revolution saint

Thanks for all the good tips and links. I went back in '96 and can remember how tiring it was. We've got 14 day passes to the parks so we don't have to feel like we have to cram everything all in one day - we're certainly planning a few "off days" as well. Looking forward to seeing Old Town Kissimmee again as well - loved it when I went before. Good tip to look out for the satellite launch at Kennedy Space Centre as well - hadn't thought of that and think I'd rather go when it'll be a bit quieter.

Well, off to the corporate greed soul destroying Orlando in a couple of weeks. Anyone got any tips? It's a big family thing (seven of us) and despite the commercialism etc I'm really looking forward to it. We're staying in Kissimmee and already got all the theme park tickets sorted (14 day unlimited access for Disney, Universal Parks and Kennedy Space Centre). Kids are 7 (going on 35) and 9. Also, we've got a connecting flight from Atlanta and only got 2 hours - slightly worried that won't be long enough.

Agree - Stoneham would have been a terrible location. I'm happy we're still relatively close to the city centre and I'm not sure we'd be getting quite the attendance figures based further away. I still miss the dell though - probably rose tinted glasses and all that but SMS doesn't have quite the same atmosphere. Terraces (or lack of) also has some bearing though. As for where we'd be if we hadn't moved? Relatively easy to answer - we'd have been relegated eventually once MLT retired and we'd have struggled even more. I'm pretty confident we wouldn't have secured Liebherr funding without the stadium - if you were looking to buy a football club then we were a an absolute bargain.

Ultimately if we don't get a statement about whether KL intends to sell the club then it probably means she does want to sell. Would be a shame but there you go - it's not like she chose to own us. I guess she won't be rushed and hopefully will get a decent buyer in if it happens. Would be interesting to hear exactly what happened to cause this chain of events but doubt we'll ever really know.

Yes, this is true although you can argue that anything over a month notice period is unfair and then it depends what the tribunal hearing decides. Generally speaking companies don't want the hassle and if you demonstrate a willingness to work out a months notice and plan a decent handover period for whoever takes over your duties then a long notice period can be shortened by mutual consent. Of course references may not be great but in reality it's very rare for companies to pursue legal action against people who don't work out an entire notice period. Closest I've come is when I left a job, handed in my notice and with holiday accrued reduced my notice period from a month to two weeks. My employer wanted me to work out the entire period and pay me my holiday pay which technically they could enforce - I still left though and there was no comeback. Don't regret it either - they were sh*t employers.

Don't really think the lifting on restrictions will make much difference to be honest. Bulgarians and Romanians haven't been subject to the usual tier type checks for quite a while (at least a couple of years) so if they wanted to come over here and work then they could. Certainly where I work checks for non-EU migrant workers is pretty thorough but Romanians and Bulgarians as far as I know just need to provide documentation from their own govt - they don't need British approval. Course you could see the pressure on wages forced lower but to be honest I'm not sure Romanians and Bulgarians will be responsible for that - they haven't so far have they? Personally feel we have a government more hellbent on keeping wages for people low than any migrant activity could ever do.

Oh well, thanks for saving me some money anyway. Shame - was looking forward to it if it was any good. Thanks for the reply.

Saw the book in waterstones whilst doing some Christmas shopping this week - have to say I was very, very impressed. I'm hoping it may end up on my lap Christmas day as a present but I'll be buying it if not. Everyone involved should be applauded for doing such a good job.

I really don't understand this home nations agreement because it only seems to be applied to players born outside the UK. Graeme Le Saux, MLT, and countless others have been eligible for all home nations and called up. Scotland have no qualms about picking players like Stuart McCall and Wales have picked Vinnie Jones FFS so surely this home nation agreement is just prejudiced against players born outside the UK? Personally I'm really not fussed about international football but the public tend to like winners regardless of nationality and if they're happy to cheer on Mo Farah and that fella who won the tour de france then I really don't see what the problem is with calling up eligible "foreigners".

So, is this any good? Really liked the original Rome but looking at Amazon the reviews are mixed. Could be a nice distraction for me over Christmas but have to admit the reviews have put me off a bit - especially as most of them mention the battle AI is pretty rubbish.

Small talk - hate it. It's mostly obvious (the weather) and very dull. Attempts within a workplace to improve morale by instigating "fun" events - away days, BBQs etc. I'd rather work thanksverymuch. Oh, and whilst I'm at it airy fairy concepts like "corporate values" - most don't make any sense such as "We aspire to be the best". Jamie fu(cking Oliver South Africans - now I know this could be racist but I've never met a nice one and the accent (Afrikaans?) makes me want to cut myself and smear salt and lemon in the wound. Obviously there must be nice South Africans around - I think they must stay there though. Cookery programmes - particularly the masterchef type ones. You poncy b*stards. Also, dramatic build ups for who leaves and who stays.. News programmes - now I like news programmes but I hate several things about them. Firstly, the obsession with interviewing the general public who are mostly either ignorant, incoherent or will blindly follow the obvious "public stance" - ie what the Sun tells them. Also outside weather broadcasts - I really don't need to see someone outside to know they are telling the truth.

Shearer left us for a british record transfer fee for a reason and made 188 appearances for us so he wasn't some flash in the pan talent that suddenly got snapped up. I'd have him and people forget his workrate whilst with us that dropped significantly after his injuries at other clubs. You can make a case about KK and Davies - unfortunately never saw them play that much though. MLT played most of his career in teams full of relatively average, workmanlike players and he carried them. He'd relish playing in this team. He proved time and time again that he was the difference for mostly mediocre teams so imagine what he'd be like in one that was a bit good?

To be fair I work with an Arsenal fan and he'd take the draw right now. Also thinks Mertesacker is about the only decent player they have when defending set pieces so that might stand us in good stead.

Ah, didn't actually follow the link to the computer weekly story although still seems stupid / naive* (delete according to political allegiance). Guess they've got form in that direction though....

Not sure - don't believe even the tories are stupid enough to believe they can remove all that stuff from the interweb entirely. It's all out there somewhere. Guess the big question is why would they delete that stuff from their own website? Fear of embarrassment I guess though it all seems a little silly.

I love threads like this - it's almost as if the season has ended already and we can bask in a champions league qualification and start berating people for an opinion. Thing is Puncheon did fit the system and did offer something different as well so I would have thought keeping would have been a bonus even if he wasn't used often. I don't buy the "but he'd be disgruntled about not being in the team" that's just second guessing and it's by no means fact that that happened when Adkins dropped him. Neither do I think he'd have hindered JWP - Pochettino would have picked who he thought suited the game regardless. Neither do I believe that wingers are constrained by playing in only one position, indeed MP said as much in his last pre-match interview when he said aside from the goalkeeper all outfield players need to be adaptable. So if we have someone capable of playing as a winger and also fits the system we play at the moment then surely that's a good thing? Personally I don't think we need to be so slavish to any particular system anyway (didn't Morgan mention we change it around anyway to avoid being too predictable?) - surely it should be about finding the best system to both suit the players you have and to counter the opposition? Sometimes that might involve using a player who you could class as an out an out winger and other times not. It's great having an overall philosophy but not sure that precludes changing things around if it needs it. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to bringing in someone with a bit of pace who can play as an orthodox winger if we need it - can't think why anyone would object.

Well I think people are reading too much into the next two games - lose at Arsenal and Chelsea away and what does that tell us? Not much really - take any of the rest of the top six going there and none of them would expect to win so even a point from those games is a bonus. Home games are maybe a different thing but I guess these games are only really defining if you honestly think we'll be challenging for champions league positions (and I don't).

I can only echo what everyone else has said - for me the thing I miss most is how close we were to the pitch, how the players would hear every single individual comment and of course the banter. Some players were clever and could handle it but anyone that bit was crucified. I'm not sure if it's nostalgia but there seem far less terrace wits these days - genuinely funny blokes that could get a whole stand laughing. First time I went to SMS I loved it's size, how modern it was etc but when you saw how far away from the pitch we were you realised it was a different era - certainly a necessary move but there haven't been many games that I can honestly say SMS has matched the Dell for atmosphere.

Have to say I agree with Bazza here - I know his is an extreme opinion which puts a lot of people off but frankly for whatever reason I don't think Ramirez has done enough. Most of the people I talk to (outside of this forum) agree as well. I read someone say the other day that Le Tiss wouldn't get in our team now because of his lack of workrate but that's rubbish - he'd walk into it because of what he could do. Workrate or not there aren't many teams that can afford to keep genius out. I'm not going to say that I expected Ramirez to be *that* good but I did expect more. Course this is only an opinion but crucially it seems to be one that MP happens to share which I guess is the only thing that counts. Let's face it even in the cup games this season Ramirez hasn't been that good. You may be in the wrong place if you don't feel an opinion is allowed to be questioned.

Mods, please can we have a forum / message board type area for people who would just like to talk about the forum and/or other posters? Ta!

I expect Stoke to go revert to type a bit in this game and try and go long a bit more than they would usually. Playing midweek means preparation won't have been the best and Hughes knows it'll be tough to counter a high pressing game by trying to match it so I think he'll try to use a big out ball when he can and take the pressure off that way. His teams are generally hard to beat anyway and Stoke have been pretty miserly in conceding at home recently so can't see this being a good game for goals - set pieces will be both sides best bet. Hopefully we start the game with the same lineup as against Fulham and the same gameplan - none of the players deserve to be dropped and if Davis and Osvaldo are fit again then the bench looks strong. A similar performance and we'd be very unlucky to lose this one. Just hope we don't try to vary things around and try something new in a bid to outfox the opponents - we're good enough now to go up there and play our own game and let them worry about us. 0-1 Saints.

Sadly, yes. Like all of us I had high hopes for him and really wanted him to do well for us but for whatever reason it hasn't worked out. Shame for both him and us but if you take away the pricetag and the hype then his performances haven't really been good enough and the harsh reality is that we have players on the fringes that will have more of an impact than he will. In fact when you look at it I'm surprised more people aren't pushing for JWP instead - the lad has delivered and is only getting better. Obviously fits our system better than GR does but that's not his fault. I know I said about ignoring the pricetag (but you can't really) and when it comes down to it I expected GR to have the same impact as Coutinho - clearly that hasn't happened. If we could get somewhere near our money back then from what I've seen taking a gamble on another player to replace him is a better prospect than taking a gamble on GR coming good. All IMO of course.

I wouldn't play GR today (well, I wouldn't start him anyway). There are other players who deserve a chance more than he does - JWP being the outstanding candidate and going on form and performances he's more likely to add something to the team. To be honest when it comes to GR it really isn't about lack of workrate that irritates me, good players can get away with that if they produce the goods when they get the ball, it's more that GR doesn't show anywhere near enough creativity or end product - he certainly hasn't done enough to justify changing the team to accommodate him.

Just go for the basic 8 day free trial. Always worked for me and when it expires just create a new email address and sign up again.

Personally think Gaston has been hugely disappointing for us. I know everyone says he clearly is talented etc etc but you can only judge on what you see and for me he hasn't translated any of that talent to performances for us. You could argue that to get the best out of him he needs to play that number 10 role but that's a bit of a kick in the teeth for whoever gets dropped as so far they have done the business. If we can get a decent amount back for him then I don't think it's too much of a loss, and if he does go then good luck to the lad.