The Kraken

He doesn't (yet) give us the attacking options that Clyne does. But he's clearly got bags of talent, is learning all the time, and is very much improved since his first games of the season. I really don't know which one of Clyne or Chambers I prefer right now, which is a great problem for the manager to have.

As I said earlier in this thread, my mate used to scout for a now PL side, and I went with him from time to time. Speaking to him about it, it seemed that as often that not he was just on a general watching brief, with no pre-defined player to run an eye over, and provide recommendations for further viewing by the chief scout. So yes, that often is the way scouting works.

Nope. Statto.com is a decent site, it lets you see the league table from any time throughout the season. http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1989-1990/table

I spent a few games watching with a mate of mine who scouted for a PL team; he was typically watching 2 or 3 players in a game, and more often than not just generally watching for any stand-out performances with no pre-planned watching brief.

I've heard this said before but it's a bit of stretch to say we "should" have finished third. We could have, as we were 5 point off Spurs in third place with a game in hand with just a couple of games to play. But we were down in 11th or 12th place with just 6 or 7 games left in the season, so really we did well to finish 7th. No matter, still my favourite season as a Saints fan.

You surely don't mean that the football was negative??

This one always got me, for some reason. The couple just seem really sad and disconsolate, staring at it in utter bemusement and a strange feeling of anger building up in them.

Totally agree with that, watching Saints was so much fun and so unpredictable, you never knew what was going to happen. The 4-1 Liverpool hammering will remain my favourite Saints game, we absolutely tore the best side in the land apart.

Our defence was always absolutely shocking under him, even in our season where we finished seventh we had the third highest goals conceded, and we were very fragile at times despite looking irresistable going forwards. Thinking back, Nicholl used to get absolute dogs abuse at the Dell, particularly when coming out for the games, he was often roundly booed. I remember being happy when he was sacked but in retrospect he actually did a decent job. And then we got Branfoot...

Right, as I thought. I'd suggest something happening once is no clear evidence of any type of trend.

When? I can't remember Wanyama being hauled off very much, especially in the first 10 games that you referenced.

That the Ted Bates Statue thread doesn't exist any more is an absolute travesty. I genuinely couldn't read that thread without laughing out loud every single time.

Over on b-anter there were some excellent photoshops of the statue.

Digging an even deeper hole

A top quality quote, only bested in the annals of Saints history by this beauty: "Ian has done a tremendous job. It's very rare I'm lost for words but I saw the statue last week and it's awesome - a tremendous tribute to a great man. Fans have waited a long time for this and it's fantastic."

F*ck it.

I think he's involved with Kick it Out.

So angry!

Who else would it be meant for?

So who do we want? 1 Sunderland 2 Cardiff City 3 Southampton 4 Charlton Athletic 5 Brighton & Hove Albion 6 Nottingham Forest or Preston North End 7 Hull City 8 Sheffield Wednesday 9 Arsenal 10 Stevenage or Everton 11 Wigan Athletic 12 Chelsea or Stoke City 13 Manchester City 14 Liverpool 15 Swansea City 16 Sheffield United or Fulham A home draw is most important, and hopefully some of the big guns will get drawn against each other. Charlton or Wigan at home would be nice. Basically anyone but Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Man City at home would be a good draw, maybe add Everton to that mix too.

Very much agree with all of that.

To be honest I think that whole part paints a poor picture of Askham and all those at the club who got rich from it. Lowe wasn't beyond reproach but he was just buying in to the club. No, its a fact. But to give him no credit at all for St. Mary's is a bit churlish IMO. You missed his greatest legacy, the Academy. We have always been a good club in that regard but he made a determined effort to step up the facilities and how we operate. the satellite centre at Bath gives us an enormous leg up in attracting young talent. Again, to give Lowe no credit for that is extremely churlish IMO.

Yeah, that's a fair assessment. As I said though, the Pearson of that time was very inexperienced as a manager and he really cut his teeth with us, prior to that he'd had a brief time with Carlisle where it can hardly be said he was any form of success (he presided over their last day staying up with Jimmy Glass scoring), he left the club after that and then was a coach and some time caretaker manager before arriving at our doors. He's gone on to be a decent manager, no doubt, but I can't say he'd proven that before coming to us by any stretch.