John Boy Saint

Gary Neville just emphasised how bad Carragher was, it was almost like someone upstairs in Sky hates all things Liverpool and thought this would be a wheeze to have a Scouser shown up by a Manc. I turned round to my Missus after about 2 minutes of him and said that I felt worn out just listening to him. The other one who might not last is Paul Robinson, he was on Soccer Saturday I think a couple of weeks back talk about the cure for insomnia: someone should have wired his chair into the mains to give him a jolt. At least with Merson you get the Clown factor (and having played for the skates, just fuels our view of our friends down the M27) and Dowie when he is at the match reporting always has a face on him like he has just seen Paul Robinson get the the electric shock off his chair.

Something missing across this discussion is the fact that before we were saved, we were servicing debts like the Stadium mortgage amongst other bits and bobs, which is a bit of a draw on resources. I would imagine there are a fair few in this thread with a mortgage on a house, when the lottery numbers come out those who are playing it deep down would be delighted to win enough to pay it off as they know how much more comfortable their life would become with possibly their largest outlay per month evaporating.

........ I am sure that I read somewhere, possibly on here (which dilutes this somewhat) that we also stitched a 25% sell on clause into the deal.

Some of these regular sellers that are more like shops on eBay will jack the price of an item just to keep their listing count up and which counts towards their better position higher up the search order is maintained. Someone I know does a bit of this trading and he explained it along the lines above, when I questioned in conversation that Heston blokes Waitrose Christmas Pudding with a Crystalised Orange inside being on eBay for £200 yet most of the others were on at £15-£20.

So we obviously got a bucket of money when he signed for them, which if reports are true we demanded in full "in cash", then we stick this little gem into the mix. The cover photo on the Leeds programme, the Saturday before the deal was done on the Thursday, of Cortese standing in a purposeful slightly menacing manner takes on even more significance. Surely it screws the maximum earning potential of Oxo which in turn will impact on his Mum & Dad as their greed in cashing in on their son led to the move in the first place. It also sends out a message to any other parents thinking along the same lines as the Chamberlains, who took Alex for a medical at Arsenal during the season he exploded onto the scene with us. They thought they being clever by sneaking him up there, but Saints knew it had happened but obviously kept their powder dry. It certainly is a sting in the tale. It will probably make sure that the player will open his mouth if any other parent or agent comes up with the same bright idea as the Chamberlains: as it must do Alex's head in not to able to play full games. Apparently Man Utd are playing games with the Lad Jones (sure its him) Who they got from Millwall he has an appearance payment trigger condition as part of the deal when he was sold, which Man U were Weaseling about with last season............... This also makes a mockery of the England selection process as both these lads are in and around the first squad choice yet they are very unlikely to get 20 minutes for their team!!!!

Hughes might get it just for flying to Italy to see Osvaldo while he was flying to sign with us.

But when the red dot of the laser sight is sat right between the eyes of Maya Yoshida in THE THREAD TITLE - WHAT DO YOU EXPECT!!??!! 39 posts! In case you haven't been folliowing life on here for long most threads are world championship Chinese Whispers waiting to happen, and as the thread develops most folks supply answers or comment as the "conversation" develops.

Osvaldo and Fernando of Abba fame popped into my head, but being tone deaf it's gone flat from there:( But referring to the Johnny Depp likeness there must be something in the Sweeney Todd song book.

So he could nip round the back get his funny glasses, fake beard, Moustache, and wig on!!!

This You Tube Malarky is a bit like the PA system at the village fete on a wet and windy day. Or as my Dad would say N B G!

I think if Rickie was on a Hatrick Super Frank might well have deferred to Rickie.

back right next to the trainer?

Blimey I must get my split ends seen to!!

Sorry but Yoshi is not the the weak link, Jos and Jose are! Yoshida naturally plays on the right at centre back when Jos is in and Jose out thats where he plays as Jos is naturally very left sided. And why we got Jos was to play with Jose, who is very right sided in the first place, you will recall Jos and Yoshida started against Liverpool at home, it wasnt until Suarez had kicked Jos into being subbed that Jose came on and took up his natural right sided CB position and Yoshida had to switch over to the Left CB position vacated by Jos. Suarez and Coutino were getting nothing out of our defence until Jos went off then their only goal came down our right side. Yoshida can play both sides of Centre Back and Right Back, Jos and Jose if they had to swap sides would be well out of their comfort zone. Lovren came in because he favours the left this compliments Yoshida who is at his best on the right. Last season I felt Yoshida was looking after either Jos or Jose just as Killer use to do with Claus, his reading of the game is excellent. He might have dropped a clanger v Swansea last year, but these things sometimes happen, and if Dyer wasn't like a whippet on the ball that situation would have been countered. As for mithering about his height of 6'2", that is a bit lame when our player of the season (by a country mile) 2006-07 against Championship "monsters" was only a 5'11" Centre Back who had been drafted in from the Right Back position: Chris Baird. I am looking forward to Yoshida and Lovren together in the centre of defence, the starter for 10 is that they are both International Centre Backs! One of whom has already bought his Brazilian Phrase book........................... Hmmmmmm I wonder who that could be??!!

There is spending on pit ponies and spending on race horses when you are in the Grand National. We were very good in the old days of bigging up some half baked signings. When you are owned by the 2nd richest owners in the Premier League the kind of money we re frittering away at the present is almost a double hit of spending the interest and reducing the tax bill at he same time. Some folks really need to wake up to the fact that we have the ability to operate in a rarified atmosphere. Which is pretty surreal. It is also funny that having spent £17m on a pit pony himself David Gold has just found out that someone he thought was less endowed than him has just piddled far higher up the wall.

Err bit confused by this, as the manager believes he's good enough to play in the Premiership. I will go with the Manager on this one. I saw similarities with Shaw in his first games last year where he was protected by the players around him and basically keeping things simple, especially against a West Brom side with a combined millennia of footballing experience by comparison. I thought it said a lot that JWP was given the responsibility of playing in front of him and considering WBA targeted Chanbers side for 95% of the game the pair of them coped superbly. i am looking forward to when he is let off the novice leash, as for a big lad he does have a turn of speed and the ability to play in a great ball either from on the move or from a free kick. Pleased for the lad, going on tour pre season seems to have even a good investment by the club.

Great stuff Bearsy, I increasingly feel confident to hold court in a loud voice on the terraces this season with your top facts on the oppo's to back me up!!

Gemmel must have been stood next to me. In addition Lovren put in a very good shift. Wanyama was very impressive, great to see Lallana not playing in the style of Febrice Fernandes, which he was falling into the habit of last season. Chambers did not look out of place, JWP looked excellent especially his dead balls right into the mix and his rasping shot to sting the hands of Foster was deserving of a goal. Shaw was as always assured. I thought we looked very tidy and only the stubborn defending and goal keeping of Foster kept things tight. Having watched Saints for donkeys yonks and knowing what a bit of an uncharitable team WBA seem to be when we play them, when the ball was pinging round our box you felt a spawny goal was highly possible but the boys did the business. WBA got their second half impetus stoked very nicely by referee Friend as he gave a raft of strange decisions to the Baggies, the lad who brought down Shaw for the pen was actually very luck to be on the pitch on 90 mins as he was booked for spiking the ball at a decision against them, he had another moment where having felt he was fouled literally picked the ball up with both hands then instantly remembered to play to the whistle and very quickly let go of it and carried on playing, then the pen, without doubt there are refs who would have brandished a yellow at that tackle, the only time we looked a little out of sorts was when Steven and Gaston came on just for a few minutes we seemed to lose out shape in midfield. Gaston will be getting a word in his ear soon as pound for pound Wanyama already looks vastly better value in my eyes, that said Gaston had the Olympics last summer then the confederations cup this summer so like Yoshida that really has to take its toll on what is still a very ypung man. All in all a very nice day out, something to note off the field was how pleasant the away concourse was, Saints could take a leaf out of their book on that as the dowdy bare concrete of our concourse at SMS is pretty depressing by comparison. Nice one Saints

Perhaps after the Spurs loss and after the rant he had in the summer about the endless clowning around in the academy Abramovich has brought in a few old Spetznaz boys to really crack down. Lose and its bleep test with live rounds. Smoke grenade? Ha Ha look fragmentation grenade. Вы не будете работать, нет потери! da!

Been sitting here since yesterday in its more appropriate home: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?46193-Moyes-moans-about-season-start#.Ug3OPdKsiSo Face like a smacked backside, just look forward to seeing it moaning on your TV screens for possibly the next few years!

Did anyone have that little news reel playing when they read that? Barcelona & Real Madrid both get massively more money than everyone else in La Liga from the TV rights deal I am sure I heard they both get 118 million euros and the rest get 18 million less!!! I thought our TV money system was a bit wrong.

Radio 5 tonight on the 7pm Sports show one of their own reporters text in the point about our start last season, and how that was something to moan about. Thats where Radio 5 could have shut down this whole story that has made every news bulletin from about 10am onwards. But then with nothing going on in Football today plus England having won a good game last night there would have been no footie stories with only 2 days to go before the proper football starts on Saturday.

Wasn't there a story about Brett Ormerod when he signed for us, not only did his sale to us from Blackpool trigger a sell on clause for Stanleys benefit, but Brett also gave his signing on fee from us to Stanley to pay off the building of their much needed new stand. He felt he owed this to Stanley as they had given him is route back into football after breaking his leg and being released by Blackburn (?).

He understood me well enough in Spain when I spoke to him in English, even understood my mates Missus when she said to my mate how good looking he was in the flesh and she was stood 20feet away and not saying it out loud either!!!

+1.