Chez

he should be banned from playing passes over 15 yards. Top quality player until he tries to play longer passes.

total lack of desire from Welbeck and Walcott if you ask me.

Hart starts the season off where he finished it...making massive mistakes.

massive lack of effort to close him down quickly, Walcott especially. Didn't see Welbeck put his body on the line either.

looking at the early exchanges I have to ask, why is England giving Rooney match fitness. If you aint fit you shouldn't be selected

Wiltshere is some player.

I actually rate Welbeck, but I had hoped Sir Rickie would get the nod. Maybe an England wim will cheer me up. I hope the Lambert call up doesn't end up being like the Kev Davis call up.

I'm actually a little nervous for him. I hope he is used in the right way with ball to him not beyond him to chase.

So far I am not a fan if I am honest. I felt he was too passive in games. Far too often he didn't get tight, bully strikers or win enough headers. His passing out from the back was often atrocious. Worse, dare I say it, than Jos. He did play well in some games when he was a little nastier, but I want to see much more of that this season. I know you can't kick strikers up in the air these days and its all abut positioning and jockeying - which is his strength, but there is still a place for a physical presence and dominating strikers, rather than the other way round. The good thing is he has age on his side and hopefully has settled in the UK so improvement is certainly a possibility, but I don't think he is a shoe in for the first eleven and if Fonte or Jos was selected ahead of him I wouldn't have a problem with that. Looking forward to seeing whatever partnership MP goes for and with Shaw, Morgan Cork and Wanyama offering more protection to CBs they hopefully won't be exposed like they were at the start of last season or at home to WBA at its end.

I use not having SKY to justify the cost of a season ticket. Then I watch the other games, cricket included, on web feeds.

me to. I can still afford to go, but I just find it hard to justify paying that sort of money to watch footie.

When I have seen him he looks a weak link in the Japan side.

Better first choice CBs certainly, but very good question about the reserves. Not sure we have.

seems a bloody long time since we even looked remotely interested in winning the league cup. Hope that changes this season. Let's get some silverware.

Kone

Was Cropper the lad Blackburn released at some point before we gave him a contract? Quite a turn around.

and only the genius of MLT prevented us from being relegated in most of them

that's the one. Was it the first season of the City of Manchester Stadium? I had upper tier seats. It was the first time I have ever seen TV screens showing the game positioned behind the servers in the food bar enabling you to watch the game whilst you queued for a pie. We ran rings round City that day in glorious sunshine. Did BT not play that day then?

I tend to back the underdog a lot on here as my defence of Jos all last season proves, but even I struggle with Fox. He had a decent game at Swansea, especially considering he hadn't had a run of games in the side, but by and large he causes us problems. He doesn't get tight, ever, drops far too deep to cover for his lack of pace, and doesn't work hard enough going forward or tracking back. He has enough ability on the ball to play at this level, but this is the top flight. More is expected. Are people forgetting the impact Cork and Shaw had on our solidity and results last season? Losing Shaw is a massive blow. Massive.

As an apprentice I think he started off playing in central midfield, but I think they tried him out at fullback. I am not sure why, he was all about first touch and vision and being able to play in tight areas. You need to get up and down the line at fullback, which never struck me as his game. The club didn't see the potential and he was released. The 1991 Saints side was pretty decent as I recall, so perhaps he just didn't look likely to break into that side. He signed for Baldock and played at the back initially before moving up front when they had injuries and the rest is history.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Nothing against Riise - I have no idea how good he really is defensively - but it doesn't feel like a progressive signing. Mind you, he's better than Fox presumably and perhaps this kind of signing is what we need, especially for this position, so perhaps I am wrong.

I knew Kev from his days as an associate schoolboy at Saints. He was a nice lad and a terrific centre midfield prospect back then. I was over the moon when he signed for us and thought he did a good job for us overall, scoring a few cracking goals along the way. I seem to recall him running rings round Man City at their place at the start of one season. If only he had taken the chances at Fratton and Bucherest he might have become a Saints legend. I thought the comments when he left we slightly misplaced for such a seasoned pro, but they were pretty harmless and I didn't feel any anger towards him at all. He just said that he hadn't settled and things didn't go quite right. Hardly surprising considering his apparent private life at the time. Football fans are always looking for a villain and having been relegated he fitted the bill nicely. I have to say the songs at WBA when we first played them again were amusing, but obviously ruthless. I had to chuckle though when he popped up to score an equaliser right in front of us Saints fans and he gave us all a little smile himself. He certainly had the last laugh that day. I have to say I was gutted he got another deal at Palace. He is bound to score against us. Seriously though, he has been a great player and you have to applaud players that get rejected then fight their way back through the leagues as he did.

maybe the banning of photographers and the local paper, the shoddy treatment of Nick Illingsworth and MLT, and a dare say selecting only a couple of journalists to talk to.

I agree with you but our balance is lost with fox both on an attacking and defensive sense. Our centre backs are so much more exposed and we lack penetration without the runs to the byline from Shaw. Huge loss. Shaw as much as cork changed our season

something done years ago doesn't amount to tradition. Tradition needs to be something done regularly over a period of time I'd of thought.