angelman

Will Shaw be a LB or will he develop like Bale (which I think he will)?

Afraid you are wrong there. There have been many famous players emerging from the favelas who have ALWAYS inspired the inhabitants, and will do so much more than tourists visiting there. Favelas and football are very close - here's an article that might interest you. http://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/world-cup-2014/politics-in-brazil/the-favela/

I am in two minds about Gerry's mullet.

So what is the point of supporting a team other than those who populate the top 5 or 6 places in the Premier League? The remaining 86 or 87 clubs in the league are just a waste of time.

Yeah, I read on a forum quite recently that Gerry Francis has been mentioned.

Unfortunate, but there was no intent to be disrespectful and football players aren't generally renowned for their diplomatic or oratorical skills.

CB, I grew up here and have no desire or interest in living in Alderley Edge. Nor nailing dyed blondes from Chester - Bournemouth's foreign language students would be fine or a short jaunt up to London. But....if I loved Saints and we had finished 8th, would I be off? Or would I want to hang around and get Saints higher, or rather, try to get them higher? Thinking that 8th is the best it can get is rather defeatist and lacking in ambition.

LOL - bloody predictive text. For Toshak (sic) it put in Goshawk - saw that one but missed the Kidman/Koeman!

There are obvious problems with playing for the team you love. Firstly you have to be good enough. Then, if you are good, the club has to be good enough for you, unless your feeling for the club is stronger than a desire to move away. So looking at the top 4, there aren't that many who are good enough to come through the ranks. Giggs is an obvious example of someone who was good enough, and who was at a club that he supported as a kid and met his expectations. We support Saints, and I am presuming that most are like me, and if I was good enough to play football, I would want to play for Saints and no one else (in this country). Money might well come into it, but if the top earners at the club are on £65k a week, then if I got that, then I am sure that I wouldn't feel too poor! Would I turn down an extra £35k a week? Love of club vs an extra £1.8m - £3.4m vs £5.2m? Then there is the question of ambition, which people seem to have gotten all wrong. What is more ambitious - getting into CL and maybe winning it with Manchester United or Southampton?

Can it wait until the Season Tickets get sent out so we can burn them?

Kidman, De Boer, Tinkerman, Bruce, Toshak, anyone else? Are people just pulling names out of thin air (and/or Twitter)?

Sorry but I am a little lost with all the innuendo. It seems to be being made out that NC was feathering his own nest away from the club, rather than spending the money improving SFC. Is that really what people are intimating or have I got the wrong end of the stick? I understand the waste bit, but that's not really abusing trust if it is spent on the club.

Heard it announced early this morning (Alan Brazil's show) that he had signed for Stoke.

Although it remains to be seen what happens, it does seem that there has been many an underestimation of SFC and it's management. While big clubs may well be correct in their thinking that players will be attracted to them, the way they go about it is somewhat arrogant, although trying to get players as cheap as possible is of course good business practice. Seeing NC disappear and the club be taken back in hand by an owner who is a 36yo woman who seemingly has little interest in football might well be the natural conclusion. Appointing a hockey coach might even have reinforced this. But the club so far has been unwavering (and the sale of RL is a bit of a red herring) and has not kowtowed in the face of the "attacks" by bigger clubs, save for not being able to keep MP.

FIFA (or which ever FA it was) recently cracked down on some players for displaying t-shirts supporting Mandela and remembering Ataturk because of the political nature. Therefore they really should step in here. Here's a bit about them cracking down on ALL messages and not just religious/political http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/sports/soccer/story/1.2556340 . Will FIFA do anything......yeah right!

Did you know the Old Etonians have won the FA Cup more times than Saints have?

I have a naivety about things and can't see why we can't finish higher. When I think about it I know I am being ridiculous. Now I just want us to hold our own, be entertained and be respected for how we go about things. We got that this last season. Although having to be realistic about things, I think it overly defeatist to accept it as being immutable. As for supporting another team - pah. Never. Its Saints or nothing. Maybe the modern generation is even more fickle and can change allegiance at a whim. Maybe ticket prices are so high that they don't go to games so don't know what it is to support a local team. Sky has a part to play in this by offering a televised alternative and glamorising things so much that teams out of the PL are ignored. When I was growing up it was 3pm Saturday and MotD. I think the article and comments show who went to football pre PL and who didn't.

Love it, you take the players off because of the lightening but leave 20 odd thousand spectators there.

Yes. you want to borrow it?

If it is RK then losing MP won't (for the time being) seem a problem at all. Someone said some Spuds were saying that they would prefer RK to MP - is there a link to this?

on the poll I put Koeman as I can't see Zidane coming so put in a bit of realism.

Roy, failed Liverpool manager, seems to favour Liverpool. Wonder why?

Oh come off it. Surely everyone knows that football fans are a fickle bunch, and frankly given the courting of Liverpool, it is in my mind somewhat justified. Personally I don't begrudge him a move away, but there are ways and means of going about it.

I'd only welcome AL back if he shaved off that ridiculous facial growth which just makes him look a ****.

Moyes is the safe choice. I don't want safe & boring football. I want Koeman. I want Barcelona not Preston North End.