hughieslastminutegoal

Whoever goes, we can say "Salon, it's been good ta know ya". I suppose another club came in and said in their best market stall patter, "No, not a no.1, not a no.2, just a no.9".

When I said "Does my bum look big in these, I expect you to at least open your eyes AND LOOK!"

They obviously aren't as convinced of their own ability as we think they are. Let's face it , the pair of them would rather sulk and take home their wage than have the guts to say " I know I'm good and people will want me on good money, so I'll surrender my contract and leave now-ski." They seem prepared to stay beyond the window, take their money and offer little more than a token effort when they have to play. If I was manager and if I could prove they'd actually said they weren't prepared to put in a proper effort in L1, I might think about sacking the pair of them for breach of contract. Time someone at some club or other did that to some of these want-away "I can't be arsed to play for you" kind of players.

Who is after sympathy? He decided to stay and no go after the megabucks, but he isn't after tears of sympathy. However, if he felt that way about the club/city/fans, why shouldn't he be able to say so? Le Tiss is a bloke who is able to say something good. Pity you can't do the same, rather than parade your superior literary choice, which in fact just happens to be some 17th century religious crackpot - ah, now I can see who you've been modelling yourself on.

So what does MS bring to the side? Can't head, or tackle, now there is no creativity and we are clueless in midfield. I know he is still young, but where is the class he is supposed to have? Is it indoor 5 a side?

He also said we looked tired with 20 mins to go, so I think that probably answers your question.

You are being very inconsistent. You say you prefer entertainment and are happy to be in a lower division if you get entertained. Fine. But you cannot then blame "Plastic fans" for quitting when they didn't feel they were getting entertained - and they weren't. Name-calling and all this "I'm a better fan than you" stuff is pointless. We live in a commercial world in which people chose how to spend their money in search of entertainment. Your product has to be sufficiently attractive to those customers if you want to survive in a high cost industry. That's just how it is.

This is a bit like people saying "The theory of Communism is fine, everyone gets a fair share, from each according to his ability to each according to his needs etc., etc." They usually go on to say "But it doesn't work in practice". Most people would rather watch good skillful players, watch them develop, see them able to show their skills and not be stifled by lummoxes, of course they would. But if you can't afford the players who can do it that in the Prem, you get relegated. Then you are in division where big lumps dominate, skill cannot develop as successfully as you'd like, and you get relegated again. Then you are in real hoof-'n-hope territory, and as we now know, fancy-dans however entertaining, won't cut it. I think what you are asking for just cannot work here, regrettable as that may be. Now if you could play in a division from which relegation was not possible, the philosophy might change. But that won't happen either. I have always thought that reserve team football is an extremely poorly-used resource. If organised well, that could facilitate the very kind of football you'd like to see. Look at Chelsea - they have millions of pounds of talent not playing 1st Team games regularly and they play disinterestedly in reserve games at Aldershot or somewhere. And for some weird reason people would still rather watch Aldershot Lumps than Chelsea Reserves. It seems for the hardcore fan its first and foremost about successful group identity and entertainment comes a poor second in their scale of values.

Did he have little legs? They probably looked longer when he's stretched out on the treatment table. Apparently you grow quite a bit when you've been lying down a long time and the spine uncompresses. Perhaps the same happens to legs. Still, as you say, he's probably lost them anyway. Maybe he can do good wheelies now, though.

Wotton - and we have him on a contract with 2 years left! Great signing by Hockaday! Thomas - the lump has been almost continually injured since he came. He's on good money, and he's not up to it even in this division. And our core depends on Spiderman? Doesn't all this tell us just how monumental Pardew's job is? He's got to build Rome.

As he said, they've still to find it. It might be interesting to find out what it is, but I'm sure most of us would rather not wait to find out. Nevertheless with the players we have, it doesn't look like it's the top of the division we are in, does it? So as Pardew says, he needs 2 CBs, 2 MF and probably 2 WMF, and another 2 S if Raziak/SagaImOffski finally go. My worry is that Cortese said in his Echo piece that there would be "1 or 2". Not sure he has a grasp of what's needed in this league yet.

So why would anyone (that'll be anyone with a capital L) appoint someone who knew nothing about this league? How did the interview go? Was it something like "My chum Woody tells me he thinks he's heard of you from somewhere or other. You are Dutch. All the Dutch believe in sports science. So you can manage a team of kids, do you think?" "Yesh, no problemsh." "Ok, the jobs yours. And there's another Dutch bloke Woody thinks he met in a bar a couple of years ago. He apparently listened to everything Woddy said, so he's coming along too. OK?" "Yesh, it's OK." There were some of us saying it was just ludicrous from day one, but were abused for saying so.

It's ok, the Academy produces a conveyor belt of quality players. We'll be fine.

Don't really understand your last point. IF there were benefits to splitting things up before, those potential benefits presumably haven't disappeared. Mr L might well see a legal and business benefit in holding all land/property/buildings seperately from the user of them, a very common practice, even in private companies. And he has indicated he expects things to be run on a sound business footing, so at the moment we just don't know how he'll do things, and probably won't ever really know. But presumably there are tax implications, and no doubt he would like to secure physical assets against (the unlikely event of) poor performace of the football club? Similarly, I keep wondering exactly why BE etc bought QPR. Of course he may see it all at the moment as small beer, not worth the trouble of trying to be too clever.

Do you know for a fact that there is (and will only be) one entity? Are you saying that you know for sure that Mr L will not indulge in any of the former regime's company structurings? What is the current legal status of the club and it's relationship to Mr L? I bet you don't actually know for sure. I think you are surmising.

No debt (and no repayments) isn't quite the same thing as no stadium payments. He could, for example make the club pay a rent for the stadium. Not saying he will, but at the moment no one knows how the club's finances will be organised. I don't think we can assume anything, but he won't have bought the club for it to limp along and just scrape survival out of the ashes.

As we are L1 now, an Mr L has (apparently) paid off the stadium loan, and cleared the overdraft, that must have reduced our costs considerably. That's actually quite a big help. No doubt signings will have to fit with projected revenue (whether that's a projection over the short or over a longer term we have yet to find out). What we also don't know yet is whether Mr L will also be setting up a stadium holding company to whom the club will have to pay a rent, reducing the cost saving benefits. You could be right about RL part2, but the new Mr L might not be so lacking in ambition, and may well be prepared to take a longer term view of costs and income, so the business plan could be more "flexible". I'm sure he realises that and won't want a floundering L1 team club on his hands. He has appointed Pardew who certainly isn't another 40k a year man or whatever Lowe was paying MW & JP, so there is some evidence that he is prepared to spend to improve.

The over-importance of Internationals is already distorting the leagues. This will inevitably put even more weight behind the top clubs' argument for fewer domestic games - so their poor players can have a rest before/after internationals, and before the tired luvvies have to go on to play their Champions League games. And Blatter & Co will use the internationals argument to get national leagues to have smaller top divisions. It's all heading in one direction, I'm afraid. It's called "stuff the small clubs".

Somehow I think that's really what you liked about being a Saints fan, the little club that often punched above it's weight, and you are less interested now that it could be a barony, wherever that might lead. For what it's worth I feel exactly like that. It isn't the club I started supporting in 1963. But then it hasn't really been that for 20 years. Football isn't the game I was watching then, either. Maybe you, like me, are just getting old?

Why would we need to worry about the opposition when we were producing such quality from the Academy? After all they should have walked that league. WE don't need to bog ourselves down with the mundanities of CCC (and L1) life, surely?

AP said, and you quoted, "The market that I’m focusing on now is the Bosman market, because I don’t want to lose the gems that are still floating around in that area, because they’re going to be gone soon,” he said. Why do you quote what he said and then carry on as if he didn't say it? What's wrong with concentrating on Bosmans now bearing in mind AP believes there can be gems floating around that may be gone soon. Can't we let the guy get on with it without trying to second guess/contradict/negatively interpret everything he says right from the off?

Blimey, someone other than me questioning what the eff our glorious academy has been turning out. I've been banging on for a couple of years at least that myopia set in after Walcott. To think "the one we must not mention" hung the whole future of the club on it! Good grief!!!!!

Will you be so keen on it when they top few clubs have p*ssed off into a Euro Elite league? Will it have made the prem more interesting and appealing? Maybe it will, but to those who wanted a more competitive league in the first place, which too much money at a handful of clubs is preventing.

But are you saying that his quality will make up for laziness? Because he hasn't shown that for the last couple of seasons, here or elsewhere, has he?

With -10 points I'm not sure anyone has 15 games to prove themselves. If Pardew quickly gets the rest of the team playing better and supporting the striker, and gives Rasiak a chance, then if Rasiak is still any good he'll need to start showing it pretty sharpish. Remember he has been out on loan and has not really done the business at those clubs either. He needs to get his head around the fact that no club really seems to want him at the moment. If he has ability then it's poor attitude, and he'd better change it pdq.