david in sweden

clubs, or do we mean....teams?. Sometimes it's because of the managers and players, but that is all transitional as they come and go quite often. Going back a few decades...it used to be Leeds and Tottenham, " lucky " Arsenal ....and of course, United (for many reasons). For the most part, I don't use " hate " rather call it .....teams " I love to beat ". However, it was often because of the ownership of a club, rather than controversial players. I genuinely feel sorry for fans whose clubs has been butchered, or asset-stripped by speculators ....or idiot millionaires, with more money than sense. Today it's....West Ham (a bit) and still Tottenham. Pompey?.... I've always been " numb " to the subject, but I suppose most of all, now it's pity, not really hate. Life will be tough ...in the Conference next season.

I mean ...what fan doesn't want his team to succeed? oh wait a minute ..there was a group of this site who thought we ought to slum it out in the Championship for a season or two, after we got our promotion from L1 ..but in general I think most of us (think / hope) for a top half finish, and that depends a lot of our luck and the performances of last season's top six. I'm not sold of the idea of Manchester dominance - both have new managers now and might not settle so well. Arsenal always seem there ..otr thereabouts but not quite good enough... so my money would be on Chelsea for the title. Spurs (having sold Bale - as they inevitably will) may become the mid-table mediochrity we all hope for ....and I'd love to see Fulham finish above them. As for Europe. We'll let's trust in MP's style of play, and "hawk-eye" and a few slip-ups from those teams who formerly thought of themselves as " big clubs ". Who knows, a couple of seasons of gradual improvement from a fast-improving side with an average age still under 25 - it might just be.

but of course, and Lovren will take the place of .....a Portuguese...a Dutchman .....or a Japanese. Difficult to argue that one - especially as the best CB pair we've had in the last 10 years was a Swede and a Norwegian ! English CB's ?.....looking at the options that Roy Hodgson turns up with, I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to choose one of them.

agree with you . A good run-out, and either side might have got a goal to win it. However, you're point is well taken as no-one else except RL - would have been in line to take a one-off pen. in a League situation. Draw up a random list of 5 tired players to take a penalty in a " real " game - and you'd see the same result. Just the problem that England have had for the last 20 years. Choose your best players for each position and they maybe OK, but they have probably never taken a penalty for their club side in a Prem. game. That's down to the " specialist penalty-taker " in their side, and in many clubs - it's not even an English player. we had MLT, and others before him and now it's Rickie, but where is the next marksman who'll get such a record? No-one else gets a chance.

......but it's wrong for (some) fans to denegrate players because of that. They were bought in by someone else and if the guy tries his very best - and it's not good enough - so be it . They'll probably do well - at another club .....or in another league.

and I thought he kept saying ...." Walter Bruce "

As a young fan inthe early 1960's, I watched several Saints' games when goalies were injured and an outfielder had to take the green jersey. This was the time pre-1966, subs. were not allowed, and can recall the likes of Terry Paine, David Webb and Jimmy Gabriel all taking thie turn ..not forgetting Cliff Huxford who kept goal in a remarkable Div.2 game v Derby County at The Dell when the Saints played out the second half with only 9 men ...and still won 6-4. Even after that - if a goalie had to leave the field, we still had to find a suitable replacement from those on the field and it took quite a few more seasons before before the increased number of subs. on the bench allowed us to sub. a goalie for a goalie. Not so long ago, we can remember Paul Jines keeping a clean sheet in the FA CUp Final - yet ironically only collecting a losers medal (Niemi had conceded before he had to go off injured. However, quite a few fans have, at various times, " praised " Blackstock's short "sojourn " as a goalkeeper but although he ws "courageous / stupid " enough to volunteer to go in goal-- honestly speaking, it was the most terrifying time I've had watching a Saints game in decades. Although he made a couple of saves, his handling (or lack of it) was appauling IMHO. Nothing against the lad , he was quite a useful striker in his time, but never a goalie.

I agree with that totally. Trouble is you never see how a goalie develops unless he's in first team action against top strikers. But Gazza may come good - in a year or two. Who recalls Tim Flowers...? who had his debut whilst Peter Shilton was still our no.1 keeper...and let in 11 goals in his first three apps. Even after PS left he didn't get a real go and had to wait his chance behind Burridge for another two seasons before getting the green jersey. Mind you after that he was first choice for 4 seasons - and gained England honours before joining Shearer at Blackburn. Sorry to all those Gazza fans, but I wasn't convinced last season, but in the future - who knows?. Meanwhile, YES I'd like another top keeper this season, just so that we have a choice in case of an emergency ...and as for Bart, well if he ends up as a Prem. keeper then he'll have proved a point, but he had chances whilst he was here, and like Gazza his inexperience showed.

Steve signed a 3 year contract with FC Utrecht yesterday. Not one of our most memorable signings, but at least he " had a go " - better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.

well yes, Glasgow, I do keep an eye on the Swedish football scene...after a fashion, ...but to be honest, much of the bottom end of Allsvenskan (Prem.)and Superettan (NPC) is little better than L1......or worse. Still ....with lovely summer weather most games are a pleasant diversion / distraction........ However, we should be careful, one contributor recently criticised the idea that we discuss clubs in the South and West:rule1:

my reaction to that post was the same. Just because we signed two young Academy players ....it's as if they don't count, because they didn't cost £12 million a piece. Think back to August 2012 when.. Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse hadn't played a Premier League game, either............

Mmmmmmmm. Mayuka has a number, but Tadanari Lee doesn't.

He joins Jonathan Forte and Tadanari Lee in the list of players who will be recalled as " having scored in one memorable game ", but did little else of consequence. ....but good luck anyway, Steve.

considering " the Media" is so good at "manufacturing " transfer deals with little substance; suddenly a number of them are on a campaign for Bale NOT to leave Tottenham. They are expecting him to play another season with a club that hasn't won the League title for over 40 year, and any sort of trophy in the last 20 (!) ...and who are almost a one-man band (him), to forget playing in Europe for ANOTHER season, and to be " patriotic ", close his eyes and think of England (sorry Wales). Do they really expect him to stay in little England and continue being the only star at White Hart Lane?. Total bull ****. He's one of the best players in Europe, he deserves to play for one of the best clubs in Europe. If he make a fortune out of this deal - good luck to him....and just give us our £2 mill. it should have been MUCH, MUCH more.

....but of course, he was a Saints junior for some time before that, too .......

one might assume..... that the Bale deal is a separate deal to any potential part-exchange. They aresurely two separate business agreements. I can't see how Morata being required to put his signature on a contract for Bale's transfer. At present.. they both have different employers, and different terms of employment. I'd say it was more likely to be 5% of (Bale's) cash valuation.

AND to be fair, he'd never played in Chelsea's first team and had spent most of his League career out on loan to lower league sides.

Agree totally, there is no shame in being a good player in L1..or even Championship. We happen to be lucky enough to have a few players in the squad, who made the transition to the Prem. and kept a good standard. Lambert, Lallana, Schneiderlin and Puncheon are good examples, though perhaps Kelvin Davis and Jose Fonte have been a bit less consistent. The likes of Hammond, Harding, Richardson, Chaplow - yes and even Fox...all made valuable contributions to our rise back upto the Prem, and it's unkind to criticise those who fell by the wayside and (sadly) didn't make the grade at the highest level. It's no fault of theirs - if their best - wasn't good enough. When we were in lower divisions and they were signed on 3 and 4 year contracts, I think there were VERY few people who thought we'd make the way back quite so quickly.

yes very nice comments. ..and might not be the last mention from NBC either, if Cody Cropper makes the USA senior squad,(though he's not an Academy product of course) The sad thing is that it won't be long before some pedant on this site negatively points out that Shearer, MLT and Bridge weren't actually "Academy" products either. However, the truth of the matter is that successive managers have always used our good youth players - even back to the time that Ted Bates introduced the teenage Terry Paine and John Sydenham to the great Youth sides that fought out some epic FA Youth Cup games against their Man.Utd counterparts in the late 1950's. Even 30 years ago, bringing in young players was seen as a bit daring especially introducing a 20 year-old into a side, when if that team's average age was nearer 30. Bringing on youngsters is always nice for fans - especially if the player is "a local lad ". Lawrie McMenemy had the good fortune to have players like Woolston-born Nick Holmes (who clocked up 500+ games between 1974-1987), and Bobby Stokes (though from Pompey) was good enough to pop-up with the FA Cup winning goal in 1976. L.Mac had the good fortune to have; Steve Williams, Graham Baker, and later Steve Moran and "blooded" a host of young talents (Andruszewski, Waldron, Hebberd,) from the youth set-up. At that time, Football became more high profile and some lads could even get a YTS job as a trainee, when most were already leaving school at 16. Chris Nicholl had; MLT, Shearer, Maddison and the Wallace twins in his line-ups (though much of the credit for their development must go to Dave Merrington's long spell as Youth team coach). After the departure of Ian Branfoot, life in the (new) Premier League became even harder and we only survived thanks to MLT's regular goal tally, and youngsters were much rarer, and only players like Nicky Banger had regular chances although he turned in some epic games (as Saints' super sub.) Wayne Bridge was the first to be connected with the Academy brand that Rupert Lowe had mentioned some years earlier, but hadn't come into being as such. Today's Academy "pupils " are given a good education, at the same time as they are coached in the game, and we all look forward to a time when our home-grown products can line up alongside the foreign international " stars " who NC / MP seem to be seeking at present. More of the same please.

..they'll be on the bench, I expect, and come on after HT. Remember the war cry " it's a squad game ".

Of course, that's correct Phil, ...and if we are talking about a " World game ", then players will need to adjust, just as they did when the World Cup was played in Mexico at several thousand feet. I just hope the heat in Qatar doesn't kill anyone, even if they do have purpose-built arenas.

I know what you mean , but I've worked for 50 years and seldom found holidays " relaxing ", though some were memorable in different ways. The real problem is the amount of travel, not to mention the jet-lag afterwards. How often does your employer ask you to go and work in Tokio or Montevideo? Some people enjoy travelling all over the World, others may loath it. The amount of money they're on shouldn't really affect the way they play. Does someone who gets 50K /week play twice as well as he did when he was ONLY on 25K ..if so I'll certainly enjoy watching Gareth Bale playing for Real. Playing top level football demands a combination of physical and mental perfection - though playing against inferior opposition also helps.

fairly good assessment, I think. Good luck Drew.

HAHA.....Mae West would sue you ....if she were still alive!

......except that I understand that the SMS pitch is wet every game, as the ground staff water the pitch before kick-off.