Cabrone

Mark Wright came from Oxford for next to nothing and went on to be England CH.

Yes, for me one of the most overrated players we've ever signed. Was expecting great things and with the exception of one brilliant game against Spurs in the cup he under delivered. Will always remember his sit down tantrum on the touch line at Fulham. THis thread shows that despite always having tight budgets we've really spanked a lot on 'big name' duds up and down the years.

Probably but if they got into Europe via the PL at least they would be able to hold their heads up high and know they got there by actually being good! At the moment they sneak in on false pretences, get kicked out almost instantaneously by some dodgy euro team and then sit around till the next chance comes along, normally during the next season. Would also give us a chance to kick their arrogant butts every now and again .

I'd personally have them in as I think it would add a bit of extra spice to the English leagues and completely level out the SPL but they'd have to start at champ or below. Judging from some of their arrogant comments towards us I also think they'd have an almighty shock. Also looking at the size of the SPL it seems that an automatic champs league place for the winner is very generous (Rangers and Celtic have a 50:50 chance every year) when compared to the 4 that the PL gets. How about the SPL winners having to playoff against 5th place in the prem for that final champs league spot?

Never mind, we're still top and Hooper will be off just as soon as a half decent prem outfit come sniffing. Best of luck to the reasonable Celtic fans, the rest of the pompous asses who have done nothing but disrespect my club can Foxtrot Oscar. I'm sure the Don still has a few more Irons in the fire and there's still an exiting season that needs completing.

Just had a look at the SPL and it really is a tiny tiny league. Take out Rangers\Celtic and the highest average attendance is Hearts with 13,441. That would put them 18th in the Champ (between Burnley and Bristol C). 7 teams (out of 12) get lower attendances than ANY championship club and all but the top 3 get less than 10k per game. Bottom is St Johnstone with 3,918 (lower than almost half of league 2 teams). Outside of the old firm + Hearts every SPL team would have a tough time in the champ and quite a few of them would even find league 1 tough. Just to show how lopsided it is Celtic (49,426) and Rangers (45,493) average over 30,000 more per game than ANY other club in that league. I thought the prem was bad but it's positively fair and balanced compared to the SPL. Just imagine if we played in the SPL.....it'd be regular Euro football for us. Unfortunately unlike Celtic we have the misfortune of having to compete in proper football leagues. PS: We average 26,097. Championship Stats SPL Stats

Great win and performance by the sounds of it. Needed to get back to winning ways ASAP. Outside of the obvious challengers look out for Brum, 6-0 winners at Millwall and getting a strong run going. Just glad we've already got 10 points on them.

Sorry but I disagree - £10M would be way too much for a striker thats not played in a top flight league (SPL is not top flight IMO) and is still untried against the best. A £10M player should be a tried and tested player. £6M + Puncheon would be as far as I'd go.

Totally agree and that's the angle I would have thought NC would be taking, plus there's obviously the NA connection. Hooper can play in Scotland infront of massive (home) crowds and get the adulation for banging them in week after week against modest opposition but if he has ambition - and I assume he has be accepting Celtic in the first place - he's going to want to play in the PL. Celtic\Rangers are big clubs - no one is denying that - but they will be forever stunted in a league that they have easily outgrown. I also agree on the 2nd point, I'd love to see Rangers and Celtic come into the English leagues, maybe at Champ level. I think they'd add a bit of extra spice. I'd also love to see a team from Dublin created and entered into the English leagues. I think they would get massive support + it would make for some very colourful away games.

No denying that Celtic are a big club (in turns of fans) but if he stays there he'll never get any decent top flight experience outside of a couple of Champ league games per season against lesser european teams. Not saying he'd come to us but if he has any ambition he'll be making a path for the prem sooner rather than later. Being as Adkins knows the player and that we are top of the champ a bid from us is reasonable, tough if Celtic fans don't like it but the champ is probably better than their league. Until (if) they get out of the Scottish leagues the Celtic fans just have to suck it up.

Dean Richard(s) Mark Dennis

Couple of decent goals for Wycombe on the YouTube link, looks like a fairly direct player with an eye for goal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3gI1IkEuXc

Well we lost at home, was going to happen some day and yesterday was the day. It's been an amazing 2011 and one that every Saints fan needs to lock away in the memory as it's unlikely that we'll have as good a year as this for a long time. We are now at the half way mark with an amazing opportunity to get out of this league at the first time of asking, if we don't grasp it now who knows when the chance will come again? However the fact that teams are starting to suss us out now means we face a pivotal moment in the season. We need to up our game - our creative players like AL, RL, SDR, Guly and DC need to find a new dimension to overcome the closing pack and the whole team has to go into every game like its a cup final. We need some new pace up front and a good GK (no disrespect to Kelvin but he isn't getting any younger). We also need Chaplow back ASAP, he's a real beating heart in the centre of the park and has been sorely missed. Despite the knee jerk doom mongers on here it's all very much still to play for, top 2 is realistically up for grabs but I think we need to step up now. I hope that Brizzle last night was the shock to the system, the kick in the nether regions that we needed to push on. Come on Saints - it's still in your hands but you need to react fast if you want that top 2.

Simeon Jackson and Wayne Bridge + a decent keeper.

He's the dominant part of the best defensive partnership we've had since Killer\Claus. Jos plays the Killer role whilst Jose is more Claus like IMO. If we get to the prem I'd like to see them kept together, I think they could be good enough. Plenty of loud mouths on here must have swallowed a humble pie or two over this particular signing .

I like Guly, he's the type of player that can win you a match with a second of skill BUT you have to know when and when not to play him. Today's game was one that he should not have played in IMO - we needed a more determined player, Guly was never going to get the space he needs This was more of a game for Barnard or SDR.

Just watched the highlights and that looked as bad a performance from a GK as I've seen, the defence must have been quite stressed playing infront of someone having a mare on that scale. The thing is I've seen Bart play much much better than that so I can't put it down to him being a poor keeper as my own experience tells me otherwise. Looks like Nige needs to get to work on his psychology ASAP because that performance was worse than rustiness.

Can't help but think that Donny, like Brizzle are a better team than their position would suggest as both have some decent players despite having dodgy starts to the season. Not excusing the results and not saying that I'm not disappointed but both teams won't be the roll-overs that the table would suggest from now on in. However I'd like to see us being a bit braver on the road by not just packing our midfield with defensive players and putting 1 up front. Guly was always going to be up against it on his own with little support. Had we rocked up at Donny with a more attacking line up then I think we would have got at least a draw so come on Saints!!

Using 3 defensive CMs and Guly up front on his own is always going to be seriously deficient in firepower. Not surprised we didn't look close to scoring. Guly is not an effective lone striker even with decent support let alone with an all defensive midfield. Not saying he's bad, far from it but he needs another CF to play off. If available Chaplow and Lambert would always be in my first 11 but being as they were out maybe a better formation than yesterday would have been a 4 man midfield(2 from Cork\Hammond\Scneiderlin) with Barnard up front and Guly sitting in the MLT position just behind. Need to beef up our scoring prowess for the next away game.

I actually think having WHU breathing down our necks is a positive as it should spur both teams on and hopefully keep the chasing pack at bay. Anyone who says they aren't bothered about winning the league is kidding themselves, I'd absolutely love to win the league but of course top 2 is the priority.

Great win against a decent team. Especially pleasing as we had to come back from behind, shows a bit of grit and character. Come the start of December we'll still be top of the table with a healthy cushion and a fantastic chance of an auto place. Wow - still can't quite believe it!

Ah well, shame as I think he would have been a great backup for Rikky. Best of luck at the Blades.

I think BCs league position is a bit false and Maynard is coming back on form so it was always going to be a tough one. My preseason hope was an outside shot at play offs and we are currently exceeding that by a country mile so I'm just putting it down as one of those days. Be interesting on Tuesday as Hull are a decent side and will punish us if we don't show 100%.

Gut feeling is that this one is going to be a tear up. I'll go with 4-3 to us but could go either way TBH. Whatever the score I fancy a few goals (probably going to be a 0-0 now!)

If you want a direct cover for Rikky till the end of the season that won't cost much I'd invite BT in for a trial. If we were to end up getting promoted then I'd start looking at prem standard players.