david in sweden

At least he got the ball IN the net. Whilst everyone is purring on about goal-line technology, the biggest problem is still the offside situations, and SKY see it correctly almost every time within 10 secs. Why not give the 4th official a TV monitor instead? No Mr. Blatter- it doesn't waste time. The average free-kick + lining up the wall+ ref.cautioning players not to foul each other and blow is over 1 min. As for Osvaldo. We seen the bar steward at work and he's as square peg. Try again Mauricio, and get someone who can play with the rest of the team without fighting or head-butting his team-mates.

......and to think the only thing that we complain about is Mark Clattenburg !

Mmm......so much for translation sites:facepalm:

not as it looks on paper, but five of our remaining games are against teams around / above us. A run of good results there could change the picture somewhat.

Now here I am agreeing 100% with you, Glasgow. In a year or two, Man.U will be reduced to an average Prem.side and beating them may become routine, but I REALLY love beating Spurs. It's not the club I despise, but the arrogance of some of their fans (who haven't seen the team win a major trophy in 20 years), but who think they are ..SO GREAT.

I don't know how many generations we go back, but the most logical definition has to be the person's birthplace. After which you could argue..... adoption as a baby, refugee status or qualification by marriage..but residential qualification ?..I don't know. I've lived in Sweden for 30 years (this month). ..I was born in So'ton and I'm no less of a Saints fan now, than when I watched my first game aged 11. .....and for what it's worth .....they can bury me with my British passport in my pocket. I've every sympathy for Schneiderlin, he deserves to be capped, but I'm sure he wants to play for his homeland, and many foreigners would see it as more than a joke - especially if he scored in the WC Final.

good points well made Irene. In our Championship season, I noted that the majority of Prem.sides had AT LEAST two international keepers, and a few of them THREE, and was waiting for us to sign at least ONE extra keeper. Nothing ! Nigel Adkins' mistakes were in trusting KD to be his Prem. no.1 keeper ..AND then signing Gazzaniga as his back-up. I read somewhere on here that Cortese's "committee" insisted we sign Boruc as back-up. What a good start we had to this season. Great perfromances from Boruc, but still no quality back-up in the event of injury...and guess what ?.... He got injured at Chelsea. We got KD and Gazza again..... and would have been in the " drop zone" like last season had it not been for the points cushion of that great 11 game start. He's clearly carrying some sort of injury (a heavily-strapped thigh was apparant in the Norwich game) and that must account for all the frightening short-backpasses and erratic kick-outs. He didn't look happy. Whatever happens - the keeper situation must be resolved in the summer. I'd keep Boruc but we must have a second quality keeper. Saints have EIGHT keepers, aside from Boruc and KD ....the eldest is 22....it'll take time before (if ever) before any of them reaches anything like Prem. standard...and especially if we are talking Euro football.

I was quoting Saints as one of the few examples there have been, Glasgow. I don't see any of the present L1 sides coming anywhere near that. The scope of expenditure required needs an foreign millionaire who is willing to buy a club at that level, which has a good reputation, an all-seater 25K plus stadium which would meet Prem. standards .....and a large volume of fans .....in an even larger catchment area, who would be willing to desert their present club to support a more successful one. London or Midlands area..........and of course to tempt a " good enough manager" to L1 .....in order to pull them together on limited budget... scared: It may have worked for Saints, but Nigel Adkins (we all said - who ?).....was a gamble from Day 1. I wonder if NA would have had the nous to sign Rickie Lambert - who was the main reason for our successes in L1....because he didn't ......Alan Pardew did. it's all a bit too theoretical for me - SORRY.

How true!...it's hard to recall a striker who cost real money who really delivered in a big way. Beattie (cost a little) and spent two seasons here before he found real form, and Raziak (despite some fans distaste for him) did manage 20 goals in his last full season. None others to mention. Historically, the vast majority our best strikers.....have been signed as juniors, or cost a very low fee at the time. The only exception that comes to mind was Ron Davies (club record fee in 1966)

and quite a valid one, too. but it may be a toss-up between Cardiff 's need to handle their finances in the Championship.... and the player's wish to continue playing in the Prem.?

purely a " space filler" on the horoscope page, because they can't sell anymore advertising space.

AL is essentially a (type-of) MLT attacking-midfileder with " licence-to-roam around ". With the departure of Lampard, and Carrick imploding, I see Adz being an England midfielder even in the NEXT World Cup. A really fast, on-form striker like Sturridge is obvious, he scores a lot. BUT Jay Rod often battles it out (alone) but still manages to pick up goals late on in a game through sheer stamina. (Compared to Welbeck, I'd have no doubts about who I'd choose, Roy.) Unless Andy Carroll makes a miraculous recovery of form and fitness....I can (possibly) see Rickie getting the last place.

if they do twice as much running as the rest of the team .....? YES! In Rickie's case, we know he doesn't (never has had REAL pace) but putting him on fresh after 60 mins. when the opposition is tiring is called a " tactical substitution" - expect to see it more in the future.

more's the pity ....only two of them were converted.

this is another example of how opinions, forecasts and estimates can vary 100%. IF we were to put a figure on the valuation of Saints' .....then it's pure conjecture. If you're suggesting it could be - say £150 million........that doesn't represent anything like the money paid put already spent by the Liebherrs. Club cost £15 million (which included SMS)...and then what ? After bankruptcy and until we got back in the Prem. the most we spent on any player was probably the £1 million+ ... for Rickie Lambert.... (argueably the best million we've spent in recent years). After which we only invested " big money " on Ramirez, Wanyama and Osvaldo..***..(none of whom has convinced me they're the best thing since sliced bread, and we'll be lucky to maintain their valuations) For me the Jay Rod and Lovren fees were money very well spent, and I'm glad we haven't been sued for highway robbery by anyone since. Lallana and the other more recent Academy graduates have a far greater " transfer value " than the big three mentioned above *** in today's market. "possible transfer fees " for them are so variable as to be laughable. Journo's and amateur site-owners have valued Shaw between £15-30 million..() but I'm not sure which planet they've been living on ? It seems that some " big money " clubs seem to spend a fortune on foreign players, yet think they can sign-up the best English players for a song, and that the likes of the Saints Board will fall on their knees in gratitude as soon as some " big club " opens their wallet. Hey guess what ....we don't need the money ! The only definite figure in all this is the TV sponsorship money, and any actual " surplus " available for future transfers will depend on how big their salary bill is already committed to paying x number of players £100K (or more ) - a week salaries on a 4-5 year contract. Sorry. EVERY club would need separate analyses of their finances, potential investment / running costs. I don't have time or the inclination to go further, and am happy with the current Liebherr regime at SMS.

Marshall ?....not such a daft suggestion either....

THIS ! .....well said .

........and almost none to recall in the 20-odd years before that, either.

It's good that we sign promising players at such an age (Chris Johns was a previous example), but as KD is just seeing out his time..it's puts a lot of pressure on Gazzaniga and Cropper to prove themselves as I can't see both of them staying after the summer.....and I still don't see a likely successor / challenger to Boruc as no.1......and we can't afford more lapses in form - as we had after he was out injured.

well spotted, Irene. It looked (on TV) as though his left leg was heavily strapped and if it was painful to stand on then it wouldn't have been easy to kick long with either foot..hence so many clearances into the crowd.

HOPEFULLY, we'll need a bit of creativity in midfield, but Gaston clearly isn't a 90 minute player in the rough and tumble of this league.

If you blame (Guly).......then Fonte must be just as ínept, he bears the fault for their first goal). Problem was it was just too easy for us after Lambert's goal, and when leading 3-0 after 84 minutes, we just got complacent and switched off. Lesson learned, but still got 3 points.

YEP ! ....(TV close-up) ....saw a gash on his knee, when he sat down in the dug-out. Sensible decision - no point in making things worse . He got his usual rough treatment (from some of the Norwich players). Although the substitution was fairly inspired - don't you think ? IF Rickie goes to Brazil, I can see Roy leaving him on the bench for 60 minutes..... and then using him as " game-changer."

I'd agree with the Liverpool assessment, and maybe Norwich, too ..although Hull " Tigers " were pretty tame, I thought. The luckiest side to come to SMS must be Aston Villa. We had 77% of the possession, 21 shots to 6 ...and then gifted them the game.