Badger

...but so were Alan Ball and Hoddle. Sorry I must have been following Saints too long to expect stability over the summer after things seemed so good.

Hate to suggest it but I can think of a former Wigan goalkeeper who is making a name for himself as an up and coming manager.

learner

Chris McMenemy.

inset

upset

Agree with the part in bold. The rest is a different issue and has been done to death before.

beer

cell

Eastleigh or Totton ?

Vaginia Wade 1977. Toothless Tim did not provide what we have waited for so now the best we hope for - in England anyway- is anyone beating Murray.

lobes

Didn't Newcastle score 6 against them the week before we did ? As for 3-1, what about our 3-1 when they were so poor in the first half Sir Anal made a shirt change at half time. Just proves Messi is not a patch on MLT in his prime.

Pilkington should be a priority even ahead of CMS in my view ,younger and with greater potential. But with his current injury its unlikely that we'd be able to sign him due to medicals and arranging insurance on the player as I understand it. Smithies is certainly another with potential but he has been out of their team quite often this season, dropped or injured ? Clarke would be a no from me. Reading their forum last night and there seemed to be a regular comment on him that L1 was probably his standard, infact one poster even suggested his aggression/enthusiasm often masked over his ability in the eyes of many of their fans ( rather as Prutton did with us).

paste

Wilkinson's drop goal. Botham 1981 v Aussies.

Ditto. Would prefer Pilkington from Huddersfield - injury permitting, but CMS would be a good option as well.

I'm sure that Ian Branfoot would be quick to point out the main shortcoming in Messi's game is that he neglects his other duties and does not tackle back enough. Furthermore Dixon & Speedie would score more goals over a season than Messi. Finally I don't understand why we are trying to make a comparison between Messi and Lallana when it is clear that Messi would not displace Paul Moody from our team.

post

daylight

Saints do better corners than Barecelona. Xavi constantly tried the Alan Ballesque short corner routine too often for my liking.

loot

robber

Xavi is probably the best MF player and passer in Europe at the moment. One thing I did notice,that despite his admiration of MLT, he continually opts for a short corner, probably copying Alan Ball here. I'm sure Adkins & Crosby will drum this out of him when he joins us and he'll be putting in better corners into the box.

Agree with you in principle about Messi,and it was a bit like watching Saints at times tonight, but have edited your post for you.