Badger

Isn’t that what we do though ?

Kalajdnic , or possibly Hjolund, would have been the better options. Both affordable it would seem and Hjolund fitting our young policy.

We clearly dodged a bullet there then. As far as I can recall Les’s Black Box for recruitment has only brought us a few traffic offences over the last 10 years. The hand bag thieves were before his time. We’re obviously not recruiting at the top end of the criminality potential market No ambition…

Doesn’t appear to be a lot of joined up thinking in that strategy, or it hasn’t been worded very well. “No bid has been sent for Ramos and the club don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket. They still admire him greatly but they don’t know if a deal is able to happen.” It certainly won’t happen if they don’t put a bid in. We either want him or we don’t’, in which case move on.

Exactly, we've got plenty of shit to shovel out of the club, and mediocre players before we lose Stuart Armstrong. I'd be livid if he goes and we still have to rely on the empty shirts like Redmond and Elyonoussi lingering for another year without better recruitment.

That's a good observation, and typifies the workload and ground he covered. His work often went unnoticed though, especially from those outside the club, because he did it in a fairly tireless way without the histrionics you see now. Also I think appearance, people saw a balding, and fairly chunky bloke going about his work, and it didn't look athletic etc. I suspect the Opta stats for him though if they were available might have told a different story in ground covered etc At the time he signed for us I was living in the north east and friendly with a Middlesbrough ST holder who told me that the season before he left, Armstrong had been their LB, LM, and LW, dominating that side of the pitch for them. Naturally they were sorry to see him go, but I recall his return with Saints to Ayresome Park in January 1982 (game we went top of the table from) and he received a good reception from Boro fans. Same Boro fan also said that the 'word' from those close to the club was that 'Spike' was joining Sunderland with fees and contracts agreed. Then it was announced he was joining Saints, suggestion that it he wanted a really new start for him and his family. We'll never know if it was Lawrie's silver tongue that persuaded him to uproot and come south or for personal reasons. Just glad he did really, and we had the pleasure of seeing him in that team with Channon, Ball, KK and all.

Therein lies the problem though. Well, that and some we can't even give away.

Might that be down to the lack of movement and options ahead of him though ? Not sure that it is always his failing.

Or Ely ??

Lawrie said he'd have got his first England cap a few years earlier if he'd had a floppy haircut and an earring.

Would like to see some height up front, so Kalajdzic or the Danish lad, Hjolund, mentioned yesterday.

This game, and our two second half goals will live with me forever.

Definitely two stand out moments, but he served the club so well helping the change from Lawrie's side to Chris Nicholl's for whom he played LM, LB, and sweeper in the same season (and I think he still ended up top scorer).

Sad news , and a great shame. As others have said, an important part of probably our greatest team who contributed much to that side and for the rest of the 1980's and his time with us. Spoke to him in The Dell car park once when calling in for tickets, very unassuming and friendly. Always spoke well on Solent, I was surprised he didn't pursue a career in management, although in hindsight he was probably too intelligent to put himself forward for it. RIP David, thanks for the memories from a glorious era.

But is he the dog’s bollocks though ? We shouldn’t be stinting on quality

Think Pelle had the height advantage, and that was the sort of striker I was hoping for. So far only Kalajdzic looks the part in the experienced strikers mentioned (plus one Croatian whose name escapes me, and the Danish bloke mentioned this afternoon, but both young). Probably a good description from the youtube footage.

Not previously heard of him, but Atalanta have signed some decent players and have a good record on recruitment if that's anything to go by. At 19 though, he's another one for the future, and we need goals this season. Here's a youtube clip, which is entertaining in places. Looks as if he might come in handy if Saints take to water polo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxuO41H5FGY Goalkeeper we should be after at 02:20 as well, doing his best Angus Gunn impression.

All a bit of a saga, that never was really. Oh well. on to the next saga then. Perhaps we won't sign Ramos instead.

Francis Jeffers. Berahino, who didn't ever recover from his failed move to Tottenham.

Think they'd be a bit pissed off with that, especially the commute from Leeds every day. You might have meant Gosforth, which from my time up there was a pretty decent suburb on the outskirts, with the racecourse, and at the time (1980's), two decent rugby clubs there (before Sir John Hall got involved to hijack the club).

Tenuous claim to fame award to you sir, best I’ve seen for a while.

Trouble is though, stewards are only gestapo in dealing with home fans. For away fans they take on the guise of kindly church wardens showing and watching over the flock in their pews.

Have to wonder why he hasn’t been signed somewhere else as he’s been linked with half the EPL over the last few years

To loan him out to another club in our (fantasy) pyramid that hasn’t fallen into place as yet.

Do you mean for Ralph, or the team facing relegation ? Worth remembering if we do lose, and Ralph goes, there are still 36 games to get it right. Whether we can trust the Board to get the appointment right is of course another matter (and whole new different thread).