revolution saint

OK, I'm on an interview panel this week for the first time and I was wondering what other people's experience of it was like? I'm not really asking for advice because i know what I want to find out about the candidates and I think I'll be fair. Having been on the other side of the table often enough I've seen my share of good and bad interviewers and hopefully I'll be one of the better ones. From my own experience I hate interviews that are not challenging - it doesn't give much room to excel or impress which is what I'd want. It'll be open questions to start for me and then some questions concerning detail. I'd be interested in other peoples experiences though?

Just started "The death of grass" which actually isn't about Howard Mark's worst nightmare. It's a small little dystopian novel about a virus that wipes out all grass and crops and of course the chaos that it brings. Published in 1956 it's been described as a cross between Day of the triffids and Lord of the Flies. it's shaping up nicely so far. After that I have Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby. He's always a good author to mess with your head.

No. Why would I prefer that?

Because it's the British national anthem? It's only known as English because we lack the imagination to come up with something else. You're right though we are not a democracy, we are not a republic, we are not citizens - we are subjects and we subserviently bow down to the lottery of birth. God save the Queen? God won't help her if I get there first....

England doesn't have a national anthem. HTH

England doesn't have a national anthem. I do think we need one though and anything has to be better than GSTQ so I wouldn't be overly fussed with whatever it was replaced with. However I do think the Scots have got it spot on with 'Flower of Scotland' and anything close to that would be superb. Incidentally does anyone else make a specific point of sitting down during GSTQ? I did it at Cardiff and Wembley. I even have to put the TV on mute whenever it comes on I hate it that much.

If I'm honest then yes, I am a bit disappointed so far. I know it takes time and attracting quality players to a div 1 club can't be easy but I had hoped we could get our targets in early so they had a decent pre-season. There's still time of course but like any football fan I want it now. I think up front we're only really looking for cover. We do need to replace the pace of Waigo and Antonio though. It's midfield that I'd be properly concerned about. Hammond and Schneiderlin are fine but if we have injuries and suspensions then I think we struggle. Next season we'll have a lot of teams who will be more defensive and want to kick lumps out of us and we need to counter that. It's fine having the best strikeforce and attacking flair but we need to give them the ball. I think we need a proper tough nut in midfield who will win those battles and put us firmly in the driving seat - someone who will push us on. Not a box to box player (we have enough midfielders who can chip in with goals). Well that's the job description but as to who could do the role? I don't know. Maybe Carsley if his legs haven't gone and he doesn't get too many injuries? I think this is the one area we could do with a bit of a marquee signing - maybe not as grand as signing Lambert but certainly someone who could get us excited. We'll need cover for Davis as well if Bart doesn't return. So, yes, I'm a bit disappointed - I think we'll address the problems and I think we'll still be OK if we didn't sign anyone else but would be nice to have a few more in by this stage.

Personally I hope they stay in admin for a year - the transfer embargo alone will probably relegate them. Then they can play in div 1 next season with a points deduction.

Forget our tactics for the first game or ten - what about the tactics for our first 20 mins of every game? I'd like to sign up some great big bruiser of a midfielder. Someone who says to Lallana, Puncheon and Schneiderlin not to worry - anyone comes near you and they'll pay for it. When we play Plymouth i want to concentrate on kicking lumps out of them - welcome to div 3. We know ourselves that it's easy to overlook passion and to go for talented players but we need to remember that we've got to fight for our right to play football. Most successful teams have a right nasty piece of work and we need one too. I've no idea who that might be but I think it would be the missing piece in the jigsaw.

my thoughts as well but thought I'd pass it on....'tiss the season to speculate on wildly improbable signings after all and rather him than Adu.

OK, the mental 606 massive are hinting at Matt Derbyshire. That'd be unlikely but a very big signing and could both cover and compliment Lambert. Can't quite see it myself but have to say if we did sign him (really unlikely) you'd have to feel sorry for the rest of league 1......

I wouldn't be surprised at this at all. Danny Butterfield that is. A right back on a free that Pardew knows relatively well. Good getting forward and a good cross. In fact sounds a lot like Murty had he stayed fit.

To be fair I don't think the actual definition and reason for his previous incarceration matter too much. It was for violence of some sort against his girlfriend and if I've maligned him with the accusation of violent disorder when it was just petty and trivial domestic abuse then of course I apologise. He's still a spurs fan though but that shouldn't stop him joining in with a bit of football related aggro at a saints game should it? I can see I got the guy all wrong......and yes, I do know him.

If you read I said it was one or the other - actually I'm pretty sure it was for smacking around his girlfriend at the time. Not that it really makes much difference does it?

One of the lads, Allan Taylor, had done time before for violent disorder (actually I think it was a domestic abuse issue) so he's not exactly an angel. He's also a spurs fan and in my opinion stupid. I can't comment on the rest as I don't know them but clearly not all of them were decent, unblemished saints fans who just got a bit carried away.

To be fair you wouldn't expect the echo to publicise another newspaper...

Well we could spend ages arguing the various advantages /disadvantages of Waigo. Personally I think he's probably worth it. I'd like to pull you up on Adu though - it's this close season's interweb wet dream and will never happen. We'd never get a work permit even if we did agree a deal to bring him here - doesn't he need to have played 75% of his countries games to qualify for a permit? The guy didn't get into the US world cup squad. Is he actually any good anyway? He was a marketing tool for Nike when he was a kid - didn't live up to the hype and hasn't really done much since.

This is great news - Bournemouth get their cup final early and decline from there.

It's a tradition that's stretched back as far as ooh the 90's......that's not a tradition and complaining about it isn't colonialist at all. It's very very annoying. I'll go a step further as well - it seems clear to me that the people blowing those horns don't actually understand football. They just want to make a noise. I'm all for atmosphere at football but Vuvuzelas are actually drowning that out - they're pointless and should be banned.

I'd turn this on it's head and argue what Maggie did right? Crushed the unions? Well probably neutered them and you could argue that was a good thing but the vendetta against the miners turned us into a shameful police state. What she failed to do was tackle the poor management of nationalised industries and instead privatised them. She promised us cheaper prices and better services but we got neither. The beneficiaries of privatisation got rich while we subsidised them. Privatisation also helped destroy our appenticeship system. Privatisation increased the gap between rich and poor. She let people buy their own council houses but refused to let local authorities use the money received to build affordable houses. This helped create an artificial boom in the housing market as supply diminished. Before the Falklands war she was the most unpopular prime minister in modern times - she was toast. She won an election on the back of patriotism and she was shrewd in that. She got lucky the next term in that she rode the wave of a global economic upsurge. Maggie wasn't great she was lucky. She found the country in a mess, left the country in a mess and made her mates richer inbetween. She was a poster girl for the right but her debating skills were zero and her slogans laughable - "you turn if you want to, the lady's not for turning" could have been written on the back of a chardonnay soaked beermat.

I've got to agree. This anti ginger agenda is positively sickening. I'm not ginger but my neice and nephew are and they're great kids if slightly annoying. The thing is though is that it's not their fault - it's a genetic lottery. I could quite easily have been ginger myself (thank god I'm bald) but there by the grace of god go I. Anyway this is about signing Bailey and if he's a good enough player and we can afford the sun screen lotion then why not?

We should call in Brazil's debt to us and play their national side. Personally I believe it's only fair that they give us Kaka as well - they can have Wotton. That's fair.

I got germany at work. Two quid entry winner gets £26, 2nd gets £18, 3rd gets £10 and team that concedes the most gets £8. I'm happy with this. Sweepstake should just be for fun - if I wanted to win a lot then I'd put a bet on.

I predict we'll find out this morning.

Anyone just see this? Schumacher taking out Battison in '82 was nowhere to be seen and instead we got Ronaldo winking. Annoying yes, shocking? No.