SaintBobby

Don't forget lifelongsaint....

Am I only one who thinks this is close to being free money? http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/league-one/coca-cola-league-1/top-goalscorer Rickie Lambert is 2/1 to end the season as L1's top goalscorer. This means if you think Rickie's chances are better than 33% of ending as League One's top scorer, then this is a good bet. I think he is presently topping the charts with a two goal buffer. I'd put his chances at about 50%+. Get your money down fast. By the time I've finished this post, I may already have swung the odds.

sorry to rain on the parade. great result today and great momentum. Play-offs are achievable. BUT...one negative way of looking at it, is that we started the season 10 points away from the play-offs and now we're 9 points off the play-offs. With nearly half the season gone, we have only made up 1 point. Ok, we started slowly and are now motoring. However, there's a long way to go. Also, it goes without saying that the further we climb up the table, the harder it gets to climb higher still (cos the teams around us will typically be winning not losing). I'd say we're about 50-50 to make the play-offs and about 35-65 to go up if we do make them. So, Im still looking at out promtion odds as about the same long-ish shot as England winning the World Cup in July.

A big advantage for a Premier club is that they can borrow more easily against future revenues. My guess is that they've borrowed against all their future Sky money for the season (which I assume is paid in installments). They have probably borrowed against all future guaranteed revenue streams (e.g. I'd be unsurprised if they have sp*nked their two years of guaranteed £8m parachute payments up the wall already). I think it would be good for football if Portsmuff blew up. Saints were reckless in the years leading to admin, but a large amount of the problem was a monumental infrastructure decision - the new stadium - which became increasingly unfit for purpose as we slid down the league. The skates seem just to have splashed all the money on transfers and salaries they can't afford - it's not as if they've spent more than 5 quid on Fratton Park. F uck em. I don't much care if they live or die - but have a slight preference for them dying.

Simple question, really. I'm v. upbeat about the owner, the management and the players. Let's say Pardew gets offered £5m to strengthen. If you were AP, how would you spend it (serious suggestions only please!) My own view: Sign Trotman, Waigo and - most importantly - Antonio (guesstimate 1.5m -at about 500K each) Put Lallana and Schneiderlin on drastically improved and lengthened contracts with huge buy out clauses (guesstimate £2m) Keep 1.5m in your top pocket in a Wengeresque way. Thoughts?

Just got back. We thrashed them 1-0. Should have been 3-0 at least. We didn't finish as clinically as usual - to put it mildly. I think Bart only had one save to make all night. Papa was awesome apart from the ridiculous number of offisides (maybe as many as 8?). Given his pace it's maddening - he doesn't need to push that far up. We were better when we switched to 4-4-2 after about 30 minutes. I prefer Papa as a centre forward than a winger. As otehrs have said, Schniederlin was utterly amazing. A flawless display - and could develop into our "quarter back". Hammond was a bit poor. Lambert was clearly knackered for the last ten minutes. Antonio is as mad as a goose on stilts, but terrifies the opposition. Jaidi was a brick wall and Perry's positioning and timing was top notch. Overall, am pretty pleased.

I voted for the JPT. I honestly think we're unlikley to get promoted in the League. We may well make the play-offs, but would be odds against going up even then. In thirty years of supporting Saints, I've never seen us win anything. Of course, I want us to get promoted. But in my imagination, we beat Leeds at Wembley to win the JPT in the Spring and then win League One in 2011 with c. 110 points. I think I'd prefer that to winning this year's play off final against Huddersfield and getting knocked out by Norwich in the JPT. Madness? Maybe. The real lunacy is that some people think the FA Cup is the priority!

Mirror image of the Rovers win in round 1. i want a glamour tie in round 3 and then to focus on the real business of the league and the JPT.

I rate him highly, always have done. But I'd be surprised if he leaves in January and I think we might well keep him next season. The last few weeks have been the first time he's ever really put a run of form together, and I don't think he'd yet make the starting XI of any Premiership team. Add to that, we can probably be generous on his wages (certainly compared to most CCC teams).

thanks. Still no word from him.

TheMidfieldGeneral has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her. If you are trying to send this message to to multiple recipients, remove TheMidfieldGeneral from the recipient list and send the message again.

the system says u cant accept private messages pm me if u still have tickets. Price stands.

Well, market prices are market prices. It's been very difficult to persuade any of the c. 3,000 travelling fans to part with a ticket for a premium and for them to go into the home end. If there's anyone who thinks I'm insane to not go in the home end, then sell me your ticket and trouser a £50 profit!

Am still desperately seeking two tickets - willing to offer £70 for one or £150 if you can provide me with two. PM me if you're able and willing to help - might just mean you having to go in the home end at £20 a pop.

Still desperately seeking one or two spare tickets - am willing to pay well over face value. PM me if you can help.

Like an idiot, because of a heavy work schedule, I didn't get round to ordering tickets for Leyton away before it was too late. This means I've very badly let down two friends. From what I can gather, it is possible to get tickets on the day in the Leyton end, but I badly want 3 adult tickets, next to each other, in the Saints end. Am willing to offer £50 - so a total of £150 for the three. If you're inclined to trouser some extra cash and watch the game from the home end, or experience the joys of Saints player's live "commentary", I'd be very glad to hear from you. Please PM me if you can help.

Unfortunately, the BBC are under no obligation to offer to sell you a licence. And as they aren't governed by the profit motive, I doubt this will change. For those complaining that they can't get BBC stuff on their laptop in e.g. California....unfortuantely, the licence fee is territorial not personal. Your annual fee of c. £135 allows you to watch the BBC in your own home, not on your own personal travels. I think this is all totally mad and the BBC should be sold off entirely.

No, I meant cathartic.

Really rate Trotman, and hope we keep him. But as others have said, Pardew has shown himself to be quite exceptional - to the point of genius - in the transfer market, so I don't think we need to be too worried - just hopeful.

I'm not bothered about the Lowe threads. They are certainly popular in terms of posts and readers. Now things are on the up, it's sort of cathartic in a weird way.

Hmmm....how disappointing. What about his alleged £8K per week salary?

Hmmm. Not so sure. I had a small, residual modicum of sympathy for Lowe until the 2nd coming. I think he then made bad footballing decisions (i.e. Poortvliet rather than Pearson....or indeed delete the "rather than" part of that). The collapse into administration was just ridiculous though - especially as it was 24 hours after the deadline. My strong impression was that Lowe was just caught unawares by Barclays and it was a bolt from the blue. He and Wilde were also utterly hopeless at finding an alternative buyer. Once we'd finally gone into administration, we cut it fine, but ended up being bought by a billionaire. Again, my impression is that whilst the club was always technically for sale, this meant little more than SLH being publicly listed. I dont think Lowe and Wilde were actively and aggressively seeking an alternative buyer. If they were, then they were very bad at it. Lowe's first period in charge was a very mixed bag. Some real highs, but plenty of woeful lows too. His second spell was lamentable. He played a weakish hand catasrophically and appallingly badly.

Apologies if this has been covered/discussed before, but... Was having a pint last night with a mate who's an Arsenal fan, but in other ways is basically an acceptable member of the human race. He knows his football inside out and reckons Rickie Lambert is an exceptional player. He then made the casual remark that at £1m, Lambert was by far and away the most expensive signing ever by a club in the English third division - and probably the most expensive by any third tier club in the world. Questions: 1. Is £1m the confirmed transfer price for our new no. 7? 2. If yes, is my mate right that we have the most expensive player ever to play in the 3rd tier. 3. If yes, isn't that pretty f**king cool?

Was interested in what Claridge said about Connolly. He was probably the one signing this season I didn't take that seriously, in a not bothered sort of way. But I wonder whether we have a 15+-goal a season striker on our hands. Not sure how we fit him into the system, as we seem to have deserted 4-4-2, but am v pleased we may have depth in the squad. I'm one very happy Saints fan at the moment. Not so much about where we are, but certainly about the direction we're moving in.

Her whole presence is deeply patronising. I don't blame her so much - more the format. Claridge and the anchorman are pretty good - but the editorial stance of trying to show (mainly via Lizzie whatshername) "They're mental football fans...really mental...wow...look how mental they are..." is just lamentable. It's almost as if it's a football show aimed at people who aren't really interested in football.