The9

Colander of Saints ?

Actually it says "calendar of Saints", which is probably better, as a "calender" is a series of hard pressure rollers used to form or smooth a sheet of material

Solent Green, a brilliant little homage to this 1973 film, though quite why Hummel would want to recall that given what it turned out to be, who knows.

They might expect it, but that doesn't mean they have to like it...

I don't think there's been much difference in the football under Pardew and the football under Adkins to be honest. Anyone who thought we planned to hoof it under Pardew was insane, and same goes for the team now - we still do it occasionally but mostly we try to play it wide and get the ball into the box fairly quickly.

I'd be "N'Guessan" that part of it is to do with the additional 4-5 minutes you usually get at the end of the second half, and the fact that tired players make more mistakes. Plus, we've won just under half of our games, so a lot of teams who are behind and trying to get back into it are much more likely to get caught out of position attacking than a team which is ahead or drawing and already has a point or more to defend.

I have at least one sky blue shirt still in the packaging, I think they were all L or XL when I bought them, could be short or long sleeved, will have to check.. only one of the home red sleeved relegation season though. PM me an offer if you like.

Arguably it was Hamster.

Erm, yeah you did, practically verbatim. "Someone who sees it as I do" = "people that agree with me..." Well done ladysaint you talk a lot of sense = "...talk sense"

The second they think they've got it in the bag they'll start losing games.

Really ? That's exactly what I'd expect him to do. Especially given that it was the same kind of criticism being handed out to Pardew last season and Adkins managed to turn around the performances from early in the season too. Then again, only Brighton are going to be happy tonight, and they only beat the bottom side at home...

But they don't HAVE to slip up, we've got more games to play than them.

Quantity not quality, seeing as they have Birmingham, Villa, West Brom and Wolves all within 10 miles and all in the top league. The combined attendances would be pretty impressive for a single club, but football being as it is, that's not going to happen (and nor should it).

That would be terrible for them, given that he's not even their manager.

They did that last season with our match with Brighton getting shifted forward - they don't seem to be able to cope with moving kick-off times outside the Prem.

"So what" is that at the moment, for all the flaws, we seem to be in a pretty decent situation. Probably backed by some decent amount of money with the possibility of a lot more, and not having to short change fans on the pitch. And there's no firm evidence of any lack of family support, only a few rumours. If they sell, there are hundreds of shysters, dodgy businessmen, people with their own agenda, property developers who only want the ground, people who can afford the going concern but not the ongoing investment etc. who could be interested and wouldn't have the stated goal of getting the club back to the Premier League. Last time round I'd have taken anyone with enough to get us out of admin and remain in business. We got VERY lucky, and it would be difficult to find a better buyer.

I pity the Bulgarian national side at Euro 2004, staying in the Novotel with me in Povoa de Varzim. The nearest pitch was next door, and a delightful combination of dust and mud. Oh, and it was about £40 a night, a stone's throw from the beach, and the only place in Northern Portugal that still had rooms that week.

Half volley ? It wasn't in the process of bouncing.

Volley ? It bounced.

If you watch the angle at 4:00 you can clearly see it's a headed Sol Campbell own goal and Delgado doesn't even touch it. I'd thought for the last 8 years or so that he'd punched it in, and even on first look it looks like it hits his hip - but the low angle behind the corner of the goal shows Campbell's head ducks in front of him and there's no deflection after it. So if we're counting best own goals, my money's on John Arne Riise's one.

I like your style, but expect a snarky response from Alpine isolating one arguable phrase to deflect from the crushing weight of factual evidence against him. Actually he'll probably just reply to this instead.

I try. I also happen not to believe being, for instance, 1 point ahead having played all your games whilst your rivals have a match left ALWAYS puts you in a stronger position than your rivals. It depends on the circumstances, particularly the probability the team with the games in hand will maximise their return from those matches.

A few but not all. Some of the so-called "anti-Cortese" people just think he's made a bunch of bad PR decisions and isn't always acting in the club's longer term interests regarding the treatment of fans surrounding the opportunity to purchase Season Tickets (I'm referring everyone without £400-£500 spare in the bank at 3 weeks' notice, rather than as Nick Illingsworth, lest that be misunderstood). I'm pretty comfortable that the club isn't for sale... except to the right bidder in exceptional circumstances. Whether rumoured "legal clarifications" between the Chairman and the Liebherr family could constitute "exceptional" I'm not sure. Without getting too het up about it (as we're doing ok at the moment), there's clearly something not "simple" about the money set aside for Markus' legacy. If there is a family issue with agreed funding, the easiest solution is a mutually agreed sale to cash in on the club's value, rather than impacting on success of an investment by hamstringing the club with legal wranglings affecting transfer dealings - though I can't say I've seen much evidence of that either. Whether the January transfer window signings show we still have access to the money or not is definitely up for debate - Lallana's signing shows we must have some decent dosh set aside, and whilst I'm not sure Chamberlain staying is to do with money at this juncture (he hasn't got a new contract out of it that we know of) the status of Forte as our headline permanent signing doesn't really set the pulse racing. But that might just be because the manager is happy with the squad for now as much as it might be that we don't have the readies to entice better players. Certainly the squad didn't need another makeover like the one it got from August '09 to February '10 under Pardew. This is pure speculation on my part and I have absolutely no evidence for this other than circumstance, but in the back of my head is a nagging doubt that we can get "new" money released - so renewed contracts like Lallana's are covered by the "legacy", signing loan players permanently who may have been targets discussed with Markus could be covered by the legacy, and signing cheap players and loans is covered by ongoing operational profit - but is it the case that we no longer have that direct line to the money man and his transfer approval, now Markus himself can't sign the cheques ? Either way, Cortese's position is "the club is not for sale" and you have to take that at face value in the short term.

Well, you kinda did bring Cortese "being a cock" up. I only queried his possible bipolarity when it comes to revenue creation. Anyway, it's probably worth a thread on its own. Which I won't be starting.

Agreed, not that I'm keen on stockpiling squad members, but just as Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U have the financial resources to challenge for the League, FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League, we've got the resources to have two competent players in every position to enable us to manage playing 2 games a week, unlike most other clubs in the division, who are taking risks once you get past their preferred 13 or 14 players. There's always the possibility of an injury crisis for any team no matter how deep their squad is, but if anything the fixture pile up for everyone works in our favour - others will be risking untried or "past it" players, but the only teenage kid we have thrown in at the deep end turns out to be worth about £10m and we have someone in his position on loan at a Premier League club !