Wurzel

Redknapp. Whatever the problem I'll always blame Redknapp.

Great player for us, had a brilliant understanding with Wayne Bridge. CMFG would receive the ball and pass it on to WB without looking up, he always seemed to know where he'd be. The fabled Black Box worked wonders in those days unearthing unknown talents. Oh wait, it hadn't even been invented back then.

No, it doesn't. If you by a car on finance you pay a deposit "up-front" and the rest as staged payments. One lump sum would be described as "outright". The whole phrase "up front" indicates it's the first, initial, front (however you want to describe it) payment with more to come .

Think you are showing a misunderstanding of what "up-front" means. In VvD case we agreed - I think - £70m "up front" (i.e a guaranteed sum whatever happens) with a further £5m dependent on certain things (appearances, CL qualification etc) The £70m will be paid in 3 stages of £23.3 million, with an "initial" ( NOT up front) payment being paid now and the rest in 12 and 24 months time. The £5m as and when the dependent circumstances arise. Staged payments are the norm in transfers. It's also how we pay for players when we buy them so if, for example we wanted to buy 1x£75m player today (yeah, right) or 3x£25m players, it shouldn't affect our buying ability in any way. No lies. nothing unusual, move along please.

What would damage his reputation more - getting one appointment wrong (and dealing with it in a timely manner), or getting us relegated.? If I was LR I know which one I'd be more concerned about.

"Sack Pellegrino It's time to sack Pellegrino" (to tune of Guantanamera (There's only one ....) Flexible, can change to "Sack Pellegrino For **** sake sack Pellegrino" once Fulham go 2-0 up

Much as don't want any of our players banned don't think there is any option but to ban him . Looked 100% deliberate from every angle I've seen it. Respect to their keeper for making little or no fuss about it - maybe he was too dazed at the time.

That is correct. Giving them just 2 days to make plenty of copies

We could well have been stood in the same crowd. As a kid that would be part of my Saturday evening ritual too, quick run down to Woolston (after Basil Brush I seem to recall ) and a slow walk back due to trying to study the league tables whilst walking and trying to finish my sweets before I got back home. And the feeling of utter shame having to return home one day to tell Dad they had sold out before I could get one ( the shopkeeper explained print run problems meant they received far fewer that evening, but it still felt like some kind of failure) Like others I was always amazed it could be printed and distributed so quickly even allowing for the fact that it was only the outside cover that carried anything related to that days events. Still not quite as impressive as jumping off our coach whilst it was still queuing to get out of the Wembley complex to buy (probably) an Evening Standard with a report of our Cup Final win from a street vendor. Not bought one in years now, sadly another victim of the digital age.

You are correct. I knew someone high up in Barr Construction working on the SMS project. He described it in simplistic layman's terms as being built so at any time in the future it is just a case of unbolt and lift off the roof, extend vertical conduits for water/electric upwards, drop in new tier and replace roof. One advantage of an out of the box kit style stadium I guess. Applies to all 4 sides but Itchen is more complicated due to boxes etc, but not impossible.

And too many of those parries are pushed back into the danger zone for my liking. But he does seem to be moving better and his confidence seems to be coming back these last few games.

Normally I'd be still up for giving him a chance to turn things around. But I've seen absolutely nothing from him to suggest that he will do anything other than persevere with the same current tactics which a) clearly aren't working and b) is clearly not the best style and formation suited to the personnel at his disposal. Disappointing as I thought he would turn out to be a really good appointment for us, but it's a GO from me

I liked the look of that till I realised that was 11 outfield players. Although we as well play that and no keeper the way things are going between the sticks.

I'm still blaming it all on Redknapp.

Christ this is tedious again. Half way through first half, I'm wondering if an alien tuned in and watched this would they have gained any perception as to the objective of the sport?

Can someone explain to a Luddite like me the benefits of paid services like SM and Flawless? I've found a perfectly watchable link (on laptop size screen) for everyone of our games so far this season via FirstRowSports. No Kodi/Firestick, no VPN etc. Admittedly I have to go through the usual pre-match routine of closing down various pop-ups/unders/browser tabs but once they are cleared and video is full screen it's an ok pictue and audio with minimal if any buffering. Loses a bit of clarity when shown through my 50"tv via HDMI lead but still watchable and better than the radio. What advantages do the paid services give?

Think you could be right with that last paragraph. Alaves we're the underdogs of La Liga and he set them up in a way that they could nullify and get a point or 3 against all those teams better than them (which, on paper, was pretty much all of them). And that worked well. It seems that no-one has told him that we are NOT the underdogs in this league we are better than 13 of the teams we play (and all but one played so far fall into that category) and it should be them worrying about scraping a point agaist us. If we're not careful we'll end up as the team the top 6 hate to play whilst the remaining 13 find we cause them no problems

You forgot "vision". We have others with the skill and ability to have scored that goal. Unfortunately they seem to lack the vision, or confidence - or maybe enough attitude to defy orders - to try it. Without that vision the skill and ability is just wasted.

Can someone remind me of the significance of his preference for the #44 ?

Me too. That and how awesome "The Dome" looks from inside. And what a nice chap that Wilfred Zaha seems to be.

Wondering if he was the (un-named) forward we were rumoured to be trying to sign in the last window which couldn't be completed at the time but negotiations were meant to be still ongoing. Guessing Arsenal wouldn't let him go until Sanchez's future was decided. Usually I say never go back (unless - and with hindsight - you are Channon or Ball) but in Theo's case I'd take him like a shot.

So less than 3 years after scoring 8 goals in one home PL game we have only scored in one of the last 9 home PL games. Which is a bizarre stat at any level of football Even more strange the only one we have scored in was scheduled as an away game and the fixture reversed. Didn't we have a white witch remove a curse at SMS not long after we moved in? Is it time we got her back?

Script is written. VvD heads "winner" in last minute , ...... only for Crouch to come off the bench and equalise in injury time

That's a bit high-brow isn't it? Big screens showing the History Channel

I'd love to see us give it a go. Back 5 with Romeu and Lemina in front of it isn't going to concede much, which is handy when we don't score many. As it gives the full backs license to attack down the wings even more I'd go for your back 8 then Davis /JWP central with Gabi AND Austin ahead of him. Shouldn't leave us too short in midfield, if RB goes on a run CS covers the extra midfield and vice-versa. 2 up front gives the options of target man CA and a hard to mark Gabi making intelligent runs all over the place. Tadic, Boufal, Redmond wouldn't be too happy but it seems time is right to try something fresh, and they've all had enough chances to stamp their authority on a game with infrequent success We'd either get thrashed or start looking like top 6 contenders again. Either way it would be entertaining.