Brussels Saint

I know a lot of pubs are closing, but is it not also the case a lot of new ones open? What's the net effect? I love great British pubs and whenever I'm back home in Cornwall or visiting friends in the Cotswold's, I find great pubs all fairly packed to the rafters. Honestly, for me the pubs of today are much better than when I was a student in Cheltenham in the 90's. Perhaps there are fewer pubs, but those that remain are often very good.

How is the Doombar going Eric? As a Cornishman I'm slightly biased, but I think it's pretty decent.

I'm having a pork pie to celebrate the 2nd goal.

37 - Live in Brussels, but grew up in Cornwall. Never lived in Southampton, but the club has been with me since about 82. First Home Game: 1-1 at St. Mary's against Fulham I think, probably mid 00's. Delap scored, so I did witness a fairly unique moment. First Away Game: 0-1 at Coventry I'm guessing mid 90's. Ostenstad scored and Le Tiss walked around like he was the best player on the pitch (which everyone in the stadium knew he was!)

I would like to see us spend big on one player and for me that would be a Right Midfielder. Could we blow 10m of the Prem money and who would that buy us? For other positions I don't think we need to go nuts. The existing team would for me achieve a lower mid table finish. Our 4 main strikers of Lambert, Lee, Sharp & Do Prado will be fine in the Prem. Shaw hopefully can step up to be Number 2 to Fox at LB The centre midfield 4 of Morgan, Cork, Chaplow & Hammond should also be fine, though potentially you could argue the need to add better than Hammond (Ward Prowse?) Richardson needs competiton at RB, but no need to break the Bank to get it (or we gamble on Stephens being ready) We need a genuine LM backup if Lallana gets injured (will Reeves step up?) I think Davis will last one more season so, nothing urgent needed there. CB is tricky, but I would be tempted to use Harlee Dean as the 4th choice So I would budget 10m for a RM & 2m total for any/either LB, RB or LM backups if youngsters are not ready. Retire - Jaidi, Connolly Sell/Release - Harding, Barnard, Butterfield, Forte, Dickson, Holmes - 1m? Of course this plan might go horribly wrong if our new 10m right winger gets crocked on opening day. I know many will doubt the wisdom of expecting some of Stephens, Shaw, Dean, Reeves & Ward Prowse to be ready, but the club has clearly stated it expects some of the academy to make up the 1st team squad. Why waste money on average back-up players when one or 2 of these guys can make it.

Would go Silver for this. Also one thing not mentioned, is that if we go up, all the corporate seating is right behind the directors box where the players come out to celebrate with Cortese wave at the fans on the pitch and lift the trophy. Trust me, your son will love that, it's an unbelievable experience for any Saints fan. .........of course, if we are only looking at play offs the game might be a damp squib

Sorry about the double post, I'm in Zimbabwe at the moment and the internet seems to have an unhinged mind of its own, much like Mugabe I guess! (wonder if I'll get a knock at the door shortly for this last comment..........)

I lived in Perth for 6 months back in 1999. Not sure how much its changed, but if you like the outdoors lifestyle you will be fine. It's remote as some say and lacks culture, but apart from that it was great. I lived in the beach communities of scarborough and cottesloe (sp) and it was fairly idylic to be honest. Having said that, for me personally I would not choose to live there full time.

I lived in Perth for 6 months back in 1999. Not sure how much its changed, but if you like the outdoors lifestyle you will be fine. It's remote as some say and lacks culture, but apart from that it was great. I lived in the beach communities of scarborough and cottesloe (sp) and it was fairly idylic to be honest. Having said that, for me personally I would not choose to live there full time.

Dune, I'm from the right wing elite and I love it! It's genuinely insightful and has moments of brilliance as well as being very funny. They take aim at everyone, right, left, and all shades inbetween.

We honestly seem to have a terrible ref each week. Who are the football league best refs? Surely they cannot all be ****e, as that would question more the impossibility of the job or the unyielding nature of us football fans. For me, I accept that refs will get decisions wrong, not see things and be inconsistent (they are human beings not robots after all). What drives me nuts though is seeing them influenced by players or the crowd.

Anyone think this might be Chinny's end game? Maybe he realises it's unlikely someone will buy and he does not want to keep throwing millions at them, to keep them alive until the parachute money arrives. If he liquidates now, his exposure ceases and he can work on realising value from Fratton. If I was him I would have already been working on a plan B for sometime. Liquidating them puts him back in control. Some options: 1, The council lifts the sports use restrictions and he sells or rents (could he have this lined up already?) 2, The council maintains the sports restrictions and he rents Fratton long term to a pheonix club (which has no debts and could afford this on 8-10k gates) If he sells now, it seems unlikely any buyer will have enough to pay him off in one go and if he gets another CSI the same situation could return. Of course a buyer could be there now and have enough to offer him an immediate attractive way out. I don't think there is one however, so if I was him it makes more sense to liquidate (or rather allow HMRC to do their stuff) and at least with what comes next he is back in control.

You not a big fan of Cortese then Docker?

I quite like all the tippy tappy no end product stuff. It's beautiful to watch, where's your artistic soul people!

I actually really like Cameron, who at least seems to enjoy being PM and for me is making a decent fist of an almost impossible job. He's competent and that’s all I ask from any PM (I also classify Blair, Thatcher and to a minor extent Brown in this category, but not Major who was poor) It's not just because I'm a Tory either, as I could not stand and did not vote for Howard, IDS and Hague. Miliband is shockingly bad however and potentially would be even worse than Kinnock might have been. There is no way Ed Miliband could win a general election, he's simply unelectable. David Miliband would be ok & I quite like Andy Burnham though I'm not sure he is PM material.

This. Beautiful pints of bitter that are a pure pleasure to drink when I travel back to the UK. If you like these 2, try Betty Stoggs which is also Cornish and pure joy. Lager definitely has it's place (great when you have been nursing a hangover all day) or from the good European breweries, but for taste, has to be ale.

Remains of the Day

Enter the Dragon

I watched his post match comments on the beeb and felt he spoke well. Although I did not see the game so can't comment on the pens etc. he naturally made his views with a Cardiff bias, which is to be expected as I'm sure we all tend to view the Saints through a certain tint. He was measured however in his comments which is far from what you see in many managers and simply said "2 good teams going at it. Good match" or words to that effect. Not a knob jockey in my opinion and hail him for that.

34% Euro-paean. Not bad considering I live in the belly of the beast!

Lee for me is probably the most similar to Lambert as he is fairly tall and essentially plays as a loan striker for Japan and as such can effectively act as the target man. If this does turn out to be correct (and please feel free to do so if your understanding is different), it's good news as we have not had an effective Lambert replacement. I think essentially we will see Lambert & Sharp as the main paring with Lee & Guly putting pressure on them and replacing any dip in form. Connolly & Barnard only squad players for me now and IMO will be gonein the summer.

Davis Richardson Fonte Jos Fox Chaplow Cork Morgan Lallana Lambert Sharp Bart Martin Guly Lee Punch Not easy this as pointed out. I left out Hammond, just because with Chaplow on the right, you have centre mid cover in a matchday squad. You could make a case for Harding over Martin in the 16. I have to admit the signing I dont get is Falque. Surely he is behind Lallana, Punch, Chaplow, Guly & maybe even De Ridder for a starting spot in our wide mid areas. What will he gain training with us instead of Spurs?

I've got athletics the day before, but can't remember exactly whats going on. 4x400m Mens final I think.

Christ.........you wait till Turkish sees this........he might actually implode

Cov won their last 2 I believe, so there is hope...........