sotonjoe

You missed April Fools Days by 14 days you lunatic.

He isn't being picked because he had a couple of games and was his usual ineffective self. Why does there have to be something darker to the situation?

I've been saying to mates at games for a while now that it's his decision making which seems to have deserted him. He just seems to end up making the wrong decision too often, whether it be one turn too many etc or something else. He's still an immense talent but I wonder if the pressure is affecting him. Perhaps he just needs to be more impulsive?

Walking from the bridge round to the Itchen could be a pain, especially when the North car park is shut, but I'm tempted by the Itchen North. I think with the Northam suffers with a lot of people (kids?) going in there because they think it makes them proper naughty, but they don't really get behind the team.

Had it for 18months and it has been trouble free. As others have said it's ADSL which is an inferior product to fibre optic but then you get what you pay for. I think I get about 11mb or so and live about 2000m from the exchange. I had much better speeds on Virgin Media but didn't want all the other services Virgin expect you to have. When I got O2, it was them and Be who consistently topped polls as the most popular ADSL providers.

Chaplow has a stinker last night in the first half which was epitomised by him trying to shoot and completely missing the ball. He had a better strike at the beginning of the 2nd half but I think Adkins had already decided to get him off by then. I thought Steve was a revelation on the right compared to Chaplow and his creativity was emphasised by how often the creative play went through him. People have criticised his 'end product' far too often and last night it just wasn't warranted; time and time again he crossed the ball into the box. It didn't plop onto an unmarked Saints player's head with pinpoint accuracy, but then that's because there was never an unmarked Saints player there. Reading defended resolutely and won the 50:50 balls when they came into the box. However, De Ridder was consistent in beating his man (often two men) and getting a ball into the danger area. In my opinion, that's what he was on the pitch to do and he did it. Asking anymore of him in unfair to be honest as you're probably asking him to achieve more than the manager was expecting him to do. He even made a real effort to track back and got some great challenges in.

Barry ... Perhaps we should give Itchen North a go next season and join the self-confessed vocal lot towards the back of block four? Crap view though.

This is handy to know as most of the driving routes I'd made a note of are in the Swiss Alps, and I'm considering a stay in Interlaken.

Well Bateman has got the ball rolling in terms of specifically what is and isn't ok for Murty to do... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACCEPTABLE: Clenching fist and saying "Yes." NOT ACCEPTABLE: "Proper" celebrations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any advance?

Just in case anyone else gets similar ideas, here is a good thread I've just started reading on the Pistonheads forum ... link

Michael Owen?

I think we spent £8m preseason in our failed playoff season and spending like that is well above the Championship norm (or was back then anyway), so it should have been enough to take us up. Money should buy you success if you know how to spend it and then know how to get the best out of the talent you purchase. Who would I like in our squad now? Baird for one. I thought Lundekvam was over the hill by then so don't think he'd have anything to offer. Surman, Bale and Jones are all players who have gone on to cut it in the Premiership to differing degrees so could surely do a job at our current level.

Odd. Seems as though Hammill has really divided opinion on his first stint at Saints. I can't remember ever seeing him myself.

Did you see him? I was there and it's all subjective but I thought it was a bit too joyous tbh. I thought he milked the adoration of the Reading fans a bit too much as well. That said, he wasn't in his 'new' Saintsfc role at that time anyway. I think the discussion would get pretty tedious if we all tried to draw up a set of guidelines about what sort of celebratory gesticulations are classed as excessive and should lead to the termination of his current contract, but I stand by me general point. He should remember who his employer is and behave in a way that would be seen by all rational supporters and staff of Saints as being respectful. If not, I expect a horse's head on his pillow by morning.

Links will prove useful for me mate so I wouldn't worry too much. I plan on taking a tent to save money at some point, but I'd like to spend some nights under a proper roof as well.

I wouldn't call it a derby but it's much more important than either game against the Skates this season.

Fine. Then I hope people tell him how to behave humbly in press boxes and club lounges and that he make sure he does it.

I'm still a bit mythed that we decided to employ somebody who is so openly 'Reading'. I don't really understand why Reading don't want him if he's such a good coaching acquisition. If it turns out he isn't that great, then perhaps he should start eating some humble pie and start making more of an effort to support his employer's team rather than jumping around in press boxes when Reading score against Saints.

I really hadn't thought of going that far south or east to be honest. That part of the world seems attractive but I think time and money might keep me away from it this time round. I want to be able to have enough time and money to enjoy bits of Germany and Switzerland etc rather than having to worry about going quite so far from home.

Thanks Jack, but I think this might take me a bit far from home. I'll check the map though and see what the distances look like though.

Will definitely look these up as I wanted to see some of Germany. Thanks.

Hi Sue, Thanks for this. I want to see some bits of Germany so my initial plan was to stay a little bit further East than some of those places you mention. However, it makes sense to do a loop so there's no reason why I can't see a bit of eastern France on either the way back or down. Can you suggest anything particularly interesting about those places that Google might not tell me? I'm sure Turin is self-explanatory as a largish Italian city but I wonder if you could recommend any Italian lakes other than Garda as that's the only one I've really heard of (I've been there for one day on a flying visit actually). I've just look up the Ferrari factory tour and the Ferrari website seems pretty useless. It just gives a description of what seems to be involved but no idea of prices or when it happens. I think I'll have to get Googling some more on that one.

Cripes yeh. Shocking!

I haven't really seen an awful lot Europe. I've driven through bits of France, Belgium, Germany and Austria just to get to Northern Italy, but did that without stopping at all. Recently I've been watching that programme the Hairy Bikers are doing where they've been touring Europe on their bikes and doing all sorts of baking, and it's made me think how nice Germany and Austria look. I also remembered Top Gear talking about the best driving roads 'in the world' being in the Swiss Alps so I've done a bit of research and found some of their ideas. Now I fancy putting together a little European jaunt with the aim of seeing some of the best tourist places, driving some awesome roads and eating / drinking some nice food and drink, but I'm fairly short on ideas and wondered if anybody had done something similar and could suggest some places to visit for nice scenery, drives and nice food and drink. My ideas are at a really early stage. I know Top Gear spoke about driving the Stelvio Pass and the San Bernardino Pass, and I've pencilled in a stop at the Nurburgring, but that's all I've got so far. I guess I'll go to Calais and work my way down the to Swiss Alps for the two roads I've already mentioned, so I could do anything in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium or North East France within reason! Has anybody had a go before?

Yes, your mistake was applying common sense to Pompey! Accruing £24m of debt in approx 16 months is staggering. It's £150k a month I think! And they've been shafting the same range of local businesses etc all over again.