VectisSaint

Well aware of that, chickens however should not be counted prematurely... Many injuries take longer than the manager hopes, Bertrand and Clasie two more shorter term examples. Not really too worried about Fraser, we have a more than adequate replacement as long as he doesn't get injured and we have to rely on Uncle Kelvin or Gazza again.

Long term "rivalry", pre-dates Pompey hating for many older supporters.

Just like JRod last season then...

With respect you are missing the point. England just didn't play any of the "gash" teams before the 1980s. We never played Turkey until 1984 (we won 8-0). We only played Norway twice post war until the 1980s. Look through the matches that England played between 1945 and 1980, there were hardly any "minnows" in our list of opponents. You might throw Wales, N Ireland and Scotland back at me, but they were not minnows back in those days, matches against them were usually very hard fought, playing against N Ireland when they had Best, Jennings and Dougan, or Wales when they had Ron and Wyn, and as for Scotland, the days of Bremner etc, they were a top notch opponent. The only times we ever played against the so-called minnows was for WCQ matches, which were few and far between, unlike the qualifying tourneys these days where we play weak teams five or six times every 2 years. Before 1972 we only ever played 14 WC Qualifiers, and 8 of these were against Scotland, Wales and Ireland (the others were against Luxembourg, Denmark and Portugal). European Quallification games are an even more recent phenomenon, before 1970 the only European (as opposed to home nations) teams we had played in EQ were France and Spain. We don't think of Hungary now as a top team but they certainly were when they thrashed us 7-1 (Ivor Broadis) and 6-3 (Sewell, Mortensen & Ramsey). The list of matches is here: http://www.englandstats.com/opp.php?oppid=-1

Good news, looks like he may be ready a little earlier than thought, maybe ManU may be too soon though.

We'll have to agree to disagree. But both of the goals that we conceded that Targett (rightly) gets blamed for were a direct result of him being too far forward (break outs after our corners). Its not that he does not get forward (he does), but he is too slow to get back when the opposition counter-attack. His defending is perfectly acceptable when he is "in position". His crossing is at least on par with Shaw's before he left, but clearly not up to Bertrand's standard.

Without checking the facts, half the teams we play these days didn't even exist (as international football teams) in the 1960s, no way did we play the likes of San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar (OK England haven't played them yet). In 1962 the USA were considered minnows (and they beat us 1-0). The only remotely little teams back then were Luxembourg (1960), Cyprus (1975) or Malta (1971). What I find quite interesting in all this chat about Rodney being our best ever goalscorer is if you look at it in terms of strike rate. Of England's top 20 all-time scorers, Rooney comes out 11th in this, with Cahrlton 12th and our own Mick Channon 12th. If you want top goalscorers who could be relied on to score whenever they player you need to go with Vivian Woodward and Steve Bloomer (who I confess I had never heard of) then the likes of Tommy Lawton, Nat Lofthouse, Stan Mortensen, then Greaves, Lineker, Crouch, Hurst and Shearer. All of those down to and including Crouch have a better than 1 goal in 2 games average. Players like Stan Mortensen were unable to play as many games because of the War. I don't like Rooney, but by almost any other measurement he is not worthy of being even top 10, just happens to have played in an era where we play games against minnows and where there is almost no competition for his place. Still, hats off to the thug, he is now our top goal scorer and probably will be for a long time to come.

Nope, 3 year contract, barely into his second year. Being a man of integrity, he will be here until the end of next season unless we have a mare and the Board give him the old heave ho (v. unlikely).

Sorry, fatfingers. Meant 2.

Klopp. But Rons here for another 3 years so not really worth discussing. Dutch have alresdy said Blind will not be replaced soon.

His ctossing is actually good, usually prob is Pelle too slow to get onto it. Its his defensive ability that is questionable. Usually because he gets caught out too far forward after his attacking runs.

You just did what you label as harsh. He is not a liability in any way, shape or form. He is an xcellent backup CB, left sided.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11700/9985114/ronald-koeman-not-in-line-to-become-new-netherlands-coach

Apparently Ralph will be working for the devil himself: ​http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=778418 Reindl and Satan will select the playing roster, coaching and support staff and subsequently oversee all tournament preparations and management for Team Europe, a pan-European roster of players from birth countries outside of the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden – that is, all of the other European countries who are developing world-class hockey players in ever-increasing numbers.

His last display was far from horrifying. If you are gutted and think that his displays are horrifying you need to brace yourself. I think it will be a wee while yet before Bertrand returns to the team. Based on nothing other than that he is apparently not training yet it will probably be at least another 3 weeks, maybe more.

Glad you think so. If only you would enlighten us with your pearls of wisdom on the matter. Thinking abut it you did, it was pure comedy gold.

Except that while he is away the club, the business continues, whereas coaches who work during the international break would have little to do at the clubs when all their players are away (I can only imagine you are thinking about the goalkeeping coach as I don't think any others are away during international breaks). If Ralph really does have a purpose (and I'm not saying one way or another) how can being away from that role for at least a month during the season have no impact?

Oxford's view: http://www.oufc.co.uk/news/article/oxford-united-southampton-development-2676772.aspx

Other than not doing what he normally does for the club during his time away. He did say during the summer that he was "renewing" for a further year, suspect in reality that he will be reducing down or even finishing his association with us next year.

Agreed, I would not be surprised to see Virgil on the bench for WBA, and I'm not even sure Wanyama will be on the bench. I would expect Ronald will like to keep faith in the team that performed so well against Norwich, and will want Virgil and Jose to train more together first before he is put in to the firing line. It would be very harsh on Yoshida to drop him as well.

Yep, appears that way (he often is, its the arrogant, very aggressive way that he puts his point that is the problem). Fair play. I agree completely that the two offences were both cautionable offences, but have never seen (and not sure that anyone else has) this outcome when two yellows are given for the same passage of play. This is why the Irish FA sought clarification from the IFAB who confirmed it was legitimate - note that in their response they did add the cautionary (no pun intended) about the dangers of playing advantage when a yellow card offence has taken place. As someone else said above, the same should have been applied for the multiple fouls on Mane, the precedent is clearly now there for referees to punish multiple offences with multiple yellows. I hope we see it more often in the future.

Didn't see the game, but an assist for Shaw. Is that a first? Probably not, but hens teeth are relatively common in comparison.

Surprised (pleasantly) that VvD was involved given that he was away on international duty.

Depends if Yoshida gets out of Afghanistan after their match today (currently winning 4-0) and Sadio is OK after playing in South Africa later on.

Strange you think that he deserved what he got but people who actually are in and know the game think it was unreasonable to do what the referee did and that there is no obvious precedent for booking a player twice in such circumstances. Still I guess you know better than all of the real experts. There is no doubt that the second offence warranted a yellow card. The issue is not that but whether it is actually legal to book a player twice in the manner that the referee did. My understanding is that N Ireland are considering appealing based on this being a very grey area of the rules. Still, you know best don't ya. By the way, why do you have to post in such an aggressive way? You really come across as a prat so often, but that doesn't seem to phase you.