Chez

That's a good memory. I had it in my mind that Simod was some sort of budget electrical brand/shop. Were they a poor man's Travel Fox?

Get a win at West Ham and the league table is going to look very different.

...and we have won the odd game there too, so not impossible to get a draw or a win.

...and having way overspent in that second season, and the parachute payments ending, we were suddenly financially fucked and had to let our talented young (and cheap to pay) players leave to try to balance the books. This left us with a load of overpaid, middle of the road dross, which was supplemented by more dross. It was downhill fast from then onwards. We probably should have gone down in the 07/08 season, and then with the money problems sumounting and the prospect of administration looming, the following season was basically a procession to the third tier, with 21 defeats, 15 draws and only 10 wins. Those two seasons were terrible. Anyone that says otherwise is kidding themselves and wasn't at SMS on the 3rd February 2009 with me and about 10k others (not a chance there was 13k there) watching us lose to Sheffield United, or at Bristol four days later to see one of the most spineless displays in our history (the day I wrongly decided Morgan Schneiderlin would never make it as he spent the afternoon bottling out of tackles). Relegation is not something to look forward to.

Brilliant day out that. Bit of tin pot trophy, but still great excitement and tremendous atmosphere in the run up and at the ground. I seem to recall queuing, for a very long time to get tickets, possibly on a Sunday. I drove up, five or even 6 of us, in me mum's little Peugeot 205 XE (954cc and 48 horses) with a 20ft george cross covering pretty much the entire car. We stopped off at fleet services, never seen so many Saints fans travelling to a game before. We were utter shite first half, but then fought back well and thought we'd go on and win it, but Forrest were the cup kings around that time. Afterwards around Wembley Saints fans seemed to still be in great spirits, despite the defeat. We had a pretty shit side, so maybe we were just happy we competed. At 0-2 it was a pretty horrible feeling. It took an eternity to get home. Think it rained a little. That's my only memories.

Hmmm. I liked the white version, which looks `clean' and the logo fractionally less tacky. Was it just me or did anyone else think the pinstripe looked like it had been misprinted/badly lined up? Not having a gap between the ends of the Umbro diamond and the pinstripes showed just how little thought and care had gone into this kit.

there's a fair, just for hats, in Winchester? I live and learn.

Speedie, Hurst, Ripley, McCann, Kachelskis and Wise were all over 30 when they were at Saints too.

he's done OK, in two or three recent games, but it's a sorry state of affairs when that equates to being one of our best players this season. Don't get me wrong, I am not criticising him, there has been way too much abuse on here over the last two years towards a guy that helped us earn over £9m from Arsenal when he could have you signed a pro contract with them instead, but he's missed a hell of a lot of football the last two seasons due to injury/fitness. If we go down, our financial situation is not going to be one were we can throw money around, so resigning an out of contract player will be difficult as we will have so many others we are stuck with.

We could, but we didn't. It's not like there was ever a choice made between retaining Forster and signing Bazunu though. Ralph made the decision many moons ago now that McCarthy was his number 1...which caused a chain of events that perhaps were inevitable (OK, so maybe not inevitable, but predictable). Essentially, this decision (made some time earlier) meant McCarthy got the contract extension and Forster walked on a free. Lots of water went under the bridge after that decision. McCarthy's form went, he also go injured and possibly Ralph lost confidence in him too. Meanwhile, Forster rediscovered his form and looked the more solid of the two. But none of that mattered, as Ralph had made the choice and you could not turn back time. Nothing was going to keep Forster here after being sent out on loan and then made second choice to McCarthy. McCarthy had already been given his contract, signed a year earlier, and we were stuck with him. We obviously then had two ageing keepers (McCarthy and Cabellero) on the books, so the next man in HAD to be younger and dare I say it, cheaper than McCarthy. It was then just about who? Bazunu was the choice - with Joe Shields key to making that decision. Once Bazunu was here, it wasn't a surprise he was given the start, as faith in McCarthy may have gone. When Bazunu failed to shine McCarthy would probably have come in, but he was injured and 3rd choice Cabellero was probably just seen as a guy for emergencies.

It's a similar situation to two years ago. When he came on loan, he really put a shift in for us. He was up and down the line all day long. He didn't play as a winger, it was an out and out right midfielder - both defending and attacking. He did pretty well. He wasn't outstanding. But he did a job Ralph wanted. Whether it was enough to justify the two year deal, I am not sure. I guess it depends what the other options were. He was a free transfer and it made sense to the club then. Two (injury affected) years on and we have the same kind of decision to make - although financial pressures (and the large squad we now have) might mean we have to release him.

ha, yes, probably. Keeping and recycling possession is certainly what a lot of managers want to see fro wide players. Wingers tend not be encouraged to `take players on' all the time, especially if it means they head down blind alleys. Even in forward areas, losing the ball can be very costly, as others players are pushed forward and `out of position', so being gung ho and attempting to take one or two players on may not always be the best approach. I've no idea if it was a Ralph instruction to be a little cacious or the player himself just was reserved/sensible/incapable (take your pick). I don't think Theo is any more `attacking' - he doesn't really dribble past people these days, but he offers that off the ball running that Redmond didn't offer. A lack of off the ball runners has been another reason why we have struggled to create chances. Far too much stuff in front of opponents, instead of trying to get behind them/stretch them. Having Theo do that on one wing and Salemana being more of a dribbler on the other, at least creates some variety of attack.

Not trying to defend Bazunu here, but for balance, I wanted to flag up the Leeds goals yesterday against Wwolves and Sa's inability to save any of them. The first looks like he has no chance, it's pretty close range, but I can imagine if that was Bazunu, his positioning would be questioned and then people would wonder why he never saves anything. For the second, the keeper starts to come for the cross, gets blocked off and its a simple header for Ayling into an empty net. The third goal went straight through Sa's legs and perhaps is the kind of goal we'd slate our own keepers for, but when it happens elsewhere, we don't give it a second thought. I think what I am trying to say is, other Premier League keepers let in similar goals to the ones we `demand' our keepers save. And maybe we are a fraction too harsh on our own keepers...I know I always expect better.

Yeah maybe Adams to start and Mara to come on when there's just that little extra space to work in. I'm not convinced Mara and Adams will work. Mara seems to be better on his own than in a pair. I don't really want to see Onuachu up front unless its the last few minutes of a game and we are humping it long in desperation. Also not sure he will complement Adams. If/when we go down we can talk again as to the value of Onuachu.

If someone had said to Redmond, "you have to take the man on every time you are on the ball in their third or you are out of the side", and "if it doesn't come off, try again" maybe things would have been different. Instead he strove to keep possession (and was very good at doing so) turning back as the space closed down rather than gambling, and pressing on with the hope the defender maybe made a mistake. The more he lost his pace the more he ended up `turning back' so as to not lose possession. In the end he just wasn't quick enough to go past a man, so he hardly ever `gambled'. He became like John Barnes for England (when he went into his shell), playing it safe and not running at opponents - which is what he was in the side to do. Basically the polar opposite of Edozie who perhaps gambles too much and loses the ball. Returning to Walcott. He has also lost that bit of pace, but he still makes the same game off the ball runs and forces the defender to be honest.

would you start him (he really hasn't been given that many starts) or does Adams still get the nod due to his great physicality? The Onuachu signing got in the way of Mara getting a run in the side - who knows if he'd taken that opportunity.

likewise, especially as Kane's uncontested headed goal was aided by the fact we had to play AMN there. I guess he's played in so many positions including CB, that you could argue we weren't having to play a guy `out of position' as a result of injuries. Thought they might make a little more of the impact Sulemana and Mara had when they came on. Sulemana was a real threat, getting on the ball in between the lines, being extremely positive and skipping past people. He was impressive and did exactly the kind of things we have wanted to see from him. I've not been impressed at all up until now. He's not done nearly enough or created anything. He certainly did yesterday. Perhaps there is another Mane there after all.

There isnt. Absolute top class individual ability and technique is just not there IMO. We have players that can play in the Prem, so it's not always easy to spot, but the first touch of many players is just not immaculate enough. I'm not talking about mis-controlling the ball, I'm talking about the ability to bring the ball down first time AND the ball being exactly where you'd want it for the second touch to be easy or the right distance in order to allow a first time cross or shot, and to not need to turn back, which happens time after time. ... and the same goes with weight of pass. There are just far too many passes that are just not perfect, preventing a fast break, forcing the receiver to work harder or even to turn back to retain possession, again this happens a lot. ...and there is a lack of pace, and the ability to play at pace. The number of times a decent ball is played, but we don't have that ability to receive the ball at pace or the pace to utilise the opportunity at all, and the player has to turn back to keep possession. There is a recurring theme here... All these little things just add up and not having these attributes/quality hurts us in the end and leads to us just not creating good chances. We really don't create many good clear cut chances at all. You can see our lack of ability when teams press us. We simply can't cope and turn over the ball. I haven't seen us beat the press at all this season. Sadly I see teams beat ours with ease.

It's done now. We've moaned all season and we will moan all summer, but at some point we'll need to think about what is the best path forward (probably to gett us out of the championship).

I've said it on other threads, his display against Newcastle in the first leg of the cup semi was excellent and gave me great hope that we have signed a proper player.

The stats lie a bit. There were a shed load of other Spurs chances, but many shots were blocked well by our defenders. The Kane chance in the second half when we were caught on the break and he shot over the bar is one that I expect him to score nine times out of ten.

not a chance. He earned a fortune from the Sky gig. GB News appearance will be bobbins in comparison.

Oh dear. Isn't that the second time ABK has done that? They always say that onec you've dislocated it, it becomes easy to do many times thereafter. Not sure if thats true or not. All those that have bene recently clamouring for DCC will get their opportunity. Losing ABK is bad news.

I missed both CB injuries. Were they bad?

Acgually, we just need a decent break, but the pockets on these professional tables ain't half tight.