VectisSaint

That Oliver Barnard was rubbish when we got relegated, silly hair-cut as well. No sympathy.

The usual excuse when a team is not very good. It's not the winning but the taking part ********. It's really all about developing players with a winning instinct and providing the best level of competition possible to help with the development of players (who incidentally are or are not necessarily teenagers). We are poor and there is no excuse. Our development of players at this and u18 level has been falling now for a few years and we no longer develop players good enough for the first team.

Played 90 minutes in Gabon last Saturday and 76 minutes in the Ivory Coast on Tuesday. Don't know much about flights to/from Gabon to the UK, but he didn't get back until Friday, so expect they were not direct flights. At least there would not have been much jet lag with both countries on similar time zones to the UK (+1 hour for Gabon). Probably had to fly via France. Clocked up a fair few air miles, though not as many as Yoshida, who was also rested of course.

There is no-one blocking his view for the 2nd goal. It was also a poor shot. He is just ****. Sorry, but that's how it is.

If after that performance our manager doesn't give McCarthy a go then there is no hope. Cost us the point we didn't deserve. Hopeless, once again two shots (one not very good) on target, 2 goals. Please drop the useless lump.

Clearly you didn't actually read the article, at least if you did you didn't comprehend it. I know the article (as opposed to the study) was written by a numpty so doesn't explain things very well but it clearly states that it is based on "expected goals, rather than actual goals". There are also a lot of other factors in the study itself, it is not just based on goals or expected goals scored. I don't think the data reflects very well the actual influence of some players, i.e. the model is flawed, but can be used together with loads of other data to help analyse what is actually happening. It is not the be all and end all on its own. Most of the numpties commenting on the BBC don't seem to be able to grasp that this data was not devised by the BBC, and also unable to deal with the fact that their favourite player does not show up as the best even though their rose-tinted spectacles say they should. Still it does show for Saints what most people think that the most influential players for us were Romeu and Davis and that Tadic is a waste of space. Davis top of our list despite being **** poor for large parts of last season, probably reflects more on how poor we were as a team last year more than anything.

I did wonder when he was playing for England, whether his mind was elsewhere a bit. He was one of the most prominent players who pledged to support the Grenfell Tower cause, and he probably felt a bit torn at the weekend that he could not be involved in the event at Loftus Road.

Don't know why people think Stephens is behind Hoedt. No-one has really seen Hoedt play, and especially not in the PL. He is younger than Stephens. He is also a left footer (left sided) so isn't really competition to Stephens anyway. I don't expect either VvD or Hoedt to start Saturday, it would be rash (and MP doesn't do rash) to drop both Stephens and Yoshida. VvD will surely come back in for the next game, assuming he is fit, but Wesley may have to bide his time. Still reasonably certain that MP will go 3/5 at the back at some stage, hence why we now have 6 CBs in the first team squad (not forgetting Bertrand is perfectly able to play there as well). Gardos and Bednarek will be lucky to get much of a look in, but an injury or two may change all that. When (if) we go for a back three I expect it to be Stephens/Yoshida, VvD and Hoedt. It will be harsh on Yoshida but I get the feeling he will be second choice to Stephens initially. We'll see, perhaps MP will surprise and play one or both of our Dutch CBs at the weekend.

Look forward to hearing this sung (with or without Ulster accents) at the weekend, with the singing lead by Verlaine and Derry. Sure they will know the words and the tune.

LOL. You're right, I'm ancient (62 actually) . But I'm not particularly anti Les Reed. I'm not a great fan, he has done some good things and some bad. His problem, for me, is that he tends to blow with the wind, one day making out his philosophy is one thing, contradicting it the next (for example sending young players out on loan). A lot of people who have a problem with him are those who have a problem with Cortese, which I don't particularly (nasty piece of work that he was). The only reason I posted here was that Ultimatt was making arguments using data that completely contradicted his point, and he didn't seem able to see it. Apparently the wages data was out of date though. Its still ******** to believe that everything is completely down to money as he seems to. Its an important factor, probably the most important but it isn't the only factor. Kids today... I also only have 3 posts so could not respond sooner, alternatively I was not allowed out of the old folks home sooner...

Not unless Jeremy Pied has as well: https://s3-sfc.thirdlight.com/file/44149038886/width=1050/height=550/fit=scale

But Spurs finished 2nd didn't they? Only a £15m difference between us and them, they seem to have bridged all but that £15m to the so-called Big 5 that you think is so laughable. I don't actually think we should or could bridge the gap, but poo-pooing those who do based on your arguments is laughable in itself. There are reasons other than the wage budget.

Rather he didn't. Don't want his behaviour being subsidised by our taxes. Its bad enough that he gets paid by our club.

Don't know about shock of the night, more like shock of the century...

Relying on the BBC commentary, so happy to be proven wrong, but according to them, Davis assist for the 1st, assist to the assist for the 2nd and scored the 3rd (pen). I'm sure he was very average against a very poor opposition. Verlaine will be upset.

Will need to change his contract, is he going to accept a revised contract? Suspect he will still be team captain when he plays.

Nice, the airport is Nice, nice.

Isn' that near Swansea? Can't see why he would go there.

Their oldest outfield starting player was 25, several were 22 or 23, they also had a 17 and an 18 year old. Hardly men against boys.

You really think they would do this to earn maybe £50k in interest. It may seem a lot to you, but that's just peanuts in the overall scheme of things.

He's not being held "against his free will" though, he is being held against his contract which he happily made of his own free will a year ago. He is not being held captive like some hostage. He could always buy out his contract if he really wanted to, it would be unlikely we would then keep his registration which is what prevents him playing elsewhere. Whether he could actually afford to buy out his contract is another matter (given it would be around £17m).

Need to check the amount with Rosie, f'sure 'Arry can't even work a calculator.

But that's not why we are not selling. Its because 12 moths ago he seemingly did not have such ambition and agreed to a new contract with us for 6 years at an inflated salary and based on him being made captain. Its called honouring a contract based on the ambition of the player one year earlier. He could have gone to a bigger club 12 months ago, if he had that ambition, or at least he could have turned down the contract extension. We will only look like dicks if we now actually sell him, and if we sell him to Liverpool we will look like even bigger dicks. What we should be doing, based on where we are now, is agreeing to sell him next summer, and if the **** had any honour he would be agreeing to that.

LOL. You really can't see what everyone else (with perhaps 2 exceptions) see about you is really quite concerning. No-one ever holds Davis up as an exceptional player (because he isn't) but for some reason in your strange little obsessed world you think they do. Where is this massively overblown praise of his contribution? There is no evidence of it, except in your mind. The evidence on this thread, started by you of course, is that no-one thinks he is exceptional, but most can see his worth and that he does a lot of good things as well as a lot of mediocre and poor things. But you obsess about him and criticise him whether he has played well or not, your grounds of criticism are pathetic in most cases and you never/rarely criticise in the same way anyone else, several other players were absolutely **** poor again this week (Tadic, Redmond to name but two) but your obsession with Davis just goes on and on and on. We get it, you hate him, for some reason, now just give it a rest. We need to replace Davis soon, he has been a great servant to the club and has never been considered by anyone reasonable as an exceptional player. Ever. Move on.

Try watching the Sky highlights and listening to the Sky commentator (happened to be Ian Dowie), reaction was that it was "a glorious ball, which Davis often does, superb" (have to paraphrase a bit because I have deleted the recording now). If you were to judge the game based purely on the Sky highlights (which I wouldn't) then you would be hard pressed to pick someone other than Davis from Saints for MOTM, made several great passes and defensively made some very telling tackles and interceptions. I don't think Davis has been great now for the last season but your continued, obsessive attacks on him, clearly based on some personal dislike for him, really are beyond the pale. I strongly believe we could do better than Davo, but we don't have anyone at the Club who is better at the moment, something which needs to be addressed given his age. Just wish you would give over with your personal vendetta.