Badger

Got your answer ?

takes me back.... have had a few beers in both of those pubs, (& the Vilage Bells was it?) over the years, as has my Dad, Grandfather etc. The Anchor had a stunning barmaid in the mid 1970's, or at least it appealed to me at the time. It was enough to encourage the underage Badger to drink... Anyway, glad to hear some of our lads are down to earth to go in The Anchor rather than seeking the glitzy life. Perhaps it shoulds be on our club tour when enticing players to sign.

No thanks. Thee is a reason he's available. If we do need to recruit a new manager, then the summer would be the time to do it, and try to attract someone of choice rather than one who has just fallen off the merry merrygoround.

None of whom can be relied upon as a regular goalscorer though, that is what worries me more than the current injury status. Yes, its better to have more options, but if we're replacing one bloke who regularly fires blanks with another I'm not sure how that bucks the trend.

King Rufus ? I drove past it today. Small world. Did wonder if it was still trading though. Shame to see the other one closed down a while back.

In fairness to him I don't think Wanyama displayed any tantrums at Parkhead to exit Celtic though, even if he was a knob in how he conducted himself with us earlier in the season. Mane, yes he threw his toys about before leaving Salzburg or so I read. As for the other one, that signing defies belief given everything we (& Poch in particular) knew about him, but of course the men responsible for that have slunk away to avoid any lasting critiscism.

This is the critical thing. We should have had the West Ham game sewn up at HT, but didn't. Today according the BBC stats we had possesion, and shots. A worrying stat is 9 corners, which should be a golden opportunity for us, but our corners tend to be pathetic affairs where the GK gathers the ball unchallenged. I wondered in the summer where our goals would come from, given how timid we are in front of goal. Rodriguez was never going to be the answer as - Fulham away aside - he always needed about 4 chances before he'd take one of them. Long is proven as a goal in every four games. Not sure we have the answer available to us in the squad as it is. Having scored twice against Arsenal, Long will dine out on that for weeks, and isn't due another goal for about 8 games. This problem is compounded by our mistake riddled defence.Martina, Yoshida we expect the errors from, but it appears pretty contagious this season.

spread

No doubt Ross Wilson* is working on it ! *the Jock we brought in from Huddersfield in case the name is incorrect.

Haven't we learnt that South Americans are a 'no go' for us. Our experiences of them have been pretty dire.Guly aside, of course,

firm

Merry Christmas from Gloucestershire.

Ho !

off

If we have to rely on Long as our goalscoring salvation then we are in deep sh!t.

Part of the staple diet of football in the 70's on The Big Match etc, when he was a pundit. Didn't always agree with him, and there was a pro-London club bias (not surpringly on LWT at the time),but enjoyed some of his "sermons". Only in later years did I realise his influence, and achievements (as manager of Coventry in particular). Always remember in the Euro Championships 1980, he and Lawrie Mac semed to enjoy clashing in the pre & post match summaries, both much more enlightening then the dullards they roll out now. Along with David Coleman, Brian Moore,Bill McLaren (and even Eddie Waring) he'll remain one of the voices of football/sport in my mind.

To be replaced by ??

Dia ..(or dire if you want a proper word).

I thought it was still Monday lunchtime in 2003, as I recall slipping off to my car at that time to hear one of the draws.

Sad reflection but after the other night I am prepared to settle for a point, even though we should have had three against a p1ss poor Villa. I feared a 0-1 might have been the outcome before the game, and then we'd be seen as a team gone from comfortable to 'mini-crisis' in a week.

I think the mighty Kenyan is just warming up, to get himself into another public strop ahead of the transfer window re-opening. RK & Reed just just tell him bluntly, we are not selling you to thr yids, now get on with it.

Think we need a bit of cheer after the last two games, this might provide it for anyone remembering this match, Saints v Man Utd 1981: [video=youtube;bmPJ2f_D-DI] Sorry couldn't find a better film version of it.

That was possibly our big hope, but sad fact is we're not really an attraction to players at the £20m mark who really only see themselves in the Champions League. The clever thing to have done is sign him a year earlier when he left his previous club for £4m. Imbula was perhaps another possibility, but I got the impression that if we were interested at all,we were too late entering the race for him. As he's failed to settle at Porto you have to wonder if he'd have been the answer though.

That philosophy worked out well though didn't it ? Long term plan, but f^ck off at the first opportunity. As for Caulker - that fills me with dread.

Can't see Brighton selling him in January given their league position tbh. Unless of course there are contract issues and he only has a year left etc.