Lighthouse

Must have really impressed them during that cup game.

Superb Owl predictions? I'll go for Pats vs Panthers.

Russia won't do anything too exciting against Turkey. Half their navy is drifting around the Black Sea and Turkey controls the Bosporous.

Double post so, here's some marmalade

When Adkins was appointed we had 4 points, Brighton already had 10. By the end of the season we were only 3 points behind with a better GD. To all in tents and porpoises, Adkins did win that League. Over the course of his tenure he outscored every other club in League 1. He came so close to winning the Championship and would have done had we not been mugged in that Friday night game against Reading, or if the ref had given the most blatant red card ever when we were 1-0 up at Boro in the penultimate game. If anyone thinks it's easy just because you've built an expensive squad with good players, just look at West Ham's squad that season which was far more expensive and we beat. Does that prove BFS was an absolute liability too, or is winning the League not as easy as it looks?

Nah, he's already got another career lined up

Dean Hammond pulls one back for the Blades. Shame it's not working out for Adkins but the clubs he's been at since Saints haven't been as well organised.

Alpine is neither interesting, applicable nor valid. He is intact a complete fruitcake. A sociopath who genuinely believes he is the sensible, rational one and that the rest of us are out to get him. All he has done is state that we are a weaker team without possibly our best player. Who'd have though. I'll bet Leicester are just as good without Vardy, Man City without Aguero, Arsenal without Sanchez etc. All he has done is state the flippin' obvious in a way designed to attract the most negative attention to himself because he wants to feel like the victim. I despair at humanity that his nonsense still makes 2 pages, the irony of me posting this accepted.

2011 Championship Lallana was a million times better than 2008 Championship Lallana and all without having ever met Pochettino. If he improved that much under Pardew and Adkins in the lower leagues, I fail to see why he couldn't have continued to improve in the Premier League. For that matter, I fail to see why he couldn't have improved under Koeman either. At Liverpool he was badly managed by Rodgers. It remains to be seen what Klopp cna get out of him.

I wouldn't say he looked noticeably better after Poch's appointment though. In our first season in the Prem he looked no better playing under Poch than he did under Adkins. He proved through League 1 and the Championship, I think it just took him a season to get to grips with the pace of the Premier League.

Who exactly did he spot though? Shaw and Lallana were already starting most games by the time he was appointed. JWP was largely used as a sub and remained so for the majority of Poch's tenure. Players like Gallagher and Reed made fleeting appearances with no real impression on the first team. The only young player to come through and become a first team semi-regular was Chambers, who we'd all known was a talented player long before Poch was appointed. Even so, he was an unused sub in Poch's last 4 games in charge I think.

I think Poch has been lucky to an extent that he had an excellent batch of young players both here and at Spurs. I don't think he would be able to get any more than Koeman out of Reed or Targett. Indeed Koeman was forced to play Targett at the start of this season and he looked a long way from being ready. Just look at JWP who made his debut under Adkins but hasn't looked noticably better under any of the three managers he's played for.

I grew up in Staffs for a few years, wouldn't really say it was noticeably different from anywhere else in England. It's probably on average a couple of degrees cooler but not noticeably so. Plus we've got Wanyama and VvD who have seen a couple of Glaswegian winters and the associated fun and games. Dušan has been in NL for a few years, which has a broadly similar climate, as has Pellè. If we had a team of South Americans I'd be inclined to agree but we don't.

You think we will lose because it's a bit cold? We aren't talking about Brazil playing Finland away in January, I'm sure Saints are just as well prepared for these conditions. It was like this when we went to the Britannia 2 years ago and apart from Boruc getting completely caught out after 13 seconds we were the better side.

McIntyre is okay if you like your bland, middle of the road, innoffensive observational humour. I can understand why he would be popular with mums and the like, looking for an easy giggle on a Saturday night. Not Corden though, he's just plain sh*te.

I was being sarcastic. Batman mentions that the Royal Navy is running a free ferry service for terrorists every 10 minutes on the thread in the lounge.

I seem to remember sitting through 3 separate minutes applause for Gary Speed after his death. None of which preceded a game involving Welshers or any of his former clubs. In fairness there were no games for over a month after 7/7, being July and all. There was a minutes silence at the British Grand Prix the following weekend though.

Don't forget to mention the free Mediterranean ferry service for terrorists.

I don't think the girls know anything about underpants either tbh.

You've been taking lessons in economics from the Pompey Supporters Trust, haven't you.

Don't see why a policeman would need a fully automatic weapon. In a crowded area they would probably kill a fair few civilians.

I think I remember a similar story about a hostage situation where the hostage takers had a man outside the building feeding information inside. Only Spetsnaz got hold of him and sent his head to the hostage takers in a shoe box. They surrendered pretty soon after that. You're right, Russia and Israel don't f**k around when it comes to getting their hands dirty. If either of them go into Syria, they're bringing an ass whooping with them.

So you're saying it should be illegal to boo? We're talking about Turkish football fans here, they've had kn*bbers supporting them long before ISIS or the Syrian refugee crisis. Just ask Leeds fans what they're like. No different to the swarms of white supremacist throwing Nazi salutes at Russian matches.

Christ, have a day off will you.