Sergei Gotsmanov

Assad is an Alawite a branch of Islam. I expect that he would argue that the hospitals did not just have civilians in. Personally I hope that the West has learnt that dictators in the Middle East are far better at keeping the peace than democracies. The region would be a lot more peaceful if you still had Gaddafi and Saddam even if it offends our western sentimentalities. I imagine that most Syrians would dream about turning back the clock to before the war. We allowed it to be a stand off between us supporting the rebels and the Russians supporting Assad and years of tragedy unfolded.

I would argue that the country is not as split down the middle as you would think on this issue. Project fear persuaded many people to vote remain whose natural instincts would have been to vote out. My heart says out and my head says in was regularly quoted to me. If 10% fell into that camp then your split down the middle is not as clear cut as you would think. Incidentally I voted out because the polls and the bookmakers made it clear that we would remain in and I did not want to endorse the EU. I went through the regretting it phase but now see it as a very positive thing. We can now negotiate from a position of strength and hopefully the EU can address its issues. Nothing reflects those better than Claude Van Juncker. In fact watching him gave me feel better about having voted out.

I like to think that most authentic Saints fans are realistic to agree with you. I am grateful that we are owned by people with good values and a prudent outlook!

Totally and wholeheartedly agree. He has always shown great passion and commitment to the club. We are always looking for heroes and club stalwarts yet people want Pelle moved on and moan about Davis and Warde Prowse.

Very sad. We salute you Sammy. Created goodwill.

How can you want a yng hungry manager who either does well and leaves or does badly and leaves! Pellegrini is very unlikely to be poached

Why pellegrini would be fantastic; He is a big name who will keep existing players He will not be poached He has point to prove He will attract players Sign him up!

Very fair point. Moyes will not walk out on us as nobody will come in for him - except ironically Everton. I am bored of managers doing well and then leaving.

I am backing Alzheimer's. It is he disease I fear most.

Martin Samuel seems to have no understanding of the mechanics and structure of football. Which players did he think we could stop leaving. It is not as if we are selling players to teams like Villa, Everton or Newcastle. In his cloud cuckoo land you just get the cheque book out and everything will be OK. Sadly unless you have an owner like Citeh then the money runs dry and you plummet down the league - what's his take on Newcastle who broke the bank last season and got relegated. We have the best model for our size of anyone in the premier league that has proved resilient when fire sales happen. Our players leave because our model is so good and it makes players look better than they are.

With our existing squad and realistic ambitions we must be a very attractive proposition. Koeman has sacrificed his long term footballing aspirations for money. He will fail to ignite Everton and they will bumble along just above mid-table for a few seasons before the locals turn on him. He has missed out on both the Arsenal and Dutch jobs now.

I would still argue that Koeman is a gentleman but you cannot really turn down that sort of money. Football is a fickle business and he could be out of a job in an instance as he knows from experience. He is a good manager but it will be difficult for him at Everton, there will be higher expectations. Losing a striker who delivers potential 20 plus goals a season will be very hard to replace as will a good young defender. Part of his success with us was centred around the fact that he could cherry pick the Dutch league for the best players because he knew the league. He also found Mane through his Dutch management days. He cannot do that now so effectively and although he will try and poach some of our players historically we are reluctant to sell to former managers.

Although nothing has happened as yet but I really am not impressed that it looks like we could lose Koeman to Everton. Surely the board could have built up some sort of relationship with him that made him show a degree of loyalty? Everton are hardly Arsenal or Barcelona. It makes financial sense to do everything to keep him because losing him will cost considerably more.

I would argue that should tragedy strike and Koeman leaves, we should not be looking for an up and coming manager but one who has already been lured to a top club and failed. They will then be determined to make it work and will be less likely to leave when they succeed.

I like that.

The Germans never tried to take us on again and the blockade continued to the end of the war. Not sure I would have called that a draw.

Thanks

when is the draw?

I think we could actually make this work in our favour. We let him manage Holland as well as us. Not ideal but none of the big clubs would allow him to do this.

Sorry I just cannot support United. I will console myself if they win by the fact that it helps us.

Christ I finally agree with you on something!

should be a good thing as more team to go to play offs and enjoy promotions

I would think you are about right but take him to a competitive game and one that we might win!. My son was 4 but that I did that more for me than him. Now he is fanatical and we sometimes travel away from home.

Thanks JRM. Franny and Doddy got less than a full house at their in the Dell. Sounded quite cheery.

What was the crowd? Hopefully 20K+