Barry the Badger

raaaaaaaaaaaaahdi!!!!!!

The idea's been around a while. Last year somebody did one about Liverpool paying £35 million for Andy Carrol.

To translate?

...and yet here we are with 3 points more than they had at the same time last season.

y.a.w.n

Glad it wasn't just me, I was ****ed off that anybody would boo, ****ing numpties.

That was bad. Still, anybody who bood at the end is a ****.

Have woken up properly nervous today for the first time in a while, I think the break has served to make me realise how close we are and just how much I'd bloody love to see Saints back in the prem. Plus losing the last home match means that slight feeling of invincibility has gone.

I don't normally go in for all the armchair expert stuff picking apart managers decisions, but I find it incredible that somebody as successful as Wenger could think bringing AOC off today was a good idea. He was easily their biggest threat.

I think the 4-2 would've given the team a bigger confidence boost.

I didn't argue with him, it's pointless. Our previous argument was him claiming that Adam Lallana is "better than Le Tissier ever was", I gave up after that.

Chatting to a colleague at work earlier, I said I'd prefer De Ridder to start (if fit) with Falque on the bench, in response he suggested the following, utterly seriously. Tell me it's not just me who thinks he's mental. "Well we could play both, De Ridder can play centre mid you know, we should play Harding on the left and move Lallana to the centre too where he can use his skill". Harding - De Ridder - Lallana - Falque Maybe it's me that's mental and he's a footballing visionary.

My gf came to a game recently for the first time, halfway through she turned to me and having heard his chant, asked "which one is Adam the Llama?"

No really, we did. Every transfer window, almost all of the business is done in the last week. It really isn't a surprise to anybody, at all, so don't try to pretend you had some sort of magical foresight. Just because only a few were whinging about it doesn't mean only a few knew how it would work.

I think you will find most people expected that, it's just the the few you are referring to are the ones panicking about it :-)

It's funny, because I look at the league table, and more than halfway through the season this squad has us sitting top. Will be delighted if we make signings, but wont be writing off promotion if we can't. Clearly though I don't have a clue about football.

On fifa I have us running out to Rammstein. That would be cool.

This. A friend at work often sends me links to the echo, things I've known about for weeks because they've been on here. I've just taken to pretending I didn't already know it because it makes for more interesting conversation. The Tadanari Lee thing was a perfect example, he sent me that when it was on the official site.

You let individual results or even short runs of form influence your overall opinion far too much. For me, the annoying thing is not the negativity but the way you come to form your opinions. Yesterday was a great example. At 1-0 down it was "we're screwed" and then after a late comback to win 2-1 you said "well I am happier we can play without Lambert now". The second example is actually a little more positive but still demonstrates the point. It's so fustratingly black and white to you. We can either play without Lambert or we can't. But that is completely ignoring the complexities of a single match. To form such opinions based on one match is ridiculous. For example, let's say the ball had taken a dodgy bobble just before JWP hit it for his goal, and he'd missed, and then Aaron Martin had taken a little shove in the back when about to head home, and the referee had missed it, we would have lost 1-0 and you would be screaming that we're ****ed without Lambert. It's one game and so much can happen that it's just plain stupid to form sweeping general opinions on the basis of it, and that is what you do all the bloody time.

How many times has he been beaten at the near post this season? You're making it up as you go along.

Obviously it comes to us all, but people generalise and say his reactions are going, when there's been no evidence that his shot stopping isn't as good as ever. Annoys me :-)

I always find it wierd when people say stuff like this as soon as a player gets towards usual retirement age. Is there any actual evidence that his reactions are slowing? If anything I would say he's better than when he joined us.

This.

As far as I'm concerned, Kelvin can have the keepers jersey as long as he wants.

I can only imagine you've chosen the word canine to rhyme with something, which is odd because it doesn't. :-)