VectisSaint

Why do you think that's a polar bear? They are usually white, that one is red. The MALI Group have always used a bear as part of their corporate logo: Just a different perspective.

Ivan Golac at RB, thats what we need. Bally in MF as well.

I think then you'll be surrised then. A new CB to eventually relace Jaidi is almost a certaintly at some point, even if its in January. We would be mad to go into a season with only 4 CBs (even if Cork could slot in there). You have to cover injury and suspensions, Seaborne has also been linked elsewhere. Jaidi was given a 1 year contract extension because we need his experience as much as anything, by the end of season I am certain he will not be first choice, and I don't go with Martin being ready yet, but will be soon. We are also still short up front, and given we don't know if Barnard will be available, we will strengthen there as well, I have n doubt that RL can perform at this level and we know DC can, but more options are needed. I think there will be another wide MF as well, probably another loanee from Serie A/B.

Can never forget what the man (and Nicola) did, was best birthday present for me ever. I was thinking yesterday they should have held off the Cork announcement until today, but then again maybe something else is on the cards for today.

Maybe she's singing it about Hammond. At 4 she might not have spotted the difference between the Saints captain and the Top Gear presenter.

Still expect that we will sign a new CB for this season, 4 is definitely not enough, especially with Jaidi getting a bit long in the tooth. He may have been given a contract extension but that doesn't really mean NA expects him to play 46 games this season, will initially be first choice because of his experience, but expect him to start giving way to others by mid-season. Pleased for Martin, he is still maturing for a CB, even more so now that I have discovered he is a Caulkhead like me (thanks to BBC, not mentioned on OS).

4-year contract, I suspect only Brighton were prepared to give him that, not bad for a 27 year old with no experience at this level, this may be why CMS chose BHA supposedly over other possibly more attractive clubs.

They have schools in Portsmouth. I always think its a good day when you learn something new.

Except for Stephens, N'Guessan and Gobern, and some youngsters who were let go of course.

We did make an offer, at the same time as we made DC an offer, that is documented. Clear from NA that we made an offer but OG (or rather his agent) didn't even consider going back to discuss/negotiate, just went elsewhere. Anyone who thinks we weren't keen to keep him has either not read or understood the reaction of NA in the Press Conderence. For NA to talk the way he did in public shows how angry he really was that despite everything the club had done OG still walked away without even having the decency to let Saints know what was happening until it was too late. Afraid another sign of the rather nasty side of modern football, bit like Puncheon in my opinion.

Fairly clear from the Press Conf that NA was well angry with Gobern's advisors and saw him as an integral part of his plans after all the effort they had put in to get him back fit and ready - the things that were reported from the PC would be a watered down version of NA'a real thoughts. It would seem now that we will have to find a replacement for him AND get new midfielder in, as 5 seems to be the magic number for CMs, to cover suspensions and injuries. It seems that OG didn't even have the decency to let Saints know, perhaps if he had NA may have taken up an option on Stephens. I hope OG does well, but perhaps he needs to look for some better advisors.

Please can we just say quick, I prefer not to have the word "speedy" associated with Saints

Maybe it will be to announce that Skacel has signed

Don't forget Steve Williams as well.

I guess you don't remember the introduction of Sunday trading - yes that is a relatively new problem, 1994 onwards, even then it was many years before it became as prevalent as now. Sunday League football flourished in the 70s/80s, but has since almost died a death. I assume you have no idea how much the white line stuff costs, it is very expensive (£85 per 15 litres), largely because of the need on it being made of non-hazardous material, in any case how do you "move the white lines inwards"? I guess you have never had to mark out pitches. Have you tried finding out how much a new set of goal posts with nets cost these days? Other than the mini-soccer goals, the other sizes are prohibitively expensive for a small club (over a grand per pair, price almost the same for youth and adult sizes) although to be fair both the FA and the County FAs are reasonably generous with grants.

How so, after all they appointed George Burley as their manager. Then again maybe you have a point.

Good idea, a Maserati or an Alfa 8C and a few pints of Ringwood, sounds good, but probably not together, the OB may not approve.

Its a nice idea, but in practice most clubs (except big city-based clubs) simply cannot provide the facilities for multi-size, multi-goal-size pitches. The FA tried to introduce 9-a-side a few years back, but most smaller clubs could not afford the investment needed in the different size goals that were also needed, besides the full-sized ones and the mini-soccer goals. Unfotunately the FA is so blinkered and out of touch it thinks all clubs are based in London (or Manchester or Liverpool) and forgets that grass-roots football also needs to include teams in more rural communities. The FA also forgets about the majority of players and only considers what is needed for academy-level players who are a very small minority. Effectively the FA are the architects of the demise of local football, together with the issues caused by 7-day a week business and the consequent lack of social time that allows team sports to flourish - try running a local football team these days, used to be possible with 16-17 committed players, these days you need about 30 to allow for everybody working weekends and so on.

Any chance of updating the thread title, it doesn't make any sense because it doesn't mention "bid". Perhaps the bid was low to test the water, after all before Xmas no deal could have been completed. Would be interesting to know what was the response, was it "feck off you're having a giraffe" or "thats a trifle lower than our estimation"? Maybe we went back with a better offer after Xmas, or maybe we considered that anything more was not worth the money. Do people really believe what other people tweet? I think the Dutch Athletics chappie had the right idea about twitter.

He was 20 in January, has had 1 full season to try to establish himself (most of 2009/10 he was either on load or receovering from op on his hip). It is again one of the problems of the Youth/Academy system that players in certain positions take longer to mature in a footbaling sense - keepers, centre backs, centre mids, all get dumped out of academies too soon, in my opinion. You need maturity and football intelligence to play these positions effectively. I realise Spiderman is about the same age, but thats why he is so highly thought of, he has a lot of this maturity beyond his years already, very rare. I think Gobern would have eventually been a good CM but clearly he doesn't want to hang around waiting and thinks he can do better. My preference would have been to keep but put out on loan, but I read into this that there are more CMs about to be signed and OG knows this.

Have to think that this is because he knows we are bringing in better, otherwise he would have been better staying put as 4th choice CM at his age. Even then we would probably have done better keeping him and loaning him out for a season. Seems odd that we have let him go so easily. Still if he wants off the bus then he can Foxtrot Oscar.

What did you expect? Given the seeding and the regionalisation. Actually I like it, Torquay have always been my second club, just a shame they will be knocked out in the 1st round. I think some people would only think it was a good draw if we were drawn to play ourselves. I think Wimbledon and Crawley should protest, how can it be fair that they were drawn to play each other, and to have to play before the League season has even started.

Sort of know where you are coming from, but "achieved nothing" is a slight exaggeration. There are thousands of players who do not have a Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup Winners medal, not to mention an FA Cup (and League Cup) Runners-up as well. Also capped 36 times for England.

They ran out of paint

jonb, sure you can use any of my ramblings. I can probably recollect a few more bits and pieces, I know the shop which used to be at the end of the road, Lushington Hill Stores, was doing a roaring trade in bread and milk and sold out of most stuff several times. There are some references and pictures on the Wootton Bridge web site that may be of interest, though subject to copyright of course. I remember reading articles by an old school friend, John Faulkner who was around the Farm much more than me but cannot find the article now, I thought it was on the Wootton Bridge site, but perhaps it was in the Parish Magazine a couple of years back. Anyway will look out for the book, sounds like a good read.