benjii

LOL. Pap is running a "Service company" tax avoidance scheme? What a complete ****. I don't personally think there's anything wrong with doing what you can get away with but if I was a tiresome, sanctimonious, verbose, narcissistic, portentous gob****e and I castigated others for doing similar to what I was doing myself, I would rightfully expect to be called a ****.

Bearsy, your literary reviews and scouting reports are the high-watermark of the Saints Web Forum without a shadow of a doubt.

Mate, I think you should add "Tijuana Tim" to the USA section. He is heavily involved in all the major soccerball face-offs out there I think and does some really good scouting for Saints and I think he might actually live there.

Agree on the tactical point (except there is no way I would pick Lallana over Puncheon at the moment). For a tricky away game we should play those three (Cork, MS, Vic) in midfield with Wanyama roaming in front of the other two. Although Wanyama is not exactly a "number 10" in the way Gaston is, Steven Davis was effective there last season due to his tenacity and energy and those are certainly qualities that Wanyama should also bring (along with, hopefully, more of a goal threat). Given our aggressive defending style, players like Wanyama can be very effective deployed in a more forward role. Personally, I hope we put some faith in Gaston this season and get him properly established in the "number 10" position but, frankly, he needs to help himself by showing his fitness is up to it first. I also hope we get some decent corner deliveries this year (ie. not Lallana taking them). A team with Lambert, Rodriguez, Wanyama, Hooiveld and Lovren in it should really be quite dangerous from set pieces! Schneiderlin and Cork are also reasonably tall and should command attention from the oppo's defenders. I note that JWP seems to have a really good set piece (although he will struggle to get too much game time, barring injuries/suspensions). A draw would be a good start and give us some confidence to take into the first home game.

Was that the same game where he received the ball back-to-goal, turned his defender and put a perfect cross in for Guly to head in at the far post?

McInnes was on 5 Live last night. In fairness he seemed reasonably sensible and stated that they wouldn't sign anyone they couldn't afford.... Just happy to be existing etc.. Oh, and the business plan is robust (lest we forget). However, he did say two things which I think are best described as, well, lies: 1) "we are debt free" - er, what? Do CVA creditors, Robinson, council know that?! 2) "the PST has three members on the board, reflecting our majority 57% shareholding" - well you may have three members on the board but how can that "reflect" a majority of the shares when it's not in fact a majority of the board? So despite the potential for actually running the club prudently they just can't let go of some of the Portsmyths.

As this is a tricky away game to start off with I would look to keep ourselves solid and implement our aggressive defending style from the off. With that in mind I would pick Cork, Morgan and Wanyama with Lambert, Rodriguez and Puncheon in front. Obviously if we sign some awesome attacker before then they might get the nod. With a bench of Ramirez, Lallana, Davis, Mayuka, maybe Isgrove we should be able to change things and make an impact later if needed. I just think a solid start should be the priorit this year.

Ahh, thanks. In that case, I shall assume this is balderdash and piffle!

I may be wrong but didn't Jos go off injured at home against Liverpool fairly early on? Possibly the best thing that could have happened as Suarez was looking likely to embarrass him IIRC.

******** have Spurs completely transformed him. You could tell he was world class at Saints. Well I could, anyway.

Belgian Andy Carroll IMO.

Somewhat similar to the vast majority of your posts then.

Striker or good wide player/attacking midfielder. I have never seen Lovren play but I assume he will be a starter and I am a fan of Yoshida and think he will improve with increasing experience. Hooiveld and Fonte are adequate third and fourth choices provided they have Boruc behind them and, ideally, Shaw to the left of them. We would need two or three simultaneous absences before our defence became inhibtingly cack. We need another striker or wide player. Our wide options, other than Isgrove or A.N Other "youngster", are basically: Puncheon - probably our most consistent attacking player last season; no problem with him being a regular feature at all Lallana - question marks at PL level; brilliant ability but prone to poor decisions and minimal end-product; Rodriguez - gives us a different sort of threat with his direct running and pace; no problem with him being a regular there but if Lambert got injured and we didn't sign another striker we would need him upfront; Guly - has been an excellent signing but is generally less effective than the chaps listed above and is not really one for the "next level" Mayuka - I'm not writing him off but he will do well to get more than bit-part appearances from the bench I expect; Ramirez - not really a wide player; if we want to put faith in him then we need to be picking him in a central position. So, to my mind, our wide starters on the first day of the season should be Puncheon and Rodriguez. In the hole should be Ramirez or, if we want to start with a more cautious approach, Wanyama or Morgan. That leaves only Lambert, Mayuka or Guly as striking options which, frankly, is pretty thin. I'm not sure anyone would want to go with Mayuka or Guly as the talisman for a prolonger period but, as things stand, if Lambert were to get injured we would either need to do exactly that or to move Rodriguez central and become more one dimensional in our support play. As noted, this assumes Isgrove is not ready to play a regular role - maybe he is, I don't know - but it seems to me we are only one absence away from being seriously weaker as an attacking threat. I reckon we will sign Osvaldo or Damiao.

He's obviously got a great touch and ability but he's not that good at kicking a football which is quite an important part of the game.

For those of us too nervous to download the software needed to watch the stream at work can someone please confirm the shape and the positioning. If this is the shape of the front four then who are the $?: * $ * $

I'm with Pap on this. A low tax economy with benefits massively reined in and a "no riff-raff" rule in my neghbourhood would suit me down to the ground.

Exactly, and I think it's the same scenario with Damiao. I think he would probably join us but why would he not wait and see who else is interested? We are now targetting a calibre of player around which squads are built and substantial investment is made. We could go out and pick up half-a-dozen Delaps, McCann's or Higginbottom's and get all our business done "early doors". We could probably even sign half-a-dozen players from La Liga for around £2-3million each "early doors" and one of them might turn out to be great and to have been massively under-priced but the chances are we would end up with a squad of roughly the same ability as it already is. No doubt someone will start blathering about Michu or something. Well, I don't think anyone denies he worked out great but it doesn't mean a bunch of other cheap signings also will. Yes, there are bargains to be had and we have had plenty of them (Clyne, Boruc, Cork, Punch (£250k FFS!)) but we are clearly in the market for a striker who we are confident can perform at the very top level. Moaning that we haven't yet is like moaning at someone who wants to buy your house for waiting until they've sold theirs.

To be fair, it's a bit unnecessary to be a knob to Alpine over this. His general antics are not really relevant (although it would be bloody fun if a player enquired whether he is "Alpine Saint").

Sorry but this is just plain wrong. He holds people off quite well.

The Mail's website is a lascivious, leering paedo's paradise. Barely a day goes buy without some picture of a child flashing some leg/bum/tit for the cameras. It may not be porn but it is clearly intended to attract people who want to rub one out over a child.

No, he wants to criminalise possessing porn depicting rape! What a joke! No one is going to look best pleased with a fire extinguisher and a pineapple up their hoop and a bag over their head but I don't really see the harm. In all seriousness, I think this is ridiculous. If they are willing actors then what does it matter what they are depicting? Why draw the line at porn - surely the depiction of rape full-stop should therefore be banned? And murder. And anything else that might unhinge a nutter. Nonsense.

Guly is quite hot too.

Shipperley has fat eyebrows.

Nice to see people like Mayuka obviously being a real part of the camp despite not having had much game time last year. Shame Gaston is missing all this stuff though.

Agreed. He's not brilliant but I think he would be competent at Championship level with a decent partner, particularly in a team that wants to build possession from the back.