Legod Third Coming

For the first time in seven years I am HAPPY being a SAINTS fan. What the f u c k else matters?

Erm, guys, I seem to be getting a lot of credit here for a prediction that was actually given by "Window Cleaner" and has been wrongly attributed to me, and then again and so on... I wish I had predicted 5-0... I did predict a win! FWIW My prediction which you can gladly congratulate me on at the appropriate time is that we will end up on 85 points and play Charlton at Wembley.

Hang on, did Trotman play???!!!!

hahahaha. great post mate.

Moe importantly, six better than Huddersfield!

Well, that's the goal difference sorted. By my reckoning it will be plus 40 by season end. Anyone want to bet against us ending up 6th now?

That is a bloody good question Alps... bloody good... Look at some players who are playing in the Premiership now and we weren't sure they were ever good enough for us... Fuller? Delap? Look at Scott McDonald in Scotland. Is there really that much difference in class between most pros? Set aside the international stars and I wonder you know I really do...

No mate, I think you'll find most of them have 'Technical' or 'Sporting Directors' who work for them not above them...ie. they are not answerable to those people, they simply negotiate transfers which is fair enough.

I think people look at the most successful football clubs in England and recognise that the vast majority do not have DoFs and wonder why they're such a great idea? English clubs dominate European football and yet we should somehow follow a European model... seems a bit bonkers to me... Then take Europe's top managers: Ferguson, Mourinho, Hiddink, Cappello, Ancelotti... which of them needs/ed a DoF 'above' them? Really and truthfully. For clubs like Real Madrid with a 'sporting pedigree' where they expect a manager to last one season because the President changes annually, there is a genuine rationale for some stability. Elsewhere, I'd like to see the evidence that it is a necessity. And anyone who uses a Dutch team as a model needs a bloody Dutch Oven... they've won jack-sh** for years!

Once the team had got going this season, we were the 2nd in the league in October, gaining 13 points second only to Millwall on goal difference. We then entered what many people are calling a run of bad/poor form... In November we picked up 4 points - but this came from three games compared to many teams who played four. The best performance for November was Huddersfield picking up 9 points from their four games. In December we were 3rd in the League, with 12 points compared to Leeds 14and Norwich with 13 (we played 6 games, as did Leeds, Norwich played only 5which puts their performance into perspective). In January, we were 8th - achieving 5 points from just three games, while Norwich were top with 18 from six games - another superb performance. In February, we were 9th, achiving 8 points from our four games. Huddersfield were top with 13 points from seven games... What this says to me is that our cup runs, welcome as they were, did us absolutely no favours in the league. Whether our momentum or the necessity to chop and change the team (with cup tied players), we just didn't get enough game time in the league with 'one' team playing together - in some cases just three league games in a calender month. And while many people question whether we have won enough league games (GS!!) this is how we fare against the P/O contenders: Charlton have won 17 from 34 Colchester have won 18 from 33 Swindon 16 from 32 Huddersfield 16 from 33 Millwall 15 from 33 SAINTS 13 from 31 So I would imagine we will catch at least one of those teams on games won, possibly three/four of them... Only Swindon, Charlton and Leeds have lost fewer games.

I've heard some complete cobblers over the years on this site, sir, but you take the absolute biscuit!!!

I think that's the other team in Hampshire...

+2 - 13 and 15...

I wonder who appointed Rudge?

Not old Monkey Heeed?

LOL.... I wish!!! I like AP, I like the cut of his jib and I like what I see in terms of growth, development, progress, etc... BUT, Jose is enough to turn a straight football fan!

Huddersfield unbeaten in 10... tough game. But then Norwich had what 11 straight wins at home before we played them? I am gutted to be missing this and Leeds... They are the games that will determine our genuine play-off chances. Gutted.

That was kinda my point... The trouble with Chelsea was that they had the second best manager in the world but thought they knew better... I'd love Liverpool to employ Jose when Raffa goes to really mix it up at the top of the Premiership.

I hear that Burnley used Deloittes to work out that they should appoint Brian Laws... and yet that was only ever destined to end in the disaster we can all see coming... Why do clubs do this? Work so hard to get somewhere then immediately feck it up when they do!!!!

Wow, wasn't that the brave new world that dumped us into this god-foresaken league... And where are Ajax on the European stage... scouring the bottom of the barrell...

This is the thing, though. Why appoint Gunn? No experience, no management training... Crap managers are so effing predictable most of the time!!!

Don't bother with these week's lottery numbers then, we're getting 85 points...

Jose's successors have had the following players to call on: Drogba Ballack Cole Cole Terry Cech Cavalho Deco... the list of international superstars goes on! Not exactly been short of talent... But no, a Chairman and DoF thought that winning wasn't good enough, they had to 'win with style'.... Yep very stylish air-conditioned trophy room they have down there in Cobham! Shame the only thing that's glistening in it is the mirrored shelves.

I watched that goal and thought, that's why we signed him, a proper, proper goal. There's so many players who would have received the ball in that position and not known what to do with it. It was a superb turn and shot, really natural. He's a gifted lad.

Chelsea are not doing ok. They have invested billions and won nothing since firing the Special One... Manchester United are doing brilliantly. Arsenal are doing ok - and I expect them to win the league which I think would be no more than Wenger deserves because of his commitment to play the game the way I love to see it played. I think the truth is, it's about finding and then backing the 'right' manager. As to who that manager is, it's a lottery. Some managers work at some clubs and not others. However, it would have been very easy for Everton to fire Moyes when they went through one of their countless bad spells - they didn't and I think they are reaping the reward of consistency and regular European football. My gut feel says a manager needs a season to show what he can do, the idea of changing any more frequently takes no account of injuries, fixtures, etc.