The Kraken

A Pompey fan was kind enough to point out that we got promoted from League 1 to the Premier League with a net transfer spend of £3M. Which caused a bit of confusion all round, really. Nice to see that Corpie cares so much that he's over there still starting threads about us. PompeyScot will probably be on here reading through soon, even though he never ever looks on here, no sir never. Hi Bill

Corp Ho is on cracking form over on POL, coming out with even more deluded and completely incorrect garbage than usual, bless him. Never mind the fact that Rhys Williams was watched by us and in that match got injured and is likely out for most of the season. Good one Ho. Also... He thinks Ramirez is on £120K a week :lol:

If he always goes for them (but rarely gets them) that's not being indecisive, that's just being pretty poor at catching crosses.

From what I've seen Ramirez isn't a proper winger, he's one of these number 10 fellas (which is handy as that's what number he'll wear).

Thing is Bear, we've effectively signed three new players that can now be construed as a "winger". Ramirez is one, Mayuka seems to be a striker/winger, and JRod is being played out there. Add to that, we currently have Lallana who is skipper and a natural wide player, Puncheon and Guly, we're overloaded now and have a selection headache in that deprtment. In contrast, as of yesterday we had a centre-back pairing who have severe question marks over them and a replacement centre-back who has not played any league games at Championship level (never mind Premier League) and who has just returned from a major head injury after pretty much a season out. We also have a left back with defensive issues, and whose backup is a 17 year old prospect who looked a little overwhelmed in a Development squad game. And a goalkeeper who had 1 year at premier League level and was lambasted by fans of the side he played for as being the worst goalkeeper in Premier League history (and who has already given many cause for concern with his performances and distribution), yet only addressed this area by signing a couple of supposedly reserve keepers. The amount we spent this window was highly impressive. It just goes against the normal grain of building a side from the back, we have kind of done the reverse and the defensive additions (Clyne aside) almost seem more of an afterthought. I'll reserve judgement of Yoshida until I see him, but it seems like we're placing a lot of eggs in that one basket if we're expecting defensive solidity at any time soon.

I can't pass comment on Ramirez as I've yet to see him play. What I would say is that I'm surprised we've gone all out the strengthen our attacking line up by investing over £20M in Ramirez, Rodriguez and Mayuka, while recognising that our defence is the weaker area of the team but only spending around a quarter of that amount on a good right back, an unknown centre back and a reserve keeper. Its going to be a long season if we find it impossible to keep score lines down, we've twice conceded 3 and even shipped 2 against Wigan.

More scurrilous reporting from Pompey's chief spin doctor. The only plans and submittals in are for either Portpin to own and run the club, or for The Pompey Trust to buy the club and run it. There is no proposal for Portpin to lease the club back to the Trust, Chainrai has said he doesn't want to do that (not that his word is anything to go by, of course). Just more of a media witch-hunt from Neil Allen I feel, to drive the anti-Chainrai brigade closer to fever pitch.

He's 23. Hardly in the same bracket as someone like JWP, he's a year younger than Lallana.

It hit his leg. He almost inadvertently saved it. A move of his knee about 10 cms to his left and he probably would have saved it. Distribution was utterly awful today, could have easily conceded 2 goals from those giveaway passes to Fox and Clyne. Read the penalty well (again), not sure if he could/should have got to Ferdinand's header for the second, not much he could do with the third. But he just doesn't do it for me, I think it'll not be long until Gazza gets his chance.

Just watched it again on MOTD. Harsh in the extreme to blame Guly, others much more at fault than him for allowing Ferdinand the freedom of the penalty area for his header then two Saints players falling asleep for the rebound off the post.

I find his signing more and more bizarre with every game I see him in.

Yep; it may not be "right" but quite frankly, what do you expect if you take such liberties in the home end? Its idiotic to think you can get away with behaving like that, whether its ultimately right or not.

Already have, post 28.

Gary Neville was massively complimentary about the home support; he kept mentioning what a racket Saints were making.

Yep, my bad, read that one wrong....! Anything next game at arsenal is a bonus, but we really need to be picking up significant points in the home games against Villa and Fulham. If not, we'll be in massive trouble (and I think NA will be out of a job).

In which case it would be nothing to do with a steward being overly officious, it would be a direct action from the ticket office.

How would a steward (jobsworth or otherwise) recognise that MLT's season ticket was being used, and not by the man himself?

That's what I'm wondering. The only way is surely if the club were aware beforehand that the tickets had been transferred and the system blocked their access at the turnstiles. If that's the case then its a totally childish reaction.

Yep, just watched it again. Looks like Rodriguez is putting in a challenge on the cross, so Guly is backup to that. Seems thoruoughly bizarre to blame Guly for that goal. More pertinent questions would be why did Rio Ferdinand have a free header and why did RVP have no-one near him when the ball rebounded off the post for him to tap in.

I'm mystified. Fonte gave the corner away, Fonte and it looks like Schneiderlin were "marking" the two United players by the front post. I think Canada is throughly confused on this one.

I've just watched it again.....what was Guly at fault for in particular?

He really is a petty tw*t at times.

Ha ha, what a tool. What were the numbers like in the corporates and boxes, GM; was it full? The attendance was 1,000 short of capacity so I'm guessing not.

It seems that despite spending £7M we still don't yet have an adequate replacement for Rickie Lambert.

A lot will depend on Ramirez in training. If he looks (as expected) a significant step up from Puncheon then its only logical that he will come in; no room for sentiment when you have zero points.