Chez

is it me or have we become real opportunist buyers - Fonte, Barnard, Dickson, Richardson, Chaplow, Stephens and now possibly Stephens all snapped up? Not a bad thing at all getting a bargain as no doubt wages are quite high.

and used the opportunity brilliantly to set the record straight about them down the road. Only another 90 sets of fans to educate.

likewise. Scary as **** at first, but if you get your head together quickly you can make that career change AND have a tidy sum to spend on house/holiday/car etc

perhaps with your current trade something in the oil industry might be worth considering. ROV pilot courses for example are not cheap but the pay is amazing once you have your foot through the door.

do those sports have seasons without stats?

not sure if it still happens, but Saints school of excellence used to ban parents from watching training and even games to enable players to fully express themselves and play the game they were taught rather than `boot it long' as often encouraged to by clueless Dads. When they were allowed to watch they were asked not to coach the kids or even call out. I guess this doesn't work at Tyro level as many of the Dads think they know more than the manager.

looks a parking nightmare

based on Chaplows recent form I'd have no problem with Stephens coming straight in. Perhaps the increased competition will allow him the break he possibly needs or kicks his arse into gear.

first third of the season he was terrible. Lallana has been outstanding. I rate him so highly yet over the last few years I have been to so many games where he only gets 5 out of 10 (I'm a tough marker) - this season there haven't been any of those, so despite his injury I still think I'd go for him (assuming he plays more games till the end of the season) just ahead of Fonte. Jardi for third place. Another tremendous season of ball winning.

what an excellent question and thread. The way I see it is I think we can win pretty much any game in this division and home games I almost expect us to win, so on that basis I think I'd take the three games in hand, just, although the congested fixture list worries me greatly.

what about the booking fee?

so now you want him to wait and see how things pan out. Isn't that what people have been telling YOU to do all season? By the way I think you make a good point. We shouldn't gamble by bringing them back perhaps a fraction early. Half fit players never seem to perform anyway. But lets say it comes down to the last game of the season and a win would possibly get us promoted. Both are not quite there and need another week. Do you play them then? Seriously? That is the acid test of your whole concept.

not sure I've given him a big build up. I haven't even said I prefer him to Howard. I've seen Stephens a few times in his Bury days and thought he looked a decent prospect. What I won't be doing is complaining that we should have signed Howard should Stephens not shine. No one knows what Howard would do and the simple fact of the matter is we might not even have had the money to afford Howard.

the posh's promotion campaign is hanging by a thread.

adrian ****ing heath. ****. I never want to see that goal again.

The way I see it we went for Stephens first, he initially declined. They looked at Howard as an alternative, but perhaps because of the high wages they went back for Stephens with an improved offer. Stephens said yes. Howard doesn't get a call.

With Lambert coming back we don't tend to suffer from a lack of height defensively so I'm not overly worried. I do wonder if Stephens is a better player than Stephen Dawson who was the real shining light at Bury. Hopefully he has progressed nicely at Oldham and we've git a talent on our hands. Personally I'm glad we gone for an emerging talent. Its something we failed to do a lot.

are they not letting away fans in the clubhouse that sits behind/forms the `main stand' any more?

same shape but shorter? Also Gerrard is more like 6ft and Stephens is about 5ft8. My god who cares. The lad gets up and down, or at least he looked like he did when he played for Bury.

better than Schneiderlin? Sorry I know I shouldn't. With regards to Stephens. When I saw him for Bury he looked a really good prospect. I think he was about 18 then. It will sound a little bit ridiculous but he reminded me of Steven Gerrard, similar build and style, covered a lot of ground and got forward a lot.

Forte is a striker and Lallana and Chamberlain play in midfield. It's N'Guessen that has to step up to the plate and probably Gully at RM.

exactly. 90% of it might depend on us getting promoted to the Prem.

perhaps there was a very small amount available and Lowe decided to invest it on a fantastic youngster that eventually would be worth a lot more. Excellent idea IMO and by far the best signing that summer. As I understand it, it wasn't a million to find initially anyway and I dare say his wages were tiny too. The Arsenal link is just that he was young gifted and French, no more no less.

it's a bloody long and strong thread that this promotion is hanging on to.

he's certainly not playing great, passing poorly, not winning any second ball, not offering himself at throw ins, not making runs that are picked out (not always his fault) etc, but he's not helped by Adkins moving the midfield around in games. On Saturday he played for quarter of an hour at right midfield. Totally pointless IMO when you have Chamberlain in the side.