Arizona

I'd love to but I'm working, sorry.

Wow. The Barca fans must have been up in arms about Real's spendathon and this is the board's panic-buy to keep them happy. A straight swap would have been a fair deal IMO. Etoo plus £38m? Inter must be p*ssing themselves.

Check the original post. I have been updating it religiously and my version has colours.

Steven O'Halloran and Ian Pearce for me.

Recently? According to this he has 4 in the last 3 years, and they were against Bermuda and St Vincent/Grenadines: http://www.sternjohn.com/IternRec.htm Anyway, he is playing alongside Kenny most of the time, who brings a lot more to the game than Saga.

It's not very often I agree with Chez, so I'm going to make the most of it. Rasiak is slow in a sprint, but over 2 yards he is lightning quick. That's the difference in their styles IMO. Rasiak will stand in the box surrounded by defenders, then at exactly the right time he will make a darting run into space and put the ball in the net. John on the other hand will wait for the ball to come to his feet, then hold defenders off just long enough to turn and stick it in the net. There is nothing wrong with either style of play really, but they do both need a partner who is willing to put the effort in and make a chance. Neither will score many on their own. Let's not forget here, it wasn't Rasiak who asked to go to Bolton and Watford. He went to Bolton to "clear the logjam of strikers" and to Watford because, "he didn't fit our exciting new total football philosophy". I wouldn't nescessarily interpret being slow as not wanting to be here.

7 is obviously being saved for Prutton when he signs.

Yeah, those two should definitely swap. I thought the same 2 years ago when we signed Saga and Wright was #10. Looking at that squad, Pulis and Molyneux are the only two I really want rid of. The rest is just about bringing players in. At least 10 of them.

Harding 3 and Thomas 6 would have made more sense, not that it really matters.

Crap Airline.

Wasn't that before teh takeover though. When it looked like we may at worst get liquidated and the consortium most likely to take over was a guy who still lived with his parents and turned over £70k a year. Kelvin Davis has changed his mind, I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that other players have too. I'd agree with that. I don't get Hopkins saying John will score on his own either when he has shown for some bizarre reason that he needs to play along side Saga to score. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to keep John, but I'd be much happier with Rasiak.

Do what for you exactly? Actually don't answer that. I was sat lying on a lounger doing the PADI written test, with my Saints towell hanging on the end, which he later told me he'd noticed. I happened to look up and saw him and his girlfriend waddling past (they were wearing scuba gear, they're not fat). Didn't twig who it was until his instructor called his name. Bumped into him a bit later and had a quick chat.

Went to Sharm in May and had an awesome time for a knock off price. Booked the 5 star Hilton in Sharks Bay on teletext holidays. £350 all inclusive for a week. Booze, food, the lot. For night life Naama Bay is pretty good. The Diving there is awesome. I did an open water course, which almost doubled the cost of the holiday, but was well worth it. Also met Simon Gillett in the dive centre. They had excursions there to Cairo too. You have to leave at about 1am and it's a 12 hour round trip on the coach, so I didn't bother. Or if you really want to splash the cash you can fly there. And yes everyone really does get the sh*ts, even in a the top hotels like this one. Didn't lose any holiday time, other than running to the bog every hour on the last 2 days, but take plenty of drugs anyway.

I take it as given that Saga is one of the players that was aimed at. It's Rasiak I'm not sure about. I agree he is a likely candidate, but there were rumours about AL and MS wanting out, being linked with Fulham, Spuds etc. I think it's last in first out in each specific base. For example if they needed rid of pilots in STN it would be the newest in STN, rather than for the whole airline. I don't know for certain. And yes PIK/BOH has gone. Still flights from EDI and DUB though...

I remember in pre season 2 years ago, everyone thought our best players were Licka and Hammill. Then when it came to competitive opposition, they disappeared into obscurity. I'm not saying Paterson will do the same, but I wouldn't rely on him doing the business yet. Even if Rasiak, Saga and John all stayed, I'd still want another decent striker up front.

STN are the only guys who've been threatened with job cuts thus far. I guess a lot depends on the markets and BALPA. We've just cut the Krackow and Bournemouth routes, so bang go my chances of seeing any Saints home games.

I played the Ukrainian version. Came with land mines and a gun.

I'm certainly not excited by the prospect of John without Saga. Maybe he will do better in L1, but 7 goals in the last two years... Also, why is everyone so sure Rasiak is the other player? Has Pardew actually named the players or are we just assuming because he is lazy? Could just as easily be Lallana or Schneiderlin really.

Mouse Trap

We basically had the same team that got to the Cup Final and 8th place two seasons before, minus Killer and Oakley. Yes the players were to blame, but the failure to replace those two added to the retarded appointment of Wiggley were the largest factors IMO. Yes it can be argued that IF Prutton had scored we MIGHT have gone on to win that game and MIGHT have avoided relegation, assuming that every other result after that game was exactly the same. Overall, I think people are just looking for excuses to dislike Prutton. Remember Kelvin's howlers against Preston and QPR in the playoff season? I don't recall anyone saying he shouldn't have been offered a new contract because he cost us automatic promotion that year.

No, appaling management both of the team and at boardroom level went a long way towards sealing our relegation. Incidents like that, Kenton not getting within 5 yards of Van Persie, nobody marking Darren Fletcher, Higgy's own goal against 'boro etc. etc. cost us the odd point here and there. These things happen to every team. Kanu had a much worse miss from 1ft out for West Brom, yet they somehow stayed up. If you want to blame any one player, look no further than Crouch. His lame shot agaisnt Everton, miss from 3 yards against Villa, bottling it at Fratton Park, then swinging a punch at Nicola Ventola, getting sent off at Palace and missing the Man Utd game.

To me it's all about whether he wants to be here. If he wants to be here, fantastic IMO. He could be brilliant in L1. If he doesn't then he can move on, and I wish him well. Same as DMG, Surman or Davis if he'd gone to Wham. I just don't get people claiming he's crap when he just blatently isn't. Underperforming and unmotivated maybe, but he has the tallent. The guy was playing in the Champs League last season and managed to get amongst the goals. He scored at a higher rate than DMG and for some weird reason John only seems to score with Saga on the pitch. We know he can score in a decent team, but our midfield was just crap last year. If you've got a crap midfield and a decent striker, my logic would be to improve the midfield. For others it seems the solution is to get rid of said striker. Maybe we need to balance the crapness of the team to remove some "dark chi". Who knows.

During that period Ferrari was easily the best car on the grid though. DOn't get me wrong, Schumacher was a fantastic driver, but during his dominant era I never felt I was watching anything that special. F1 is mainly about the car. I always felt in the same car drivers like Montoya and Raikkonen would have given him a run for his money.

Of course we are losing these friendlies. We are still 10 players short of having a competitive squad. Just look at last seasons squad, which finished 2nd bottom in CCC and was therefore probably midtable L1 quality, and think about the players we've lost. Surman, Size, Skacel, DMG, BWP, Euell and Smith. All karp to varying degrees, but all selected ahead of the players we have left. Given that Harding wasn't playing, we've pretty much added nothing to the squad so far.

Personally I'd be happy if neither played LM next season and both were going at it tooth and nail for the same possition. Just like the good old days when we actualyl had cover in each spot. One of the things I hated most about last season was players just being in the side by default. Players like Lancashire and Wotton, who didn't earn a spot on merit, more over the was nobody else to fill the gap.