revolution saint

I've been raving about this kid for decades! Top, top signing and a real statement of intent. Does the simple things well, has a goal for an eye and a football for a brain, has a cultured left foot and a hammer of a right foot. Sharp turn of pace, great dribbling skill, intelligent on and off the pitch, good in the air for a small bloke and has a fantastic touch for a big man. He's got a lot in his locker and won't be afraid on the big stage, a real no-nonsense marquee type of signing this. I know for a fact we beat off competition from the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid to complete this deal so well done Les! Early doors I'd expect him to play a free role on the left side of the middle three in the centre of midfield, dropping deep into an old fashioned libero role before cutting in on his favoured foot (between the lines) and then linking play as a false number 9. I'm totally excited for the new season now!

Les holds all the cards here and can play them any way he wants. The fact that Liverpool came out and apologised is pretty much admitting culpability and the premier league only dropped it (as far as I'm aware) after we indicated that we were happy with the apology. If we want VVD to stay then all we need to do is threaten Liverpool and say we'll go back to the premier league unless they tell VVD that they will not be submitting a bid this summer. If we want to cash in we threaten again unless they come up with a bid we find acceptable and so they'll pay through the nose for him. The apology itself shows how scared they are of further sanctions against them so it's a big stick to repeatedly hit them with. As for Van Dijk? Who gives a toss if he's unhappy - he'll get over it and comes to terms with the situation however it pans out - what he needs is certainty and to know exactly where he'll be playing next season.

Even if any transfer were to happen the club need to make sure they can get all their incoming transfer business done beforehand. Make the dippers wait until then and that's obviously only if they meet the 70-75M pricetag. If that doesn't happen then VVD stays. Personally I'd keep him anyway - he'll get over his little strop, come out with some PR friendly guff to get the fans back on side and everything will be fine again.

Thoughts go to Bradley's family. Glad I sent a christmas card to the little fella even though he never replied. Personally don't believe there should be honours list anyway - far too subjective and open to abuse (I'm talking to you, Lloyd George!). Besides which the acts for which people are being "rewarded for" should be enough in themselves. Neither do I like the deference that goes with a title - I'm quite capable of choosing who I give respect to without being told. Anyway, Bradley seemed to be a smashing kid and glad he had the joy being mascot and making friends with his heroes.

I think it's good people have a bit of optimism and enthusiasm for the new manager but you really extrapolated a lot from a pretty predictable and bland interview. The only real question in there was about what the fans could expect in terms of playing style and he dodged it - I think he mentioned something about a middle part but no idea what he meant. As for having the right ideas? What on earth do you mean by that? There was no detail at all aside from playing as a team which every manager is going to say. Don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking Pellegrino. I'm just amazed you can come up with all of that praise from a ten minute interview in which very little of substance was actually said.

Just want to pick up on the highlighted bit - you've got no proof of that at all, have you? That's just your speculation. That's fair enough but don't say that logic dictates it - it's just a phrase you've plucked out of the air to make your argument seem a bit better. Personally I find it hard to believe that this would have been the shortlist Les would have wanted at the start of the process - looks more likely to me that we've been turned down bu our top targets and these are just the ones that are left. That's just my speculation though and I wouldn't claim that "logic dictates" I'm right....

Thing is it wouldn't be 1-0 wins every game - every man and his brother would take that. For a fair comparison you'd have to ask would you rather take a slightly higher win percentage and dull, defensive football, or exciting football, high scoring games and maybe a few less points. Personally I'd go for entertainment; we're probably going to finish around mid-table either way so let's have some fun doing it.

Personally couldn't really care that much, it's football and not that important, but you need a bit of help pal. If you react like that to stuff on a forum then maybe it's time to stop eh?

Nice piece about Viera here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4338048/Could-Patrick-Vieira-succeed-Arsenal-boss-Arsene-Wenger.html You will have to go to the Daily Heil site tho...

I'd be interested to hear what answer Les would give to this question. Arguably this is his most important decision if the takeover goes through - he'll be judged on this by people who may not be quite as forgiving as Kat or have the same vision for the club. I wonder if this makes him more risk adverse or less?

That might be wishful thinking. From what I recall there were mystery candidates when both Koeman and Puel were appointed but nothing materialised and I don't expect them to this time round. These links normally have an element of truth in them and I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of FdB or Pellegrino. In a way the club have only themselves to blame if the fans don't get straight on board with the new appointment. We keep hearing about 'The Southampton Way' and how we do things differently so it's a bit depressing to read that list of potentials - none of them it seems really has much to differentiate themselves from the rest of the candidates and you don't get the sense that they would be imposing an identity and playing style upon the club that would make us distinctive. I will add that doesn't apply to all of the candidates on that long list, just the majority of them.

Could interpret the Echo piece a number of ways but if I had to draw any conclusions it would be: Puel is definitely gone. New manager will be a free agent - there's not enough time to get someone in for pre-season if they have to negotiate with a club and then agree personal terms with the manager. They know who they want as the new man and have probably agreed a deal in principal with them which would explain the relaxed attitude to this. My guess is that the delays are caused by finalising paperwork, holidays and stuff like that but the real work of identifying a manager and agreeing a deal has been done. Pure speculation though.........

The problem with your analysis is that you forget the Tory habit of ripping itself apart over Europe. They can't help themselves. There must be loads of games being played even now and May won't have any power to stop them - she'll try and pander to both sides of her party and the only thing she'll achieve is ****ing them all off. She'll be seen as a dead man walking, with no authority and a liability. Sooner rather than later she'll have to face a leadership election - there might not be any worthy candidates but there are certainly some ambitious non-worthy ones around. So, how's that for a different prediction?

Or you could propose that with a united party Labour could have done even better. As much as this is a slap in the face for the Tories, this is also a rebuke to those MPs within the Labour party that constantly rebelled and briefed against him. For all the talk of imagine if a competent leader was in charge of the PLP people need to remember that they probably wouldn't have campaigned on the same policies. This has shown that actually people are happy to vote for privatisation, for investment and for a fairer society. I would also imagine that it'll show that these policies are enough to convince young people to come out and vote. If, as I hope, this results in Labour becoming a united force then Corbyn will probably look much more competent.

Fair enough - prove it.

No he doesn't. We've never tapped up a new manager - Pardew, Adkins, Poch, Koeman or Puel were all spken to legitimately and there's nothing to suggest we would tap up the new manager. Same goes with players as far as I'm aware. He's just projecting Liverpool behaviour and assuming everyone else does it. He's wrong and so are you.

Yep, difficult to see what the fuss is all about from what I've seen. A few tidy long range goals aside he doesn't look all that but it appears the club are committed to doing a deal so they must be sure and I'll guess we'll see. Lot of clubs after him which either means there's something we're not seeing or his agent is a busy man. To be honest the Real Madrid lad looked more the kind of signing that would benefit us - despite not being particularly tall seemed very good on getting on the end of crosses which would be a bonus seeing as how we put more crosses into the box than anyone else.

Just done this.

End of the day you kill animals for pleasure - otherwise you wouldn't do it would you? You get your kicks out of killing things that can't fight back in a fair fight. You can call it conservation if it makes you feel better and there probably are some benefits to the culling of certain species - I'd just rather it was done by someone who didn't enjoy it, or pay for that 'privilege'. It makes you weird.

He shook both their left and right hands? What's the hell is up with the man? Sounds like a proper nutter to me.

Only problem I have with hunting is that it's not really a fair fight, is it? I mean, the game's rigged. Now if these hunters were to hunt each other then that would be fair and they could rightly take some pride in having taken down their opponent. I'd respect that and it would also cut down on some of the pests that seem to be particularly prevalent these days.

I'd be interested to hear what you think of the results. I've been thinking of getting one and also as a present for my parents as my Dad is particularly interested in this type of thing. My Nan comes from decent Romany stock so I'd expect some out of that to come out in the results. Look forward to seeing what you think of your results.

No wonder Trump loves the poorly educated......

My source tells me this also. Yesterday I spoke to a mate who claimed to know nothing that was going on with regards to transfers - normally I take that with a pinch of salt but I'm inclined to believe him now. I assume my ITK credentials will be off the scale now I've revealed I know nothing but that's a price I'm willing to pay.....

Don't go to many games these days but just got a call for a free ticket. Last time this happened was against Sunderland two years ago so I'd suggest lumping all your money on another 8-0.......