VectisSaint

Your grasp of the written word is equally baffling. I'd love to know what a pedastool is. I guess it is something you use to climb on to a pedalo.

Having some sort of bad morning, get of wrong side of bed and hit your head on the wall? No evidence here of anyone fawning over Adkins, a doff perhaps to his slightly amusing side, nothing more. No-one has said on this thread how brilliant Adkins is, or anything about his style of football, only commenting on the OP who doesn't seem to understand the difference between being comfortable on the ball and the usual English style of kick and rush. Nothing that says we are any good at being comfortable on the ball, simpley an acknowledgement that this is what NA is clearly trying to achieve. Whether he does or does ntot achieve it will remain to be seen. No-one creams themselves (what a completely purile, childish phrase that is by the way), there is some evidence that NA is doing a good job so far, not much that he isn't, but the jury is still out whether he can do the business at a higher level, although he does have experience at this level with a crap team with no money.

Comfortable on the ball and opening up are not the same things. Comfrotable on the ball, passing the ball around with good control, not being panicked into a long ball or an attack, having the patience and confidence to knock it around until an opening occurs. Championship, fast pace, direct play, speculative balls, losing possession cheaply, the normal English style. There will be some exceptions, I suspect Sven will instill this way of playing with Leicester before he gets fed up and moves on half way through the season, Brighton too are known to play this way. But the style of play Bremen and Bilbao will adopt is much more akin to what Adkins is trying to do with us, and will be somewhat different to the majority of Championship teams.

Christopher Reeve, not Reeves.

Generally too early for PL loans, they will happen in August. We may take one at most. More likely to take another loanee from Serie A as we have done for the last 2 years.

Why? We had a decent rail service in this country before the 1960s. It would be quite easy to find the date of this match, there is a web site that gives dates and results of all fixtures. I had a cousin who lived in the East End, went to see Blackpool play West Ham on Good Friday in 1935 or 36 (haven't got exact year to hand) and died of a heart attack at the match. I found the date of the game online, and happened to look at the fixtures for the following day and found that West Ham played again against Saints (unfortunately we lost). Players and supporters of today don't know they are born, but in fact it was relatively easy to travel to matches given the railway network of the time, and football specials - probably took less time than it would these days by car

I spy the Invisible Man in the yellow Nike boots just by the white cones, wonder why he is not joining in with training.

Does 6'0" really count as "big" these days for a centre-half? Another player who was allowed to leave Saints before he could mature enough to achieve his potential, strange decision by WGS. Hopefully we will learn that CBs really only mature in their mid 20s, apart for an exceptional few. Bit like Mike Williamson.

Funny I thought we just signed Jack Cork. We a rebuilding a side for the NPC and beyond right now. If we don't sign players for the medium/long term now when do you expect that we will do so? We already have the experience in Jaidi at CB, what we need now is a string backup or even replacement for Jaidi for this season and beyond, because whatever happens Jaidi will not play for us after this next campiagn, unless he finds the secret of eternal youth. I was just expressing surprise that we would sign a player like Monk now as he is not in my opinion what we need, unless as expected Seaborne is on his way out. I know GM could do a good job for us. Anyway all sounds like a wind-up.

Maybe the new trend is to sign players with 4-letter surnames ending in K. Expect Ji-Sung Park next.

Although he had already played in the League for Torquay before we signed him as an apprentice. I know we need a new CB, but don't really see GM as the answer I was expecting, was thinking more of a medium to long term Jaidi replacement. Still Monk could certainly do a job for us next season if he does join, has been top drawer for Swansea in last few seasons.

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.