sandwichsaint

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.

A good and fair summary of where we are. People do realise these things aren't just written for die-hard Saints fans who pick up every paper hoping to find out every last single detail of stuff that's hardly begun? For everybody else it was nice to see the lines 'Southampton don't need to sell' written in one of our pieces.

Labour 95% Scots and Welsh 90% Green 88% Fib Dems 76% Scum 23% UKIP 7% Disappointed that Lab+Con both came out so high.... I must have missed the option for 'none of the above'.

I'd say she's been whoring herself out for months and you're the last to know, these things don't just happen overnight you know.

Jordi Gomez looks like the MS replacement.

Simples

Vay-- - ho, vay- - - ho Daylight cum and I want to go home.

I can see it clearly now. The middle represents the Academy, a frenzy of activity with many bodies frantically trying to escape into the relatively calmer outer waters, almost embryonic. The ripples spread far and wide, each a summit to be breached and an experience to be stored. Only the fittest survive, but what quality they show, look at the smooth wide passages as we annihilate lower league opposition and go on to assimilate ourselves almost seamlessly into the upper echelons. There is the odd set-back but our boys bounce back and continue to plow relentlessly upwards. But as our eye travels outwards we see the fundamental meaningless in their struggle, the fact that there is literally nowhere else to go. They have simply outgrown their environment, a human tide of Lallana's and Shaw's and Pochtino's surging and merging with the crowd to almost become as one, but the shadows tell their dark tale. They can never be united, like lovers spurned the tide turns away and the players seek pastures new. The crowd are left frustrated and the dappled shadows foretell an uncertain future, onwards into the light or shrinking back into the darkness, the artist leaves us hanging, anxious for new hope but resigned to despair.

I'm pretty relaxed about it all - 'everybody' prefers Option A, manager and players staying; worst-case scenario is that next season we have a new manger and some new players.

My youngest has quit his job and moved out to Brazil for 6 months, he is based in Sao Paulo but will travel to the England games if he can get tkts. (he hasn't got anything at the moment ticket wise but he has been offered all sorts locally, but v expensive, Eng v Uruguay £250(!). He will just have to wait to nearer the time and see how the market/touting pans out, I have forwarded the FB link he will be well up for this. Any other Saints fans heading towards Sao Paulo, I am quite happy to pass on contact details if anybody wants a heads-up/way in to Sao Paulo , he is 22, big Saints fan/lively/sporty/party person, he speaks the lingo and has quite a wide circle of local friends, Brazillian and other nationalities too, he has a Brazillian GF and is living with Costa Ricans and French people. Yoof of today eh?

Blue and white stripes? Can't see it.

Good effort, Calne Saint and Batman too.

Obviously time to 'bury' some more bad news. Paedo politicians and organised child sex rings in the 70's, who knew what? Massively discredited political system with vast numbers not voting or protest-voting. NoW trial rolls on in the background, corruption and routine law-breaking in the media, and dodgy links to police/politicians/big business. Zero hours contracts becoming the new normal and welfare claimants being compelled to take these in lieu of proper paid work. What better time to roll out the McCann travelling circus for it's umpteenth performance.... daytime TV, the opiate of the masses.

Anybody gonna drag through the old threads and claim they got all three? I called Fulham, Cardiff, Swansea in January so got to be happy with 2/3, and Swansea 'too good to go down' never really got out of the bottom 5-6 till a few weeks ago - a walking advert for not being in the Thursday Cup - see Hull next season(?) Looking at tonight's games Poyet has really got Sunderland punching their weight, if they can re-balance their squad (some in, some out) and hang on to their better players they ought to be comfortable next season. Not sure about Villa, how bad are the relegated sides if Villa have stayed up?