Fan The Flames

Why is Southampton the best place for Shaw. Going to a bigger club where he trains with better players, earns more wages, better chance of playing for England, better chance at pulling a soap star and plays less games at a young age (extending his career and earning potential) could be the best place for him.

I like MP being so competitive.

I used to hate WGS, that is equally embarressing.

I have my reservations, but I hope he has an impact as great as the last striker we bought after one game into the season.

To have kept hold of those players we would have to be competing consistently for fourth place for the last four or five years. Tottenham are struggling to keep hold of Bale as we speak, Arsenal consistently loose payers to rivals. What chance have we got. We are selling an ambitious dream at the moment but talk can only hod players to a club for so long. There seems a great comaraderie and intent about the players at the moment, which is great. But if we are to rise to the top end of the table it will be on the backs of brought it talent.

It is a laudable target and of course it is in our interest to have a productive academy, but it is more likely that we will not field half a team of academy graduates. We would have to produce a couple a year for a few years that are good enough to compete at the level we want, whilst keeping hold of the ones that are really good. The people that claim any sort of credit for Lowe, haven't got a clue. Bringing players though the system has been happening at every football club since football began. A lot of the investment in the academy under Lowe was required by the premier league.

Is Merson now back in the 'alright' camp.

Does it come in red?

Can only echo what everyone has said, its is an amazing story. The Mirror said his call up was not about the future of England but a reward for a player that has put in the hard yards, I think we have come obsessed with the future of England that we have forgotten that caps can be used as rewards as well, it's topped of Rickies career stats and in true Lambert style he seized the opportunity and smashed it. Rickie has undoubtedly been brilliant for us and has earned legend status, but we have also been good for him. He provided the goals and we provided the vehicle for him to move up through the divisions, together we have been able to fulfil each others aspirations; I guess that's the perfect relationship. On the point of the Huddersfield chairman, he set out his thinking and made a decision based on financial risk. He can't be blamed for that as he is at the helm of a club that have been in financial trouble a few times. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. On a sour note I do fear the two misses will be more important in the minds of the English management than the goal, lets hope Roy buys into the romance of the situation and gives him another go. Well done Rickie.

We are after match fixers to secure our CL slot.

Try ten years later #wrongagain

Sorry ran out of posts earlier. Cropper, unsighted for the first and couldn't do much about the other two, look good on a couple of one on ones. It think it was Colmer at left back, he isn't massive but was comfortable on the ball, he had two big lads on him at one point and he didn't flap drew them in and got out a great reverse pass between them and got a kicking for his troubles. Curtis goal was very good and Seager looked good.

Lee looked alright, his touch and passing was good although he failed to make an impact. Forte was falling over the ball a lot, he was trying to take them on but with very little success. De Ridder passes were going astray and again he made little impact.

A couple of locals next to me were incensed that a couple of 'pikey scum' had run on to the pitch. Wasn't a bad match Welling were up for it as you would expect from players failing to make the higher grade playing against youngsters from prem club, a few heavy tackles but nothing too outrageous. They scored a nice opener and then out muscled us for their other two goals. Curtis scored a blinder for us and then Seagar with pen and a simple goal to equalise. Hard game but the boys battled well.

Townsend didn't slip through the net, he just dint want to stay. If I recall correctly Graham Roberts seemed to enjoy sticking one on us, it must have hurt being dropped. Talking of Welling anyone going to watch the under 21's there tonight.

So some Cambridge United fan blogger thinks he's good. A while back we all thought he was going to be world class and that has led to some disappointment, he hasn't found his feet yet in the prem. The fans will get behind him and I'm sure he will have a better season this year than last. How good he will be is anyones guess, he will end up somewhere between Bale and Surman

I've been to the Celtic Rangers derby, Celtic won 5-1, it's was a mad day. Blokes drunk at 10 o'clock in the morning, some lad chasing another with a hammer, a old bloke kneeling down and praying in the street after the game, men crying when the fifth goal went in, the guy in front of me sleeping through the whole game, his companion was more interested in fighting the steward who had a no smoking sign than watching the game, the pub afterwards had the game on loop for days, the Irish club we went to in the evening was rocking. A memorable day.

The whole point of ths BBC story is that Tann is casting aspersions on Celtic by saying their bid for £10m was acepted only for Celtic to keep upping the price. Tann claims he would not play those games. Lennon straighten the story out by stating the £10m bid that was made by Cardiff was never accepted. We came in and bid an acceptable amount, end of story.

If its so obvious why do you pose two possible scenarios one negative and one positive. I would say its far from obvious what's going on but I like loads on here are mature enough to just wait and see what unfolds.

So Stoke away matches will have more wrinklys, students and middled aged simpletons at away matches next year.

One had 26 league appearances and 5 goals one had 33 league appearances and 6 goals. From that a skilful observer of football can clearly see that one is brilliant and the other is ****, hhhhhmmmmmm.

I don't think Chelsea will becin for J Rod and I think JM will squeeze another year out of Lampard.

What about Pavel Pogrebnyak, has he been mentioned in this epic thread. He is available on a free. Is he good enough for a back up, looking at his stats he hasn't had the amount of starts he should have, so maybe he is happy to be a bench warmer.

Aren't the skates scummers though.

What is wrong with what he said, he is proud of the picking up a star for a song and being part of his development over the the last two years. They bought him for nothing that is a fact, they have developed him that is a fact because we are splashing £12m out for him. Then he goes on to say he is going to a good club. I think you are 110% numpty.