The Kraken

Yep. Ive ready some really positive reviews of him from Pompey fans. Also more than a fair share that say he makes mistakes, and reasonably often (as a young keeper will). It is a gamble, and I haven’t seen enough of him to comment either way. Just hope he’s ready as we’ll need him to be. Danny Crowley saying he’s ready for the PL is nothing, that prat hasn’t worked out what’s good enough for getting out of League One down the road.

I wasn’t at the game but listening on the radio, I heard the commentator describing how Colleter went down under a “challenge” and Saints players were berating him and telling him to get up. Different times.

As mentioned, Alan Bennett v Palace was an absolute moment of reality of how bad we might be that season. I was in a private box for the match at St Mary’s with my pals, a fairly even saints and palace split between us. Watching Alan Bennett get outpaced by James bloody Scowcroft to score, then see Scowcroft score a hattrick, was humbling. David Speedie was an embarrassment on the pitch for saints and a complete cunt to boot, so any of his low number of “performances”. Thankfully I’ve purged most from my memory. Ali Dia lives on in memory. I’m still amazed at the ineptitude of Graeme Souness to actually bring him on, shocking managerial decision and Souness doesn’t get called up it enough for how terrible a managerial choice it was after seeing Dia in training for a few days previous. And spare a thought for Keith Granger, bless him. Called up from the youth team when the season was dead and we were safe but had no goalkeepers. We got spanked. Twice. But for me the champ is any of the games that Paul Moody played in. Just completely and utterly awful.and so far out of his depth it was a bit cruel, he knew and we knew it. And so, deep down, did Branny Branfoot.

Tbf, the runaway when wrong is more accurate (and frequent), I’ll give you that 👍

Tbf, that’s the gif equivalent of you on this forum. Well done 👍

Looking forward to the answer to this (albeit knowing that it will be accompanied by yet another unfunny gif).

Saints aren’t going in for Minamino, and certainly not at that money. He’s 27 years old now and a long way from the Saints model of transfer. I was never much of a fan of him from his loan spell here, too lightweight and didn’t influence games enough.

I may be remembering incorrectly but that may have happened (or nearly) under Cortese, IIRC he dithered and dallied so much on kit selection that we ran out of choice and in the end had to have an awful generic teamwear shirt just to get something out in time. I remember the days when next season’s kit was worn in the final home game of the season.

Edit. Never mind…

Unless he’s got a very nasty sniffle and yet a massive bounce in his step, Boris looked like he was coked off of his massive tits tonight on his interview with Sky.

He won’t though. He won’t go until he is forced.

No, we’re being run like a shoddy B&B.

Welcome home Gareth….. A while ago I’d have thought Tottenham would be nailed on for him. But with Kane, Son and Kulusevski they’ve already got a very good front three (assuming they keep them together). Still a good option for them and him though. If he doesn’t go to spurs I’m struggling to see where Bale may end up, he’s imo still good enough for nearly all squads in the PL. I think it’ll need to be a bigger team in the division though, he can’t and won’t start every game, I think for spurs he came on as sub just as many times as he started. Saints would want him starting every game, which imo makes us a less attractive proposition for him. And I don’t see going to Cardiff or a team in the Championship.

Alpine_Potter must have been delighted with that.

I don’t think it is, it’s last seasons shirt so probably all they’ve got left in stock. There’s leaked pics of Celtics 22/23 shirt online with no sponsor. I may be wrong and my memory failing me, but I thought either the Ireland football or rugby shirts always used to have a logo on them, but it was possible to pay more for a sponsor free version. Like I say, not sure of that but just what I thought I remember. Personally there’s no way I’d pay more to have a sponsor on a shirt, they pretty much always make the shirt design worse.

There’s precedent for it elsewhere too. In 20/21 and 21/22 Celtic sold a no-sponsor version of their home and away shirts. https://store.celticfc.com/celtic-mens-2021-22-home-shirt-with-no-sponsor

If you’re talking about the ones with just a spout then, yeah, those things are rubbish, just chaos and so much waste booze. From the reviews I’ve read these beer machine things are actually very good (price aside).

The kegs don’t seem like great value, £30 to £35 for 6 litres, that’s what, about £3 a pint? It would have to taste like nectar to justify that cost for lager, which IMO is perfectly alright out of a can.

A sense of being a pedantic twat.

Ah, so that’s what the noise was!

Thanks. I assumed it would be something like rolling contracts with some looked on a bit more favourably depending on their closeness to the manager. I’ll admit I’m still trying the circle the square of the dilemma of the three coaches who have just left, and what the dynamic was with SFC before that. I have lots of questions based on rumours in here and beyond that Ralph wasn’t entirely happy with his coaching set up. If not, who wanted them? And why didn’t Ralph bring in others if he wasn’t happy with them. Or, did he try but was rebuffed? I’ve heard Ralph’s tactics go down into Academy teams, so I’d be surprised if he’s refused coaching personnel. Or, was Ralph actually happy with the setup and it’s just some untrue rumours coming out? Questions, questions.

Pretty much a spot on assessment IMO. Stephens has occasions when he looks actually quite a reasonable player. Never amazing, but if he’s on top of his game you think ‘ok, there’s a player there’. But then just far, far too often he reverts to type, there’s too many mistakes in him, and at this level he just simply isn’t good enough. The fact that fans on here says he’s just about alright for a fourth choice centre back says a lot. He seems a good lad, I’m sure he trains hard, but he’s just a bit too awful too often.

While you’re here MLG, I’d appreciate if you could answer a question for me, in line with the previous discussion, if you know. I think we all know that managers of PL sides sign up to contracts that tie them to the club for a number of years. We know that Ralph has two years left on his extension that he signed with us. My question is, what usually happens with assistant managers and coaches? Do they get the same sort of term deal? I can’t imagine they just go on the club’s payroll, as that makes them a bit harder to fire/release. But signing them all up to a term deal in line with the manager seems a bit of a risk. Genuine question. Cheers.

A bit?! That an understatement! What a basket case of a club. You love to see it. Glory glory indeed….

If the replacement coaches are in work at other clubs at the moment (or have been this season) then they’re likely under contract until at minimum end of May, so they may not be announced with us until after that. That’s the optimistic version. The pessimistic version…….nah, I won’t bother, too many variables. I’m hoping something is in place already or is imminent. If it isn’t, well, it’s not a good look, as much as I hate to be all Alpine Saint about “where are the signings” when we’re not even into June. Talking of Alpine, whatever happened to him? Hopefully he found some joy in his life, cos he had none on here.