norwaysaint

He appears to be playing in the 1970s. How old is this news.

Quite impressive. You'd never manage that journey in under ten minutes now. That's what these so called "road improvements" have done to the country.

There was never a call for Kelvin for England. It was a fantasy of a couple of posters on here. A simple forum search will show you that all that was ever said was an ironic thread with that title, where the first post says "Not really", and a grudging comment that if he had an amazing start in the PL then he might one day get to be third choice if there were a lot of injuries. That constitutes the entire Kelvin for England brigade certain trolls on here started commenting on after a couple of months of poor performances in the PL. I did that search as soon as I saw the comments about it and there simply was no sign of any genuine calls for Kelvin for England, let alone the legendary "brigade".

I didn't think she was anything special either. She's just got lots of blond hair. There are loads of people out there with similar bodies and her face isn't anything remarkable. My wife's better looking than her.

Ramirez has done okay and is a decent member of the team. His stats are better than Rodriguez', but he gets more stick because he was expensive, which is hardly his fault. His goal tally this season is pretty much the same as it has been throughout his career, so I doubt whether he was bought with an expectation of scoring more. As far as Barry Sanchez is concerned, I think we all know who we're dealing with... http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?45168-Smoke-Bombs&p=1707659#post1707659

Tarquin? That's quite an unusually eighties insult to use. In fact very few people on this forum have ever used it. There was this one bloke who used to use it, but he doesn't post here any more, Dune was his name, although he sometimes called himself mole or stanley, he was a bit fond of pretending he was someone else... http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?27262-What-the-f**k-is-Brightons-problem&p=923831#post923831 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?12756-Lowe-amp-Richards-in-board-room-on-Sunday-at-Forest-Confirmed-by-Club&p=285431#post285431

This is the bit I don't get. People talk like he was some kind of revelation later in the season, but let's take a look at those last four months you want to judge him on: February Wigan, 54% possession 15 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 Man City, 51% possession 13 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 Newcastle, 43% possession 11 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 March QPR, 55% possession 17 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 Norwich, 48% possession 15 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 Liverpool, 58% possession 17 shots, Rodriguez scores 1 Chelsea, 53% possession 13 shots, Rodriguez scores 1 April Reading, 60% possession 12 shots, Rodriguez scores 1 W Ham, 58% possession 15 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 Swansea, 48% possession 9 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 W Brom, 57% possession 16 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 May Spurs, 42% possession 10 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 Sunderland, 60% possession 15 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 Stoke, 52% possession 11 shots, Rodriguez scores 0 To me, that makes him pretty ineffective during those four months, especially as he was the striker playing furthest up the pitch. People have said that the whole team under-performed during the last couple of months, I'd say that's just not true. Our defence didn't leak many goals and our midfield can take credit for a possession rate that was usually between 50 and 60%, the only thing missing was someone putting the ball in the net, who takes responsibility for that? Are people going to continue saying he was out of position? I think that was only during the first couple of months of the season. He's got a lot of strengths in his game and will hopefully come good, but he really hasn't delivered this season and has to take a large part of the responsibility fr the points we've dropped. Remember, Ramirez has taken a lot of flak for under-performing, yet has a better scoring record despite playing deeper. Also, looking at his history, Ramirez scoring rate this season was almost identical to what it has been every year of his career, so he has performed pretty much on par. He's not a bad player, but let's stop criticising Guly and Ramirez, while giving Rodriguez no responsibility for our dropped points and saying he's a top 6 striker who should be first on the team sheet. He's still got everything to prove.

This'll probably come across as an attack on one of our more popular players, which won't go down well. In the last couple of weeks I've seen his name put forward as one of our few players who wouldn't be out of place in the top 6, also as one of the first 5 or 6 names that should be on the teamsheet. Now I don't get to go to many matches, so what I see, I see on TV and I know that, along with stats, doesn't tell the whole story. But I don't really get it. He's got potential and had a run of a few games where he was great, but across the season he scored 6 goals in 33 games. This is not a great return when playing in a team that gets the majority of possession and is creating a huge amount of attacking chances. We usually had more possession and more shots than the other team, we constantly had the ball in attacking positions, but weren't scoring the goals. Now, across the season, Lambert scored enough goals, but later in the season he started dropping deeper, making JRod our main striker, in a team that on paper should be scoring plenty. Yet I have only seen praise for him and nobody giving him any of the responsibility for the ball not ending up in the back of the net. I'll leave it to somebody else to provide stats of our average possession and the amount of shots we had on or off target without scoring. I like him and I hope he makes it, but why is he not blamed at all for a goals per game tally that would have us all calling for any other striker to be dropped? Once again, I don't dislike him, I just haven't seen anyone blame him for those games where we dominated but didn't score. Imagine Guly playing 33 and scoring 6, while we had over 50% possession, mostly in attacking positions. Ramirez was criticised heavily and got 5 in 24, which is a slightly better return. For what it's worth, I hold him responsible, but I'd still pick him for the time being, hoping he improves.

Why so formal? Welcome back you silly tit.

Oh for heaven's sake, just admit it's you and get it over with, you're turning yourself into more and more of a laughing stock at the moment. if you just come clean people will get over it pretty quickly. Jamie, EVERYBODY knows.

Cheese slicer, you mug. Grey Crab, Agneta and I tried our hardest, God knows we did. Please try to forgive now, come home.

I get the feeling you haven't really thought that through. Up to 47% of all deaths each year in South Africa are as a result of HIV/AIDS, on average 17% carry the virus. Lots of people die of other things, but a large proportion die of AIDS. Not "50% of the population die of it", but 47% of people dying are dying of it.There's nothing contradictory in those stats. http://www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_South_Africa Plenty of information out there about this. It's an openly discussed probem. The next countries down on the list are the countries that border South Africa.

South Africa has a horrific crime rate, especially violent crime, but I would actually be put off by the enormous proportion of the population that have HIV or AIDS, currently over 17%, easily the highest in the world and they're only just getting to grips with slowing the acceleration, not slowing the spread down, but just slowing the acceleration. Nearly half of all deaths in SA are due to HIV and AIDS. I'd be paranoid about my family or I getting any kind of injury that involved blood, I'd even be afraid of undergoing any kind of hospital procedure when its that pervasive. Definitely not a place I'd be interested in even visiting, but each to their own. Also, corruption is endemic, the result of one party moving rapidly from being a freedom fighter group into being a dominant political party, with no serious challenger. Even Desmond Tutu no longer supports the ANC. As for emigration itself, well I've never looked back and the only thing I miss nowadays is family. When you live in the UK, you start to believe all the "best country in the world" stuff, but a short time living abroad and you see things a bit differently, but I suppose it all depends on where you go and if there's anything to help you settle in, like a partner from that country. I suppose every country looks different from the outside and maybe the people of South Africa also think they live in the best country in the world.

I would be delighted if Lambert carried on playing at that standard so long, but as I said, I don't think he'll be the player he has been. I still rate him though. I just don't think he'll be able to carry on shouldering the goalscoring burden like he has been.

I disagree. We enjoyed enormous possession during every match during the second half of the season, including in attacking areas. We were unable to score enough of the chances the team was creating to actually turn most of that possession into wins. Lambert scored enough goals over the season to do himself justice, but tell me, if we're creating the possession, if we're creating the chances, yet we're not scoring, doesn't our striker who plays furthest up the pitch have some responsibility? Apart from a couple of matches after MP took over, JRod just didn't deliver enough goals this season and he really should've done. I'm hoping he'll improve, but six goals in 33 starts was pretty poor in a team usually having over 50% possession, mostly high up the pitch.

Rickie is going to be less and less of the striker we know him as over the next couple of seasons. He's been fantastic, but PL football has come too late in his career. We're already seeing him drop deeper as he doesn't have any pace to beat his man. I think next season we'll see him slowly lose his place as an automatic starter. His footballing brain means he's still worth having, but the goal tally will drop. For those reasons I say he's not good enough for top 6, not as a starter anyway. Haven't seen much to show JRod is up to it either. I would say that only Cork, MS, Shaw and Clyne are definites.

Jimmy Case kind of set the mold for us, as the main thing people have gone on about us needing for about 20 years has been a midfielder "in the Jimmy Case mold". Oakley was never that effective and was one of those players who was over-hyped every time he was out of the team, people thinking we'd be great once we got him back, then he would come back and everybody would remember that most of the time, he was quite ineffective. Schneiderlin has so far proven to be everything people wanted Oakley to be and the closest we've come to replacing Case. Very different player, but with the ability to control the game from midfield. Oakley very rarely controlled a game. It remains to be seen how effective MS is without the solid support of Cork. Most people see them as a partnership that works. Sooner or later we're going to find out just how well they can function without each other.

I don't think we're supposed to call them that any more.

Neil Shipperly is the same age as David Beckham. Does anyone else have trouble getting their head around that fact?

Insufferable member of the "know-it-all" brigade.

is Australia, it's another reason to win the Ashes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22685260 The United Kingdom comes in tenth. When we started sending people to the other side of the world, it was supposed to be a punishment, they weren't supposed to end up being happier than us. Anyway, English-speaking former colonies and Nordic countries seem to be the best places to live. Anyone inspired to emigrate?

Nice, as ever, to hear your thoughts, Mr Dinger.

I'd definitely prefer to win a trophy than to qualify to compete for a trophy. Fourth place would actually be more of an achievement for us, but that sort of thing is forgotten by history. Nobody apart from saints fans has any recollection that we once finished league runners up. Cup finals and especially cup final wins are something that stay in the memory.

How do people feel about the follow on issue? It seems to have divided the commentators. Some think if you have a chance to win, you should take it there and then, others pointing towards the value of letting the batsmen have a decent innings in a match they can't lose. I can't help but feel you should always look to destroy the other team if you get the chance. Compton's failed again anyway, he doesn't fill you with confidence for the Ashes. How many did Cook get while Compton ground out his 7 runs? About 60 or 70?

Well, I'd say the thick idiots, attacking mosques and innocent people in the name of the English, represent you and me in the same way the lunatics who killed Lee Rigby in the name of Islam represent Muslims. Shouting out that they are defending England doesn't mean that England is nasty, violent, thuggish country, any more than shouting Islamic slogans makes Islam a murderous religion.