david in sweden

Agree 100% Turkish. Interesting little interview spot last week on BBC with Alan Shearer talking about young talent (mentioned Saints) and recalled his time / apprenticeship (at SFC). Seemed to agree with the "spoilt brat " syndrome that exists in some clubs.

oh I agree totally, but as far as I'm aware the age-range on this site is fairly large. Some of the contributors may have to get a history book in order to find out about this period.

funnily enough PM.s comment led me to think of that first....or are you better at handling footballers?

nice thought, but when was the last time an England striker scored a hat-trick in 10 minutes ? ( RL won't get much more time than that - will he ?)

a win at Man.Utd would heal quite a lot of wounds that I've felt after Man.U games in the last 50 years..... if England fail to qualify, I wouldn't blame Roy directly, he's only trying to work with what he's got, but it only goes to show the " weaknesses " in the FA structure of training, selection and tactics.

The title "How to handle a woman" was a song in the long-forgotten 1960's musical " Camelot ", but it occured to me that some managers don't understand how to handle young talent. Recently watching a BBC item on De Canio's sacking from Sunderland, I was interested to hear comments from (guest) former M.U. /Dutch goalie Peter Schmeichel, especially relating to how a manager should " handle " young talented players who just aren't performing, and perhaps where De Canio went wrong. Schmeichel related that Alex Ferguson (surely a law unto himself) knew everything about his players. The name of their WAG, and even those of the player's mother and father, and knew just how to handle each individual player - even though they were part of his team. (Man-management skills ). Some young players have good skills and great potential, and many managers understand tactics and playing formations, but it's not so easy to make the two blend well when using young players, It maybe easy for us to picture " Big Sam " or even De Canio sounding off at a group of tough, hard-nosed professionals who need bawling out after a poor performance, but how do you behave towards a talented teenager, or a 20+ year old (who might just happen to be on £30/40k a week). Schmeichal said " it's important to make sure that these (young) players know and understand ...what is expected of them. Does a " bawling-out " motivate them, or merely destroy their confidence? Although he may not be "so young" anymore, I have the feeling that something, somewhere has been missed ...if the latest "media gossip" about Ramirez have any truth to them.

What a difference a year makes.....after that disasterous start LAST season, lots of people were asking why we'd signed an overweight, out-of-training goalie with " an attitude ". It's fairly certain that NA didn't seem to want him, (not at first anyway)...and persisted with his KD / Gazzaniga combination. But one year on, suddenly Artur is villian turned hero, and one wonders what the future holds?. Regardless of the result of tomorrows (Tuesday) game, I think we're in for an " interesting" season, especially if Artur continues his fine form. One intersting question we may never get the real answer to is ..exactly WHO had the smart idea to sign him in the first place?.... and how did they convince Cortese to agree ?

y'know ..I thought the same myself.....

We have seen some real touches of class from Ramirez (not so often, and not nearly enough) ...but the fact remains - if you spend £12 million on a player, (at least in the Saints' squad) ... .....then he should be on the team sheet every match, and not on the bench. It seem sad / ironic that MP has brought about a positive change attitude in quite a few players, but not it seems Ramirez. He was not Pottechino's signing of course, and isn't their some ancient animosity between Argentina and Uruguay? ..oh whatever .. The fact is that ...another season of occasional selection and 20 minutues sub. apps is not what we want for the investment. Many of us could easily choose JWP ahead of Ramirez. Whoever is right /wrong is difficult to assess, but it's clear from previous years that some Latin players do not adjust to the " physical side " of English football, no matter how skilful they are. Unless there is a remarkable change of attitude ..on " someone's " part .. a move back to Italy may be a win-win situation for everyone concerned, (and his agent will get another % cut.)

Despite out dominance (70% at times). Montenegro always looked dangerous on the break, and I thought both Lampard and Gerrard were a bit below par. We needed the changes in midfield and I don't think I'd argue the subbing, although I'd like to have seen Rickie on ..even for the last 10 mins. I expected loads of wasted chances from our "strike force" and not to be disappointed one or two did land in row Q, but I was was still more concerned about our defence..(what is Walker doing there FFS ?) Have to say I did think Rooney played well, though (though it pains me to have to say it ).

Dani...one (great) goal ....and an assist for Italy's last minute equaliser.

Goalie made it easy by going the wrong way, but I thought that the ball wasn't going to make it over the line with such a weak kick.

JWP played the whole game, and Kane ended up getting a hat-trick. Final score: San Marino 0 England 4

On Monday evening Anders Svensson's Elfsborg won the away fixture against the already relegation-doomed Syrianska club (bottom of Allsvenskan (sv. Prem.),.. before a crowd of .. .just 519 people On Friday, he will play his 140-sumthink game for Sweden (against Austria) at Friends Arena in a World Cup qualifier that Sweden must win and they will play before a capacity gate of 50,000... ......really is a case of " what a difference day makes..."

The average dyslexic can surely manage to read the Sun.....do you mean you bothered to make it past page 3 ......?.

If you consider that as an 18 year old, who has played in the Premier League...and already been selected for England U21's....there really is no point in discussing his future at this point in time. he has already progressed more than most promising U21 talents (let alone anyone of 18) ..... He may have a quiet year or two whilst he becomes established, but with a start like that ...who knows ?

its the old football axiom, you build a team from the back. With Shaw in, and the back line + Boruc ....I'm very pleased with the rearguard, we have many options in midfield (but maybe not a bad thing in case of injuries), all we need is to get the strikers scoring.

Apart from the fact that Niemi and Shilton played for Saints with a 20 year difference, it's hard to say that anyone was better than Shilts....... However, Niemi was outstanding in his time with Saints, and you could have literally counted his " bad games in a season " ..on one hand. I seem to remember quite a lot of media coverage when Boruc was first at Celtic, and I was more than pleased to see us sign him. OK he was overweight, un-trained and had a bad start, but now we see that there is a top class goalie inside him, and he's already earned us 6-7 points this season. Comparisons are odious (or so the saying goes) and I wouldn't want to try ...based on so short a time, but if he's still performing in 3-4 years time, then I'd say .. ...that I was lucky to have seen two goalies off that ilk in the same decade.

...didn't take too long for the media come up with that one, after MP was " fed " the question by a lazy journo' in our after Swansea victory press conference. We can all recall those ridiculing responses from some of our notable posters when the thread " Lambert for England" appeared last year, but guess what ...? but Adam Lallana for England?. In all fairness, I don't think he's been a stand-out player so often this season, although he did turn in a top class performance on Sunday - and a goal, too. The real test for him will be our upcoming performances against " his rivals " for the position, when we play Man.Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea. Does he see himself ahead of a " declining " Lampard, Cleverley, Wilshere or Walcott...or will it be a case of filling a midfield vacuum if half-a dozen of Roy's favourites are injured at the same time.? Of course, we'd like to see him get a few caps, but it's unlikely at present... however, stranger things have happened and (as with Lambert) ...cometh the day, cometh the man.

and you see it regularly in other games too. The ref. -misses a penalty in the first half and looks for an excuse to correct it later on.

as quoted on another thread .... Poyet !...out of the frying pan into the ****.

Poyet eh ? ....out of the frying pan and into the ****.

....and recalling the circumstances in 2009, when we were almost forced to give away Dyer, he (Fox) was up against a good winger. IF Swansea had won, then Dyer would likely have been MOM.

so will I. My generation is still haunted by the very mention of Tomaszewski in 1974

.....sounds a bit reminicent of Alan Ball's time at Saints. After he finally stopped playing, Ballie left the area to coach / manage... a number of " far-flung clubs " but retained his property in the county. He finally put it on the market but it took over 2 years to find a buyer. Two weeks later, Saints sacked Ian Branfoot and offered him the managers job !