david in sweden

I can't speak for the rest, but the Swedish season has only just started.and the Prem.has only a handful of games left in this one....... The Swedes only play 30 games in their top league, so it's not a fair comparison...unless they have a % figure of the ard count from last season .....or maybe only it's only the big 5 countries are reckoned in this Fair Play competition..? Anyone now the rules for that one ?

not exactly the fair play question, but out of interest.... ..... with the FA Cup Semis being played this weekend whoever of Chelsea / Man.City should be able to take care of Wigan /Millwall..... In the past if the Cup winners qualify for CL..... then the losers get their place in the Euro competition, instead. HOWEVER....if both Man C. and Chelsea qualify for CL......would either of the other two be allowed to take the Cup Winners place in Europe?...sounds a bit unlikely..... any of you barrack-room lawyers out there with a UEFA rule book to hand know the answer to that one ?

I'm sure there are people who agree with your opening sentence Colin, but better mid table " obscurity " than a relegation disaster. Let's look at these remaining games as practice matches....... before next season's onslaught on a Euro place.

if he's seen the goal replayed a few times, as many of us have, he'll see that JayRod gets ball-contact before the goalie gets to him. He was very slow off the mark. and as for Le Fondre...if he doesn't want to comment about the goal that he may have scored with his hand....or the one he scored even though he was offside.then he should keep quiet.

.but that was a long time ago. One might argue his career peaked when he left MLT out of his WC squad...and exited the England job soon after. His time with Saints was timely, and necessary ...in consideration of the DJ scandal, but it was clear where his heart lay...and I consider his departure to be scandalous and his eventual fate well-deserved.

....and several of the players they did buy in were former Saints' ....Higgie, Crouch, Delap and Beattie...and there was not much possibility of re-sale for any of those guys.....money they'll ever see again.

...although if Chelsea keep firing all the best managers around , Abrahamovitch might get bored with them - and sell.......alternatively if Bale leaves Sp*ds they will look a quite ordínary side in a year or two....

he didn't look terribly impressive up until that goal, though....

I would have thought there was discussion about a possible expansion at the time the stadium was built, there surely must be an architects drawing lying around somewhere with such proposals, I can't believe that it would take a lot of time /work to update it.... for all we know, NC may already have a copy in his desk drawer.

Ouch !...now thats the £12 million question - isn't it ?

..anyone remember what he predicted for Man.City (h) game ?

...but he was really hot for QPR ..don't you think ? He's got them 7th !

OK ...we'll wait two years then ....

..there is room for a little humour in football....remember we had Bruce Grobbelaar around 15 years ago...not amongst the world's greatest by the time we got him, but there was never a dull moment.

IMHO ..NA's mistake was persisting with too many of the players who started ...where he did ....in L1. Regardless of the very tough start programme we had, many of them weren't up to scratch. I agree NC must have been (pleasantly shocked) to get back-to-back promotions, and for his part NA was like a kid in a sweet shop, but he didn't have the nous to get in the right sort of players last summer. Moving up to the Prem. isn't the same as going up one division.....it's a huge jump into the unknown, and on average 2 of every 3 promotd sides go down again within 2 seasons. NC must have been upset that NA didn't utilise the summer signings in the correct way (using Jay Rod as LW) ignoring Steve Davis for almost half a season, playing Gazzaniga in goal (worse than KD)...and not trying Mayuka at all. As for Pochettino......We'll see next season haow he does, but most of us have very little knowledge about him ...but he did seem very "pally" with Rafa last week, and quotes Mourinho as his role model. If he can achieve even one quarter of what they did....he'll be a great acquisition. We talk about " hungry " players....to me, he looks like a hungry manager.

.....you mean securing a good League spot.. by signing all those former Saints stars from 7 years ago ? Most of them have left the Stoke club now and they are finding their true level.

Not CL ..but perhaps some sort of Euro involvement for our " Fair Play " stats. Don't know how it stands at present... but we have good figures around Christmas time....

I don't know who's counting, but I fancied us to finish above West Ham, and I'll be pleased if we do that. I recall an interview with " Big Sam " after they beat us 4-1 (a very over-rated result).and there was no-one more shocked than he. All he could talk about was the tough games upcoming for WHam. They're not as good as they brag. A good win next weekend would give me great satisfaction ....as would a win over Sp*ds....Hopefully.. if Bale does not play, we'll see if they are just a " one-trick pony ".

I think 2 or 3 before next season...first one ..May 29th ???.. or ....?

if it's goals That England want then Jay Rod is just as good as Defoe or Welbeck........

if we're shouting " Lambert for England "...then how far has Jay Rod come ?......

.he (NC) might well have been thinking that at that time, he just waited 6 months to actually do it ......except that we wouldn't have got Pochettino then.....he was still at Espanyol

I heard him on the Sky site....it sounded like his standard output from last Autumn ........".take out the positives, move on to the next game etc, etc, "

whn I hear MLT giving the" Cortese chant " - I'll really believe it ....

don't worry Dalek..you've got a long way to go before you're as bad as Lawro