Lighthouse

I didn’t particularly think PC was THAT good at Liverpool, certainly nowhere near what Barca paid for him. He dined out on a handful of worldies, a couple of which were against us, but his all round game was nowhere near the current level of Salah or Mané.

I definitely want Willy in at the back.

The problem with saying that is that it’s all true. What you’re advocating for is judging teams by what other teams achieve in completely unconnected matches. That Liverpool team which finished runner up with 97 points or whatever they got WAS better than the Leicester team that won the league. They did have a better season; they won more of their games, had a better GD, better players and scored more points. By every metric Liverpool were the better team it’s just that Man City were even better that year. It’s no coincidence that Liverpool were the ones who won the title the following season and Leicester were in a relegation fight. In Puel’s final game we were 0-0 at half time, at home to Stoke, and 10th in the live league table. In the second half we lost 0-1 and moved up to 8th by virtue of other scores. By your criteria, that’s an excellent second half performance from Saints, jumping from 10th to 8th in the league.

Blatantly only done so we can make 'Willy gets extended' jokes but fair play, can't hurt to have another pair of gloves around at the moment.

Can't see the 'keeper situation changing now until summer, when I'd imagine FF, WC and possibly HL will all leave and we can go again from scratch. I think we're okay with the four CBs we have. If we do any business this window, I think there's a possibility of someone like Long or Moi going out on loan with another forward player coming in.

If anyone wants to carry on the media/political chat

This has been explained many, many, many times, if you’re unwilling to take that information onboard I’m not going over it again. As egg said (one of the many) the gaping hole in all this conspiracy nonsense is why? I haven’t seen any explanation as to any motive which makes any sense. If it makes you happy then yes; I am a terrified, obedient, brainwashed sheep who has been hoodwinked by the Machiavellian Boris. I’ve had my three jabs, got my Covid pass and wear my mask on the train and in Tesco. Let’s suppose Boris gets his wet dream, 67 million subservient disciples, just like me. Then what? What is the end game in all of this.

Ahhh, you mean that brutal dictatorship which basically denies the existence of Covid. Bit weird that, they must be bored with having too much control, like Lukashenko is in Belarus.

Sounds like a thorough, peer reviewed, scientific test, from a very large data sample, with no variables. It isn’t, I’m vaccinated. Do you object when a bouncer or airport check in agent asks for ID? Yet so many are supportive of the Aussie government for applying their laws fairly. Surely the elites having a different rule to the rest of us is the whole basis of any conspiracy?

Aus is a brutal dictatorship for sure and Covid is nothing new, they’ve been denying me my human right to bring satsumas in on Qantas for decades. As you say it’s not about health, it’s all part of the great worldwide reset to oppress Serbian tennis players.

So he wont be appealing the decision?

Which would be a very poor attitude for a 19 year old to have. At that age if you're telling yourself you aren't going to make it, that's not good. I don't believe it to be the case and I'd be very surprised if our academy has nurtured a player with such low self esteem.

Not in January. Summer, yes but not now.

After watching that TED video, I’m practically ceramic.

But that in itself is a heavily weighted statement in Puel’s favour. You’re effectively arguing that he only achieved the points he did because he had the best centre half in Europe for half a season, you’re just arguing it from the other end. That kind of thinking is exactly what the TED video was all about, how Newcastle’s season was flattered by Cissé being nearly twice as efficient as Messi with chances. Here’s a hypothesis; Fonte and Van Dijk are worth 10 points a season on any CB we’ve had since Puel left. You may disagree but I would argue that those two, over a 38 game season could turn 3 draws into wins and 4 defeats into draws (or some variation thereof) compared to Stephens, Vest, Hoedt, Danso and the other dross we’ve had since. If we assume that hypothesis to be reasonable, taking your argument that he did well to score 46 points with only half a season of JF/VvD, then you could assume that without those two at all he’d be 5 points worse off. So you’re then left with the argument that in a season without those two defenders, which is how it was summer 2017, Puel was a 41 point manager with a GD worse than minus seven.

I did think of Puel but didn’t want to go into it again, however since you mentioned him I’d agree with that assessment. As well as the GD we also scored 8 goals in 16 of our home games, which is very poor as an attacking output. Only four of those were from open play and one of them was a goalkeeping howler. The question with Puel should not have been what did he achieve but what would he have achieved had he stayed. A repeat of the cup run would have been massively unlikely and 46 points, if repeated, is usually good for about 13th.

10. Goats can fly 11. You can get away with posting any meaningless drivel if you prefix it with being, "tongue in cheek."

Teams have spent half a billion finishing 8th, so I doubt we’ll be chucking money at that particular dream in January. It sounds like we’ve got an ethos and a business model in mind, rather than chasing any particular league position. Given that there are about 12 clubs who all think they belong in the champions league, I’m fine with that.

My gut feeling is that we won’t and that won’t be their approach. We don’t look like being anywhere near the relegation battle and there is no compelling need to spend in any position. We’d all like a GK and a decent #10 but January is notorious for poor value and unless the right player happens to be available now for the right deal, I can’t see much happening.

Well if we hadn’t it’d have become five pages.

Interesting talk. Very similar to Wolves who currently have the highest points to goal ratio in PL history.

No but it's an easy sound bite and makes for good PR with minimal commitment. Hardly surprising that he'd say something like that.

Are you talking about Uncle Albert or Savage Garden?

I phoned my local pizzeria and asked for a thin and crusty Supreme. They sent Diana Ross.

Three words; John Westwood nudes.