VectisSaint

OK, stop it right there, this thread is just getting silly.

If WD has half the impact that Snodin had then we will soon be flying, Snodin, the man that almost made Burley look reasonable...

Good to see we are toughening up, anyone with War Department on their training kit must be a bonus

Nice post ART, good that someone could put some of the stuff in a bit of perspective. By the way, is there anything in this link of Camara with Saints, or are we (mostly) all just dreaming that a creative and gifted player like HC in the twilight of his career could actually come back to SFC for one last hurrah?

Pardew mentioned it before the transfer window closed. He stated clearly that there were too many players even to coach. Sounded like he was about to ship several of the younger players out on loan, but apart from Poke it never happened. I would be surprised if a few do not go on loan starting this week as the loan window will be open.

LOL. How many times did the pensioner actually play? Crocked player bought by drunken George when after he was injured at Derby

Funnily enough I think you will be proved right, it is very unusual for any team in the English leagues to win 7 games on the bounce, I expect Charlton to come unstuck next week (and Leeds) and we will at least get a draw. Just need to mark Jay Sam out of the game and we will be OK.

True, it is at least as good as L1

Can only assume you didn't see him play against Millwall where he was our best player. He needs to be played in his best position, up with the other CF, playing close but just off him. He has the ability to hold the ball up which is more than Lallana can do. Unfortunately after that game he has been played in different positions where he does not fit in.

First thing Pardew has to instill in the players is to stop playing hoof ball. We need to play the ball out, and make sure we keep possession. I didn't see the game today but was exasperated by the number of times Solent commentary repeated that Davis had lumped the ball down the middle. The GK has a huge responsibility in this, I am not KD's greatest fan, I think he is one of the best when it comes to stopping shots, but his distribution is very poor (as is his positioning for corners). It was the only criticism I used to level at Niemi as well. Stop pumping the ball down the middle, and get the ball out to the full backs to play the ball forward more often. Of course mix it up, so that once you have drawn their forwards to our full backs then go long again, the element of surprise is important. But lumping the ball down the middle every time is a useless tactic, at best you could expect us to win possession 50%, in practice because our player has his back to the ball it is more like 75/25 to the defenders. Of course KD is not the only culprit, our central defenders do the same. The good thing I heard yesterday was that Thomas was getting forward well down the wing in the first half.

Depends, we weren't very often in the bottom half of Div3 South, although I am sure there were some times that we were. The comparison is perfectly fair.

Better yet, forget playing him at all. He needs a spell in the reserves. No end product, no good having a box to box midfielder that cannot pass to a team mate. I would expect AL to be one of the causalties when we have our full team available.

Do you know if he was offered a chance to stay? I doubt Herr Lowe would have ratified it following relegation. I agree that he did not relish a drop down to a lower division as I said, hence he left Wolves. But that was 5 years ago, and he is now getting on a bit. Personally if there was any legs in this story (and I doubt there is) then we should bend over backwards to get him to sign. One of the most exciting players to grace SMS for Saints ever.

What would you have changed? Thats just about the best team we have. The only change I would make would be Mills for Lallana, but given Mills is returning from injury I think AP is sensible not to start him. Would have preferred to see Gillett on the bench.

Mills on the bench, no room for Gillett though.

He left us because his loan expired. But it is true that he refused to play for Wolves when they were relegated. Things have moved on now though, at the age of 32 he is not the player he was (though more than good enough for us) and would probably take a drop if the money was OK, after all at the moment he is unemployed. By the way we would have to wait for his work permit application to be granted of course.

I think you are very very wrong as far as Alps is concerned. Can't comment on TDD.

That is a gross insult, some weasels have a great deal of integrity.

If so then Bevan will play instead. Might actually come down for this, gives me a chance to see Torquay, they have always been my "second team" but have never actually seen them play live.

Kenwyne could do 100m much faster than 20 seconds, but thats not to detract from Henri. Kenwyne was a real athlete.

Our decline while he was here and since he left is indeed testament to the job he was doing, or rather not doing. We were left with the most unfit, unmotivated team ever. His apparent success getting us to the playoffs was largely down to the input of Snodin, when he departed it was all downhill. Burley continues to live on his success at Ipswich and to a small extent Hearts, sadly for Scotland they have discovered what most Southampton supporters knew at the time he left. He was and is a spent force. Why anyone would think it was a good idea to get him back defies belief, especially when we have such a decent manager now.

Although I suspect you are expecting things to work faster than they do in practice, you have also left out one important stage: Day (0 minus 14): Jaidi sends work permit application to Home Office. I don't think we have reached this stage yet Once that happens then everything will swing into action and will proceed as swiftly as a stunned slug.

Is Morgan out as well? It seems unfair to me that we have to play with players away on international duty, I understand that you can only apply for postponement if there are 3 or more, and I am guessing that we have only 2 out in this case.

There is a huge difference between caring about the issue, integrity in sport, and villofying MLT for one very minor misdemeanour, which in fact led him to realise that integrity was important, a lesson welll learned. I'm afraid I already question the motives of much in sport, the more that big money comes in and pervades the game we all love, the more correupt it is. But this is nothing new. Players were suspended for life in the 1950s for match fixing allegations, there have been scandals involving Lou Macari and as well know Brucey, and many many others. To read some of the patently silly remarks on here by some holier than thou goody 2 shoes, you would think that the idea of a betting scam had been invented by MLT. Nothing could be further from the truth. This sort of thing was clearly rampant, in the 90s when spread betting became popular and before the authorities clamped down. The thing we have learned from this is that MLT was so naive that having tried this thing once, it scarde the **** out of him when he realised how much he could have lost, and never got involved again. That is the salutary lesson others should be picking up on, and possibly why he mentioned it in his book. Matt wasn't even the instigator of this as far as I can tell, more ikely it was Flash, but almost the whole team were in on it, just a shame someone forgot to tell Shipps. I can't believe some of the nonsense being written on here about MLT, and role models (or even roll models). My hero in the 60s was Micky Channon, he was my role model, hence I turned to drinking when I realised that my heroes of the day were all out on the lash every night (not just Mick, but ossie etc). And if you believe that about me then you would believe anything. Because MLT made one dodgy bet does not make him any less of a role model to youngsters today, it shows he was human, and got involved in the sort of things that 99.9% of people get involved with at some time. The role model point is that he saw the error of his ways very quickly and learned that this was not the sort of thing that should be done, teach your kids to learn from their mistakes and you will have taught them a useful life lesson. If you want to get hung up about corruption in football then pay more attention to the likes of things going on at Chelski, real corruption, not just financial but also corruption of a minor.

Yes you are guessing, and guessing wrong. Please read the book and you will see that it happened once, and once only. It is because people guess, and believe sensationalist tabloids that things get out of hand. If you don't know the facts, or are not aware of the facts as reported in a reliable source, then don't guess and make things up. Leave that to the rag reporters.