CB Fry

You can win things in British football, and move up the standings and not win the league. You know that too. Anyway, let's remember these are half remembered quotes as the OP says. Can we stop saying "standings" now. I feel a bit ill.

La la land was Champions League with half the team from the academy. Nice try, sweetheart.

"Going up the standings" means win the league now, does it? Alright then.

I miss Wes, Frank, MLG and the rest of the forum brains trust lecturing us about our gigantic catchment area and how they would all be streaming into SMS from Truro, Devizes, Hastings and Guildford once we were established in the Premier League. Because people in Cirencester have a huge affinity to a middle - sized city in Hampshire, why wouldn't they all become Saints fans? Come on Katharina, stop being negative. Stop the Dell-sized mentality. Build it, and build it big. THEY WILL COME. We can do kids for a quid, flexible/dynamic pricing and sell lots of burgers. Oh, and my all time favourite Saints Web expansion suggestion: just sell 8,000 away tickets to City and United fans. And another few thousand to anyone who just happens to want watch a Premier League match. So many simply brilliant ideas. Just wasted. Build it. Build it. Build it.

You can make that leap if you like but I repeat you can believe that Man U can be convinced they can get him and believe everything Les said yesterday, as I do. And just to confirm, I don't think for one second that Man U have made a bid or had it accepted. I didn't even need Les to speak yesterday to think that. If they had, it would be reported widely as a fact, not least because MUFC are listed on the stock exchange and this would be a huge sum. It's not black and white.

Where in that Guardian article does it say they are close to agreeing a fee of £30m? It doesn't. Just talks about Man U being confident/convinced. You can believe Les Reed and accept that article on it's own terms for what it is. I do. Come and join me.

The story was about Man United’s confidence that they will sign him. Les Reed cannot, whatever he says, make that not true. Man U can base that confidence on a number of things, some may be based on sounding out people close to Shaw. Some may be from the fact that they think when it comes to the crunch we would take £30m for a left back. They are allowed to be confident about what the hell they want to be confident about. Les Reed cannot make that not true. Whether MUFC are utterly misguided is another matter.

This is exactly what I am getting at, an almost archetypal Saints Web post. Total good/evil and nothing in between. Not once have I called Reed a liar or questioned his integrity. I think everything he says is completely true and was pleased to hear it said so unequivocally. Great stuff. Anyone reading that Guardian article and thinking we'd accepted a bid from Man U and that Shaw was discussing final terms would be a ruddy fool. Of course we haven't. The world really, really isn't that black and white, Nick.

That's a good assessment of the situation. Definitely an element of Man United trying to work up a new story to distract from the Moyes fiasco. And also possible that Shaw's agent is playing games with Chelsea.

You are basing the there has been no contact line on what Les Reed said. And you are basing your 'sloppy' dismissal on the same, single, biased, source. Les Reed is not Shaw's agent, and he isn't Luke Shaw either. So the only "ground" between the two sources is what you want to believe.

As I say, believe what you like.

If it says they are convinced, then it says they are convinced. That's the article. Believe what you want. It's unlikely people connected haven't been communicating.

You're wasting your time trying to convince the forum "intelligencia" whose stock response to every single newspaper article they don't like is "made up lazy journo lies" yet merrily hoover up generic club PR statements and press releases like they represent total unadulterated pure truth. Because a business or organisation or government would never, ever spin, overstate or play out a line. Just journalists. Yep, just them. The only people in the entirety of humanity who ever lie. And the fundamental problem is people on here utterly incapable of actually reading press reports. That Guardian article is written entirely from a Man U perspective and is about how "convinced" they are about landing Shaw. It doesn't say Saints have accepted a fee, and the only Shaw reference is about him wanting to resolve things before the WC. Nothing Les said makes any of that article untrue, it's highly possible there is some truth in it. And lastly, Shaw staying with Saints, or ultimately signing for Chelsea doesn't make the article untrue either. It's an article sourced from people connected to Man U saying they think they've got him. That's it. Get over it.

Ay, ay, ay, ah, ah, ah Ay, ay, ay, ah, ah, ah.

Liverpool: supported by glory hunting fans all over the country who have also been able to smugly pretend they aren't glory hunters because their team hasn't bothered to win much. It's a heady cocktail that produces utter **** "fans". You are still glory hunters. You live in Bristol and support Liverpool. Seriously, eff off. Despite the fact I like the way they play, and the fact that an ex Reading/Watford boss might beat the other rent - a - foreigner managers, I still cannot bring myself to want them to win it.

I'm saying nine out of ten. Great football from a home grown (or organically assembled) team, with two out of three of our big money signings working out well, a very good hit rate. Our reputation and standing in the game has gone through the roof. And some astonishing halves of football, beating anything I can remember since Chris Nicholl's wonder kids season (which is really where my Saints memories begin). Really the dismal performances in both cups are the only major downside to the season, especially as this clearly was a perfect season to have a real tilt at one. Jay Rod not going to the WC (I wanted him to go more than Shaw, to be honest, because it seems he'd earned it more) and our godawful abortion of a kit were the only other two big negatives. Other than that a near perfect season. Everything I wanted to happen, did happen.

It's been proved conclusively that none of is true, then? The stuff around Man U intending to gazump Chelsea, and them stepping back could well be true at this point. As could the Evra thing. As could the Moyes bit. Our Les is incapable of saying none of that stuff has happened or is still happening. Les Reed ' s statement is great but is not the end of a chapter some seem to think it is. This is all part of the game, and it is far more multi - faceted than "that evil lazy journalist is a liar" and "a club spokesman has said it so it is undeniable truth".

Except it isn't the clubs planting the stories, or the journalists making them up. The sources are most likely to be from the web of agents and middle men connected to clubs, managers and players. With a few random sources thrown in, for example there is a bit David Moyes face saving going on, or, perish the thought, an embittered weasel-faced Italian keen to stir up some sh it.

Probably an agent getting carried away. Could be Luke Shaws agent, or someone connected. And the idea that Moyes played a role makes it an interesting angle for them to go with. As does the Evra thing. It's unlikely there hasn't been third - party to third - party contact, to be fair.

Standard stuff from Saint Richmond. The swivel - eyed lunatic's swivel - eyed lunatic.

Oh for the love of god. No funds are being "diverted", it's clearly an event to aid the club with that clear as day, up front. And you do realise giving to any cause is an entirely voluntary act, don't you? At absolute worst you can say these people are misguided, and the freaks on this thread can ha - ha- ha-aint- Pompey-funny all day long. Fill yer boots. But spare us the sanctimonious "ethics and morals" routine. Comparing it to Liverpool stealing from a Hillsborough fund? Seriously, get over yourself.

The only accurate part of this post is you saying you have no idea.

Moyes has been a complete disaster at Manchester United - why on earth would anyone think otherwise? I've commented on Moyes performance at OT elsewhere on this forum. Doesn't make him an average manager, though. And Everton under Martinez is at worst completely irrelevant to assessing Moyes contribution, or at best, a fine testimony to the foundations laid by Moyes in his very successful tenure. If Martinez was failing at Everton I have no doubt you would be using that in your dossier of shreds of evidence that Moyes was awful and left Roberto a terrible legacy.