Lighthouse

I'm heading over there in a couple of weeks on business but I reckon I will have about 4 days to myself so was looking for people's recomendations on things worth doing. So far I can think of: - Wild Wadi water park - Standing next to tall buildings going, "F**k me innit big!" - A look around the Mall of the Emirates. (Will give the skiing a miss, that's taken care of elsewhere) - The beach. Obviously. - Water sports. Any good places to go in particular. - Bars and restaurants. Where are the best? Any other suggestions would be welcome too, although Phil I don't play golf before you cream you knickers. Incidentally if any local Saints want to meet up, I'm buying the beers (not in the Burj Hotel though). Should be out there, when I'm not working, 20th until 24th March.

Seems I am one of the few people not happy with this news. A 3 year contract for a player I hope never to see play for us again. Nothing against the guy but he is a liability at this level and at 36 I doubt he will be getting much better any time soon. Can only assume there is a player/coach element to this contract. Hopefully he can teach our young 'keepers a bit more than flapping at crosses, palming shots into the centre of the 6 yard box and being beaten at his near post by a shot from absolutely any distance. Don't get the 'reward for his loyalty' bit either. Is being paid £500,000 a year to play football really that bad? Other than an offer to sit on the bench at West Ham has he actually had any decent offers away from Saints? I wouldn't mind so much but we are essentially paying for this new contract with our ticket office booking fees and car parking charges.

1 less goal for Norwich

Top 5 things Spudgun hates 1. Belgian Weather 2. Pictures of people's kids 3. Not being allowed to do the washing up 4. Decorative lamps 5. Pictures of people's Food

A lot of people saying it will cost more than £6m to replace Lambert. Sooner or later we will have to replace Lambert and it is going to cost more than £6m. If we sell him now we might get around £6m from the right bidder. In a year he will be 32 and probably worth half that. In 3 years he will be 34 and I doubt anyone will be willing to pay a transfer fee for him. A replacement in his early 20s will probably cost £10-15m, whether it's now, next year or in 3 years. As I said I'd keep him because I doubt we need the money. However if that money was the difference between getting in someone like Lukaku and not, I would be more tempted to sell. Lambert may be key to how we play at the moment but there are also 15 other teams doing better than us without him. He is good and will be remembered as a legend but he is not irreplaceable.

It's a good price for Lambert but I think we need him more than we need the money. If we needed the £6m to buy a suitable replacement 10 years younger then it would make more sense.

Which pub are we heading for then?

Fish and veg for me tonight. Lovely.

I'm fairly optimistic. That late showing at Everton is their only win in nigh-on 3 months. I'm pretty confident we can get something there and a draw would do. Draws at Norwich, Reading and another at home to Liverpool would be decent results. A couple more wins on top of that would probably keep us up although I would like to do a little better. Norwich aren't a quick side. Stick Jos on Holt, have Yoshi cleaning up next to him and keep the ball away from Snodgrass. Not easy but doable.

It's a must win game for Reading as they are fast running out of winnable fixtures. For us it's a 'must not lose' game more than anything. A draw there would maintain the gap. 3 more wins in some very winnable home fixtures against Wham, WBA and Stoke will keep us up. I don't see the quality in Reading, QPR and Villa to get to 36 points I really don't.

Didn't Clattenburg ref our game just after he was accused of racism and have an absolute stinker? Think it was something like Spurs or Swansea earlier in the year.

Those of you who know Spudders will know he recently comitted Facebook suicide but over a few yards of ale before the QPR game he told me how much he misses people uploading pictures of their dinner. I think that's what he said. Anyway, to make him feel better, let's share some pictures of our meals on here. This morning I had some weetabix with milk on it.

My online account is linked to Spungun's, we bought a couple of tickets to the Wham game together. It's still only one per ST.

Why do you think pretending to be thick will help your argument? They only made it up to 15th because they were hopeless before then. Far worse than we are now. Before those 7 wins, Wigan had 22 points from 29 games. Before the Newcastle game we had 27 points from 26 games. Even if we get spanked by Norich, we still have 5 more points than they had before their amazing run. If Wigan had those 5 points more last season they'd have finished... yep you guessed it. Tenth! I'm done with this argument, there's more to life than pretending not to understand things on the internet in some obscure attempt to look clever.

I've just bought 2 tickets online. Surely they wont move it at this short notice. 5 days before a game? There would be some very angry fans if they did.

Generally it's what is known as, "improvement." A team in a relegation fight wins 3 games in a row, then they aren't in a relegation fight. They're mid table. Around this time last season Wigan had won one game in 15. Then they won 7 out of their remaining 9 games and Bingo. Not in a relegation fight. Yes it's rare but it's something we should aspire towards. We have the tallent in the squad to be better than we are. 10th was a realistic target whether you believed it was likely or not.

Abandonned? No. Looking much less likely? Yes Diamond - Most of the predictions of being top 10 material were made before the Newcastle and QPR defeats. We had just outplayed Everton, Man Utd, Wigan and Man City. There really was no sensible reason to believe we couldn't win the last 2 and be level with Fulham in 10th this evening.

That's just the way it goes though. Man City beat QPR QPR beat Saints Saints beat Villa Villa beat Liverpool Liverpool beat Norwich Norwich beat Man Utd Man Utd beat Chelsea Chelsea beat Spurs Spurs beat West Ham West Ham beat Fulham Fulham beat Wigan Wigan beat Reading Reading beat Newcastle Newcastle beat West Brom West Brom beat Everton Everton beat Swansea Swansea beat Arsenal Arsenal beat Sunderland So who's the best out of that lot then? The answer is none of them, they're just a random set of isolated results. Saying we are in trouble or doing well based purely on who beat us or we beat is inaccurate. We're better than QPR. Not because of todays result but because of the League table, the only true reflection of how good a team is. Play today's fixture again next week, same 22 on the pitch, same ref. We will probably win 4-0. Play it again the week after we win 2-1. The week after, it's a 3-3 draw. The week after the game is abandonned because some monkeys and chickens escape from our petting zoo and have an inter-species homo-erotic orgy on the pitch. It's the one part of playing Championship manager which is truly accurate. When you get knocked out of the Champions League with Port Vale after a 3-0 home defeat in the semi final, what do you do? Quit the game, load it again, play exactly the same team, win 3-1 and bingo, you're in the final. That's pretty much what would happen if you could reset real life.

Except nobody has actually said either, have they. People thought Poch did well after his team beat Man City. People thought he did badly after he was beaten by QPR. That's not fickle, that's just having sense.

Is it not also libelous to call Redknapp a Crook? I don't know much about law but as far as I'm aware he hasn't actually been convicted of anything.

That's not Di Matteo. The ear lobes are wrong.

So I was wrong was I? QPR were infact playing brilliantly and had won 8 games? Opinions held in the past aren't wrong just because things change. I said we could finish 10th because 10th was a realistic target after beating Man City and being only a couple of wins behind 10th. If we'd won our last 2 we would be 10th, we didn't so we aren't. Now I don't think it is likely we will finish 10th as we've dropped 6 winnable points and haven't played anywhere near as well. I do however think we will stay up. If anyone like CB FRY, max or yourself want to dig up this thread in May if we're relegated and say, "OMG isn't Lighthouse stupid, I am so much cleverer than him!" then be my guest, I can't say that I'm all that bothered. Making predictions which turn out to be incorrect doesn't make someone stupid. Personally I think it's a little bit sad dragging up threads posted in different circumstances and ridiculing people who dared to hold a different opinion to your own. Mindlessly sticking to an opinion, despite changing circumstances and new evidence, that's what makes people a complete muppet.

First game I've been to since the Sunderland game. Before that, Norwich, Swansea and away to West Ham. I sure do pick 'em. Just don't get our tactics today. We seemed to be fresh out of ideas except the 90mph through ball at Chrisoph Samba's head. QPR were sh*te and will still go down playing like that. Nobody else is going to give them 3 points as readily as we did today. No pace, either in terms of movement or thinking. Poor delivery, Lambert looked isolated and got nothing in the air. I don't know what else to say, it was just... lame. I will issue some words of encouragement though. We can be as absysmal as we want in every game remaining. We just need to be better than 3 other teams. There is nothing I've seen to suggest Villa, QPR, Wigan or Reading are any better than we are. Sunderland and Newcastle are only 1 win above us too. Let's keep the faith for now and let the crucifictions begin in May, IF we go down.

If we had beaten Newcastle and QPR we would be tenth, goal difference permitting. It was a perfectly reasonable prediction at the time. It's really astonishingly easy to make predictions after something has happened. I reckon we will lose 4-2 at Newcastle and then get beaten 2-1 at home to QPR. Oh look at how clever I am everybody. I'm off to the bookmakers to place a bet, I'm sure they will give me good odds on a QPR away win. I'll be back with all my winnings in an hour.