Wes Tender

Troll, at least as big a troll as Persaint. No, it is not true that I threatened to rip up my season ticket if Lowe went. You are spectacularly wrong as usual, so you must really feel an idiot laughing so much at something that you have completely misunderstood. Come to think of it, you must laugh a lot then. Little tinkler? You usually come over as more of a big pr*ck. I didn't renew it when he cosied up to Wilde. Is it true that you were on another forum but left because other posters bullied you?

The irony of you criticing a fellow troll and purporting to come from Liverpool is truly delicious in view of your commments.

This ring he's having smashed; is it his vice ring?

Olives too for me, but love them now. A nice cold platter is olives with ciabatta bread drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a few slices of salami/bresaola/Parma ham, with some sliced beef tomatoes, parmesan shavings, some anchovies, all garnished with a little oregano.

He looks like a c*nt, he talks like a c*nt, he acts like a c*nt. Therefore he must be a c*nt.

This is great news. Schneiderlin is a player who is growing in stature game by game and beginning to make the pundits sit up and notice his ability and assurance in midfield. His tackling and accurate passing are seldom bettered by players even in the very top teams. He can't be far off being capable of playing in any of those teams and not looking out of place. He and Cork have forged a great partnership in our midfield and there can't be many others in the Premiership better than theirs.

Nothing. We took City by surprise with our high line closing them down and were fortunate that they didn't punish us by employing the strategy that Newcastle used to counteract our tactics. And then Fox was substituted for the last 20 minutes by Clyne switching to LB and Richardson to RB.

Correct

That /\ /\

Yes, I'm accepting of forthright opinions if there is substance to them rather than them being petty insults. And if my posts sometimes lack humour or wit, I hope that they are mostly reasonable. Fox might not be as bad as some make out, but he is definitely not the best player that we could have in that position. Shaw is better than him already even at his age and in the opinion of many there are other options to switch other players around to better advantage as cover to the LB position. It seems clear that when we sought to buy Buttner we were looking to add strength in greater depth to LB and it might have been reasoned that with the emergence of Shaw and with Fox as cover, the situation was covered until the end of the season. His performance against Newcastle which led to their two goal advantage highlights the possibility that we are still deficient with him playing there, especially with Lallana playing ahead of him. If Pochettino persists in his strategy of playing a pressing high line, then that policy will be hampered if Lallana has to track back to cover for Fox pressing on and not being able to track back to defend, which is his role. On the other wing, Clyne and Puncheon do that very effectively, as does Shaw, but with Fox playing behind Lallana, unless they sort that out, then that is our weak flank which will be exploited. I don't think that fans will necessarily get on Fox's back at the match, but they will obviously consider him to be a liability if his performances are below par and result in us losing points. Personally, I don't see him as a player that can be trained to improve by coaching, so for me I believe that we missed the chance to bring in a more effective replacement in January and might suffer the consequences if Shaw cannot play there.

Who cares about these stories? We don't have to sell him and if the red top rags persist in stoking the fires between several glory teams, then the price they will have to pay to get him will rise and rise. I'm sure that he will go eventually, but the money we will get for him will enable us to buy in some pretty good players both to replace him and to strengthen the team in other areas. And we'll probably already have his successor on the way through the academy anyway.

It's not like you to get things wrong Rallyboy. Eastleigh was a Lib Dem seat, so Penny can't help the Conservatives lose what isn't currently theirs. Shame about the bakery though. They used to bake exceedingly good cakes.

The stewards won't suspect a thing

Probably the best Premiership referee. We've seen some real shockers this season, some seemingly no better than their lower league counterparts.

If posters think he's ****e, an effing liablity, useless, etc, that is just forthright opinion, expressed often without being backed up with a reason, but nonetheless still a valid opinion. It is equal to somebody saying that another player is a legend, pure class, genius, etc, without any back up justification. Why are those types of opinion an over reaction and labelled as coming from "dummy-spitters"? Yes, he had a bad day. One of sufficiently enough others to warrant those opinions critical of his ability, or more correctly, lack of it. Whether he had been good in other recent games is also a matter of opinion with which many would disagree. He is the weak link on the left and therefore canny managers will exploit that flank, especially with Lallana ahead of him, not tracking back enough to cover his inadequacies. Actually Guly offered more protection ahead of Fox than Lallana. Both managers have played Fox, but almost certainly through necessity, because that was a position where we should have added extra cover in the transfer window. Shaw's arrrival was a godsend and he is twice the player that Fox is, but when he is injured or tiring, or in danger of getting a second yellow, then Fox is on paper the obvious cover as a left back. But in reality I'm coming around to believing that we would have been better off with either Clyne switching and Cork going to RB, or even having Yashida at left back with Fonte replacing him, presumably fit if he was on the bench. In the difficult run in we have, our chances of survival will be greatly enhanced if he doesn't play any part in it.

Add me to the list of worriers with the same opinion on this. It is often effective as a tactic employed by teams against the glory teams, where a team without as much skill, but a lot of heart and endeavour will deny the classy play-makers the space to operate and thereby nullify them. Whether it will be effective week in, week out, so that it has become predictable and therefore the better tactitions can counteract it, remains to be seen. Some on here jumped the gun a bit judging Pochettino as being the superior tactition to Adkins. Adkins sometimes had criticism for his substitutions and for not always playing his best players, but that same opinion has some validty in this match too. I reiterate that Adkins left us in 15th position and if we are lower than that at the end of the season, that will be the yardstick for me as to which of them is the better manager.

So when two experienced managers' opinions are contrary, which one of them is right? Does a manager have to have played himself, to be capable of expressing an opinion that carries weight? Because there are a few very successful managers who haven't formerly been players. And likewise if some posters have played football albeit at quite a low level, are their opinions more valid than those who have not? Presumably your opinion is that Fox is not out of his depth in the Premiership. You are as entitled to that opinion as others are entitled to believe otherwise. Just because you are in a minority doesn't necessarily mean you are wrong any more than those who don't rate him are dummy-spitters who don't know what they are talking about.

A DVD of his 100 Saints goals would be a great idea for an item to sell in the club shop. As you say, his status as a legendary player for us is assured, now that he has passed that milestone. 20 goals for his first season in the Premiership would be massive too.

I suspect that those who lauded Pochettino's tactical genius are pausing for thought after that result. As mentioned by others, there were certainly some questionable decisions like not playing Puncheon, making Lallana captain, bringing on Fox. Also, are we now a one-trick pony with our tactics of playing a high line? Was Pardew the first manager to counter that ploy by hitting the ball long and wide to expose our flanks with fast wide players? MOTD highlights showed that the score should more probably have been 2-2, but coming off the back of beating the Champions 3-1 and our curent recent form, even that score against a team below us seems to be a reality check on where we really are. The pundits opined that although the Cisse strike was technically offside, it would have caused a riot if it had not been allowed, because of its sheer brilliance. But there seems to have been no dispute over whether the decision not to have flagged it offside was wrong, so bad refereeing. As for Fox being at the centre of two goals gifted to Newcastle, then I hope never to see him play for us again. A bad day at the office, but I hope that Pochettino will show that he is capable of adjusting the tactics to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition rather than allowing them to find us out because we only play one way.

It was almost inevitable that we would throw the game away by bringing on Fox. Any rival manager who has studied our match vids would idenify Fox's shortcomings as our weak link and exploit them and so it proved. I give him the benefit of the doubt with the handball, as I thought that was a bit harsh, but then he allowed the play to develop into that situation. But as for attempting a clearance by kicking the ball across the face of the goal directly towards your CB who was very close to you, well that is inexcusable. It wouldn't bother me a jot if I never saw him play for us again.

I'm not at all surprised that these arrangements for certain matches deemed to be high risk for fans' violence are to be challenged legally. They fly in the face of the basic freedoms of individuals, so are indefensible. In the case of the Skates v Saints match, it was patently ludicrous that somebody living in say Brighton or Chichester had to make their way to Southampton to board a coach to Portsmouth and then do the whole thing again in reverse to get home. Under those circumstances I do not see a court finding in favour of the Police and their ridiculous attempt to clamp down on all football fans just because they don't feel able to control the few yobs by conventional methods.

And indeed whether it is a package deal or scheduled and then what class.

Good to see that they are at long last acknowledging they were cheats (the club) and frauds (the fans). I'm sure that you recall as well as I do, W*nker/Corporate Ho going apoplectic with rage at assertions from us that the FA Cup was obtained by the Skates cheating, by fielding a team that they couldn't afford. Like the hypocrite he is, he will only acknowledge the parts of the article that paint the picture he wants to see. He isn't bright enough to see that the crooks that brought the club to its knees also paid money earned through nefarious means to finance that successful FA Cup campaign and he can't distance himself from them on the one hand and embrace the success that their blood money or laundry money brought on the other hand. I also have to pity him for the difficulty that he is having in acknowledging that most of us on here were right, in that we predicted that the level of over-spending they indulged in on such meagre gates would inevitably result in their demise. Why, even OldNick is slowly coming round to the possibility that they have not got away with it after all. Corporate W*nker might liken us to monkeys because of our predictions, but waving his blue arse in our direction makes him look like a baboon.

They've reached a compromise and installed carpet tiles.