Polaroid Saint

The first 25 seconds of this gives a clear guideline on what should be expected of a well paid player...

Yes!

Didn't think I was defending Fonte overtly; merely disagreeing that Saints will miss 'Lovern's leadership skills' this season. We WILL miss his natural ability as a footballer and cracking skills as a centreback, but I stand by my opinion that Lovern was NOT the key 'lead' centre back in Saints team last season. And for now, perhaps unwisely, I am going to trust my own judgement over the PR puffery and media nosebagging you have kindly linked to, sorry!

Lovren is a quality defender, but I also disagree with this opinion about his leadership skills. Lovren is unarguably a superb footballer and a beast of a defender, he is however, IMO, still lacking in the leadership area. From watching the two main CBs play together I got the distinct impression Fonte was the lead, and I felt we lacked composure without him. Dare I say it, Jos and Maya actually worked more effectively together than either paired with Lovren! Last season at least, Lovren needed a steady CB partner in order to play at his best and when he didn't get that (without Fonte) we lacked a solid shape at the back.

Or, as I like to put it; "Quot homines tot sententiae; suo’ quoique mos!"

Yes. I am writing this from Belmarsh. ;-)

Sorry I should have added a smiley; it is a joke (satire even!) in reference to you mentioning the Falklands in response to my mentioning the Malvinas. If you don't get the comment, I am sure others will.

I like Gaston a lot and hope this is a cracking season for him. I also really like his Special Tea and hope that, following a successful season for Ramirez, I can buy a Saints branded 'Mate' bowl.

GOTCHA!

I think context is important. The fact this country and Argentina went to war thirty years ago and still have unresolved issues concerning the sovereignty of the Malvina's, then one might suspect an element of distrust and hostility to creep into casual language use, particularly slang. Its all about the descriptive noun or adjective accompanying the word, but in general I would say derogatory terms change depending on who is speaking, who they are speaking to and where and when they are saying it. But enough of my kike reasoning; here is Tim Minchin to put it all in context properly.

Paddy and Mick both have a long history as derogatory terms.

Not in Australia it isn't; Paki is used all the time in Oz to no offence.

Perhaps he'll get Puncheon's old squad number?

Obligatory YOuTube clip of this Fonte fella. Looks like HCDAJFU at CB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqtX9cjE4LY#t=37

I'd like 'the bored' to refute the suggestion Saints is a "provincial club". Southampton is the City at the centre of the sixth largest urban area in the UK. Its football club cannot, sensibly, be referred to as 'provincial'; unless you are going by the definition of provincial as 'outside the capital' which would make all clubs barre those in London 'provincial'. Cheers n that.

Hope so. Bertrand, Taider AND Ings? Interesting deals (loans etc) but I am 'pretty sure' these are three players Saints have been linked with for some time, i.e. before the end of last season. Are these amongst the 'mythical' targets Uncle Les mentioned? They don't solve the CB problem or account for the 'exodus' but they make sense as improvements to the squad, regardless of what subsequently happened. The manager will pick the team, but who assembles it? Is RoJo Reed's CB? Koeman has his two new players in, maybe he'll get another one, another CB? Oh, and hopefully a GK; Dave Watson's choice?!

We are all misanthropic.

Genius.

Normally I draw a straight line and talk about points A and B; how they form a single measurable relationship of a shared distance. This distance can be described with a dimension tag, for instance 'width'. I then move onto a third point C and how that now forms two further measurable relationships with points A and B. These can also be ascribed dimensional tags in triangulation. Often this set can be described as having two dimensions, we might call it 'depth' for example. I then talk about moving one of the points off the page and up, this could then be ascribed the dimension tag 'height'. Suddenly we have three dimensions. I give these dimensional tags names like 'height and width' but I could ascribe alphanumeric tags (x,y,z is common). I would then talk about 'time' as it is another measurable relationship shared by two or more points, for example the 'time' taken to draw my example or for you to read this text. Alas, it seems, time can be easily wasted.

Always! :-)

Oh crikey, yes!

I hope that, when it is finally completed, the club take the chance to announce it properly. Like this:

I predict Saints to go 1-0 early in the first half up thanks to a Tadic screamer. Liverpool will then dominate the game but will huff n puff and won't score until Licky comes on as a 65th min sub and pulls one back. It'll all be Liverpool until the 88th minute when Saints get an unlikely corner... ...resulting in a Lovren O.G. to win the game for Saints. Lallana will then accidentally get on the supporters coach back to Southampton. You heard it here first.

This^ Gawd, I can only hope some of our, ahem, 'less patient' posters never have to try to sell/buy a house. It may well kill them.

Aye. From a global perspective FFP is just another in a long line of poorly thought-out regulations with which football can maintain the status quo. It is not just (these) regulations that govern Saints (and 98% of other clubs) ability/inability to 'compete' and such regs are not new phenomena. The 'best' clubs (my own objective agenda) ate always looking for a competitive edge in an increasingly closed market, for example in Saints case, the academy was always seen as a way to 'level the playing field' against opposition with more spending power. I think it is good that this geeky/murky football finance stuff has gone 'over ground'; as the more fans of more clubs that are aware, the more we can claim our clubs back as supporters and not be led blind by promises in either direction.