david in sweden

Perhaps , he's been on holiday. After 9 months of concentrated football, he's surely taken some sort of break. And I'm sure that he hasn't totaly ignored the World Cup. Perhaps , he's going to bid for that young Muller lad from Germany...and the boy Messi had a terrible tournament ...maybe his career needs a kick-start in L1.? In truth DLT, I'm sure he hasn't forgotten his " duties" but neither he or NC strike me as the sort of people who advertise who they are bidding for, or looking at until the ink is dry on the contract. Any club who thinks that SFC are intersted in a player will quickly stick a £1million price tag on him. Be patient, I think that we may have 2 maybe 3 signings and at least ONE will be a real surprise to EVERYONE ..

sounds logical but not so long ago we had SIX INJURED central defenders....Allowing for the fact that defenders get per sé more bookings than the average player, I don't want to think that we might have 2-3 injuries and a suspensions or two, all at the same time.

yeah, yeah ..but WHICH Friday ?

...as England took only 23 players to S.A. I tried to figure what positions/players set-up was most desireable to provide good cover in a squad. I came up with : 3 Goalies, 4 full backs, 5 central defenders, 6 midfielders and 5 strikers. (roughly same as England.) Then comparing with Saints " established first team and most likely replacements I came up with; 3 goalies ; Davis, Bart and Forecast. 3 full backs; Harding, Dickson and Mills 4 central def; Jahdi, Fonte, Seabourne and A Martin. 5 midfielders; Punch, Hammond, Schneiderlin, Wotton and Holmes. 3 strikers; Lambert, Lallana, Barnard This leaves us 5 short of the 23....so what's missing in the squad. Goalies : No problem and we even have Pernecky as a fourth string choice. At least ONE full back. If no-one comes and he gets back fit , AP will re-sign Murty. we have our four CD's but need at least one more. we have 5 midfielders . Several promising youngsters but with zero experience. We need ONE poss / two more. Only 3 strikers; Hopefully Connolly will sign on but need at least ONE good cover for Lambert in particular. Of course, we have more juniors but very few could stand-in for a prolonged period. So by this logic need. ONE full back, One central defender, another midfielder and at least one poss 2 strikers. Anyone agree ..or ??+

Do you think ...that we might take up that option ...?

patience, Alpine. It's only the first day of the transfer window. As I recall, the majority of signings take place in the last 2 weeks before the season starts. I suspect that most players are still on holiday until next week anyway. It's become obvious that NC doesn't feel he has to consult everyone before deals are made, and though you may find it annoying, I rather like the element of surprise and he must be a good poker player. Many fans seem to prefer the " ** the cat is on the roof " approach... rather than a surprise signing. ** doesn't make much sense unless you 've seen ...Capricorn One.

it will most likley be Murty - as long as he regains 100% fitness.

HWDAGJF..Colchester. He's scarcely better than L1/CCC standard anyway but thats OK. AP obviously doesn't see that "extra something " in his play. Good Luck Lloyd!

His goals conceded were no better than KD's average and he did look unsure at times. KD is still under35 - an pretty average age for good keepers. If he keeps up good form AND injury-free.....at least 2-3 seasons more.

No way! I don't see KD moving anywhere, he was outstanding last season. Bart is merely covering his options. He's played VERY few games in the last 2-3 seasons and no-one wants to sign an " under-employed" Polish goalkeeper. He's obviously happy with his deal at SFC and wants to stay...where else would he go ? besides he's a good stand-in if KD has injuries. Every season we need to jettison the " spare " keeper..(there's normally 4 or 5 on the books) and as there is always the U18 / youth keeper coming on. This year it was Michael Poke's turn to go. Those in the past stayed and stayed and still never made it to the first team as a regular ; Moss, Blayney, Bevan, Paul Smith remember him ? I don't think Green will move from W.Ham either. He's a competent keeper and with a decent defence would be even better. He's wasn't totally to blame for the USA result either...what happened to the 50 goal England strike force on that day.? Goalies : barring the unexpected...NO change.

that was North Korea's World Cup defenders. They were set-a-lite after their President sent them on a trip to outer space ! (well what do you expect on a quiet morning in the close season!)

....and my pet hate is when SWEDES refer to ANYONE from the UK (including Scots ) ..as..ENGLISH. No problem for me I was born in So'ton, but most peoples knowledge of Political Geograpy is ...terrible!

" someone " on the "old site" said he knew someone, who knew someone.. who was a ref. at the WC tournament and they (the refs.) had been " told " by FIFA , who the best teams were and how they (the refs.) should treat the " special " sides. For my part I've seen some pretty horrific fouls go unpunished whilst one or two refs. wield the red card for relatively minor offences in comparison. The general standard of " acting " would not impress Hollywood, though many deserve an Oscar for realism.

can't disagree with your basic thought, but in hindsight what would pour central defence (if you can call it that ) have been like without; Ferdinand ...and Terry ....and King ..? it was pathetic enough yesterday..goodness knows what it might have been like. Certainly Terry lost a lot more than the captaincy whenthat happened.

Not sure I understand ...Can you be a bit more forthright on that, Colin ?

He is still on record as the ONLY England right-winger to score a hat-trick in a Wembley international.... (Englald beat a fairly respectable N.I.side... 8-3 on the night (Nov 63).. TP scored a hat-trick and made FOUR of the other goals. That speaks reams for his quality...doesn't it ?

He was concussed early on in the first game and Ramsey was afraid to play him in the next... in case he hadn't recovered and so altered the line-up, when it worked OK... he stuck with it ..and the rest as they say is history.

More later.

agree with that bit. IF... the Prem.is regarded as the BITW then it's because of the foreign imports, not despite them. There are TOO many imports and it's a good job that Capello didn't have to choose 40.. (as was the case in the 60's/70's) cos he'd be looking at CCC keepers and second rate strikers..not that our Prem. trio covered themselves in glory either... and WHY didn't he use Peter Crouch against those giant defenders, we came up against? It was pathetic to continue with high balls into the area when, at one stage, we had two strikers (Defoe and Cole) who were barely 5'9". Pathetic. Sorry Fabio..put them all back in the box and start again before 2012.

Perhaps in retrospect THEO..it was a good tournament to miss out on. Lampards disallowed effort clearly affected morale at HT but without Lampard and Gerrard England has no midfield, and the once rock-like John Terry slipped up several times. Did we miss Ferdinand..probably but it wouldn't have made much difference. We need a new generation goalie..are you listening Joe? and a new team. Goodbye Becks, Owen, Heskey (thank God),nice while it lasted. While Rooney and Defoe were the top scorers in the Prem...but only managed one goal between them in four games. On the world stage, when playing second rate sides, England looked third rate. Capello is at fault for trying to impose "continental " (read Italian) style football on Prem League players. Algerian game was more embarrasing than yesterdays " blitz." IF Capello stays (the FA should pay him off) he must re-think dramatically. As for FIFA, their Board should re-sign in shame..espeically if the Lampard incident is repeated in the Final..! In future ..who needs referees ..the average fan behind the goal with a video camera could do a better job !

[/color] He wasn't available for selection when many of these were with Saints, and we generally played with TWO central defenders. Given the defenders we had in the period 1996-2006..who would you have played as second CH instead ?

to be fair, he did look like a tough midfielder ..in between the yellow cards and 10 match suspensions .. thanks but no thanks !

Terry Paine ..England right-winger ...and dog-catcher. Explanation: On a poorly-supported Dell evening game (mid 1960's) a loose dog got onto the pitch and the ref. eventually stopped play ...while 20 or so players took nearly two minutes trying to capture the animal. When the dog eventually came his way.. Terry tackled it " rugby-style " and returned it to its embarrased owner on the terraces... and got the biggest cheer of the night.

While I agree with you that Brian O'Neil was a player EVERYONE enjoyed watching (I certainly did) anyway, and worthy of consideration for the L title.Brian did not play for England (not while he was at Saints anyway) ..at any level ..and his barely 4 seasons (and 171 games) doesn't even get him in the top 40 of first team appearances for Saints...but his bad disciplinary record can matched only by.. Mark Hughes (in his brief stay) and David Prutton ..of whom too much has been written previously.

No player is " lucky enough " to play 400+ games (most in the Premiership) Only CL survived the " cull " of a dozen successive managers, and only Chris Baird (ignored by most in thst time) were still around afterwards. I fully endorse the praise of performance of those " more agressive " CH's mentioned but I think they might say that they performed well / and looked as good as they really were.. BECAUSE they played alongside Claus and not despite it.