The Kraken

The saga is set to rumble on!

Or is the main question do we really want to turn away the chance of signing a player who just had a major influence on a team romping away with the title in the league we're about to play in? In favour of an unknown central defender from the Swiss league, or keeping faith with our own stalwart who is about to turn 36 years of age.

I'm just heading off down to the ground to see if I can sneak in; I'll post updates from inside St. Mary's if I can.

Let's hope he's slightly better / more committed than the last Jelle we bought.

I think you know full well that's not what I'm suggesting. I take your point that if he did lift from that other site (which appears very likely) he should not pass it off as his own, or "having a source". But if it's just a lift from another site, and actually has information regarding three transfers which, lets face it, have a better chance than not of actually happening (particularly Jemal and Puncheon), I really don't see the harm of it. It would be a bloody boring forum if this type of discussion was banned.

Do you think that's the first time you've been described as interesting AND plausible?!

Fine, you may not like it. And maybe Shane is pasting from that website, maybe he isn't. I don't read websiotes like that, so if something is on there and it seems in some small way to be plausible, I don't think it's too much out of the usual to post it on here. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. There's no problem in highlighting that the OP has just cut and pasted from another site. But why go overboard, throw your toys out of the pram and demand that the thread be "locked immediately". Some people enjoy reading it, even if we know that it's probably 99% rubbish. And if it turns out to be true (which these things actually sometimes do) then we've all learnt something in advance.

Exactly. I really don't understand why people get so precious about this. This isn't the OS, where only factual information gets posted. Its a message board for passing on rumour and conjecture, no matter how believable or otherwise. I think I'm intelligent enough to take everything at face value until it's confirmed without having the Saints Web white knights ride to my rescue and point out the flaming obvious.

And if you're wrong I assume you'll issue a full apology and retraction?

Get a backbone for Christ's sake. Boo hoo, he's raised my hopes unnessarily, I'm completely incapable of understanding the difference between an internet rumour and fact. Ridiculous.

And he likely will, as much as possible. You could even argue that the first of the 45 minutes sides from Saturday was significantly stronger than the other and had very much the air of a starting line-up about it. But I really don't understand this critiscism of playing all the players for 45 minutes for the first few pre-season games. Pretty much all other teams do it. Take a look at Chelsea's preparation from last pre-season, and you'll see no players getting much more than 45 minutes until the game before the Charity Shield. A quick look at line-ups from teams from the games played around ours on Saturday show exactly the same thing at this stage of pre-season; Liverpool's game at Hull on Saturday, they did the same as us and made 11 changes at half time. I expect the WBA game will again be much the same, then the final pre-season game will be focused on the starting XI.

This isn't exactly true. Yes, the club banned Nick from having an ST last year, and that was a stupid and unneccessary decision. This season, even Nick himself doesn't know if he can have an ST or not. He hasn't tried to buy one, and apparently won't until the club come forward and let him know that he can officially have one. The club haven't done this, but nor have they said they won't let him have one. Until he actually tries to by a season ticket then no-one knows if there is indeed a continued ban.

Until it actually impacts the club, and until it looks like we're struggling to buy players, I'll remain disinterested by talk of how much Cortese earns. £650K per year is peanuts compared to some players' salaries in this division. Even if he halved his salary, what is £300K going to get us in the transfer market? We've had a £3M+ bid accepted this summer, so I don't think money is a problem. Also, it's a good idea to check the facts before making an accusation that Cortese did this after Markus died, and without his consent. The accounts in question are up to the end of June 2010.

You'd have thought they could have given Steve Williams and Peter Osgood the same shirts as everyone else.

He could yet become the 21st century's Frankie Bennett, if he works hard enough.

Playing against Birmingham, and the chorus of "Small town in Villa, you're just a small town in Villa" went up. I think that signalled the end of my Northam days. Apparently it was also repeated when playing against Man United with "Small town in City.....".

"We're by far the greatest team the world has ever seen." We really aren't.

And the cost of an envelope, of course. I want my 6p Cortese, damn you!

It's freepost.

That's your opinion, but ultimately completely irrelevant as it's what Chamberlain wants that is driving this. He has stated that he wants to emulate Walcott and Bale. Both of them moved to big clubs. Neither of them were loaned out at any stage. Both of them took a while to break through into the side to the first team. Both have made a significant impact since they did. That is EXACTLY what Chamberlain sees himself doing. His problem here is that he is not as in in-demand as Bale and Walcott were; tehre was a clamour to get their signatures so we could get a great deal for them. That's not happening right now, so Chamberlain is trying to invigorate interest himself. I think the price tag is putting a lot of clubs off, and there is a huge disparity between what he is worth to another club to buy him and the potential value he could be to us in a year or two. I think it would be best for Saints if he stayed for another year, but not necessarily for the player if he can engineer a move to a club of his choice.

Has it been released what number he'll be given yet?

Considering we had the Billy Sharp episode fall through I'm not sure Adkins would agree with you. Add a striker and I think that'll be it.

If (big if) the Tunisian lad is about to be unveiled, then that's a massive hats off to the club. Both young, and very highly rated, as with Jack Cork. Add in a new striker and it would be a very good summer for transfers (even if AOC does go).

That logo looks worse and worse the more I see it.

Good work woody, sir.