Badger

one of their posters even has the audacity to plagiarise our theme :

Agree.

Perfect candidate for spurs then.

Did you buy your friend a ticket away to Sunderland in the Cup by any chance ?

Ridiculous to suggest the current scheme is unfair. If the ST's friend is keen to secure tickets, he just has to get on the data base in their own right (and buy tickets from time to time), hardly a nasty trick purposely designed to exclude them is it ?

Agree. I always thought the Terry Paine 'appointment' served two purposes for NC, it went some way to defuse the claims he (NC) was not interested in the club's history etc, and the fact Paine lived in South Africa was far enough away from Southampton not to find Paine's views being sought by the press at every twist and turn. Mick Channon might have been equally deserving of recognition, but of course unlikely not to offer an opinion if asked.

RDM's half-brother minus without the charisma and 'track record'. I'm sure RK and co have some contingency plans in the event of MP walking, but doubt Petrescu has come to their notice. Swiss or German candidates are more likely to be at the forefront of their thinking, unless its the 'up and coming route again, in which case 'loyal'Eddie may be mooted again.

And who exactly do you see as an improvement if/when he leaves this summer ?

Not as good as Richie Barkers was looking though...that had real potential.

The question I was responding to was "why would Stoke sell to us" rather than would he join us, which is quite different.

Villa are in need of win to halt a slump in form. Any further comment needed ?

How many managers actually have a 'plan b' ? And plans b or c that are effective ? In my forty plus years of watching Saints, the manager with perhaps the best grasp of influencing a change in tactics was Hoddle ( cue Dalek joining the thread) , although that deserted him on occasion (most notably at Tranmere). Adkins could and often brought about changes with substitutions , although was criticised for doing so too often (Merrington having a particular rant about two or three changes in personnel/formation at Doncaster which left players "confused").This was at a lower league level where our squad was relatively strong. In truth, unless the manager is a top tactician, the best way of introducing a change is to have £80m worth of players on the bench to draw from. That probably allowed Sir Anal , Jose et al to appear like genius from time to time.

I agree with that, although he's not a lethal finisher, he does give us another dimension going forward.

..but probably won't. Yet again, numerous shots/chances but don't score. And don't give me "we're without JRod..", he needs about four or five chances before he makes one of them count.

They want and need the points. We don't.

You should be a matchday commentator. Better than Motson might have thought up.* *although perhaps not Stuart Hall

Perhaps they'll try shooting from in their own half, might stand a chance if Gazzaniga isn't focussed at that time.

Could we not just have a minutes applause at the precise time into the game when he was injured last week ? Or, better still delay kick off until after that time has past ? #sanctimoniousself-rightiousenjoymentwallowinginowngrieftypeof*b0ll0cks

Talking with a Stoke fan through work back in January, he said there was a widely held view amongst their supporters that the club had resisted bids last summer, but 'gentleman's agreement with the player that he'd stay another season for them. The Stoke board perhaps hopeful another good season and a world cup might raise his value. Why would they sell to us ? Simple answer is £££ , if we offer more - or better terms - than another club, I don't suppose they'd give a monkeys whose money it is.

Zieler is highly rated and has previously been linked to a move to England. Someone put Baumann's name on here before , and this was found: which looks like 2 x a Joe Hart in one match, and a Bialkowski thrown in for good measure. Imagine the uproar on here if that was playing for us, or if committed by Gazzaniga or Boluc. On another clip though he seemed to retain the full support of the crowd there, so perhaps an isolated fiasco he's now got out of his sysyem.

Interesting, but that appointment was nearly twenty years ago, I'm not sure how many of the 'big four or five' who have consistently been around the Champions League places will now be prepared to gamble on young unproven but with potential managers. Chelsea certainly don't, Man City brought someone in who had just been a CL semi-finalist, and Liverpool had slumped to mid-table before gambling on Rogers. Spurs highlight the risk of unproven managers, AVB etc, and add in the Moyes factor, his 'failure' at Man Utd will make the appointment of managers without a string of trophies already a lot less attractive. For a manager with mid-table finishes as his main achievement, I can't see MP walking in to an Arsenal, Milan, PSG job too soon. If he went to Spurs then he'd probably have two years before his career took a dive again, after Levy shuffles the pack in hope. But at least we'd have another reason to detest spurs.

McCarthy at Reading.

So, what exactly was printed ? As living out of the area, this did not reach me.

Nothing on BBC about this by the way, so it seems more - continued- speculation rather than founded on anything.

Ditto.... (apart from the skates perhaps). Hatred of them is nothing new however, reading one of the books re Saints early history, and Saints had a dislike for them in the early southern league days).