Lighthouse

I thought she said she wasn't into football, but if she did support a team it would be Saints because of her Granny. Something like that.

You have to cut Bogdan a bit of slack, playing behind that Bolton defence can't be easy. Watching MOTD last night, they were all over the place at the back. I think some of the stick he gets probably comes from letting in that goal kick at Everton earlier in the year but he's certainly better than Bart IMO. Wouldn't take Holden though, as good as I think he is. With his injury problems he could be the next Dean Ashton or Michael Svensson.

Meh. You've got to go once.

The clap. Not sure if that counts as a prize as such.

I know this is sarcastic but I don't get it.

Ski jumping.

Adam Bogdan would be a decent 'keeper to bring in if Bolton do indeed go down.

RE: Antonio, I don't get the argument that he has done it in League 1 therefore he can't do it at a higher level. If he hadn't done it in League 1 then you'd probably have a case, just because Reading loaned him out that doesn't mean he's a bad player. People were saying the same about Adam Le Fondre in League 2 a year ago. 'He's already 23, he's only a League 2 striker' etc. That one came back to bite us on the arse a bit.

Because it's not particularly special for me. I know for a fair few on here it's the last Prem ground to tick off, but to me it's just another new ground. On top of that it's quite a long trip to see 15,000 people in a 25,000 stadium. Don't get me wrong, I'll go if I'm free and can get a group together I'm just not that excited by it. Partly because it's one of the big famous grounds to tick off, partly because Manchester is a cracking night out and partly because if we do get a result there it will be fantastic. We had that 3-3 a few years back and even under Wigley we came within seconds of winning at Highbury, so there's always that chance.

The South Coast Der... oh wait, hang on.

Nonsense. What about our most succesful period in recent history under the likes of Hoddle and Strachan? We didn't have any youngsters breaking into the first team between Wayne Bridge in 1998 and Theo in 2005. Baird made his debut aged 21 but really that was about it.

As opposed to 'sharp' and 'keen'?

It wasn't a punch up, he headbutted William Gallas in the back of the head whilst running after him. Only Beats will know why he did that. Where are people gloating and casting muck? Pretty much everyone loved Beattie whilst he was here. Some would have taken him back, others wouldn't and now most people are in agreement that his career is going badly. You're just making things up about our own fans so you can take the moral high ground over them. You're not the only one. There seem to be an awful lot of high horse, "our fans our idiots" posts on here, it's quite sad really.

If we didn't have De Ridder I'd suggest Antonio as a HCDAJFU. His pace and direct running will cause problems for a lot of teams, even at Premier League level.

Is the 4th bloke back on the right of that escalator a giraffe?

Don't forget Cox was the man who matched Lamberts 29 league goals the season before we signed the latter. At the time I would have absolutely loved to have signed both, but being so much younger he was always likely to attract attention higher up. Is he better or different to Sharp, Barnard, Guly or Lee? I don't know.

18 appearances, 0 goals, 2 red cards HCDAJFU!

I was still in school last time we were in the Prem and never got to go to any away days. I've been to Reading and Norwich in the last few years and I've done Man City and Stoke following Dynamo Kiev in the Europa League, but that's about it. Definitely want to do the Emirates. Probably want to do OT just to tick it off, even if it is miles away and cost £50 a ticket to watch us getting battered 5-0. Newcastle is another I wouldn't mind doing. Really not that fussed for Wigan, doesn't look any more exciting than Burnley or Bolton.

We wont be signing anybody like that. To me a squad player implies just another body in the squad who wisn't actually good enough for the first 11 but would provide cover. We need to improve the squad, not expand it. IMO we need to be signing players who are better or different to what we have now. Players like Whitbread and Yakuba just aren't.

I agree. 'Squad player' seems to be the diplomatic was of describing a player who isn't actually good enough to be in the first team... but we still want to buy them anyway for some reason. Lowe/Sturrock/Wigley built a squad of 40 odd "squad players", hardly any of them were up to the job.

Last time I went from Southampton to LGW I used the train. I only went one way but it was £10, no changes and I avoided the M25 etc. Much cheaper and easier. Bit late for that now I guess.

I know what you said and I'm not making up a point. Three problems with a pay as you play deal: 1) He will want some form of basic wage, there's no way he'd take a deal whereby he is payed nothing for 4 or 5 months whilst he's injured. 2) If he is payed so little basic money, what do you think his match fee will be? £100k per match? He will want his money one way or another. 3) We're going to need another player just to cover him for the 9/10 games he's injured anyway, so we'll just end up paying someone else.

No, at worst you will have a permanetly injured and disintered football who isn't really bothered about Saints, knows his number is pretty much up and wants a half decent pay cheque before he is forced to retire. It is far from guaranteed he will actually be good when he played. Michael Owen has only managed 8 goals in his last 2 years at Man Utd, coming mostly in the cups against teams like Leeds, Saints and Scunny. Fowler and Hasselbaink went to Cardiff and achieved nothing. Even when fit he will not even come close to the Owen Hargreaves at the World Cup 6 years ago. The rare games he does play, I very much doubt he will be an improvement on Cork, Morgan or any of the others who might be available. To me offering Hargreaves a contract and hoping he gets fit would be like offering Forecast a new contract in the hope that he suddenly develops some tallent. It's not going to happen, move on.

What's the point? Why have a player like Hargreaves in the squad when he's only ever going to be fit for half an hour every couple of months. If Cork, Morgan, Lallana et al. have been playing together in the Prem and know each other well, etc. are we actually going to gain anything from chucking Owen Hargreaves on for half an hour? He may have been a better player in his prime, but I doubt he's been anywhere close to that in the very brief interludes between trips to the physio room. Besides that, we'd just need another player to cover him for the 9/10 games when he's still injured. It's a waste of a player in the 25 man squad and a waste of wages. It's like this season where we've got 5 centre halves and Jaidi and Seaborne have played about 5 games between the pair of them. I know it's not their fault and nobody could have predicted Seaborne's injury etc. etc. but we still have to pay them. I am astonished by the number of people who are quite willing to pay the likes of OH, Connolly etc. to sit in the physio room out of what is essentially their own pockets. Even if Hargreaves does agree to a 'pay as you play' he wont come cheap and will want a big fee for the appearances he does make. That's our £3 booking fees down the drain right there.

Of course they're going to want £8m. If they demand that someone will eventually pay them the £5m they are really after. If they ask for £5m they will probably end up with £3m. It's no different to any Arabian market stall.