The9

The thing that stuck in my mind was that every time we brought him on the first pass he got was always facing his own goal in his own half with a midfielder biting at his ankles. I think he's a competent player at the standard he's playing, but Pardew wanted us to have a taller midfield so we'd get the ball occasionally from aerial challenges, rather than losing everything from throw-ins, goal kicks and hoofs like we seemed to last season. (NB Scheiderlin is terrible at heading and only average height). At the time we didn't have any taller players to fit in alongside him, and now he probably wouldn't get in the team. At the start of the season alongside James, James looked the better player - not least because Gillett didn't get to play defensive midfield for us this season. He does have incredible speed though, when we played Blackpool away last season he came on as sub in Lancs and yet was in VIP (ok, upstairs) in 90 Degrees by 10pm that evening.

If they'd had any sense they'd have sponsored the top division of non-League in the 80s, there are still people who call the Football Conference/Blue Square Premier the Vauxhall Conference without a second thought, and that sponsorship ended 11 years ago.

Saints 1983-84 D1 42 22 11 9 66 38 77 Liverpool 1983-84 D1 42 22 14 6 73 32 80 It's definitely an urban myth as we won the same number of games !

To be fair, it was basically a massive hoof, in line with most football of the era.

FP must love you, they've not paid a penny towards that advert for at least 3 years.

Card, I don't have a problem with, nice to have a team to follow. The money stuff... well, he's the loaded one, let him decide if there's a gesture to be made.

14, 8, 6, 7, 12, 2, 5, 14, 12, 12, 13, 7, 14, 16, 18, 18, 10, 17, 16, 12, 17, 15, 10, 11, 8, 12, 20. Depends whether you consider 9 is "barely more" than 6 as a proportion of 27 or not ?

There's nothing wrong with trying to bring players through as well as buying them in, pretty much all the top teams with the exception of Chelsea in the last 5 years have tried to do this, but you're only as good as the kids you can attract. Luckily for Saints that lot down the road who have a more attractive league to play in and also might have enticed some talented players away from us also have no clue what the hell they're doing. Unluckily we have lost a lot of proven, talented people from our youth setup since the Prem days.

I think that one would be pretty easy actually given the owner's wealth, but I have assumed we're not going down that road until we have to. Half the time Beattie was at Saints he looked unfit and limited to say the least and it took Strachan to get the best out of him. Unless he's superfit and the style of play suits what he can do (remember to make a run rather than standing still, then go short, lay it wide and get in the box for a cross) he's still pretty limited. He's never going to dribble his way past someone using a bunch of stepovers or reach anything but the most accurate through-ball - although in that sense he suits our current style perfectly.

Just for some perspective : Leeds averaged 39k when near the top of the Prem between 2000-2003, 36k when they got relegated from the Prem, 29k in the CCC and then, 22k in their CCC relegation season. The had 26k first season in L1 and were down to 23k last season, though that's still 1000 people more than when they were dropping out of the Championship. A significant proportion of glory hunters, then. Man City got 26k, 22k and 27k in the late 90s in the Prem, 26k and 28k in the 2nd tier, then 28k in getting promoted from what is currently League One in 1999. Their attendances then jumped to 32k back up in the CCC and back up in the Prem and with a larger ground they have averaged around 42k over the last 6 seasons (between 39k and 46k). Pretty strong support as attendances went up as they went down and went and stayed at higher levels when they came back! Norwich had pretty much consistent attendances around the 15k/16k mark all through the 90s (18k in the two seasons after they were 3rd in the the Prem). They had between 18-20k in 2002-4, and that leapt to 24k when they got up into the Prem and went down with us. Somehow (the answers being "there's nothing else to do" and "competitive pricing") they have kept those 24k fans right the way down into League One. Very strong support (since they reached the Prem for a season). Saints : 30,600 in the last 4 Prem seasons except post-Cup Final when we got 1000 more. 23.5k in the first two CCC seasons, then 21k after we blew it in the Play-Offs and nearly 18k last season. We're pretty linear when it comes to the correleation between league position (in terms of the entire Prem/FL) and crowds actually.

What's this "Premiership" and "EUFA Cup" people are talking about ?

I think I already said "I'm not bothered if he runs as long as he scores", I just don't think he's anywhere near our best player at the moment. Lallana, Jaidi and Hammond have all clearly done better in my opinion, and Lambert is in the "good but not yet outstanding" category. He's doing well, but so are plenty of others.

If you know the area Tony Pulis grew up in Newport you wouldn't even consider that he tried a head-butt... and didn't manage it.

Actually I thought she got everything spot on except the kick on Harding which happened when she was flagging for the ball going out, and which the ref was better placed to see anyway. There was even a "not given offside" when James went up the right wing and then ran it out of play which I videoed, and when I watched it back she was right and he was onside despite me saying she'd got it wrong cos the striker was off. She was actually the best lino I've seen at a Saints game in a while. Which isn't to say I didn't chant "you should be washing up" at her.

Harding started the season really well - I voted for him for September player of the month - but his performances have dropped off a fair bit now he's not got so much to do. He seems to stand off his man a bit too much, and he's less effective at crossing than he was early on, probably because he's not getting forward as much, or maybe because he's got less support in front of him when he is challenged, with us attacking in numbers more often.

Only Lallana has been impressive for us in nearly every game and has worked his socks off non-stop, even at the start of the season when we weren't winning. It's that kinda of mentality that others pick up on and it can provide leadership and motivational impetus when things aren't going so well. I have to say I'm with those who think Lambert's workrate has dropped significantly in the last month, but as long as he stands around scoring goals I didn't really care. I just think he's an easy option for people to pick without contributing anything like as much as some other players have.

Doesn't sound like you've been to any of the matches in which Antonio has played, 28_F.

No, I'm suggesting if you're that fast in relation to the defenders, as Waigo is, you can build a yard or two into your starting position to minimise the chance of the official making a bad call.

But they're different "powers that be" acting, and in different circumstances (admin/no admin so far). You can't accuse two different entities of inconsistency because they haven't acted the same in two different situations ?! The agent payments thing got them a ban from transfers, we didn't do that and weren't penalised, so what's the issue there ?

Saints ran on goodwill for a few days when late-paying players in July and August this year, no penalties from the Football League for that, and none of them left for free as a result of the contract breaches. And we were a CCC club at the time. They'll get a points deduction if they go into Admin, and not before.

Yep, and there's a limit on the lowest price the FA will accept for tickets in each round as well (which I'd guess was £10 for the 3rd Round, seeing as you can't get into a Conference South game for that, some places).

It is £10 for ST holders in advance, musstn't grrrumble.

Ok, let's extend the ban to every team in history that scored the goal that qualified them for the World Cup in extra-time of a two-legged play-off directly from the resultant pass after a deliberate handball. Oh, that's still just France then.

That's not what he said.

Yes, but had nothing to do with 2 of the 3 organisations discussed in the mesasage you replied to saying he was the "common denominator" in. Are you telling me Sebastian Coe and Paul Elliott are also part of the FA and Premier League ?