John Boy Saint

Not so fast! There's you getting all September rules and forgetting the 1964 Bayswater Alliance ruling subsection Q, paragraph 12, note iii, where in the month of September a move to the Northern line Saff of the River from the Bakerloo Line is forbidden, in the extraordinary meeting of 24th December 1979 when Dollis Hill became part of the Jubilee Line it was decreed the original ruling would stand to avoid confusion having already changed lines once before in 1939. Better have another go Old Chap

Cheers Napalm! between the summer and autumn equinox I make that Dollis Hill!!

Ssorry chaps just passed this open door and couldn't believe none of you had used the 1937 Savoy Grill addendum....... Temple Toodle pip!

A good defender is definitely in there, he just has the look of a battle weary defender who has spent the last 2 seasons in defences that have been under the cosh, so clears the ball in the vain hope that one of his team mates will get hold of the ball and keep it long enough for him to catch his breath. That said looks a menace in the oppos box when he goes up there.

Think it's been referred to as the Titanic effect........... Should never have left Southampton.

5 games in and the only goals Newcastle have scored have all been against us. Alan Pardew must have looked at the table last night and had a quiet smile to himself.

Not forgetting for those wishing to stay the night they have a choice of over 200 rooms, many with a sea view........ standing on tiptoes

But looking in from the outside, whilst they may have progressed the progression has appeared to be very laboured. Ok they have been hampered by injuries along the way, which is not good and as has been mentioned already easily acquired, If you look at Aaron Ramsey by comparison who is a similar age, up until that nasty leg break he was progressing at a much faster rate.

I thought we beat the Krauts................... ah well you always learn something new on SaintsWeb everyday!

I always remember Saints Academy playing Villa Academy in the Academy Final at SMS when Bale was with us and had played quite a bit of the full season, there were lads like McGoldrick Dyer in the team, but Bales presence and demeanor in that game stood out he looked so much more like a seasoned pro due to him getting so much 1st team match time.

It was mentioned only last season on MOTD when talking about youngsters in the side, it might have even centered around Chambers costing a lot of money and having to pretty much find his feet rather than being specifically coached as he was with us, Walcott and Oxo taking their time to also nail down a permanent spot and position in the team was also mentioned......... both of them also cost the kind of money most teams would pay for a player you would expect to drop into the team pretty quickly, even with the money Arsenal have. It was quite surprising to hear, but how often do you see someone roll off the Arsenal academy into the first team, league cup games aside.

Interesting, We were watching the game with friends and "strangers" on Saturday evening, one of them piped up saying that Walcott Oxo Shaw and even Chambers would have been far better players if they had stayed at Southampton longer. With Walcott in particular the discussion went on to say that he looks like a player with undoubted ability, but the bit that is missing is that he sometimes lacks knowing exactly what he is doing in certain situations, and had he stayed longer at Southampton that piece of the jigsaw wouldn't be missing; and that similar could be said about Oxo. It has been said that while Wenger is a good Manager, developing players especially youngsters is not in his portfolio. Walcott has often been given as an example.

If he expects to be paid what he is on at the moment for us, sat on his lazy backside, then the next club needs to carry out a full psychological appraisal on him! Sadly he will see out his contract with us because of this.

Think Toby answered your question in his comments about playing behind Vic and Morgan last season, you have one bloke its going to take half a day to get round and another who is going to nick the ball off you more often than not and subtly rough you up in the process, so as a defender you are primed positioned and ready much earlier to do your job making you look good. Last season Lovren was behind Henderson and good old Stevie G on his farewell tour of the prem, Gerrard as a midfielder was shocking his head said bomb forwards but his body and legs said sod that Charlie so he was betwixt and between leaving Lovren far more exposed than he was with us. So ill discipline aside, he returned to looking like the just Ok defender he was at Lyon we took a punt on, sprinkle a bit of Defender turned Managers nous on him stick him behind a solid structure bingo! Pigs Ear into Silk Purse.

Just saw something bonkers on the Beeb regarding this 19 year old nipper!

Oooo-errrr! I was at the game too with a very good view of the whole field, just as doddisalegend said we were better than Norwich from the off. When they went down to 10 men, Hoolihan was sacrificed and a defender brought in to plug the gap in defence, so the game plan from them became play for the draw and hope to hit us on the break now and again with the pace of Redmond and Jerome, which has been our soft underbelly in the Newcastle and Everton games from our own corners especially. The thing with Norwich is many of those players have been together for while so they know each other's game, and whilst they are not the household names of the big teams they do work as a unit which is often as effective and solid as a team of Millionaire players. Managers always talk about playing against 10 men is often more difficult than 11, just look at the mighty Barcelona (who at times will make most football fans drool with their style of play) v Chelsea in the CL semi, Chelsea lose Terry, an influential player to them, through stupidity and Chelsea dug in to hold on against a team with players capable of opening up any defence in the blink of an eye. As I said in my initial reply, on the same weekend Stoke went down to 9 men with a half and a bit to play Tony Pullis who is a ruthless manager decided to go for it but Stoke dug in and kept the loss down to only 1-0 and not the avalanche of goals they should have conceded. I have watched enough Saints games in person over the past 30+ years to know how adept we are at blowing a chance when the odds are stacked handsomely in our favour, add to this our less than swashbuckling performances so far this season and faffing about in the final 3rd. Without doubt on Sunday the players had space to shine a little more than they possibly had of if it had been 11 v 11, and they hadn't taken off the tenacious Hoolihan but they had a full compliment of defenders on the pitch protecting what we have been shy of hitting the back of this season, but still Saints had to get through a fully manned defence and one slightly more determined having lost a team mate. I think anyone who thinks we have turned a corner after 4 games and an indifferent start, by beating a 10 Man Norwich is indeed living in cloud cuckoo land, but to say that our players only shone all over the park just because they were missing a midfielder is a bit negative, which was my point. It would have been interesting to hear your thoughts if Ruddy hadn't saved that JWP free kick in the first minute, and at 1-0 down Norwich had gone down to 10 in the same circumstances, and we had gone on to batter them. Just as an aside a few numpties are back on Yoshida slagging, especially when he had the ball in acres of space and Jerome sprinted in Maya's blind spot to nick it off him, if you went to most other grounds in the land the home side fans would have screamed Man On! as one. We as fans just sat and let Jerome sneak up on him without squeaking a peep.

When Saints were in Palafrugell for the Llagostera pre season game, we were sat in front of Jos Maya and Mayuka and they were happy to chat, especially Jos. During the first half MoPo was obviously tinkering with formations, I was surprised to hear Mayuka asking Jos "what formation are we playing now?". Not the sort of thing you would expect to hear from a player who had been with us a while and played the game at a decent level. As has been said already he had a good record at Young Boys and had enjoyed a very good ACON so had ticked a few positive boxes to take a punt on, hopefully he can get himself going again.

Didn't see the imaginary card waving until last night on MOTD, but on Whittaker when he got his first yellow for silliness I said to my mate that is a silly cheap booking to get especially for a defender, if the ref is on his game that could be like Coutinio yesterday............... Ooooops silly boy.

He made one tackle this afternoon that summed up what a great game he had, he bent his foot round the ball and whisked it away from the Norwich player. After the 3 yellows he has picked up so far he seems to have gotten his sights calibrated: the Chelsea game will be interesting.

That's what happens when the Septics get involved....... Just look at the bloke who bought London Bridge but was amazed when TOWER Bridge wasn't there when he opened the parcel!!

Blimey Charlie, Christmas must be bloody miserable in your house................. WBA playing a whole half against NINE man Stoke couldn't get more than one bloody goal and they sent on the big guns!!................. Jeez!

Never had much of issue with JWP overall, probably remembering he is still a nipper, thought he has gotten a bit stronger this season. Today I thought he had a great game with Romeu, with all this Victor cobblers maybe he has done what all of us want from our players when given the chance and that is grab it with both hands. Build a good partnership with Romeu and create a problem for the management. Just a shame he has U21 duties as an afternoon meet up Gareth Bale on the free kicks might just give him that quarter of an inch to make the difference.

Their coaches left Norwich at 7am this morning.

Seem like the Referees watches have been let loose no longer the standard issue 4 minutes all the "big teams and Leicester" have have been given hours to get a leveller 5, 6, 8 minutes added!!! West Ham go I "I thank you Mr Friend" and rattle in a 3rd!!

Mrs JBS has gone to this with her Brother (mad Chelsea for years) Sister (same) Niece (same) Nephew (ditto) She is going to be the only one in the car coming home without a face like a smacked backside.