sandwichsaint

Sash good, Dan Seaborne HeadingHats less so.

Agree .... v. entertaining so far!

Lambert?

Don't agree, nothing like the same old same old, we used to have a reasonable defence and a limited attack, we now have a pretty good attack and a very limited defence. I saw more flair from England going forward than I did from Brazil the other night.

I'm not missing Lawro one little bit.

I'm a bit insulted that you even had to ask, didn't you see me in the Northam after the last game of the season celebrating our momentous 8th place finish? The players waving up at me and me celebrating with a badge-kiss and a chest -thump? Surely no fan that's off to another club next season could be that shallow could they?

Thank the Lord that someone's got their priorities right.

I'd take either, 81/82 is an astonishing conversion rate. What's the 'average' conversion rate in the PL? It can't be above 90% can it? FF, what's David Peach's record if you have it to hand?

If all this comes to pass, and it looks plausible, then can we start to say that the board will have made the best of a bad job? I'd take this scenario now.

Really, months and months? I'd have thought that over the last 12-18 months Saints have had some of the most positive PR of pretty much any club in the country ... reams and reams of positive stories and quotes and articles ... loads of positive TV coverage etc etc. Guess that was alright by you though? No awkward questions were ever asked of who was paying for it, how much it was costing, how sustainable it would be when big clubs come calling etc etc. Now the boot is on the other foot and the wheels appear to have come off you cry 'foul'. What are the papers supposed to do? Super-success-story-Southampton hit a bit of financial/managerial/want-away players-type turbulence, it would be astonishing if the papers didn't want to write about it wouldn't it?

Much better when Lallana comes central, he's a far better play maker than Rooney (who's not a play maker at all). Shaw and either of Clyne or Chambers would add massively to this side. Bet Welbeck lives in a cul-de-sac.

The Spanish de Canio, that's a name we haven't seen yet, which in the current circumstances is one small silver lining.

In Liverpool presumably? (good news wherever it was).

WTF? Have a word with yourself. Man has ST for 8 years with group of friends. Man has work difficulties and not sure if he can renew. Where has CEC said anything in this about 'entitlement'?

Just the 8 for me two.

You got that hospitality manager's gig yet? Certainly making all the right noises now.

Not sure about that, and not sure they are even direct rivals? First up, I'm a JRod fan and I'm more than happy with his contribution since he's been here, he was a bit of a slow burner but he's had a really good season this year and it looks like there's plenty more to come as long as he can get past his injury. Now to the much maligned Mr Welbeck, did you not see the United game at SMS recently? If not I'd suggest that TV highlights don't really do justice to players in the flesh. Absolutely outstanding display, for somebody with that 'awkward' look he is technically on a different level, a sort of bl*ck Peter Crouch, only much quicker, if you will; everything stuck, and he used the ball really intelligently too. Pacy, strong, full of running, and all of it with a purpose; he created their goal and was the only player on their side (bar Mata) to offer any sort of threat. Factor in their international scoring records and it really is a no brainer, I really like JRod and what he brings to the team but anybody saying that his injury robbed him of his WC place is getting a bit ahead of themselves, who would you have left out to accommodate him? Rooney?Sturridge? Welbeck? Sterling?* If he keeps up his progress JRod could be an outside chance for the next Euro's (and that is not to damn JR with feint praise - we are talking the top, top level here and it's no disgrace for a player to be in the position of first reserve, why do we think that finishing 8th in the PL and never having played any European/CL football gives one of our players a shoo-in to some very select company?). *I'd have left Rooney out, a great player and all that but he's just not got the chemistry in an England shirt, a sort of Lampard/Gerrard forever-doomed-to-failure type set-up. My England team from February: ................ Hart ................. Chambers .... Jag .... Cahill ..... Shaw .........Gerrard ....... Barry ................. Ox .............. AL .............. Sterling .............. Sturridge ................... Reckon that side would run rings around Roy's boys.

Wolves will be struggling in the Prem again by this time too.

Would it be fair to say that if Weston has broken cover now we can expect to see one or other or both off before the WC? If that is the case why would MoPo stay? He's allegedly got a 'better' offer on the table and two of his main men are off, why stay? He could be given all the money to spend but those two players are effectively 'irreplaceable' in terms of who we could attract to replace them. Incredibly naive of the club if either are sold before the WC.

I'll be ref, there's a ton of posts in the vault saying these things, just cos no one's sad enough to go back and dig them out doesn't mean they don't exist. Adkins best English manager of his generation? check Adkins for L'pool? check Adkins for England? check And we're not talking in ones and twos, more like tens and twenties.

Gorges de Verdon will definitely tick your boxes, stunning natural scenery, and the balcony road is like self-driving your own private mono-rail!

Absolutely brilliant day out, we had a real blast, still grinning now! 6 old roadies, but all of us newbies to the track. (Surprisingly) no crashes and we all seemed to get on really well. Actually it's not anywhere near as scarey as it looks once you're on the track, there's no time to be scared, it all happens pretty quickly on that little track once you start turning the speed up! The session unwound pretty much as you said: we worked in 2's and 3's, inner circle, bottom line, red and black, then up to the blue line, and some drills on a whistle where you rode up to the blue or down to the red accordingly. Got paired up with our strongest rider for the final drill and we pretty much nailed it, instructor gave us 6 - 8 laps at full gas on the blue line - absolutely ****ged after that, much much harder than it looks, tiny light bikes but a relatively big gear to peddle when you are up high on the boards. We then had 3 laps of singles each to finish with a timed 'flying lap', our winner clocked 11.5 secs which is around 48kmh, second was at 46kmh and me third at 44kmh. The ladies bike ride afterwards was excellent too, we went to Bucklers Hard garden bbq for lunch which was great, East End arms, something in Lymington, back through Brode, and then last stop off at the Turfcutter's Arms. First time cycling in the New Forest for any of us and v impressed, a little bit trafficky in places but some lovely back roads if you seek them out. All in all a really good day out, thanks for all the pub recommendations, will definitely be back to try a few more one day and can thoroughly recommend the veledrome for anyone who likes their sport and wants a bit of high action fun.

Cheers for the heads up - it's only a partners/mixed Sunday-afternoon-to-the-pub type of ride but we may have to fall back on plan B, get in the car and drive to the pub. Let you know how we get on at the V. Thanks all for the pub nominations, some further research needed to complement my original plan A and my new plan B.

A group of nine of us are attending a 'beginners taster session' at the Calshot Velodrome on Sunday morning. We are planning to follow up with a fairly leisurely ride through the New Forest around lunchtime early-afternoon. Any pub recommendations in the Calshot / Lymington / Lyndhurst triangle? It doesn't need to be super posh; more of a real ale, decent bite of pub food, garden type of thing. (anybody been to the velodrome, it looks super-scarey!)

100% this. One of the biggest gripes of the Cortese years was the fact that ST’s went on sale very late, in very restricted windows. Despite the fact that keeping your money in your pocket/bank for another three months and everybody who wanted one was able to get one, this was generally seen as a ‘bad thing’. ‘Other clubs’ got their ST sales out much earlier (often in March/April time) and often in longer windows too, this was seen as a ‘good thing’ and something we were somehow deprived of. Now we have moved to the same system employed by 99% of other clubs the club are somehow seen to be ‘ripping fans off’, selling an unknown product, or being in a greedy ‘dash for cash’. Club must be feeling they can’t win either way on this one. Watch out for the next big moan: the club will bring out a half season tkt at Xmas which will include three big games, regular ST’s will say they have been ‘ripped-off’ and shouldn’t have bothered with Leicester, Palace and Stoke pre Xmas.