verlaine1979

Ahh we might not have won championships, but we had Le Tiss, and at the end of the day, in comparison, league titles are ten a penny...

Because he's left-footed, happy playing as a winger, and because Lallana seems most effective playing in an advanced central position to me...

Swap Puncheon and Lallana and you've got a deal.

Swap Lallana and Puncheon presuming Puncheon is a left-footer?

The repeated mentions of Jackson's Farm as our eventual financial salvation during the admin saga made it sound a bit like this forum's Watership Down... 'Don't worry children, one day we'll sell Jackson's Farm to a rich developer and we'll never have to be frightened again...'

Is the idea that there's a huge pot of gold for reaching the premier league a bit of a daydream? Looking at the most recent breakdown of profit and loss I could find (admittedly over a year old) it basically sounds like nobody outside the top four/London is making anything other than small change in profits, regardless of the size of their debt. Obviously, most aren't even making that. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/22/premierleague The most recent Deloitte football finances report put the wages/revenue ratio of premier league clubs at 62% on average, though this is skewed heavily by the turnover of the larger clubs. Additionally it mentions that each increase in television revenues to the league has been met with an equal or greater increase in player wages. It appears the pot of gold only exists if you win something - you don't get rewarded for sitting mid-table.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/birmingham_city/8451004.stm Too good to drop to League 1, but would be outrageously dominant on the left if fit.

Thank you Mr. Nuance.

Ahh y'see, I didn't say anything about where I feel investment is most needed in January, I just said that if we were thinking of spending a couple of million on Beckford, I think Jackson would actually be the preferable investment. However, by my count, there are 4 teams that have scored the same number of goals as us or greater, and 5 teams who've conceded the same number or fewer, so our achievements in both categories are much closer than your estimate. Being sensible is easy when you look at the numbers, provided the numbers have something definitive to say...

It would be better to spend a couple of million on Simeon Jackson than Beckford - he's scored fewer, but is younger, quicker and probably has less of an ego at this stage in his career, so would be less likely to rock the boat.

I doubt anyone will be regarding us as the Man City or Chelsea of anywhere while we are trying to get promotion out of League 1 - this level of the game just doesn't get the attention for comparisons like that to have legs.

I think my point was just that I've never heard any other chairman/owner type in Saints' recent history given the 'Mr' treatment... I don't know, it just seems a bit servile and unnecessary.

Is it just me that finds addressing them as 'Mr.' Liebherr and 'Mr.' Cortese on this board kind of weirdly sycophantic? After all, no one is calling him 'Mr.' Pardew. The whole cap-doffing to the wealthy owner thing is surely a tad over the top?

Absolutely, or for £15m you could alternatively have an ad above every Google search for white goods in the UK for the next 5 years and it would be infinitely more effective for brand building and capturing sales intent than, uh, buying a football club. Acquiring a third tier football team certainly isn't part of any marketing plan I've ever worked on.

The decision-making seems to be almost universally poor tonight.

Saints' style of attacking play reminds me of nothing so much as the woefully underachieving Liverpool sides of the early/mid 1990s - there's that same hesitancy and lateral flow to the passing, the same sense that the fluency and skill is ornamental rather than devastating. There's unquestionably a lot of talent in our players, but there's a lack of urgency, a kind of meandering to their play which means they never really appear to slice into the defence, just pick their way around it. That said, Surman just scores from a fluke even as I'm whining, so there's always hope...

-------------Davis------------- Cork--Svensson--Perry--Surman ----Schneiderlin--Gillett-------- -----------Lallana------------- --DMG--Pekhart/John--Holmes-- From what I saw, DMG isn't a leader of the line, and would be far more effective as the right side of a front three with a stronger presence through the middle - this might be Pekhart if he's any good in training, or it might be John. Either way, both halves against Blackpool the right side looked ineffective both in defence and attack and needs attention, and there's no question in my mind that DMG is a more nimble and intelligent footballer than Dyer. Lallana looks excellent to me and would hopefully profit from any additional space opened up by DMG and Holmes pulling wide and a more robust centre forward occupying the centre backs.