sandwichsaint

Taken to it's logical conclusion who's going to be the first team to down-size their ground then? All those pesky fans with their associated running costs and their ever-diminishing share of revenues, surely the most far-sighted and ground breaking of clubs will down-size to a mini European-style stadium with a capacity of say 15-18k? Fleece the remaining hard-core bestest fans, those who would pay literally anything to see 'their' team play live, exist on the TV revenues and the global brand. Genius, I can't believe I'm the first person to have spotted this, silly West Ham and Spurs and Liverpool all moving and/or expanding and wasting all that money they'll never get back.

Anybody remember the away Friday night game in biblical rain at Roots Hall? Notable for an outstanding performance from Morgan, probably at that time the best I'd seen him play. And for a 15 minute cameo for a young lad on the right wing who looked lively and got a decent write up from me, nowadays Premier League semi-regular Michail Antonio.[h=1][/h]

Manchester United Arsenal Chelsea Manchester City Liverpool Everton Southampton Tottenham Hotspur Newcastle United Nottingham Forest Leeds United Sheffield Wednesday Sunderland for me ................... over Sheffield United West Ham .................. will always be 'bigger' than Birmingham City Aston Villa Wolverhampton Wanderers West Brom will always have more about them than ......... plucky Coventry City Stoke City ..... or Leicester? ... spin a coin on that one Norwich City not for me (nice club tho) ..... would rather see a roaring Cardiff City dragon for a bit of variety/balance Ipswich Town

Koeman Poch Sturrock Strachan Burley Hoddle Souness More than you might think, any more? Prob also ought to claim George Reader too although he was chairman rather than manager, and refereed rather than played.

Think you'll find Ladbrokes already run a similar scheme...

In four days time I get to take the afternoon off work, drive 160 miles, sit (block 36) with some great people (and a whole bunch of plastic JCLs), watch my true love look really good for 25 minutes before self-destructing, see us go 0-2 down (or in my wildest dreams 1-2) then watch '00's of people who will be back at home and nicely tucked up in bed by 10-45 stream for the exits; I will stay to the bitter end while being completely owned by JeFFing Watford fans, then will queue to get out of town, negotiate the vagaries of the department of transport's notorious night time roadworks program and arrive home @ about 00-45, then get up and be in work by 07-15 on Thursday morning. Positives? Sarfampton til I die, Sarfampton till I die, I know I am. I'm sure I am, Sarfampton till I die.

Too little, too late. Not sure that either would be particularly bothered by that outcome, I'd play Romeu regularly for the second half of the season, and sell either/or or both this window but only if the price is right ££££, and attempt to source a Mane replacement via the black box. Hindsight's 20/20 but we would have been better off binning VW in the last window. I'm sure some people will still his 5hit song on Saturday though.

Gazza VVD Romeu Tadic Mane Wasn't there also a national 5-a-side tournament for paperboys (think they were called newsboys) that we did well in once or twice? Cue somebody posting up that they knew someone who played in it. Make my day, somebody post up that they actually played in it!

If only we'd kept the receipt eh?

'Arry's available, he'd jump at it too, obviously only if his knee's better though.

Nailed it, most realistic people accept that we have to live within our means, we have to be sustainable, we have to invest in the academy and produce our own players. We are a mid-size, mid-table sort of a team and we have somewhat over-achieved the last two years. What's so disappointing is how quickly we have regressed, the team seems to have little motivation, little organisation, and poor fitness levels - we still have the spine of a decent side but confidence and belief seems none-existent. Wanyama and Mane situation doesn't help but RK needs to get a grip on the rest of the team and start actually coaching them into a pattern of play. I'm astonished at the way VVD is allowed to play, absolutely no discipline and he gi ves away a goal-scoring chance every game (Yoshida gets pelters for less). Again Soares struggling, he can't be that bad, I've see nhim play well, plenty on here rated him better than Clyne after his first few appearances (he's clearly nothing like that level) but why hasn't RK improved his basic positional play after half a season? Why do we have so many players that can't play a full 90 minutes regularly? Clasie, Soares, Jjuanmi (supposedly), Tadic, Pelle (on the pitch for 90 but rarely contributes the 60-70 mark), bunch of lightweights!

Would anyone be suggesting Gary Monk for next manager if he wasn't ex-Saints? I'll go for a Skate, Eddie Howe.

Were their glasses half-full or half-empty? I think we should be told.

Completely missed this at the time. What was the clapping in the second half v Liverpool ? I picked up a few 'Gerrard' chants, at about 58 minutes, but reluctantly I didn't join in. No memo, no clap.

A decent system but it relies on your 10 and your 9 keeping the oppo back 4 fully engaged. Last night was a perfect storm for us, VW and Clasie didn't give them an inch, JWP and Davis did all that can be asked and Mane and Long asked questions all night long. With the players we have 4-4-2 / 4-4-1-1 makes more sense. The 4-2-3-1 can leave our full backs exposed and the '1' makes us pretty predictable.

I thought people wanted lots of changes?

0-3 L 0-0 D 2-1 L Tuff times.

Turn it off and turn it on again?

Noticable yesterday how little pace we have up front, Spuds were happy to play a very high line confident that we didn't have the quality in midfield or the pace up front to hurt them.

You've just made my weekend!

First time anyone has ever called Ormerod physical. Hard-working yes, tussling with Skrtel, no.

Not a bad plan ,but who would you consider 'weaker opposition'? We've played four Euro games, we're out of the league cup,we have Palace in the FA cup, not too much room for experimentation from here on....

Jack.Cork. (who I actually have a lot of time for).

How do you consolidate a 20 year high? I got laughed out of Dodge for daring to suggest that we were 'regressing to the mean'; I've not seen anything this season to suggest that that's not true and that we are (now) as far as ever from being an established top 6-8 club. Top 6-8 clubs are always looking to add players and improve, we've always got 1-and-three-quarter eyes on the balance sheet. Not knocking it, me and the nipper were weighing up the pros and cons of relegation on the way home: don't need a ST, you can get home tkts on an as when and if basis, away tickets easier to get, cheaper ground prices over the season, more chance to see the home grown players, less mercenaries, and you get rid of the plastics at SMS. Did Half man Half biscuit ever pen Relegation Heaven? They probably should have.