spyinthesky

I still have the scars from that game too!! Ted MacDougalls debut?

We should all be proud and thankful to our relatives in this country who fought against the Nazi regime. Despite what many flag waving 'patriots' may believe, us Brits did not win either of the two World Wars without significant manpower assistance from Commonwealth countries and later the economic power of the USA.

And to be fair, the younger European generation have enjoyed a relatively affluent (ie 'softer') life than their forefathers. I dont blame them for that but that is a fact of life. For example, the Danish Govt are starting to call up 18 year olds (both male & female) to spend time learning the type of skills they may need in a conflict. That is not going down too well. In comparison, Russia, led by a State controlled media, are telling their population that are under sustained attack by the West (particularly the UK) and they are obliged to defend their Motherland. Very worrying times.

Alex, If you were PM at the time Russia invaded Crimea would you have sent our under resourced Military into the Black Sea to prevent the incursion?

It would. The record attendance for a 4th Division game (ie equivalent of League 2) was Palace v Millwall in 1960/1 of 37,774. Something to aim for I guess!!!

Trump and his businesses were involved in around around 4,000 legal cases in the USA before becoming President and since then has been involved in more high profile cases against media outlets. All this comes from Trump's association with a lawyer and mentor who taught Trump to use the legal system aggressively by attacking, changing the subject and making accusations. This scattergun policy is not too successful as apparently Trump loses around 90% of the cases he is involved in although like a committed gambler he only promotes the big cases he manages to win. I wonder what would have happened if Barack (Hussein) Obama had asked for an apology plus millions of $$$ compo for reputational damage as a consequence of Trump's accusation that Obama was not born in the USA.

MLG Even at 40%+, our squad wages will still be at the very top end of wages paid in the Championship. I understand the loan fee for Ramsdale was between £3-£4m which, if true, is a tidy sum and I guess Saints will allow him to find another club at the end of this season and try to recoup most of the £22m, reportedly, we paid for him. It would be interesting to learn how much loan fees were for: Smallbone (Millwall) Taylor (WBA) Brerton Diaz (Derby) Bella Kotcha (Verona) Sugawara (Bremen) Sanda (???) Probably £2-£3m in total to add to Ramsdale say £3m and say £95m from the sale of Dibling/Fernandez/Bednerak/Tall Paul and Sulemana. So say £100m revenue from sales and around £46m from inward transfers. That leaves us with a big squad which probably sits on our books at an overall cost of around £168m, with another £40m 'worth' of players out on loan. The overall squad expenditure certainly doesnt seem to be translating to value on the field of play!!

And further back when the team was playing in Third Division (South) but I guess player ability is relative to the level they are playing at and the transfer fee involved.. I makes me feel my age that at one time the record Saints fee was £1,000 to buy Jimmy Shields in the 1950's. a fee was which funded by the Saints Supporters club. At the same time Saints signed Derek Reeves from Bournemouth Gas Company on a free and went on to score record amounts of goals in the Third Division.

We have 'enjoyed' two games against teams we should really be expected to beat with our squad and that happened but not in an impressive way. Forthcoming games away to Charlton & Millwall and home to Leicester will be much sterner tests. If the team remains set up in the same way as in the last two (and previous) games then the current small amount of positivity is likely to disappear.

And he made one pretty decent save in the first half.

Did anyone see the 'keeper errors at the Millwall v Preston game??? Another level which would have caused apoplexy by some on here!!

Marco Rose has a very decent pedigree at a decent level in the Bundesliga and Rangers were keen on him but their package wasnt enough. An expensive option but quite a bit of experience at the top level.

Another absolutely nondescript performance today. Shocking player as far as his contributions so far this season have shown.

Agree with you about Barry Bannan. He signed for Weds 10 years ago on a free transfer and doesnt look like a footballer but he hardly misplaced a pass today and was an example to our midfield players. I hope Oriol Romeu makes the same impact when he turns out for us. We had a slice of luck with our first goal and Aziz and Armstrong did well with our other two goals. Aziz seemed to duck away from the glorious header opportunity he had second half. Weds passed the ball better than us at times and on occasions we had two players challenging for the same ball as has been the situation a few times this season. As ever our throw ins were poor. Weds looked like a Div 1 side in the making but to be honest we werent much better. Nice to win at home for once though.

My first job as a Management Trainee after leaving School with 3 'A' Levels, had an hourly rate of £0.276p per hour but a pint of beer was the equivalent of 20p, a gallon of petrol 40p and the price of entry to The Dell was probably under a £1.00 dependent whteher you stood in the open or sat on a wooden bench in the Stands !! Nine years later I managed to buy my first house but only by working 2 nights and a Saturday (missed a lot of the Keegan era games unfortunately!!) with the mortgage rate at 15%. Life had its challenges then but our generation was brought up not to expect too much. I have been fortunate in many ways to achieve more than my fairly modest expectations from life. I do feel sorry for today's younger generation for many reasons but mainly because their expectation level is fairly high and we, as a country, seem to have hit a glass ceiling.

He played for Newcastle in their recent Carabao Cup game and did well.

Cant disagree about anything you posted. One other thing about Downs is that he just doesnt seem interested in the pre match warm up, just joins in very casually when the ball comes to him. Of course that makes little difference if he went onto the filed of play and performed to a decent standard. It just adds to the overall appearance of malaise.

Bearing in mind the injury issues affecting Ross Stewart's availability it would be very brave of the club to take a risk with Michael Antonio as I dont think he has featured for West Ham since his recovery from a very serious car accident.

Apparently he had the most yellow cards whilst playing for Saints in the Prem. Second in ranking was MLT!!!

Manning/Wood??

Arguably one of the things that the club has done right. Tyler has got a lot of talent but only is currently able to show this occasionally. Has been unable to show the dynamism that the Premiership and to a lesser extent the Championship game demands. The way Saints are set up this season he would not be making the same impression as Leo Scienza, in my opinion, so the club is over £30m better off.

I enjoyed that. Thank you for posting

Not only with experience but someone of stature that can hold the ball up and can win a few headers, especially in the danger areas,

I I had a rare bout of optimism at the end of this seasons Transfer deadline only to fall into an even deeper depression after the new signings (apart from Scienza!!) have made precious little improvement to the team. I just hope that Oriol's return makes a difference. He is a very decent bloke off the field but a Jimmy Case/Alan Ball type competitor on the pitch. I just hope he still has the legs for the full on challenge of games in the Championship.