Lord Duckhunter

For the signing on fee, for the wages, for the chance to play week in week out in world cup year, for the chance to play in a side with wingers.

Why on earth would a newspaper want to"unsettle" a player?

Do you really believe that some journo woke up this morning and thought" I know I'll make something up about Southampton" . If he wanted to make something up, then surely it would be Rooney to someone or Man Utd interested in x, y, or z. I have a mate who works for the gutter press and they really do not make this sort of thing up. This would have come from someone. They sometimes print things they don't really believe, but they'll have a source. In this case my money would be on Lambert's agent, trying to pressure saints. But it would have come from, interested club,selling club,player,agent or teammate. A journo did not just pluck this out of thin air to fill column inches.

Last time I checked he doesn't pick the team. Yes, he shocking at this level but did damn well in the championship. He's one of a small group of players that have got this club promoted to the top flight in our history,and should be accorded some respect because of that.

The leaks about what was said were reported to have come from Riley and taken directly from the letter written by the club.That is certainly what SSN reported when the "you never used to be like that" version emerged. Therefore, its very easy for the club to refute this by publishing the letter. If the letter contained a more serious allegation , by not publishing it they are hanging Adam out to dry. There are 3 senerios. 1.The letter alledged what has been reported and this is what the club are upset about. 2. The letter alledged something more serious. 3. The letter just alledged abuse, but didn't mention specific words or phrases. Once Old Mother Riley's mob leaked the alledged words, all bets are off as far as confidential information is concerned. Why won't the club get their version out there, either offically or leaked to a friendly journo.

Merrington-"Come on, it's a mans game. It should have stayed on the pitch, the club are making a mountain out of a molehill. Adam will get stick at away grounds and there was no need for it."

Soccer Saturday talking about it now and all 4 ex pros including le tiss, saying the club are over reacting IF what was reported was all that was said. Matt said Adam will be embarrassed, is he disloyal?

I wish I had sir Geoff boycott in the death pool thread, he's going to have a cardiac on air. He's just getting his mother padded up, stick of rhubarb at the ready.

Kilbane is spot on. It was a 50/50 handball, nothing horrendous and certainly not as bad as Ashley Young being blatantly taken out. We cant have it both ways. Swearing at the ref is technically a sending off offense and technically maybe Clattenburg shouldn't have made a snide comment. What would the complaining posters say if refs enforced the letter of the law and booked every Saints player that argued and then sent off every Saints player that swore at them? By about the third game we'd be asking why cant refs be more human and accept a bit of banter. IF what is reported is all that Clatenburg said, it's pretty pathetic to be reporting it. Had another club done so, say Liverpool and Stevie G, I don't think posters would be so supportive of that club. Some posters need to take off their red and white coloured glasses.

I don't know about Adam, but some of our posters should man up a bit. There has always been banter and digs between players and refs. Dion Dublin said as much on radio today and Brian Moore was telling stories of refs giving him clog on Alan Brazil sports breakfast. ****ing hell I'd hate to have a pint or work with some of the fannies on here, they'd be up in HR complaining all day.

You've changed since you became a full member.

I don't know what's more pathetic, the initial complaint or some of our supporters defending it.

If Portsmouth had complained about a ref saying something similar to a skate, we would be all wetting ourselves. The takeover thread would have added another half dozen pages worth of jokes. However decided to take this action is making us a laughing stock.

My opinion will probably not be popular on here. Clattenburg is a crap ref, the Norwich and arsenal peno's were shocking " look how clever I am spotting that" decisions, that are easy to give against a smaller club. Saturday, I could see why he didn't give it. At the ground (admittedly at other end) I didn't think it was , and watching motd thought it 50/50. Certainly the pundits didn't dwell on it and Mondays papers basically said we had a shout. I didn't read any that said we were denied a clear one, and Graham poll comments on contentious decisions in his column and that one wasn't mentioned. It was not a shocker, no matter what saints supporters say. On to the fall out from it. I don't really care what clattenburg said, unless its racist , homophobic or about his family or health, then we should have just stfu and get on with it. Even if clatenburg said "shut up you ****ing knob" we should still take it on the chin. If he only said what was reported it is fuvking embarrassing to complain about that. It makes us look like a right bunch of fannies. If I was old mother Riley , running the refs , I'd say " you can't have it both ways" . Argue and swear at refs, who turn a blind eye, and then go crying to mummy when the ref bites back.

I tend to rate grounds on the basis of ale houses, particularly real ale ones. I'd agree with Reading being bottom. Despite a decent real ale boozer in town, the ridiculous coach journey and bursting for a whizz cancels that right out. Shocking venue. Don't like spurs much either and arsenal's not much better, load of dives near the ground. Norwich is good and Liverpool/Everton . Southampton is pretty ordinary when it comes to boozers, but an out of town ground would be even worse.Instead of worrying about public transport links, boozers are the most important infrastructure. Mrs duck reckons our away days are a pub crawl with a match thrown in and she's spot on. Instead of worrying about transport linked the council should be encouraging more "leisure facilities" for match days.

Not many players go into clubs youth systems or academy as full backs, the ones that make it at full back tend to be converted from other positions. Jamie carraghar made the same point on MNF the other night. I've always felt that there's a lot of English players that had they been converted to centre half at a young age, would have been top top quality. Steve G for one, Bryan Robson another. Our forte seems to be barnstorming centre midfield players, but to compete at world level we need centre halves that can step into midfield and pass the ball. On another thread I suggested chambers could do this. I think that all clubs struggle to bring through centre halves , its really tough to blood players like you can at full back or wide mid. As for keepers, again clubs struggle to get a pathway from youth to first team so we're not alone. My nipper was a decent keeper and was looked at by a few clubs, including the skates. He had loads of potential , but just didn't devolop as expected and now plays on pitch (at a half decent level). Talking to a scout who was monitoring him ,its quite common for youth keepers to just come to a grinding halt and just not push on.

Also add in the world cup factor on top of one last payday. What's more likely to get him on the plane. Playing week in week out getting on the end of downing and jarvis' crosess plus big sams hoofs up to him. Or playing some weeks, dropped to the bench for others and knackering himself out with a high pressing game with the occsional cross to get on the end of. Personally I reckon he'd score a hatful for west hoof, plus make a few for Nolan ECT bombing into the box. Look what fat sam done for KD and SRL is a far superior player.

How many assists has cork in the premiership.

Webb again.Horrendous game in the Chelsea v Liverpool fixture and then again yesterday. Rooney spent the whole game in his face, despite already being on a yellow baldy did nothing. I don't get where this logic that appears to suggest that Webb is our best ref. He ****ed up the world cup final and is making way too many mistakes. Oscar shouldn't have been playing yesterday, had baldy done his job he'd have been suspended. The best in my opinion is dean and dowd. I like dowd's attitude, he looks like he's on the verge of telling players they're twts when they try it on. Dean is efficient and gets more right then wrong.

cork is average at best. He slows our game down too much and he doesn't particularly open sides up or protect our back 4 well. Its no surprise he doesn't feature much unless we have injuries as Morgan and victor are head and shoulders above him and Davis a better player. He'll end up at Norwich or palace , somewhere like that . He's a solid pro who has done well for us the past 2 years, but he's yesterdays man as far as I'm concerned.

First half was pretty even after an early pounding. Chambers outstanding first half, tired second, but he's getting better and better. On 5 live Monday night club some body said forget clyne for world cup what about chambers. I thought at the time "****ing idiot" but now im not so sure. He certainly doesn't deserve to be dropped. Good player. Kelvin good and steady, seems better than last year. Maybe he put himself under too much presure as number one. Now he knows he's number 2 and is relaxed and confident about it. Seems so much calmer . Don't get the cork love in from some posters, I think he's poor and slows are passing game up too much. At the end of the day, we were pretty competitive until the first goal. Lots of players running on empty and the belief just drained from us. They're a good side, that played well second half . Forget about last year Jose has tightened up the back 4 and they defended well today. I thought the number of supporters that left when the third goal went in was ****ing embarrassing. FFS it makes us look a right noddy club.

Modern sports science means that clubs become fully aware of when players are reaching the "red" zone and are in danger of injury through overplaying. Even without the data it would have been obvious to most people that some of our players are running on empty. They need a rest, and Saturday is an opportunity to give them a break. Im sure if MP had rested Adam, Lovren or JRod yesterday, so they would be fresh for Burnley people would have been moaning. At the end of the day, like it or not, Premier league finish is the be all and end all of the modern game. I doubt Burnley will play a full strength team, as they need to concentrate on the league as well.

Just because ****ing John salt says on the BBC that flights from Bulgaria and Romania are down on last year doesn't mean a ****ing thing. Its the 1st of Jan FFS, the doors don't shut tomorrow. Let's get old salty balls back in 2 years time with an update.

Are you only allowed one legend in each era. Scholes and giggs are both man u legends, Rickie and Adam are both saints legends.