Village Saint

Where do you want us to start? Nearly every player Wolves; Hull; Bormingham and indeed Pompey signed were exactly the sort of 'established' PL players that you seem to want us to buy and indeed look where they are now. No thanks. Our buying policy looks okay to me. We still need a keeper and a CH but I am sure they will be here when the season gets underway.

I think you will find that there is a very straight forward explanation here. International transfers have to be approved via the respective FAs and all payments must go from a club registered with one FA to another registered with another FA. As yet there is no Rangers FC registered with the Scottish FA and so no-one for the money to legitimately go to. Clearly the FAs cant authorise payment to another party who are not a club (this would be against the rules for obvious reasons). As soon as, and if, Rangers are accepted by the Scottish FA (which will have to be Friday if their game at Brechin (?) is to go ahead) and all will then go ahead. This would remove any remaining possibility of issues with Davis's registration, although this has been temporaily approved anyway.

This is the first sensible comment I have seen on this. The tv replay was very indecisive as it appeared to show just a fragement of the ball had not crossed the line. Basically there was no clear space between the ball and the line. In that situation a goal should not be given so well done to the extra official - unlike all the studio pundits he got it absolutely right - and without the help of video technology!

And I forgot when we moved on so were they at no cost.

Were as you note all very succesful signings viz they were bought as backup, cost next to nothing and did what was required on the very few occasions any of them were called upon. And we got promoted two years in a row with that helpful assistance.

Frankly not so covert but move on. The people who criticise Guly are attention seekers. Dont give it to them.

NO. Fortunately it is not going to happen but it would be bad for us if it did. It is not the points gained against Pompey that are relevant but the points dropped. Our main rivals (Reading) actually lost to the skates and would effectively gain a point on us which would put them in the driving seat. Gaining the two points on West Ham would be some compensation but its Reading we have to worry about not West Ham.

What sort of idiot are you. We have just got 4 points from 2 games as tough as they come in this league. We are second in the table with only two other teams even competing for an automatic place. I expected us to win the title and still do (I certainly hope so as I have a lot of money on it) but we are outperforming most people's wildest expectations and playing football which is great to watch. What exactly do you want!!

Mills will now never be better than a decent Championship centre-half which in fairness is all Martin is now - but Martin has the time and potential to get better. Its a no brainer really.

I appreciate this is a bit of a wind up by you but Guly was - obviously Ricky apart - the best player on the park. He was constantly available, made himself an enormous amount of space and ensured we didn't give the ball away - setting up attacks down the right and through the middle when we could and recycling it when we couldn't. In fact overall no great surprise that having picked our strongest team we won not only won the game against a good side but gave our best footballing performance of the season. We should always start with that team at home if they are fit, although I can see a case for a more defensive right midfielder for away games.

And in only his 6th game too. Over the season that would be nearly 8 goals whereas the totally inadequate Guly has only mustered 10 in half a season. oh...............

Ryan Dickson has not been recalled. He went on loan for one month on 6/1/2012. That month is now up. Poor research by SNN.

I presume that is a joke. The facts as we know them are these - it is reported that Saints have made offers for Hooper and NA has (unusually) said that this might be true. This still means we may or may have really wanted him. Celtic whilst clearly keen to cash in and start an auction have very publicly tried to push the price up. NA has now publicly tried to push the price down by saying its all over. The ball is now in Celtic's court (although I dare say Hooper's agent is still pushing). If they come back and say okay how about price X it may go through. In short we are no nearer or further away from signing Gary Hooper than we ever have been.

And of course the downside of our last January transfer window disaster was that we were left with a squad that went on the best run in the club's history and won automatic promotion. Summer was another disaster leaving us with a squad that finds itself at the top of the division! Personally I hope we do just as badly this time and then again next Summer. If we do we should find ourselves leading the Prem next Christmas.

I am not sure how you have got this interesting information. It would be good if you could share it with us as I have never seen any statements of any sort from NA saying he thought Forte was a good player. Certainly he has hardly ever picked him here and he wasn't a regular at Scunny. I think he saw his pace as a potential asset and in league one he put in a couple of half decent shifts which was all we needed from him. And finally you have clearly led a very sheltered life and I suggest you try a few games in league two to get some perspective. Forte is not a great player but I went to Shrewsbury vs Northampton a couple of weeks ago. He would have been one of the best players on the pitch.

This is my take on it all. Celtic know Hooper wants to go. He knows he can get at least as good a wedge down south and anyway he'll be noticed and could progress further. So they know they'll have to let him go. Now 6 million is a baragin and a half for them. Finding a striker to score goals up there isn't going to be that difficult either so they are in a no lose situation in this ridiculously inflated January market. Equally if one club will pay this sort of silly money lets see if we can squeeze more out by making public that we are very happy to sell but are looking for even more than the money alreday offered.

I dont think so. In my view Sharp would be a waste of money at the money being asked for for his fee and for his wages. Yes he would possibly score as many as Guly if he played as often (although its far from certain) but he doesn't look good enough for the Prem and would not be better than anything we have got. If NA and NC can't use the money better than this it would be very very disappointing. I hope J Rod is the prime target but would not be surprised if they pull another rabbit our of the hat.

I know football is all about opinions but I can't actually believe you are serious. The problem with Dickson frankly was that he wasn't a good enough defender to be played at left-back and was woefully lacking in the skills required to be a left-winger. We are indeed still waiting for him to construct a decent cross after 29 games! When this became apparent from his early days at SMS, what shocked me was that he was picked again and again and every time was found wanting. It was difficult to see that he could have been the same player that had apparently been the best left back in the division whilst at Brentford. I hope he does well at Yeovil because it seems the bottom half of league one suits him well and if he is the nice lad some seem to know he probably deserves to be somewhere where he has a chance of relative success. saints really would not miss him.

I think in fact Howard's goal might well be unique. I may be wrong but my memory of the others - Jennings; Stepney; Shilton etc was that they all came from kicks from hand. I think Howard's goal was the first where a goalkeeper played the ball from the ground and scored. If true it would also make it the longest goal ever scored by someone kicking a ball from the ground.

I agree. Lets sack Adkins now rather than wait for the inevitable decline which he shows he is completely incapable of dealing with. After all he cant even stand in the right place for TV interviews! Lets get Nigel Pearson in - he has completely turned Leicester City round after all. And the only way to get over our complete dependance on Lambert is to sell him now and get in .... God we really are underachieving. I mean with our expensive squad (only 19 clubs have dearer squads in the Division) we really should be top. Oh we are......

And how completely wrong you have been. Our 'complete dependence' on Le Tiss kept us in the Prem for years when we had crap mplayers and crap managers. Ron Davies gave us glorious results in Div 1 (who will ever ever forget that 4-1 win at Old Trafford) and both earned us respect that the rest of the squad without them wouldn't have done. Channon - one FA Cup; second place in the league (or had he gone by then?). More respect etc.

Please do not perpetuate the myth that goal average favoured defensive sides. It didn't. It was in fact completely even handed. At the top of the table where teams usually had positive goal differences, those with better defensive records did have a better goal difference often (not a bad thing some might say in terms of the QUALITY of the football encouraged) whilst at the bottom of the table where teams usually had negative goal differences of course, goal average favoured those who attacked and scored more which again some saw as morally a good thing.

Not in any sense rubbish reporting. Nor at any point does it say the club is suffering financially. What is true at last and thank god is that it is being run by people with a semblance of financial understanding who understand that to blue too high a proportion of money on wages/transfer fees is the way to destruction (just have a look down the road). It is absurd to suggest that we can get a like for like replacemnt for Rickie who would be prepared to sit around waiting his chance. Its also a nonsense idea. Rickie is the best player in the Championship by some way. A direct equivalent would indeed cost 10 million. It would be absurd to use any funds we do have to do that. Barcelona don't have a replacement for Messi waiting in the wings. What we do need to do is deepen the squad with players that give us decent options - the main need is for a young David Connolly with pace. This might be Maynard; it might be J Rod. They both look promising players but their clubs have inflated views of their worth and I imagine NA and others have been looking farther afield for the right person.

No the league, as in previous seasons will be determined by the number of points gained with the team getting the most finishing top. GTBOH

I don't know. I rather suspect that you meant to!