VectisSaint

So what did you do when it said Restrictions Apply?

We were not out fought. Cardiff gave the impression that they really didn't give a toss whether they were relegated or not and clearly were happy with a draw. I thought they were awful and had no plan to beat us at all. In the end they were very fortunate that we gave even less of a toss than them.

Forgotten about him, but you said opposing player, he really was not in any way shape or form a player. I stand by Wes Brown.

Really disappointing day. I really did not think we would miss JRod that much. First half we lacked any urgency, lots of nice little passes and a couple of great moves but it was very pedestrian, lacking the usual energy, and we really could have been playing against statues for all the effort Cardiff were putting into it. Fighting for their lives, they looked like they couldn't give a monkeys, though Kim and Daehli looked useful. The biggest problem we had was making our way round their little fat bloke in the midfield (number , I really thought they had plucked one of the supporters out of the crowd and given him a shirt to wear. Gaston had some great moments, but all too often he was frustrating, but he should have scored, the deflection taking it on to the bar. Marshall kept them in the game with a couple of smart saves. Our defence were never really tested today, apart from a few corners. Gazza did nothing wrong, apart from punching a couple of corners behind for another corner, but was in no way responsible for the goal which was just a defensive calamity. Lovren had a couple of howlers again, and Fonte's attempt to foul Zaha (was it or was it Campbell) were comical. Shaw's crossing was woeful, really he is not the great LB everyone believes until he learns how to cross and even more how to score (but I'm sure it will come). Thought Adz was kept very quiet, and really did not seem up for it. Lambo pulled out of a chance in the first half that he would have gone for if he was not thinking about the WC. Morgan was strangely wasteful, Cork was probably our best player, but please can someone teach him how to shoot. Davis was good, but not quite up to his usual standards, but you cannot fault his effort, just seemed a bit unsure a few times what to do with the ball. I have to take exception with those who claim Cardiff came with a game plan to nick a goal, they had no such plan, they came for a draw, which was very odd for a team supposedly scrapping for their lives. They deserve to go down, they were awful, but lucked out. Gallagher, poor touch, really looking out of his depth after his encouraging start. Guly made one excellent pass late on which deserved better, but really it is time for Guly to be saying goodbye (but thanks for all you did for us in L1 and the Champ). Can't make up my mind about Chambers and Clyne - usually I think Chambers is better, but clearly he was struggling with the pace of Campbell and Zaha, and Clyne did do better against that. Today showed so clearly to me the problem we have. We have had a great season and have 13 maybe 14 excellent players. We are now 3 strikers short (given that JRod will not really be back to full fitness this side of Christmas. Even if we bring Osvaldo back into the fold, we still need 2 more (lets not forget either that Lambo if he goes to Brazil will not have a full pre-season. So we should probably be looking at 3 strikers - unikley to happen but thats what we need. We need a LB to push Shaw and we need at least one new CB (hoping that Blackbeard is on his way out). We also need some new creativity in MF, probably a replacement for Ramirez and another one as well. Then there's the GK, we need two for sure, someone to push or replace Boruc who is too unreliable and someone to replace Gazza who really is not up to it. Reaiistically unlikely to bring in 6 or 7 but that is what is needed, our squad is so small and will need to be bolstered if we are to achieve 8th again next season, and thats assuming no-one leaves (other than Guly and Jos). Some will say Targett is the LB to push Shaw, but its clear to me that he is not thought ready, if he were then he would have made a matchday squad or two by now. It would ask a great deal of MP to manage bringing 6 or 7 players into the tightly knit group, one of the down sides of having such a tight knot squad is that bringing new members in is incredibly difficult. Not being negative, but think today demonstrated clearly to me that good as this season has been there are some serious issues that need to be addressed this summer.

Really? Thought he was excellent today, would have him in our squad on that performance. Very clever player and full of running/energy, probably a bit lightweight if anything though. Who was the little fat bloke in the centre of midfield, looked like they had fished someone out of the crowd. Wes Brown has to be the worst player against us this season. I gather he did himself proud today as well. Truly awful player.

Anyone know the Cardiff team for tomorrow? It should be available by now.

More likely the board approved beforehand what Morgan has said, and that this is probably an indication that they have the same outlook. The big challenge for Poch will be integrating 4 or 5 new players into the tightly knot squad that exists, he will certainly need to earn his keep on that side of things, unfortunately you could argue that he does not have the greatest track record given his apparent failure with Osvaldo. With the depth of the squad we have 4 or 5 has to be the target, maybe even 6, all players that need to challenge the current incumbents, not backups to sit on the bench.

Why is Harry tweaking Gaston's nipples?

"Guly Ramirez". Alpine will be apoplectic.

Why the Sunderland references? They play in our (proper) colours because they bought their original shirts in Southampton. The same as Atletic Bilbao (both Basque teams, Madrid were formed by Basque exiles in Madrid from the same club). Story is that they wanted to buy Blackburn Rovers kit, but kit could not be found so opted for Saints shirts, but kept the preferred Rovers blue shorts. The Blackburn bit could be rubbish because we of course played in blue shorts as well.

When I first went to the Dell in 1966, there was no bitter rivalry with Pompey, our rivals then were Spurs. which my understanding had been the case since the Southern league days when Spurs and Saints were regularly top dogs. Many of my family regularly went to Fratton Park one Saturday and the Dell the next. My dislike of Spurs has remained ever since. The Pompey thing used to just be friendly banter (a long time before the word banter was ever used), we hardly ever played them so why would it be any different. The hoolies took over in the late 60s/early 70s and younger people now think it was ever thus.

From what Downthe36 says, I guess if you want to massage Jay you have to use your phone with vibrate switched on. That should do the trick, vibrating lap tops are not so useful it ususally indicates the fan needs replacing.

No, we were mathematically safe on Saturday when Norwich lost. Even then Norwich still had to play Fulham, so we may have been safe before that.

28 actually, and at 32 for 2022 he would still be younger than Rickie is now depending on when it is actually played. Bad news for the lad, although I honestly think he would not have made the final 23, it would still have been great to have been in the mix for selection. I guess now we need to sign 3 strikers in the summer, assuming one is to replace Osvaldo, we needed another one anyway and now we need to cover for JRod being out for most of the first half of the season. Shows how thin our squad really is.

There is no financial mess. The financials for 2012/13 show the Club to be in a healthy position financially with only a very small (approx 1m) net debt. Given that the financials are for the year end when we were promoted this is really a very good position. Plans are in place to pay off transfer fees over a number of years, consistent with how the industry operates, and we already have indication that we have paid what we were due to pay. The only small down side is that we did not maximise our commercial income, and that surprisingly that income is quite low, but with lots of room for improvement. The overspend on the training ground is a slight concern, but in the end the numbers are relatively small fry (15m overspend). In the event of some crisis, we have players valued at something around a £100m, which more than covers any long terms planned payments. The huge increase in broadcasting rights for this season shows that Cortese was investing in the future, and has not done anything particularly rash. In any case the Easte of Markus Liebherr would have been in the know of what was going on. So, no financial mess. Also you asked "why did it take so long" - you seem to forget that after ML passed away his estate was in probate for a long time before Katharina became the legal owner. I don't know exactly when she finally inherited but it would have been a considerable time after ML's passing, due to Swiss inheritance laws. Sadly this post seems to indicate that the sensationalist, innacurate and ignorant press coverage lead by the BBC has been swallowed hook, line and sinker by some.

Hughton sacked by Norwich. Seems silly to me to sack him with so few games left.

The only way to achieve that is to start the thread yourself. The Toffee Troll either starts every thread or has so little else going on in his life that he is in like Flynn on every one that he does not start. He seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis in the last 24 hours, forgetting who he supports and pretending that he supports Saints, he will presumably revert to type in the next few days. Quite why the Mods on this Forum (I believe we have such people) do not have the gumption to ban him is beyond me.

Well actually no he didn't. He simply invested in transfers and ensured the payment terms were spread over more than one year as is standard practice. Most of the "debt" will be paid off this season (figures were for end of last season) and the TV money this year will more than cover these transfer fees. We have not failed to pay anyone what they are owed. The good news is that our net debt is approx 1m, which is remarkably good for a football club, especially with assets (players who do not show in the books) worth anywhere in the region of 85-100m. Unfortunately you have taken the sensationalist headlines of the press which were so wrong and swallowed them hook line and sinker. Of course we could all argue that Cortese could have done better, the commercial side is poor to say the least, but he did not leave the books in a mess at all.

Think you meant "poster", no need for plural in this case. Hope your lot do well against the Arsenal tomorrow.

So thats 3 threads now where you have referred to the fictional Gazza haters. You are the only one who seems to think Gazza is hated. Some think he is not very good, or that he is not ready yet, but no-one seriously hates him, most support him, especially Saints supporters. Anyway what has this got to do with you and Everton? Thought we would lose heavily today anyway, but think it may be a little worse than I previously feared.

Quick update to the Prediction League, already thought we would lose heavily with Boruc. Glad now that I will not be watching.

Was discussed on the other thread on here yesterday, yes Liz Coley was secretary during Lowe's reign, then went to Fulham and then apparently Sunderland. She is now looking for a new job, though Sunderland deny it is anything to do with this issue. There have been very few times when clubs in the top tiers of English football have been deducted points for player ineligibity reasons, and never in the PL. It tends to be a sanction used more often in the lower leagues. Strangely Sunderland are one of the very few clubs that have previous form for this, having been deducted 2 points for fielding an ineligible player in season 1890-91. They were the first football league team to be sanctioned in this way. You would think they would have learned their lesson. http://www.footballsite.co.uk/Statistics/Articles/DidYouKnow29.htm There is a mildly interesting academic paper on the subject here: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/Global/05%20Research%20section%20assets/Research/Centre%20for%20the%20international%20Business%20of%20Sport/Working%20paper%20series/CIBS%20WP08.pdf

Discussion already commenced yesterday: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?49681-We-was-robbed-by

Beat me to it, I was about to make the same observation.

Surprised that for 30M we have only gone for 3G pitches, would have expected them to have rolled out 4G pitches at least, much quicker and better for long term evolution. Maybe EE's network doesn't extend to Marchwood.