Saint Fan CaM

The whole organisation around ticketing and seating for this game was rubbish IMO. Firstly, the club broke one of its central mandates to ST holders by not offering us the opportunity to purchase our ST seats (e.g. mine is in block 30). Secondly, I have never known the ticketing office to be in such a shambles for a 15k ticket game - it took me 35 minutes to queue to collect my 2 tickets meaning we missed the first 15-20 minutes of the 1st half. Sort it out please Mr Cortese - this is basic stuff. I trust this poor level of customer service does not reflect what we might expect in the Premiership with 30k gates - it will be intolerable then!

Agree with comments above regarding need in the past although it is getting colder to the point where frozen ground will stop a game. I think they put covers on the pitch nowadays though?

I think the only debate is whether the sword will strike Pimply while they are still a Prem club or not. Something tells me that the perverted powers in the FA will not want to see this happen (bad publicity) and so in a way they will be protected and saved until they relegated in May/June.

Looking at the particularly cold weather of late got me thinking about SMS and a rumour from a while back that under pitch heating pipes had been installed but heaters had not. Just wondering if anyone has any up to date info on this? Seemslike it's another investment Markus might consider alongside Staplewood to improve SMS?

If this guy is serious, he needs serious counselling.

Have to agree with Alpine on this one. OL is not the finished product and his spell with Grimsby may well have helped HIM, where he will probably be playing alongside a standard of player that makes him look OK. If we are to aspire to the likes of Grimsby then I would say, yes, play him. If you want to aspire higher (much higher), then he really is not going to be a part of a team that will get you there (not at this stage of his career anyway).

Sol C?

Sticky please MODS?

What the hell is going on with the quoting stuff today - I never wrote that!

Thought I might as well start a thread off. As usual this one on paper should be a sure-fire Saints win, however if there's a team that could cause an upset, I think its Luton as they have some decent players. Craddock is a forward in form and they have a decent QPR striker on loan who is doing the business too. They have nothing to lose with this, so I cannot see them coming here to shut up shop in the first half certainly. As normal with Saints, if we can keep a clean sheet to half-time, they should start to tire earlier and we'll come away with it. If they score early it could prove to be another slog to get back into the game. Prediction : Saints 2 - Luton 1. COYS!

I heard he left a large one in the Boardroom latrine prior to his departure. And that was more than anyone could possibly have anticipated.

Absolutely right. There should be some kind of statement on the OS explaining why the decision was first made and now recinded by opening almost the entire ground. It certainly dilutes an advantage of owning an ST and only serves to promote the action of booking seats later rather than sooner.

Sorry, but that's wrong. Part of the 'deal' with ST's is the supposed benefit of having preference to 'your' seat when other games such as cup games are issued. This is not happening consistently now and I see it as a (minor) violation of the clubs original contract commitment with ST holders.

I agree with the comments on the Kingsland release. The majority of this stand is filled with loyal ST holders who deserve better frankly. I have bought two tickets in block 33, but would much prefer to have had the option to buy my own seat in block 30. Not happy with the manner in which the club are dealing with the stand restrictions - a policy re-think is needed please Mr Cortese.

The only thing wrong with SMS is it's proximity to some pretty ugly industry (e.g. the ballast/cement works). If that area could be redeveloped into waterside bars/restaurants/shops/hotel for example, the development would be complete and be quite impressive. A big problem for leisure business development in the area is the area itself. Friends of mine unsuccessfully tried opening a live music bar near to SMS a year or so back, however one big factor in the failure of that venture was that there was no passing trade in the evening - it is a no-go zone thanks to violence, drugs and unsavoury individuals. Could the reputation of the area be turned around? Possibly not. There would also need to be significant flood defence work also if I remember rightly, there are significant issues in that area (although it didn't stop the building of the new accomodation apartments just down the road).

Yeah, this is pretty much on the money for me. The 'big' clubs will not be affected - in fact if the club is bouncing between the CCC and the Prem there will not be a problem financially. Newcastle will go up, collect £60m and their problems will go away for awhile. Look at Birmingham - now sitting comfortable in the Prem without spending massive amounts of money like Spurs to push them into the top six. Most clubs are now happy not to compete with the 'big clubs' and survive in the Prem between positions 8th to 18th. Still get good gates - don't pay stupid salaries on foreign imports - keep the Sky money rolling in etc etc. I think most fans are savvy to all this too - expectations have levelled out and now it's less of a disgrace to drop into the CCC to re-group providing the club has been run in a financially sound way and can maintain a decent team to mount a promotion push immediately.

As others have mentioned, this really has nothing to do with ML and NC as the efforts were in place to secure the clubs future before they were involved, therefore they have no moral duty to comment. What Markus has done for the club has said it all IMO. However, the organisation behind the collection SHOULD be held accountable and tell supporters where the money went (even though I suspect it was to pay player salaries including players that are now getting paid even more at other higher league clubs.

First reaction would be "oh no". However, he could be the cover we need for Lambert and who knows, he might hit it off big time with Connolly as a strike partner. Funny how these things work out sometimes.

There will be more games like this one until AP sorts the squad out completely. Hopefully that will happen in January. Key issues are poor defence make-up and an unbalanced midfield. In short we need a RB, CB, CAM, LW, RW and a large mobile striker. Trouble is we also have OK players that are a bit of a luxury as they take up a squad place yet they not good enough or not suitable to do a basic job. I refer to James, Waigo, Wotton, Antonio, Thomas for example. Even Lallana is a bit of an enigma - is he a winger, central mid, striker? He is a great player but who do you sacrifice to allow him a place? For me this is significant issue for AP - what is his first choice midfield four/five?

There will be more games like this one until AP sorts the squad out completely. Hopefully that will happen in January. Key issues are poor defence make-up and an unbalanced midfield. In short we need a RB, CB, CAM, LW, RW and a large mobile striker. Trouble is we also have OK players that are a bit of a luxury as they take up a squad place yet they not good enough to do a basic job. I refer to James, Waigo, Wotton, Antonio, Thomas for example. Even Lallana is a bit of an enigma - is he a winger, central mid, striker? He is a great player but who do you sacrifice to allow him a place? For me this is significant issue for AP - what is his first choice midfield four/five? I am still of the opinion that this season is all about sorting out the squad and anything else is a bonus. January was always going to be a bit too late to sort things for a play off place, but it's still possible if AP is very severe in his squad surgery.

Err, so what? If he's not doing what AP wants then he'll not last long. I have to say I have not seen enough from him to convince me that he's good enough at LM frankly as he adds little to the play and we cannot afford to carry players that are not up to the mark. A player like Jason Puncheon (left side midfielder at MK Dons) is far better in all departments and would be fantastic for us either as a starter or coming off the bench.

I think there's a chance either Fish will be consigned to the reserves for sometime, or he'll go entirely. If he's unable to act out AP's wishes on the pitch then he'll not survive here much longer. Winners cannot be sentimental and cannot carry people who are not shaping up.

Only problem is - where would he fit in? He's a left side player I think, so would Lallana move to the right?

Jason Puncheon from MK Dons would be a great midfield signing, however he's on season long loan from Plymouth so probably not available until the summer. Could probably snap him up for £500k.

Lampard - great player. Gerrard - great player. Together in an England squad they don't compliment each other. Never have and never will. I get the feeling (on less grand scale perhaps) that Hammond and Schneiderlin are similar to the above two. Their sum is not greater than the two equal parts. For those comparing the two and suggesting that MS is better than Hammond, it should be noted that Hammond provides Morgan with much guidance during a game in terms of positioning etc. The problem IMO actually lies with the coaching team - they need to work with the pair of them and attempt to work out a system that ensures that one of them plays less deep when defending thus leaving a gaping hole in midfield.