Chez

bit before my time when first used (1970ish), but a few of the old guys sat in front of me at SMS used to sing: We've got Tommy Tommy Tommy Tommy Jenkins on the wing, on the wing. We've got Tommy Tommy Tommy Tommy Jenkins on the wing, on the wing. Tommy, Tommy Jenkins, Tommy Jenkins on the wing. Tommy, Tommy Jenkins, Tommy Jenkins on the wing. I've moved seats so don't hear that any more. Pretty much since terraces closed that has seen the end of most original songs from Saints fans. Only Marian me lord, nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn na Gregor Rasiak, do do do jonny viafara coem to mind as ditty's we have out together. Christ it just shows how bad things have got that there isn't a single song for any of our players now.

very good post, Best supporters in the world, meh. We're even getting `fans' on here laughing at and criticising supporters for buying season tickets and going to games.

Skacel? Maybe we could go 4-4-2, which IMO is essential away from home.

when we didn't change the manager (Wigley) quickly enough we went down!

Paul Smith, Burberry, Ted Baker, Ralf Lauren, what more could she want?

Absolutely. Mills has done pretty well IMO and will only imrpove with games. he lacks a little place and height but he gets stuck in and I haven't noticed him being murdered by wingers. The only time he looks exposed is he faces 2 on 1. Skacel thrived in a forward role at Hearts and with Holmes out I'd of thought he would have walked straight into that position. At left wing he wouldn't need to chase back all day as well so his suspect fitness would not be exposed. JP is worse than Burley at playing people out of position. James at right back, Surman at left back, McGoldrick at right wing and CM, BWP at right or left wing, Dyer at left wing, Mills at left wing he even had Thomson at right back on Saturday. You can add Wotton to that list as his position should clearly be somewhere in league 1.

the trouble is Euell, Killer and Thomas are not available to Jan so its hard to judge. Certainly a squad with those three and Skacel/John will offer more resistance than one without. The likes of Wotton, Ryan Smith, Jake Thompson, Llyod James, Thomas Pakhart and David McGoldrick have shown that they are all short of the required quality needed. Others like Mills, Lancashire, Gillett, Schneiderlin and Lallana can quite clearly cut it. I'd of thought that was enough youth in the side to keep everyone happy and perhaps win a few games!

when you say `towards the end' don't you really mean he looked tired after about 60 minutes? I don't understand why Mills played inthe winger role ahead of Skacel. Very strange decision. Despite my lack of love for Skacel I was glad to see him back in the side. No one is going to tell me that Ryan Smith deserves to play ahead of him.

I agree the "I've a contract, I can't be arsed anymore" is a load of ********, but I disagree that he worked harder than anyone. He worked harder than Stern John, but that's about it. Popular misconception that he was a grafter IMO.

I'm more of the opinion that he got lucky in his first season than he was particulary bad in the second. IMO his all round play is very average indeed. He offers himself well, but when he gets the ball he loses it. I've never seen so many crap flicks, misplaced passes and weak hold up play in my life. This happened constantly, but because he scored goals every week you tended to forgive him very quickly indeed, however last season he scored **** all so all you got to see was him giving the ball away cheaply and then blazing over the bar. What makes me laugh is when people describe him as pacey, hardworking, or good at holding the ball up. He offers none of those things, all he has ever offered is goals and they dried up as his confidence dissappeared. Yes he was messed about by Burley, but he was injured for a long spell and when he returned he was crap. He obviously needed a long run in the side to find his feet, but we didn't have the time and every chance he got he failed to take it. Burley just didn't ever want to give him 4 or 5 games on the trot and Pearson wasn't overly impressed either. I appreciate the other strikers we have are not world beaters, but I suspect Saga is on a hefty wage so that's why he is out the door for now. IMO we shoud never have signed him. We had too many strikers last season and we wasted hundreds of thousands paying them all to warm the bench.

if you park in town you then have to walk past the away end to get to the ticket office so if you hang about outside there is bound to be a ticketless Saints asking the stewards where the ticket office is and you can sell to them.

On that theme of the best 11 disregarding injuries and financial payments then my side would be: Davis Thomas Killer Lancashire Mills Euell Schneiderlin Gillett Surman Lallana John Bart Perry Cork Skacel BWP Far from convinced by Lancashire, but with Killer needs some pace next to him and Perry/Thomas don't offer that. Mills looks decent to me btu his lack of height must be compensated for by Thomas at right back who did a solid job there. Gillett was playing well befire his injury and IMO offers a lot to the side in terms of hussling the opposition. Schneiderlin has also looked good for me and I don't know why he is always subbed. Bit harsh on Cork who has played well but he can come in if either CM don't work out. Euell goes straight in but not in a central role. When NP moved him out wide he wa excellent. I go for Surman ahead of Rudi but only just. Rudi could also replace Lallana in the second striker role. No idea why John does not start. Pekhart, McGoldrick or Robertson have offered little todate.

so are you suggesting supporters do not take the club up on its eary bird offers to teach them a lesson? If you do you end up forking out hundreds more to see the same 23 games...

sorry but with huge debts run up over the previous 12 months every Saints fan should have known this summer that the side would be stripped of every valuable player and replaced with low wages, low quality and youth team players. If you bought a ST thinking it would be anything but that scenario then you were just stupid.

surely no one with half a brain swallowed the bull**** on the OS this summer? The term `revolutionary coaching system' became a running joke on here after about two news items (and the OS continued to use it all summer).

Jackson's Farm would have to be sold off to pay debtors. I can't imagine debtors would allow it to be retained by any incoming buyer.

the question is, what steps were taken to turn an 18th place side into one that got promoted?

we need some `units' like Wayne Brown (available on loan from Hull), some defenders with bite like Chris Biard, some height at fullback like Djimi Traore (kicking his heals down the road) and maybe some talent in Quedrue (Brum) or Ryan Taylor. None of these are financially viable though. But maybe if Skacel and Stern went out on loan...

Delap was and is ****. When they played us last season he was non existant and wouldn't want him back.

Keeping Davies (if he had actually wanted to stay) would have been a no brainer, but Saga was **** last season and does not hold the ball uo well, gives it away far too often and would not be able to play on his own up front. Wages would have crippled us as well.

has he improved since the last time he was here then?

2 pens + McGoldrick clean through one on one. Their first goal was slightly fortunate in that both players went for the header, it hit them both and fell nicely for the Watford player to smash home. The second seemed to be slightly lucky but both came down to the fact we could not win the headers needed. They had the best chance in the second half when Wotton was done and their striker missed when one on one. We lost because we are too small and can't win headers, too bad pens, and missed easy one on ones. You have to make your own luck...

you can't be the better side yet be losing? We were better in that we controlled the game in open play, passed it pretty well, won the midfield battle and looked quite dangerous on the attack. Yes you are right we didn't take our three guilt edge chances and they took theirs, but you can conceded goals and play well you know. I am not sticking my head in the sand, I know you need to defend all types of attack including from headers, but I just wanted non attenders to know that if we could have defended at set peices the half time score would have been different. Second half we were terrible, far worse than the first, yet the score for the half was 0-0. We certainly were not equal to them in that half. They were terrible. We were terrible. Both will struggle. We will go down.

Davies wanted to leave, he had a clause in his contract and we needed the money. I question the price, but if he had it written into his contract that he could go then what the **** could we do?

Mills and James are too small. The same applies to Perry. You have to combine footballing ability with physical presence at the back. We are lightweight. Who is to blame? Who cares. All I care about is changing this fact. Watford signed Ward on loan and last week and today he won absolutely everything at the back today. Why on earth he was not signed in the summer ahead of Perry and Wotton I will never know. I realise we don't have money but what little you have has to be spent right. Look at the loans/signings...Pekhard, Forecast, Pulis, Gasmi, Wotton even Svensson, money or no money I have to question the logic of these signings.