saint1977

Yes but that was the fully-funded academy, not the one of the last couple of seasons. Great insight though and I love the way Pardew is taking them to task. He's been used to good quality players and then he comes across the likes of Pulis and Lancashire - must be a shock. Still, Stern John sounds motivated and he will score lots at this level.

Good quality continental lager would keep well though. Anything is better than brewed-on-licence Carlsberg served from dirty lines!

Rasiak doesn't seem to be attracting much interest and does need to get fitter. If Pardew brings in 2 wingers with pace and a semi-decent delivery, he will score lots at this level though. They might not be pretty goals but that -10 will be history fairly quickly.

The Wykeham's is good from Itchen but the best one is Pure Gold - what a beer that is in the summer, loaded full of Cascade hops.

I'm thinking of doing the same Lee Saint, new people sometimes are receptive to different ideas early on in their regime. As for Copenhagen, the Carlsberg the locals get there is superb and bears no resemblence to the fizzy garbage "brewed" on licence in Northampton. The Carlsberg stout over there is particularly good.

It is decent stuff and Bitburger or Hofbrau are other options that I have seen at other major sporting venues (namely cricket). We'd sell more beer in the ground, I would be happy to pay 20-30p a pint more if it was a decent pint of the above.

Spot on. Dirty lines can really give you a dose of the plops as well. I never drink beer at SMS - that's what the Guide Dog is for (when I don't have to drive). I could be persauded to change my mind though - if the German markets can transport and serve high quality pilsner in December in the City Centre, surely caterers with braincells could do so at SMS?

Yes, and I have seen Charlton's unpleasant fans in action. I have also seen some of ours at away games in the past and cringed. I'm not associated with Charlton in any way but I just don't think it's fair to judge 20000+ of their fans on at most, 200 knobheads. I've been offered out by one of OUR cretins at the Reebok before for a remark the bloke in the row behind ACTUALLY made. Still, couldn't get this point across to the neanderthal carrot-cruncher who was so hard he offered me out holding a young child. Great parenting. Nevertheless, I know most Saints fans are not like that and have at least 2 brain cells.

Both of them were Dowie buys. Tony Cascarino - who does a lot of football media work in France - said at the time Charlton had paid at least double, and probably more, than Diawara was worth, hence Sochaux bit their hands off.

I think it explains his comments on joining us as a "stable club". West Ham was a circus at the time and Charlton's board were starting to turn on each other in a way that we are very familiar with as Saints fans. The one stable environment was Reading and he did well. It's a slightly risky pick - as WGS was - but I've a feeling it could be a shrewd one.

Hopefully it will be a repeat of the WGS scenario at Coventry and Pardew will be as determined as WGS was to repair his career. It is worrying but I trust the new owners. Charlton post-Curbishley was always going to be a tough gig and Dowie, Reed, Pardew and really Parkinson have all failed since. Bolton have never really got over Big Sam going.

Yes - they rebuilt that club from scratch after suffering asset-stripping on a scale that only compares with Brighton. They filled the Valley regularly and regularly gave the big clubs bloody noses. We always found it offensive when people challenged our right to be in the PL - they were there on merit same as Saints were and have since been on a similar journey downwards as well. There was no sugar-daddy and I'd much rather have Charlton back up there than plastic like Fulham, Pompey, Wigan etc.

Spot on. Some managers don't work well at certain clubs at certain times - Redknapp at Saints for example - and therefore the fans of that club are not going to wish that manager well wherever he goes without neccessarily bearing any malice to the club itself or it's fans.

Which will keep him well motivated. He'll be busy though, no honeymoon period as the squad is as thin as value brand toilet paper from Lidl which Pardew will already have noted. Expect quite an influx of players over the next few days.

Now there's a rivalry - Charlton - Gillingham. That's Charlton's real grudge game next year, Gills fans really do detest Charlton for those buses they ran when Charlton were a PL club.

Lita would be awesome but don't think he'll drop to L1. Wouldn't mind Whitbread from Millwall and Fortune to compete with Thomas for CB, Lancashire can be loaned to Bournemouth (I was going to say Aldershot but I like them) which is win-win because if he improves, he can come back and compete and if he plays like he did for us last season he'll be like Davenport and Jakobsson rolled into one and get about 10 red cards for that horrible little club.

I think you may be very right for a very small and sad element of their fanbase and probably ditto our idiots as well as Pompey can't be bothered either at the moment. As I say, I don't think 95% of either clubs' fans would be aware of it really. Besides which, it's Pardew they seem to hate anyway. If Coventry had played us when Strachan was still in charge of us, they'd have been seriously keyed up to win and get one over on WGS.

Actually most of the Charlton fans I know like Saints and see us as a similar sort of club. There are a few idiots - yes, I have encountered them in pubs around Greenwich - but nothing worse than us. There was that nonsense at Maze Hill and one or two pub incidents in Soton City Centre but frankly I'd be amazed if the Saints/Charlton rivarly really exists outside of about 100 idiots on either side.

It would appear Matt Richards hasn't gone to Brighton, Harding is there on trial but he would be another target although I'd be wary of blocking Mills. Kisnorbo went to a CCC club the other day. Gray has an attitude and no way he'll drop to L1 (yet) but I could see Fortune on a free as knows Pardew and has scored against us from set pieces in the past. Ifil is a good shout. Oster is a strange one - still not 30 but has been round for years but more clubs than Tiger Woods - wonder why? Someone has signed Kabba I think, don't know about Glen Little.

Spot on. I'm all for being positive and scoring quickly but there's no need for the middle order to mistake the Ashes for 20/20.

Great effort from Jimmy and Onions to get to us to 425. We are going to have to use the cloud cover and bowl fuller. In response to Keith above, Prior left England in the crud by playing an awful shot to useful inswinger just prior to the new ball, no more than that. He is still our best option but Haddin would have deployed his brain a bit more in the same situation and Prior is the more talented batsman and has been around long enough to know better. Yes, I was a bit OTT but the fact remains that England's middle order is getting bailed out by the tail. Bell doesn't deliver under any sort of pressure - I can't think of a time when England have been under the cosh when he has. Yes, he can score a stylish hundred on a flat pitch but he would have done nowt at Cardiff.

No offence but bringing back another weak-minded wimp in the form of Bell is the last thing we need. Surprised at Collingwood, he's normally got more bottle than that but Prior needed shooting and he'd better get at least 75-80 second knock and keep flawlessly if he wants to play for England again. Young Broad needs runs this morning as his bowling against top sides is unproven. Brilliant from Strauss and faiur play to Cook, he's well out of nick but showed more character than the spineless scum in the middle order. If Freddie can't play straight, he can retire early. Sorry, that collapse angered me yesterday.

I'm sure he is, I can remember him scoring a header for Palace in that famous 4-3 semi-final win over Liverpool at Villa Park. Will have a point to prove to a few people so Pardew won't lack for motivation - something that we haven't seen from anyone at SFC since 2003.

Irani was an awful cricketer too. Shows you how facial fit and being one of the boys helps you get in the England cricket side over talent.

He sorted out the mess at Reading very well and did well at West Ham too. Charlton is a slight worry but WGS had just got Coventry relegated and look what happened next. Charlton were (and still are) reeling from Curbishley going and their relegation season was just as traumatic and messy as ours - quite a whirlpool to walk into. With a more stable platform and hopefully backing in the transfer market - hopefully Alan has already supplied the board with a list of targets as we need to move fast - he should do well.