Arizona

Anyway, as promised: Button Coulthard Hamilton Vettel Raikkonen Massa

The penalty is a complete joke. One more point, which I haven't seen mentioned yet. Kimi did pass Hamilton later on in the lap, when they were following the Williams and Lewis ended up on the grass. Irespective of the yellow flags, surely Kimi has now retaken the lead and ANY advantage gained has been reversed. Kimi would have kept the lead and won the race, had he not done a 360 at the very next corner, then crashed before the end of the lap.

Just back from qualy. My first Grand Prix event and as a spectacle it was pretty impressive. There is something about Spa I just love. A certain character to the place that you just don't get on TV. The hill going up Eau Rouge is just imense. You just don't get an idea of how steep it is from TV either. I'll stick some photos up in a bit.

Woah, I don't want a marital here. I am just pointing out that if a player has the required attributes, they can sometimes play in unfamiliar roles and excel.

I can't believe we'd loan out Rasiak and Skacel to try and save money, then bring in a manager we can't afford on c£9kpw. Premiership managers are well paid yes, but assistants? I don't think Pearson was that expensive, or that Poortvliet and Wotte are that cheap. At a guess, either option would be in the region of £300,000-£400,000 pa.

Chris Baird in the middle... despite playing at RB for the last few years of his career...

I was refering to Donkey's comment that Pearson was removed (okay, I retract the word fired) because of financial, not football reasons. I do not think we are any better off financially with JP and MW than NP. I also think it's wrong to say Pearson would have wasted money on the team. He brought in Perry, Lucketti and Wright who did an excellent job. Okay Pericard turned out to be crap, but there isn't a manager out there who hasn't made a bad signing. Out of the signings JP has brought in, you can pretty much guarantee at least a couple will underperform. Also, I am not basing my judgement of Pearson on what he does at Leicester. I am basing it on what he has done for us, which was taking a team in freefall and instantly making them hard to beat with midtable form, spending no money on transfers in the process. I will leave my contribution at that,seeing as Pearson/JP is heavily influenced by Lowe in/out and many posters will never see eye to eye on some issues.

Holmes on the left Skacel in the hole Lallana on the right Looks like a very attacking creative line-up to me. Should chip in with a fair few goals too.

Ok so you are saying that Pearson, who was an assistant at Newcastle and has only ever managed Carlisle full time, cost a lot more than Wotte, who was assistant at Feyenoord, Den Haag and the Dutch U-21 coach in the past, and Poortvliet, who cost £60,000 to release from his contract at Helmond, combined? Sorry, but there is no way that's the case.

Doesn't mean it's true though. Infact, lets be honnest, it isn't. There is no way Newcastle's assistant manager was one more than the combined wage of Wotte and Poortvliet. Even if it was, it certainly wouldn't be enough to justify firing him. The appointment of JP and Wotte was about Lowe doing it his way. Lowe approached them several years ago, but alledgedly couldn't get the backing of the boardroom (or most of the fans) now it seems he has got his way. I am not an anti Lowe troll etc. I think he has done a decent enough job under tough circumstances this time round (so far). However the one thing I do hold against him was that decision.

Hope this helps.

Option A any day of the week. Being in the CCC, and knowing that as soon as you get a player that is half decent he will be off, is just soul destroying. In the Prem you do get the same but to a far lesser extent. I know we lost Bridge to Chelsea and Richards to Spuds but we did hang on to a lot of very good players for a long time. Overall the quality of football in the Prem is far better. If someone where to ask me my favourite Saints memories, I'd think of the 3-2 games against the Arse, Pahars against the Skates and Beattie's last minute winner against Manure. It would probably be several hours before I mention beatting Scunny 1-0 at home last season, or the amazing tallents of Bradley Wright-Phillips. Going 3-0 up against Brum and Rasiak's last minute winner at Pride Park are the only CCC memories which can come close.

Is the dog being used in a licking or wiping context here? Makes a big difference.

Or 44 Ricardo Fullers.

The first game I ever went to was Villa in the relegation season. We were 2-1 up at the time and he managed to smother a loose ball on the line after a frantic goalmouth scramble. The memory is somewhat darkened by the result, but it had the Northam and Itchen chanting his name. Triple save against the Arse for me. I also remember him making some blinding saves in the 4-3 Norwich game. All the best Antti. Come back and be a goalkeeping coach!

Good grief, I agree with Scooby.

Personally, I don't care if the club is being run by Steve Claridge and Hitler. When I go to games I want to be entertained and see the team win. That's about it really. Yes, it's always nice to see a couple of home grown local lads breaking into the squad, but if I wanted to see a whole team of them, I'd go and watch someone like CSKA Hedge End. Having quality players is nice. There are (or where) certain players in the team who at times were worth the entrance fee on their own because generally, you knew you were going to be entertained watching them creating moves and scoring goals. Now most of them are gone and suddenly watching Saints seems less appealing. I personally enjoyed watching Jones, Rasiak, Saganowski, Skacel, Bale, Belmadi, Vignal, Licka, Walcott and Kosowski from the CCC days of old.

No freakin' way. I've heard various figures on here form £1-2m pa. If the accademy cost more than half what you are suggesting, they'd have shut it down by now. No club is going to bankrupt itself for the sake of an accademy.

Everyone has favourite players who they look forward to watching more than the others. Whilst I don't think people refuse to watch Saints now many of them have gone, it could just be that people who aren't really "die hard" fans think "actually, I don't think I'll bother this week" a bit more often, hence the drop in crowds. I don't think it's a case of people refusing to go, so much as people not having an incentive to go as often.

John is very much a back to the goal forward. If you pass it into his feet, he can hold it up, wait for the cavalry to arrive and make things happen. The trouble is playing up front on his own, he has nobody to work with. As you say, DMG never really busted a gut to get into the box. This is partly why he has only ever scored with any really profficiency playing along side Saganowski. All the others we have tried lack work rate. I don't think John suits this system.

I bet they do. Especially those that live further away from Southampton for whom it was a real wrench to get to a match. I used to travel down from the East Midlands whenever possible. After Skacel and Rasiak were loaned out in January, I actually decided it really wasn't worth the 8 hour, £70 round trip and only went to a couple more home games. It's not so much a case of refusing to go because they have left, so much as making the effort to get their as often IMO.

Rasiak, Saganowski, Safri and Viafara were all popular with various supporters. Add to that John, Skacel and BWP not being in the first team much and there are several reasons why people might not be so inclided to part with £20+ every weekend.

Well, the forum clock is a bit out, but I make that midnight (UK time).

I don't think we are retarded enough to sign another player unless either: a) Other players are leaving in the near future and the deals have been confirmed. b) We can afford to bring them in based on our current income. Don't forget that other than Skacel, BWP, Euell and John, we are in effect paying a youth team. Nigh on 20 players on pretty high wages have left and been replaced by about 6 on very low wages. Our wage bill must surely now be amongst the lowest in this division and we really should be breaking even. If not there is one serious hole in our money pot.

We should play him in the hole, where he was leathal at Hearts. Play Lallana wide right and with Holmes they'll put the willies up most defences. Got to be a better idea than having White in the team. That's no disrespect intended on Jamie, but on Saturday's showing, he is no where near ready for the first team just yet. I'm not sure how having the highest assists and joint highest goals from midfield in our most succesful season in the CCC constitutes a huge let down, but then I am just biased.