um pahars

Of course he can buy one himself and his presence at SMS this season would suggest he is doing just that, but it is more to do with recognition and honour. Some of course would argue that he is a walking ego who wants to be the centre of attention, whilst others would say we should recognise and honour our greatest ever manager. Once again I struggle to understand why this has to be bleated to in the press (maybe that's the ego side of him coming out), but at the same IMHO time greats such as Lawrie, Matty and a few others should be honoured as front row guests on days like these. It is thanks to our past legends that we have such a great history, in terms of memories if not abundant silverware, and it is thanks to Liebherr and Cortese that we have a future. Someone needs to knock a few heads together.

I will always (I hope) have utmost respect and gratitude for Liebherr, Corteses and anyone else involved in "rescuing" us as at the time I really did think that Saints would cease to exist, at least in the guise of a big club playing at SMS. It was the real concern that we were going under that bring us on to: I think that is rather harsh as in the context of the time and the fear of going under that Matty put his name to the Pinnacle bid. It may have been a rather shiite bid and Matty may have been somewhat naive, but I'm certainly not going to give him a hard time for at least trying to do something. Had we or Matty been aware that in doing so he may have jeopardised Liebherr's bid then I'm sure he wouldn't have run with it in the way he did.

I must say that after reading the other thread about conspiracies and saboteurs I'm somewhat confused. Just what is this "agenda" that so many poeple seem fixated on?

I hear what you're saying and I probably agree. That said I would also be thinking that now we're here we want to stay in this position and grind out results and points until the end of the season. Lallana's injury, two poor games and an away weighted fixture list put me on about Cloud 3 at the moment.

Me too, very worrying. For me he is the one player that makes us tick (the stats for games with/without him are staggering). I rate the lad immensely, but is he that good that we then look a totally different side without him????

Doesn't make pleasant reading, whichever side of the fence you're sitting on and such a furore doesn't really reflect well on anyone. As I see it Matty's crime is wanting to queue jump to get tickets for friends and families, pulling rank and asking a favour due to who he is. Not crime of the century and I certainly don't buy in to the line that he's depriving a "real fan" of a seat. Every season ticket holder has had a chance to get their seat and with a week to go we still have 6,500 left. Siphoning off 10 (probably less if you think that Matty, his missus and nipper etc should be on the database!!!!!) wasn't going to deprive anyone who really wanted to go. With attendances of around 21,000, I imagine even by the time you take in those who don't make every game, we're only looking at needing to cover the 25,000 "real fans" we have (the balance come for top flight football, special offers or glamour cup ties etc). If we sell out, then maybe 10 of these floating Premiership fans may have lost out. That said, letting on to the press isn't overly clever or necessary and perhaps Matty should have been diplomatic, even if he believes he has been snubbed (although I'll happily retract that if it wasn't Matty who leaked the story, or if he hasn't moaned about it). There does appear to be a bit of a feud running here, so if anyone has a connection between the Club and Matty then I would like to see them try and knock some sense in to both parties as it is so unnecessary.

So, did Andy: 1) Lie to Cameron about his involvement/knowledge of the phone tapping? 2) If Andy was aware/involved (I struggle to think that anyone seriously thinks he wasn't) and he lied to Cameron, does that show poor judgement on the part of our Prime Minister in employing him? 3) Did Andy tell Cameron and Cameron covered it up/ignored it? This was always going to blow and no matter how poor (or influenced) the police investigation was, no matter what the NOTW internal investigation said and no matter how much Coulson ducked and weaved, there was no way this was going to go away. Cameron's judgement on this one to go ahead with such a toxic appointment was wanting.

My laptop would run out of ink if I had to type out all the farces, loons, weirdos, ckcok ups, charlatans and dinlos connected with this sorry shambles!!!!

I think Coulson, Campbell & Ingham would struggle to put some positive spin on a club that has defrauded so many (inc charities & schools) and been run in such a shambolic way that it is has been held up by many as how not to run a club. What is it with that club that throughout my entire football following years it has always been a complete shambles (from Deacon & Ian St John to the latest fumblings)???? Most clubs have a dark period (United going down in the 70's, Chelsea almost bankrupting themselves with their new stand in the 70's, etc etc etc), but that lot have had 40 years of it!!!!!! I don't think a few supporters getting uppity will cause any more damage to their reputation.

And don't forget you can get your mate in for free if you do that!!!!

No we didn't!!!!!

To be fair, I think that although the Conservatives might be happy to see the potential of a *****fight between the two Ed's (ala Blair & Brown), I think they are concerned that Balls is more than a match for Osborne (who at times looked only marginally better than the out of depth Johnson).

Methinks Coulson could be in hot water if the new probes by the Met uncover anything, particularly if they cross reference that with his evidence to the Select Committee. To be honest I'm not sure how he's managed to hold down that job for so long with the line that it was a "one off rogue reporter/investigator" slowly unravelling in recent months. Think Coulson has stitched up Cameron here by taking on the job in the first place with all this hanging over him (and obviously not being honest with Cameron about what really went on), but also think Cameron's judgement has been found wanting to appoint and then stick by someone who is embroiled in some very dodgy stuff, no matter how good he is.

The story I heard was that he was having an affair with a civil servant (and I assumed the naughty policeman bit was that he had leaked this). I also heard that people in the Labour Party themselves were happy for this story to come out as many were not happy with Johnson's recent performances (his NI gaffe just seemed to highlight that this was the wrong brief for him).

Im normally away over the summer, so memory a little bit hazy. Thought we also had on when Poortvliet was in charge?? I got dragged to one they did at Villa a few years back and thought it was a very good day for all involved. Watched some training, met the players and had a tour of Villa Park. It just seemed a really easy way of bringing the supporters and the club closer together for minimal cost. The younger generation certainly appeared to enjoy it.

I'd also have everyone in the building and open up SMS for a "Fun Day" before the start of the season. I'm sure we did that once (or twice??) in recent years didn't we???

You're quite right, Chaplow makes it three decent signings!!!! Would it be greedy to ask for one or two more????

The Lallana bit is good news as IMHO we look a tad ordinary/pedestrian without his flare and creativity. Give him a rest for a fortnight and grind out a result at Tranmere.

Lallana and now Guly are two of the best signings we could have wished for in this window. Was I worrying unnecessarily when some complications appeared to have crept in regarding visa issues??? He really seems to have settled in now (and nice to see Lambert commenting as such), so let's hope this contract spurs him on to even better performances as he really seems to have turned up the quality factor in recent games.

Have to say I agree. I think both have their merits. A larger forum open to all where the Club can connect with supporters, share some good news, answer some questions and where the Club can gain some positive PR from, and smaller ones where it can be more like a focus group. The smaller ones could even vary from season ticket holders, to members to casual fans with each one focussing on how the various groups feel about the Club (e.g. I would have thought one targeted at non STH's could try and find out why they are not STH and what could be done to win them over).

I was just thinking out loud (hence the question marks) about how we can reshuffle the pack if Lallana is out for quite a while. I agree Lallana is best suited out wide drifting in, and I also agree I'm not sure I think Guly is suited to that role (he looked lost out there on his debut at SMS). Therefore I was thinking we need to do something different to provide us with something other teams will find it hard to counter. Guly in the hole behind Barnard and Lambert??? Geeing Puncheon up to try and play consistently if he is to replace Lallana out wide??? Get someone else in???? Unearth another gem from the ressies/youth team??? A different formation??? Adkins has quite a bit to think about and to be fair to him he has delivered recently, so I'm certainly not having a pop at him.

Totally agree as we will now be seen as a team against whom a draw would be deemed a decent result. One of the problems yesterday was that recently we have had two creative/explosive outlets in Lallana and Oxo and clubs were finding it difficult to shut off both. Additionally Chaplow has provided us with that drive going forward and was bossing games. With two out of three not playing and the third tied up (Chaplow picked up his injury very early on), we just lacked any creativity or that special something to unlock their defence. Adkins and co need to crank up a Plan B if we are to maintain our push without Lallana for a few weeks.

Have to agree with you. In my player ratings I think I tried to point out that County came and did a very good job on us. It wasn't that we played overly bad, perhaps more that they didn't let us play how we wanted to and when we did they defended well. We didn't lose, so not downbeat, particularly after some fabulous performances recently. However, I do fear Lallana will be a massive miss. Barnard and Lambert upfront and Guly playing the Lallana role?????????

Not me, no way. Oxo was outmuscled, kicked, tugged, barged and double teamed today rendering him somewhat ineffective (the failing was with his peers not making use of the space this should have afforded them). That said, he still manaaged a few flashes of raw talent and quality. Lallana, like Oxo has always been a prodigious talent and I'm not sure I can ever remember anyone really criticising either of them. Gobern for me is one of the many youngsters who we have had at the Club in recent years, good, but nothing special and not in the same league as the two lads above. He may well develop in to a strapping midfielder, but for this promotion push we need someone right here, right now (FatBoySlim????) and IMHO he is not that man. If Hammond and Chaplow are missing he is not the player we should be relying on to drive this team forward. Long term, he may be a find, but IMHO he's not one who will play at the higher levels of the game (my credentials are that I thought Townsend was great and Shearer was iffy).

Football is all about opinions, but I have to honestly say I saw nothing from him today that gave me any confidence that he is someone we can rely on in this promotion drive. He still might flourish in to a very good player (then again he's no youth player anymore), but he is not what we need in the middle of the park as we stand here today. His Bambi on Ice impersonation at the end summed it up for me.