Saint Fan CaM

You think that because, by suggesting they have "essences of insecurity", you believe people who smack their children derive some personal advantage from doing so - this is incorrect. Graded punishment means pro-actively informing the child of the consequences of a certain inappropriate action or behaviour and holding to those pre-defined rules, with the ultimate sanction being a smack. The method undoubtedly results in less repeat offences. I have witnessed non-smacked children drive parents to distraction because they do not learn from the repeated administration of 'soft' sanctions. Children learn from graded punishment. In my experience children who are continually threatened with 'soft' punishments such as 'sitting on the stairs', 'going to bed early', 'not having McDonalds' or 'I'll take away your iPad' etc. do not take these so called punishments seriously because often it becomes a game - i.e. "how much can I get away with?". There's no real learning involved IMO because it's all about loss of advantage or privelage, rather than understanding that crossing a specific significant boundary will result (either immediately or eventually) in real punishment. Quite different of course.

I've only read the last page of this debate, so my only clear view of opinions is that Pap is up against the rest of the debators and the arguement has reached a point of 'black and white'...'yes and no'...'wrong and right'. My experience from raising four children to adulthood is that there is no such digital aspect to this - having a variable approach to disciplining a child is the key to success and any attempt from the outside to moralise in a generic sense is flawed logic. I particularly despair of the 'PC brigade' categorising physical punishment as 'hitting' - this is entirely an emotional response to attempt to elicit sympathy for their cause. Administering a controlled smack as an ultimate punishment is not wrong, providing afterwards it is backed with clear rationale guidance on why the line was crossed, what your expectations are for future behaviour and a clear show of love and care. As many people recognise, children do understand graded levels of discipline - as a society we have dumbed down many areas of life and this IMHO is just another example. I will offer up a little of my own experience albeit very condensed - I have two boys, one is 27 and one is five years younger. My first son experienced what I would consider a fully graded level of discipline including smacks. My younger son experienced a more 'relaxed' attitude to handing out smacks - i.e. for various reasons we went with the modern concensus that it's better not to smack. I'm happy to report both my sons have grown into responsible, caring, intelligent, law-abiding citizens. However, it has been a tougher journey for my younger son - he has had trouble throughout his teen years taking responsibility for his own actions ("it's everybody elses fault") and he has had real trouble respecting authority and listening to the voice of reason/experience. His personality reflects a significant proportion of kids nowadays - those whose parents don't have the time to administer a graded approach because they're too busy working etc. And for the worst case examples it's just easier to leave it to the authorities to pick up the pieces.

I think this can only be good for the game in England, however IMO there is still a long way to go to really focus on ensuring the England team have top stars coached in a consistent way for the future.

I like it - improvement on the last version to be honest. Everything works fine for me in IE - even Saints Player with all videos playing well.

How can anyone doubt Chappies quality? Wasn't that him that scored a belter against ManU? Isn't that him that runs box to box - defending for his life one minute, busting a gut to get into the box to score the next? He's like having an extra man in midfield and better than Hammond in my book.

I see Chaplow is reported to have turned down a move to Palace to "fight for a place" in Saints team - perhaps moving some fringe players on is dependant on us signing any more players? It is probably this exact sort of issue that is keeping the transfer activity across the leagues quiet. It's tough times financially and no-one wants to be the risk taker when it comes to money. I don't think we'll see any movement on the transfer front until very near the end of the window (whenever that is).

Think it could also be like this... ---------------------KD--------------------- Clyne----------Fonte-------Jos------------Fox --------------------Morgan------------------ -------------Davis----------Lallana---------- JWP-------------------------------------J Rod --------------------Lambert-----------------

It's mildly satisfying to know that I am considered a Premium supporter as I sit in the Premium seating area at SMS. Thankfully the mongs can't afford to sit near me and my friends which is another nice bonus. Plus I get the best view of the action. Doesn't get any better really.

First season back in Prem and under present economic climate, this is a good number of ST's. I'm sure Turkish has not got the hard facts to back up his dig at MLG (again), but I feel sure these numbers are higher than our first season in the Championship (i.e. when we were 'crap').

Theo coming back would be fantastic, but let's face facts - it's not going to happen in a million years unless NC has some magic wand (and a huge wadge of cash) up his sleeve. In monetary terms I could only imagine this happening (if there were any legs in this story), was if there was a pot of money put by to push us on to the 'next level' if we stay up this season and NC considers the possible availability of Theo (as an ex-Academy graduate) this season as a good enough excuse to raid that pot.

Thought Clyne was MOTM and JWP was good too. Other than that, certainly in the 1st half I thought the front line looked like square pegs in round holes. Lambert looked isolated too much and lost possession a couple of times. Jayrod looked like he's got something about him, but he's not got a clue how to use it out on the left. 4-3-3 is OK but you've got to have players quick enough to move out of the 4-5-1 defensive formation into an attacking formation to take advantage. By the time we got some form of passing going, they had 11 players behind the ball - almost always happened. And once again, no-one wanted to shoot...we were trying to walk it into the net - frustrating. I enjoyed to today, but we seriously need to be prepared for some disappointing games on todays showing - I'm not surprised NA wants more in.

Wake up and smell the coffee time? Or is it a case of "we're gonna storm the Prem"? Mmm, if they put out a full-strength team (unlikely) I think it's the former. I suspect though we'll actually give them a good game and come away thinking things are looking OK. I hope we get to see Davis, Rodrigues, Clyne and Gazza. I think the club missed a trick not revealing a new signing at the game though - might have got some of the plastics along.

I agree, although I'm not sure how or why these players would go for less - surely market forces would take over. Actually, I'd go one further in a way. My feeling is it's far too easy for a player to leave his parent club that developed him and as such, the club owners will only benefit from the money. The paying supporters don't get to see their team benefit from the skill they have effectively paid to be developed. All players should be mandated to stay at their parent club until at least 21 years old IMHO.

Excellent news. Reading the OS article I would have thought that we scored highly in relation to the number of players that have gone through our Academy and are now playing in the Premiership, be that primarily with us or but also with other teams. Let's face it, given our past performance plus all the investment into Staplewood etc, it's really not surprising that we're seen as leaders in the field.

Oh dear Farnboro, you've really done it now...err, no - it's not Cortese you need to worry about. No, you'll have Turkish, Tokyo and others on your back accusing you of being condescending for pushing this information on us. They'll be asking lots of searching, but meaningless questions to test your knowledge and check you're the real deal. I'm not sure why it happens that way but...well, best just watch out OK?

Perhaps Fox appears to be weak because Lallana provides so little support for him? Lallana really is not that great at putting in a defensive shift to be fair - that's not his game, so Fox is often going to get exposed. Now then, put someone like Ollsen in front of Fox and I wager you'll see a different game.

And therein lies the problem - internet forum bullies like yourself don't just question do they? You never just come out and say something like - "thanks for info - I think the plans for the training ground look terrible". Oh no, you've got to bait MLG and push into a corner until he says something daft which you then relentlessly criticise. Trouble is because you're bullies, you either can't or won't back off and recognise your behaviour for what it is. Worst still it's pretty obvious you're never going to change, because that would negate your reason for using this forum probably. Just try 'chatting' about the information and not about the messenger for once. I for one think the information MLG provides is informative and useful. I don't judge it because I prefer to judge the outcomes of stuff like the training ground improvements etc. I do wish he would stop engaging with the bullies though - it would save so much time having to skip through the rubbish on here.

Can you, in your wildest dreams, ever imagine that there will ever be a banner at Farton Park reading loud and proud, "SKATE ARMY"? No - I didn't think so either. I will cringe if I ever hear or see 'scum army' at SMS.

I can officially confirm that Trabzonspor's offer is valued at "in excess of 6m Euros". I can't name my source though. HTH.

The paper that honestly lies... Riiiight....

I reckon on 15th which will be a reasonable season. But then there is the X-factor with Saints - the unknown. It was clearly not obvious just how good the team was in L1 and most of us thought we would get mid-table or just outside the play-offs in the Championship, but the team proved us wrong. We've strengthened...both organically with the existing players and by acquisition of some good new players. Perhaps we're better than we think we are - perhaps top 10 is not so crazy - stranger things and all that. Stand-out players I think will be Billy Sharp who with the right service will look good and Schneiderlin alongside Davis. If he gets the chance I think Callum Chambers is the one to watch in the youth ranks. I reckon Clyne will show himself to be an excellent buy. Players I think will struggle unfortunately could be Lambert, Fonte and possibly Lallana (the added pace of the game could expose his injury - worryingly options here are slim).

Nice result - although it's not about the result as such, it's still good for morale to see a positive results from the hard work prep sessions. Puncheon looks like he is well and truly a reformed character - his interview on Saintsplayer I thought came across very well - he's reasonably eloquent and seems keen to do well. As others have said, he could be a key player this season. Is it me, or does it appear that Rickie is finding it hard to make an impact in pre-season? I'm looking forward to seeing how he looks at home if he plays against Ajax. Chappers needs to have a long hard look at the video and ask himself how managed to miss from 10 yards out and the goal gaping - even I would have scored that. Clyne looked class in his cameo appearance - I will be godsmacked if he doesn't start games from the offset. Morgan is looking incredibly fit and playing really well - our sports science people are doing an excellent job with the players. It's all coming together - role on the new season.

Probably us having another pop at Lens surely? I'm wondering whether we'll be in for a CB - it looks like Stephens has stepped up to the plate and he may be good enough until the January window? My own opinion is we do need another proven CB - perhaps Danns?

Cork looked one of TGB's best players I thought. If he's not selected for a start then Pearce is a bigger d1ck than I originally thought. I think Cork and Schneiderlin are similar players whereas Davis is more attack minded I believe, so I reckon we'll see Davis and one of Cork or Schneiderlin depending on fitness levels and results. On last nights showing, I wouldn't be surprised to see Cork ahead of Schneiderlin to be honest.

I don't think we'll surprise anyone because I don't think we're going to have a stellar season - just an OK one. I think we will need at least a season to adjust to the Prem and I also think that come Xmas there will be some doubt over Adkins tenure, although I think Cortese will be patient. Ultimately we will survive this first season, but the first two months will come as a bit of a wake-up call IMO. I also have a nagging doubt about Lambert making the grade - i.e. he will perform well with the exception of being able to score and that will dishearten him. Of course I hope I'm completely wrong and he shows Rooney/Carroll et al how it's done.