WindsorSaint

From Waterloo (if you have time) I would get the River Bus from the London Eye to Canary Wharf and then get the Tube back.

Where are you starting? Is train to Waterloo, then Tube or River Bus an option?

This!

Skates play in blue Which rhymes with Baloo Poems are hard Toast

Now I have to google Philistine...

http://news.sky.com/story/1047582/reg-presley-the-troggs-singer-dies

Or only allow the old and wise to vote?

So Le Tiss wouldn't get a look in!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21114372 Luke Shaw in Garth Crooks Team of the Week. LEFT-BACK - LUKE SHAW (SOUTHAMPTON) We've had Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, now Luke Shaw looks like he's the latest youngster fresh off the Southampton production line who is destined for great things. All credit to the Saints youth development team for producing such excellent English talent. As far as this weekend goes, the race for my team of the week was between between Luke Shaw, Leighton Baines and Ashley Cole - and Shaw gets the nod. Did you know? Southampton have lost only two of the 12 Premier League games Shaw has started, compared to eight of the 10 he hasn't.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21123532

Bingo-master

http://www.itsbeautifuloutside.co.uk/blog/files/why-was-Nigel-Adkins-sacked.html

Undeterred, Adkins against went with 4-4-2 in the next game against West Brom at The Hawthorns. “It’s not about formations,” he told the media “it’s about getting the better players on the ball”. His team were comprehensively outplayed in a 2-0 defeat, and what were referred to as “crisis talks” with Cortese followed. Having survived that meeting, Adkins reverted to 4-2-3-1 and the team embarked on a good run, beating QPR and Newcastle and having the better of draws against Swansea and Norwich. Marquee signing Gaston Ramirez became increasingly influential, playing behind Lambert in the “number ten” position. After a 1-0 defeat at Anfield though (incidentally the only defeat the team have suffered thus far this season when playing Ramirez through the middle of a 4-2-3-1), Adkins went back to 4-4-2. This brought a win over a wretched Reading (who also played 4-4-2), but also an insipid defeat against Sunderland. Suddenly Ramirez - comfortably the club’s record signing - was being deployed on the left wing and becoming peripheral. Even a return to 4-2-3-1 at Fulham on Boxing Day didn’t see Ramirez return to the middle of the pitch until the second half. Steven Davis - a neat and tidy box-to-box midfielder - surprisingly started as the ten. Cortese spent weeks agreeing the deal for Ramirez, which was considered a huge coup for Southampton. He cannot have been happy to see his crown jewel marginalised. Another, less expensive signing was that of Zambian forward Emmanuel Mayuka. Mayuka was recently (perhaps spuriously) voted the world’s 85th best player in a newspaper poll, but has hardly played since arriving from Swiss side Young Boys. Taking the above into account, it seems obvious that there has been a disconnect between board and first team manager. Whether it is right or wrong that the board should influence selection and tactics, the model that Southampton have adopted involves continuity of tactics and style of play. Adkins is far from a long-ball merchant but he has been willing to abandon short passing when he has deemed it necessary to do so. The recent fixture at Stoke saw the Saints have less possession than a Stoke team that finished the game with ten men, as they adopted a more direct approach, presumably in an attempt to fight fire with fire. Even if this had been successful though (the match finished 3-3 as Saints squandered a two goal lead), it is inconsistent with the stated aims of the club as a whole. If Adkins - who, in the Southampton’s continental structure was merely a middle-manager - was defying the board and flying in the face of “The Southampton Way”, his employers probably regarded him as insubordinate. Whether this mode of operation is right or wrong, Adkins was surely on borrowed time the moment he deviated from the script. Cortese cannot come out and say that he wants all the teams at to play the same way - even if the model is Barcelona, he does not have the credibility of Cruyff, and would face ridicule from the football establishment. In the conservative world of English football, board interference in team matters is deemed a cardinal sin, even if Southampton’s grand plan is based on extensive research conducted by a “football man” in Reed. “The Southampton Way” is really little different to Swansea City’s “different route” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/jan/08/swansea-city-different-route-league-cup)- yet the ruthlessness with which Cortese has disposed of a manager unable or unwilling to fully buy into an ambitious philosophy has become the story. A good man has lost his job, which is always sad - tremendously so when he is synonymous with some of the club’s happiest memories. The recollection of Adkins’ quiet dignity when addressing the media while those ecstatic scenes unfolded on the St. Mary’s turf still sets the nerve endings tingling. “I’d just like to go and thank my players, if I may” he told Dan Walker, politely concluding an interview. The poignant note left in the dressing room following his dismissal was typical of the man. “Keep smiling”, it said. Whether there were tactical shortcomings or not, Adkins’ relentless positivity unquestionably helped drag the club out of the wilderness. He will be missed. Sadly though, football is brutal, and contrary to popular belief, it always has been. “Observe and replace” was Peter Taylor’s chilling motto during his and Brian Clough’s glory years. This applies to managers, not just players. As well as the likely differences of opinion regarding tactics, it also seems likely that the Southampton directors believe the squad was underachieving with Adkins at the helm. They will have looked at the success of Swansea and wondered - in light of a hefty outlay on transfers - why they are not enjoying similar success. Adkins’ sacking was callous, cold-hearted and poorly-timed. It was also inevitable. shirlymush - 19th January 2013

Why was Nigel Adkins sacked? 20/01/13 09:34 Filed in: Club After Friday's events it has taken a while to get any sort of perspective on what actually has happened at Southampton Football Club and what it might mean. One of the regular posters on the IBO Forums, shirleymush has felt that the only way he could make sense of it all was to sit down and write an article about it. After reading it I realised that it mirrored my thoughts about the whole episode. So, here it is : The reaction to Nigel Adkins being replaced as Southampton manager has been such that the phrase “widespread disbelief” has almost become a cliché. However, while the suggestion that a Napoleonic chairman has fired a good man out of spite might be a good story, a careful look at the situation suggests that a change was inevitable. Because of the way Southampton Football Club is run - dealings with the media are kept to a minimum - the following will necessarily contain speculation, albeit speculation that is no less credible than that of the local and national papers. The fact is, no one except Nicola Cortese, Les Reed, Adkins himself and possibly the Liebherr family, on behalf of whom Cortese runs the club, know exactly what has happened to bring this about. Make no mistake though - it has been on the cards for some time. Even in the euphoric aftermath of Saints’ return to the Premier League, Adkins talked about an eventual “parting of the ways” in a strange interview after the promotion-clinching win over Coventry at a delirious St. Mary’s. “I just hope it’s handled in the right way”, was what Adkins said at the time. Sadly, few would argue that this has been the case. The club find themselves in the midst of a public relations disaster, the football world at large hoping that the decision backfires and results in an instant return to the Championship. By way of explanation, only a vague and mealy-mouthed press release has been forthcoming. Yet by reading between the lines of the club statement, it is possible to gain some insight into what had become an unsustainable relationship. “Mauricio is a well-respected coach of substantial quality who has gained a reputation as an astute tactician and excellent man manager. I have every confidence that he will inspire our talented squad of players to perform at the highest possible level. “He also shares my belief that the most successful clubs are built by nurturing young players through a development system that provides a clear path to the First Team, thereby creating a culture that keeps them at the Club for the long term. This is an approach he has employed with great success in the past and I look forward to him bringing that experience and expertise to Southampton.” The key phrases are “astute tactician” and “clear path to the First Team”. In an otherwise banal talk at a coaching forum, Saints’ Head of Football Development and Support made some interesting comments about what the club refer to as “The Pathway” ( ); while players are taught a variety of styles of play, all the academy teams are expected to play variants of a 4-3-3 formation. This has been the case since before Reed’s time at the club - a legacy of French coaching guru Georges Prost’s spell at the club. In the excellent Soccernomics, Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski discuss the way Lyon went from provincial also-rans to European powerhouse thanks to a transfer strategy predicated on signing young players by committee, and how Barcelona have managed to minimise risky transfers by bringing players through from their youth teams. Part of heir policy all the teams - from academy to first team - using roughly the same system in order to facilitate young players who understand the formation and their role within it to progressing smoothly from the age group teams to the first team. According to Graham Hunter in Barcelona- The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, this is was one of the first things Johan Cruyff insisted upon when he took over the management of the first team. All the coaches at the club have regularly referred to “The Southampton Way”. This seems to entail a high pressing, short passing approach. “The model is Barcelona, who have home-grown players and success”, Reed has confirmed. Adkins also spoke often of “the Southampton Way”, yet he had guided the club to successive promotions largely using a 4-4-2 formation. His favoured variant was a 4-4-2 diamond formation (which many fans were suspicious of). A brief flirtation with 4-2-3-1 around Christmas 2011 ended when the striker Billy Sharp was signed from Doncaster Rovers and paired with Rickie Lambert. Although the talismanic Lambert was occasionally used in a slightly deeper role thereafter, it was 4-4-2 that was Adkins’ default tactic, and it was to 4-4-2 that he returned after a chastening 4-1 defeat to West Ham at Upton Park. The Saints had enjoyed the better of the first half without really threatening, and after the match Adkins was asked by local radio whether he had considered a switch to 4-4-2, amid strong rumours that the manager was being told which players to pick and how the team should be set up (Lambert had surprisingly been missing from the starting XI). “We’re gonna play 4-3-3” Adkins repeated several times in response, almost as though reciting a mantra. Then came “The Man in the Glass”. In a slightly surreal press conference in the lead-up to the following game, at home to Tottenham, Adkins recited - in its entirety - The Guy In The Glass, a Dale Wimbrow poem which emphasises the importance of being “true to yourself”. Saints lined up in a 4-4-2 against Tottenham - and chased shadows until a switch to 4-2-3-1 in the second half. By that point, they were already 2-0 down.

This

Waitrose admit to traces of unicorn being found in their burgers...

"Two Nil and you f*cked it up"

And now Blockbuster... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21047652 That'll save me the job of returning the overdue videos...

Chelsea have 11 players more likely to score the first goal than us on odds checker! http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/chelsea-v-southampton/first-goalscorer I will be having a few pounds on an upset!! WG

Being racist to white South Africans?!!!

Saw OMD in around 1978. They didn't even come on the stage, just 2 big tape decks.

The Clash

The Country Bumpkin?

Try goose instead of turkey - cooks itself (i.e. you don't have to baste it every half an hour!)...

Glad I wasn't the only one to go back a re-read page 1!