SFKA South Woodford

The price of Oxlade Chamberlain: At least £10million up front, 40% sell on fee and loan back for a season. If 'The Arse' and Whinger match that, they can get to see him in their ****e kit. Only negotiation is for the fee, and each time they low ball us, we tell them it's an insult and up the price!

He was symbolic of the very freedoms we should all hold very dear, they have been fought for in blood, sweat and rivers of tears down the years, and I for one find the flippant attitude of some on here regarding peoples rights to democratically and peacefully protest against the state not only disturbing but wholly unpatriotic! How can you argue against speaking out against tyranny and oppression, going to war to be Bush's b*tch, mass unemployment or crippling student debt? Would any of you in the countryside alliance have been doffing your caps to the police as they cracked you over the head with their truncheons? No doubt you'd be turning round to the policeman saying 'awfully sorry officer, I shouldn't be here so you have every right to do whatever you want to me' Speaking out against the things we think are wrong is the very essence of being British. Granted, it has at times been shown by nothing stronger than a letter to The Times, but from small acorns mighty oaks do grow! Brian Haw grew from a small acorn into a sappling, dogged and persistant no matter how much weed killer the government tried to pour over him he resisted and persisted with his protest, he set an example that others will follow, especially in the coming strikes and marches. BTW, for the record I have nothing but admiration for the job that our Armed forces are doing in the various conflict zones around the world, my disagreement is with the politicians who send them there without the power to do little more than show face and who get them involved for the wrong reasons!

Nike, no thanks, they've never made a decent kit, and deserve to go bust for their sweatshop working practices! Corporate profit giant yanks at their worst!

One of the funniest things i've seen, was when the police raided a load of pikey caravans that were parked up on the retail park next to the Madjeski stadium in Reading, they had their caravans parked up about thirty feet from the entrance to the BHS homestore. Whilst stuck in a traffic jam caused by the police raid, I witnessed police officers walking into the caravans and coming out again carrying BHS branded boxes with all kinds of lighting fixtures and fittings, Microwaves, kitchen sets, cutlery sets, crockery, bed linen and tv's and dvd players and walking it back into the BHS store. It was actually quite impressive to see the extent to which they had obviously been cleaning the BHS store out. Also remember them moving onto a car park in Chiswick near where I worked a few years ago, after a few days of them being there, you had to watch where you stepped as they had been sh*tting and p*ssing all over the pavements, and smearing it on the road signs, trees and peoples cars. Cars were being broken into every day and having their contents nicked and when they did eventually leave they left a mountain of rubbish, dirty nappies and sh*t behind them, that took the council a week to get rid of. Can't say as i really care about them or where they go, so long as they show some respect to the people who live wherever they rock up to, for 365 days of the year and the land itself by cleaning up after themselves. But apparently they think they are special and refuse to acknowledge the byelaws and basic decency and sanitation that the rest of us live by.

If he was going to go, I thought he would of shown a bit more ambition than the Arsewholes and go to either Utd or Chelsea or even Liverpool and be part of their resurgence under Kenny. Wenger can't get his teams to deliver on the big occasions any more, so he better just enjoy his wages as they will be the only thing he'll have to show for his time at the new library! Especially with them selling their best player to Barca! I also doubt very much we'll be getting anything like 12 million in cash for him, will almost certainly be appearance based just like Theo. I just hope we have inserted a very large sell on clause as for getting their players on loan, no thanks! We need to be developing our own team with players to be here for the long term if the project is going to stand any chance of coming to fruition. I wish only ill favour on Arsenal for tapping our players up, which will only grow if he does go there!

Agree with this, having that clarity of thought and the confidence that goes with it is what is meant by 'a football brain'. A lot of the Chamberlain detractors are using Barca players to beat him down, can they honestly say there is no such thing as 'a football brain' when they watched Barca's players destroy Utd a week ago. They achieved this through their speed and clarity of thought, confidence and superior technique, all of which are mental processess. If you don't believe that, then you must think that the Barca team are either geneticly engineered supermen or are from another planet. I know Chamberlain is a way off of that level of performance at the moment and sadly he may never achieve it unless he transfers to a top european team whilst still quite young, as I do not see any team in England where the other players would be on the same wave length as him, which is where, in my opinion Theo's development has stalled, imagine how much better a player Theo would look running through onto passes from Iniesta or Xabi. I saw a lot of Theo and Dyer playing when they were in the youth team and have to say that in the games I saw, Dyer looked the better player of the two, including in a match against a young West Ham side at Upton Park which was at the time regarded as one of the best youth teams around, where he destroyed them, being head and shoulders above Theo in the game. No one would argue who the better player is now though. I share the opinion of others having seen a lot of both players at the same age, that Chamberlain has a greater potential, just like Theo he has the ability to turn a fullback inside out and has almost as much pace, but is harder to knock off the ball than Theo was and takes kicks and roughing up a lot better than Theo did. I saw some particularly nasty assaults on Chambo last season and rather than react in the way that most people would, he just got up and got on with the game, so although the technical ability of the players he was facing may not be as good as those faced by Theo at the same age, Chamberlain had to play against players that were a lot more physical and gave less time and were tighter on him than those faced by Theo. BTW, just like Theo, AC Milan and Barcelona have both already expressed an interest in Alex, so he can't be half bad can he?

Does this point to centre stand tickets making a jump from £25 per match last season, to £30 or more next season? If the season ticket price is almost £26 per match, then adding the cost of the two free matches season ticket holders are supposed to get over the cost of the buying per fixture cost, it comes to over £28 per match, and seeing as how prices never get rounded down, that means £29 a match without the ticket tax. Seeing as the club need to generate as much money as possible, it doesn't require a huge jump of the imagination to see tickets costing £30 per match plus the £2 ticket tax and it's getting a bit steep to watch Saints in the Championship. So seems like a Season ticket is going to be the best option seeing as I generally go to between 15 and 20 home games a season.

Did anyone else on here apply? If so, have you been allocated any tickets? Do you know anyone who has been successful in getting some? I applied for 5 different events and unless my bank is being very slow displaying payments, I haven't been allocated any! I'm more upset for my girlfriend than for me, as she really wanted to go.

I can't believe how some of you are so short sighted! We simply must do all we can to keep Chambo, he is going to be the best player to have come out of the academy since Le Tiss in a years time. In my opinion he is a better player than Walcott as he has pace to burn and doesn't get knocked off the ball easily and has great balance, the only thing that can stop him from becoming a world great like Messi will be his own attitude, and as he hasn't showed any signs of pretentiousness as yet, I doubt that will be a problem. For me, he is the most exciting young player in this country, and you could see how much of an improvement he made to our team when he came on against Walsall, hitting the post with a good shot at the end of a great run almost as soon as he set foot on the pitch, and then scoring a great goal and frightening the hell out of the Walsall defence for the rest of the match. If we can find a pacy striker with a good eye for goal over the summer to team up with him, then a play off and even an automatic promotion place would be within our grasp. If, and god forbid Cortese does decide to sell him, we must get top dollar for him and that to me even in todays market means a valuation of around 15 million with a pretty hefty sell on clause. Let's not get done on the fee like we were for Bale, who Spurs are now prepared to listen to offers of over 40 million for, and what did we get for our sell on clause for Bale? Tommy bl**dy Forecast with a five year contract around the clubs neck. Nicola remain firm and don't let Fergie, Abramovich and Whinger bully you, we need to send out a statement of intent, that we are heading for the top and are intent on keeping our best players and adding the best young talent to get there.

It's such a shame and so sad that the big man wasn't there to see it and be thanked by us all! It was lovely seeing him at Wembley last year and seeing how it excited he was by it all, can imagine that he would have been joining in with all the celebrations yesterday, with the biggest grin of any of us on his face. Thanks again big man.

Hush Dune, 'call me Dave' will be round for your party membership card, if you show that kind of sentiment!

I'd be happy to contribute as well. Just to offer an alternative suggestion though, how about getting colour cardboard squares printed and attached to all of the seats in St Marys, so that when they are held up it makes a mosaic of Markus' face in each of the stands with the words 'Thank you Markus' below his face.

Dune, I'm sure that all those being made redundant would of welcomed the cuts and wish to shake hands with Cameron for sorting their debts and families futures out so well. Surely they'd also like to thank you and delldays as well for proposing that Cameron gives them a whole three months to find another job before they and their kids have to go begging on the streets ending up in being given fines which no doubt they'll be happy to pay at the expense of having a roof over their heads, being warm and fed.

I hate this league and it's mickey mouse teams with crap pitches and their wide boy chairmen always mouthing off. This fixture backlog will end up killing off our automatic promotion chances, it's much better to have the points in the bag, to put pressure on our rivals rather than having to play catch up and the pressure being on us.

I remember Baj starting singing it when a group of us used to attend the Saints reserve and FA youth cup ties in London, I think it was at either at Barnet for a game against the Arse reserves or Dagenham and Redbridge against the West Ham Reserves. I remember the Dagenham game as the Hammers fans looked at us like we were mad for turning up and chanting and the Saints players looked like they thought we were stalking them.

Totally agree with you here Gordon, he was a much better player than a lot of our fans give him credit for, and was a better player for us than Puncheon has been. Pardew shouldn't have had a problem with him, as without Papa and his goals bringing the success of the JPT to him, Pardew would have been sacked as soon as we missed out on the play offs. As for him being offiside, the linesmen were too slow and just put their flags up as soon as they looked up and saw he was behind the oppo's defence. I remember one instance of him being flagged only about five yards over the half way line, as he raced onto a through ball, when he had started his run in our half and was on the half way line as the ball was played through. I'm not saying he was never offside, just that on a fair few occasions the lino got it wrong. He also came on and changed a few games turning draws into wins, again something that is overlooked by some of our fans. I'd have him back at Saints tomorrow if I could, as I believe he has attributes which the squad are lacking and that he can play at a higher level.

It would be great to get home from the pub quiz tonight and find out that Charlton and Bournemouth have both lost, unfortunately I fear the opposite will be true! Come to think of it, I might put a bet on them both winning. My luck is so bad that they should then at best draw, but with my luck the referee would play half an hour of extra time allowing Bournemouth and Charlton to get a winner!

I know son, listening to Stewart Dennis makes me want to puke as well!

As much as I can't stand Dune and the effluent that regularly comes through his keyboard, no one can call him a nazi! Nazi's were Nationalist Socialists and we all know what Dune thinks of Socialism. As we know, he would much rather see his capitalist "Greed is good" overlords and their buddies get rich off his and others hard work without a care or concern for him or their other workers, than see a collective responsibility for a decent standard of living for all nurtured to a point where it is seen as the natural way forward for the whole human race. Irony is lost on so many people, like those thousands of Russian tw*ts that march around with Swastikas doing the Nazi salute, they would of been there lining their own people up for a Nazi shower, until one day it became their turn to take one, I wonder whether they would have been happily reaching for their wash bags and soap on that day! Do they just choose to forget that Hitler hated their whole race and wanted them all wiped out?

No one is saying 'let's sign players for every eventuality' those of us that want to see some signings made, agree with Turkish in that they shoud be players to improve the first team first and foremost. The lack of creativity in the absence of Lallana is shocking, add to that we do not have a forward with pace and haven't replaced the wingers that did so well for us last season and it's fairly apparent that we are still in need of at least two players if not three. As I keep saying, I know Lallana is a class apart in this league and probably the one above as well, so we will not get a better player or anyone as good as him, but we have to get someone who will be able to cut in running at the defence and be abe to pass or shoot at the end of the run. Add to that a pacy striker to get in behind the defence, as we have to be able to open up more space in the oppo's defence if we are going to get the consistentcy we need for promotion. There must be another Papa or Antonio out there somewhere, who can play either up front or on the wing, if we can find one then we'll be sorted. Not getting promoted this season is a horrible thought, not only are alot of us sick of this league and it's tiny little sh*thole grounds, it's also getting tedious being everyone's cup final, but the most alarming thing is that if we do not get promoted, we will be saying goodbye to most of our first team as they will not be wanting to hang around wasting another year of their precious career and earning potential playing in this league.

I guess Les Parry got lucky with working out how to play us when we don't have Lallana in the team, since according to some on here he will of been preparing all week to face Lallana. Even after Adkins comments yesterday, I still think it's going to be a few more weeks to a month until Lallana is back in the team, which will mean more points lost and more ground to make up on the other teams. Whilst I agree that we wont find a like for like replacement for Lallana as he's a class above this league, Adkins needs to sign a player able to run at the opposition whilst keeping possession, thus drawing opposition players out and creating space for Guly and Lambert. Perhaps we should try to beat the premier boys to the chase and put in a bid for Jennings? Before anyone says 'Chamberlain', 1. it's a big ask for the lad to be our only source of creativity and 2. it's looking as though his head has been turned anyway, as his past two performances have been well below par.

It makes sod all difference to the opposition if their manager wants to keep his job for longer than a couple of weeks, he should prepare his team for both eventualities. And given that we are a hell of a lot more potent as an attacking force with Lallana than without him, his job of preparation for that eventuality will be a lot easier. As someone said on the Lallana injury thread, football is a big community where a lot of people know each other well enough to talk about these issues, so I doubt Lallanas injury is much of a secret to opposition managers anyway. Also given that the injury only occurred just over a week ago, that Tranmere would have had a scout at Boundary Park and that Les Parry is a qualified physio he will almost certainly know the extent of Lallanas injury and how long he will be out for. So the only people who are really in the dark about the extent of Adams injury are the fans, and the only purpose that serves is to make sure ticket sales stay strong, as people will know we have only a slim chance of beating Utd anyway and almost none without Lallana. Brighton haven't kept their injuries secret and it's done them no harm, they still keep getting results.

Whilst I agree that we will be unable to replace Lallana with a like for like replacement, there is no reason why we shouldn't bring in someone better than our current options to replace him while he's injured. It scares the c*ap out of me thinking that he may be out long term. Admittedly I haven't seen how Dickson has progressed recently, to know if he is an adequate replacement. Other than that, we are still lacking a front man with electric pace, which is an attribute we will need to break down teams if Lallana is out for a long length of time and we don't have his skill and the fear factor he creates in the oppo players. We also still need another pacy winger, as the Ox is the only one we have who is very fast, Puncheon can beat his man, but does not have the pace to then get away from him, in the way Chamberlain does. I would still love to see Papa brought back as he showed us last season that he can play both roles and therefore you are getting two players rolled into one with him. If Adkins does not take this opportunity to strengthen, then it will be akin to playing russian roulette, not just with his own job, but also with the squad, as you can be sure that we will lose the core of the team next summer if we don't get promoted, as Ox, Fonte, Morgan, Lambert and some of the others will be off to a higher level. I can't believe that Lallana hasn't had a promotion or bust clause written into his new contract either, so in all likelyhood next season we would have to buy a whole new team, that will not be as good as the one we have now. After all, as so many of you are saying which players of the calibre we want are going to be willing to come and play in this division?

Dune, do you realise that you are actually advocating a communist work ethic? That of taking people with work skills and experience of one job and forcing them to go and do something else, i.e toil in a workhouse! This is the same as the cultural revolutions of the USSR and China, where doctors and teachers for example, were forced to go and work in the fields. Get it into your head that there are long term unemployed in this country that wish to work and have years of training and experience in industrys which are still producing benefits for this country, but which due to the current financial climate are running at a reduced capacity with the bare minimum of staff to keep their costs down, resulting in very few jobs currently available in those industries. So please stop calling all unemployed people work shy and advocating that they should be sent to work houses, to be re-educated under the whip! Next thing we know comrade, you'll have gone one step further and it'll be 'Dune says - The killing Fields, were the Khmer Rouge misunderstood?' By the way, advocating killing people for the sakes of business interests is particularly loathsome!

I was born the Isle Of Wight and lived there for six years until my mum re-married and we moved to London. My mum hated football and wouldn't let me have anything to do with it, as my dad had played football. It wasn't until Saints finished runners up in the league, that I knew anything about them. A couple of years later a West Ham supporting step cousin, took me to Upton Park to see Saints play there, we got tonked, but a few months later I told my mum I was going out to play with my friends for the rest of the day and instead made my way down to Southampton, I got as far as the Polygon and then didn't know where to go, so asked a couple of blokes with red and white scarves if they could point me to the ground. They said I could follow them, so I did and we ended up on Milton Road. I was excited, bought a program and just went in the first entrance I could find, so ended up on the Milton Terrace. I was hooked from the moment that Danny Wallace scored a screamer in that 1-0 win over Watford. I managed to sneak back in when I got home that night without my mum knowing where i'd been and then repeated the journey a few weeks later for a win over Oxford. I think I went to the Dell six times that season, and have been going to games ever since. I only found out my Saints heritage years later, when I saw my dad for the first time in about 10 years. He told me that he was a Saints fan and had been at the final in 76 and had been to the Dell for lots of games before moving around the country with his job. A few years later my grandad on my mums side of the family also told me that he had been to the Dell several times when he was a boy and that two members of our family had actually played for Saints back in the early part of the 1900's. So although i've never lived in Southampton, i'm linked by blood and like many on here and elsewhere I got that feeling of elation of being part of something special, especially when it came to our regular bloodying of the noses of the big boys. One of the reasons I moved to Hampshire a few years ago was to make it easier to get to games, and as a result I have now been able to experience the atmosphere at evening matches, such as those against Charlton and MK Dons in the JPT run last season, as people say there is definetly a different intensity to evening games at St Marys, especially when the boys are turning it on, on the pitch.