The Kraken

I'd rather we signed players and then played them in their strongest positions; the positions we bought them for. Seeing £20M of talent in JRod and Ramirez oftentimes not played in their strongest positions (never mind not played at all at times) was baffling.

I used to watch the youth team that Franny came up through a lot, and as a striker back then it's fair to say he was a fairly volatile character on the pitch. Gradually made his way back from striker to defender. It's testament to his work ethic and what he brought to the team that most if not all new managers that came in at Saints immediately dropped Franny but ended up reinstating him after a while, he must have been a superb addition to have around the squad, and he truly got how much it meant to play for his home town club. A top man too, by all accounts.

Giggidy.

For a legend like him you'd also have thought that more people would have realised his first name is Marians.

I remember being at the Dell in the 80s and seeing a banner some wag had made and taken along, reading: "Portsmouth. Scummers of the south". I have to admit; I've never understood their "pony fiddler" jibe. Perhaps there was an epidemic of equine tomfoolery in the SO area that completely passed me by.

Pompey fans seem to think that its the ultimate insult, which is quite sweet. They even scold each other on their forums for using the term "Scummer", as its capalised. We're not deserving of the capital letter, you see. Bless. But if latching on to a completely inoffensive and unoriginal moniker gives them a little solace then I'm all for it. Scummer me up.

It's almost as if they say it enough times it actually becomes true. How many times has the "Chelsea used to be a small unsuccessful club" line been trotted out? Mental.

Historically Chelsea have something like the 4th or 5th highest average attendance of all time; so they've always been one of the biggest clubs in the country, albeit with periods of under-achievement.

Some might say that those wins are a major part of the reason that, despite not winning the league in over 20 years, Liverpool are still seen as a massive club. Although going by Clark's logic, they mean nothing when talking about the size of the club today. Absolutely nothing.

Ordinarily you'd have thought so, but it would actually seem not.

Then I don't quite understand what standard you're rating him by. He's been used much more sparingly by Chelsea as he's clearly approaching the tail end of his career; but even still attracted some major interest from some pretty big clubs. And if we were lucky enough to sign him, just for a year, I'd love to sign him. Class act.

Not even that. You don't score as many goals as he has, and get rated by as many top international players, without being exceedingly good. If someone like Xavi, one of the world's best players in CM, picks out Lampard as a player he admires a hell a lot, then I'd be prepared to sit up and listen to his opinion on it. Lampard has been an excellent player for many years.

Good Lord, that's one of the dumbest things I've read in a long time.

Isn't it? Walcott was deemed by Barcelona as Arsenal's key player. Rooney for United is always a marked man and has scored for fun in Europe over many years. Lampard and Terry have been the spine that Chelsea have based themselves upon for years, and Ashley Cole is rightly regarded as a world class left back. England have produced a number of excellent players; its how we play and backwards tactics and coaching at international level that lets us down.

No, I agree with that point. Its a trend that is permeating lower in the leagues and becoming more prevalent in the Championship; I guess its a reason why Lambert hadn't been snapped up before we got to him. The cost thing is also backed up when you look at Jordan Rhodes; top scorer in League 1 but it took an £8M fee for Blackburn to get him. That's an insane amount of money to spend on a lower league player.

Sometimes better; but more often than not cheaper. The cost of proven English players in this country is ridiculous; even unproven English players are vastly overpriced. Its easy to see why some clubs would rather spend £7M on a foreign proven star than on someone like Jay Rodriguez.

NickG: are you Neil Allen?

You'll notice earlier that I said there were some. Not everyone; a fact clearly not unmissed as I previously quoted someone else who commented that, thankfully, most people aren't as idiotic as that. But these were from the first page. So "some" is a fair statement, no?

Your apportionment of issues into such extremes of black and white is quite impressive. Simplistic, but nonetheless impressive.

I don't think there was any danger of it not being highlighted, or what the consequences were going to be once they found it. That's up to the club. Just some of the demands for a sacking are a bit surreal and strike as being precious.

There we go. The reaction on here has been like players waving imaginary cards at the ref.

Is that truly the only other option you could find?

Ah right. That makes perfect sense.

To be fair its only the sanctimonious, precious, easily offended brigade that have demanded he be sacked. Most others see it for what it is; a pretty poor and very minor wind-up which has severely backfired.

And they're not unique? Is that what you're saying?