Arizona

The latter two didn't peak until their later years. Anyway my point was not that our youth isn't good enough. It is that you can't just stick a load of youngsters out there and expect to see brilliant football. Yes they may have looked good in a few friendlies, but what about when the going get's tough and the pressure gets to them? Prutton against Arsenal, Davenport against Villa, Best against Derby, BWP... pretty much since he got here. We do not have youth players IMO with the class of Rasiak, John, Saganowski, Davies, Svensson, Skacel or Surman. Remember when Bury came to town in the FA Cup. They tried their all and looked motivated, passionate etc. but when push came to shove they just plain weren't good enough. P.S. Jam, yes we signed Beatts as a youth player, but he was very inconsistent in his early years and didn't start scoring proliffically until he was what, 24/25?

Skacel - A very good player, but even I wont deny he is overpaid. Hence I can't see anyone matching his wage demands and think (and hope) he will stay. Safri - I don't get the hold up. He wants out, they want him, we want rid of him. I hope it isn't just Lowe being greedy RE: transfer fee. Rasiak and John - the two most likely to leave. Hopefully one stays. Saga - Can't see him going. 4 goals last season will hardly have impressed Europes managers. Euro campaign was solid if unspectacular. Euell - Nobody is going to want to match his wages. He is going nowhere sadly.

Rhubarb. We can lock this now.

An nice idea, but you do seem to be overlooking a few things. 1) Callum Davenport, Jelle Van Damme, Darren Kenton, Gary Monk, Leon best and several other equally notable players were all young when they played for us. 2) I cannot recall a young player who has matched Rasiak or Beattie's scoring record. Similarly we haven't had a better defensive partnership in recent times thatn Claus and Killer. We have had decent young players, but the very best have all tended to be mid to late 20s.

Will that do ya?

I'd pretty much go along with that sentiment. We had a far better squad last season, the season before, the season before that and all the years we were in the Premiership. I don't personally see how beating a few lower league sides (and drawing with a couple), together with getting beatten by Celtic and a draw against the Hammers is really that much to get excited about. Each to their own I guess.

It will be interesting to see if Corp Ho can get everything he has to say into 3 posts per day when Pompey announce they are expanding their new stadium to 60,000

He wasn't rejected, we just couldn't get a work permit for him.

Sh*t. I've been saying we should resign that guy ever since he got Latvian citizen ship. Would be p*ssed off if he went to Derby, especially as he is exactly what we need. A winger with pace.

I think there are a fair few players in our squad who could do with another run out, so yes.

And this is my 4th post, just checking to see if it works... phew.

It would appear some but not all threads were lost on TSF and the post counts adjusted themselves accordingly.

If he does indeed score a couple every game then it would be fantastic, the trouble being that so far, in the CCC at least, he hasn't.

Fair play to the lad for netting a couple against the hammers, but does anyone get the alarming feeling from that, "class act" story on the OS, that he could be on the pitch a lot more than many of us would perhaps like, if you get my drift. Wasn't at the game, can anyone comment on how well he played overall?