The Kraken

As monumental a tw*t as Neil Allen is, its a perfectly valid point about the Daily Echo still being banned. And the attempts to justify the decision are particularly desperate. Anyway, as you were. I need a wash after agreeing with something that #factless has written.

No-one in their right mind would do that. No-one. And nor should they; he got given a contract, the club never came up with a solution to buy him out of it so he's fully entitled to see it out.

Whatever he was on he'd have lost a good load of it to tax, so its nowhere near a million quid after that (if he was even on that much in the first place, which I somehow doubt). Plus he was a young man who probably thought it would last forever and he likely frittered a lot of it away. He'll have done well out of us, no doubt, but I don't quite understand the levels of bitterness and jealousy on here about it, we've had plenty of other sponges associated with the club who have taken much more out of it than a daft young bloke who turned out to be a bit sh*t.

There were certainly a lot of kits being worn yesterday. And while it only looks pretty sh*t on the players (the white in the shorts and the socks break up the red a bit) it looks utterly atrocious when being modelled by fat middle aged men with beer guts and a pair of jeans.

He really looked like a fish out of water there! Feel a bit sorry for Cork really; he was superb last season but will likely move aside for a new signing. I just hope it doesn't knock his confidence too much, he'll still have plenty of a part to play.

I think you'll find a lot of people were actually there, son. In an 8k+ crowd its inevitable, you see. Just because you may not like the reviews it doesn't make them inaccurate.

Agreed; I thought he looked dangerous every time he got the ball and looked like he could beat his man or do something with it. To be fair I thought Lallana was pretty good first half, quieter in the second before he inevitably gave way.

Lowe sued him (and won) for about £250K. He's had a hard-on for Saints bashing since then, the beardy fat c*nt.

I don't think Ramirez's performance yesterday can be put down to a lack of fitness. Perhaps a lack of sharpness, though. He did some good things but was let down by making far too many basic errors. Poor control and playing wayward passes (passes that should have been pretty simple for anyone in the team, let alone one who supposedly has a touch of genius in his locker); he was quite obviously some distance off the levels of the other players. Getting mugged off by the RS player who then burst past him to set up the third goal kind of summed his whole performance up from yesterday; just never really at it. Puncheon on the other hand was most impressive when he came on.

I think the real question is: "Why has Garrett listed Anderson as United's third CM in the first place?" Anderson only started 9 league games last term, and came on as sub in another 8. That's less than half the league games; he's hardly their de facto "third" CM.

And this is another good point. Its all well and good trying to compare Carrick, Cleverley and Anderson to Schneiderlin, Cork and Wanyama. But that leaves out a lot of players who have played CM for those clubs, so they have to be taken into account. Phil Jones started 13 league games and a number of CL games, many at CM; his performances against some of the top sides in England and Europe earned him an England cap or two at CM. Giggs played in 22 league games for United. On the flip side, JWP played in 16 league games for us, Steve Davis played in 32 games over the course of the season. So as close as people might want to believe it is between the originally listed 3 CMs of each club, when you look at the position in its entirety the answer becomes a lot clearer.

That was it. And I believe he said it after our promotion season from the Championship, when we averaged around 26,000! That was evidence we had more match going fans than Everton! Brilliant stuff.

I think Adrian likes to throw the accusations around when the thread doesn't comply with his own little world view.

Or perhaps some threads go the way you don't like it with others having an alternative viewpoint to yours? As usual, when someone expresses an opinion that doesn't run parallel with your own thoughts on the matter you bring out your snide, condescending witterings and put it down to trolling rather than actually accept that there may be an alternative point of view.

Fairly sure he was specifically referring to matchgoing fans. Can't be arsed to dig it up but it was pretty humorous at the time.

Except for the OP?

I don't think he'll start. In Hodgson's interview on the BBC he stressed his need to have Rickie included to fulfil a requirement for four forwards, which for some reason resonated with me that RL will just be used for backup. I hope he gets a decent outing but I'd be amazed if he started.

Kind of reminds me of MLG who fairly recently convinced himself that we have a bigger fanbase than Everton despite never in our history having had an average attendance higher than theirs.

Uh oh. Moved to the graveyard.

Would you have sent MLT out to Oxford or Swindon when he was struggling to get games under Chris Nichol? I'm not much of a fan of the Harry Redknapp approach of sending our best talent out for games. I prefer the one we've adopted over many years of predominantly not getting other clubs to do our work for us for our best upcoming players. That's just me, though. I appreciate others think differently.

Why? He figured in 19 games for us last season; 16 in the league including 4 starts. And he's still 18 years old. He doesn't look out of place in this league. So what's the best for him? Keep doing what he's doing? Or play in a lower league for a different team? At 18, I'd much rather keep him if he's still going to feature. If he'd played in 4 or 5 games then fair enough, but this lad was deemed good enough for over 40% of our games last term.

I think I went to all 4 of those

I wouldn't. I'd say most Saints fans (particularly most on here) are more opinionated towards saying their own players are better than they actually are. Also, a bunch of neutrals who support neither Saints nor United have definitely got the most unbiased and unblinkered view of the abilities of both (albeit Carrick may get more TV time, because he is a key player in a better side). I know its unpopular at times to say that our players aren't all utterly amazing, but there we go, I can live with that. Schneiderlin is a very, very good player. Carrick is better IMO.

Wes, what are you even trying to prove a point about? I never said United having good players (the particular point being that their players were and are predominantly better than ours) was THE reason they got massive media exposure. I said it was ONE reason (and it continues to be a very good one). And there are various others; I think we all know this.