I'm only counting actual appearances 24 GK Bartosz Białkowski - C with Saints. 25 MF James Ward-Prowse - none 26 MF Alex Chamberlain - none 29 FW Ryan Doble - none 30 MF Richard Chaplow - Prem with West Brom, C with West Brom and Preston 31 MF Harlee Dean - none 37 DF Jack Saville - none 38 MF Ben Reeves - none 41 MF Lloyd Isgrove - none 42 FW Sam Hoskins - none 43 DF Arran Racine - none 44 MF Corby Moore - none 45 DF Calum Chambers - none 46 DF Jack Stephens - none There are probably a few bits of experience or clubs I've missed, there might even be one or two which aren't spot on, maybe a couple (eg Barnard at Southend) which might be wrong. Maybe the dates players were at the levels they were at might be useful too ? Anyone got any obvious omissions ?

Just google "Joey Deakin" and ignore the "did you mean Deacon" stuff. It took me seeing Sue Lawley on YouTube and a clip of the front of his book to convert me. I'd always thought it was the school yard thing "Deacon - no it's Deakin - but everyone calls him Deacon anyway because we're all 7 and it's funnier".

Actually I was just about to link that myself. Well, he's hardly going to have corrected them is he ? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joey-Joseph-John-Deacon/dp/0684144743/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1 Ok, it appears my 7 year old brain was corrupted by teacher talk and apparently he is called Deacon after all - but I'm not the only one, there are quite a few "isn't he called Deakin" threads out there too. For those keeping count, this is about the second time I've ever admitted to being wrong, so you may wish to Golden Thread this one...

Really, it is Deakin. Just because everyone gets his name wrong (including that bastion of fact, Wikipedia) doesn't mean his name was actually Deacon. It was Deakin.

It's "Deakin", you Joey.

Agreed. Slept 6-8pm and then 4am-8am. Ridiculous.

Pah, part-timers.

It has now been relisted at £100 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260812472013#ht_500wt_1156

As it happens I agree on this. But it is completely irrelevant to what I posted.

Tim, wouldn't that depend if "yourself" came within the boundaries of what is acceptable on the Forum ? I don't post on the Ugly because I think it's full of low-brow bullies passing their insults off as banter. Can't say I usually have a problem with people on here doing the same, though there are a LOT of people getting self-righteous about other people's comments for no apparent reason - especially the ones which tend to show their comments as the illogical ill-informed nonsense they often are...

He was wrong about it until the moment the first match kicked off, when his concerns actually became factual - and that was only because Alan Bennett turned out to be gash, as opposed to the decent Championship-level centre back Reading assumed they'd bought... albeit from Cork City. Even that didn't make an entire summer of whining about it worth reading. Had we actually bought any centre-backs before the start of that first game he'd have been shown up for the panicking whiner he usually is. And even THEN we went out and got Wayne Thomas within a couple of weeks of the start of the season.

I also heard that. But I like to ignore the voices I invent in my head.

It's certainly attacking my sensibilities. It looks like it was put together by a 7-year old who's never seen a football kit before, and especially not any recent Umbro ones. Umbro haven't had a kit with their logo only on the sleeve for years. The number on the front isn't even allowed by FL rules, and isn't in the style of the Football League numbers either. The sponsor is too big to be legal, and somehow straddles three different colours of the shirt. And of course it's barely red. The badge has loads of pixellisation around it, and it's just a crappy Photoshop (maybe even from Paint) from someone with no clue and is already getting far too much credibility by people remotely thinking it might be legitimate.

I think Adkins is a tad upset that it makes him look like he's not as good at developing young players as his reputation suggests. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen. We also have no idea whether Gobern tried to negotiate or not, only that we can assume he took the better offer in the end.

Cheers, I knew there was something I wasn't clear on (and knew you'd reply!). So all of this would have happened AFTER promotion was confirmed, AFTER Gobern started against Brighton in the biggest game of our season, and began in a period when Huddersfield weren't sure which division they'd be in (thus delaying their decision too, dependent on who was leaving them).

Gobern's got no obligation other than to his career. The only reason he'd have spoken to Saints about other offers is to try and negotiate himself a better deal using Huddersfield as leverage, and the fact he's gone to Huddersfield implies that even if he did this, Saints weren't prepared to up their initial offer. He almost certainly won't have uprooted gone to Huddersfield for a worse offer, so we have to assume Saints offer wasn't as good as Huddersfield's. I was pretty sure everyone had seen the Gobern spin for the rhetoric it is - aside from the benefits in making Gobern seem more important to improve his value for the tribunal, it also doesn't look good for Saints to be losing young players with a lower league team outbidding them on wages. There are certainly parallels with Matt Mills and Leon Best leaving as well, just after they started getting a break in the first team after years of sitting it out... Martin Cranie was similar too. I think there's some genuine regret from Adkins, but mainly because he's got a reputation for bringing kids through and it makes him look a bit bad that a young player has chosen to go elsewhere.

First thing I've agreed with you on in about 6 months.

Gobern was entitled to talk to anyone from Jan 1* as his contract was expiring, and it's none of the club's business who he's negotiating with in that time. It's their job to make sure if they want to keep him they make him a decent offer. They haven't, so he's left. It's not "behind their back", it's within the rules. *though I did hear that negotiation period might have changed ?