VectisSaint

# This. As a football match programme it is crap. Maybe as an Art magazine it is considered good, but it is not fit for purpose. Won't even stand up properly on my bookshelf. There is also less content in its 48 pages than in the previous format's 74 pages, whatever anyone says. Still, another pot for the expanding trophy room.

Can't believe that someone really does not understand that gaston is a talented footballer, must assume you are just a WUM. He may not fit into our system and may not have displayed some of the qualities that we would have liked, may not have sttled in England, may not have adapted to the PL and so on, but doubting his talent is just plain barmy.

I would swap Boruc for Shilts or Niemi, but apart from that its difficult. Not because the players we have today are the best but they are suited to the system. Trying to put Le Tiss in this system would be a total nightmare, can you imagine him being asked to run around a lot and close down the opponents? Completely laughable. Channon would probably be a shout if he had been trained with the fitness regime we have today, but not sure. Steve Williams would probably suit instead of Wanyama or Morgan, but then I always thought Williams was not so good if he didn't have Bally alongside, and even though I think they are the best MF pairing ever for Saints I'm not sure they could be as effective as the current pair. Marian might be OK in the Johnny Depp role, but it would only last a few games before he got injured. Big Ron instead of Rickie is decent shout, Big Ron was super fit in his day. So I think my conclusion might be Shilts/Niemi and Williams and Pahars or Keegan. But really I think current style of play maybe no-one would actually make it better.

Why do we need to replace him if he goes? He does not fit the system so he (and his ilk, i.e a #10) are surplus to requirements. We do not need a replacement for him. It could be argued according to the article that Osvaldo is his replacement. If you mean we need another player in the squad then I assume that will be covered by a youngster. hence why Poch has said we will not be delving into the market in January.

Arsenal results in the 70s and 80s are easy, 1-0, covers just about every match.

Bring it on. As far as I know no Italian born player has ever started for Saints. Apparently we once signed someone called Alessandro Atzeni but he never played for the first team. Don't remember him at all. Closest we have to an Italian is probably Franny :-)

True, we are now 3rd equal with Bayern :-) But they have played a game more than us.

Well if Boruc was out today it would be Gazza in goal. I know which I'd rather have playing today out of Jos and Gazza.

) Strange how we won a few games last season. I know Lovren is good, but missing for one game due to illness and everyone goes into melt down. More amazed at the lack of depth on the bench. Gazza as GK (thought that might happen, didn't see Davis in training), no Cork, Guly (as we knew), Gaston or Lee (as we might have guessed), only true first teamers on the bench are Ossie, Maya and Steve Davis (no disrespect to Chambers). Still hopeful we might get something, a win was never really a realistic option anyway.

We'll need another goal from Everton first

No sign of Adam in the training pics, unless I missed him.

Turned on Points West tonight (BBC Regional News here) to see Marian Pahars picture. Seems like Latvia have a friendly at Huish tonight against Yeovil Town. Seems odd until you remember Gary Johnson was formerly manager of Latvia and apparently (never knew this) was instrumental in bringing the Little Lat to Southampton. http://www.westerngazette.co.uk/PREVIEW-Yeovil-Town-v-Latvia/story-20094437-detail/story.html

Would hope not given he is injured, but with England you never know. Chamberlain out until new year sometime.

This. Really do not think coming back would be a good idea. He could easily have stayed for one season and been part of promotion but Skate dad thought it best to move on and get the cash. One season of us having a bit of a struggle again and no doubt he would want away again to where the grass appears to be greener. Not totally sure he would get in the team anyway, does he fit our style? He is also injured and at the moment it is not clear he will totally recover. If he comes back and fits in fine, but really do not see he is what we really want and would be surprised if NC would go for him (if nothing else we are still on for further payments if he stays with the Arse). Nope, we've moved on, he's moved on. I would be happy to see Bale back (unlikely I know) or even Walcott.

I wonder if Sotonjoe will benefit from Luke's generosity. He certainly seems to have demonstrated that he is "in need".

But the way he did it he gave publicity to Children in Need, so that other people might donate as well. Of course he could have just donated silently like a lot of people do (or not donated at all like a lot of other people, me included), or he could have done a little bit to get other people involved as well. It seems like 38000 saw that what he was doing was worthwhile and so may have not only indirectly donated through Luke but also may have considered donating themselves in some other way (of course its very easy to retweet). Why do people think this is attention seeking, some "people" need to grow up, this is how charity fund raising works. Sadly, by using Twitter, a tool that attracts morons (or is it a tool that attracts tools) by the bucket load, he got some completely unwarranted stick. He should learn from this to just avoid Twitter. Luke, if you read this, well done lad for trying to do something worthwhile, ignore the morons.

Where does it say he won't be donating? Looks like he wasn't forced to remove it but removed it to stop the abusive tweets. I really don't get why people use twitter, it is just open to abuse and shows people up (not Luke) for being morons.

Doesn't sound very likely to me, specially when people talk about freeing up a squad position. What does that mean. We haven't got a full squad, and anyway Oxo is u21 so it makes no difference. Don't really believe the wages bit either frankly. Will be interesting to see how well he recovers from his injury, not likely to be playing again until well into the new year so no way we would see him here until next season anyway. Not entirely sure I would welcome him back, not too pleased at the way Skate Dad engineered the move away.

He is a legend in his own mind.

3 of the 4 times Shaw has withdrawn from the U21s he did so before getting to train with England.

I heard that when asked about this he said "Voy a seguir para dar entrevistas en español, mientras que la perilla de Glasgow utiliza el nombre estúpido MoPo en lugar de mi nombre real." How about people learn Spanish then it wouldn't matter. To be fair his Spanish in interviews are generally quite understandable even for those who are not fluent. He usually congratulates the players and a few other repeats. His interviews even in Spanish are far more meaningful/insightful than those given by many other PL/CCC managers who purport to speak English. While I recognise all (most) of the words Saggy Chops uses for instance, they do not make for a coherent reply to any questions asked.

You are right. The other team to outperform us we already beat 1-0 at their place, and the Arse have outperformed us by just 3 points, which is not much, especially as we have not played them yet. Nonetheless I fully expect the Gooners to win.

Boruc, Shaw, the rest

Isle of Wight ferries are bloody expensive

Don't disagree with much you have written, but this idea that Gaston was allowed to leave early is completely wrong. FIFA rules oblige clubs to release players 5 days before WC games. It is not an option, we had no real choice. Liverpool seem to have come to an agreement with Uruguay to delay Suarez' release and maybe we didn't see it as critical to do the same, but if the country insists then there is no choice. Uruguay play Jordan on Wednesday so as long as Gaston was named in the squad we have known for some time he would not be available yesterday, whether MP wanted him to play or not. Them's the rules. People should not read anything into Gaston's absence beyond this. Frankly I have come round to the idea that Gaston will be loaned back to Italy in January and that there may be a deal already being done to do some sort of swap.