hughieslastminutegoal

How many nationalities and languages do we have being spoken in PL? These are young guys many of which may already have a smattering of English. How many English players have any knowledge of a foreign language? Young English players generally are too scared to move abroad - we might have a decent England team if they did. To compare current football with being a bar worker in Spain is pointless, though on the Costas English might be more useful than Spanish I'd suggest. We will soon all be speaking our own languages into our iPhones which will immediately translate into whatever language you select, so we need to get used to the fact that the world is an increasingly integrated place, and let's stop exaggerating issues that are fast becoming outdated. With all the money in football I'm sure clubs can afford numerous translators, and language classes aimed at developing the required vocabulary for working in the football business.

Maybe I phrased it incorrectly but I am sure you understood the gist - see CharlieMiller's posts on St Mary's Football Group – 2016/17 financial results thread. Nitpicking just avoids the issue, don't you think?

This is what perplexes me - Gao borrows to buy the club on the security of paying projected Premier League revenue direct to lender, and that gets paid to KL. KL could have just syphoned off that same revenue and still own the club. So in my book there is more to this deal than meets the eye. Is it a way for KL to get capital into China to buy assets there? If we get relegated, is that to Gao's financial advantage? If so, is the Hughes appointment really intended to save us, or is it just a smokescreen? KL waited a long time to get this particular deal done, but there must have been other potential buyers who were kept at arm's length, as I can't believe we were that unattractive other potential bidders. Something smells I think.

Under the Trades Descriptions Act, what you purchase has to be fit for purpose. If it doesn't do what it is sold to do, you can get a refund. However Monaco can say it's a case of Buyer Beware; they didn't advertise any attributes and gave no warranty that he was of any use whatsoever. It is rather like "Designer" pair of jeans - rip holes in them, stone wash the life out of the material, quadruple the price and some mug thinks they have bought quality when all they have done is pay a fortune for a hefty price ticket.

Isn't that what this either or actually says (whether intended or not)? Originally Posted by hypochondriac "Anyone who would prefer to get relegated rather than appoint Mark Hughes isn't a fan."

In Saturday's Echo, the back page quotes Pellegrino as saying "We are more together and in better spirits than ever before". Pellegrino has sensed an added feeling of impetus .... "My players are conscious of how we need to approach the game.. we are ready to compete". Then after the Newcastle game he had to apologise to the fans saying the performance did not represent the values of the club. "...from the first minute we were not focused..... without the spirit you need to compete at this level... I observed ... some players who gave up." There is a saying: A fool will believe easily, thus will be betrayed easily. Do we blame the fool or the betrayers?

Why did that amaze you?

So still blame everyone else but the players themselves? They clearly have no confidence in the manager but they have given up and just as clearly couldn't give a stuff about the supporters. Most will find an equally remunerative move away, so what to they care? Football mirrors society - the overpaid couldn't give a flying f*** about anyone but themselves.

What, including that wonder woman of British business, Keren Brady? How could they.

A tad contradictory - not ridiculously full of midfield options really after all.

Strikers scoring for fun, quick thinking midfield streaming forward, pressure we apply to the opposition, intense competition for places, great leadership on the pitch No idea why we are struggling for a league win.

I am sure we are all reassured by your imagination. If only we won games behind the scenes, we'd be ace. Fans who go to games see what happens where it matters, and it ain't happening where it matters, is it.

"The money went into the academy and into the training facilities. Which are now world class." The training facilities may be fine, no more than a Premier League club needs, but the Academy? World Class? Do me a feckin' favour. Falling over ourselves with talent competing for places, claiming their 1st team places are we? Some years ago (much as I hate to say it, in Lowe's time) we made some dosh from a few. We have made money since then by buying in and then reselling. Otherwise the production line has been as productive as a BHS pension.

Spot on.

I think "That's the thing, I mean we're not in a drastic situation where we're bottom of the league and a lot of points away,” Ward-Prowse said. "We're a win or two from being higher up the league and gaining that momentum." is scarier still. We may be a win or two away from being higher up, but so is the competition. News for JWP - we ARE in a drastic situation; "bottom of the league and a lot of points away" isn't drastic, we'd be WBA and dead and buried.

So what, 2 or 3 points over a full season better than relegation? That's a fine line you are drawing there. We are an awful looking team - most pundits (like 'em or not) cannot understand how gutless, lackadaisical and disinterested we look (are). Take the fan's rose tinted specs off and smell the coffee, to mix metaphors. Since head of recruitment went to Spurs it has been downhill, each buy (VVD excepted) the wrong type of player, people who can look good in Youtube clips lacking in any context. I think we will just about escape relegation by goal difference or a point; I hope so because I can't see us getting out of the Championship with this shapeless, leaderless team of tackle-shy sideways and backwards-passing pussies. We survived endless campaigns against relegation in the days when we we had some gritty fighters and one massive talent. We have neither now but may well be lucky that there is WBA and 3 teams just as poor as we are. ANY relegation-facing team in the division could be improved with a change to a manager who clicks with the players. Our players, with a change in attitude, could do better with the right manager, but then so could all the other strugglers. Knife-edge stuff. The whole club seems pretty rotten now and I think we are at really at risk of heading down the Sunderland road.

I used to watch Saturday Afternoon wrestling with my dad when Mick McManus was the man to hate and he probably wrestled in Southampton on the odd occasion. Mick came from London like some Saints players have done. He might even have gone on holiday to Portugal where more than one Saints player has grown up. Tenuous Saints connection I know, but just as interesting.

I agree, I pay an arm and a leg to turn up every game, enthralled watching us spiral towards and into the relegation places, watching superb, exciting attacking football, the highlights being absolutely thrashing the bottom team. It is such a treat, what with us being a small provincial team and all. A backwoods side playing backwards. Why should I hope for anything more.

Two of you trying to win by playing a joker?

Ralph soon realises that they haven't yet got the message that MP has tried his best to make this the Bored Room.

I can't make any sense out of your post. " They want to asset strip everything" - presumably to take money out? " Flog players who are no good" - the ones we bought for less than they are worth, or ones we bought for more than they are worth? " Asset strip super quick at cheap prices" - by selling at below what they are worth? Or by first buying more at less than they are worth? Ah, hang on; we are buying rubbish at inflated prices so the better ones want to leave. We can sell them cheap so we can then also justify selling the crap ones we just bought at less than we paid. Have I got it now?

Leicester are 7th. Ah, you say, that's because Leicester have better players, it isn't because of Puel at all. But with basically the same squad as Puel had minus VVD, whom Puel had fit for only half a season, we are now in the bottom 3. But apparently you think that Pellegrino is to blame, not the payers. That sounds rather contradictory. Just maybe Puel got the best out of the squad, as he is getting out of Leicester, and our poorer manager is now unable to get anything much out of our poor squad. But I agree with your final statement.

Can you see the irony here? You berate people for offering their opinions on his worth, yet you offer yours saying he might be part of the solution. Maybe they have seen more of him than you have, perhaps? Someone else is saying people are on his back before he has even arrived, yet all they are doing is expressing an opinion on what they have seen of him. If you have seen some evidence of his value maybe you could point us in the right direction.

Why? If Liverhampton can buy him and spread the payments over 3 years, surely we can do the same sort of thing. It is whether the club's owners want to do that, or use future income to deleverage a bit.

So in summary quite a few consecutive bad decisions have caused this situation, but it is ok because "that's football". Traditional British industrial thinking applied to football. Your post is utter nonsense posing as reasoned analysis.