moonraker

I dont buy the small squad argument as much this season as in previous seasons. As has often been demonstrated on here we have better cover for many postions than hitherto. I dont see a great deal of strength in depth for Arsenal or Liverpool espeicially in defence. My biggets concern is strikers, whilst JROD is still to return he will need to get going quickly.

Are they also to far from Manchester?

I think Liverpool are in terminal decline. They overachieved last season mainly due to one player, now gone. Their talisman is finished but doesn’t know it or wont admit it. They overpay for players and then cant fit them in the team. Pundits continue to make excuses but the reality is they are not a top 4 club anymore and increasingly will find it difficult to be top 6. The defectors are getting their just desserts.

The attitude to Saints by Journos was summed up on Sunday Supplement when the guy form the express said, with sincere apologies, that when he looks at the table he looks straight past Saints to Citeh. I have no problem with this, let them carry on ignoring us the only thing that matters is what the players and fans of SFC see and feel.

There is no doubt that many of our players will attract great interest from the 'big boys'. However if we finish top 4 or more likely top 6 then the footballing lure to leave will be less and in Koeman I believe we have a manager who is more grounded than the previous incumbent and will stay and that is key.We cannot compete on the salary front and agents will not do us any favours. We have seen that we have an executive and back room staff that are determined and made of steel so if some are determined to leave we will get very good deals.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself

I went to Bognor once

Great Article, the few will never get it. They cannot get past their past and recognise the cheating and failure of multiple owners while they stood by and acclaimed their fleeting time in the limelight. They actually seem to believe that they are a beacon for the future of football !

That was a great read, thank you for sharing.

" we dont buy success, we breed it, we dont take short cuts, we earn it" absouloutly love it, should be plastered all around St Marys, and on few buses in Pimpley!

Awesome and fitting memorial to Markus.

VW I look forward to your learned brief! I do agree that backdating 5 years would be very damaging so I hope it is not allowed.

I believe this to be a fair ruling. As i understand the retrospective claims can only be for 3 months. It was not just about overtime, paid travelling time was also included. Employees seem to have been using overtime and travelling time as way of paying a fair rate for the job but using it to reduce their costs when staff are on their legally entitled paid leave, if the Union rep is to be believed, they were saving up to half of the going rate for the job.

Pelle was below par today.

That is exactly the sort of win that differentiates the good from the best.

We are playing away to solid side who have given as great account of themselves, we are winning what more do you moaners want.

They obvioulsy didnt get the info from twitter, i noted that SFC 285,000 twitter followers whilst the fishfiddlers have 47,000, but they are the bestest twitter followers in the world.

I think the smaller stadium is for when they draw lower league clubs in cups, where their is little home fan (palstic) interest and the away fans turn up on a motorbuke and sidecar, they are hoping for pimpley in rd 3 of the FA Cup to test it out.

I thought this was a thread about Staplewood, my mistake.

Very true and history tells us that it is the Torries who are far more likely to impose those cuts. They are quite happy provided they have a few pretty soldiers prancing around in Bear Skins and Jogging along on horses!

History is apt to re[eat itself, amd leaving the fighting to others is all very well until the others don't fight. It is sad but true the world is dangerous place and you deplete your defences at your peril.

The decision will rest on successor which I believe means we will need 4 Vanguards into the 2020's to maintain CASD, OCEAN and QE are not the same thing and QE will not be operational until at least 2019.

For an underwater casino surely you need a Naval Architect!

Chambers was not starting quality , or at least was not perceived as such at the beginning of the season. I did not suggest all sides had a 25 man squad only that that was the limit, neither did I assume that 25 are of the same standard across clubs , the opposite in fact. My point was how do you judge the whole squads strength when size is essentially the same. It is easy to identify individual positions where the backup or alternative is as or nearly as good as the first choice, however no team has two first 11’s.

Just how does one squad measure 'strength in depth' serious question, if all sides have the same squad size, 25, then they have the same depth. So how do you measure the strength element and what are the SI units of measurement. One of the areas we do well is to include genuine fresh home grown talent in the squad nearly every year, this has a significant effect on the perception of squad strength. At the beginning of last year a number of areas R and L back had a youngsters were the as backups, in mid-field a young skate was included. On the face of it this weakened our squad, yet the reality was that not only were they up to the Job 2 of them are now playing for traditional top 4 sides, have they weakened their squads? I often read on here how a number of players at Chelski and MC and others are bench warmers, and yet these are the self same players who provide the 'strength in depth'. The truth is all teams are vulnerable to injuries, Scouse and Sturridge have demonstrated that, Chelsea Costa or MC Aguero any one, they would cope but they would be lesser teams. Add to this the additional demands of the CL for the big boys and who knows what little old Southampton could pull off.