Wes Tender

As you say, old habits die hard. But perhaps the conversation went "Hi Dean, it's Deano Wilkins here, your old gaffer at Brighton. Look - I've just joined Southampton and Pardew asked me who I thought I would recommend to come here. As I had faith in you and you were my captain with the Seagulls, I immediately thought of you. How's about popping back down South and having a chat with Alan and see what you think. Southampton have the fifth richest owner in British football and are signing up the best players to get them out of this division. You'll fit right in and with luck you'll be in the Fizzy Pop next year and quite possibly in the Premiership in two or three years." I don't know what his personal circumstances are. For all we know, he could live in Brighton and the commute here would be better than up to Colchester.

Looks a genuinely good prospect. If Wilkins rated him at Brighton and he gets a decent write-up from the ex-Skate Claridge, it does point to a good player. I liked the fact that he shows ambition and also that he has been a good captain at both Brighton and Colchester. It seems that he could do a good job in front of Harding if Mills is out, or left centre midfield, hopefully the replacement for Wotton.

Welcome back from your hols, Um. I'm sure that you will have had a great time in the Far East. I see that you have begun to bring yourself up to speed with the postings of the site's Clown Prince, no doubt in an attempt to bring some levity and a light-hearted mood to counter the feeling of anti-climax that comes with returning here after a holiday in a tropical paradise. I see that you picked up on the possibility hinted at by Nineteen that there might actually be other members of the clan who have logged on here and vented their spleens at other posters in the inimitable style of Nineteen, Sundance, Flashman and other aliases. I am led to believe that one of these offspring might be Speculator and I have my suspicions that Wiltshire Saint might belong to the same gene pool too. Is this a good thing? One has to balance the pure entertainment value against the downside that several good threads have been hijacked and reduced to petty bickering.

The definition of a troll is not defined by stating that trolls express opinions that cannot be supported in a debate. It is precisely that a troll deliberately sets out to disrupt a thread by posting inflamatory and disruptive opinions. I think that most on here will accept that by definition that is what you do only too well. As to your last paragraph, I'm sure that most are p*ssing themselves at the thought of you realising how precious your time is and then spending hour upon hour writing lengthy diatribes one here. The reason that you don't bother to debate with me is because I am capable of shooting down in flames most of the fiction you dress up as fact.

Simple.... http://www.lyricsondemand.com/b/bobmarleylyrics/exoduslyrics.html Just need to tweak this a bit.

Corky, I'm reminded of the joke where a guy visits the local mental hospital and strolling through the grounds, encounters one of the patients dangling a fishing rod into a flower bed. Thinking that he'd got a right one here, he decided to humour him and start a friendly conversation. He asks the patient how many he's caught today, to which the patient responds with a grin on his face, "you're the fourth today".

No. Top right hand drawer, only available for when Markus visits.

I'm ITK on this one and happy to help. Hobnobs.

I saw what you did there. Huddersfield are tipped for promotion this season, aren't they?

Nineteen doesn't like debate, as too many find it easy to shoot his points down in flames. He much prefers to hide under moral indignation, to look up some pithy quotation on Google to make him look intelligent, or to change the subject when the going gets tough for him, attempting to defend the indefensible. Otherwise, like a true troll, he will either start a controversial thread, or enter some controversial viewpoint into a perfectly normal light-hearted thread just to get a reaction. Don't take him too seriously, MOG. Have a good laugh at his efforts instead. Poke fun at him. It's the obvious way to burst his little bubble.

The usual sanctimonious, pontificating waffle. I feel sure that you have personal anger issues and feel the need to vent your spleen as a release. Keep taking the medicine and getting it all off your chest, Nineteen. You give us all a huge amount of amusement.

Nineteen is the forum's equivalent of "disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" so allowances need to be made, Doc.

Before some witless idiots go off on a Victorian morals type rant about falling standards of decency, poor upbringing, prejudice and incitement to violence, etc. the original post needs to be reread. Just to save those idiots the effort of having to scroll back, I'll repost it for their benefit. Just returned (half an hour ago) from a visit to the Ironbridge (built in 1779 when Saints were at their zenith!)with my Grandsons. Whilst walking back across I heard a conversation going on with four people (two men two women) One of the women said "Oh! No. I'm a Pompey girl. He supports Southampton" My eight year old heard this and said "SKATE!" The other said "Come on you reds!" Needless to say the 'Saint' and I laughed our socks off. We had a quick chat.He'll be at St Marys for the 22nd. It's the strangest place I've met another Saint although Pilchards and family sat in the row in front of us (my family) in Seaworld in Florida some time ago! Do you see the bit I highlighted in bold? They had a quick chat. What do you infer by that? I took it to mean that they exchanged a bit of light-hearted banter, or possibly even had a serious discussion about the relative positions that the two clubs found themselves in. If the two or three on here who went off half-c ock in a tangent saw it differently, then the problem is with them and they ought to learn a little more about inter-personal relationships with their fellow human beings, as they show scant understanding in it.

I do believe with that team we will walk the league! Providing of course that the new signings were of the quality of the three players that I have named.

You beat me to it, SaintRichmond

There are several different factors involved here, both from the players perspective and from ours. On our side, he is our player under contract. Why shouldn't we either want to maximise the sum we might receive for him or else keep him and get the most out of his ability to score plenty of goals for us at this level? I agree with you that if he doesn't feel motivated enough of his own volition, then he ought to reconsider his position if he is played in the reserves or told to train alone. From his point of view, he must realise that demanding such high wages is an obstacle to him being sold and that if he isn't sold, his ambitions to play for his country at the World Cup will be right out of the window if he is playing in the reserves of the English third division. We are under no financial pressure to sell him. He must understand that this factor which previously favoured him, is no longer there. Either he bangs in the goals for us and therefore raises his profile to such an extent that clubs in higher divisions consider his fee and wages are worth a punt, or he must reduce his wage demands to a level that is more realistic to teams that might want him. As we are not forced to sell him, the ball is really in his court.

Excuse me that Melis hadn't yet registered on my radar. I trust you will allow me to include him in the category of new signing, but as to where we would play him, I don't know. Only another 6 new signings needed then.

.....................................Davis Murty..............New signing.............New signing.............Harding New signing............New signing...........New signing...........New signing ................Lambert.................New signing

Are you still talking Wotton here?

The bit highlighted; you're talking about Wotton here, right? I see that you didn't answer the questioner who wished to know at what level you played.

Sometimes I get some entertainment though, picking holes in his spurious and ill-thought out ramblings and pr*cking his pomposity.

Says the guy who started the useless thread. Oh, did I miss an "if" anywhere in your further ramblings?

The Pinnacle bid might have delayed the preparations for the start of the season, but let's not forget who was responsible for us having a -10 point start this season instead of taking them last season. Did I see a thread from you accusing Lowe of gross incompetence over that? No, I didn't think so. Ok. We accept that for some bizarre reason you will never forgive MLT. Most of the others on here will never forgive Lowe. That's settled then. Let's all move on, as what we are discussing is now history and nothing we say will change it, so please desist in your futile attempts to rewrite it.

I agree wholeheartedly. Pardew has hinted that the mindset of the team needs changing to be a winning one and Merrington made much the same observation during the Huddersfield match. There are some good lads left over from last season and some decent signings brought in. With some new additions to replace those no longer able or willing to play to their full potential and a few wins under our belt, the increase in confidence could propel us forward once more.

I agree with you in general, but when you ask how Lowe can be blamed for us having crap players now, there are certainly ways that blame can be attached. It depends on what one's thoughts are on the psychological aspects of the team. For all of last season they were unsettled because right at the start, Lowe dismissed Pearson. They then had two other managers during last season, neither experienced at managing in this country at that level. Those players had to watch as the most experienced players were either sold or shipped out on loan because we couldn't afford their wages. The squad then became the youth team, good Academy players, used to winning nearly every match. They received a baptism of fire and it must have really given their confidence a mighty knock to play their best and be beaten every week, playing a system they weren't used to. Then at the end of the season, they had to face the ignominy of relegation to the third division and the prospect of the club going out of existence before ML saved our bacon. Recently, they have had to prove themselves to a new manager, knowing that if he doesn't like them, there is an owner wealthy enough to pay for them to replaced. Wouldn't you say that it has been a very stressful time psychologically this past season and that some of that stress could have been avoided had Pearson stayed and blooded the youngsters gradually by introducing themselves to play besides some more experienced players brought in for that purpose?