trousers

Depends how hard Man Utd tried. Ferguson has already dropped the somewhat unsubtle hint that they let us off lightly on purpose. Anyway, it's not the result, per se, that people are latching onto - it's the way we appeared not to play like an 'up for it' underdog in the same way that Southend, Notts Forest, Blythe Spartans, Forest Green, etc, etc were.

The Man Utd fan forums that I've read are pretty unanimous in highlighting the gulf in class and some even slated off their own players for not trying harder to exploit our deficiencies.

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Perhaps he meant Pekhart?

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Depends which quotes one refers to.... The OS 'mysteriously' missed this one: Predictably, home boss Jan Poortvliet tore into Riley: 'Arsene Wenger has said United always get the 50-50 decisions and I agree. Alex stood up once to have a word and after that everything went their way. 'I was very disappointed with the game but I was also disappointed with the decisions. You need neutral people, because maybe he did not know my players - referees who are not going to help the top teams.' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1105123/Southampton-0-Man-Utd-3-Too-easy-United-Saints-suffer-Patersons-red.html

Indeed. You'd have thought all this pretty football in the middle third of the pitch would have received some recognition by now....

We are a laughing stock. Official.

....Kelvin Davis No surprises there then.... The 'previous winner' list is starting to paint a somewhat obvious picture! August - David McGoldrick September - Kelvin Davis October - Kelvin Davis November - Jack Cork December - Kelvin Davis http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/article.php?page_id=11181

Sorry. Lazy post from me. I should have said "name me a player who is more prolific than Saga and is available on the same terms". Appreciate it's not our job to find such a player for the club but the fact that no-one springs to mind either speaks volumes.

Scott Griffiths - Dagenham and Redbridge

Sounds like said reporter got his red and white stripes mixed up

Any examples of prolific goalscorers that would cost 'only' £6k and aren't happy where they are?

Ok, been thinking.... So what do we know about the actual human beings at Barclays who have Saints future in their hands? I've seen a "Reading branch" connection posted on here on several occasions. Even a name of a chap has been posted once or twice (even I can't be arsed to trawl back to find it...) But does anyone know how much the person/people who are ultimately determining our fate at the bank know about the nuances of running a football club compared to businesses in other industries? The reason for asking is that I suspect if they aren't "football fans" themselves then they will be treating the club just like any other business and demanding relatively arbitrary cost cutting measures. (Not surprising given that is their job but bear with me....) Whereas, if he/they have some sort of footballing/sporting background (be it as a fan or some sort of sport management qualification) then one would expect/hope that they would take into account the 'false economy' effect that off-loading all our highest-paid (aka "best") players has on the viability of 'the business' in the longer term. The circumstantial evidence is that the string pullers at Barclays are not appreciating the false economy scenario of offloading all our 'star' players over the last 12 months or so. It just appears to the man-in-the-street to be a short term (blinkered?) numbers game at the moment. So, a long-winded way of asking to anyone 'ITK'....what 'running a football club' experience do the club's bankers have (the people running our account, not the bank as a whole)? Thanks.

My pleasure

Damnation....you found me out....here was me pretending to be intelligent for 3 years and it's all been blown apart in one careless post. It's back to selling photocopiers for me....

Indeed. Although at least the OS has now come full circle in that it is so blatantly obvious to see when it is 'covering up the truth' on occasions that it makes it easy for us to see through it. It was clear the second that the "international clearance" article was published that it fell into this category due to the number of holes in its logic.

Simple maths really... If Saga is deemed good enough to help save us from relegation (and one would have thought that a player who appeared at the world cup last year might just meet such criteria) then a £150,000 outlay is a "non-brainer". Interestingly, if Lowe doesn't deem him good enough to help Saints survive then he creates a paradox for himself in that he would effectively be reducing Saga's value and offload potential by declaring "he's not good enough to help us stave off relegation". What sort of message is that to send to potential new clubs? So, logic would suggest one sensible answer to the question...Yes, he should stay.

Stumbled across this thread from August 08 whilst tracing back through some posting history via the Man Utd post-match thread..... One question: What went wrong?

Two?

This club does not lie. FACT.

Dubious play-on-words aside, I believe the original poster was highlighting his foresight rather than hindsight..... He makes a good point if one scratches the surface. There was no apparent tactical changes from the manager, sorry - coach, in selection of the team to play Man Utd. It was very much "this is what we do, so we'll carry on doing it regardless". The quality of the opposition is neither here nor there. It's the principle under discussion here. One word: Worrying.

p.s. I trust you've switched off your mobile phone again until Feb?