Whitey Grandad

The quality of the players who may be on show affects the decisions made by those who are considering buying tickets for the matches. Evidently there are several thousand who don't want to pay to watch a reserve team.

Not yet, but give it time.

LOL, that's the first laugh I've had all day

I think you'll find that we managed it all by ourselves with no outside help.

When the stadium announcer says: 'for the benefit of the players, here are the names of the crowd'. (Well we ought to have the complete set)

He's just got a new contract, he can do what he likes for the next 3 years.

I sit in the mid-Kingsland and I could see clear daylight between both defenders and Pekhart, no trips or pushes, and if it had been one of their fellows we would all have been p!ssed off if a penalty had been given.

Some pictures from half-time: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/picture.php?albumid=13&pictureid=11 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/picture.php?albumid=13&pictureid=10 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/picture.php?albumid=13&pictureid=9

I thought the defence had a much better shape, allbeit against a very poor Barnsley side, and they say that you should never argue with a clean sheet, but the passing in the rest of the pitch was unbelievably poor. Before the game I was trying to decide which would be the better result, 0-0 or 2-2? Now I'm too depressed to care.

I agree with all of that. It saved me having to write an essay. I think you've been very generous with DMG. He's lucky to get 0 in the poll. It just shows what happens when you sign a new contract.

Do you 'mean who said it' or 'who should we have appointed'? Well I was one of those who questioned the wisdom of having an inexperienced manager and an inexperienced team.

Quite right. When Jan was appointed there were many who questioned why we were getting someone who knew nothing about the English football scene and had no contacts within the game.

It's so depressing saying 'I told you so'

Not even close. For the one in the second half he tried to force himself between two defenders and then fell over.

Whilst I was sitting there bored stiff this afternoon I was thinking of all the other things that I could have been doing instead. I've got a yogurt in the fridge that's reached its sell-by date. I could have had that

... there are still some paper towels left at the end of the game. (What's your version?)

I paid a lot of money for my tickets and I want to see him play at SMS.

That was an away game, but I was there too. This was worse, at least we had the pitch to blame.

You are joking, right? That was the worst Saints game that I have ever witnessed, although there was one Wednesday night at the Dell against West Ham that came close.

Ta for that. Bale & Walcott have worked out at less than that because of the early payment settlements,so we are looking at about £23m to £24m. The next question is how much does the academy cost to run? Then there are the secondary effects, e.g. does trying to develop these youngsters by playing them in the first team have a detrimental effect on the playing performances in the league? Would it be better to form a settled first team from a variety of sources?

A bad salesman always wants to reduce his prices. What they should be doing is giving better value for the money.

Needs a rest after half a dozen games? There's another 40-odd to go! I will say this for him, though. He never hides if anything goes wrong and is always looking for the ball.

That seems a lot. Care to elaborate?

You're sharp :smt058

All very noble sentiments providing: a) we survive in the short term b) the team will improve in the long term. Maybe this is as good as they get.......?