CHAPEL END CHARLIE

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/ClubDiscipline/0,,10794~20117,00.html Brighton & Hove = 57 Yellow cards - 5 Red - 3 pens conceded - 262 fouls commited Southampton.....= 32 Yellow cards - 3 Red - 0 pens conceded - 278 fouls commited

It seems to me that Human Beings have evolved naturaly over millennia to make value judgements based on appearence - be it skin colour, height, weight, hair style, cloths, attractivness ... etc. Rigthly or wrongly, the chances of that being ancient characteristic being 'stamped out' anytime soon seems rather remote .

I can only agree. Fox is top class when it comes to delivering dead balls and the very impressive '40 yard' passes you mention, he's seldom seen anywhere near the oppositions corner flag however. Harding on the other hand is a rather more 'old fashioned' type of fullback, he can beat his man, take the ball to the goal line and cross it rather than cutting inside constantly. I myself can't see very much to choose between them when it comes to defending. Given the number of appearances each has amassed this season, I can only conclude that Nigel Adkins prefers Fox's style of play to Dan Harding's. Now whether that preference is advisable if getting the best out of Lallana is your top priority is debatable. Not that I would commit the unforgivable heresy of questioning the managers judgment you understand ......

As a point of order I struggle to see the value of starting threads discussing players who haven't even been unofficially linked with this club. There must be 1000's of players worldwide who could DAJFU and this place is in danger of becoming rather confusing if each one gets his own thread. Just saying ....

Does anyone know if he can speak English or not ?

I have myself never seen Adam Lallana deliver a performance that could fairly be described as 'poor' - he has his ups and downs like any player but poor he most certainly ain't. Someone told me the other day that we get more from him when he plays alongside Harding rather than Fox - I think there may well be some truth in that.

He did very well for us last season, but at his age regaining an acceptable level of fitness after such a long lay-off will take a age in all probability. He might just be capable of making some kind of contribution towards the tail end of the season I suppose - I wouldn't want to bet on it however.

Sorry are we still talking about Jason flatters to deceive Puncheon here, or has the debate moved on to some football genius the Northam hounded out of the club while I was out ? I've been on here long enough to understand that average players sometimes get ridiculously overrated by our fans who get a bit carried away with themselves when they think they've identified a special player - but the trouble is some of us have seen real talent like Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, and Alex Chamberlain emerge at this club, and without putting too fine a point on it, Jason Puncheon doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as those lads. But if he is the special player some on here consider him to be then how come the prospect of his return from loan has arisen in the first place ? Surely QPR (or some other Premier League club) will want to sign him up for a big fee, because just like Walcott, Bale, and Chamberlain he is of Premier League standard isn't he ??? While we are on the subject the fact that this 25 year old has already had a dozen transfers under his belt is no indication that there's something wrong with his attitude and/or his ability is it ? If you don't like that then lets concentrate on what he did for this great club. Lets recall all those times he beat his man easily on the halfway line and ran down the wing impressively - only to then fail to deliver anything that remotely resembled a decent cross. How about his shooting then - which would have been great if only the cross bar were 10 yards higher off the ground than the laws of the game allow alas. Maybe our notoriously bad pitch was to blame for that. Perhaps it's our fault he wasn't performing here because a small minority of our fans were so beastly to him - and any suggestion that a decent player would react to that type of criticism by redoubling his efforts in a attempt to prove his doubters wrong is of course in itself utterly wrong. So it's obviously some kind of mysterious footballing tragedy that Jason Puncheon no longer plays for Southampton Football Club.

I've greatly enjoyed the old Ealing Comedies that have been broadcast this Xmas - The Ladykillers is great fun in a macabre sort of way, but the real highlight for me was The Lavender Hill Mob in all its post-war London glory - which for some inexplicable reason I haven't seen for decades. Next Xmas I'd love to see broadcasters revive two grand old TV traditions - The much missed Xmas Eve BBC ghost story and showing really old stuff such as a Laurel & Hardy season for instance. There must be a whole generation growing up that are totally ignorant of just how wonderful early stuff could be - Buster Keaton, The Keystone Cops, Harold LLoyd, I loved it all .... dust it all off and show it again I say

Having not yet read the highly successful book (or seen the original film version) unlike many I came to this Swedish mystery with no preconceptions, and I must say I adored it. A satisfyingly long, dark, and densely plotted film aimed at adults rather than the teenage audience cinema normally panders to, the plot is not at all easy to summerise, but suffice it to say that at the request of a wealthy industrialist 'Henrik Vanger' (Christopher Plummer) a disgraced journalist 'Mikael' (Danial Craig) and a brilliant, but disturbed, young women 'Lisbeth' (Rooney Mara) find themselves investigating the mysterious disappearance of Venger's young niece 'Harriet' - an event which occurred decades ago. Set on a family owned island the list of suspects is thus limited to the dysfunctional extended family of the lost child, and just how terribly dysfunction the Vanger family turn out to be being the heart of the matter. I will disclose no more except to say this film is never less than gripping and the director (David Fincher of 'Seven' fame) does a fine job, I loved the somber colour pallet employed by the cinematographer which grants this film such a distinctly Scandinavian look. I must also say that Rooney Mara's exceptional performance in particular will live long in the memory - Oscar worthy perhaps ? Highly recommended.

Oh you can rest assured that although some seem to have forgotten, what you witnessed is still etched on the memory of quite a few of us.

It seems to me that life is indeed a pretty grim experience for a great many people (especially the poor and/or unhealthy) and that alas is a perfectly normal state of affairs for a adult human being to find themselves in. So my advice, for what its worth, is to grab onto those little moments of genuine happiness that may come your way every now and again and remember how lucky you are to have even that consolation. Above all cherish the children in your life - be they yours or somebody else's - because very often sharing in their childish joy and innocence is the only thing that makes life worth the trouble of living it. Thats how it seems to me anyway.

Heinkels ?

A competitive game from start to finish, but I thought Brizzol City were just about worth the 3 points in all honesty because although we created rather more chances they probably had the best ones. Sub standard home performances of late were bound to catch up with us sooner or later I suppose, the only crumbs of comfort I can find tonight being our (excellent) league position and the memory that last season also saw us stutter at times - and that season didn't finish too badly did it. MOTM - Bristol's No27 Albert Adomah - forget Maynard and sign this guy pretty please Mr Cortese. PS - After games like this I'd like to take Guly out and buy him a pint - of arsenic

Like much else it remains to been seen whether either Fonte or Hooiveld would prove to be a success in the Premier League. Both look like very good defenders at this level, but the next step would see them up against quicker/sharper/brighter strikers every week. Could they cope with that ? Good question .......

Saints v Middlesbrough just a few weeks ago. We were absolutely fantastic on the day against what should have been decent opposition, 3-0 could so easily have been 5 or 6 in all honesty. My boy's first ever trip to St Marys as well, which I'm sure he'll never forget. It doesn't get much better than that.

I was watching that YouTube compilation of all last seasons Saints goals the other day - a worthwhile reminder of what a fine and prolific finisher Lee Barnard can be on his day. Works his socks off for the cause as well. Good enough for the Premier League then ? .... well no I guess, but Bret Ormerod did a job for us back in the day and Barnard may well be on a not too dissimilar ability level.

I've often said on here what good technical players Lallana, Cork and Schneiderlin are, not only do I stand by that opinion but I also say they may well be the best midfield in this division. But you have to say for all that talent on display there was a hell of a lot of backwards/sideways passing going on yesterday, and excellent ball retention or not, we didn't actually create that many chances. Retaining possession of the ball is a splendid habit I'm sure we can all agree - but it's not everything in the game. The reason why we're top of the league today is because (at our best) we were pinging the ball around beautifully and manufacturing numerous shooting opportunities. All we need to do to find that form again is to keep the fullbacks attacking, better movement form our forward players, and perhaps a little more directness from midfield. It's so easy to sit on your arse in the Chapel and ask for 'more' like some sort of well fed south coast version of Oliver Twist. I know I'm demanding a lot from a super bunch of players who are working their socks off for us - but rediscover that missing 'cutting edge' and there's precious little in this division to stop us.

A enigma, wrapped up in a mystery, that was posted in a unaddressed envelope - I don't know what to make of him, I don't even think his manager does in all honesty. Obviously the Guly fan club will be on here now citing the two points he undoubtedly gained us today as evidence of what a great player he is, and who can blame them ? The evidence of my eyes however tells me that (for prolonged periods) he's just not a very good footballer at all. It's almost like he's akin to a low-rent version of Demitar Berbatov - you wonder sometimes what he does exactly only for him to then do something special. But just like Berbatov's limited opportunity's at MUFC of late, it's been my observation that football managers ultimately tend to prefer players who can deliver a good performance for them reliably rather than their more enigmatic counterparts.

Three good - Three bad. 3 more valuable points SFC easily the better team I thought Good to see St Marys full again A rather forgettable game of football in all honesty Performance level still not what is was I can't work out if Guly is a useless tart of a footballer, or a genius in disguise.

I was bigging him up to the long-suffering chap unfortunate enough to sit next to me today - only for him to immediately head a defensive clearance straight to the opposition ! Not at all flashy but a more than decent defender - at this level anyway.

I think it goes back to the 2004/5 season when he gave a opposition player two yellow cards at St Marys, but forgot to actualy send him off. If memory serves on every subsequent visit he's been so awful some have gone so far as to question his integrity. How this man is still in employment as a referee is one of the great unanswered questions of English football.

Watch Morgan Schneiderlin's game carefully and it seems to me abundantly clear that not only is he one of the most technically accomplished players in our squad, but he'd also get into almost any midfield in this division on merit. Often overshadowed by Adam Lallana, I was very pleased for him to see his obvious talent acknowledged in front of a national TV audience last Sunday. However, I share the frustration of many on here that he seems incapable of turning that well nurtured ability with a football at his feet into more goals scored. He's good enough to score frequently you'd have thought, but lacks the composure in front of goal for some reason. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater ! As for SDR - You could say he's on a hiding to nothing because we've replaced a £15m player with a lad who's just not in that league frankly. Even baring that in mind, I still can't say that I'm all that impressed with what I've seen so far in all honesty. Perhaps he's trying too hard.

Show me a PL team comprised of nothing but inexpensive average ability pros who do their best and never cause any trouble, and I show you a team that, sooner or later, is heading for relegation. It's not just in sport but in any walk of life, be it artistic endeavor, acting, journalism ... etc those special talents humanity throws up every now and then tend (more often than not) to 'have something about them' as they say. I'm more than happy for the honest hard working Dan Harding & Dean Hammond type players of this world to stay with us next season, but all those seasons when MLT's special talent kept us up (virtually single handed it seemed at times) taught me that we'll probably need a one (or even better two) truly special players in the squad as well. If we're lucky enough to unearth one of those 'special ones' and he turns out to be a arrogant SOB who rubs the opposition and his own teammates up the wrong way but does things on a football pitch that make a real difference to games, then his teammates, his manager, & even the chairman will just have to learn how to cope with him. All just a fans opinion of course.