The Kraken

Did you not read the part about the effort I said he put in?!

Pretty much spot on IMO.

Were you actually at the game? Honest question. IMO he had two sublime moments. One, the goal, absolutely thumped it home, a great finish. Another one in the first half where he lofted the ball over the defence for Lee, who really should have scored. Other than that, Gaston was massively frustrating. Poor control far too often, very poor passes far too often, not able to hold on to the ball, and far far too wasteful for a team that prides itself on keeping posession. Steven Davis was much more effective as a midfielder looking to pull the strings that Ramirez was. One thing I won't criticise though was his level of effort. i thought he kept going, and kept trying right up to the point where he walked off injured with seconds to go. It just really didn't work out for him. Extremely sloppy is the best way that I would describe his performance, punctuated by a couple of instances of absolute brilliance.

I'm a supporter of the idea to try new styles of kit to maximise sales. That said, IMO the new kit has to have some form of relevance other than being "different". The sash kit, probably one of the most ubiquitous Saints kits I've ever seen, its clear where that came from. There's loads more we could do to have a kit that still represents stripes of a sort: representations of the Ranx Xerox kit, the Hummel Denmark kit, even the 1976 home shirt to an extent. I simply don't believe this year's shirt is anywhere close to the sales level of the sash shirt, or even last season's abomination for that matter.

Whoa there, hold your horses. Pompey fans booing? Never happens. That's only that lot up the road that do that. Scurrilous news reporting.

Last time i went to watch Romsey Town it cost me £7, and that was a couple of years ago. I can remember when getting into the Dell as an adult cost nearly the same.

A bit of a watered down Joe Cole syndrome for Lallana at international level, I feel. Great natural talent but probably won't fit into the system that the manager wants to play. Joe Cole was a bit part player for England but, like Paul Scholes, needed to be the focal point of the team to use him to best effect. And Cole in particular was too inconsisetnt to justify that role. I personally doubt whether Lallana offers enough pace for Hodgson to give him too much of a go on the wings (especially with the likes of Walcott, Welbz, and Ox when he returns to fitness). And if he's not playing in the number 10 role at club level it'll be hard for him to break through there. Hodgson is very much a safety-first type manager, and it would take something phenomenal from Lallana or any pllayer of his ilk to dislodge the old guard in time for Rio. A friendly appearance or two is the absolute best he can hope for, and then he has to take his chance as Rickie did (which is harder when you're not dealing solely in the strikers' currency of scoring goals).

Not quite; more than a few of them were suckered into thinking it would pay for 2 or more stands. They seem to have fallen for the same ruse over on POL as well.

It is a laughable comparison, looking back. But, to be fair, when Ashley Young went to Man Utd he had been absolutely on fire for Villa and looked very good for United when he signed. Put it this way; I'd absolutely love to see him in a Saints side. Just not at the expense of our current skipper...

Wow. I think you really need to get over your obsession with me. I haven't even contributed to this thread and yet here you are thinking of me and bringing me into it with yet more pointless drivel. It's clearly eating you up norway; let it go, for goodness sake.

Well its all about opinions I suppose, but for me Lallana is probably the most improved player we have from last season. He was under par for most of the last campaign but really looks like getting it together this time round. He's still nowhere near as clinical as he could be at times, but he definitely has qualities that not too many other players in the division match up to, in terms of providing a little bit of unexpected magic. I've long been a campaigner for us playing with more width and more natural wide players; but swapping Lallana for Ashley Young to try to achieve that? Just no. Both of them in the same side would be great for us; but Lallana gives our side much more than Young ever could IMO.

Some (as ever) yes. The Wilshere comparison is daft. But Diggo's question back at you of "what would Pochettino say if Utd offered to swap Lallana for Young" puts it in perspective.

The thing is; Milner is a good player. But that's exactly what he is; good. He's not outstanding, he's methodical, a safe option. Not international quality to make a difference, but not someone who'll let you down. A bit beige, if you like. Lallana all the way for me, of course. Not that there isn't a place for the likes of Milner, I suppose. I just don't really know what he does or what he offers other than a defensively safe option on the wing.

Is it a trick question?

And make sure you have the BBQ'd pineapple with cinnamon; lush.

I went to the one in the O2 and it was brilliant. Pretty basic, in that its BBQ'd meat that gets brought round to the table and carved off; but there was a huge variety and it was cooked really well. There was also a massive "salad" bar but which had fish and other side dishes. All in all great value. My visit to the So'ton branch left a lot to be desired though. Overcooked meat, little variety, and not much at the salad bar either.

To be fair to fat Santa, the bit about not liking stripes is actually true.

6th now after Chelsea's win.

My take on it would be that the current manager is not using one of our highest paid (and highest valued) players against the best sides, when clearly our best players are needed to step up their games. And lets not forget that Ramirez is a player that MP didn't sign himself. Our top players really should be getting games in "a game like this"; that he wasn't used at all today says one thing; that he hasn't been used from the start even against the lower ranked sides is more cause for question. It's no use for a club like us to have such a valuable asset sat on the bench. And if MP feels that he could use that sort of spend to much better effect I have little doubt that he'll be pressing the club to act. Don't get me wrong, I think having Ramirez from the bench is a great option. Its just whether that option is as good as reinvesting the money in another player who MP will use a lot more. A bit of a simplistic comparison, but if Gaston's wage rumours are anywhere near accurate I'd suggest we shouldn't be spending that on someone who doesn't make the first team so often.

I think its a fair comment. He's £12M worth of talent sitting on the bench more than he is playing. For his own development as a player he needs to be playing, and playing in the big games. At the moment he's not even close to a starting spot. Plus, can SFC really afford to have such a player on the wage bill and not contributing in the longer term? Far better to ship him out and have the manager bring in a player he will actually use.

He's always been an accident waiting to happen. His antics at Swindon were brushed over because they were lower league, and to be fair he had some success overall, but some of his antics down there were disgraceful really. In the PL his madness will get continually highlighted; quite what the hell he was thinking today though. Can't see him lasting much longer.

Chelsea have just scored

Concerns about not scoring enough goals are valid in general, but not for today's performance. 1-0 away at the league leaders is brilliant in anyone's book. In fact any away 1-0 victory is superb for us. We do need to score more at home, but that's for another day.

From a Liverpool fan on F365 forum:

From BBC website.