St Landrew

This is a toughie. Both are great defenders, and are very different in style. Both would ably perform in any great Saints team with the right partner. Claus's perfect partner was Michael Svensson, and Dean Richards never looked better than when he played alongside Claus. It's possible Deano's style might suit Dave Watson better, but we're not concerned with players fitting a team, at this moment. We're voting for best individuals. This is our Gerrard and Lampard dilemma. I'm going for Claus. 40 caps for Norway is a huge statement about his quality, and no other Norwegian has played anywhere near so many top level matches in the English game. He just edges it for me.

Well, it's a little more than that. When CDs first came out, the buying public were told that their vinyl records were obsolete overnight. So overwhelmingly was this message pill taken that semi-serious technology programmes like Tomorrow's World would wax lyrical over a CD's huge advantages. They were: 1. Perfect sound. 2. High resistance to damage. 3. Continue to play despite huge gouges being taken out of them, let alone little scratches. 4. No clicks or pops 5. They last forever. Well let's look at those advantages. 1. Perfect sound - Although methods have changed since the first efforts, music tracks are digitally recorded using a sampling rate. In the early years, this resulted in a CD type sound, that although dynamic, was considered edgy and lean, when compared to analogue records. It's interesting to hear vinyl records that have been pressed using a digital recording. They sound every bit as dynamic, although they tend not to be so edgy. Digital recording is always sampling the frequencies of sound/music at any given point. A digital signal must be converted to analogue before it gets to a loudspeaker. Analogue recordings reproduce the original in its entirety, and are read by analogue equipment and then passed to the loudspeaker. So which one is really perfect..? 2. High resistance to damage - No argument here; CDs are indeed highly user friendly, when compared to LPs. You can throw them around the room, cover them in finger prints or jam, pour olive oil over them, and once you've thoroughly cleaned them off, they'll play the same as usual. They're a lazy consumer's dream. The fear of moments when you left a young relative alone for 5 minutes, only to come back and find your prized LPs out of their sleeves and being rolled across the carpet, are long gone. You can do it to CDs and get away with it. The thought of that happening to an LP makes me shudder. However, I did once pick a very old deranged copy of Beatles' Sergeant Pepper out of a skip, and after cleaning it, played it and found it to be in super condition. The sleeve could have been better [it had been rained on for several days, I believe]. I gave the album to a mate, as I had a copy already. And as for CDs being really resistant to damage, there is a catch..! 3. Continue to play... - Well the simple answer is they do, and they don't, just like vinyl records. Only vinyl records have a tendency to keep playing more often than CDs do. There comes a point where a CD has had enough, and it comes surprisingly early. I once had two CD copies of the same album. One I bought, and it was in perfect condition, and one I found, and it was not. It had little scratches all over it. Nothing huge, but the shine had gone. Like a light plastic scourer had been taken to it. I cleaned it, and then put it in my CD player. The error correction went into overdrive as the buffering of the player ran out, and the songs became a series of IFs and BUTs, intersperced with huge silences. By contrast, my copy sounded great. So I got out some Solvol Autosol, and started to clean away the scratches [don't do this at home unless you're prepared to junk the CD afterwards], and see if I could help the poor thing along. Eventually, I'd cleaned enough of the gouges away to get my CD player to play the CD through. But it sounded really digital and edgy. This gave me an idea. See next. 4. No Clicks or Pops - I'd had two identical old demo CD singles from my Comet management days, and they were both very finely scratched. I'd since used them as little coasters in my study..! I cleaned them, and then played them both. They played through fine. Then I polished one [using Solvol again] upto a high shine. In fact, practically to perfect. I then played them both again. The polished one sounded superb, and the merely cleaned, evenly scratched one sounded dull, lifeless and CD like, i.e. edgy and lean. So CDs DO succumb to damage after all, even the lightest stuff. 5. They last forever - Well they don't. The early CDs didn't, going opaque, and sometimes even changing colour. Basically, if that coating is anything less than absolutely clear, the sound will degrade dramatically, and ultimately stop altogether. The issue with CDs is said to be resolved. We wait and see. But I wouldn't bank on them lasting as long as the average LP. Oh, by the way, they do warp too. And then they definitely won't play. In summary, nobody doubts the easy sonic attributes of CD and DVD. But let's not forget their limitations either. They are very convenient and small, and it is relatively cheap and easy to get reasonably good sound out of them. Although you still have to pay huge money to get the very best digital sound can offer. LP vinyl records are inconvenient and big, and hard to look after. And it's bloody hard and expensive to get the best out of analogue sound. But if you try very, very hard, and design equipment that really does faithfully extract the information out of that tiny groove, you can get it to surpass anything that digital sound and equipment can do. Here's a last thought. And it might make you think.. I never realised. We're all amazed, when we are shown in detail, how a DVD/CD player's laser tracked the pits and flats of a CD or DVD, and how they can be focused to see through to another layer. That's great stuff. But think about analogue records for a moment and how they are tracked. There's a tiny groove being closely followed by a shaped diamond. That diamond is mounted on a tiny metal bar, which disappears inside a cartridge, which is bolted [or clipped] to a headshell in a pickup arm of around 9 inches long, which waggles up and down, but is retained at its far end. The information from the groove is turned into an electrical signal by the equipment I've just roughly described and sent to the pre-amp. But that's not important. Just imagine a straight 3 inch deep trough as the groove. Now imagine one of those old wooden telegraph poles we no longer see. They're pretty bloody tall. Now imagine that telegraph pole is shaped, at one end, to fit the groove, and is anchored so that one end is tethered while the other end tracks the 3 inch trough. Now it has to do this totally faithfully, and not jump about in the sllghtest, while the trough slips by underneath it. Pretty amazing yes..? This is what a pickup arm allows to happen when playing a record. But the telegraph pole in the 3 inch groove isn't the pickup arm tracking the record groove. It isn't even the cartridge on the end of the pickup arm. It isn't even the metal bar [cantilever] that sticks out of the cartridge. It isn't even the diamond that is cemented to the end of the metal bar. It's actually the tiny shaped tip of the diamond that is the telegraph pole and the rest of the pickup arm is all extra. And all of it is helping that tiny diamond tip to stay in the groove to extract the tiny amounts of information. Not bad for ancient technology, wouldn't you say..?

Thanks for you votes peeps. You've made this an interesting poll. Michael Svensson is certainly a well regarded CB, and although I left him out of my voted for pair, I'm heartedly glad he made it into the A team alongside Mark Wright. What a pairing. I'd like to watch a sea of team's attacks break upon their defence. But you've left me with a problem. The B team has Dave Watson and a choice of teammates. We need to vote for his CB partner, so just for a short time we'll vote between Claus Lundekvam and Dean Richards [Ken Monkou narrow missing out], in a new poll. Please go to that and vote now. Ta. P.S. When that vote has been decided, I'll put the line up, so far, on here.

Yes, there's been a tie. I've been wondering if it would happen, and I suppose it was bound to in the slightly minor area of equal 4th place. Dave Watson needs his CB partner. So, all those that have voted before, for other players, let's vote again to decide this one. There's a few stats to help you make up your mind. Silky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claus_Lundekvam Deano - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Richards_(footballer) Once again, let me remind you. Vote for the player you believe to have been of higher quality, in terms of effective performance and contribution to the team. Put aside any legendary cult status please. That's for another poll, another time. Voting ends tomorrow at 3pm

It's hard to take major issue with any of the points Lowe raises. One would only be nit-picking. But how about this one..? What if all the players want to leave Rupert..? What if they're all so good, because they've come out of our superb academy, and have been recognised by clubs as such, that the offers are too good to turn down..? What then..? It's a perfectly fair question. And the answer is... we don't have an answer. If any more than 4 or 5 leave then the whole experiment goes off the rails, and then the up and coming good players will REALLY want to leave. You can't exclusively rely on loyalty, and an endless stream of nurtured talent.

Indeed. Even IK Brunel had to buckle under, when he tried to break the mould by making his GWR lines 7 ft 0¼ in. - known as the Broad Gauge. Intended for stability, safety and extra speed, eventually GWR had to narrow the tracks, scrap all the broad gauge locos and running stock, and conform to Standard Gauge, or be left out of the loop, so to speak. Pity to Romans didn't have 7 ft 0¼ in. wide carriages.

This makes interesting reading, if only to see Bernie Ecclestone making some rather silly quotes. But Mosley appears to be making some sense: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7766628.stm Bernie Ecclestone - I've no doubt Honda would have been in top four next year without any problems.. Presumably, in a parallel universe.

Whatever the reasons, it is excellent news that FlyBe are staying with Saints. Next..!

Agree with you on Honda, but Toyota aren't exactly small beer, and they've been more successful in F1 on the team/car side. As we know, it isn't compulsory for any motor manufacturer to be involved in F1. Honda are a highly successful business, and along with Toyota, produce the most reliable, [and hence possibly best designed] volume produced, vehicles in the world. If anything, their F1 exploits have detracted from their overall good reputation. Now that they have gone, and we'll no longer see the Honda name, I wonder how long it will be before Toyota consider their position..? However, they don't have a huge pedigree in motorcycle racing, so perhaps they'll stay. Are there any more companies considering leaving F1 at present..?

There you go. Not EVERY tradesman is a liar, cheat, unreliable, lazy and dishonest. I'll admit I've come across plenty myself. But there are plenty who do a fine job of work, and I've seen those too. And incidentally, look around you at the people on this forum. The ones that are employed and sitting at their office desks are doing exactly the same thing to their employers, and ultimately, to you. The only person who I'm cheating at the moment, is me. I wouldn't dream of being on the Net at all if I was employed.

Just in case there was a little confusion: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044008/

Ah, you're in luck. How about this deal..? http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20081211.p.OFC_Loudspeaker_Cable.ar6 Of course this isn't the very best cable you can get, thicker would be better, but it is of very good quality. And an excellent price. You could check it out.

How are the lid hinges..? Finally got around to replacing mine the other month [£20 eBay], after a few years of propping the lid while changing records. While I was waiting for the new ones, I repaired the old ones, and tbh, they're stronger than the original design replacements. At least I have some superb spares. Did think about selling the old kit. Couldn't do it in the end: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=703

Yes indeed. Lowe is correct. That is not the issue. It's the fight he appears to put up, if a player is tempted away to another club, that's in question. He puts a spin on it saying... if a player is tempted by a better deal, then there is little we can do. We want fully committed players at this club... Now that sounds very fair and reasonable; but it also sounds like Guy Askham talking, because that's exactly what he said to Alan Ball, who got a superb offer [4x his SFC pay] to go to manage Man City, but didn't want to leave Southampton. In fact, he was totally prepared to stay, for the same paltry money [£60,000 pa] he was on at the time, getting the very best out of MLT and the team. But Askham just said he wished Ball well. And Alan Ball left largely because he felt he wasn't wanted at SFC. The broken glass speech was just talk for media. This is the same emotion I'm betting some players feel when dealing with being tempted away from Saints. Do they feel wanted..? They should do. Perhaps our Board just doesn't put up enough fight..? They should do.

Christ, you have a Linn Sondek..? Why on earth do you want to compromise the sound with a graphic equaliser..? The rest of your equipment is perfectly adequate. But if you must incorporate the equaliser, it'll be added between the amp and speakers. But please, as a fellow audiophile, don't do it. You'll only end up taking it out of the chain after the first side of vinyl. BTW, the old Linn Sondek, if in decent condition is worth £250-300 all on its own, so take care of it.

Saw James's howler on South Today. If anyone else had done that [for example, Bruce Grobbelaar..?] they'd have been up for match fixing.

Hmm, well there was a big rumour not so long ago, that a big player was going to pull out of F1. Didn't think it would be Honda though. In fact, I thought your people at Renault might call it a day, Ponty. Perhaps Honda will now concentrate their efforts on MotoGP now, because they've been playing second fiddle there for 2 seasons as well. They are, in all honesty, the premier motorcycle manufacturer in the world. It's probably time they reflected it.

Would I do that..? BTW, I've just discovered, I seem to have been upgraded, moderator wise.

Yes. I'm extremely common, and 2% interest rates are wonderful stuff. You'll have plenty of time in the future for your savings to rack up.

Remind me not to give you a competitive quote for an honest days work to be done. I'm sorry to say that, but you obviously wouldn't appreciate it mate. There are exceptions to every generalised cliche, and I apologise, but I can't take your kind of comment in good heart. My work is of good quality, and I get all my business from customer satisfaction referrals. So please don't pit honest, hard working individuals along with the cowboys. Thank you.

Have to say, Mark Dennis has turned a boring early evening into quite an entertaining hour or so, because I have completely set aside my paperwork. Like MD or loathe him, you cannot deny his passion for Saints, It may occasionally be misdirected, and missing the point, but his heart is in the right place. He played for other clubs, but he was never better than for Saints. SFC made his career all the better and he knows it. You cannot help but like the bloke. Oh... programme has just finished.

Dennis accuses fan of being an imposter. Oooh dear, the programme is starting to become an argument between fans.

Programme now letting a fan hear for the first time, Crouch going through the conditions of how Wilde came to draw up the investment plans, and how nothing came of it. Fan wriggling, Dennis attacking. Presenting protecting fan. It's all go here.

OK, Rupert WILL NOT be on LIVE. Dennis asking a fan why Rupert and Michael are refusing to be interviewed live, but Leon Crouch did.

Let's face it, Dennis was always going to be slightly anti-Lowe, or at least remain-to-be-convinced by Rupert, as Mark is from the era of Lawrie, and I know he thinks the sun rises and sets on the big Geordie. You can't criticise his loyalty either, as Lawrie turned Mark from being a very high quality defender, but a thug, into a very high quality, and passionate player.