SNSUN

Not a fan of Reading. Full of plastic fans who have only become interested in them since they've become "successful". Last season especially, and some of my friends are guilty of this. Just because they were born raised on the border of Berkshire makes them Reading fans, despite none of them showing an interest in football before (although I shouldn't moan too much about that, I wasn't born or raised in Hampshire...). Funnily enough they've gone a bit quiet this season. I shouldn't hate them, the Reading owner is an old school mate of mine, and my first Saints game I saw was at Elm Park, I just do. The Pompey rivallry means less to me as I'm not a local boy, but 24 years as a Saints fan has it ingrained in me now.

It depends if we really want to challenge next year, we need to keep all our best players and add to them. Ergo no amount of money would be enough. We don't want to become a selling club again, undergoing heartache whenever a player gets good enough that a big club wants them. If the player's head gets turned it could prove tricky, but he's under contract and any team wanting him would have to play top dollar. Of course, if we go down (touch wood) it's all a moot point anyway.

Saints Alive! (But quite a few are also dead) - a quality book title you'll agree! Not fussed with the title - been looking forward to it since you mentioned it Duncan. All The Saints is probably the best, because it is about All The Saints.

Oddly winnable, but I'd take a point if you offered it to me now. 32 points - and possibly 2 wins from safety...

This you, Phil? :-)

It was a terrible game really, this is a "competition" and there just isn't any playing teams like that. Kudos for a professional job by England though, but I still reckon we could've got a few more with different personnel. Baines and Walker were good at full back though. Ox-C had a good first half too. This reminds me of a school match I played in, our 4th XI vs another school's first XI. There'd been an error in the fixture arrangement. I was a back up for the 3rd XI (right back/emergency keeper) and when this 4th XI game was announced, my mate, the 3rd XI captain, appointed me captain of the 4ths. We were a team made up of choirboys, rejects, people that had never played football before, fat people and Americans. There were 11 of us, no subs, and I had to persuade the 11th member of our team to play in football boots 2 sizes too small for him. Our keeper had no gloves, didn't speak much English, and most of the time didn't know he could use his hands. We lost 10-1. I maintain that had I not been at centre back, the score would've been worse.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/huddersfield_town/8130763.stm "It is understood that Town's new board are concerned over his possible resale value at the end of his contract when he would be 30 years old." Best million quid we've ever spent. A gamble, perhaps, but one we were financially more willing to take. And boy has it paid off. I doubt we'll ever get such a return from a £1million transfer again, surely? RLGM legend.

Poor goalscoring record or not - consider him an upgrade to De Ridder, and it makes the transfer seem that much better.

Irrepective of what happened then, he's proved himself invaluable to us since then. He's got years of play left, and is Premier League quality. Sign him up.

So like Brangelina, do they have a conjoined name? Is it Spudsy? Or Beargun?

It's not cover for the announcement he's joining the full England squad tomorrow... is it? ;-)

That's just it - whatever the final table and wherever we finish, it won't be justification for how good our current team really is. So many factors have made us more positive this season - the discovery of Shaw and of how good he really is, finding a keeper that can actually earn us points rather than lose us them, seeing us solidfy much more when Cork came back into the side, seeing Jos improve as the season has gone on, playing more direct, pressing football under Pochettino, seeing our lower league players step up and prove themselves Premier League quality. If we go down, God forbid but it may still happen, surely this will be one of the better teams ever to slump out of the division. I don't think it'll come to that though. One win for the rest of the season though - I'd be surprised if it were that few.

Ignore us - if you offered that final table to Newcastle, they'd rip your balls off for it! I can see them picking up a few points, they won't be in the relegation mix for sure, but that would be an impressive end to the season for them! After seeing them against Wigan though, they were poor - Wigan were the better side, and so I can also see them dropping silly points. Wigan's performance on Sunday, coupled with Aston Villa's recent form, if what gives me the most concern about our own predicament. If both keep those performances up, the final points total could be a lot higher than we think - and ergo could drag those clubs that are on 33-34 points into the mix.

Shows how Chelsea's form has slumped off. They were leading the race at the start of the season.

Spurs are after him as a ready made replacement for Bale. Well they can knob off. As can the others. Yes I can see big clubs wanting him, and perhaps his head will turn, but we'll really challenge next season if we stay up and reinforce. We're where we are in the League table this year because it took us a while to find our feet in the division, new players hadn't bedded, we missed players like Cork, and we had to wait a while to find a decent Keeper and Left back. We now have both - and with even more reinforcements in the summer, I fail to see why we can't be a challenging top 8 side next season. But that would mean keeping our youngsters like Shaw. How much money would tempt Cortese? Hopefully none. There are perhaps one or two crown jewels we could afford to sell if we had to, Ramirez for one, (perhaps even Lambert and Cork if the money was ridiculous) and find good or better replacements for, but players like Shaw, Clyne, Morgan and Adam are who we should be building the team around. Incidentally, I was going to post this on a seperate thread but as Shaw has this one, could you see us converting Shaw into a winger as Spurs did with Bale? Granted he's more valuable to us as a left back, but with his attacking play and crossing, I could see it happen as an option.

Because we were in the Championship. Fox is better going forward but Harding was the better defender. Thank God we promoted Shaw when we did, he's been exceptional. A new left back much needed in the summer. The others I'd keep, but I think Sharp will probably be off anyway.

(In Will Smith accent) "Awwwww HELL NO." The others I perhaps agree with, unless better reinforcements can be made, but I'd rather no back up left back than Fox. I'd rather play Jos or Forren at left back. Or Seaborne. Or my wife. Ok perhaps not her, but you get the gist. Even Harding would have been better back up than Fox. I loathe knocking a Saints player but Fox is not Premier League quality and never will be.

Haha! Brilliant drama at Ewood Park. To be fair, that's the best decision they've made all season, but it does counteract the stupid one they made when they appointed him. Perhaps now clubs will see him for the defensive, long merchant he is. Plus he looks like Chuck Rock. Blackpool had a lucky escape.

Great appointment for Reading if so - all I hear on places like TalkSport is fans of nPC sides saying "If we sack our manager, I hope we go for Adkins" so his reputation goes before him. Not such a great choice for Adkins if it happens, he'll have a Premier League relegation on his CV despite not being the one that caused it, and though Reading have a bit of money behind them now, I can't see them bouncing straight back up if they go down. Still whatever happens, fair play to them and him, and best of luck, except, of course, against us!

I said they could be relegated - mathmatically they can - I then went on to debunk why they wouldn't. We have goals in us, which is perhaps why we won't go down - but I've just seen Sunderland's fixtures again - they need their big players to really step up. Villa are also surprising me at present - I have them to go down with Reading and QPR but Saturday's win for them was massive - and Benteke as their best player has really stepped up with their goalscoring, and they've looked better since young Sylla has come into the team. Fair play to Lambert if he keeps them up.

JRod, Ramirez and Lallana are currently the preferred trio - I think it's as simple as that. Guly cam on the other day but I think that was more to do with his height if anything. Puncheon still has a big role to play for us, but even my preferred 3 would be JRod, Ramirez and Adam. No disrespect to Puncheon, who has been excellent this season - but Adam is back from injury now and is playing well, Rodriguez is on form and Ramirez is hard to drop because of his price tag and potential quality. If anything it's good to have the competition for places, and Mayuka isn't even getting a look in.

Weirdly, that could still keep us up, if Wigan gain no more than 3 points...

I still think anyone from Stoke downwards could still be relegated. A good win for Fulham against Spurs has probably sealed them another season in the Prem. Some people are saying it's 3 teams from 6; I think it'll be Reading, QPR and one from the bottom ten in the table. I agree with the above - Sunderland are looking very suspect. Wigan are masters of getting out of trouble, I think we have enough about us to look up rather than down, and Norwich and Newcastle shouldn't have any worries either. Stoke usually grind results out annoyingly, as do West Ham. It'll be an interesting couople of months. Incidentally I've just been looking at other teams' forums. The contrast between QPR's and Reading's is very strange - despite being on the same points, Reading fans are full of acceptance of relegation, whilst QPR fans are whooping and claiming they'll staying up whilst reciting Arry's "5 more wins" philosophy. Deluded.

March 30 Chelsea (H) Win April 6: Reading (A) Win April 13: West Ham (H) Win April 20: Swansea (A) Draw April 27: West Brom (H) Win May 4: Tottenham (A) Lose May 12: Sunderland (A) Win May 19: Stoke (H) Win Overconfident? :-D 9 more points and we're safe IMO. 3 wins. That should be doable, even if we have to beat Stoke on the last day. Will it come to that? Hope not.