david in sweden

well said " CHAPEL " I should think Rickie gets more " professional satisfaction " from his time wearing an England shirt than many of the " teenage millionaire brat pack " who come from the so-called " big clubs ".

well I'm sure he wouldn't have been the first to suffer that ......

Asked myself the same question when I saw that Mayuka had gone out on loan. Felt sure that Tadanari was on his way back to a Japanese club , but maybe .....he does have a future here still, even if it is on the bench at the moment.

also equalled (f.goalie) Thomas Ravelli's record of 143 caps (incl. tonight's game).

NO !.... remember it's Fratton Park that is his spiritual home.....(except when the name of Theo Walcott comes into the conversation) 'cos he claims to have discovered him .....

agree with that one. he was out for a year with a knee injury and the manager of the day ( Hoddle ? Strachan ? ) decided to only offer him a 1 year extension. He left instead. Bad decision with hindsight to later events.

agree totally Turkish. I think the answer to that one is ....that he's unlikely to get the nod from Mourinho and Chelsea are trying to re-coup some of the fee as they may never use him to start future games. I'm sure Pardew would like to have had him back, but the Geordie fans might not be so welcoming - after the manner of his departure.

Chambers is another lad who's been connected with the club since he was in junior school...as did Luke Shaw and JWP. He surely understands the squad system and tactics enough to be satisfied with his current " promotion " to the first team squad. ....even if he goes onto greater glory at some stage in the future, I doubt very much if he would ever consider a move unless Saints were relegated, or were going through a really bad period. The media prints "disatisfied " stories about any player who doesn't play two games in a row (example : recently about Jack Cork) but scare headlines don't mean anything except a waste of printers ink.

Typical isn't it. What planet are they living on?...we don't need their money and if they can spend £42 million on Ozil then I'd expect a darn sight more for Morgan, even though he isn't capped - yet.

Will Rickie be the only 6 foot+ striker fit enough to lead the line ...or will it be one of Woy's experimental strike formations with midgets who can run fast ??

whilst we are waiting for another new signing, give thought to some of those who won't be going anywhere. We still have players like Forte and Barnard on the books who have played very, very few games in the last year, and not likely to have clubs beating down the door to sign them. PLUS the fact that they are still under contract with salaries at a level too high for any L1/L2 side to afford, they are unlikely to be going anywhere...... until their contracts expire, and have even less chance of finding a club when they do finally leave.

whilst we are waiting for another new signing, give thought to some of those who won't be going anywhere. We still have players like Forte and Barnard on the books who have played very, very few games in the last year, and not likely to have clubs beating down the door to sign them. PLUS the fact that they are still under contract with salaries at a level too high for any L1/L2 side to afford, they are unlikely to be going anywhere...... until their contracts expire, and have even less chance of finding a club when they do finally leave.

yes of course he is, I mean another over 30 and he couldn't outscore our Rickie in the Prem. last season........

Amazing !..another non-story coming out of one of the " funny papers ". There was no response form either named club and MP said that there was no bid in for Jack Cork and that he was a member of the squad we didn't want to lose.

I think that was the case yesterday - wasn't it? The start eleven had no reported injuries to contend with. Shaw took a nasty kick last week (and was sensibly subbed at HT) but to make him play 90 mins. to prove whether " he is fully fit -or not " is hardly necessary we know his pedigree by now. He may have been " fit enough " , but fortunately Fox covered well for most of the game and held up well against some strong, at times ferocious tackling, and I don't think it was necessary to bring him on. Players only get match fit by playing games, and sometimes need to play their way in .......however being fit isn't always the key question. Alan Shearer was once quoted as saying ..." .there's a lot of difference between being...... match fit, and being...... fit enough to play " . At the start of a season, one might say that only those who had played a full pre-season and showed up well,and come through un-injured are properly match fit - such is not always the case.

if you've read the same reports I have........Clyne was injured throughout the pre-season whilst Chambers played the RB role with an exceptional amount of praise from many sources. If Clyne wasn't " 100% fit " and had little / no match practice... then Chambers proved he was a good choice. He did little wrong in the first two games to convince me he was a bad selection. (Last season we used Ward-Prowse at the start of the season in lieu of the absent Jack Cork, and he did better than some others around that time). I expect to see Clyne return in the near future, but IMHO it is no condemnation of Chambers who will deserve a bench place from now on. Clyne is older and more experienced but needs games too.

" Hand ball " in the area is not a blatant penalty, unless it's intentional. It's for the ref. to decide (in that split second) if it was ball to hand?---or hand to ball..or the player simply couldn't get out of the way. John Terry is a player who gets away with a lot in this respect, but for me, that's as bad as " diving ". Attacking players try to " win " penalties, by deliberately kicking the ball onto a defenders arm/ hand..and shouting handball. If the team is " well-rehearsed " they get the decision - even if the ref. is unsighted. There were three "shouts " for handball yesterday, but I really think we were " robbed " with ours - and the TV replay looked even more convincing. You can't blame an official for a genuine error, but that was bad and the offside decision against Rickie Lambert.... was clearly wrong.

Many clubs may not have the options we have. I should think there is a lot of competition at SMS just to get a place on the bench, let alone be one of the starting 11. I think a lot of fans have the mentality that " anyone who doesn't start and sits on the bench is second best", when in fact many substituitions are either tactical , or to help players conserve fitness/ energy. Most subbing follows a basic pattern. Aside from injuries, midfielders are first to be changed out, they cover more ground than most other positions, and need not wear themselves out for no reason. Lallana is first choice (at present) and certainly puts in his share (as does Schneiderlin), but I'm not unhappy seeing Steve Davis or Ramirez come on, and it's to Lallana's credit that he can keep a £12 million signing out of the side. If a striker isn't scoring then you have to try an alternative, but I 'm not going to pre-judge Osvaldo (despite his fee) but I'm happy seeing Jay Rod up front, too. Likewise, if you are winning, or comfortably in control, it's a good time to introduce a set of fresh legs for those who have battled throughout the game, and give the sub. a feel of the game and a little encouragement for the future. The introduction of a sub.in the 90th minute is accepted as a "legitimate ", if rather annoying tactic - to use up some of the remaining time when you want to hold on to a result. When I started watching football 50-plus years ago ....the 11 you started with was all you were allowed to use (rule changed in 1966).....and then the ONE sub.was only allowed in cases of " serious injury " I've watched games where teams were " unfairly " reduced to 10 men through injury, (and in one Saints' game in the mid 1960's ---down to 9 men). Where players who'd taken a bad knock were left to hobble out the game out on the left wing, and even goalkeepers carried from the pitch to be replaced by an outfield player with little or no experience of playing between the posts. It added unnecessary tension to the game, does nothing to improve the fairness of a result and the players who suffered injuries often made it much worse by being forced to continue. Using substitutes wisely can be a worthwhile tactic in the modern game. In Saints' promotion season from the Championship, ELEVEN players scored goals after they came on as sub.. It would be nice to think one could win a game comfortably and play out 90 minutes with the same start 11, but it's unnecessary nowadays.

I won't be as direct as some of the others who have posted a reply, Hedgehog BUT there is really no trend at the start of the season, unless you think Man.U may lose a couple of games before Christmas, and sack Moyes:lol: maybe Everton will regret Martinez' appointment, look where they are in the table .....and by the same measure......surely Swansea may consider sacking Laudrup ?? I've been watching football (and Saints in particular) for over 50 years , and despite some of the catastrophic starts we've had, we still ended up in comparative safety. For my part I never take a serious look at the league tables until after match 6-7, and even then there's never any degree of certainty about anything. Most people agree we have started well - even if we have suffered from some very poor refereeing decisions at key moments. I could see MP was upset at yesterdays result, and I'm sure he wasn't alone in that. My best advice to you : try another pub - the conversation level may be more sensible.

so glad for him. After the end of his loan deal to Brighton ....was beginning to think he was going to be left in limbo. well done Dean - good luck

HI Bender,you may have missed it but ... this is about the 5th ...or 6th thread on this subject.....so to put the matter to bed. YES he does speak English (at a sort of lower-intermediate level) .and not " perfect English " as claimed recently by Chris Kamara (who is not the ideal person to make a judgement about good English) As far as the numerous reports from other posters have shown: YES.... he speaks to the players in English during training (but occasionally has his translator on hand to clarify words). He chooses to use a translator for media interviews as he is aware of his linguistic shortcomings and (probably) doesn't want to be caught out by stupid / controversial / idiotic journos ......asking stupid /controversial /idiotic questions. Judging by his body language.... I guess he's getting used to all manner of English dialects, but sensibly uses the time in-between questions and translation to formulate his answer in his own language. This is a good PR technique and statesman and diplomats use it all the time in public (even if they can understand the other language). IN SHORT : he doesn't want to embarrass hmself or the club by giving a stupid answer to a stupid question.

Perez is essentially MP's assistant, and as the team we put out was pretty much our " reserve strength " then perhaps he was an obvious person to run the show, and MP could assess them objectively without having to think about changes, tactics, etc. Just about everyone out there last night was " second-choice " in the current scene, so they may not have just been playing for a place on the bench, but something more important - their future with SFC.

Seems as though both Isgrove and Mayuka have a bit of pace and can exploit wider positionsbetter, but few strikers look good against lofty defenders when they are only one-man up.

.....and looking at the birthdates of some of the others, and the games he's played......he surely is .....a veteran.