Colinjb

Don't remind me, that was a long trip back.

A few inaccuracies in there but still good to read.

MLG posted something along the lines of this last happening in 1986. Yes:

Must take after his mother!

Has been mentioned. Would be great to see, especially with Adam. We saw how well Welbeck fed from Lambert's delivery. Jay would also benefit from having him on the pitch.... It would be amazing to see a Saints front three up front for England.

Punch fitted well within our system and I believe he still would. The best thing about his game was his communication and rapport with Clyne, it has taken us a little while to recover from that no longer being available and now Clyne is once again comfortable with those around him. Do we need Punch? No, but he would still be a useful option. Should we sign a winger? No, that's not how we play. Which is why Punch would still be a good option as he is better cutting inside and running at people while exchanging passes with his fellow attackers rather then going around the outside and delivering a cross. Clyne and Shaw are there for that. It is a shame he wanted away.

Hence the 'and many more.....' 5 wasn't enough! Besides, he asked for a top five... No limit was given and I provided mine with bonus content.

Erm, have we gone back in time to January here?

Yes, it's the potential franchisation model that is worrying and the use of names such as Tigers, Saints, Red Devils lends itself to it. Thankfully there are rules in place to stop another McDons occuring but unlike American sports where the franchises are awarded to cities the clubs here are 99.9% organically grown from their local communities, as such the identity and history means and matters more. The 'Americanisation' is culturally incompatible in so many ways.

Frankly he can speak Swahili in interviews for all I care. The structure is working and it is preventing him by being misconstrued by having that barrier between him and the journalists. I doubt we will see him speak English in interviews.

I don't see it that way, there's no pressure on us and mountains of it on Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea in the next few games. We can afford to be determined and fearless, that will in my opinion see us get something out of these matches.

Indeed. On that basis alone he was arguably worth the money.

No point saying f**k off. The media is there to be used, after all they would use us for their own ends without a second thought. Makes sense to close ranks if it could damage us and be more open if it can benefit.

Pretty much. The general impression from the Save our Stripes thing tends to be the 4/5 people I speak to are sympathetic and 3/5 outright agree with the desire to maintain the clubs traditional identity. There is however very little drive outside of a few people to actually do anything. I would question the 'stick to beat the club forever more' with bit, I have started a campaign to get the kit returned to it's former tradition but if that was achieved I wouldn't have any other axe to grind! No doubt this would follow the same pattern. And as per Alpine's point, while I would say there are still people who care about the stripes as an example, if we remain successful people will be less inclined to care.... as indeed he shows. It's important that there is an outlet for protest though.

The end of SaintsPlayer?

That's not cool! I'm sure Mayler had no idea what was happening but still!

Oh, where to start. 1) Lallana is far too lightweight to succeed in the top flight. 2) Kelvin Davis will be good enough for the top flight. 3) No more Rupert Lowe, he's gone forever! (Circa Michael Wilde's time in charge, Aug 2006.) 4) Callum Davenport is a superb signing. 5) The Poortvliet experiment will see us fine. 6) Ryan Smith will come good. And many more!

I doubt he would need to go to France, just to a club that's more recognised. One of the next big hurdles for us would be to have our better performers recognised by their countries. It will show well for our standing if Schneiderlin and Fonte received call ups. As yet though, no dice. That Osvaldo continues to be selected to Italy after joining us is an excellent sign, hopefully Morgan's time is imminent. If not, then hopefully his head will not be turned.

I'll ask dad to have a look in the programme for reader submitted pieces on All Saints day. What name would your contribution be under?

The programme shop on Northam road? Open before the games?

FIFA intervened directly and granted an exception based on Costa taking on full Spanish nationality. All this goes to show is that it doesn't matter what the rules are seen to be, there is always a little 'wiggle' room. Probably meaningless in this case though as I cannot see Morgan wanting to play for 'Les Rosbifs!'

Are France considered a home nation under this?

I believe they do, there was a fair amount of comment over Owen Hargreaves commiting to England after his debut in a friendly v Holland, this was considered a 'full international.'

His case is truly bizarre, a Brazilian born player, capped twice for his nation's senior side and now eligible to play for Spain instead. In exceptional circumstances FIFA will allow you to switch country.

I'm pretty sure that only full senior call ups lock the player in to that nation. Kevin Prince Boateng as an example plays for Ghana but represented Germany at u21 level. Either way, I wouldn't expect Morgan to in any way consider an England call up.