Professor

Its all very well for Adkins to praise a great game of football, but I doubt if he'd be saying that if one of Forest's chances had gone in and Rickie's 3rd goal hadn't. He only acknowledged that it was a scratch back four under questioning and he might have done better not to try to put the gloss on it. Cork is great in midfield but he's a poor RB and was responsible for allowing the cross for their first goal. Hooiveld and Fox were both at fault on allowing Derbyshire to tap the cross into the net, Hooiveld the main culprit looking more like a statue. Apart from him being left-footed, I can't see that he's better than Martin and with Seaborne out for a long time a loan looks crucial. Adkins did say that Richardson and Harding were out due to minor injuries but he didn't mention Butterfield and much as he wants to play Schneiderlin it shouldn't be done at the expense of a weakening the defence. I feel we were fortunate to get that result but I think Adkins will have taken the lessons on board more than his interview might suggest.

Blatant cheating such as Derbyshire's dive is blighting football and it needs action by refs, such as yesterday, to try to deal with it, but its a bigger crime when managers such as MaClaren stand in front of a TV camara telling lies to the watching public. He's not only condoning cheating, he's actively encouraging his players to do it. The sooner people like him are out of the game the better.

Football Transfer Rumours Shock. Authorative (?) web site has No Transfer Rumours for SFC since 31 Aug!

Danny Wilson would be an excellent addition - maybe Liverpool will be happy to loan him out as they seem to lose when he's playing for them. The downside may be that if Saints were to continue to do well with Wilson in the team, Liverpool might be less willing to extend the loan for the season, or to sell him.

Loan window - I think opened today - and surely we must get another CB on loan. When Hooisveld was brought in, Seaborne was still available so we are now 1 CB down on what Adkins thought he had. Question is not only will they bring in a anoither CB, but will they now use the opportunity to get someone of proven higher quality who they may be able to keep beyond January if all goes well.

There two categories of Loan. Standard loans that must be agreed during the normal transfer window and Emergency loans, which can be agreed outside the transfer window subject to certain limitations. There has been speculation about a striker on emergency loan, but unless LB becomes unavailable, does anyone know if this would be permitted by the regulations? It seems more likely that despite the well-discussed attempts at signing a striker we will continue with what we have but 3 recognised strikers (excluding Guly) does feel a bit short of ideal. On the CB, we had already taken Hooiveld on loan before the los of Dan Seaborne, so surely another left-sided CB is an absolute necessity until Dan is fit again. Odd thing is, we seem to have plenty of cover - Martin, Jaidi and Hooiveld - but not another first choice CB, which seems a good example of a situation that the Emergency Loan is designed for.

Wes, Firstly, any criminal compensation scheme does depend on the person responsible being guilty, and I accept that we don't yet know in Dan Seaborne's case if there is a guilty person, so the first assumptions based on two quick arrests must be treated with care. But in principle, I believe there is a case for full compensation for criminal acts. Such a scheme shouldn't be impossible to operate since we already have the lifelong student loan scheme and the cost of administration could be added in. If it became understood that the perpetrator of damage to a person or to property would carry the full financial responsibility and not just face a quick penalty, it might make some people be more careful about violent behaviour. If the outcome of an act is life-changing for the victim (and hopefully this may not be the case with Dan Seaborne) then why should the punishment not be life-changing for the perpetrator. This must allow though, that sometimes victims are at fault or contribute to the event, but the courts already have to make such judgements about where fault lies or how fault is shared out. As someone else said, we don't know who threw the first punch in the Dan Seaborne affair and final opinions about it will depend on what we hear after information from witnesses and evidence is published which may be some time yet.

There is perhaps a third thing - that the person responsible should not only be prosected but shoulkd be required to compensate Dan Seaborne for the situation he is already in, and for any future loss. If that means taking all that person's assets sobeit, and if it means hanging a debt on them for years to come or for life, that too. If this were to affect Dan for the rest of his life it should affect the person who did it for life as well.

Back on topic, there are two important things here. First, to hope Dan Seaborne will make a complete and total recovery, enabling him to carry on his football career and if not, that he recovers well enough to live a normal life. Second, to hope that the person responsible is identified with sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution. What will improve safety for all of us is that people who do these things are caught and prosecuted. The greatest deterrent to criminal behaviour is not the potential sentence, but is the prospect of being caught. As with the riots, people do these things more readily if they expect to get away with it. A harsh sentence is meaningless if you can't bring the criminals to court in the first place.

A good many footballers, like lots of other young men, are looking for fun and places to meet girls so nightclubs will always be on the agenda. Players may also have more to spend than the average bloke on a night out so that both the fame and the money will make them stand out. You do wonder if clubs give players enough advice on how to enjoy a night out without attracting too much attention and how to walk away from confrontation.

If this is the so-called 'Door Staff' at the night club, these thugs are supposed to be licensed by the Securities Industries Authority (SIA). Action shouild be taken not just against the individuals who carried out the assault, but on the owners of the NightClub who should ensure their staff are trained to know the difference between reasonable force when there is no other alternative, and acting like bullying thugs. Also why the SIA licence people capable of such behaviour. If someone throws a person to the ground its no defence to claim it was an accident if they hit their head, because that is too obvious a risk from a fall and is why cyclists wear helmets. This is dreadful news for Dan Seaborne and we must all hope it won't affect his playing career, not just for Saints' sake but for his own, simply because football is his livelihood.

Its a thin line between being confident and being complacent. But lets remember we are just fans, what we say has no effect on the way the club is run, but one thing fans are entitled to in return for their money is the right to express an opinion. This thread comes close to trying to supress opinions a few people don't want to hear. However well the club does it is a nonsense to say that it could not do better. Whether the ideas some of we fans throw into the pot would make it do any better is a different matter but when fans complain it is with one common objevctive - that we want the club to strive to always improve, so just what is the point of slagging off fellow Saints supporters? The fans will always want more and when we've won the European Championship with 11 full internationals in the side, we'll want to win it again!

Frankly puzzled. Hooiveld may well compete with Seaborne but from what has been written about him, he appears to be of a similar standard or possibly a little behind DS, whereas we already have Martin to compete and Jaidi as cover. It is just a loan, which does give extra cover againbst injury etc., and will allow another look in the market for January, but the club has already had all close season to look and hasn't been able to find or attract the extra quality signing that would strengthen the first team. At the same time there appear to have been this string of unsuccessful striker bids aimed at quality players for a position where we already have quality but don't have depth. Personally, I'm glad they haven't brought in a name striker as RL and DC are doing an excellent job, but the cover of Guly and Forte looks light in comparison. So its puzzling that we have signed what looks like squad cover at CB where a quality player would have taken the pressure off Fonte and seem to have given up on the striker. Maybe they are thinking of an emergency loan if Barnard becomes unavailable but I did expect more to try to keep the good start going. There are some tough games coming up and Adkins is never complacent so I wonder if it is Cortese who is holding back despite having the Chamberlain cash.

Thought I saw a headline on the OS on Tues saying 'Adkins - we will not panic buy'. Can't see it there now - any significance? As at 5pm it seems we haven't panic bought so far......

it would be surprising if there is any truth in a Beckford bid. To play him in the team, Adkins would have to drop a proven Prem and international striker who has scored in each of our 4 league games so far. Can't believe he would do that and that if he signs a striker it will be someone who could act as cover for both RL and DC but not a replacement. We all know where the replacement is needed and the higher the quality there, the better.

If the injury is just a line by the club to cover why LB is not playing, his behaviour leading to his arrest has cost the club a lot of money. There's no disputing he was involved in violence as he carried the hand injury for so long but only the trial will tell us the degree of his fault. If he is guilty, there may be people at the club who won't want to see him in a Saints shirt again. The various bids for a striker when we already have 3 and Guly could mean that the club don't think he'll be playing here again.

The real shame is that Saints are still missing Chamberlain. When he came back at the end of the season against Walsall after 6 weeks out he made an immediate impact and scored. Guly has taken Chamberlain's place in the team but neither he nor de Ridder have the same impact. If the £12m had been spent to strengthen elsewhere it might look different but as things are we'd have been better off if he'd stayed. So would Alex, from a football perspective, but I expect he and his Dad are enjoying spending the money. In the end that's what it was all about so you can't help a small feeling of satisfaction at him being on the pitch for 25 minutes while the opposition score 5 goals!

If Reading and Bristol City can beat Leicester, I'm sure Saints can.

Thought it didn't help that Saints couldn't find a pair of shorts to fit him. Seemed to have pair several sizes too large, that were probably hand-me-downs from Matt LeTiss along with the shirt number. Never rated him myself, seemed fairly ordinary.

Several responses (Winmill Arm 2; Danish Saint, etc) are rightly saying that the current first team is doing extremely well, better than any of us, I guess, expected but, and there has to be a but, Adkins is still looking for signings, as shown by the unsuccessful bids we all know have been made. So it follows that either Adkins does think the team can be improved or that he needs more squad players to provide cover. So if Adkins thinks he needs signings, apparantly at CB and striker, why would anyone who believes in the manager be critical of someone posting on here and saying the same?

And when Adkins said he wanted quality - was he droning on as well? No one can argue about performance when we have 4 straight wins but if the club is still looking for signings, surely they should be better, not just more squad players. Its already been pointed out that so far, the only signing who is a regular starter is Cork. There is a huge sum of money in the bank from the Chamberlain deal but whereas Chamberlain was a regular starter, de Ridder isn't. Maybe it would be hard to replace a £12/£15m player with someone better and maybe there are other priorities such as the CB and Striker we keep hearing we are bidding for, but someone like Fontaine could turn out to be just another Seaborne, will get some games but not be first name on the sheet. As for the striker, its fine as long as Lambert and Connolly are fit and without bookings but sooner or later we do need the third striker. Maybe it could be LB when he regains fitness, but if he isn't available from October it will be too late. All this does seem to justify questions being asked, mainly because the club appear to be in the market to buy but are not having much success.

Very true. Unused sub on Saturday so the Carling Cup game against Rochdale is just the fixture you'd expect to see him get a run out. The QPR teamsheet should get the speculation going, either way.

Unless Cortese has a European signing up his sleeve that we know nothing about, lets hope this deal goes through, with Puncheon or without him. I've been impressed by Dan Seaborne in the last few games but he is just too prone to make slips to be a first choice at CB and since the idea is to have a team promoted , whether this year or next, with a lot of players that could cut it in the Prem, I'm not sure about Seaborne long term. Against Millwall I thought Seaborne looked OK but when you see his slip on the highlights, he effectively gave a goal away, only the Millwall player failed to take it. Gorkss has the ambition to do well so our current league position might be just the push he needs to agree to come.

Pre-season I thought the tough 5 games in August would be an indicator of whether the team had been adequately strengthened. Of the 3 signings, Cork is definitely a key player already but I'm not sure Fox makes a lot of difference compared to Dickson and de Ridder isn't the first choice wide right that Chamberlain had become. So, not a lot of strengthening, but the story of the first 5 games is that a good L1 side can make an impact in the NpC without a lot of tinkering. Brighton seem to be doing the same. At worst now, we will have 12 points from those first 5 games, and it could yet be 13 or 15. But 10 pts from 5 games would be promotion form so to have already exceeded that with a game in hand is a message in itself but I'm not sure it will make any difference to how teams approach playing us. Every team tries to win every game, regardless of past form and reputation.

Without detracting from the amusing irony of the post, MOTD2 did confirm some of the comments about the BBC and their football coverage. Seems the BBC go out of their way to promote the 'Celeb' clubs. On MOTD2, the commentator was wetting his pants over Man City, clearly expecting the overpaid carpetbaggers to thrash Bolton but in the end it was only a GK error that decided the game. Also interesting to see championship players, and a L1 player in the case of Elliott Bennett, performing just as well in the Prem as the so-called stars. Also interesting to see goal chances missed in the Prem that Lambert and Lallana would have put away with ease. Although the top 4 or 5 in the Prem tend to stay there because of strength in depth, the gap between the leagues doesn't look anything like as large as the ridiculous money difference would imply.