Chez

he's genuine. Exactky how the Brentford fans described him. I was amazed he was dropped for Harding for the last game as he was possibly our best player against Brentford.

is he? I like him a lot, he has been absolutely bloody brilliant since his return, but don't underestimate the quality of the divison above where he has yet to shine if truth be told.

Dickson is not bad cover though is he. I still don't understand Saints fans that don't rate this guy. He runs all day long, has a good touch, is willing to try and beat his man, a great cross and strong defensively.

Pretty much every single fan on here appears to love this signing. You clearly don't, I'm intrigued to know why? The lad dives in and his runs leave us a little open at times, but other than that I find it hard to find fault him at this level. In the NPC things may be very different, but I'll worry about that then. Can you give a little more detail as to why you don't rate him?

I wonder if his wages are significant (one reason given for forcing him out) or we have just got lucky that he fell out of favour and we were there at the right time. Great move for us.

nice idea, has he sorted out his ankle problem?

In my humble opinion the early games showed a lack of ideas not legs. This is why I don't agree with your opinion.

I can't respond to you post as I am not sure if you are stating that we were under prepared or overcooked. Just so you know i think the players were and are fitter than previous seasons. They played ****, but I don't agree that they were short of fitness, Puncheon, Lallana and Lambert apart who all had injuries.

depends if the job he is doing is understood by fans. Most fan don't know football. They understand a tackle, but do they understand a weighted pass over 5 yards or a deft first touch when a defender is tight? Besides, a few shots over the bar (I haven't seen Lambert getting abuse), a few wrong decisions and the failure to beat his man and fans were all over him. They don't like his laid back style and they fail to acknowledge his tremendous first touch and dribbling ability. Fabrice Fernandez got the same sort if stick. What has annoyed me most is that he changed his game (when recalled to the side) by passing much quicker (which IMO improved his game a lot) and yet some fans still jumped on his back when they should have been getting behind him. Fans don't judge players simply on how they are playing in that game they pre-judge them on previous displays. Once fans make up their mind about a player nothing seems to change it. I'm not saying he deserves the shirt, far from it, but fans seem so happy to slate a man that they expect to run for them. We need a squad yet it was weakened as soon as he went out on loan. I notice you talk about moral fibre, well Paul Telfer showed that in spades but did fans recognise that? Did they ****.

the question is how can `smaller clubs' ever entice a batch of young players to all sign 5 year deals that they stick to thereby creating something special? I guess that is a dream that only a huge bag of money and a lot of luck will ever fufill.

give it a week or two and this pure speculation will be used to beat Pardew or Cortese with.

if and when we do get promoted he might be one to remember.

as I recall he was one of the players many Saimts fans suggested as a possible signing and most were dissapointed when he got a better offer. How many of those had actually seen him play and not jumped on the paper speculation I don't know, but I'm glad there are some Saints fans that can differentiate between elbow and arse. Brilliant that Blackpool are doing well. I hope we can follw their lead in due course.

PNE chairman told fans (at a fans forum) the price (£50k) so the deal is done in my eyes. Fingers are crossed now though. Perfect player for us and one that has been tremendous since coming back.

Ricky 9? Was he really that good yesterday?

I'm intrigued to see how he fairs in the Championship again after two seasons of taking the **** out of League 1 fullbacks. Non promotion will hurt us like non promotion did under Burley - losing Bale and all that followed. We must be ruthless in the second half of the season, so, if any talent comes up for grabs we need to be buying it and pushing this squad on.

I gave him 1 out of 10 for the Brentford game, he was woeful, and I rather generously gave him 5 yesterday (a 4 might have been more appropriate), he has to improve if he is ever to push richardson for a place. He is not helped by coming in and out of the side, but hopefully Richardson will stay fit and then we won't need to worry about that.

looked very rusty and all at sea in the first half. I don't think the constantly changing back four can help. Adkins need to keep richardson fit and make his mind up at left back. Seaborne or Jardi is a no brainer for me even when up against pacey strikers we just need a unit to win headers and Jaidi is the man. I'm more concerned with losing Fonte than him getting back to his best.

he's an absolute joy to watch isn't he? I hope Saints fans are taking it all in because he may well not be here for good and finding a replacement with even half his ability will be very hard indeed.

have we got money though?

we are half decent at home but far from convincing both away. IMO we are not nearly as good as we were last season (ignoring the first ten games) but there is still time for us to really find our feet. We need strikers to score goals away from home against the run of play. Ricky is probably the key especially as Connelly and Barnard seem to have fallen from grace a little. A play off position despite effectively having no strikers is not bad. Onwards and upwards I hope.

he's not a natural striker, so his first instinct is to get the ball under control and then to strike it.Unfortunately there wasn't time for that yesterday A real striker doesn't even think about the possibility of the ball bobbling they just hit it on either foot whenever it comes their way. The problem we have is if lambert is not scoring then we have two non scoring strikers and that is not going to get us promoted. If Ricky is scoring then Guly could still be the right man for the job, though Barnarnd has done little wrong and offers a great deal when it comes to link up play and hold up play himself.

the Everton centenery game still sticks in my mind - the first time I ever saw a team change ends at the Dell and they turned us over that day. Since then I've always worried when we've switched ends, but that `voodoo' has gone and I honestly can say I'd like us to switch ends permanently.

That's interesting. I wonder if Millwall have decided against signing him on a permanent deal. If he fell out with Crosby I can't believe time apart has solved things.

we will have three decent central midfielders, about time too.