pap

I would like to see three players brought in before the window closes.

My view is that if people want to pay more tax, there should be a mechanism for doing so. Why would an elective tax be a bad thing? There's no reason that it has to be applied across the board, but if we have people who are willing to pay a little extra, why shouldn't they have a facility to do so? It's easy enough to donate to charity online or on a subscription basis. If there are rich people out there who want to pay a little extra, fair play to them.

I was at Leicester too. First half was shocking. Really bad defending. Benny Hill music going on in my head. Second half, we were much better, but a few times I noticed players taking too many touches when a shot might have been on. The move leading up to the low cross in front of goal was nice. It was really frustrating to come away with nothing, but generally, couldn't fault the second half endeavour. And if we learn from our mistakes, there were plenty of those to reflect on too.

As someone who has lived in Liverpool since 1994, I've seen the improvement first-hand. It really did need to be improved too, and many parts still do. I know that my fellow Sotonians will be up in arms about the amount of money that Liverpool has got, and will be miffed that it is going for the cruise business. When I first moved here, I was struck by the differences between the two cities. Whole streets boarded up. Urban decay that makes Newtown look like gentry. A huge factor in Liverpool's decline was the advent of containerisation. A massive improvement in process that effectively made Liverpool's docks obsolete, along with all the jobs that went with it. In my view, Liverpool, like a lot of Northern cities, needed and rightly got regeneration after being neglected for decades. The South fared much better in that time. Even now, in general upkeep, Southampton is a better looking city. More space, better quality houses, more greenery, less urban decay - but so much less to see and do. Like you say, Liverpool is a great place to visit. And that's what the cruise business is all about really. Interesting places to visit. Public money gets handed out all the time, and while I take your point that the funds were provided for a specific purpose, and Liverpool is immediately trying to play a fast one, that's not really why people are up in arms. Let me ask you a question. Would your objection to competition from Liverpool be nullified if the Peel Group ( worth £6bn ) gave the money ( £10M ) back? I think they could easily afford it.

Nice chaps too. One of my mates is getting married to Trev. Sound bloke. Be good if the whole song was sung in my opinion. Another string to the bow for Southampton FC.

This is very interesting. Excerpt: Full article Guardian article

Still, that doesn't really mean there is anything more to see or do in Southampton, does it? Alright, Liverpool is not New York - but its replete with visitor attractions. I suspect that Southampton City Council's main beef with these plans has nothing to do with public money, and everything to do with the fact that if Liverpool was allowed full turnaround, Southampton will be comprehensively beaten from a neutral's point of view.

I think I have. Their 2000 document, Rebuilding America's Defenses, goes even further.

Is it really silly money? We're talking what, £1.5M more than what we're currently prepared to pay? It's nothing in football terms, especially with the cash we've just raked in for AOC. The other question is whether it'll be a mistake. If Jay Rod is a success here, he'll rocket in value. He's young and importantly, English. His nationality alone will make him attractive to other clubs, and with the players he has around him, he should definitely get better service. Ultimately, it comes down to confidence in the player. If the transfer committee isn't confident in his ability, then £4.5M is too much. If they are, they should stop quibbling, take the characteristics of the deal into question, and get it done.

I'd point out that we just got £12 million for AOC, and some would say the same of that deal. The characteristics of each deal are different and clubs know this. We're not desperate - we have goal scorers all over the pitch. We do apparently want their star player though, and we should respect that.

Anyway, as I said on the other thread, stump up the cash and sign him, ffs. We have done VERY well this window. Tons in for AOC, and Jack Cork at an amazingly low price. Won't kill us to spend the extra dough on this one occasion.

Dunno. He scored against Blackpool last year when they were Premier League, although to be fair, they were only having a laugh.

Love it. Bet all of the blokes wearing chav ninja costumes object to the burka too

I'm amazed that we're so reliant on oil when you see how much energy there is to be had. It's fecking everywhere! I know people will claim that we'll never get enough power from renewables. Personally, I don't buy that. We are very good at refining things for efficiency - the problem with renewables is that they've never had the focus or investment that oil companies have had. Oil is tremendously useful stuff, but ultimately, it's just a means to several highly useful ends. I'm not saying that we can do without it, but at least some of those ends, such as power, can be achieved through other means. Problem is, too many people are making too much money out of it, whether it's the geologists, engineers, drillers, riggers, executives, transportation companies, supply chain, the bloke at the forecourt or the Government that taxes you on every litre. It is literally liquid gold at every stage. That's why we haven't harnessed the energy around us, and that's really what the 9/11 wars were all about.

What's truly sad is that the underlying problem, energy, is something that we have the wit to solve without the death and destruction that was wrought in Iraq. Most of the focus has been on the servicemen that have lost their lives. Estimates for Iraqi deaths vary wildly, but 100,000 people seems to be the minimum. The whole thing was a disgusting conspiracy between the military-industrial complex and the neo-conservatives, who mistakenly believed that America's Next Century had to be built on warfare and bloodshed.

I've got an iPhone 4 and a Blackberry. Missus has a HTC 'Droid. Build quality on Blackberry's is crap. My boss has gone through EIGHT of them in the last two years. A lot of other people I know have had similar issues, although not the same extent. The thing that makes the iPhone are the apps, really. It's probably the best device I've ever owned. Lack of Flash is not as much of a pain as you'd think, but it's still an issue. If you want to watch movies and stuff, you have to jump through a few hoops. My contract runs out in a year. Hopefully, the new iPhone will be out by then.

There was no public justification for this war that made any sense. There were no WMDs, no links to Al-Qaeda, and it's a matter of record that plans for invading Iraq pre-dated 9/11. It was actually one of the first things that the incoming Bush administration looked at - months before 9/11.

I like the way Nigel either changes things up or is able to get stuff out of the team. I went to the Tranmere game that Pardew presided over, and it was honestly dire from a Saints fan's perspective. However, I had much the same experience when we played Rochdale last year. Clearly, there are times when even Adkins plan B doesn't hit the mark. Difference is, these occasions are rarer under Adkins management, whereas they seemed to be 2-a-penny in Pardew's day. I would love to know why Pardew was really sacked, but in the absence of any hard evidence, I'd probably guess at a major falling out with Cortese - with timing a key factor. When Pardew was appointed, it's probably fair to say that Cortese didn't have a scooby about running a football club, so short-term compromises would have been made to keep things running. Spin on a year later, and Cortese probably felt he had the time and experience to restructure the club for success, and Pardew wasn't on-board. While there are plenty of salacious rumours about things that might have happened or wives that may have been bonked, I suspect that it all came down to an unresolvable difference of opinions. Happens all the time in business.

Nice to see some different views on this. No disrespect, but I'm not on-board with the "one game at a time" philosophy. I know you can't plan everything, and I've seen very recently that things don't always go to plan - but you gotta have a plan - otherwise, what's your yardstick for success? That said, I don't think NC's five-year plan is unrealistic, or unhelpful. As I stated in the OP, the problem, if you can call it that, is that we're doing very well atm, and our achievements are almost breeding expectation. It may well be that the plan isn't achievable this year because of market conditions, player expectations or whatever. I think I'd still like some noise from the club indicating what they'd like to do this season.

And yeah, I can see why "missus" might have led you to believe that I'm married, but it's generally a lot easier than saying "mother of my two kids, provider of my meals, and constant petitioner for marriage".

I'm not married. My love for the gingers only goes so far

My missus is ginger. I am not. I call her Ginge every day, and our friends do too. It's not an insult - it's a term of endearment.

When Moyes transitioned from his role at Preston to his new job at Everton, there was a joke going around. Q : "Why was David Moyes appointed manager of Everton?" A : "Because he knows his way to all the First Division grounds"

When Liebherr and Cortese rolled into town, we were told of a five year plan to return us to the Premier League. We're now in Year Three. The 'problem' we have is that we've made our best start to a season in a generation, and our fans, myself included, are anticipating an earlier return to the Prem than was previously advertised - possibly this year. In my view, there is no way that the team we have will get relegated from the Championship this season, yet we're lacking a real statement from the club on what it seeks to achieve this season. If we're still on the five year plan, we don't need any more signings in this window. If we expect to get promoted this season, we do. What do you think our aspiration is this year?

Watching this now. Pushing all my buttons, and in a good way. C'mon SaintsWeb - get on it