labibs

Catcher would be very difficult to film though. How would you put in a lot of the internal monologues? Nearly all of the film would have to be voice- overs!

Had a busy weekend, so haven't had a chance to post my views on the game yet. Firstly, the police presence was insane! Must have been the entire South Wales Police Force to shepherd us to and from the ground. Didn't have a bad experience with them myself, but it did seem a bit heavy-handed. Now for the game itself. Cannot believe he put James in at RB again. All Swansea were doing was knocking it out to their left wing as they knew they would get some joy out of James. I'm not blaming the lad himself, but he simply cannot play RB. We have to put Cork there and keep him there. Should have put Wotton in at CB. DMG was woeful, lacks a physical presence and cannot play up front on his own. I feel the team does has ability, JP just needs to get his tactics and his formation right. Swansea weren't all that good, they knocked it around okay in midfield but didn't have to do anything impressive to get their goals. Before the game, all the talk was about how dodgy their keeper was, yet I think we only had 2 shots on target in the whole game and only one in the first half. I would have thought JP would have told them to pepper the goal straight from the off. All in all, very disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. I'll be loooking out to see what formation JP puts out on Tues, if he gets it wrong again, we all know what will happen.

Don't want Dowie here, don't rate him at all. Did okay at Oldham and then got lucky at Palace as Andy Johnson turned into a goal machine out of nowhere. Hasn't really done much anywhere else. QPR have spent a fair bit and will be paying big wages. The likes of Bukzaky and Lee Cook will be on massive wages, as will the foreign lads they have on loan. I can't imagine a man like Damiano Tomassi will be there on the cheap either. I guess they are comparing what he has done with the likes of Wolves and found he has come up short.

I agree that website is hilarious! I'd be disappointed to see Stern go, but if JP is to persist in playing one up front and for some reason favours DMG and Robertson over Stern, then it makes sense to let him go. If it means we could get Saga back, I would be delighted. I could well be wrong, but I thought Rasiak was on loan for the season at Watford?

I'm going. Looking forward to it, if we can put in a solid performance like last night, we could nick something here

I agree with others that the early ball out wide to Holmes was a decent tactic for us and we have missed it. If Gasmi turns out to be decent, I'd be interested to see how we'd get on with Holmes on the left, Gasmi on the right, Lallana in the hole and Morgan/Surman in centre mid. That could be a very decent midfield. I'd back Morgan to stick away a pen as well.

It's going to be tight, that's for sure. I think the big advantage we have is that we can change things. Jan could decide to stop messing about with his Total football formation and go back to 4-4-2. We could play some of the more experienced players (John, Rudi, Euell) and that might improve us. Doncaster and Forest look to have set their stall's out and what they have on the pitch now is what they have to offer for the season. It's not looking good at the minute and we seem to be making some elementary mistakes, but I don't think it's definitely all over yet. I'm going to Swansea on Sat, hopefully we can at least be competitive and start to look like a professional side

Have a look at the last line of this report on the OS: "Anthony Pulis is also expected to finalise his move to the south coast shortly and could join up with Saints in around 2 weeks if given the all clear by the doctors" http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/article.php?page_id=10753 That would indicate to me that perhaps whilst he has agreed to sign for us, he hasn't finalised a contract yet. Hopefully this means we haven't been paying him any wages whilst he has been recovering from injury.

Just backing you up with a bit of additional info!

Surman's girlfriend is pregnant and she's due in January. I cannot see him wanting to move away from the club or the area with that going on. I fully expect him to be here until the summer at least. I suppose it's feasible he would consider a move to Reading or a London club in January, but I can only see it being done reluctantly.

Yeah I saw this on Mediawatch as well. He does seem to gloss over his complete failure to turn us around. There's an article elsewhere on F365 talking about finances (might be one of Sarah Winterburn's pieces) that highlights Pompey as paying Champion's league wages to their players (it alleges Diarra is on 90k p/w), despite being nowhere near the champion's league places. I cannot wait for the Pompey bubble to burst.

I always wondered about this. Why can't they just change the rules of the league? The league itself is only effectively a competition that the clubs enter on a yearly basis. Can't they just say that if you want to compete in this league the rules are that you must have 5 or so homegrown players? Along a similar line to the football at the athletics, where the majority of your squad must be under the age of 23, for you to be eligible for the competition? Obviously the prem clubs would have to agree to it (which is unlikely) but is this not possible?

Personally I quite liked it. Like the way they have slowed the game down and the fact that you have to create chances rather than just running straight through defences with Ronaldo or Messi like you could in the previous version. I'll be buying a copy. Then again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion

Why not give him a chance? I'd imagine that coming from Millwall in league 1, his wages will be tiny. I agree that Wotte must have liked the look of him during the reserve game. Get him here, have a look at him during training, see if Jan can get the best out of him, how he adapts to the system etc. He came through Arsenal's academy, so he must have shown some promise as a youngster. I'd much rather have a genuine winger on the pitch, then BWP or another striker playing wide.

I really think this our problem. We are far too lightweight up front and are not taking our chances. I'd like to see John or Pekhart start up front tnt, with DMG moved out to the wing.(Maybe out to the left to replace Holmes whilst he is out) I like DMG as a player, he's good on the ball, has good movement and isn't afraid to take people on, but I feel he maybe lacks the physical presence and the killer instinct to play up front on his own. I'd give Pekhart a start tnt, to see what he can do. I expect to see John given a run-out at some point this evening though, maybe as a sub

Completely agree. Also you have to consider our wage structure at the time. Even when in the prem. All of those players would have recieved a wage form their new club that would have been vastly over outside of our wage structure at the time they were sold.

Broadly yes, but you also need to consider the fact that we need to avoid administration as well. If we spend to stay up, but go into administration as a result, then we will get a 10 point penalty and likely be relegated anyway.

If he carries on as he has been (2 goals in 6 games) of course he'll be off in January. We're a selling club. If someone comes in and bids £2.5-3m for a 20 yr old with half a season's first team experience, how could we turn it down, given our financial situation?

As above, I think as it's a season long loan they'll definitely keep him. If he's only out for 4 weeks (with an international break in the middle), it's hardly a major injury. I watched the highlights of Watford v Forest on the Championship and couldn't believe how immobile he looked! However it appears he may have been playing with the injury then, which may explain things. I rate Rasiak and feel that if you play to his strengths, he will come up with the goods in this division. However, our new formation under JP, requires a lot of movement from the forwards, which isn't really Greg's strong point. Due to that, it was right to send him out on loan, hopefully with a view to someone coming in for him permanently.

I don't think JP rates Thomas at all. With Davies leaving, Thomas must have thought he would have had a good chance of getting into the side, given Perry's age and Killer's troublesome knee. After Davies' departure, the speed with which the JP commented in the Echo that he was looking for another CB and then subsequently snapped up Cork, to me, says that he simpy doesn't fancy Thomas. If he's looking for footballers who can play it out from the back, then I really don't think Thomas fits the mould. He's big and agressive, but his positional play sometimes lets him down and he's not that great on the ball. I would imagine Thomas to be 4th choice CB, possibly even fifth behind Wotton / Morgan. If anyone came in for him (which I doubt they will) he'd be off like a shot!

I don't think we are in a position to turn down £1.25m for KD, if the Stoke bid is true. I would imagine he is one of our high earners and the chance to bring in money + get rid of wages is too good to pass up. Davis is a good shotstopper, but I've never been overly confident in his ablility to command his area. I often wonder if this is why we seem to let in so many from set pieces and high balls into the box. If Davis does go, I would hope that we be able to get an experienced keeper on loan from somewhere, or perhaps line one up, if BB and Forecast turn out to not be up to the job.

Is this the same Djourou (sp) who had six months on loan at Birmingham in the prem last year? For which I would imagine (don't know for sure) they would have had to pay a decent loan fee for? He started for Arsenal on Saturday (admittedly due to injuries), there is aboslutely no way he would come here! If he was available, there would be a host of prem teams who would snap him straight away. Nice idea, but we'll aiming a lot lower with our potential loans (if we get any in). The lad Cork is a more realistic one, someone who has yet to establish themselves in the premier league.

It's difficult to make a decision unless you know exactly how much each of the players are on, plus what bonuses they get for appearances etc. Having said that, I feel we could afford to lose BWP. One of the most infuriating players ever. Thing is, if he truly is on 8k p/w, I cannot see anyone else mad enough to pay that for him.

The only possible reason I can see for taking Pulis is that it will allow Wotton or Schneiderlin to play as a centre back, if cover is needed. If they do both go, it will be a big blow to the team, particularly with rumours of Killer feeling his knee. However if (and obviously no-one really knows) the bank have set an amount that we need to raise by the end of August, it would seem we have no choice. With regards to Davies, it pretty much seems that he wants to go back to the prem and frankly who can blame him? Jan seems big on player loyalty and team spirit, happy to drop / get rid of players who will hurt the team so he may not want Davies there anyway if he's not focused on playing for Southampton. We are screwed financially, we just need to batten down the hatches, make the necessary cuts and get behind the team that is left on the pitch after the end of August. I fully expect us to lose away at Derby (they haven't won a league game in a year, so you just know we will be the ones to set them on their way) and probably be bottom of the table. The Blackpool game at home will be absolutely massive.