CHAPEL END CHARLIE

We all know there is a vocal Guly fan club on here (but not so much at actual matches) that will tolerate no criticism of him, indeed some seem to think he's a better player than Rickie Lambert even. In my view he's made a real contribution to our success of late but surely he's also a luxury we just can't afford at times. In all honesty I just wasn't satisfied with his defending for their goal today, and I suspect that in their heart of hearts few Saints fans are if they are equally honest with themselves. I'm not sure some foreign born players ever really 'get' English football, for instance is there any other player in our team who would have ducked out of that challenge today ? ...... thought not. We should be looking for a better striker partner to play alongside Lambert next season - whatever division we are in.

Although I'm only up to series 3 with Dexter, I must say I'm still finding it to be deliciously dark entertainment - but as you say commercial pressures within the US TV industry will probably keep it in production far too long and sully the stella reputation among its devoted audience it has earned. That would be a great shame because it's truly compelling television and a unique concept for mainstream programming. But leaving all that that to one side for the moment, would the existence of a human being the like of Dexter Morgan be even possible in the real world ? Could you in reality, like Harry Morgan did in fiction, take a profoundly damaged child psychopath in-the-making like Dexter and intensively train him to become a high-functioning killer (with a kind of moral purpose) that could fit in with the 'normal' people around him, and for his true nature to remain unsuspected by all - bar the much missed Sgt Doakes that is ? From the little I know of real life psychopathic killers (Peter Sutcliffe, Thomas Hamilton, Ed Gain ... etc) they tend to become isolated from mainstream human society and they would probably display evident signs of their internal disorder to those around them if they were not. There again we've all heard of the 'he seemed like a nice bloke' type quotes from neighbours every time one is uncovered I suppose. Possible or not, the script writing and acting from Dexter's brilliant ensemble cast is of such a high order that I'm more than happy to suspend any doubts I may harbour regarding the programmes (fascinating) central conceit - for the moment.

'The Omen' featured Gregory Peck in the lead role Gregory Peck played a Nazi in 'The Boys from Brazil' Brazil is the homeland of Guly Do Prado Guly to score tomorrow !

A TV programme that assumes I have any interest in the following: Dancing of any kind. So called Celebrity's I've either never heard of, or have forgotten entirely Celebrity's I have heard of, but relocated to a jungle for some obscure reason The opinions of Jamie Oliver The appearance of Jamie Oliver The existence of Jamie Oliver That is all.

Pretty lively, but to be honest (on this evidence anyway) none of the 22 I saw today would get anywhere near our 1st team.

I spent the afternoon watching Bompey v Sheffield Utd - and 90 minutes of utter sh1te it was "Oh when the Blades go marching in" ........ eegghhh !

It would seem that commercial salvage work is now being undertaken on the wrecks of three Royal Navy cruisers that were sunk by a U Boat (with a heavy loss of life) during WWI, and there's absolutely nothing we can now do to stop it: http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=18282 Shameful.

Well despite everything you say being well within the boundaries of fair comment I'd say, it seems Adam's contribution on Saturday was only worth a mere '5' while Guly apparently had a better game than Lambert - who only scored twice ! You know that old rule of thumb that a player gets a point just for turning up ? I can only suppose that Guly Do Prado obviously gets 3 points just for coming from Brazil.

It fair to say he's not at his very best I'd say, but Adam Lallana at 90% is still a hell of a lot better than most you'll see in this division. At the far end of St Marys to me, but I was AL methinks who robbed the ball from their right back that led to our first goal. The pathetic beard growing attempt however is a serious mistake.

The grossly inequitable distribution of wealth in this county, and even more crucially on a worldwide basis, is indeed a enormous moral and economic issue confronting humanity. As one of those on a (relatively) low income by our standards, which in turn forces me to buy £5 pairs of trousers at Primark .. etc (doubtless made by some poor sod in a awful 3rd world sweatshop somewhere) I'm not sure if I'm the victim, or the perpetrator, of a crime. Are we exploiting the poor, or sustaining them ... a bit of both maybe ? You could I suppose argue that the unrestricted movement of (very often cheap Eastern European) labour within the EU has done much to depress the income of a great many ordinary working people in this country - such as myself for instance. If it wasn't for a bottomless pit of cheap (nominally Communist) Chinese labour ready to be exploited, where would the world economy be today I wonder ? These are big questions and if I gave the impression that I know any of the answers to them then I fear I may have been misleading the forum ! But these questions and the historically fate of Soviet style communism are surely rather separate issues to what our future position within the European Union should be.

I can remember one good pass to put Lambert in on goal during the 1st half, but apart from that moment I though he was pretty ineffective in all honesty.

If that's your opinion then fine we all see things differently. My opinion was that he put a decent shift in alright, but that in itself is not enough, in the same sense that (very different) players like Brett Ormerod or Paul Wotton always worked their shocks off for you but that was often not enough either. Overall I though his contribution yesterday was poor-to-average at best and the leisurely, apparently disinterested, way he was strolling back from a (very) offside position for Lambert's 2nd goal might well have cost us dearly had the lineo concluded he was 'active'. But on his day he's a good player and we'll surely need him at his very best at Fratton Park.

If you have no confidence in your own ability as a player then you have no business calling yourself a professional footballer. I know this is a harsh thing to say but there's little room for sentiment in the game and we require a reserve keeper who is fully prepared at a moments notice to stand in for our main man. Regrettably, todays effort shows (not for the first time by the way) that BB is just not up to it. As bad as he was today you have to remember that he actually had very little to do against Blackpool - in a really testing game it could well have become bloody out there. Never again.

A very astute observation.

Morgan Schneiderlin is a good technical player but his lack of confidence in front of the opposition goal cost us today on at least one occasion - for gwads sake, when you're in a good shooting position then shoot boy ! Don't try too offload the responsibility onto someone else every time, you never know it might fly in. As for Steve De Ridder, you can tell he's trying so very hard to make a impact here, but is he trying too hard or is he really good enough in the first place ? I have to say his first instinct upon receiving the ball seems to be to turn away from the goal - a bad habit in a forward player.

Well the manager said there'd be a time when we struggled this season, and let's face it he was not wrong. It's too easy to just blame our hapless stand-in goalkeeper because in truth our performance level has been on a descending trajectory for a month or so now. Never mind because it seems our troubles have spread to West Ham as well, so all things considered you could say that todays point doesn't look too bad right now - he says unconvincingly. Looking for two positives to take from today, I thought that Jack Cork had a fine game and we did create more than our fair share of chances during the 1st 45 minutes, indeed with a proper goalkeeper between the sticks I think we'd have beaten a very average Blackpool side fairly easily. As for two negatives, Well aside from the aforementioned Polish goalkeeper's nightmare, neither Guly Do Pardo nor Steve De Ridder can look back on this game with any sense of satisfaction either I'd have thought. Indeed it has to be said that I wonder if De Ridder is up to the demands of English Football.

It's always illuminating when those who hold a skeptical view of the EU are depicted as vile 'nationalists', while EU enthusiasts on the other hand are presumed to be above all that for some reason. But the EU is surely just another national state in the making, its single currency and now proposals for de facto economic control from the centre prove the point beyond dispute I would have thought. I say the further the seat of power is removed away from the people the less representative of those very same people it must become. Of course large sections of our 'Political Class' would like to be a part of the ever more centralised EU because this offers them a unique opportunity to gain more power and influence in the world, but the true motivation behind that need is very often one of furthering their own ambitions rather than some selfless desire to better represent the interests of ordinary people. It was ever thus with ambitious politicians I'm afraid. Personally instead of centralising political power in Brussels I think we should be devolving, or a least retaining more of it, so that it better represents what our British interests are rather than massaging the egos of a remote pan-European political elite. The people of the British Isles can choose to be ruled from London or Brussels I suppose - I know which option I'd prefer but lets face it, either way we'll be ruled from somewhere.

Oh trust me I'd be delighted with a teachers pay, a teachers job and any pension. Unfortunately I don't feel the teacher training colleges are crying out for semi knackered 48 year old working men with a peptic ulcer, 5 CSE's and a embarrassing inability to express himself clearly without the assistance of a spell checker.

I don't know all your circumstances so I can't really say whether you have made the right decision or not - but in any case it's your life my friend and only your opinion should count. What I can say however is that I truly admire the guts it takes to make a decision like this, at a time like now. I've been stuck in a horrible low paid job for a long time now but instead of doing what you have done, the fear of unemployment has made a coward of me - and the only pathetic defence for my failure I can offer is that decisions like this seem to become harder as you get older. At least they do for me.

We signed up 40 years ago to join a Common Market with the explicit intention of advancing our trading relations with our continental neighbours. We have ended up somehow in a European Union that I feel a large proportion of the British people have never really wanted and would not vote for given the opportunity. Far from being alarmed at the prospect of the UK's political isolation from what is obviously a rapidly solidifying European Superstate, I'm actualy quite content for us to maintain our independence. I certainly did not vote for David Cameron and his party, but what he did early this morning made be proud he is our Prime Minister. And before you jump to any erroneous conclusions, I can assure you reader with the utmost sincerity, that I'm very far from the right wing, Daily Mail reading, stereotype you may assume. I see the world around us primarily from the perspective of the historian, from that point of view I can't help but be immersed in this great nation state's long and truly remarkable history. Despite all its many triumphs and tragedies, I still see our Union of the British Isles as a political entity that has been in the past, and can be again in the future, a force for good in the world. As I see it, the prospect of that long distinctly British story reaching such a dismal conclusion as our submergence in this bastardised Franco-German dominated power bloc would be a matter of profound and everlasting regret.

So a reserve keeper who is manifestly not considered good enough to displace Kelvin in the Football League, must despite that somehow be good enough to play in the Premier League ? I admire the optimism and it would be great if Bart did turn out to be a outstanding success at the highest level, but lets face it, there is little or no actual evidence to support this view. It would be a matter of grave concern to this fan if we were to start a PL campaign with just our current goalkeeping line up - the need to dip into the transfer market would be unavoidable in my view. It should go without saying of course that we're not promoted just yet !

Agreed. A very good keeper, a model professional, and a even better man. But there's little room for sentiment in the modern game and the Premier League demands outstanding goalkeepers - not just good ones.

I'll take this opportunity to state just how delighted I am to see MUFC crash out of what should have been a easy enough group. It's always a pleasure to see the mancs fail, but to see them **** it up so spectacularly at this early stage is like Christmas has come early. Even that utter barsteward Roy Keane put the boot in to them - priceless.

I'm just the opposite, probably because I spend far too much time thinking about Southampton Football Club. I'm happy to concede that it is a matter of some interest to me what our owners long term plans for the club are. When things are going this well the secretive way the club is being run may not matter that much. But success can't last forever. Although it is their business of course (quite literally) I still think there is some value in keeping the fanbase informed. I can see no real contradiction between action and dialog. Surely one doesn't preclude the other, and both are desirable. Agree, we don't "need" the owners to communicate with us, but I can't see the harm in them doing so either. As for our politicians, the desirability of a 'kept in the dark & feed on bullsh1t' policy seem overrated to this voter. The above is not intended to be taken as a serious criticism of the way the club is being run, but rather just one ordinary fan's wish to be kept better informed about the course his club is taking.

I've watched every episode of Star Trek every made, and I can assure you this never happens.