VectisSaint

Good idea, would have been a bit of an insult to cvnts. Did Forren appear to have any pace? Always looks slow to me when I have seen him for u21s and even in warm ups. Good to hear that he may be better than he has looked so far.

Buttner signed on 21 August, just 4 days after van Persie. Kagawa signed on 22 June. Their only other signings last summer were Henriques who went on loan to Wigan and Nick Powell from Crewe. So which of these were the key Manure signings made early in the transfer window? As usual, when you dig into what Alpine states as facts the reality is that there is no evidence to back up what he says. It seems that you too don't seem to have much of a grasp of the facts in this case either Sour Mush. Sadly the fact of life is that it is a contract related issue that signings are not made before July, whether you agree or not is irrelevant, because its a fact.

Mayuka is not a winger.

Unfortunately this seems to sum up the lack of understanding of how the transfer system works and also ignores the real situation, especially last summer, just so Alpine can make a point that he cannot back up. The reality is that very few transfers take place before the end of June, because that is when contracts expire, this is just a simple fact. There are a few exceptions. Manure are not a model of how all other clubs work, firstly being Manure if they come calling then not many players turn them down, so they do have an advantage over many other clubs. Secondly they do not do all of their business early. Try to recall last summer when we had a new LB lined up to join and most people were very positive, Buttner was his name. All looked good until Manure came in very late in the day and nicked him from under our noses. Can't blame the guy, if you have no emotional ties to a club why would you sign for Saints instead of Manure? So we were left in a bit of an awkward situation, though not as bad as we thought because it was clear to those inside the club that Shaw was on the verge. Quite honestly it was probably a blessing in disguise not getting Buttner, would Shaw have broken through if Buttner had joined? Was Buttner really that good, Evra is still clear first choice at OT and if anything has been better this season, adding goals to his other qualities. OK, we got left with Danny Fox, but it was not really clear that he was so not up to PL standard. CB we signed Maya, who has turned out to be better than any of our other CBs. We should have signed one more CB, think that is clear and was at the time, but we addressed that in January by signing the Invisible Man, and as it turned out we have not needed him, as we have been quite fortunate with injuries/suspensions. The reality is that the only major issue we had was in the GK position, where we clearly ****ed up big time, relying on the stalwart KD and an untried, but clearly very talented kid from Argentina. Seems odd that our major weakness was GK, the one area that NA should have been most knowledgeable in. Our defensive weaknesses were cruelly exposed in the first 8 or so games, and we shipped goals for fun. But wait, then Jack Cork returned from injury, and bar a few exceptions, such as Saturday, our defence has become solid, especially when our first choice back 5 is available (Boruc, Clyne, Fonte, Maya & Shaw). We also did some early business, J-Rod came in before pre-season., so the model that Alpine peddles does not actually stack up in reality. I think assuming we stay up there will be very little in the way of transfer activity until July (assuming we are not now destined to earn a place in the UEFA Noddy League through the Fair Play back door). Maybe one incoming. We will be looking to shift a dozen or so players during this period. We are probably looking for 4 or 5 new players, a GK, a CB, a LB and RB and a MF to give Cork/Morgan competition. oK maybe we need a striker as well assuming Lee doesn't come back and Mayuka continues to look like Bambi on Ice. I will be hugely surprised if more than one or two are signed, sealed and delivered before end July, good players just do not become available earlier. We will almost certainly see MP bring in one or two of his known quantities from Spain, and these may already be partly sorted. We have proved that with a few exceptions once we got over the early season games when NA instilled a mindset into the players to over respect the opponents that we are able to compete with anyone in the PL on our day, and we have had top 10 results since that initial period of this season. We need a few reinforcements in order to push on and cement a top 10 finish next season, but things look very promising and I do not expect a huge number of new players over the summer.

Oh my God, when I have seen Forren he looks so slow, would hate to see him put up against Lennon. Why would anyone want to see a CB make his debut at LB? I really don't want top see him play in the 1st xi this season, maybe a good pre-season will bring him up to speed, so to speak. Happy with Fonte and Yoshi in the middle. If Shaw is not fit then Clyne at LB and Richardson or Cork at RB. If Cork is at RB then Davis and Spiderman in the middle, Punch instead of Lallana.

Certainly some of the MALI Group have been liquidated, Common Rail for sure, but it appears that Special Vehicles is still trading, the only part of MALI that seems to still be so doing. The Holding Company still exists and MALI International. Difficult to find out much because so many hits are about Mali, especially after the military interventions by the French. I'd like to see us sponsored by Cadbury's and then we could have Turkish Delight on our shirts. Would send our friend into melt down, people dressing up with his name on our shirts at every game.

Picked up an injury in Nandos, sorry meant in training...

Agree with most of this, and you even forgot (or didn't see) his blatant deliberate hand ball in the first half, still our debutant ref didn't spot it either, so you're not alone.

Sure, its been such a long hard season, 35 games. Some people are mental. We played over 50 last season, this is just the lamest excuse there possibly can be. Lots of teams in the PL have played a lot more than 35 games. Long hard season my arse.

Think its you that has lost the plot Art.

There was no doubt about Ramirez' red either, but it was scandalous what Long (I think) was doing leading up to the incident. Doesn't excuse Gaston, but sometimes referees bring this on by not blowing for a free kick in the first place.

Are you Alpine in disguise?

You really have to be kidding, Clyne was probably our best player today (maybe thats not saying much) and if you think that was Yoshi's worst game then you presumably missed the ones when he played right back or left back. He was OK. Hooiveld was awful, blatant handball in first half that the ref missed, but generally truly awful, but again whoever playes left centre when Fox is playing gets dragged about and out of position. Fox was absolutely ****e today, out of position time and again, left for dead by Lukaku on more than one occassion, bad yellow in the first half, appalling crosses, gave away at least one unneccesary corner and gave Boruc the ****s - I did applaud one interception he made which was very good. He was actually beginning to look a bit more effective when it went 10v10 but then he had his red mist brain failure, and killed any hopes of at least making a fight of it in the last 10 or so. I really do hope that is the last time we see him in a Saints shirt, we have had some great LBs in the past, and currently we have to put up with this complete pile of poo, if he has Left Back on his CV then he should be done for fraud, never seen a left back so inept at defending (maybe Bernard, but even that is debatable). Not clear whether Shaw will be available next week, truly hope he is, but any one of those 8 year old kids who were on the pitch at half time could do a better job than Danny Fecking Fox. Awful, awful player.

One of the best times ever when we played in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup. Not sure how this is related to Top 4 finish. Wouldn't mind winning the UEFA Europa League as long as we qualify by our league position or winning domestic cup and not by back door fair play nonsense.

We still managed to lose at home to one of the worst teams. Swansea had Man City, Wigan and Arse in the first 4 games the previous season, but I guess Sunderland were not as difficult as Manure.

If you plan to quite Stone then maybe this one is more appropriate for the Sheriff's ambitions. "Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement."

Yep, seems like it is only you. Says more about you really, that you cannot see why this is so different to other cases, and why biting (even with no apparent damage), like spitting, is so much worse than some activities where actual damage is involved. I guess you just don't see any social issues with biting or spitting. In a decent society these things are far worse in many ways than punching or kicking someone.

But the Suarez incident will also impact the English League fair play standing won't it? England was already in 4th so would not qualify, doubt the Swedes or Norwegians had too many biting incidents in their last few league games.

You seem to be in a small minority who think biting a fellow pro is acceptable in some way. Most people seem to think 10 is about right based on his previous, it will probably be reduced to 8 on appeal. If he had been sent off he would have got 3 for the red card and then the FA would have added 7. Biting someone is so despicable, ranks along with spitting, something very akin to behaviour of children in the pre-school playground. It may not be physically as harmful as punching someone's lights out or even breaking their leg, but socially it is unacceptable and the role model issue comes into play. Already there have been reports of kids biting others in the playground as copy-cat behaviour. Also things have moved on, punishments are reviewed occassionally, so something that would have got 5 games years ago may now get 10 games. The pity of it all is that Suarez needs some serious medical/mental health help, he is clearly unwell (unhinged) and no amount of punishments will help him overcome this problem.

I guess Joe Jordan would not have bitten anyone when he was playing for us. Jaws would have just given them a gummy kiss after he had broken their leg.

Started 2 of 7, and come on as sub in the other 5, in total played a bout 2.5 games time-wise. http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/tadanari-lee/leistungsdaten-vereindetail/spieler_81793.html Not looking like a rip-roaring success and minutes on the pitch would suggest fitness remains an issue, never really recovered from his injury last season or the follow on injury sustained on holiday this season. Sad to say the early promise looks to have been extinguished by injury problems. Not sure that FC Tokyo will take him given his current form.

It was both, greater success with PSB, but VP had original hit, though it was not the follow up to YMCA, In The Navy was the follow up to that pile of crap.

Barca are so last year. Bayern or Dortmund.

He's had a word with his mate Lewandowski who plans to join us on a free next Summer. Alternatively he has been on the waccy-baccy.

Yes, because we would all have realised that it was a typo and he meant Leon Best, who of course would be contender for Saints Best XI. While I agree with you about Turkish, there is no hard and fast rule about what is considered north and south. Gloucester City play in the Conference North. There have always been such discrepancies, look back at the Third Division when it was split North/South. It was just a way of balancing the divisions out. Anyway its just a fun thread, there was no need for geographical accuracy.