The Kraken

Damn that NickG. He's always trying to put a positive spin on things like new player transfers and our winning form. It brings me right down.

But who? Please tell me who you would buy, that we can afford and who would come to the club, that would offer us more in that position. Someone who will contribute more than 12 goals and however many assists, and who'll strike up a playing rapport with Harding. Really? What evidence? Wotton gets abuse because he is an extremely limited footballer who has put in a number of average and poor performances. I've had the misfortune to see many of them. This is in comparison to Lallana and Scheiderlin who, the odd poor performance aside, have put in a number of excellent performances. You may not rate these two; I really don't know why, but that's your opinion and you're entitled to it. To be fair, Wotton gets more abuse than he probably deserves, and there's no denying that on occasions he's done a decent job for the team. But to suggest that we're a better team without Lallana and/or Scheiderlin, and at the expense of Wotton, well I can't agree with any of that.

It seems that the only person comparing Lallana to MLT in this thread is you.

Sounds great; seems to be a striker in between the attributes of Lambert and Connolly. Gives us some real options up front now, and should take a bit of the burden away from Lambert. And for £200,000 (plus Pogo I guess), he's pretty cheap.

And he's certainly right; as most have suggested on this thread his performances of late have fallen short of the high standards he set for himself earlier in the season. But I'm pretty sure Pardew is suggesting that he's a much better player than we've seen of late, and is capable of playing a good deal better (and higher) than we're seeing now.

Yes mate, he clearly does a great job in the CCC. His 6 substitute appearances are testament to that, my mistake. Carry on.

What a bizarre comparison; Ryan Smith has not started one game for Palace this season, has only come on as sub in a handful, and has scored the grand total of zero goals. Lallana is now and will be in future capable of better than League 1. Not sure if he'll ever cut it at Premier level but he has more than enough about him now to be a consistently decent performer in the Championship.

You're clearly not a fan of Lallana. Others can see what he has got and think he's one of the first names on the team sheet, myself included. There's no doubt he's not hitting the heights as consistently as he was earlier in the season but he is still a good player and well worthy of his place. For me, I'd rather have an averagely performing Lallana in there than the complete hit and miss potential of Waigo and/or Antonio. I feel Lallana gives us more than those two in that he rarely gives the ball away, brings others into play very well and overall brings shape and balance to the whole left side, he's struck up an excellent partnership with Dan Harding. And I don't agree that his performances have lost sparkle compared to last season; if anything he's looking much better this season. It's easy to forget that he's still very young, and will have highs and lows in terms of performance. But I feel our team is worse off without him.

Exactly this. Just watched the highlights on SSN again. For the sending off, Morgan looked like he was going back to apologise for the tackle when Gleeson grabbed him by the throat. OK, Morgan shouldn't have pushed him in the neck, but it was a natural, instinctive reaction to shrug him off. Certainly not violent conduct. And for the Lloyd James booking; James comes in wagging the finger (a bit needless but harmless) and makes no physical contact with any player. Glesson runs up from behind him, places two hands on the back of his head and shoves him away. Yet its the player who made no physical contact with anyone that gets punished. Terrible refereeing.

We played Swindon in the 3rd league game of the season; I think the league table after 2 games is largely an irrelevance at that stage.

I could just do with a pack of Toffo's right now, haven't had them for years.

Any chance of making that picture any bigger?

A big sticking point of the crew reduction from 15 to 14 is that the cabin service directors – the most senior crew – are being asked to no longer just oversee the on-board staff, but to serve meals and drinks as well. So they're complaining about having to actually do their job. The last strike was a massive, massive over-reaction to what are clearly some sensible ideas by BA to actually begin to reign in their enormous running losses. Unite have just had their noses put out of joint as they weren't consulted on the changes in the first place and are only looking to demonstrate their power in being able to bring the company to its knees, rather than working with BA to find a practical and realistic solution.

As the article mentions, I don't think the vote will be anywhere near as unanimous as last time. The staff had no idea the strikes were going to be for so long, and would cause so much disruption over one of the busiest times of the year. Add to that the weight of public feeling about the whole spitefulness of it all. Unfortunately though, I still think they'll vote to strike as Unite just seem intent on causing maximum chaos in order to make a point, rather than to look for the most productive solution. They are the worst example of a union flexing it's muscles, badly advising its members and closing its eyes to the actual the bottom line; the company made a £400M loss last year and are clearly in need of massive change across the board.

I think 10th is too low for this season; at the moment we're only 4 points off of 10th place, and given our comparable form to those immediately above us we should eat into that pretty quickly. I still think the play-offs this season may end up being just out of reach, but I'm anticipating it will be touch and go right up to the last game of the season. Unfortunately I think we'll just miss out, and finish 7th. Next season we will be targetting, and will achieve, automatic promotion.

Don't be silly; their website says they've got 838 members.....

I think you might be making up quotes to suit your own agenda. This is a quote from Pardew when he took over... "Our immediate plan is get rid of this minus 10 points, then see how long we have got left. If it's three or four months we can have a go at the play-offs. I'm not aiming higher than that. " As far as I recall, that's the same rhetoric that Pardew kept preaching; that and the 5 year plan. As for your quote from Cortese, this was attributed to him at the start of the season... "Cortese's plan is for the club to win promotion from League One in two seasons and reach the Premier League in five years. He does not expect Liebherr to enjoy a return on his investment until the club returns to the top flight but reckons Saints can break even in the Championship. In the meantime, there are funds available for Pardew to mould his squad.

So in other words, if found guilty he'll just get a fine and a slap on the wrists. His mates in the media will bleat about what an injustice it all is to poor old 'Arry, salt of the earth guv'nor that he is. Then it'll all be swept under the carpet.

Yes, probably. You couldn't be more right. Definitely rubbish, and slow. Awful. I've never seen him play, and neither have you, but you seem to know your onions so I agree. The end is nigh, I tell thee. Pardew out.

Bloody hell, there really are some prize weapons on this board. Criticising a new signing while the ink is still dry; ridiculous. All this "I would have preferred to have seen Mills fill in at left back" is just rubbish. Pardew has seen Mills in training every day and clearly doesn't rate him as up to the job. Seaborne is 22, highly rated, cheap, and clearly one for the future. Not expected to be a first teamer straight away but clearly good enough for cover at CB or LB. Good signing IMO.

Try reading mine and Saint Mabes previous posts on this page.....

According to Roy Danns: Roy and Neil Danns are cousins. Neil Danns is mixed race. And the transfer is definitely on. Less certain was Roy's assertion that Neil will be signing forms in the pub, witnessed by Thai the pub dog wearing a full Saints kit...

I have heard the same, from an ITK at Palace. I guess we'll see how ITK he really is...

Give us a J......

I don't think that's ever really been in doubt. Some of the more impatient suggested that promotion via the playoffs this season should be achieved, which was/is eminently possible but not to be expected. But even before seeing the transfers that will go through in this window, I think you'd have been hard pushed to find someone who didn't think the top two next season is a more than realistic target. Given the money we're now looking to spend, anything less than top two next season would certainly be deemed a failure.