Arizona

Anyone know if you can still watch Saints training sessions at Staplewood these days? If so, which days and what time?

Thanks in advance.

Here's how I saw it:

Davis - 6. Felt he could have done a bit better with the first goal. Generally looked good, but if I'm honnest he didn't have that much to do. Couple of decent saves.

Cork - 6 Looked solid enough, if a bit dodgy for the second goal. Think he would be better deployed at CB.

Pearce - 7 Great header for the goal. As with Bristol, I thought he looked good, but Lancashire was leaving him in sh*t a couple of times.

Lancashire - 4 Really doesn't look ready yet.

Skacel - 7 Reliable at the back and some good build up play in the second half. Unlucky with one shot. Great through-ball for McGoldrick's penalty claim.

Lallana - 7 Always looked a threat, even if I never thought he was going to score. One of the few players who looks like he has real class.

Schneiderlin - 5 Didn't really grab the game by the balls, infact he was very quite for long periods. I guess it will come back to him with matches.

Surman - 6 Some good play was let down by the fact that he tackles like a jellyfish and backed out of several 50-50s.

Gobern - 3 Again not ready yet. Can't remember him doing anything of note.

Euell - 7 He looked excellent leading the line. I think this could be the future, with maybe DMG playing off him. We couldn't make it stick up front after his sending off.

DMG - 6 Lots of lively running, but none of it that purposeful. Looked a bit lost after Euell went off.

Subs:

Perry - 7 Not a brick out-house, but reads the game so well and MUST start if we don't want a cricket score at Reading.

BWP - 6 Looked energetic, but not really with it in terms of shooting.

Robertson - n/a Not on long enough. Can't remember anything of note from him.

Good support I thought from the Northam and Itchen today. All 3 officials were complete bell-ends. When the Itchen lino FINALLY called Keogh offside, after about the 6th offence, it was the first time I've ever seen a lino get a standing ovation. Never a red card for Euell, DMG should have had a penalty and a couple of the bookings were just ridiculous.

Despite the hotness, I find her a bit irritating. I think its a combination of the voice and the 'clueless bint' expression which seems to have been engraved on her face.

Holly Willoughby (sp) on the other hand...

Maybe, depending on severity of hangover.

I'm a maybe, as usual.

What he said ^

Get your arses down there! We might have a decent turn out this week.

I'll second that.

Gutted

 

EDIT: just read the article. Wayne Thomas - what a waste of money!

Not worth £1.2m, but I'm pretty sure we'd have been relegated without him last season.

Don't forget we started the season being beatten 4-1 by Palace and 2-1 by Peterborough without him. If he can get fit, he could still play a key part in our survival struggle words the end of the season.

Too many injuries - something is being done wrong!

Nope. Pretty much normal for any team.

When will people realise, we aren't unlucky with injuries, we are just really badly prepared and have an unaccpetably thin squad. At one point in 2004 we had 13 first choice players injured, including Beattie, Crouch, Phillips and Pahars all at the same time. That's a proper injury crisis.

We have no right backs, no right midfielders, one left back and a collection of strikers who have managed 6 league goals between them thus far.

3-0 to Wolves.

I would like to see us at least get a goal, but sometimes I get the feeling even that is asking too much.

IMHO when fit Perry should be starting ahead of Lancashire. I know the kid needs games but we need results. He couldn't handle Adebola last week and I doubt he'll be able to contain Iwelumo tomorrow.

I'd tend to agree with that.

Whilst Perry is hardly a brick out house, he can read the game well. If he leaves the physical stuff to Pearce, he should be fairly good at mopping up and intercepting through balls.

- - - - - - - - Davis - - - - - - -

Cork - - Perry - - Pearce - - Mills

- - Schneiderlin - - Surman - -

- - DMG - - Lallana - - Skacel - -

- - - - - - - - Euell - - - - - - - -

That's what I'd go for, although I am expecting to see some pointless formation with DMG up front on his own, our best goal scoring midfield threat at LB and 90 minutes of nothing but purest a*se gravy.

I lol'd big time at ferrari, but not really Massa or his family. He deserved the Championship ALMOST as much as Hamilton. Must have been absolutely gutted to come so close and lose.

Was it one that Arizona was driving?

Take a f*cking long time to get to New Zealand in that old crate.

Anyone going to this tonight? It's at Mountbatten School in Romsey. Think a squad of first team players are going down and then there is an auction of sports stuff afterwards.

Convenient, as most of our first team squad still goes there.

Euell got it together last season when he was moved out to left midfield. He lacks that tight control you need in the centre and that was perhaps why he struggled. However when he played in the middle it was noticeable how much more mobile he is than Wotton, Schneiderlin or Surman. He also has that physical strength that we are missing. For me Wotton can do one and Euell come in to replace him.

I'd tend to disagree that he looked good on the left. He was very poor at Hull and ineffective at West Brom, not to mention a couple of earlier games in the season. Watford springs to mind.

I sense Landrew feels quiet strongly about this subject.

I think Senna, Hill and Hakkinen are the only World Champions who were really likeable since about 1990.

Hamilton and Alonso both too arrogant. Kimi has no personality, Prost is French, Mansell is a moaning git, Villeneurve only won it because he has the quickest car by a mile and Frentzen was crap and well... Schumacher.

I would have liked Irvine to have won in 1999 and Coulthard to have won it at some point. Also Montoya in 2003. He was a bit ****y, but exciting to watch IMO.

P.S. Rightly or wrongly, I'd have thought Beckham was more famous, both in Europe and globally. I know Rossi is very popular in Europe, but I' believe football still has the edge over bikes.

Can see a repeat of the Skacel to Ipswich 'saga' if this rumour is true.

Lowe I can imagine will bite their hands off at any offer about £1m. Surman on the other hand probably wouldn't fancy it, fail to agree a deal and vanish from Saints first team for a month or two.

Shows how far we've fallen, even from last season. Euell was a complete donkey for most of last season, even during several games under Pearson. Now all of a sudden people say he is our saviour and needs to be in the team... and I agree with them.

DMG up front on his own just isn't working. We need to be playing 4-4-2 IMO and Robertson and Pekhart just don't float my boat.

The other workable option would be Skacel playing off Euell.

I'm sure the bottom 4 are in Girls Aloud.

mind you, young Ramsey & Wilshire for half a season may be slightly more entertaining to watch than Jermaine Wright...

 

Just a shame we're not getting those sorts in....

Well yeah, that's pretty much the point. The likes of Ramsey, Wiltshire and last season Guthrie are too good for us and will end up at Prem sides or promotion hunting CCC sides.

I can't see us getting many players which other clubs envy.

This is an interesting concept. So SFC bring on other clubs' youngsters for them... and then they go back?

 

The question is do we believe it is just a short-term policy through necessity, or is it how Lowe thinks the club should be run long-term?

 

If it is to be a long-term policy, can anyone tell me what supporters are actually supporting? A bunch of 3-6 month loans? Are we supporting a club in the way most of us used to understand it? Because that's not what I understood "club" meant when I grew up supporting.

It's starting to look a bit that way.

I get the general feeling that Lowe wants to turn us into a day-care centre, where Prem clubs can send their kids until they are old enough for the Prem. I don't think he particularly cares which league we are in. As long as enough cash is coming in to cover the running costs of the club and the (very low) wages of the kids, I think he will be happy.

It's a bummer for the fans, but sadly I think it's the way we're heading.

I think Euell up front could work in a 4-4-2 formation. I think he could hold the ball up well, but I don't think he'd score many, especially playing on his own.

@OP: Saga was no midget and scored a few with his head. Wolves, Birmingham, PNE and Sheff Utd. He also set up John's wonder goal against Hull with his head.

Dave Bassett eh?

 

How fortunate that it's not an ex manager of dubious quality with an axe to grind for being turfed out after a short and unsuccessful caretaker spell.

Surely if that were untrue it would be slander and therefore Bassett would only be getting himself in trouble by saying it.

You have a point, but I am pretty sure Lowe is interfering all the same. For a start I can't believe any manager would have left John and Skacel out by choice.

Anyone going to turn up this week? 5pm - 6:30pm

Ins:

Arizona

Mini Bar

Calvinator

Baj

Botley

Barcelona

Southern Saint

PoinDexter

Noog

Noog's Mate

Maybe

The King

Stevo

Rasiak's contract expires in 2010. He signed a 4-year deal when his move from Spurs became permanent in the summer of 2006.

 

FWIW, I agree with ART... we have an experienced player on our books who has played significant parts of his career as a striker in Jason Euell. He's not particularly prolific, but he certainly works hard and has the pace, strength and stamina to be a real asset in this division. It seems it's just a case of keeping him fit at the moment...

 

For me, Euell was the main reason for McGoldrick's massive improvement in the Coventry game in terms of his workrate and running off the ball. He was providing DMG with an outlet when the ball was played up to him by getting forward very quickly to support him and often made runs beyond him which is always very difficult to defend against.

Fair enough. That is terrible buisness sense though. Offering a player a deal that long and on that much money, which expires 3 years after the parachute payments end.

Agree about Euell. HCDAJFU up front, if we were playing a 4-4-2 formation. So could Skacel, playing just off the main striker. Yet for some reason we seem to be doing the one thing that definitely wont work, playing DMG up front on his own, with Lallana in the hole.

Think he's got another year. He signed a four year contract.

Did he? Ok, I thought that was just Skacel.