alpine_saint

Where do Saints players go to hospital ? Somewhere private ? Lord, I hope hes not up the General, he'll probably get MRSA or C-Difficile...

Yes, but making any sort of judgement that where we are after 7 games reflects where will be after 38 is nonsense. I know this can be used as an argument for the positives who claim we can improve, but imo we simply dont have the squad to do that - you cant polish a turd.

Thanks for finding the strength to share your story with us. I do find it regrettable that the potential and wonder of a new life has been destroyed through what sounds mainly like practicalities though. However, I do respect your desire and principles to stand on your own two feet in life; well done. My wife gave birth to our 4th son in May, and we are a long way from family support which means it is currently hell with just the two of us since our 3rd is going thru terrible twos and the first has just hit puberty, but we dont regret it for a moment, he is such a lovely little chap. Also to be fair your rebound relationship sounds like it was ill-considered from the start. Regards your comments about adoption/care, my understanding is that the number of children in care from just after birth is a low proportion of the total number of children in care BUT it is growing because of all the damned red tape the Government has put in place about the adoption procedure, which sounds nothing less than torture nowadays. I believe the vast majority of children in care are, to use a somewhat vulgar and tragic euphemism, "damaged goods" which are very difficult for anybody to take on long-term

Your post strikes a chord with me Dunc, apart from the truly silly bit I've highlighted. This argument in plain ridiculous.

Oh, wow. Another "be grateful, even though we are stagnating after 30m of direct team injection over the summer (one of the highest figures in the whole of f**king Europe), remember where we were 3 years ago" lecture....

Even I am getting bored with this subject now. Its clear to everyone who is willing to be honest with themselves that our transfer activity over the summer was a mis-guided cluster-f*ck.

According to the Beeb, Vaz Te is out.

The scope for change is indeed limited. I see only the following possibilities : Managerial change Identifcation of free agents Giving fringe players such as Shaw, Dickson and Butterfield a(nother) chance to prove themselves

This oft-used mantra sounded plausible for a time, but then we drew, at home, to an under-strength mediocre Fulham team. Sorry, we definitely need some sort of change already, otherwise we simply wont pull ourselves out of this rut. I am not advocating getting rid of NA, but I would be extremely shocked and disappointed if I were to discover that NA and NC dont have their ears to the ground about possible free agents. We cannot wait 2 months for change, but I do agree the next 2 months will map out our fate for the season.

Wow. Bear does a big jobbie in the woods moment. I said it was my take, my theory. You can either agree or disagree with it. I think there is some serious burying of heads in the sand going on around here. And this "We're not currently in the relegation zone" mantra is simply f**king bizarre. We've conceeded more goals than everyone else. That is a recipe for relegation. As Turkish has said, we were flat-track bullies for most of last season, then played absolutely w*nk against Reading. And the players that caused the problem then are still in our first XI.

Especially as we only got promoted from Division 3 because Pardew was sacked.

OK, here we go, here is my take on it. Our defensive transfer activity was half-hearted because most of our effort, time and money was ring-fenced for buying attacking players in advance. What do I think the "miracle" of January 2013 will be ? NC waking up and realising his project is heading for a major de-railment unless he opens the coffers for the defensive players that we didnt try hard enough to acquire over the summer. Whether it is too late by then is, of course, another matter. The only intermediate step that will be available to NC is sadly the dismissal of NA.

It is about January. But I dont get why some of you are insistent that January will be different from the summer. I'd go as far as to suggest that some on here are inferring the players we failed to get in the summer will be picked up in January like going to Tesco to get a bag of satsumas...

But why was this not going on from Xmas last year, when we were clearly on for promotion barring an act of God. Lets not forget that we didnt exactly waltz over the line and we lost the title. The weaknesses and the need to address them were there for everyone to see.

The CB and LB that we apparently tried so hard to acquire over the summer (hence the weaknesses were already known, we didnt need PL games to judge) and failed to do so ? For me, all the indicators suggest we didnt put the money or effort into the defence that we should have over the summer.

Have you forgotten the pain of relegation from the PL in 2005 already ? As a historian of the club, does looking back at, researching, and having knowledge of our various ups and downs through the leagues over the whole clubs history somehow desensitize you from the worst sensations felt after relegation ?

It was an open question seeking opinions about what amazing event is going to happen in January, that saves our season, that didnt happen over the third of a year when transfers were permitted and hasnt happened since the season started.

Why does an issue encountered by the club in previous seasons render the point irrelevant for this season ?

Why dont you return to your habit of not posting, seeing as you have written nothing of value here.

There you go. Nothing to do with experience. NC is going to wave his magical transfer wand in January, apparently....

Can someone please explain why pictures of Bill Murray render the point somehow irrelevant ?

I dont buy this "experience" argument. A lot of people are posting platitudes about still being in touch in January. The significant event of January is a re-opening of the transfer window. Which means those posting the message are expecting us to suddenly close out deals we screwed up or overlooked during the summer. Experience builds up over time, something isnt suddenly going to click in January.

The usual diversion, play the man and not the post, try to get a rise out of him. But still no sensible responses about how January is going to be amazingly different from the summer, I note. I thought the excuse was that there are no PL-standard CBs available ? And that is going to magically change in 3 months time, is it ?

I agree. And with Ramirez now out for an unspecified period (I know its hindsight), we really look like we made some odd priorities.

If we manage it, it will demonstrate what an utter f**k-up our transfer activity over the summer was.