Golac's Iron Gonads

This thread is going well, maybe there's something about the game on page one.

Saints these days remind me a lot of the Parma team in the mid to late 90s, football much admired by all, always got hold of some great young players/coaches (Ancelotti,, Cannavaro, Crespo, Veron, Thuram, Buffon etc) that would then leave for the bigger Italian teams. If we can have some of the success Parma enjoyed I'd be well happy, wouldn't want to end up like them now though.

Lowe would not have waited 6 years to sell him for 25 million. Had Lowe kept his position Morgan would have left for about 2.5 million when we were in Div 1 (and we'd still be there) if we were lucky.

I liked this fake Brendan and real Tesco exchange http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/tesco-and-liverpool-parody-deluded-brendan-are-at-it-again-after-nathaniel-clyne-transfer--and-manchester-united-are-in-the-firing-line-10358759.html

well I trust him more than myself. So be it.

Looked good in the world cup, but also looked a bit of a big head, a bit up himself, not always a bad thing but don''t know if we need that and with Long, Mane, Tadic, Rodriguez all playing the same kind of role I'd rather we risked 12 million elsewhere in the team.

We'll see how happy he is after discovering his house is burgled every time he plays in the Europa league and that his midfield now contains Milner and Henderson not Wanyama and Scnneiderlin. A really poor move for him, what is he going to learn from Rodgers? The only plusses will be more money and a regular England place, if you can call that a plus.

Not the national sport in 2 of those countries, granted Russia's disappointing record is a conundrum, I chose those countries because they are European, have similar sized populations and historically strong domestic league competitions. Since England last graced a semi final 4 of those 5 have won the competition, Italy, France and Germany have been in 2 finals each. Other national teams that have made the world cup semis since England last did include Sweden, Bulgaria, South Korea, Turkey, Croatia, Uruguay. We are not performing as well as we should be, I don't expect us to be all conquering but it's a similar record in the Euros, it's poor stuff!

The Netherlands has a population of just 16.8 million, Germamy 80, France 66, Italy 59, and Spain 47. England has a population of 53 million we haven't made the semis of a world cup in 24 years that is not achieving what we should do. Something is very wrong with the game in this country, well not something, many things.

Christ! When was the last time that happened?

well he doesn't run around like a headless chicken (sterling, Januzaj etc etc) that makes it difficult for English pundits to understand what he contributes to a game, unless he's scoring goals.

It's hard to say really, I watched Saints in the early 80s and there was great technical skill on the field, any number of our goals of the month would show that, but it's so much faster now and that makes it far more difficult to show technical skill, yet we still see it. I do wonder how good technically some one like Giggs would be viewed now had he began his career 10 years earlier, or how would John Robertson fair in this day and age.

and Sterling is bloody awful, I'd rather take Bolasie, Zaha or even Puncheon back than have that overrated speedster, shisha smoking div at Saints. Not that we'd be able to afford the wages he seems to think he deserves.

and a thousand Liverpool fans simultaneously press 'delete video' on their phones after that free kick

Hahahaha bloody ha, hang on Pardew and Puncheon, hang on. No, actually go on and get another, ****ing Liverpool and Gerrard.

No doubt winning the league would have been bigger than getting 4th. However, the way football is now with the disparity of wealth coming 4th this season would be a far bigger achievement. Far harder to break into that top 4 now than it was to win the league back then.

That's pretty much how I remembered it as a 14/15 year old. Liverpool had games in hand as well if I recall correctly, and they rarely dropped points back then, so I would tot up the points I assumed they'd get and forget about thinking we could win the league at any point.

City have shown an ability to lose to anyone away from home. We've a chance of catching them but it's bloody slim.

Excellent!

I'll always have far more respect and affection for Nigel than for the git that replaced him.

Much maligned on this site, but I like the fella. Good attitude, never a problem wherever he's asked to play, head doesn't go down brings in the occasional Japanese cutie. He'd have to do something bloody spectacular to make the banner, but he's one of my favourites at Saints. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/maya-yoshida-interview-unfortunately-some-japanese-players-are-lazy-10107108.html

Clyne should be allowed to wear those goggles during games, it'd be like having one of the X-men at full back and would certainly put the sheet up Hazard in a couple of week's time.

I'll weigh in and say that Schniederlin's heart isn't really in it with us anymore, said when we lost to Sunderland away last season that Pochettino's body language was that of someone that didn't really care anymore, sadly Schniederlin's looks very similar, still looks a decent player but just looks like he's not bothered if we win or lose, bit like Ronaldo in his final season at Man U.

Sure it's not that Consortium11 fellow? The garrulous commenter found on the Guardian match reports?

Please beat these cahnts!