Saint Fan CaM

Unfortunately, because when we enter the Premiership we'll be needing better players to compete, we will have lost most of our current squad on the climb through the CCC. The key will be to maintain managerial stability so that the team spirit that unites the squad to gain two promotions will be carried through to the Prem. If all the elements of the club are in place by the time we get to the Prem, I doubt we'll be modelled on any of the current top Prem teams anyway. There is a real strength of vision in Cortese's strategy for the club and this will be key to how the entire club reacts when finally taking it's rightful place back in top division. As the song says, it's the climb that's the most challenging and rewarding aspect of getting to the pinnable of success in whatever you do. I've watched Saints almost go down and out of existance - nothing will spoil the journey back up again for me.

He would have played with ten times more passion and pride than all of those buffoons put together that's f'sure.

I really don't know what the problem is. All the previous essential stuff is still here... Even the smilies.

I have just finished a spreadsheet analysing where the players have come from. Of all the England squad, just 12 players came from the top 6 Prem teams. And not all actually got a decent game (e.g. Crouch). We need some new hungry talent to come through - why not Jamie O'Hara for example - he's had a fantastic season, can score goals and is better than jaded Lampard?

Cracking post WT.

Terry, Lampard, Rooney, Heskey were all rubbish. The rest of the team were poor except James and Defoe who were pretty average. No fight, no team-spirit, no viable game-plan (Heskey on to score goals?!?!?!?), no plan B (no Crouch, no Carrick and dare I say it no Walcott). And that's not just for this game, it's been the same for the entire competition. We got to the last 16 with a huge slice of luck and it was inevitable that we would go out unless the players ALL lifted their games. They couldn't because Capello is not good enough - he doesn't know how to pick the best team from the players available and plays too many players out of position. As someone said above, the English FA need to look at the game root and branch because the only reason I can see for any of those players playing in the team is because they play for teams where the performances look good because there's a predominance of foreign players around them. IMO it is VITAL that the next England manager is ENGLISH! Bring on Harry Redknapp - I don't give a toss about his Pimpley connections or that he happened to be with Saints when Lowe was intent on sinking us. He is the best person to sort out the England team and put Shearer and Beckham in as his understudies ready to take over in the future. We need a Manager that understands how English players tick - the strikers like crosses into the box from the wing for example, but how many times did that happen this tournement? Too few times and when it did happen we scored two of the three goals we scored in all games! Oh well, let's look forward now to some good summer signings and an exciting Saints season with auto-promotion at the end of it.

Two goals could pretty much be put down to John Terry being hopelessly out of position and two officials who must be on the take to have gotten such an obvious goal decision wrong. However, I think given the poor defence shown today (fundamental errors), Saints strikers would have scored at least 1 or 2 goals against that England side. And Raidi and Fonte would have had Rooney and Heskey sorted they were so rubbish. The only player that would have caused us problems would have been Defoe. How any of those players can hold their heads high and say "we are the best Englands got to offer", is beyond me. Overpaid and lazy - it didn't mean enough. Reminded me of the Saints team capitulation to the skates a few years back.

As I intimated on the other thread, Bart will want to stay to ride on the coat-tails of Davis and Saints in general. If he needs to deputise for Davis in the CCC and he does well, his stock will rise significantly. This is a good club to be with at the moment and he has some years ahead of him to be no.1 (here or anywhere else for that matter). I think Davis could well see us into the Prem and then may well take up a coaching role. I do not think Bart is good enough for the Prem at this time anyway, so by that time he might have been sold for a tidy sum.

Cannot see any reason why he should not want to stay - at the moment and possibly could handle the CCC. However, if the far reaching plans for Saints happen in the timescales wanted, I cannot see him being a Prem keeper and that will define where he is in circa 4 years time. For Saints he's a good option as even if he does not stay long term, he will fetch a good transfer fee when the time is right.

Interesting. I would say there are plenty of good penalty takers that don't seem to follow the advice regarding height certainly, however it's about consistency and Matt had that wrapped up.

DO NOT click on this link - the site is virus infected.

I much prefer the old slogan "Come on you Saints" to be honest, so playing in white with red sash is fine. Actually it's more than fine - it might be THE kit - the one that helps define a future that will see us more successful than ever before. Plus there are fewer teams across the top divisions playing in this style (how many in red & white stripes - 4 or 5?).

Well I'm pretty glad he didn't join us to be fair. IMO if we're taking too many players from lower leagues we'll end up staying in this division longer than we anticipated. We need just to look to Fonte to see how the right acquisition at this level can make so much difference. We need the RB and CM equivelants of Fonte in short.

To be honest I feel a bit gutted that he's gone to Norwich. Despite the difference in division, I consider us as a bigger club with more class than the Canaries and I would have liked to have thought we could have attracted him here given our aspirations. Good luck to the lad though - I always liked him as a Saint - however it will feel a bit weird seeing him play against us the season after next!

The sentence is an irrelevance. All those who put themselves into a situation whereby they could have been accused of violent disorder or conduct have only themselves to blame. I saw some of the disturbance and there were both men, women and children involved in some way, however not all got charged - only a small minority who were seen to be causing the worst damage or acting in the most violent manner. Is there any evidence that an innocent bystander got sentenced, because if so I might start to get concerned?

Agreed. However, I think Wotton will be kept until the CCC as a utility player and to be fair probably deserves the place. Holmes is a bit of an enigma - having played for Derby you would have thought he was more than capable in L1, but perhaps his injury completely stripped him of his pace? Based on some of last seasons performances from Puncheon, he's not too far off achieving JP's level IMO - he is capable of getting past his marker and putting in a good cross when he's on form.

No surprise he's gone now with Dickson in. Mind you IMO he was nowhere near as poor as Pulis, yet he's still here - hopefully for not too much longer, but probably because he's got nowhere else to go and he's better 'employed' than not when in the transfer market. I suspect LM will find his level in a L2 team if he's lucky. In terms of new faces, I think that perhaps we'll start to see a little bit of movement soon now that the final clearout has happened. Slim and trim squad now though!

I hear the seats are being completely re-organised so that they're mostly white, but with a line of red seats running top left to bottom right in each stand.

Funny, I thought membership of a football club was about getting a range of benefits in order to help sustain the team you are passionate about. How about we debate the inherent benefits of membership before we condemn NC once again? For example, before I bought a ST I bought a membership to feel like I belonged to and was part of the club, plus it gave me the benefit of getting matchday tickets easily. Of course I paid for this 'privelage', so the club (unde Lowe) gained - but so what? It was my choice and not once did I consider that the club were fleecing me or whatever. So perhaps someone could be kind enough to list here what all the benefits of membership bring? Then we'll have something worthy to discuss. Who knows, perhaps membership might offer 'free' handling fees on ticket sales?!

On this, I agree totally with you. Not that you can see this, as I believe you have blocked me.

Absolutely this - fantastic post and right to the point. Some people just want to see fewer tickets sold and to bleat about it just to further their own expectations. I suspect that when all is said and done we'll be selling close to 12k ST's. Once all the JCL's figure out that we're having a decent season and promotion is on the cards, the walk-up figures will push gates to the mid 20k's.

Not sure that twitter actually says that? Mind you, if they are in UEFA league next season, not sure he would be keen to come to Saints. ):

The Plymouth game will be very interesting indeed. Apart from being at home, it will be a good demonstration of (a) our summer preparation (b) whether this team really can mix it at CCC level. Can't wait TBF.

Wish I had though. By all accounts it seems like we have one or two gems coming through the Academy ranks once again. Excellent news.

No.