The Kraken

Because cost is always a benchmark. Always. Nathaniel Clyne was an utter bargain at £2.5M. Steven Davis was a great acquisition at less than £1M. Boruc was a great signing for little outlay. JRod had a shaky start but its looking game by game as if £7M for him is going to be an absolute steal. There, I've compared lots of our players with the price tag paid for them. No dramas there I hope.

Stop being so dramatic. No one is saying he is "gash", but when you cost £12m then a benchmark is set whether you like it or not. Ramirez is a considerable potential talent, I've yet to see anyone seriously deny that.

I've always thought our ground should be housed on a man made island in the middle of Southampton Water. Lovely views over Netley Castle and Royal Victoria Country Park, and if the club could remove those monstrous chimneys at Fawley, that would be great. Quite what they were thinking building a ground in a city centre of all places, I just don't know.

And as it turns out from TV evidence, utter sh*te.

Wrongly, though.

Ian Peach, PDT board member, expresses his disquiet: Whoops. Infighting already.

The huge match. Big Daddy v Giant Haystacks.

Mick McManus vs Catweasle. A classic in grappling folklore.

Kendo Nagasaki was my favourite. Mick McManus was a dirty grappler.

Apparently it was known for my nan to regularly go to the Guildhall to watch the wrestling and be seen running down the aisles swinging her handbag at the dirty rotters in the ring Genetics. I never had any chance after that.

"Grappling" is such a woefully under-used word these days. I hark back to my days as a nipper watching the wrestling on ITV, and being greeted by the opening intro: "Welcome, grapple fans". Heady days.

Stop getting so emotional, Rog. I'm only surprised you're not defending Lambert to the hilt for people not saying he was man of the match. If that's your opinion then fine. But you're going to have to accept that plenty of others disagree with you and think Ramirez was largely under par, other than a well taken goal. And i think you're either being blind or deliberately missing the point about Lallana; I've said on a few occasions Ramirez played better today. But I'd still rather Lallana and JRod in the side at the moment with ramirez on the bench. Try not to erupt too much when you read that, its just an opinion.

Rog, you keep banging this drum without listening. Is it intentional? Lallana and ramirez were both poor. Both of them. Neither played well. If Lallana's performance today is something you use as a benchmark then we're all in trouble. Although it perhaps explains a lot if you do.

Not saying they didn't deserve a bit more hefty judgement, but it was for persistent fouling. Unfortunately I had to forego my paid for match ticket and watch from home, so I saw the replays, and its fair to say we made a bit of a meal of at least 2 or 3 fouls from them. Jack Cork getting up-ended by Nolan in the first half, for instance, after which Lallana got all in his face. Nolan didn't even touch Cork for that. I thought Dean had a pretty poor game though; a usual "look at me" display. Edit: That would have been a super harsh penalty too, that you mention. The 'taters were happy there was nothing wrong with it, as was I.

Considering we had Morgan booked for a blatant dive, and were quite liberal with going to ground on more than a couple of other occasions, I wouldn't be too hasty on throwing that accusation around myself.

Indeed. Take away the price tag and there's little to suggest it IMO. I think it's optimism in a lot of cases; he's clearly a good player but I haven't seen one 90 minute performance from him to suggest he's better than Lallana playing in a number 10 position for us.

Sounds like a proper Saints banana skin to me. God I hope not. I do have a bit of a dislike for Stoke. Very well run, do lots for the community, but spend millions and millions on playing god awful football. Although I'll always laugh at the image of a naked Tony Pulis offering out Beattie after a game in the changing rooms.

Stoke are in good form, especially away from home....

I don't think anyone suggests its his fault. But price will always come into it. For example: I'm quite happy to say that Clyne at £2.5M was an absolute bargain. I'm quite happy to say that I originally thought JRod was way overpriced at £7M, but I was wrong and it now looks like it may be a complete steal. I'm happy to say that Steven Davis was a great deal to be had at under £1M. And I'm also comfortable in my assertion that, to date, Gaston Ramirez has done little to justify his £12M transfer fee. Price tags will always come into it, and of course its not his fault, but its the benchmark he has to live by. As do all players.

[video=youtube;SO-KGIrDsmc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO-KGIrDsmc

Looking forward to seeing the Norwich scandalisation. Colin W*nker almost had a heart attack about it when describing it on BBC.

I got the pics from F365 forum and the thread on it there suggests the pictures don't even get close to pointing out how bad it actually was. Properly nasty, by all accounts.

And not even one mention of the Masters on TV, FFS. Philip, your standards are slipping.

It would make sense. Red & white stripes are what the majority of fans want to see, but I'm not sure if they're what the majority want to buy. Doing something different encourages more sales. A Rank Xerox style kit would be a great choice IMO, and also be a nod to heritage while offering something different to keep the commercial interest going.

Stay on topic please, troll. We don't need your banal arguing here. Back on topic after it got needlessly derailed. Apparently there was an altercation of West Ham and Millwall fans in the Frog and Parrot, of all places. Most odd.