Dan Johnson

Completely & Utterly astounded by the lack of football knowledge on this football forum!! Our fullbacks come in for allot of flack because they're left exposed defensively, then get hammered if they're not getting forward... because they're expected to get forward at every oppertunity!! We're playing 4-3-3 FFS!!! If we're attacking the front 3 (Lambert, Jay Rod, Gaston) 1 from the midfield (lallana) & normally both fullbacks (Fox & clyne) are all forward!! It is impossible for any full back to play that way all game, fox came off because he was shattered, not because he was having a shocker! Our midfield, because of the way we set out, offer very little protection over our full backs and often they're left in a 2 on 1 situation in which they can't commit so end up backing off. Even when we play a flat 4 with lallana on the left like we were last season, lallana drifts inside to often that he offers no protection for Fox! There has been times where Fox has been accountable, the poor header in the City game springs to mind, but every player has & they can only learn from that and improve.

Southgate & Neville best pundits on TV by a mile, I absoultely hated the rat faced ***** but now can understand why he played at such a high level for so long. Top Top pro, & top pundit, his knowlege on the game puts others to shame!

Adkins said yesterday in his post match interview "Thats why defenders cost so much at this level" http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19458521 Pretty sure that translates to we were in for a few & were effectively priced out of the market. We also must not forget, 2 of our last 3 games were against 1st & 2nd in the league, mistakes will get punished. A better result against Wigan & we'd have been saying we've got what we expected. you can't panic after 3 games, we certainly have showed enough (in 2 out of the 3 games) that we'll be OK at this level. Just because we didnt sign any more defenders, doesnt mean we didnt try, or indeed that we spent the money we had for defenders elsewhere

Think we owe it to Deano that if an offer comes in from a club where he's likely to be a starter, then we give him the oppertunity to talk with them. It's a good suit for him, he wouldnt have to move his family if he didnt want to, Charlton are on the up & he has the experience they'll need to get them out of that division. As previously mentioned, if he appears for another club at SMS he should get a warm reception. Good solid performer at championship level, lacks the pace for top flight imho

Could well have signed, but could be wanting to get him over to the UK for press photos before the offical press release. If he's still abroad and we annouce the signature of our most expensive player with no decent quotes/photos then it will be seen as a bit of a PR balls up! Hopefully the delay is just why he's flying over here to get photos done :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHRXTrnIyX8 even...

WHOA WHOA WHOA!!!!! phew....

I think at the moment the priorty is to do business with clubs that are willing to do business so we dont miss out. 2 CBs are still on the cars

Ditto

It's on Vitesse site http://www.vitesse.nl/nieuws/bericht/vitesse-en-southampton-akkoord-over-ba-ttner/2721 I'd imagine seeing that he played in a friendly on Saturday & having already agreed to join us that its just a case of him coming over here having a medical & signing the contract. Pretty much a done deal

Signed a new 5 year deal with the club last year, so has 4 years left on his contract. Even with Rangers financial issues £2 million seems cheap. He is a Rangers fan too so I'd be surprised, unless rangers have to start in the bottom tier of Scottish football. He's the kind of player we should be signing IMHO more experience than spiderman, better than Hammond competition for Cork. Probably Rangers best player too

Absoultely spot on, I'm shocked at the amount of people that get on Foxs back for not getting getting forward more, but then with Lallana drifting inside to support the front two he's hardly going to burst forward EVERYTIME! That in turn leaves him exposed when we're hit on the break, that's the system we play and the chance we take. We wouldnt have scored as many goals as we have this season if it weren't the case. There are times when Foxs distrubition can be critisied but he's premier league quailty with out a doubt

Exactly what I expect too although I'd add Punch to the list of midfielders.

Astounded at their arrogance, they should know we’re “Considerably Richer than yyyyyyoooooouuuuuu” In all honesty though, I think they need to sort out their managerial situation if they’re to hold on to players like Jarvis, from the outside sacking Mick Mccarthy & replacing him with Terry Connor is the worst footballing decision I can think of this season. They’ll struggle in the Championship next season as they’ll likely lose Jarvis & Fletcher and players like O’Hara, Doyle, Kightly, Henry & Johnson will attract attention & without an influential manager I can seem them wanting to jump ship

It's a throw away comment really. How can you make such comparison unless you've seen all 44 games of all 24 clubs, it's impossible to tell. Of course being top of the league, beating us & West Ham away & having been on such a tremendous run he's got every right to make that assumption IMHO, but that's all it is... an assumption. He sees his players everyday in training so of course he's going to say these things. He is obviously a top manager, full credit to him & his players. There's little difference in the comments he has made here and those that Adkins made about Brighton last season that infuriated their fans. It's mind games, games men ship, all this comment suggests is confidence in his only players & rightly so

Friday isnt the "make or break" people are making out, it really is just another game I'm just going to enjoy it what ever result really, even if we lose.... we're 6 points clear of 3rd place with 4 games left! I'd have bitten your hand off for that at the begining of the season. I can see us winning away at peterborough & at home to cov & thats enough for us to go up with our goal difference & with Middlesborough on their terrible run a win there is possible too!! The ultimate prize in this division whether you finish first or second is promotion. What I dont want to see is an unsettled\nervous crowd, we can enjoy it, we deserve to enjoy it, so do Reading. It should be a party atmosphere!!!

second that. We've had some truely remarkable performance levels this season, some easier to measure than others (Ricky with his Goals) but for me Jos has been exceptional, Ricky deservedly got his plaudits as Championship player of the year, I think Jos should now get the vote for player of the season, always pops up with important goals too.

I remember while still at the Dell, there was a planned protest against Rupert Lowe & that morning the back page of the Sun had us linked with a £4 Million pound move for Paul Merson... lols Think we won 3-0 or 3-1 that day, seem to remember Neil Shipperley getting a few...

He made great progress after moving from Real Sociedad! 1993–2004 Real Sociedad 304 (45) 2004 Blackburn Rovers 2 (0) 2005 Perugia 5 (0) 2005–2006 Göteborg 2006 Ergotelis 0 (0) 2007 Burgos 5 (0) 2007 Vera 0 (0)

Thats the problem though, it's not a case of talent, it's a case of application & mindset. In the case of schev, if you pay 30+ million for a striker you'd fully expect him to have the mental toughness to score a decisive Penality in a high pressure match like the CL final 10 times out of 10. For me, if you're paying that kind of money then you're payng for the best of the best. The price tags both players have moved for are realtive in the terms they are judged, World Class Transfer fee, expect a World Class player. When I see either of them play, I expect exactly that, A world beater... I dont see that. I see flashes of undoubted talent, but if they are to be held in the esteem their transfer fees suggest, then for me... they need to do more. In that sense they're over rated. You could of course argue that they moved at a time when transfer fees were inflatted & as such we should take that into account when judging their performances

I have to say, my opionion of him has nothing to do with the British Media, it's based purely on the games i've seen him in and I've just not been impressed in the slightest. I felt the same about Shevchenko before he moved to Chelsea, couldnt understand the Hype so wasnt at all surprised when he bombed over here. You could just see when he took that peno against Liverpool in the CL final that he was going to miss, he didnt fancy that AT ALL!! I feel the same about Ibra when i've seen him play, looks like he's just there to pick up a pay cheque

Ahhhh Apple - Form over Function As mentioned iSwifter app Also, download ESPN Goals, a nice little app that gives you access to all the latest prem goals a few hours after the game finishes

There's so much bureaucracy that goes on with permenant moves like this. Work Permit (& the subsequent appeal) Entry Clearence Language Barrier The British Embassy To name just a few, a move like this will take time to complete and the only reason we're partial to any information is because this move was annouched early. Surely on fears he'd be spotted & recongnised training at Staplewood before an offical statement from the club had been made. I fully expect him to sign by the time the window closes, however waiting around for paperwork from goverment mediators is almost surely the hold up on this deal

This has 0-0 written all over it. Forest have only scored THREE in their last NINE games, and all those goals came against Ipswich the week before last so in actual fact they've failed to score in EIGHT of their last NINE games! Who would be a forest fan right now? Thats an horrendous stat! Never the less, they do have a number of good players which makes me wonder how & why they're languishing at the bottom of the table? With Ricky out we're going to need to find goals from somewhere, Guly isn't prolific away from home and Lallana has gone off the boil somewhat. Hopefully Connelly will be back and we'll nick a goal in an uneventfully 0-1 but I cant see this being a classic by any stretch!! Team for Saturday for me would be (depending on Injuries) Davies Richardson Jos Fonte Fox Lallana Spiderman Cork De Ridder Guly Connolly

Me too, surprised he's not been used more