The Kraken

Seriously, where has anyone said this? Pretty much everyone recognises that we would be a better squad with Antonio in it rather than not. But I disagree with you; I believe that it is negative to state that the squad is significantly weaker for the loss of two bit part players, especially when (as I've outlined above) we have also gained so much in other areas. And doubly so given that AP has stated he still wants to bring in new players. It comes down to this; would we have a better squad with Antonio and Waigo in it? Yes. Have the new players signed added to the quality of the squad? Yes. We may have lost two previous options at right midfield but we also now have more options at right back, left back, left midfield, plus an exciting prospect at right wing who could turn out to be every bit as influential as Antonio was. And a stated desire from the manager to find another player for right wing. If that happens to take a few more weeks then, while not being ideal, there should be no excuses for the players we already have being able to cope more than adequately until then.

This is exactly right. No-one disagrees with the fact that the departures of Antonio and Waigo have diminished our attacking options in one respect. However, it seems to be completely missed that we have also: Signed Dickson who looks like a real prospect in midfield; Got Lee Holmes back to provide more options on the left; Have Joseph Mills who, judging by reviews of yesterday's game, seems to be ready to step up to the mark in midfield; Have Butterfield who, notwithstanding his hat-trick for Palace as an emergency striker, has played a significant amount at right midfield. Have Oxlade-Chamberlain who sounds as if he is right out of the same "impact player" mould as Antonio; Have a fit Connolly back to provide the attacking option we didn't have for a large part of last season. Antonio's impact will of course be missed; but let's not forget that we have also gained in a number of other areas too, and AP has stated he still wants to bring in more players.

Dear me; you're criticising a third tier football club for not having an Alan Ball quality of player in their ranks. Great analogy there. And you seem to be massively missing the point from the game; it seems we learnt much more than you'd credit us for: that before we gave a load of youngsters a run out we more than matched a top level Championship club. That a Saints team without the talismanic Rickie Lambert can adapt and still look very threatening; that shorn of arguably our 4 most influential players we were still able to put out a team that performed very well against a team from the division above. Add in the signings that AP has already stated he intends to make and yesterday's game does nothing but reinforce my opinion that we will be a very strong team this season.

Would be quite surprised if he dropped down as far as League One; I'd have thought that at least a Championship club or even a low end Prem club might take a punt with him. Would be quite a coup if we were to get him.

I agree with that. But I just got the impression from an early time that Reading were very keen to give him a go in pre-season and make the decision from there. And by all accounts he did well for them when he has played, so the chances of them wanting to let him go must have slimmed an awful lot, they wouldn't get a lot of money for him and he's probably on low wages so it's not really a gamble for them. I've still been hoping that they'd decide he's surplus to requirements but its looking less and less likely, even more so with notching today.

Why would he agitate for a move to a lower league club? Especially if he has the confidence in himself that he'll break through into the first team. Much better on a personal level to do that in the Championship than in League One.

Christ, that's arguably our 4 most important players out injured. Hope it's just a precaution for next week otherwise we're going to really struggle.

True. Anyway, as I've perviously said I'm well beyond where I'd like to be without the full facts, and I'm sure they'll come out eventually.

I fail to see the connection though DD; surely by that rationale the club would also be looking to cut out the likes of DBP who made money from his coach scheme. Then you're getting into the fellas on street corners who sell flags and merchandise, where does it end? Like I said, I would very much agree with you if that was definitely the reason NI is unable to get a season ticket. But surely, even if it were the case, why the veil of secrecy whereby they won't even tell him why he is excluded? That on its own makes little sense to me, whatever the reason ends up to be.

This is massive speculation on my behalf, granted, but if he has not been allowed to buy a season ticket why should he be any moe successful trying to buy a matchday ticket? Anyway, I'm getting well beyond where I wanted to be without being in posession of the full facts.

If that were indeed the reason for this, then I would of course agree with you. I just don't think it is though, and is more a reflection of his previous article(s) about the club.

I think the whole point of this is precisely that he can't do this.

I think this sorry episode again highlights the major communications breakdown inherent at the club. The club are seemingly intent on putting up a huge barrier between themselves and the fan base, whereby the only conduit of information comes through the official site. Previously supporters were able to contact individual staff members directly for answers to personal or public questions, this is now seemingly being severely restricted. Akin to the Daily Echo ban, this smacks of bitterness and supreme pettiness by SFC.

Just another talking shop for the same old faces to get their oxygen of publicity. No thanks.

There are and can be no excuses for the season ahead; a substantially slow start to the season will be met with criticism of the manager and team, and rightly so.

First of all I don't believe friendly results are meaningless; while I also don't believe they're hugely important, I do think there is definitely some significance to putting together a good win/performance or two to get the team into the right mentality. I'd certainly much rather we won all our pre-season games than lost them, that's for sure. That said, I can also see the separation between the "lack of pre-season" last year and the comparisons to this year. Last year was seen as a lack of pre-season as most of our current players did not arrive until the season was underway; similarly AP only had 3 or 4 weeks to work with the squad prior to the big kick off. This season, while results are below par of what we hope for, the fact is that the players have had a reasonable amount of time with the manager and each other to prepare for the season ahead; so even despite the fact that the results aren't yet up to scratch, I can go along with the argument that all the other pre-season training with the bulk of the squad is still taking place. I have always maintained though that if we got into August without being very close to the full squad for the season ahead I'd start to get concerned. Yes, I know that the window is open until the end of August and beyond for loans, but I still think we're 3 players short for the whole campaign, and the injuries to Lallana and Punch show how light we are in those areas. So I'm hoping to see at least 1 signing by the end of the week to start to address this. Our first XI is still perfectly good enough to kick off the campaign, but it would be nice to have the backup in place with the squad before long.

Without knowing what wages he was on it's hard to say what he'd be looking for. That said, he may have completely had enough of living in a foreign country and be willing to take a significant step down in wages just to return. I'd certainly like to see him sign, but won't be holding out too much expectation for it. Think he's probably a shade below Premier League level now but could easily do a job in the Championship.

“It's not been until now, the third week into July, that I have been able to begin to make discussions and contact with potential new clubs" Yet another example of how, as much as we would all like them to be made earlier, not all transfers can be conducted by the first week in June.

Agree, but as AP has been beating the drum since close season about his desire to bring in a new striker as cover for RL and a new wide man I tend to discredit the theory that he's only now just realising we're a bit short in these areas. I still also believe we'll make use of the loan system so unfortunately may not complete all the signings we probably need until beyond the season gets underway. But as long as the majority of our players are available for Plymouth I'm confident we can get through those first few games with few troubles until the final reinforcements arrive.

“The next couple of weeks I would look to bring in a couple of players if I can to strengthen us offensively a bit.” Tick tock, tick tock. Without Lallana and with Puncheon doubtful we really are shorn of a lot of our attacking threat. Need to sort this asap, which I'm sure we will.

Last year Alpine predicted we would finish 16th - 18th. Being as this year he thinks we'll do worse, I can only surmise we're going to have a relegation dogfight on our hands this year.

Alpine's wind ups are getting worse and worse.

Spot on.

We get the message FFS.

Yet an unfortunate Crystal Palace second string side (in all likelihood sober and disease-free) lost 2-1 to the same Sutton Utd team last week.