up and away

I believe we are after someone, whether or not we get what we want is another matter. That is too long a stretch to January with injuries still present.

Can i enquire how you know this and if its true why is he still playing ? He's still playing because he has something to offer the team, which I can easily accept for most occasions. Why I believe his knees are shot at the moment are the comments from Adkins, fans observations and the comparison with Fuller. A friend runs corporate hospitality at Saints for his company and one of the main comments he has picked up on from guests who go infrequently, is that Ricky is much slower than last season, something echoed by Saints fans on here who have gone to St Mary's for the first time this season. It's something I have never really picked up upon for what ever reason. Adkins mentioned on Saints player the problem Ricky had at the beginning of the season with getting back to full fitness and his knees got a mention then. In another interview he went on about players being restricted in training and some carrying "problems" that he was not going to tell the opposition about. Now we all know about Barnard and he regularly comments on his hernia for the reason he comes off early, similarly he has rested Jaidi. So looking around at what is remaining, the likelihood that Ricky falls into that description looks pretty high. Since the beginning of the season it has been obvious that Ricky is not the same player as last season and I have been puzzled as to why. One of the most noticeable things previously has been his inability to jump, which triggered something in the back of my mind. This looks a carbon copy of Fuller when he came to Saints and that took until long after he left us to get over, which was all down to his knees. Resulting in an inability to jump and slow off the mark, but still playing regularly. I keep thinking I see small improvements in Ricky, which come and then seem to disappear again. I don't know how long it will be for Ricky to be the striker he was last season, but Adkins seems bullish. I've seen Ricky play several times with plenty of confidence, just in front of goal he never had the pace to free himself or the spring in the header. Just one goal from open play after all the games he has played, just looks impossible from last season.

Those who say he is not suited to League 1 football have no understanding of what he does or Brazilian league football. The cold and torrential rain may be a different matter, but the guy is as hard as nails, chases more lost causes than Polyanna in a brothel and can find the net. I understand the negative comments and some of his play deserves that, but this guy looks our only chance for getting out of the problems we have, but he needs a run to prove that. I would be playing Ricky for the majority of games until he recovers, but a lot I would not even consider him and prefer to use Guly instead. Guly can break down defences and I would like to see what he can do given a run. Now if we get in someone else who can cover for Ricky, then fair enough and the need may not be there to use Guly in such a manner. If you are going to use 451 on occasions away from home (which I feel there is a definite need), there is absolutely no point in using Ricky, you may as well buy him a ticket in the stand and bring him down for any penalty. This is not a matter of confidence with Ricky, his knees are shot at the moment. Yes Guly has been disappointing on occasions, but he has shown more than enough glimpses of his potential and he is ideally suited to this league. Going in where it hurts, a never say die attitude and the common sense to steer clear of the handbags.

Kelvin wanted to get the game moving, probably as frustrated as the rest of us at Brighton's blatant time wasting. He shoved their player in the back to get to the ball. Their player over-balanced and fell over. No malice intended and the ref saw it like that IMO. That was totally dumb. All it needed was for the ref or linesman to catch a glimpse out of the corner of their eye, turn to see the aftermath and we would have been in real trouble. You don't have to cast your mind back that far where Kelvin has done exactly the same and had to pay the penalty.

Brighton are a horrible, niggly, time wasting team that I would pay to avoid watching. That said, I think they will definitely get an automatic spot because all that negativity, combined with resolute defending is very difficult to break down, They are at present on a bad run with injuries compounding their problems and on events, should have won that game. Saints played well, in a very controlled manner and but for the lack of fire power, should have won this. Ricky's form is why we can't guarantee an automatic spot and we will have to get someone else in to get that guarantee. That does not mean we are going to sell him, firstly who would have him in his current form and when he gets over his problems, he will come good the same as Fuller. Adkins gave a hint to key players playing with injuries but would not highlight this for the opposition. Not that he needs to, after all this time I think we can all work it out for ourselves. The defence is consistently making errors that are or should be costing goals, going across the back four and the goalie. We have to be consistent here as the combination of not scoring and leaking is going to cost any team. Adkins is right, the defence has to be selected primarily for being able to defend. I was sure Morgan was going to get himself sent off last night and have nigh given up on him as a Saints player. We have a lot of very good and talented players, all we really need is that performence coupled with a 25 goal striker to pull this league apart. until then we will have to do the best with what we have. Guly has taken a bit of a pasting, but amongst the negatives he looks the one player from glimpses, that could do a job for us given a run. It's pointless using Ricky away where 451 is required, I would far prefer to develop Guly with the possibility of something coming out of the other end. Well done Kelvin, did well in staying awake the first half, superb in what he did.

The only thing Lowe got wrong with that twitchy faced tosser, was by not sacking him as soon as we went down. Lowe gave him open reign in the Premier and he failed woefully. Virtually £4.5M in that window and got out thought by Brian ******* Robson without a pot to **** in. We over spent trying to stay in the Premier, when we went down we had no money and big over heads. Fuller would have been a good buy, 2 years down the line when he had recovered from his knees. The guy cannot coach, has the tactical nous that Keegan would doubt and has not a hope in hell without the right players. Redknapp for England, they should give Steve McLaren a knighthood on that basis.

It's pretty obvious that they have another purpose for these shirts. They won't be selling them on after they have been worn. It would not surprise me if these shirts were already made up for some other purpose. Someone then has the bright idea of letting these kids wear them for this occasion for the PR, is there anything really wrong with that?

I don't think it is confidence any more and the Ricky we see now, may be with us for a while. He looked bubbling with confidence for some of his play, so I really don't figure how that does not extend. One very noticeable thing is that he does not jump, indicating that the problem lies with his knees and would also make you slower off the mark. This just looks so reminiscent of Fuller and that took another season + after he left us to get sorted out. As I have said previously, he still has a good contribution to the team, just don't expect the goal machine we had last season. The question that then arises, "can we do without that goal machine we had last season?". Very difficult one to answer and I would not put money on an automatic spot without it. What Adkins said and did when converting to 451 (433) against Carlisle made a lot of sense and something I believe we need to do more of away from home. In those situations I would far prefer to go with Guly who I believe has the potential with a run, to be that player. The Ricky problem needs to be fixed either by being fully fit, be selective in the games he is used, getting in another player or developing another member of the to do a job. What we see with Ricky at the present will deliver games like Saturday, but go awol on other occasions.

I am sure if you take your wheel barrow along to the 125 year celebration show that Lawrie is doing, he will gladly fill that up for charity!

This makes so much sense, I am just surprised never to have heard this before. A lot of Ricky's problems reminded me of the problems Fuller had whilst he was with us, especially the inability to jump. It took Fuller nigh on two seasons to get back to fitness and the time issue is the pressing problem with Ricky. We need a striker who will get us 25 goals a season now, we can't afford to wait or the automatic spots will be out of our reach. Ricky still has his uses, but to pin our hopes without any real sign of recovery just does not seem the wisest move. I would be happier if we went directly into the loan market now if this problem could be solved.

Fonte is slightly under performing from last season, but as I have previously said, I believe that is down to not just trying to do his own job, but covering for the weaknesses of others. His biggest issue is getting pulled out of position in trying to cover too much. Whether that be covering for Kelvin or any other part of the defence. This is only a minor criticism, as Fonte is the real class player on that pitch.

But this 'form' has been going on since the start of the season, so maybe they weren't playing for AP at all. You could go back to pre-season and no one gave a rats arse. There was an improvement under Adkins, but he is now laying down the law and not accepting a sub standard performance. The gloves seem to be off now and Adkins has decided changes need to be made otherwise it will be terminal. I don't know what happened to Pardew, but without a doubt I place the blame with him. There is no doubt in my mind that Cortese never intended to sack Pardew so quickly, this is something Pardew brought on himself. Whether it was because he wanted out or was demotivated, the damage had set in. Pardew himself had lost the plot to an extent, standing in front of players and just yelling into their face, maybe the pressure just got to him and he could no longer function. If we replace Morgan with a decent player, get in a 20 goal a season striker we should be ok. Ricky still has his uses, but he aint going to get us an auto spot the way he is going and no CCC team is going to want him on his current form.

All goalies have their good and bad points, this is one of Kelvins bad points. The defenders will set up and react for how they expect the goalie to react. Any goalie who commands his box will make life so much easier for the remaining defenders and there lies the problem with Kelvin. The Huddersfield goal where he believed he was being impeded was marginal and by the time the ball focused the play on him and the forward, there was nothing for the ref to see and Kelvin had boxed himself in. That was really naive of Kelvin and you get the feeling he has an ASBO tag not allowing him to stray from his line during match time. I don't know if Bart would be better, I would like to have seen him in action in the cup, but it will definitely need addressing in the CCC.

The Cortese court case was just a rumour he passed on from another source. Someone told me they had already heard this and the original source. I don't totally discount the idea, but I don't give a lot of verity to the origin. He's got very good information from the training ground, but there is nothing to show it extends past there.

If anything costs us promotion, it will be the state Pardew left the team in and the small fact that Ricky is nowhere near the player he was last season. The midfield has always had this weakness, never addressed by Pardew. Give me Adkins any day of the week.

I agree. To pretend it was some kind of generous donation because of how deeply Cortese felt about the history of SFC is absurd. No problem with it by the way and actually think it was a good idea, just don't pretend it was something it's not. I don't even remember Cortese claiming it was a generous donation, I would imagine this was Markus's idea. All been kept very low key. What it does scotch is the ludicrous idea that this was all done for the profit on shirt sales. If you wanted to make money, keep the old shirt and have sponsorship on it!

This has to have a major impact. If you factor in the 20? goals Barny got at Southend before joining us, it looks far worse. What the fook Pardew did to these players in the close season I do not know, but they are poor imitations of their previous form. The only question against Adkins is for how much longer do we have this faith in Ricky? The midfield was always the weak point under Pardew that suffered from consistency. Chaplow has helped but not enough. A strong midfielder and forward and I believe we can get this back on track very quickly, but I feel it has to be done. I like what Adkins has done and a lot of his changes has been in response to weaknesses that needed fixing, no problem there. The one thing I am concerned with is relying on Ricky to do the business that he was performing so easily previously.

In fairness AP got some good results out 4-5-1 (4-3-3) so it can be done......... Without actually being there and fully understanding what went wrong it's very difficult to say. You can play 451 but unless the players do their jobs in any formation you are going to have problems. What I am having a problem with is playing counter attacking football when Lambert can't win a header or is running in treacle! Without doubt Adkins has addressed the problem where our midfield got over ran at Notts. So the theory does not seem that wrong, will have to wait for the reports to find where it all fell apart.

I don't believe it is confidence, just so long. Dave Merrington was saying how slow Lambert looked and only contributed 1 goal from open play and a deflected free kick. I would have expected more from his free kicks than the solitary deflection. It's been so long now without any real sign of improvement, I feel we should look to alternatives otherwise it will all slip away. How Adkins feels he can play a counter attacking game with Lambert at the pinnacle is something I am having a problem squaring. I don't know about today, but find it difficult to understand why he can no longer jump effectively?

Erm... Accounting wise actually it will raise the club by exactly that amount,( adjusted by the time value of money in terms of payments of the debt. and depending on whether we revalue fixed property then the value of the asset (and hence the club will increase by even more over time) As with any asset, it's only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Something so intrinsically linked to football will have it's value held ransom by team performances and the ability to fill it. Developing St Mary's or moving elsewhere makes no sense from football alone. Develop the area and introduce revenue streams other than football and it makes a lot more sense. If we can get sufficient land around St Marys, especially the waterfront, it could well be a good development. I would estimate a good capacity for St Mary's some where around 35k to 40k. That's allowing for the distortion of the Premier figures by the 4-5k who came along just to watch Premier football and the high volume of season ticket holders that carried over because of the Dell's small capacity. If You can get the season ticket levels high then you are in very good shape, but trying to build it up again from a low base will only emphasise the ease to get hold of tickets when you have so many available seats.

The cynical among us could suggest that is a good marketing decision. That's if you completely over look the fact there is no shirt sponsorship this season. Take that on board and weigh up the financial impact and you are in need of a far different adjective.

Well it appears that Mr Murray has been found out, exactly as Florida Marlin explained http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/photo/101110barred.shtml. He's now going to check with DataCo to see what the "true" position is

This seems reasonably sensible and I can't see the downside. If Charlton go into administration, this purchase/transfer will be looked at closely and must stand the test of not being a recourse to any possible administration. If this has been voted through by 75% of the share holders and does not disadvantage most debts that may arise, it should be ok. What it does do is allow Murray to invest money into the club, without ****ing it against the wall. With the added benefit that the players come more into the same category as other creditors.

Have they selected a charity yet? And will this be be accompanied by some pyramid scheme or product that we have somehow managed to do without for so long?

As our club has a large revenue income we can spend more than otherb teams in League 1 but the point being made earlier I think was suggesting that not much money was coming from the Liebherrs to strengthen the team which does seem to be the case You have to remember that the money paid out already for the club, players etc by Liebherr does not come free. Any other investment would be ploughing back into the purse, so it's definitely costing them. We are still the biggest spenders in this league, with the biggest and most expensive squad. Add on all the infrastructure to both the club and the playing side and there has not been anyone in this league come near that. The main problem we have at present is being to buy real quality players that will make a difference for the future, something that looks impractical until we are actually there. The best policy at present is to plough money into the Academy and look for the other Oxo's, especially when you have a team made up of league 1 players of the season or others best assets. And our second string is up there against most teams in this league. At the present there is not much more we can do than already happening. If and when we attain promotion, then we will all see clearly, but no indications apart from positive at the present.