The9

I can't argue with that principle, the only problem I have with that part of the system is people not serving the time they're sentenced for. That's to do with the practicalities of funding the prison service, not the concepts of justice.

As a tainted Premier League player he'll walk into, at worst, a Championship level club, provided he maintains his fitness. Lee Hughes only dropped one division and serial offender Joey Barton would be in the same place had his colleagues been able to defend and score goals...

Sounds pretty likely though. Incidentally, does anyone have a breakdown of King's "previous"?

It's not their fault our society (and us in particular) has deemed their skills should be disproportionately rewarded, is it?

Fiirst I've heard of it. Not sure there are any precedents either - players being banned from football for non-football related incidents sounds like the kind of thing associations would be very keen to avoid in today's litigious society. I would imagine as a general principle the FA, UEFA and FIFA would leave it to the law of the state in which the crime was committed to determine the length of time for which someone is "unavailable". Having said that, I'm pretty sure there are prison teams in local leagues in some areas, so they're even less inclined to act than to even ensure a footballing ban endures as long as the incarceration. When it comes down to it, football people aren't the ones responsible for ruling on crime.

Pretty sure the accident was on Boxing Day and his loan was due to finish on Dec 31 but I assume Saints heard about the crash and requested that he didn't come back (or he may have been in no condition to do so). I remember being surprised that he wasn't at least on the bench for one of the post-Xmas games at St Marys before I found out about the incident.

There's no transfer window in non-League - and even if there was there's not much difficulty or financial peril in mutually cancelling a semi-pro contract to allow a player to go if the club has said they won't stand in his way - out if contract players can be signed at any time, as we showed with Connolly.

Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, but if we're including out of contract players as "non-league" no matter where they're training, then the answer is David Connolly anyway.

It's not Wotton, it's Anthony Poolis. But he at least has the decency not to get anywhere near the team. As for "why Saints fans must have a whipping boy", I suspect there are deep sociological reasons rooted somewhere in the tribalism of football and the release of aggression and energy which isn't accepted in other spheres of society which football helps provide. God knows why anyone would bother slagging him off from the comfort of their own home though. Fwiw I think he's a reasonably good play-breaker who should stop trying to hit 40 yard passes, though Gillett would be better if he was 5 years more experienced and a foot taller.

Well, we had him working with us.

Meh, trolls post one liners, those interested in genuine debate whack up a couple of paragraphs... Ps I keep editing to add more Saints no-goodniks. I hear that Le Tissier bloke was involved in some kind of betting scam, etc.

Um, as long as he's a better footballer than the ones we have in the squad, I don't have a problem with it. He's obviously a d1ck of the highest order but provided it doesn't lead to him getting sent off all the time, who cares what he does off the pitch? Anyone holding up for praise or as a role model the type of cossetted, millionaire, buy-you-and-sell-you, work half days, overly competitive, limited skill-set, intellectually stunted footballer society produces nowadays is really in need of some spiritual assistance anyway. Obviously there are exceptions who DO make good role models but they are few and far between, and it's not that surprising given what these people can afford and what privileges they are afforded due to their status. I don't see Oldham/Notts County fans wringing their hands at Lee Hughes playing again. We'll see if King eventually turns into a decent citizen, but he's at least a reasonably decent footballer at Championship level and below. For me, the decision should be an entirely football based one. We employed Carlton "do you know who I am" Palmer, Fabrice Fernandes, Nathan Dyer, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Jordan Robertson, didn't we?

That doesn't seem too difficult, as I'm sure you know, the car park goes right down the back of the stand to where the away fans get in.

Well, if it wasn't them it would have been someone else... Say... Boston United, who did the same thing the same season.

God what a rubbish thread. One bloke telling us stuff any idiot knows about Leeds, 10 people randomly hating them and some pointless Brian Clough quotes thrown in, interesting only in that no-one gave a crap about what happened to him there between 1974 and 2006. Don't forget people, they had a large hand in getting rid of Redknapp for us.

Good delivery for the two asssists on the weekend which make me wonder why most of his crossing hits the first defender. I'm glad he's stopped the stupid sliding tackles from behind which got him booked endlessly last season, though I'm not sure if he's a better centre midfielder given our results when he was there. I can't quite figure out how he's not making either the Wales u-21s for whom he is still eligible for Euro 2012 qualifiers, OR the full squad, when they have so many young players stepping up, and even Ryan Doble is at least on standby. Finally, my missus sprinted towards me with one hand in her coat pocket yesterday, providing a remarkable impression of Lloyd James running.

None of this is particularly relevant if you just accept that about half the time he wanders a couple of yards behind the last defender for absolutely no good reason and often stays there. It has absolutely nothing to do with midfielders not seeing his runs, as he begins a large chunk of those runs from offside positions in the first place. All that said, I think he offers us a different kind of skill and he's a useful addition, it's still going to take a little time for him to fit the team's pattern and he made a lot of effort at closing down on Saturday so advances are being made - it's just easier for Pardew to coach Antonio at the moment, I think.

They have offside abroad too!

Having watched him carefully to identify the cause of this specific issue over the course of the last month or so, I can confirm that Waigo's offsides are predominantly due to a failure to stand in an onside position at most points of any given Saints attack, rather than some elevated ability to make unanticipated runs that his teammates see too late. In short, he is offside because he is bad, not because he is good.

I can see why he would, didn't get much going his way until the last kick of the game, but his persistence paid off, and his introduction injected the urgency of play we lacked in the first half. Nice to have a squad where we can improve the performance with substitutions.

The "you fat bastard" chant has been going since at least the early 80s and peaked well before 1987. It would be nice to come up against a proper fatty for once, half of them are muscled but thin now. At least this one was a bit chunky.

To be honest, and I was on the opposite side from Antonio, their left back looked like the worst player on the park even when Papa was against him. I was surprised to see anyone getting success with the "poke past and chase" approach that got found out in my school team when I was 8 years old, which I think gives some indication of what he was up against. Lewington was awful. Having said that, he did well to reach some of his hoofs to himself, and I he had a left foot of any kind he'd probably have scored. Played better than Waigo, and created havoc without showing me much skill, but not sure he'd be much of a footballer against the likes of Harding or Jaidi.

MK Dons fan on 606 forum has noted we murdered them but it was also one of their worst performances.

Jaidi. Not sure that wasn't the incident followed by their defence blocking everything and probably a few handballs thrown in. For the record we are starting to look a little "direct" but that's usually when Jaidi and Trotman are "passing" out of defence, our first goal today was about a six man move that went down both wings and through Hammond twice. They, meanwhile, scored with their only shot on target.

Stoke actually have SIX current ex Saints (though Andrew Davies is on loan as noted above). Henri Camara is a free agent, or at least was 3 weeks ago when I last checked. Rudi Skacel has signed... ...for Slavia Prague (or was it Sparta)? He's not clubless anyway. Roy Hodgson mentioned Baird in an interview last night on FiveLive when describing some of the "less frequently chosen players" and their role in the Europa League / Premier League balancing act. He basically said they've swapped all 11 players from match to match sometimes this season and they're treating it as an experience rather than trying to win the thing.