Mowgli

Rickie Lambert was joint top scorer in the league and Rovers player of the season 08/09 when he signed for Saints and had attracted a lot of media attention for getting 2 hat tricks against Hereford (3) and Southend . I think Saints might have been tracking him anyway ;~)

Largely agree with Frank - certainly with the sentiments. Not so sure about NC / AP not getting on though. Some have suggested NC defended him when Markus wanted him out. No doubt that something happened to casue a rift leading to the dismissal but up until then.... ...who knows? Does it matter anyway?

I'm probably going to regret joining this debate but whilst the ownership of the club may pass to the Liebherr family the five year plan as I understood it was accounted for separately in a trust fund. So even if the family did not have a lot of interest, ML and NC have protected 'the plan' with suitable investment. And if the 5 year plan is successful, whilst it would be nice to stay with the Liebherr family, it will be easier to attract other investors.

Actually. Reading the Guardian web site it could be that the ban was lifted but the Echo failed to get an official notification so they assumed they were still banned. I think this is a non story personally since they are clearly reporting and printing pictures from the game.

Not often he was accused of that....

From personal experience, I would start with the wife.....

Harding has barely put a foot wrong all season. His biggest sin being having a go at the ball boy! I like Dickson but he was brought in as cover and has not played enough to make a claim for the slot on the left side (back or midfield). Puncheon is a different player to Oxo and it fits perfectly with NA's game plan to play him first, winning balls and making link play before Oxo comes on late an annihilates a tired defence. Nice to have compeition though. Any of those four will do a decent job i think.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/4182761.Saints_duo_arrested_over_assault_claims/ You are quite correct. Although arrested they were not later charged and are innocent in the eyes of the law. Likewise BWP was innocent of theft - as would Nathan have been had he not pleaded guilty (!!). Of course, everyone has seen the video. Eventually, you have to consider whether their image is the right influence for the youngsters that idolise them. I would suggest the incidents might have been influential in negotiations for a new contract.

Dyer, McGoldrick and BWP are all history as far as SFC is concerned largely because of their antics off the field (all pretty average on the pitch). Hope Barnard's innocence is proved as I would hate to see him go the same way.

No one is doubting he is good enough but Puncheon is perhaps more of a ball winner. I think to directly compare the two is wrong - they each do the job they are asked to do very well (and they are different jobs). These cameo roles are doing Oxo's confidence no harm at all because he has an opportunity to make an impact against tired defences that simply do not exist in the first 60 minutes.

If you read the interview in the Echo you will see that Oxo still finds it a little bit daunting in the first team and his occassional appearance in the youth / development teams help him relax and express himself. It's all about confidence. Not sure of his role tonight but also it gives him a chance in the middle of the park since the first team he's pushed out to the wing for his pace. That's fine but he does not see as much of the ball as he would like.

Markus... (...then Golac cos Ekelund never quite became the legend he could have been).

Are those guys still there? They were kicking off regularly two seasons back when I was there. lol. One of the guys had a go at me cos I wasn't singing once!

Sorry - just seen someone made the same comment. Neither intended as aggressive though, I'm sure. I think Bignell still has something to offer but we need more time to assess him. I don't think I need to know more about Healy to conclude he has nothing to offer but as with all posts - it's all about opinions. I'm not knocking yours just disagreeing.

lol. Write off a loanee on the basis of 20 minutes play and replace him with a striker who has scored six goals in 55 league appearances over the last 3 years.

The whole point is to have competition on every position. When Dickson first came here he said he knew he was back up and would have to work hard to get into the first team but was determined to take his chance when it came. In the event it came a bit early for him and he was played left midfield rather than left back. But he did OK. As someone else said, he did not have a good game against Bournemouth but he has played better since so I don't think it is a confidence thing. Good squad player IMO.

Surely it's about leadership. Pardew had it and got the best out of them last season. For reasons we will probably never know, something happen to question Pardew leadership. The players saw it and lost a bit of confidence in him. It may not have been conscious but it impacted on their performance on the pitch and, ultimately in the results. It's easy for NA to come in and lift them - clearly he is an inspirational manager. And full marks for his results to date. The question still remains about how he keeps them motivated in the long term. When things don't go wrong; when his tactics and his substitutions don't work. But it's looking good so far....

Not that one...

Hope he stays but not too worried if we lose him to a DECENT premiership club (i.e not Stoke or Spurs). It could be good for him. But we could be there in 3 years ourselves so any move would be totally about money. We want people who are proud to wear the shirt and recognise the clubs true potential. I think Lallana fits in to this mould. If I'm wrong, then I would not be too upset to see him go.

I was about to say something similar myself - so many people commenting who have probably not even seen him play (me included). However, there does appear to be something really fishy about this guy (apart from being a trainee down the road I mean). This guy is a midfielder who in 8 years has still to find the net. I can only trace one assist in that time too. The only person who seems to rate him is his Dad who takes him on and then loans him out - he certainly very rarely picked him for his own teams! 17 appearances in 8 years is hardly impressive. I think I could manage that even in my 50's. So how come this guy is a professional footballer? It's like he does not WANT to play. Any thoughts? Still, at 26 he is approaching the peak of his career and still has probably 8 years left before he hangs up his boots... :~0

Pardew was the perfect diplomat. Was disappointed to do all the prep for the new season and then not be in a position to take it forward. He said he had seen many rumours on the internet about his departure and said none of them were true. He would not / could not comment on the detail but concluded that Cortese had lost faith in his ability to manage the team. He would not comment on NC as a person. Would not offer Adkins advice on 'survival'. He was very complimentary of the quality in the squad. He was very complimentary about the fans who he found to be very supportive. He was sure we would be promoted this season. He was asked about his relationship with Markus and he said he did not know him very well and could not confirm or deny that he had his support either. Wants to be back in game soon.

Yes that was a real Keystone Cops moment. Made us laugh!

To be fair, you could not hear the Saints fans much outside of the Lepping Lane end - it's that sort of ground really. And it's a bit rich to knock the fans doing exactly what we've been doing at SMS - booing the team and walking out early when things don't go right! At the end of the day these are two good teams that will both be up there at the end of the season. On our lat win (4-0 at Bristol) the Owls won 5-1 away to Hartlepool (I think...). We've managed to get the rub of the green on Saturday by sheer hard work and it will come for Wednesday too - hopefully tomorrow night. We deserved our win Saturday but only just. Their dead ball attempts (one in each half) were pure quality. Shame they had Kelvin to face!

I seem to recall the OS building up Butterfield as a stand in striker too...

It looks like there will be over 1,000 of us there. How does that compare to previous years?