saint1977

I liked the joke on something being in the mix but nothing concrete yet!

Yes, it wil be interesting. Hopefully he's registered in time for Saturday. Ideally I'd like to see Saga kept but is Lallana anywhere near fit again? JP has set some interesting selection choices up. It will be interesting if Lupoli can play at Carrow - if Fiorentina have arranged the loan he may be able to - and it boils down to Cureton V Lupoli.

BWP is still here though: McG, Lupoli and BWP. Bearing in mind our system, JP may be happy with that and I haven't counted Saga.

Thanks Andy and in fact a couple of Norwich supporting mates have said the same things about him. He sounds like a good player although I'm still unsure of how he's with us as I thought he was on a season-long loan at Carrow. Cureton has been recalled as expected. I think this may be Saga off as although Saga holds it up a bit more, he's not exactly a giant either. I'd play him up front rather than on the wing, we've already tried BWP there and not a success. BWP moving on would be preferable to Saga but not many takers for BWP! If we are starting Lupoli, we cannot use that type of player as a lone striker, McG for his faults must be alongside him and not in a poxy withdrawn role.

Depends on what sort of player he is. He needs to be able to hold the ball up a bit. Doesn't sound like he's prolific but then prolific costs money that we haven't got. He also needs to be semi-decent in the air as Holmes needs a target. Any pace is also welcome! Huckerby was saying that Roeder seemed to hold grudges against players he argued with so perhaps Lupoli was in that group at Norwich and when Norwich appoint a new manager, probably Boothroyd, they'll want their own loan signings at least.

Did you see the BBC2 programme last night? It was a bit simplified for people that have been following this for years - Northern Rock's self-certificate mortgages had worried me sick for a long time - but for anyone trying to understand concepts like Securitisation for the first time, it was good. What became clear is that High St banks and Investment banks got their missions mixed up - the likes of Northern Rock got involved in creating very complex pick-and-mix Securities that had been the preserve of investment banks and the investment banks thought they could make a fortune gambling on buying and trading these "buckets" of high risk home owner debt. Of course, supposedly Blue Chip investment banks like Lehman Brothers ended up with too much of it and the risk shot up and confidence disappeared, along with most lending.

Not at all, it's a very interesting topic. I've been reading Robert Peston's book on the credit crunch recently and part of my degree was Economics although sadly that was a few years ago now!

Sad - had many good times in there post-Match in past seasons although I have to drive to most games now and on the rare occasions I can have a beer my pubs of choice are further afield. I think the refit they did made the pub a bit too similar to others in the City Centre whereas it had a bit more character before. I wonder if the new JDW down the road may have been a big factor.

Thanks Lee, interesting perspective. Brian Stock had a big reputation in the lower leagues at Bournemouth so not surprised he's gone on to do well. I think Matt Mills was attracted to Man City by Wigley being there but the ultimate winners of his moving there have been Doncaster from the sounds of it.

Thanks Gemmel. I knew his dad years ago, nice guy. Keith was put in the deep end a bit - Everton were pushing Liverpool all the way for the title and needed to win. Derek Mountfield's blatant handball goal (punched in the net although what Maradona did in Mexico that summer was far worse) didn't help though! Lineker scored a couple as well in what I think was a 6-1 win. He then leaked 5 at Spurs the following week but Saints at least scored 3 in reply in a classic end of season game. A young Craig Maskell scored I seem to remember.

Is that Keith Granger as in the former Saints keeper that debuted in 1986 at Everton and Spurs at the end of the season? Went to Darlington I think and then had to finish due to injury.

LOL! I didn't agree with Maggie 1987-90 when she was past it but she did make some neccessary changes - albeit very painful - in the early 1980s. I hated the comment she made about there being no such thing as "society" which she lost a lot of respect for and signalled the carnage to come such as the Poll Tax when she'd surrounded herself by muppets at that stage. Nevertheless, she certainly knew how to use the English language and to compare her to Bush Jnr is plain daft. Bush Jnr leaves office with the same approval ratings as Richard Nixon at the time of his resignation in August 1974 before he was impeached. Says it all really. Even Bush's fellow Neo-Cons don't want to be associated with him and they are almost as unpopular.

He was but I don't know if Birmingham have extended or indeed if West Ham want to cash in on him - and another player from 04/05 Callum Davenport. It was a story in one of the broadsheets but Kinnear has bid for 2 French players now so may have lost his interest.

Would agree with that, need a good DMC (not DMG) in there to shore it up. What we'd give for a pre-knee injury M Svensson though - one of the best in the Prem. Baird got found out a bit last year, can play in the PL on his day but a CCC player over a whole season. Hard to say if Cranie would cut it - bad injuries since leaving us. If the Skates have a firesale we might find out.

Good man.

Good post. I think athletes run on sand also for endurance and building stamina - I read somewhere that Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson did it to build stamina to bowl at top pace for longer spells in the 1970s.

Spot on and many of them still follow Saints as well long after they have finished playing for us. There is way too much intolerance and myopic posting on here with no regard for different opinions and perspectives however reasonably and fairly they may be expressed. When I get frustrated is when I see blatant re-writing of history just to wind people up and BOTH sides do it. Granted, sometimes we get a bit OTT because the club is in our blood - I've been brought up on it - but all I want is 3 points on Saturday and that is true of 95% of people posting on here.

Good reply and that of Weston below it as well. F ucking Hell, does a thread on some of the greatest ever players to pull on a Saints shirt hurt anybody? Besides, for people like me that have moved out of Soton and only return for visiting family/friends and Saints games, it's a nice reminder of when I was younger and is a way of finding out what people are up to. Sour Old Grapes should be your username. I don't want to get into the whole Lowe thing again, I'm sick of it.

Agreed, common sense really. It's important to get the ground fuller with the huge games coming up, starting Saturday.

Hasn't had much luck poor lad. Get well soon.

Pulis isn't daft though. Euell might get a game at Leyton Orient or perhaps Charlton want some nostalgia value?!

Don't know what happened to him at Charlton - was a good, regular PL player and then seemed to fall out with Curbishley and never got a game at Boro.

I think he is carp and if another club are mugs to want him, they are welcome. That said, it wasn't very professional to leak personal details - whoever did it and I don't blame him for being cross about that. It doesn't change the fact however that he has been awful - that performance V Plymouth last season was one of the worst I've ever seen and the chant that followed his substitution was spot-on.

Probably about right. Both are on 12 month deals so Lowe will probably review things at the end of the season according to where the debt levels are and what objectives they were actually set behind the spin. If we stayed up and there wasn't a firesale in the window, that would meet the objectives surely?

That was Wilde talking about the play-offs, proving that he knows even less about football than Sundance. Even Rupert wasn't daft enough to say something like that. Then Wilde hid behind Rupert once the season started and the OS spin was proved - after a false dawn at Derby and Brum home in the CC - to be exactly that.