CHAPEL END CHARLIE

Hard to draw many meaningful conclusions against opposition as limited as Yeovil Town were yesterday, but I must say I thought it was a pretty mediocre game of football overall. Nevertheless we're in the last 16 and the tantalizing prospect of another big day out at Wembley draws ever closer. Great to see young Gallagher score his first goal, but anyone not voting for Jack Cork in the MOtM poll is of course a complete mug.

Strong team please as those who underestimate the opposition deserve to lose. Littleun of course wants to see Lambert score again ... but I've already warned him that Guly could be playing instead

For good evolutionary reasons some degree of risk taking is a perfectly normal behavior in young men of course, but going quite this far is obviously highly abnormal. Although it very easy to condemn him for the shear stupidity and crass thoughtlessness of his actions, I must admit part of me can't help but admire his manifest ability to conquer fear. With the possible exception of the odd spot of 'traffic light Grand Prix' unlike young James I've lead my life avoiding risk wherever possible, I've never even smoked a single cigarette for instance. Based on that lifetime of tedious 'better safe than sorry' experience I have to tell you now that not enough risk taking can be just as (if not more) damaging to the Human personality than too much is. This programme made great TV though.

Very much a minority opinion on here I suspect, but if you watch Osvaldo closely the astute fan can begin to see he's probably the most naturally talented striker we have at this club. On the ball he's a class act, even if he's not proved that yet with a decent goal return for this club. I think given sufficient time to adapt to the demands of the English game, given a bit more luck re injury's, above all given some degree of emotional self control this player could be as big a success here one day as he was abroad. But I see rather a lot of 'maybes' in there frankly. Looking back we were warned before he came that this player is trouble and those warnings have proved to be all too insightful I'm afraid. I personally wouldn't go so far as to say there's no way back for Dani Osvaldo from this situation - John Hartson actually kicked a teammate in the head remember - but the temptation to just cut our losses and ship him out ASAP must be a strong one. Osvaldo and Ramirez - easily the two most expensive signings in this clubs long history and the pair of them major disappointments if truth be told. With money likely to become not quite so freely available in the future, surely we just can't afford to repeat mistakes like this again.

Apart from repeating the (very) old mistake of confusing Markus Liebherr's MALI business with the huge crane and construction equipment concern of the wider family, this is a decent article by Martin Samuel. In particular when the author mentions the 'glass ceiling' hanging, solid but invisible, over this club ascent of the football pyramid - if you'll forgive my mixed metaphors. You get the feeling that our (now former) Chief Executive was more a 'the sky's the limit' type of fella, those who owned (and payed) for everything had their feet planted more firmly on the ground. That type of relationship very often ends up in the divorce court sooner or later does it not? If KL has the sense to either sell up, or forget about dreams of the Champions League and find someone to run the club on a sound business footing, like Bill Kenwright does at Everton, then she will do well I think.

The points Duncan makes on here are, as per usual with this noted contributer, most insightful and they seem to 'ring true'. Nevertheless, whether we happened to like him or not, I think we can safely say that Nicola Cortese played a crucial role in this club's recovery from near dissolution back in the dark days of 2009. For that at least he has earned a honorable place in this club's long history. I must also add that, like many other fans, I instinctively don't much like the current level of uncertainty surrounding the club, although as long suffering Saints fans we really should be used to it by now I suppose. However looking back on the extraordinary events of last summer when Cortese virtually threatened to sack the owner and walk out on the club (with MP in his pocket) if he didn't get his own way ... well that would surely be regarded as unacceptable behavior from the chief executive of any serious business would it not? The timing is certainly a shock to the system, but perhaps he had to go sooner or later. I've said it many times before and will risk boring the forum by restating it now, the Cortese dream of transforming this middle sized regional football club into a regular Champions League contender was always bound to end in tears one day. Organizations, just like individuals, who try to be something they are not are headed for trouble. Indeed, chasing that particular 'dragon' would probably have proved to be the ruin of the club in the long term, just like a similar display of ego driven insanity was the ruin of Leeds Utd under Peter Risdale. As for the future, I think the manager will not long outlast this season and SFC will likely be sold to a wealthy (probably foreign) investor within the next year or so as I can't see the (rather disinterested to be frank) Liebherr family wanting to risk the substantial investment they have already made in the club when the returns on offer are so low. So then our course is set for uncharted waters yet again, and the only thing we fans can be assured of is that come-what-may this club's future is unlikely to be a dull one.

Yes complete speculation - but perhaps not so far out of the whelm of possibility to be completely worthless. Given the healthy state of the club (both on and off the field) I'm moderately confident that should Katharina want to sell - and methinks she probably should - then there will wealthy candidates, such as this Singaporean businessman, prepared to take SFC on. There may even be a queue of them.

I had my reservations about Cortese the man, but you can argue that he was utterly crucial to getting this club to where it is today. Now that he's gone the future direction of this great club is once again a questionable subject. Any Saints fan tonight claiming to be not even a little worried about the future of the club is a fool.

Has anyone else noticed the funny peculiar way this player tries to tackle? Instead of putting his foot in and attempting to win the ball back like any normal midfielder would, more often than not he kinda performs what I can only describe as the Gaston Ramirez 'Red Arrow' maneuverer. Just like the RAF's elite aerobatic team he gets thrillingly close to his opposite number without ever quite making contact ... oh and then he flies off in the opposite direction!

I was reading the other day that in his determination to work all the previous Doctors into last years 50th anniversary Doctor Who special somehow, series producer Steven Moffat wanted to show the posters for both the old Peter Cushing film versions of Doctor Who in the background of one of the new sets. His idea being that those films are actually semi fictional accounts of the 'real' Doctor's adventures if you're mad enough to know what I mean. Now you might say this level of deep nerdom shows the dangers of putting fans in charge of a TV series. I say however that this was a brilliant idea that would have helped made some sort of bizarre sense out of Who's confusing (and often contradictory) back story. However we are told (although I have my doubts) that issues surrounding the cost of obtaining the commercial rights to show the two posters scuppered the idea. Boo!

No wrong again. He's a bit of a 'luxury' because our play is built around good players pressing the ball exceptionally hard and defending from the front. GR lackadaisical tackling and questionable work rate mean he just doesn't fit into that style at the moment - which is why he has spent most of the season with his backside planted to the bench. Now you may think we should adapt our play to suite this one player more. I say better he should adapt his play to fit in with the ethos of the team. Now if he can do that then I think we could all agree he should be a regular feature in our squad.

Well I'm one of those less than fully convinced that Gaston will ever prove to be the world class player some on here make him out to be. But fair goes, he came on and with one touch of pure class probably made the difference between us earning a single point today, or all three. But let's not forget a better player still had to finish the chance. The trouble with Gaston Ramirez is that he's either very good, or desperately average to be frank about it. I think that's why he's only had limited game time so far this season, because managers want players who can consistently deliver them a 7 or 8 performance every game, rather than one who veers erratically between a 9 and a 4. So a bit of luxury player then you might say, and one who IMO should be nowhere near the first team in games when a top side puts us under the cosh for prolonged periods. But there are other times - like today for instance - when he can be more than handy.

It does, but you have to pay now.

If this thread doesn't tempt my old friend Arizona out of his self imposed retirement then nothing will.

I asked littleun yesterday "you don't really want to go and see Saints v Yeovil do you?" in the hope that he might show some mercy on his poor Godfather and his battered bank account. I'll leave it to you to guess what answer I got from this Lambert worshiping little monster.

I must admit that I've not traveled the world testing my hypothesis but I suspect that our police are among the most honest, helpful and uncorrupted to be found anywhere in the world. I have certainly found them so in my (infrequent) dealings with them. However methinks most of us are well aware that it is a fact of life that some coppers do lie on occasion. Like other similiar professions (dare I say the Army) the police are a 'tight knit' group that tend to close ranks and cover each others backs when threatened by outsiders. Now I can understand why that happens, without approving of it in any way. Following previous scandals the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 introduced the provision that formal interviews conducted under caution with suspects at the police station must be taped so that there are no grounds for dispute regarding what has actually been said. I say this has proved to be such a significant advance in our criminal justice system that now no one in their right mind would want to see it reversed. The day when that very same principle is extended so that all police officers are routinely equipped with modern lightweight video cameras so that their dealings with the general public outside 'on the street' are also recorded will be a good day for the cause of justice in this country. Surely no decent copper can have much to fear from such a development. A Tory MP said the other day that if something like 'plebgate' could happen to someone as powerful and influential as a member of the government then it could happen to absolutely any of us. Is there anyone on here who wants to disagree with that statement? .

Sherlock (BB1 Sunday) I much enjoyed this hectic mish-mash of a romp as Holmes is reluctantly forced to attend Dr Watson's wedding (a true 'fish out of water' situation for him) and deliver the dreaded Best Man's speech. However I must say the method the murderer choose to kill his victims off - stabbing them through their belt buckles which somehow left them unaware that they'd even been attacked - was a load of old nonsense. But never mind, because despite its innate daftness this was still good stuff. The Bridge (BBC4 Saturday) I loved the first series of this Danish/Swedish crime yarn and I've fallen for it yet again. What a bizarre partnership Saga and Martin make - she is a Asperger's sufferer who is quite brilliant in her own way, but cold and utterly incapable of forming normal relationships with other people. Martin on the other hand is the polar opposite of that, emotional, warm hearted, and full of Human weakness. Yet the two of them somehow form a great partnership - a sort of Scandinavian 'Starsky and Hutch' but not if you know what I mean. Perfect TV for a dark winters night this. Longmire (Five USA Tuesday) Early days so far but I kinda liked the first episode of this new (new to me anyway) US police series. The USP of this show is that we are removed from the normal gritty urban setting for this kind of thing and relocated to the fresh air and wide open spaces of rural Wyoming. Walt Longmire (played by Robert Taylor) is a middle aged local county sheriff with a lot on his plate. He has to manage his police department, fight crime, cope with the (so far mysterious) death of his wife, get re elected ... oh and get along with the local Native American population at the same time. If they can keep the standard of the scripts up to scratch then this series could go far methinks.

Not get me wrong here, but reading that I'm not the only person in this situation is kinda comforting somehow. Comforting in a 'misery loves company' kinda way you understand.

Exciting to see so many goals scored of course, but that headline may disguise the fact that this game was pretty ordinary for much of the time. Never mind, the main thing is we won and at just £20 (£5 for the kids) that was still fair value for money in my book. Clyne's goal was a proper thumper by the way - worth the ticket price all on its own. As for Jos Hooiveld ... well he has served this club well enough in the past I suppose, but this season the man is fast becoming a liability I'm sorry to say. On a personal note at long last - after 3 seasons of mistiming and disappointment - a certain 7 year old boy of my acquaintance finally got to see his hero, Sir Rickie Lambert of this Manor, score a bloody goal. Thank god for that I say.

Another pretty average performance today from this player I thought. He may still be here on the 1st of February, but I just can't see the club wanting to retain his services beyond next Summer.

I too had a family member who suffered a major head injury (in a car crash) a few years. She survived and came out of her coma somehow, even after we were told by the staff at the specialist Addenbrooks Hospital brain trauma unit that she probably wouldn't. Her recovery took a hell of a long time though, and I'd be lying if I said she was the same person as she was before the accident.

Well I can't speak for anyone else but I'm 'up for the cup' as usual and will be there at St Marys tomorrow with a certain notorious 7 year old in tow, a boy who let me tell you is fast becoming rather (over)excited by the prospect of seeing his heroes play again. I have tried to patiently explain to him that we are unlikely to see many of our better players turn out for us tomorrow, but thinking back I might be wrong because I seem to remember we actually put out quite a strong team this time last year - and got thumped 5-1 by bloody Chelsea again for our troubles! Nevertheless, we're probably going to finish this season in some respectable (but let's face it rather dull) midtable place. So I say let's push the boat out and go all out for Cup success this season. If you don't even try then you'll never know just how far we could get.

Vosper Thornycroft built 4 MK10 'Niterori' Class frigates at Woolston for the Brazilian Navy between 1976 -78. Based on VT's Type 21 class but larger and more heavily armed these ships are still in service. This navy also operates 3 former RN Type 22 Batch I frigates.

I've just been watching the latest episode of 'Sherlock' where the 'Sumatra Road' underground station features heavily. There never was any such stop, but the name chosen is a reference to Sir Artur Conan Doyle's story 'The Sussex Vampire' where the giant rat of Sumatra is mentioned. Doctor Who fans of a certain age will know that London's abandoned tube stations are really full of menacing Yeti's of course.

I'll take this opportunity to pass on my congratulations - for what its worth - to the groundstaff at St Marys. Our field of play there has always been in exceptionally good condition, but I can't remember it being quite as 'near perfect' as it is now, at this time of the year before. On Wednesday, despite more or less constant heavy rain, it didn't even 'cut up' at all as far as I could see. How they manage that in those conditions god alone knows. What a pity Chelsea made better use of it than we did.