The Kraken

I thought you said "that's football"?

If he goes (and it seems from the responses to the original rumour that its not as clear cut as first thought) then I'd hope we have a decent alternative first. Clyne at LB and Chambers at RB massively reduces our wide attacking threat from full back, and therefore as a team (given we're told time and again that "we don't play with wingers"). So IMO its of utmost importance to ensure that we have a decent option to replace an 18 year old who is still likely to miss a few games from knocks and injuries. Fox is poor at this level, but he's currently the best reserve LB option we have by some distance, in that the balance of the overall team is maintained in other areas. Switching it round for Clyne at LB is a massive compromise all round.

At hearing this joyous news I've just sent the missus out to buy me a new hip flask, here she is with it: I'll be bringing it to the game on Sunday. So if anyone fancies a wee dram, come find me. I'll be the p*ssed one.

Clyne, with Chambers at RB. Not ideal.

Are you thinking of the Silverspoons debacle? Nick Illingsworth / Saints Trust organised that. RomseyStu just organised coaches to go to the Green Man pub.

"Somewhere around the £15M mark" bought Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who had just a few months of League 1 experience. Shaw would be a proven Premier League player; albeit in a different position to AOX, but if we "only" got £15M then i would say he was undervalued. £20M and upwards, i reckon the club might be tempted (although I hope we hold onto him for as long we can).

Who knows. But it's fairly easy to see that the LB - LM step up is much harder to achieve than the LM - LB, which is much more common. Our own Wayne Bridge of course having done so. Does Shaw have that within him? I've no idea myself but, unlike Bale, I always thought Shaw is more of a defender and (comparitively) less of an attacking threat.

The article also says (without much basis in fact, of course) that he'd stay until the end of the season. £20M and upwards for a full back (albeit a very good one) is an awful lot of money and would perhaps per considered. I'd actually prefer it if he stayed than banking £20M; I guess we'll see what the resolve of the club is, if there's any substance to all this. Get a bidding war with Man United surely looking for an LB and the price could rise even further.

I kind of like Arsene Wenger's comments today when asked a similar question about Arsenal's fortunes for the season. Speaking ahead of the Champions League clash with Napoli on Tuesday, Wenger refused to be drawn on his side's chances of being top next May. "We want the right balance between ambition and humility. To speak about the title today is ridiculous," he said.

Yep, that does scan better actually. I may have to build that term into my daily vocabulary.

"Windbag" is a term that doesn't get used enough in common parlance, IMO.

Does that work for all players, then? They only get judged at the end of their contract and never part way through? Only I'm sure I've seen quite a few comments about Dejan Lovren claiming him to be the bargain of the season, an absolute snip etc. Which seems like fair comment to me; it's entirely reasonable to judge a player on what you've seen so far.

I would hope the ambition if the club remains as what it truly is; go into every game hoping/trying to win it. Quite why this "Champions League target ambition" needs to be trotted out so often is a bit bemusing to me. Should we aim for the top 4? Of course we should. Is there a need to reinforce that by making so many public statements about it? Not IMO, no.

Having watched him in the Bristol City game it certainly wasn't; his fitness and effort put in were one thing that I didn't find fault with at all. He was just below par from start to finish in his general play, while he punctuated that with 2 or 3 occasions of individual brilliance.

This. Ladbrokes don't bother having kiosks in anything but the big stadiums these days, as their online market has grown to such an extent.

Are you really surprised given that MLT was to many on here "just an employee"?

He's not average at all, he's been very effective at getting lower ranked sides amongst the higher placings in the PL. He may play a thoroughly ugly brand of football but, especially with what he did at Bolton, he was very good at his job. A club the size of West Ham is probably the limit of his managerial ability as better sides really don't/shouldn't be playing that way. But his managerial record is actually very good indeed, even if watching his sides hasn't been at all pleasing on the eye.

Good luck fella, hopefully sanity will prevail and you'll get your ticket back.

This is the only downside at the moment, but yes; we are a world away from the swashbucking side that came up two divisions. Much better set up to take on the top sides but we're now really quite a functional side.

OK, fair enough. Like you, I clearly wouldn't have the faintest idea which scientists (or specific websites and scientific papers) are credible and which aren't, so was just hoping for a bit of a steer in the right direction.

Indeed; but laymen like me wouldn't know where to start. Hence Chicken Banjo's suggestion of listing the most credible/influential seems a decent starting point. And if others representing the opposite viewpoint could/would do the same to represent their own point of view, all the better.

Arguments aside, I would be interested in this too.

The rush to expand was what got me. It was truly as if the notion of "wait and see for a year or two" was an utterly outrageous suggestion to a few people. Some of the justifications for building quickly and reducing ticket prices just as fast were equally foolish.

Ah, but as MLG told us, "relatively soon" could be many years from now. Bless him.

This thread was a doozy. http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?37346-St-Mary-s-What-we-might-expect-to-see-happen-(and-possibly-announced-soon)#.UkX2b4asjlU