Verbal Kint

Number 1 rule of bookmaking- lay things as short as you can get away with. With all the money we have the mug punters won't take a second look in the division. It's that simple

one of the major reasons england have been so poor. Gerrard is very quick by the way

Have previously backed Holland for major tournaments but their defence just isn't good enough. England and Argentina as well as Holland are all horrible value. Spanish squad on paper is clearly superior to everyone else and they proved at the euros that they have what it takes. 4/1 might be decent value

Very simply he has played the last 13 games of the season, has proven he is fit and his form has been as good as it was before his injury. Rio has been in and out all season, hasn’t shown any consistency as a result and hasn’t featured enough in the last quarter of the season, the time when you really need players to be in top form going into a world cup

Why? If we're honest Gerrard has never really performed for England. He's struggled at Liverpool to play in a normal midfield 4 as he doesn't have the discipline for it. He has struggled all year to find any sort of form and i think it sends out totally the wrong message to players like Milner who has been outstanding all year. What about Scott Parker? The man's been phenominal in a very poor West Ham side and he doesn't get a look in whilst out of form players like Gerrard get picked automatically. It's understandable that players dip in and out of form during a season but to have been out of form all season is too much IMO. Terry has been a nightmare since the personal revelations and to be perfectly honest at international level he has been done for pace time and time again. A hugely overrated player on the international stage. King and Dawson have been oustanding for Spurs and it makes sense for them to be the 2 centre halves having built up such a great understanding together. England for too long have been trying to fit the best individual players into a team. It hasn't worked for the last 2/3 world cups and i'm struggling to see why it will work now. The only difference is we have a great tactical coach now so hopefull the embarrassment against Brazil in Korea won't be repeated. But it's asking miracles for Capello to mould these players into a world cup winning side when they've proven on numerous occasions that for whatever reason they don't work well enough together

I would have thought the most important thing is picking players in good form and those who have shown they are fit. On that basis i wouldn't be taking Terry, Gerrard or Rio. Terry in particular has been a liability this season. Gerrard also has been poor, and Rio hasn't played nearly enough games Hart James Robinson Johnson G Cole Baines Carragher King Dawson Jagielka Walcott Lennon Milner Lampard Parker Carrick Huddlestone Johnson A Young Rooney Crouch Defoe Zamora Hart Johnson Dawson King Cole .........Milner Parker Lennon Lampard Johnson ............Rooney

It's not as if he's been a huge success before when playing in that league. Bottom line is that every position in our team could be improved if the right player is available at the right price. AP gets paid a lot of money to make those calls, and so far his dealings in the transfer market have been spot on (including Harding himself by the way). If AP thinks Dickson is a better player with the greater potential to play at a higher level, and it doesn't compromise our dealings in other areas, then get him in.

And i'm not sure if Harding falls into that category. I think he's had a cracking season but i have my doubts that he would impress in the Championship. Dickson sounds like a very talented player with youth on his side. As long as AP signs players in the key positions as well i don't see any problem with this deal

Seriously people on here are making out Harding to be bloody Patrice Evra. He had a very good season, that doesn't mean there aren't better left backs available who will stand a better chance of making it as we climb through the leagues. First criteria for all signings from now on should be that they must be better than what we have currently. If Dickson fits that then get him in

Can't pass, can't cross, can't defend, can't tackle, slow, slow, slow, slow. He's an awful footballer and quite rightly AP has seen sense and got rid. Every player was trying to keep us up last year so i fail to see your point. The only player whose committment you could doubt last year was McGoldrick. Good luck to all the players that have been released

Lloyd James has gone. What a fantastic day this has just become. A special thanks to Chris Perry who has given some great service over the last few years. Looks like AP will be a busy man

Neither Ladbrokes, or any ther bookies, have been running a book on this. If Pardew were to get sacked it's likely a few of them might run a book on his replacement, but they certainly won't be doing anything before he's sacked (a big if). There simply isn't enough public interest for them to run a book on it. The only serious money they would take is sharp money from insiders, so it's a totally pointless exercise from their point of view. Ladbrokes aren't taking bets on the manager of Bashley getting sacked either, does that mean it's happening?

You may well be right, but i've been able to see beween 5-10 games this season and in every one bar none we played long ball stuff from first minute to the last. That worries me greatly as if that is all AP has to offer then he will get found out very quickly next season

A career in non league football where he may not look such a woeful player at right back or in midfield. Can't fault his effort and committment, but nowhere near good enough.

Was the supply not good enough because our two central midfielders couldn't play a penetrating pass if they had played on all night?

Asi said, showing title winning form is very different to winning a title. Next season we will be face even more so than this season with the vast majority of teams coming to st marys in a similar style as oldham did last night. We'll even face it when we go away to some teams. Will we be able to break them down playing long balls to rickie?

Pardew isn't useless. He's certainly not as bad as Burley. But i don't think he's very good either unfortunately. The sad thing is on a personal level i really like him as he's not afraid to speak his mind and he seems to be very fired up most of the time. His biggest strength is that he has got the players playing for him. You can see Lambert, Lallana, Morgan are all fighting every second in every game. It's a great quality to be able to get players believing in you and playing for you. Tactically i think he's almost as bad as Burley. We have one of the best headers of a ball in England in Lambert. We need to start getting wide players to the byline and getting quality crosses in for him to attack. Instead we play Lallana and Puncheon on the wrong sides and play narrow hoof ball. The few games we have got it down and played with some width we hammered Huddersfield and Walsall. I won't be too disappointed if he leaves, as we have the funds to attract very good managers now.

Didn't you also think Burley did a good job?

The 5live reporter (i.e. a neutral) said the following: "Oldham have come and parked the bus and Southampton just don't have the ideas. They are simply punting it long to Rickie Lambert and trying to play off the scraps". Long ball football all season (with the exception of a few games). Unless we drastially change our style of play we won't be challenging for the league next season. It's one thing to have title winning form over parts of the season, it's another thing entirely to be up there challenging.

From what i've seen this season we are not a footballing team. The odd game here or there where we've played some decent stuff and smashed a few teams, but on the whole we have been a long ball side. Will St marys become like the Britannia in that every time one of our defenders lauches the ball we will hear a wooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh folloed by a massive cheer when rickie gets a flick on?

An abysmal footballer. Always has been, always will be.

Use some imagination. It doesn't take a genius to work out what Oldham were going todo tonight. Play either Puncheon or Lallana in the middle and Antonio/Papa out wide. Or, if he insists on playing long ball, he might as well play 3 up front from the start and then he has another striker to latch onto any lambert flicks etc. But seriously, what did anyone expect from a team with Wotton and Hammond in midfield apart from dull, unimaginative football?

Because without him all we do is punt it long. Even the reporter on 5live tonight said all we did was play long balls up to Lambert. You would think with Lallana and Puncheon in midfield we should be playing some football. We rely too heavily on Lambert winning headers and feeding off the scraps. Wish we would play lallana on the right, puncheon on the left, get a little bit of width into our game and play some football. In odd games this season we have shown we are capable of tearing teams apart when we get it down and play, but when you start a home game with Wotton and Hammond in the midfield it sends out all the wrong signals i think

With all the contrasting views about how AP has done this season I stumbled across an interesting way to evaluate it. At the beginning of the season the bookies offer a ‘season handicap’ market, where they evaluate all the teams and allot them a certain number of points head start. At the end of the season, the total points are added to the handicap given them at the start of the season and a new table is formed. I’ve been tracking the progress of this revised table with interest over the season. As it stands: 1 Swindon 97 (27) 2 Norwich 89 (7) 3 Millwall 85 (14) 4 Colchester 81 (16) 5 Bristol Rovers 78 (20) 6 Charlton 76 (8 7 Yeovil 74 (30) 8 Walsall 74 (27) 9 Southampton 74 (20) 10 Carlisle 72 (24) 11 Huddersfield 72 (10) 12 Leeds 71 (0) 13 Leyton Orient 68 (27) 14 Exeter City 68 (28 15 Gillingham 67 (27) 16 MK Dons 67 (10) 17 Brentford 67 (20) 18 Hartlepool 66 (27) 19 Brighton 62 (14) 20 Oldham 60 (20) 21 Stockport 59 (35) 22 Tranmere 58 (20) 23 Southend 55 (18 24 Wycombe 52 (20) Obviously the handicap allotted to us took into account the points deficit as well as our spending strength. Basically the point is that it perhaps gives a more balanced and neutral idea of where we started from in the summer and how we’ve done up to this point. The figure in brackets is the handicap allotted. Don't know if this adds anything but i think it's a good way of really evaluating how a team has done over a season

Spot on. EXCEPT AP did have a tough start to the season in having to sort out the mess he inherited and i don't think that should be forgotten. He's a much better manager than Burley that's for sure