Arizona

I think some people don't realise, midtable is actually quite hard to get out of. To drop into a relegation fight would take a prolonged period of particularly bad form. We have been fairly average for a month or so, but are unbeaten in the league this decade. We are in 15th. To get near the relegation zone would need 6 or 7 teams below us all to win this weekend. That's just not going to happen.

Not Saints related and being done on dosens of threads already.

There's quite a lot of quality there. I didn't want to drop Morgan, but 5 just doesn't go into 4 and I don't much fancy 4-5-1. I've looked at that line-up again, and out of the front 6 I can't think of any of them I'd drop for Morgan. Waigo - Need his pace. Hammond - Need his leadership. Lallana - In great form at the moment Puncheon - Yet to see him play, but I've heard people claim he is the best wide midfielder in League 1. Lambert - Well obviously Barnard - Haven't seen the best from him yet, but he has a great scoring record this season.

I'm sure everyone is behind ML and NC and if we were to have a "Liebherr Out?" poll it would be fairly one sided. That doesn't mean we can't disagree with some of their policies, however. Nothing will ever be universally accepted by all the fans, there will always be moaning.

Think that would also come under a restriction of trade. Then again football always seems to be different to 'real life'. If I get caught taking cocaine, I get fired. When Adrian Mutu gets caught he gets fired... and a massive pay off.

No, he's on about Portsmouth City FC. It's the new "AFC Portsmouth" when they go bust. Interesting debate, I think there is a similar thread in 'General Sports' A couple of ideas I think wont work are: 1) "Big Four in European Super League". A huge portion of the interest in the PL is down the big four, especially outside the UK. Lose them and English football loses most of it's appeal and therefore it's prize money. A new "big four" will establish, probably the likes of Spuds, Villa, Man City and Everton. They will then want in on the ESL. Aside from the money and politics, for me part of the reason for wanting in on the Prem is trips to the Emirates, OT and Anfield. Can you imagine reaching the 'promised land' and your biggest day out was a trip to Goodison? 2) Higher placed teams having points deductions. It's not really fair and all the big clubs with the clout in English football will never agree to it. A couple I think will are: 1) Wage capping. E.g. Max income (so wages, plus bonuses etc) £50k per player. Each Prem club can only have 5 players over £30kpw, another 5 over £20kpw or something along those lines. Will stop an awful lot of debt from accumulating. Would need to be inforced accross Europe so that English football doesn't suffer. Think it's currently illegal due to restriction of trade. 2) Playoff for last CL spot. Gives everyone in the top 10 a shot at the CL. May also stop teams like Liverpool and Man City spending so much on players if suddenly the CL seemed a lot less likely.

Booked my tickets just now. Last 2 away games I went to were Leeds and Colchester. I sure know how to pick 'em... Looking forward to this though. The odds might be stacked against us, but if we play like we did in the first half against MKD and Pompey, we could get something. Strongest team available now we're out the cup and the JPT final isn't for another month. For me that's: Bart Thomas - Fonte - Jaidi - Harding Waigo - Lallana - Hammond - Puncheon Lambert - Barnard Although I suspect Pardew will start with Antonio, Semi, Seaborne and Davis instead of Thomas, Jaidi, Barnard and Bart

Not really, he's probably trying to keep the bricks out of his living room.

I switched off fairly qucikly. Watching Peter Kay reading (hopefully someone else's) jokes off the auto-cue was painful. The rest wasn't much better. Courntey Love... why.

Unfeasible for several reasons. 1) It's unfair that teams such as the 'big four' would get into the ESL because the Prem is "boring". Teams like Everton, Spuds and Villa would be rightly upset at not having a shot at the big prize. 2) The Prem without the 'big four' would lose most of it's appeal to neutral viewers, especially those abroad. They wont be tuning in in Beijing to watch Wigan against Hull. 3) Football would just lose further grip on reality. The best clubs in Europe in their own "Super" competition is a bit much IMO. I want to see football moving back towards it's grass routes. I'd like to see rules such as wage capping, a limit on foreign players on the pitch and having a rule that players must stay within the catchment area they were born or educated in until they're 18.

That was before money ruined football. It wasn't the change to the 'Champions League' which is the problem. It's the massive increase in wages and transfer fees since the turn of the centuary. As recently as the 90s we had teams like Ajax, Dortmund and Red Star winning. Since then Porto is the only "lesser" team to have won it. If we revert to a 'champions only' format, every year will be a three horse race between the winners of the English, Spannish and Italian leagues. We would miss out on ties like Arsenal against Real Madrid, in favour of Malmo IF vs Hajduk Spilt.

Once again, I must appologise for my date of birth. I shall give my parents a good slap on your behalf. Where did 2002 come from anyway, or do you just blindly believe anything Rory says? An interesting and far more intelligent point of view. A few years ago Borussia Dortmund had some of the highest attendances in Europe. This article is from 2003 (sh*t sorry Bungle): http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2003/nov/02/newsstory.sport5 This despite the fact that they have barely had an impact on the Champions League since they won it in 1997 (there, feel better now?). Kiev on the other hand struggle to get 5,000 in most League games, but could pack out the 83,000 Olympiskiy stadium before it was closed for redevelopment. The European Cup was and is a far better name IMO. We've covered the "champions" issue, but it is scarcely a league either.

Ditto, I think I've just about got the hang of it. Say Man Utd were top of the Prem, the second number would be 95. If they got an average attendance of 95,000 (I know, I know) that would be a figure of 1. Basically, the higher the number, the more hardcore your support is. Unfortunately, that graph isn't really fair as the two scales aren't linear. For example, if Saints were 10th in League 1, I make that 54th in English football. 96-54= 42. So if our average attendance was 30,000 (hypothetically), it would be a ratio of 30:42, which is less than 1. It would kind of suggest our support is less dedicated, which with 30,000 average would be incorrect IMO. Stats can be interpreted in many ways.

Heikki at the Lotus team launch. Like their livery, but not sure about their team wear...

TBF a lot of them could have done given better circumnstances. Killer, Pahars, Oakley and Prutton all had injury problems. Lundekvam and Higgy were good. Of the Prem survivors only Niemi and Ormerod were particularly disappointing for me. Saga might have been good, but he barely played in L1 so we can't really say. Can't see Koumas coming here.

It would be nice from that point of view, but it would ruin the CL as a competition. Whilst I don't have a problem with any of those teams and actually support Dynami Kiev, I do think we need the big teams who don't win the Leagues to keep that international appeal. Arsenal for example of hundred of thousands of glory sup... sorry fans, world wide. They would not have qualified for the CL for six years and counting. Liverpool for nigh-on 20. If you take away the support, the competition becomes less valuable to sponsors and TV companies. The financial rewards would decrease to the point where they might aswell just be in the Europa League.

If it was just the Champions in the Champs League, ever season it would be Man Utd, Barca, Inter (or whoever happens to win those respective leagues) and then who? Hertha BSC, Sparta Praha, Dynamo Kiev, Red Star Belgrade, Malmo IF? Wouldn't be a great competition IMO. I like the idea actually. It gives the team in 4th extra incentive to get into the top three. It also gives anyone in the top half a shot at the CL. Who knows, it may even help with some of the financial problems in football. The big clubs may not offer players £150k a week if they were suddenly less sure of getting into the CL.

Niemi Dodd - Lundekvam - Svensson - Bridge Tessem - Svensson - Oakley - Marsden Beattie - Pahars Just woken up from a coma for 7 years, have I missed much?

Yes, I'd be unhappy about that too. Enjoy the game.

At least this bloke crashed by accident.

It's a stupid claim to make. Especially given that Kelvin has been on the bench a couple of times after his injury. Bart also played against Charlton in the JPT before Kelvin got injured. People made the same claim about Mule when he first signed, when in fact Burley was just too stubborn to drop him. Why would a club write such a retarded clause into a contract...

This season has already been great fun IMO. Or at least it is if you aren't hung up on the playoffs.

The New Campos Not sure about that diffuser.

Asset, but I'm really in two minds about his best possition. Up front he creates havok and makes room for Lambert, but his finishing can be eratic. On the right, he is good but seems to have little impact against better oposition. He was appaling at Leeds for instance. I'd keep him simply because he's a bit different. Antonio I'd say is a must keep and will be brilliant one day. He already is brilliant on occasions, but with time he will improve his composure and consistency.

I wanna buy an old A-10. Take it out at weekends and destroy suburban Portsmouth with the gattling gun in the front. Happy days...