The9

I agree, but some would say "but we lost on penalties, so that's still a defeat". Trust me, they're out there.

I think a lot of people will be happy with that right now from -10. It's not like we have any League One experts in our midsts who can guarantee that last season's squad would have bounced back up, etc.

Fair enough, I think most of us can relate to wanting "just wanting to play", but what's your opinion of the level of the women's game at the "top" level and where you think it fits in compared to, say, the English pyramid ? And DON'T say "it's more technical than the men's game", we all know that's just code for "no pressure on the ball"...

This Sky curse thing is cobblers. I'm pretty sure our record on Sky has a strong correlation to our record in all competitions when not on Sky. Also, when is this curse supposed to have started ? Shall we start with Fratton and Killer's injury ? That would helpfully only include us being a bit rubbish for the last 5-6 years to begin with. And we can have the argument about "beating" Derby in the second leg of the PlayOffs again too...

Unlike Jelle Van Damme, who by all accounts was given a right b0ll0cking at half time during the Swindon friendly in 2004 by Sturrock for constantly chipping the ball 30 yards in the direction of Crouch's head instead of passing it.

If you think not having additions to the squad in that timescale is the problem, and accept that the manager is the one dealing with that, I don't think it's in any way credible to say you don't think the manager is to blame for the lack of additions. Or are you blaming other clubs for not selling to us, the saviour of the club for not funding the identified transfer targets, or the phone network for dropping all the calls at critical moments ? Personally I'm happy with the progress that seems to be made and that we'll sign John and will also sign Murty if we want him. If we miss out on John due to Palace paying him more, then that helps us work out where we sit regarding the owner's financial approach (even if it's not necessarily what people want to see). A couple more signings of well-regarded experienced players at this level or slightly higher by the start of the season would be good news, some of those kind of players in the loan market in the next couple of months on top of that would be even better, and hopefully we'll win more than we lose early in the season and push on from there. Those are my expectations, I don't think they are unreasonable, and I'm prepared to wait. If Pardew can get 10 of the ex-academy players looking like seasoned pros by May I'll be even happier.

See above. HTH. :smt060

You should have started worrying about our lack of transfer activity on 4th May. However, All that stuff about admin and bankruptcy was just a smokescreen for our surreptitious spending of the £2.5bn on Cristiano Ronaldo, Eto'o, Beckham (on loan), Ibrahimovich, Landon Donovan (whoops) and investment into cryogenic technology to revive Bobby Moore, Rasiak and George Best.

Actually he was requesting the return of "euphoria" via "a boost (or 4)". Seems rather unfair when we haven't even got the opportunity to get 3 of the -10 points back for another week and a half ? Also, who is he criticising for a lack of signings if not the manager ? Anyway, apart from Harding, we've all but signed Murty if we want him and John's a distinct possibility, and we've just stuffed Hearts. You can't ask for much more than 3 likely signings and a comfortable win in a manager's first week... well, not unless you're being impatient.

Maybe you should read it more carefully then.

I just think he'd be in better company. And I didn't tell anyone to anything off, FTR. Clearly Just Mike is the correct person to say who Just Mike thinks is right.

Yes but they are wrong. Crouch at Southampton 09-07-2004 until 20-07-2005 Redknapp manager : 08-12-2004 until 02-12-2005. After Crouch signed we'd already been through Sturrock and Wigley by the time Redknapp arrived. And FWIW Crouch only made 18 starts for Saints in the League (and 9 sub appearances) with 12 goals, plus 5 FA Cup games scoring 4. Hardly stellar, but enough to get him a move to Liverpool for a £5m profit. One of Rupert's better pieces of bull-spotting.

And Dawson, don't forget Dawson. Maybe he'll get Calum Davenport in as cover. Maybe not.

I don't think following Saints under Branfoot is all that rare, and nor is being cheesed off with plastics or overly-impatient bell-ends.

It's not stupid at all, you're showing all the qualities associated with a faux-bothered, impatient, plastic replica shirt-wearer from the other side of the planet who expects "his" club to give him an ego-boost through their achievements every five minutes and starts getting narky when they don't live up to his over-inflated expectations. We're Saints, we've lost more matches in the past 20 years than anyone else in English league football (or whatever that stat was 4 years ago, it hasn't changed), learn to temper it a bit and you might enjoy the successes more. You're up there with the n0bbers at the Bournemouth friendly singing "we've got £2.5 billion" like it was some kind of achievement in its own right. You've had two weeks of pre-season and are getting tetchy for something to happen to "bring back euphoria"? We don't even play a competitive match for another 10 days. And actually, I started supporting Saints because the side I had been following went bankrupt after 17 years of mediocrity in my lifetime. Why, is choosing where you're going to live for 3 years as a student by deciding to watch a mid-table first division side that's managed by Ian Branfoot a sign of plasticity now ?

Welcome to the "last to notice we've now got a generic website" club.

Vets also lost 2-1 in their group to the eventual runners up, a game I had the displeasure of watching. It hurt more than playing 3 games in one day aged 36, I can tell you that. :grin:

Actually from what I've read people are writing it off because it isn't up to their local park's high standard, and I don't see queues of people paying to watch that OR national tv coverage of it. There are some very talented exceptions, and Italy seems to have a decent standard of professionals - but just as there are plenty of skilful women players out there, there are still some international games between smaller nations where kicking seems to be quite tricky for some of the players. Can't wait for suewhistle's input.

That's not actually true, lots of teams assign number 12 to "their fans", ghey though it is.

There's no-one currently with the number 14 he wore in the last season he was actually in the Saints team.

To be fair I can look at the squad list of 33 players (minus 4 gaps = 29, minus 5 keepers, 24, minus anyone under 22, leaving about 8, take off Wotton and Pulis for obvious reasons) and see that our 6-or-so outfield players of competent experienced professional age probably isn't enough to last a 46 game season... but I'm not up in arms because the manager has "only" signed one decent left back, has a decent right back on trial and has already offered a top scorer from the league above the season before last a deal... in his first week. I think there's a massive amount of overreaction and knee-jerking (as usual), this time based on Burley's centre-back tardiness a few years ago - thet's if there's any rationale behind the whining at all.

Really ? Then I suggest you go and support Man U, you're clearly not suited to watching Saints. The "usual suspects" I'm talking to are the people who leak the stories to the masses, nothing to do with posters on here per se.

I had the "pleasure" of crossing paths with some Arsenal fans at the services the day after Forest v Saints, on the way back down the M1. I couldn't figure out why there were so many of them until I googled and discovered the Women's FA Cup Final was at Pride Park. I was, frankly, stunned anyone from more than 3 minutes away would bother. I've still not seen a goalkeeper in women's international football who would get a game for a Sunday League side. I exclude last season's Sunday Div 4 wooden spoonist Southampton Innernets FC team from that category, obviously, but then we had a Skate in goal and even the Andorran women's keeper might have been better.

Because they've been taught to kick a ball correctly, and don't have to toe-end the thing whenever they get more than 10 yards from goal in order to reach the net, I should think. FWIW I don't care how the goals go in (and have even scored one with my "lower midriff" myself), but don't try telling me Rasiak's technique is in some way superior when he's clearly just a toe-punting superstar hero.

Shop windows are more mobile but score fewer goals. HTH.