Whitey Grandad

Our neighbours to the east? I don't expect such a match any time soon.

I have spent quite a bit of time there and know some of the language and I have always found them pleasant to deal with. At first the cleanliness and regularity se ms quite appealing but after a while you long for a bit of u**** grass verge or some sign of eccentricity and it can come as a relief when you reach Germany. We can learn a lot from their design philosophy but we don't need to slavishly follow it. I didn't like the Midtjylland style of football though and wouldn't want to watch that every week but I always support any team that are playing Man Utd.

I don't think you'd get what you want for the amount that you'd get.

We can but hope

You hide it well.

Very good, but shouldn't it be: Boom boom boom boom!

That's uncanny! I didn't know that we had ever met

Games of football tend to be won by the team that wants it more. Cup games also depend on who you draw and how strong a team they put out, and whether you're playing at home.

Trust them to get an easy draw

Interesting comment during the Bournemouth game last Saturday to the effect that players often have injuries when changing clubs due to the different fitness regimes.

My sentiments too but I think we're going to need more than one goal, 3 maybe.

'Players they've retained' may be the important bit. Every time there's a turnover of players the performances usually suffer.

I only saw the highlights but what struck me about their goal was the awful shape of our defence with two centre backs hanging deep and wide open spaces on both flanks. To be honest, I didn't notice Maya make a mistake but I found it interesting that an 'independent' writer should have brought this up.

From the Sunday Times today: Just after the half-hour, Palace found a way through the massed ranks of green. The goal, not for the first time in Southampton’s season, stemmed from a mistake by Maya Yoshida. Exposed one-on-one against Bolasie, Jose Fonte had no chance and Cabaye was left with a tap-in from the cross. It was a simple goal, but well-worked and thoroughly deserved.

I rather suspect they're happy with the way things are going. Does anybody think they've got any chance of winning the thing and getting into next year's Champions League? Who'd have thought it.

Twenty years ago all this would have been discussed down the pub, now it can be done from your armchair, but you're right.

But that our next game will? What chance do you give us of winning this one?

Any player's value will reduce to zero at the end of their contract. You win some, you lose some, but it is rare that a player will increase in value during their time at a club.

But talk of two in a row is meaningless now that they've lost one. We are now down to the odds on the next match alone. It is the difference between a priori and a posteori, as I'm sure you well know. Of course, it could be argued that football matches are not random independent events but now that Tottenham have lost does that make it more or less likely that they will lose their next? Who would have predicted that we would go on a round of losses after such an unbeaten one?

That's not really relevant. Think of it as losing two out of sixteen, does that sound more likely?

The 2 games in a row is irrelevant now that they've lost one. It all comes down to the next 90 minutes.

I think you are getting hung up over the price we paid for Long, undisclosed but believed to be £12m. Don't forget that we also loaned Gastón to Hull a couple of weeks later and it is entirely possible that there was some agreement to this effect, thus offsetting part of the contract purchase price. The whole premise of this thread is that we could sell Long and replace him with somebody better and cheaper. I think that's unlikely.

That was then and this is now.