VectisSaint

Yet still made 13 appearances for us, another myth.

Might be a decent backup to Shaw. I can see Spuds might be trying to offload him, he hasn't played since May due to a wrist injury (must be a bad wrist injury to keep someone out for 9 months). He was a decent LB who has lost his way a bit, might be a good prospect, but as I said only as backup, not instead of. Is definitely an upgrade on Fox.

Does the guy never learn? Erik Damela, Andy Woodman, Jose Fonte and now the post. Whatever next.

What about Lallana in the Championship in 08-09? He played 40 league games that season. He played a handful in each of the previous 2 seasons as well (well 6 to be precise). So 2 full seasons in the Championship and 2 in League One. He was not in the League One team of the season in 09-10, though to be fair he did score 15 league goals. So he was not actually selected for any team of the year until May 2011 when he was 22, nearly 23 (and that in League One), remarkably similar age to Senor Ramirez (who is struggling to be totally effective in the Premier League, not League Friggin 1).

By the way, why no MOTM poll?

Really don't understand the people who still think we need a winger. We don't play wingers any more, our full backs provide the width and act as wingers. The problem yesterday was that the FBs didn't do enough of that for some reason, and when they did they did what all wingers would do and lob hopeful crosses into the box for Shawcross to deal with eyes closed. It was pathetic, apart from the few minutes when the rain/hail lashed down, why ow why did we decide yesterday of all days to play hoofball instead of our normal game, keeping it on the deck. If it was a deliberate tactic then it was scandalous. Our central midfield were poor, I cannot remember Schneiderlin and Cork having such in ineffective game (and I am a huge fan of both), Shaw did not try to beat his man tall in the second half until about 80 minutes in. Not convinced Lallana was on the pitch, following several immense performances from him he was completely snuffed out, JRod was hopeless, completely bereft of ideas, and Lambert scored a stunning free kick and did very little else, I feel he is still carrying a slight injury. Steve Davis was MOTM by a mile (and yet the moron behind me was calling for him to be taken off because we needed pace, you really coudn't make it up). Jose Fonte had his worst game for a while, several really poor decisions and bad passes. Yoshi was very good, his reading of the game is top class, makes up for his lack of stature sometimes, although I will still be glad to get Lovren back. Hopeless, hopeless performance, but credit to Stoke who were well organised, defended well, stopped us playing with their niggly tactics and generally were hardly ever troubled. One of the most disappointing games for a long long time.

Duncan, did the article referenced earlier in the thread make it to print yesterday, did not get a chance to pick up a copy before heading back here after the game, and cannot see it in the online version. Although I am not related having exchanged several mails with one of the family members I would be interested to read the rest of the story, other than the bits I know.

I think the concern is more about getting to and back from the game. Although hopefully Boruc will have his shooting boots on.

Scottish, early 1900s, not Danny Fox. Was helping one of the family trace his ancestry a few weeks back. There is still mystery about what eventually happened to him, perhaps you have found out. Will see if I can grab a copy of the Echo tomorrow somehow (will it be in the online version?)

Agreed basically, our away form is good when compared to what we are used to, but about average for the league. However, historically most teams do significantly better at home than away, a trend that is being bucked by some teams recently (Sunderland for example who until recently were hopeless at home, Spuds and Villa also better away). But 15 of the PL teams are better at home than away, and the best are significantly better at home, rather than marginally like us). Being average at home is a recipe for being average overall. If we had done as well as we have away and combined that with an above average home record, then we would probably be top 7, rather than 9th. Turn defeats into draws, and draws into wins and we would have an outstanding home record. Taking your point about our defeats and draws the conclusion is still that we have failed to win in more than half of our home games, the top 5 teams in the league have lost only once at most at home. To be successful we need to do better at home, or we have to buck a long-standing trend that teams win more at home than away.

Our away record is good, unfortunately our home record is average. We have only gained 3 points more at home than we have away. Winning more at home is the difference between 9th and 7th/8th.

Red/Yellow cards we are 6th, i.e. one of the best teams for disciplinary issues on the field, only Cardiff and Liverpool are significantly better than us. Positive Play - we are also 6th, so our style and our on-field discipline is better than our league position, in other words in these areas we out perform our league. It is the other 3 categories that let us down: Respect to opponents - 19th Respect to referee - 20th Behaviour of officials - 20th. So MP, Jesus and our other opponents are the worst in the League. I find this very hard to believe. Except for the Newcastle incident where our GK coach got involved when else has there been any issues with our officials (I assume this is limited to the management/coaching staff and not that Evil Nic caused us a lot of issues) How are we so bad when it comes to respect for opponents and respect for the referee? OK so LallanaGate may account for one bad score, but seriously what is going on that we as supporters are not seeing that is making us so bad when it comes to respect. Didn't MP say a little while ago that we are too nice? I wonder why the Behaviour of the Supporters figure is not published, I am guessing from what I can see that we must be quite well up in that category to compensate for our bottom of the table socres in 3 other categories. So, with the exception probably of 2 incidents involving Ossie, one with our GK coach and one with Lallana its difficult to see why we are so poor. If you look at the scoring methods, one incident, such as Osvaldo at Newcastle cannot possibly drop us 10 places as someone suggested, this would be part of category 3 (Respect to Opponents, where the max score is 7 and min score 1, so lets assume we got 1 point for that game. How come Newcastle are many points better than us, when they not only had that incident but also the one at West Ham as well? Our high tempo and aggressive style of play is clearly not dropping us down that table at all otherwise we wouldn't be 6th in the first 2 categories. Puzzled... (but a least there is no danger of us qualifying for the Europa League via this mickey mouse route this season)

A thread started by GlasgowTroll, that will narrow it down then.

or more likely that he had an injury (hamstring) that he was carrying and after missing 2 games with said injury he is fit again.

Don't very often agree with Glasgow Troll but to be fair VW's passing is often poor. The rest of his game usually more than makes up for it though, which is what the Glasgow Troll doesn't seem to realise.

Better not play Big Vic at West Ham, Palace or Spuds in that case. But will be fine at the KC and the Etihad. Look, I know he is BIG Vic, but this is complete twaddle. The Cottage is the same size as Anfield and Stamford Bridge.

because he wanted to play for his local team/be near his family, hence the loan in the first place. Thought it was reasonably well documented at the time, not just on here but in the real world as well.

Any evidence of this having been done?

Is it? In advanced talks.

Yes. He has played in the position very well when asked to play there already. In fact he looked just as good at LB as he does at RB when he has played there. I have no qualms about Clyne playing LB if needed, but hopefully he won't need to unless Shaw goes down with Nandos belly again.

Glasgow mentioned this at least a year ago IIRC. I'm sure he will be on soon to let us know and link to the thread.

So if he's not there is it because he is not allowed to be there or because he chose not to be there? If he is there it could mean that he is allowed to be there or that Saints are holding a pirate fancy dress contest tonight. Will be fascinating. We will learn so much depending on his presence or otherwise. I will try to speak to him if I see him but I'm a bit nervous about getting my nose broken - would he head butt someone wearing glasses? I mean me wearing glasses not him of course. Not sure I can take the risk.

Thought Arsene and his scouts knew all of our academy lads inside out.

Ramirez looked good, but not sure Gaston did. Odd that you never see them together.

Well Glasgow suggested it, so quite apt.