The Kraken

Those sorts of decisions are exactly why they have the AGM in the first place.

I really hope not.

When it comes to playing kits, you're really quite some nerd aren't you?

I haven't got a problem with that; just as long as they don't put f*cking white socks with it again, that looked bloody awful.

And Corp Ho was utterly incredulous at the suggestion his wage level was anywhere near that; he just wouldn't have it and ridiculed anyone for suggesting it. :lol:

"He has had some talks with Villa but he's not going to go there. Villa are a fantastic club with great fans, but I never thought they were big enough for him. If Roberto is to go anywhere, it will be to one of the top clubs in Europe.''

Or alternatively, look at what Dave Whelan actually said.

It becomes an auction with the clubs upping the ante on what they offer the player in terms of wages, signing on bonus etc etc. Not by continually upping the purchase price.

"Premiership. We're having a laugh." Need to get the Northam singing that one.

That implies that Deppo was funny in the first place, which is clearly not the case.

The boring nerd is correct, for a change. Assuming the bid acceptance is also correct, of course.

That seems, to me at least, a wonderfully simplistic view of the way we play. I don't mind admitting we're a bit basic in our way of playing from time to time. But its not as if we haven't scored against PL teams before, even when in L1. It's not as if our tactics haven't worked before against PL sides, again in L1. And its not as if we play a brand of football that clearly won't fit in the PL. I know for a fact from a mate who works in management for a top half Championship side that in pretty much all scouting reports and discussions about us, all teams knew they needed to stop Rickie Lambert but they all said that actually doing it was a whole different matter. Championship or Premiership (just for you there :-)) he will be our mainstay this season, rightly so, and I damn well hope so for a long time because I want to and believe he will do well at the highest level.

Big Malky will also be in with a shout.

Is there? You say it like teams only score on the break in the PL or something. Or that the only strikers who score or contribute massively to their teams are fast. Or that there's no merit at all in playing through teams with skill, or even a direct approach. I don't buy it, I'm afraid.

And yet still they do business. Still they found suppliers to add to their almighty debt. And they have the prospect of £16M of parachute payments; probably a bit daft to suggest they couldn't get a lawyer with that in mind.

It's a thoroughly worthwhile question, and I agree. Nonetheless I can easily see them getting away with it, on the pre-text that CVA1 has neither been ignored nor gone away; it will still need to be serviced as part of CVA-2, albeit at a lower than initially agreed rate. Complete horse-sh*t of course, but you can just imagine that the Football League don't actually have a rule for this and will bottle the big decision in fear of huge litigation.

This is exactly the point. Lambert is utterly crucial to the way we play, and the way we have played both since Pardew got here and since Adkins took charge. He defines our whole style of football. I simply cannot see that we are going to look to utterly change the way we play, just because we have been promoted. Pace or no pace, Rickie Lambert is utterly vital to the team, and (injuries aside) I'd be completely astonished if Billy Sharp gets anywhere near the sort of game time that Lambert will.

Who is PAUL TELFORD?

I don't think the way Crouch plays is unique at all. He's a handful to play against, for much of his career he was described as relatively poor in the air for someone of his height, and always got the old "good feet for a big man" tagline. From the top 20 list I'd have definitely put Crouch, Steven Fletcher and Grant Holt in there as players who don't rely on pace (Yakubu also, he used to but since he got fat he doesn't so much). Dzeko isn't all that slow but plays a differet type of game to an in behind or run the channels striker. If you won't accept the Crouch analogy then another Saint Kevin Davies wouldn't be too far away. And a point in case that sometimes a goal scoring tally is not all you should judge a striker by. Since he arrived RL has always dictated the way our whole team play football. Without him we are, without argument, much weaker. That will still be true in the Premier League, unless we sign two strikers who are better than him. J-Rod is different but for my money, definitely not better. Lambert may do a Holt and score 15 next season. He may just as easily do a Carroll and score only a handful. But I think he has a huge contribution to play for us.

Without spending a lor of money there's really not too many players you could list who would definitely be a lot better than Hammond. Plus there is the added benefit that he already fits into the system and his teammates know him inside out. I don't rate him all that much (particularly going forwards) but in the PL he'll be playing even more of a defensive midfielder role than he has done in previous years, and that could well suit his game. I'd prefer to see a decent CM signed, if not Schneiderlin and Cork as the first choice duo, but Hammond could still do a job even as 3rd / 4th choice.

He may not be a Teddy Sheringham, but there are definitely a good deal of parallels between Lambert and Peter Crouch. And Crouch doesn't seem to have done too badly at club or international level. And there were at least 3 or 4 strikers in the Premier League in the last season alone who got into double figures of goals and didn't rely on pace as one of their main attributes.

I doubt it very much. The BBC do have a good amount of form in presenting a pre-conceived idea from rather flimsy evidence, but there really are some cases when the camera doesn't lie. The monkey chants at the two black players walking past and the attacking of riot police inside the stadium were very poor in themselves. What shocked me almost as much as the beating of the asians (whether it was indeed racially provoked or not) was how all the stewards treated it completely at arm's length; they did pretty much nothing to stop it, which in itself suggests an area of massive concern of how they police and control their stadiums out there. All I know is that I'm glad I'm not going out there. It may well all turn out rosy and not be anywhere near the levels of violence some are fearful of, but I would not be willing to take that risk knowing what I know and having seen what I've seen, in this documentary and countless other archive material.

I definitely wouldn't say Lambert can't do that. In first season in particular he was good at running the channels, and had a decent cross on him when required. Pardew and Adkins just recognised that RL was much, much more of a threat closer to the box, both for making chances for himself, bringing team mates into the games, or picking up fouls. RL's ability to do all of that has pretty much defined the way we've played in recent years; and rightly so given how successful he's been at it. I imagine the idea of running the channels has largely been coached out of him while with us, in favour of doing what he's best at in central positions.

The biggest difference for me will be the distinct reduction in the amount of Saturday 3pm games. I'm interested to see just how many times we'll play at home for that day and time. I know that the next TV deal will have even more games being shown on TV, meaning that the average club will be on TV 3 times out of 5 games.

There you go! I'm pretty sure rebranding it doesn't change the fact that we've been trying to do that for decades! I can remember going to see Saints teams with the 3 Wallace brothers, Shearer, MLT, Benali, Dodd etc etc. But no; its the revolutionary Southampton Way.