JackanorySFC

Always cracks me up when people say "he wouldn't get those goals without Iniesta, Xavi etc". Of course he wouldn't they are brilliant and he acknowledges them at every opportunity as he has a bit of class about him. However, anyone that actually understands football see's his assists and general impact on each game, as Turkish says he's not even an out an out striker. His scoring record is beyond phenomenal - and he does it at every level, even scoring a header in the European Cup Final against Man U - he's 5ft 6 ffs! We are lucky to be living through a time with him playing, outrageous talent and he's still only 25. Will never play for a Chelsea or Citeh, he'll stay at Barca for life. They showed huge faith in him at an early age and he will stay there for life imo. Doesn't seem to be motivated by money and plays the game with a smile on his face. I hope he can dominate a World Cup to shut up the last flat earthers (could it do it on a cold February night in Stoke ffs) that don't recognise him as the best player in the world.

Afraid not, unfortunately News Int/ Corp aren't all powerful. The fact people think so massively overestimates their power/ reach. If they were to engineer whatever it is you are suggesting there are some incredibly talented jounos at the Guardian, DT, Indy (not to mention the BBC) etc that would absolutely love to expose such manipulation and wouldn't hesitate to do so. There are also plenty of whistleblowers now at NI that don't want a repeat of the NotW scandal - trust me it hurt at the time. We are lucky enough to have more national newspapers per capita than any other nation on earth, we have a thirst for news and people have a choice, they can buy what they want. I wouldn't worry too much about them, I worked there for 9 years and didn't see a single ritual sacrifice in that time at all....

Bit out of order having a go at Cov as a City. I personally always see them as a bit of a "twin City" due to them getting ***tted by the Luftwaffe just as we did and losing their old period buildings and having the replace them with pre fab rubbish, (again) just as we did, all the while London was getting the headlines whilst Spitfire making targets like us took a pasting. Those in glass houses eh.... Southampton is essentially a City of council estates with Bitterne Park, Hightown, Bassett and, err, let me think... Regents Park (aka "upper Shirley") dotted in between, all surrounding some amazing parks but a shell of a City Centre in terms of what it looked like before Hermann Goring sent his mob over in November/ December 1940. Anyone with family members that lived through that should respect our Coventry counterparts. Rather that than some modern day roundabout hell hole like Milton Keynes ffs, at least Cov has soul.

To be fair when you see the Kop's reaction to that goal (think it was Mark Wright's head he flicked it over twice) you have to take your hat off, scousers generally know and appreciate decent football. Agree with SM that you'll be unlikely to see that sort of thing these days, probably just a load of scallys giving Wright abuse for not closing/ chopping Matty down or something. Just the way football grounds have gone imo.

Lights went up yesterday, looks brilliant, havn't seen a better looking Village/ town in the area in terms of lights etc? To be fair the local committee are quality at that sort of thing, the Jubilee celebrations were amazing - more Union Flags than you can shake a stick at. The local Fire Brigade do a lot to help out/ circumvent health and safety etc when it comes to putting things up. I'll be in the Brewery Bar for most of December now I reckon... Up the Botley!

Having worked for the Sun I can assure you that is complete b*****s. Every rumour has been supplied by a source (mostly agents, but surprisingly often the PR manager of a club, ie Sibley, the player or the players parents) and is double checked. Your impression of a bunch of blokes making stuff up for a laugh is miles away from the truth, would be interesting for people with clearly no understanding of how a sports desk works to spend some time with the genuinely talented (and incredibly well connected) scribes at a national. I remember Cortese in the office sucking up to Mike Dunn (Sun sports editor) over the "South Coast Club" thing! Having worked on the Times too whilst the main editorial are obviouely very different, the sports desks are incredibly competitive and of similar quality (columnists a different matter, The Times beasts any other national IMO with Slot, Dickenson, Marcotti etc). By the way, I'm actually a huge fan of how our club seems water tight in terms of leaks, and the fact Cortese was doing what he thought was best at the time for SFC. Also I rarely read the Sun now I don't work there as the front half of the paper is admittedly full of rubbish about X Factor, I'm a celeb etc. Actually only buy it for the sport on a Monday. Just always amuses me that every time there is a newspaper rumour someone doesn;t like, they resort to the pathetic "well it's in the Sun/ Mirror/ Mail so it won't be true" etc etc.

Just wondering what you mean, unless I've missed something obvious new legislation means all agents fees have to be declared by law. Both clubs have to agree on every transfer what the fees are, I've checked this with an Agent I know (no prem players but a few in lower leagues where rules are the same) and that is 100% the case?

Just wondering what you mean, unless I've missed something obvious new legislation means all agents fees have to be declared by law. Both clubs have to agree on every transfer what the fees are, I've checked this with an Agent I know (no prem players but a few in lower leagues where rules are the same) and that is 100% the case?

I have to say this is very interesting and if accurate, which we have to assume it is as Agent's fees are now transparent, it shows a refreshing approach to transfer deals. To sign the players we did paying that little in fees is nothing short of spectacular stuff from the finance, legal and exec decision makers at SFC, Also explains the reason the Buttner deal fell through and possibly a centre half. As a misty eyed romantic that yearns for the days before agents took huge sums from our game I'd even say it was worth a deal or two falling through for the sake of cementing our stance on this. Also, I do believe last season we again were one of the lowest payers in the Championship?

I have to say this is very interesting and if accurate, which we have to assume it is as Agent's fees are now transparent, it shows a refreshing approach to transfer deals. To sign the players we did paying that little in fees is nothing short of spectacular stuff from the finance, legal and exec decision makers at SFC, Also explains the reason the Buttner deal fell through and possibly a centre half. As a misty eyed romantic that yearns for the days before agents took huge sums from our game I'd even say it was worth a deal or two falling through for the sake of cementing our stance on this. Also, I do believe last season we again were one of the lowest payers in the Championship?

Liverpool's Red and white kop forum is notoriously mental, there's a twitter account called RAWK_meltdown (or similar) that tweets the more loony posts on their such as "I genuinely think Downing could be as bigger player for us as Giggs has been to United over the next 5 seasons" and loads of their FA/ Fergie conspiracy theories. I clocked onto it during the Suarez affair and have followed the Meltdown geezer since.

Am I the only one that doesn't rate Sterling that highly? Decent player yes, but feel the fact he is a young English player at (an average) Liverpool and in this country we are always desperate for "the next big thing" he is getting talked up more than he actually delivers? Reminds me of a slightly weaker version of Aaron Lennon. Think the same re Zaha too. Against Saints the Palace fans were going crazy about him singing that "He's just too good for you" song 90 seconds into the game when actually Lallana ended up tearing them apart at home and away (I think he played well against our reserves in the League cup though) whilst both games seemed to pass him by? Then again I have a tendency to say that "X player" is rubbish moments before he either scores for us (Guly's done this a few times) or against us....

Doh, meant Hughton. Only excuse I can up with is either Coleman's mustard were a distant sponsor of Norwich and/ or Coleman's mustard is the same colour of their shirt. Either way I've not covered myself in glory....

Top lad, when invading the pitch after the Sheff United game where we stayed up I was first to him and almost crushed him with a bear hug, all he kept asking was "are we up, are we up", I told him Leicester had drawn (this that was what happened?) and we were OK, we was over the moon and mentioned it in the Echo a few weeks later describing me as a "loony fan"! Excellent footballer, tidy, good vision and excellent touch. Shining light of that season and really thought he would kick on in the Prem. Not too late tbf eb=ven if not in Coleman's immediate plans, good luck to him.

It's unbelieveable the price put on English players, listening to Talksport now and they are discussing Darren Bent, he was £18m, eighteen million pounds! Gaston is a potential world class player, £12 should be an absolute bargain.

I agree completely, when he runs with the ball at his feet his head is always up too, controlling the ball is second nature and he doesn't need to be looking at it, therefore his vision is stunning - and he is always running/ looking/ passing forwards, hardly ever sideways. He is as close to a genuine world class player we've had at SFC since Matty (don't include Bale as he was still a kid when he left), and that's coming from a paid up member of the Lallana/ Cork/ Lambert fan club(s). Watching him (hopefully) develop over the next few years will be the equivalent for me of settling down into my favourite armchair, putting my feet up and opening a cold can of lager with a cracking 4 hours of Super Sunday in front of me with no missus nagging as she's busy making me a roast - Bliss basically.

Gaston clearly the best footballer on the pitch, as I've mentioned before enjoy him whilst we can as he will join a top CL side in 2 years, and he'll deserve it. Really pleased to say we had absolute quality all over the pitch, Schneiderlin looked up for it, Cork superb, Punch dangerous and Lallana class, The back 5 were solid, Fonte especially and Gazza had an outstanding game. 11 positives across the pitch today, exactly what we needed!

Flower Roads wins the awards for most violent incidents per capita in my opinion. Touché

Why is this clown not banned? The moron is clearly a skate, bin him off and ban his IP. Just wasted valuable seconds of my life reading it and replying to it. This site needs to be more ruthless.

Yep, was definitely Tranmere, fella was with a teenage girl (presume his daughter). Had his nose busted outside the ground immediately after the game yes. Normally don't agree with bullying or whatever but this bloke was a complete weapon and had it coming.

Or a trick, the ability to tackle, head a ball or avoid the temptation to make 50 yard "hollywood" passes every 2 minutes... A very good player in his day, excellent crossing ability and above average from free kicks (although would you want him to take the ball from Lambert at 25 yards out). Never a great, and threw his career away when he decided to jib off to America to play part time non league stuff. Why anyone would want brand Becks when it would invariably mean dropping one of Cork, Schneiderlin or Ramirez (no way he can play on the wing in the Prem, he will insist on some pathertic "quarterback" role being invented for him) is beyond me. Only QPR or West Ham would go near him in the Prem (and for all the wrong reasons). I would wager he will end up in Aus' or at PSG.

Looking forward to my prospectus dropping on the doormat this morning....

And the Sunday Times....

No harder than the Bundeslega or Primera Leagua looking at the domestic and European performances from their sides I've watched this season? As for Italian football being "wimpy", that wimpyness has won them 4 World Cups (2 runners up) and 1 Euro Championship (and 2 runners up including this year), although I'm sure you prefer "get stuck in", "do him", "launch it" football, maybe we should build our team around Andy Carroll? The French beating them papers over the cracks of a national football side, somehow, in more turmoil than us, most recently M'Villa getting a 2 year ban from the National side after "leading a nightclub visit" on the back of mutianies and group stage exits from major tournaments. Your right on Italian players though failing to adapt to the Premier League though. However I think the Premier League has a much greater emphasis on technique now and Ramirez would never have been described as a "typical Italian" sort of player by anyone that watches Serie A, far more direct (with his passing) and physical than, say, Aqualani. We'll wait and see. As SM says this is a huge signing for us, judge him at the end of the season along with the rest of the side, be patient with him, expect him to give it away now and again but also expect him to do things no one else in our squad would even think possible. As I mentioned earlier, try and enjoy him, as he's far too good for us long term. All IMO of course.