Clifford Nelson

Singha was one of the best lager beers in the world for as long as it was brewed by the Boon Rawd Brewery in Bangkok. Ice cold on the hot streets of Bangkok it was the first beer that really made me appreciate lager. Now it's brewed elsewhere and tastes like a different beer altogether. Very average and without it's character.

The one and two choices for the club was clearly Sharp and Maynard. The Sharp deal is dead, but not necessarily the Maynard one. Any other suggestion from english football is a third choice, however we're looking at it. Is another bench warmer what we need? Do we think that Lukas Jutkiewicz (unspellable, I know) will have a weekly starting spot on the team sheet? Unless we are getting somebody from overseas and for as long as the Maynard option hasn't totally collapsed I can't see us signing a striker at the moment

Kelvin makes me nervous simply because he relies on his reflexes to deal with the headers rather than attack the crosses. That I think I share with a number of fans. He also isn't in great command of his back four, which I would like him to have. His kicking isn't anywhere near as bad as he is accused of, and his shotstopping is first class. Surely he makes mistakes at times, all goalkeepers do, but he is amazingly consistent. NA is an old goalkeeper, so he knows more than me about goalkeeping, and he also knows what other values Kelvin gives to the squad. He has clearly decided that altogether Bart hasn't offered any real competition for the No 1 jersey yet. Kelvin will be on the team sheet until it is time to pack his bags, or retire. A year or two, maybe, then we will be buying ourselves a goalkeeper, and I would have thought that we will try to get buy one which is the best we can possibly get. The hope of seeing Bart between the sticks for any period of time is fading.

Saints are wholly owned by the Liebherr family. There are no shareholders apart from the shareholding left after Markus. Markus decided as he pleased what salary he wanted to pay to the Chief Executive, and that appears, not surprisingly, to have been endorsed by the surviving family. To be absolutely truthful that is all there is to know about it. We can have whatever opinions we like about it, but there is no board (in any useful meaning other than sounding board for NC) and no shareholding democracy. Complaining about it is of little value. The club seems well run and well invested in and with the ambition to be a force in the PL. The squad is good and well motivated and the manager clearly has got a plan for recruitment. Oh, I forgot, the only debt we've got is limited and to the owner. I would have given a kiss to anybody offering this scenario in the dark days, even if it included an inflated salary to the boss.

If we look at what appears to be Saints recruitment policy it is about young players with potential for the longer perspective. £750K for a 33 year old is a completely different policy. Even if he came for free with modest demands on wages it seems a highly unlikely scenario. Ammar Jemal, though, he fits the policy and looks very likely.

Thanks for that, it sounds promising. Whether a rehash of the 18th or not, this sounds like a real possibility in so many ways, and a rumour picked up from Tunisia will not have been placed in some hope of us finding it.

Eveybody who thinks that Hammond will play a bit part this season will be surprised. It's not for nothing his has played all games he has been fit for with the captains armband. The fight is amongst the other three, whether you like it or not. I also hope to see Holmes back, but he will warm the bench. Whoever it was who thought that he would be RM if we sold OXO needs to understand that Holmes is a left footed player.

Let's see what he can do when the season starts. This is a different team than the one he guested in before. I welcome him, but we all need to keep a little bit of control of our emotions. It wasn't as if the PL clubs were lining up for him, and his performance at RB for the U21s was flat. On the other hand NA knows what he is buying. It's also good to see our first signing of the season!

Guly was promoted with Cesena to Serie A, methinks, but didn't actually play there. He has plenty of Serie B experience, though.

I think Hammond is desperately underrated. He held on to the centre of midfield over the whole second half of the season, and did so very effectively as the results show. It doesn't look to me that NA intend to replace him with anybody yet. Another mention for Guly who causes conflict in the opinions department whenever he is mentioned. For me he is as much class as we could possibly hope for in L1 and the CC, but a winger he ain't, and shouldn't be. He has got far too much talent for that.

CBs mature late and are generally not at their best until late 20s or early 30s. I'm glad that NA has seen what I thought I saw when Martin played, i.e. good potential, and therefore has given him a longer term contract. (Not that my views had anything to do with it.) Jaidi got himself a one year deal, so next summer we'll be looking at only three CBs, unless Seaborne leaves. Martin is competitive for that place in the CCC, but if we are in the PL next year (yeah I know, hope springs eternal) then there is a long step up for him unless he has actually played this coming campaign, either here or on loan elsewhere.

Can't say that I disagree, Dave. The England U21 performance at St Mary's didn't fill me with excitement. He was played at RB, so he doesn't seem to be an obvious starter in midfield, although I was aware of his versatility. I would also like to see someone in CM who radiates stature and leadership.

Thanks for pointing out that you can't "let go" of players who are on contract. There seems to be very few people who understand the basis for what we are talking about when it comes to discards, sales and signings. One would have thought it was obvious, but the ignorance never ceases to amaze.

And neither does the danish text.

It is a relief not to have his name popping up next season, repeatedly next to epithets such as useless, pathetic, etc. Whilst possibly one of the luckiest footballers alive, I'm also feeling a bit sorry for him because the last few years have constantly pointed out to him that he's not up to the job. Must feel like sh*t. If this is the end of his pro career, which seems highly likely, I wonder what the future holds for him.

I'm thinking that we're unlikely to see signings until play-offs and relegations are complete. We'll be in the same division as three teams which just came down from the PL. Anybody there we may fancy? There are also some clubs who are not promoted to the PL. They will have some players who may be interested. I also noticed that both Papa Waigo and Guly had a past in Cesena. Our contact for those signings has got an inside track there. Do we know anything about Cesena players?

Stephens must have produced something at Oldham that made NA interested, but unless he has been convinced by the performances (unlikely) or on the training pitch, we're unlikely to see him again. There are a good few young players coming through from underneath the first team squad, and it is difficult to see why we should sign players from other teams who may or may not make it.

You must have gotten something wrong, since I am perfectly calm, but I don't agree with your assessment. If we are to advance this squad into the PL we need to be very careful with our signings. NA said that we shouldn't expect a large influx, but that he is looking for a bit more quality to mix into the squad. It will also depend on if anybody may leave (read AOX, especially, I think). So if we are thinking 2, maybe 3 signings, does it make much sense to add on to the squad players who are not likely to be better than the players we've got already? As for Owen, I wonder how he would fit into the culture NA is producing in the club, which I understand as having much more to do with a collective of motivated and happy individuals, than a number of superstars. I don't think that Owen looks like a player who would fit in there, but I could, of course be wrong. I also don't think that goals and wins equates the number of strikers we sign. I'm also not certain that NA is a died-in-the-wool 4-4-2 man. And if we play any variety of a 4-3-3, then we can only play one striker at a time anyway, and I must admit that I don't feel massively excited if that player was Owen. As for the other half of the equation, I just can't buy that we'll get ourself into the PL with a number of players who have already been found wanting.

I'm glad that NA plays him on every occasion he is fit. His place is as the motor in the middle of midfield, or "in the hole" if you so will. We must retain width as well, which creates the eternal numbers problem: We have one too many players on the pitch with that kind of formation unless we sacrifice one of the strikers, and that doesn't seem to be something that NA is really prepared to consider. To get the best our of Guly on a consistent basis we need preferably to play 4-2-1-3, allowing us the flexibility which a fundamental 4-3-3 gives. A continental team close to my heart appointed a new manager last week after 5 consecutive defeats. The first thing he did was to change the half hearted 4-4-1-1/4-4-2to a 4-2-1-3. They won 2-0 yesterday. We need to accept that younger, forward looking managers have given up on 4-4-2, mainly for the flexibility involved and also for relying more and more on playmakers. This season NA has had to get on with the squad the way it was, but it will be interesting to see were it takes him if he can select a few new signings of quality.

Why would we want to sign those who are discarded from QPR for not being good enough for the PL? Or for that matter old has-beens who once played here or maybdidn't. Saints are planning for the PL now, and not to consolidate in the NCP. The words from Markus and NC was for appropriate investments for each phase of the plan. Phase one is now achieved, and we are going into Phase two, which is to get promotion into PL. For this we need some quality reinforcements who are capable of playing in the PL. Phase three is about playing in the PL without risk of going down again, which will require the biggest reinforcements for us that far. Forgive me, but Fitz Hall, Beattie and Owen doesn't figure anywhere in those plans. We've got to be realistic, but surely we can aim higher than that.

Most importantly pre-season must be designed so that our first team squad is ready to start playing competitive football in August with our winning habit having been maintained. Whatever teams we are taking on in friendlies must be with the intention of winning. 90 minutes of football can be arranged with two saints elevens taking on each other at Staplewood, but it is doing little or nothing towards the confidence of players. Remember last year when so many claimed that all our lacklustre losing performances "didn't matter". Has anybody still got those naive beliefs? I think it would be great to see some top class italian teams, but not beating Saints in friendlies.

We will do well in the NCP with the current squad because there isn't much between that and L1. The question in my mind is whether we want to go straight up into the PL. If that is what we're aiming for then we need already now to consider what players we want to have in the team in August 2012, and to make sure that at least some of them have played together before. An all out attempt for consecutive promotion requires additions also for those reasons. What will also be nice is to see our team coming properly prepared to the party. A well thought out and committed pre-season would be a nice change.

I don't think we borrowed Forte, but gave him a 4,5 year contract. It's N'Guessan who will no doubt go back home.

I'm afraid that there is likely to be something in the "foreign" bit, since I can think of others in the past who were given no quarter. But it isn't a simple thing to understand, and there are other levels involved as well. We didn't have a problem to accept Jose Fonte, for instance, and not all of our native players have been accepted either. I wonder what it will take for the sighs to stop in Kingsland when Guly misses a pass. What can he do to build up his goodwill? His record ought to be good enough by now.