CB Fry

We've taken a picture of the train and framed it as a gift for the West Ham boardroom.

I like the way you have an ironic username.

A post that did make me genuinely laugh out loud.

Or, it's just a bit of fun.

.....

The "majority" nationally, globally want to see/support the big football clubs in the biggest competitions. That majority couldn't give two sh its if Nottingham Forest can't be in the European Cup anymore. I am sure you'll come back with "people you know all say they hate it" but I bet they all watched the CL final. So when you say majority you mean supporters of clubs like Saints. What a surprise.

Tell you what, the Scottish League have got it spot on right now. The League championship is a total foregone conclusion, leaving Scottish football fans to strap in for the roller coaster thrill ride of the battle to finish third.

So, a league where pretty much only two teams can ever win the league (with occasional Atleticos) is more competitive than one where five can? Riiiight. You put up a great post which cuts to the heart of the bulls h it hypocrisy in this debate. Plenty of grizzling about how jolly terrible money is and how the game is ruined by horrible money. But typically, as above, this is expressed by belly aching about how we can't access the champions league, which happens to the most lucrative international club competition in world sport. Get the feeling most wouldn't be complaining if we were in the Champions League and had access to that filthy money ruining the game.

In fairness he does have access to a lot of great resources.

I've emailed that guy. Apparently he's a Nigerian Prince. Does anyone know how to set up a Western Union account?

It will be an outrage if we don't spend eight million quid on a new right back this window. In other news, it's an effing disgrace Nathaniel Clyne is overlooked for England AGAIN.

HE SCORED HE SCORED HE SCORED! Apart from that, dogs hit.

Makes sense. Arsenal vs AN Other Prem club at home is probably not a creative choice for a TV match. ITV would have picked it, obviously.

It hasn't killed the competition because the competition isn't dead. TV revenues have never been higher and last year's race for the title was one of the very best for decades - wide open, exciting, brilliant. How is that a dead competition? You make it sound like Saints, or teams like Saints, were winning the league left right and centre before. And making out it isn't a Saints issue is disingenuous, as is all the "for the good of football" stuff. People on here just want any old small club to succeed do they? Do people really think the competition would be so much better if, say, Norwich or Bolton or Crystal Palace were in the top six instead? That's what this forum wants to see for the "good of football"? Sorry, it's hard to see any of this debate beyond a temper tantrum that Saints ain't going to be in the Champions League. And not winning the league, of course: all that talk of "ambition" on here rarely stretched that far: just scraping fourth to get into the Champions League. But that's only "for the good of football" of course. Not to get money for us to Lord it over smaller clubs than us. Oh no. Just for the good of football.

Except they have done no such thing. They've signed a gaggle of freebies and cheapos with barely a top flight appearance between them.

Maybe that "similar thing happening every window" should tell you something.

LOL. Forum gold.

If he's still tweeting come April we've had a bloody good season.

You've got to admire the deftness in which Alpine can turn a situation you'd think he'd be happy with (player he despises shipped out) into a situation he can complain about. We can file "Taider is just a Tommy Forecast" alongside "we will be replacing Pochettino with a Steve Wigley standard manager" in the Alpine hall of fame.

Quite. Us taking 9,000 to a third round LC game would actually be rather quite odd.

I think we may need to stop worrying about a dodgy half away at Millwall. Well done QPR. You too, Villa.

For exactly the same reason, Derby away. Or Forest. Or Burton.

We have "shown it is possible" by spending a ton of money. It certainly was a pretty ordinary comeback story - nothing about our double promotion has "shown" anyone anything not already obvious. Newsflash: richest clubs more likely to be successful. The likes of Blackpool, Watford, Swansea had better stories. Was us plundering other clubs for their players "for the good of football" as the original poster says? We signed players like Billy Sharp for big money basically for six months work then shipped him out on loan before finally getting shot. We plundered Burnley for Jay Rod, and Twente for Tadic. Us being owned by a billionaire meant we went up while other clubs didn't. Don't really understand how we have a right to complain about the cards stacked against us when we've been in an unbelievably fortunate position for half a decade.

Man would never have landed on the Moon from Everest with that attitude.

He is entirely a creature of the English league system and entirely an "English Football" player. Nationality pretty irrelevant there. I think if Long is valued at £12m then in that universe Townsend is £10m. Not sure I particularly want him and pretty sure he isn't falling over himself to come. Can't see it.