batterseasaint

Maybe an established Prem player read Chamberlain's comments about how he should be playing in the Prem and wants to be in the England setup, even though he only has half a decent season in L1 under his belt, and the established Prem player thought he would bring him down to size a little bit. Just a thought.

I was, and remain, a big fan of Antonio. The reason for this is not just his abilities, which admittedly were quite raw. What impressed me most about him during his time with us was the vast improvement that he showed. At the beginning, he was quick but ran down blind alleys and his finishing was sometimes comical. By the end, he made good decisions most of the time that he got the ball, retained the ability to beat defenders and also improved vastly in his finishing. If we had signed him permanently after that, I think he could have developed even more during last season and would now be ready to take the Championship by storm. Instead, he went back to Reading where he could not get a game so he has stagnated. I would welcome us signing him, though not for the fee of 500k that Reading reportedly turned down from us a year ago. I think 100k would be about the going rate for a player that can't get in a Championship side and who scored a few goals in L1 a year ago.

The rumours thread was my only reason for coming on here. I am a football fan, and by my very nature I like to get excited or righteously indignant at the prospect of signing these players. I am old enough and intelligent enough to pick my way through those that are clearly spurious and therefore don't need a moderator to point it out to me by deleting such threads. It is all part of being a football fan that Summer is filled with mindless tittle-tattle about which players will be coming and going, and the newspapers are filled with such stories. However, I do not have the time to be rooting through all of these sources myself, hence why Saintsweb is always a good place to get all the rumours in one convenient place. All in all, a shame that it has disappeared; it would appear that the moderators are forgetting themselves and what this site actually is. I'm sure there are plenty of other Saintsweb users around like me, so I guess I won't be the only one who will have to look elsewhere for this info now.

Pardew was already talking with Newcastle before he was sacked by Pardew. I heard that straight from the mouth of one of Pardew's advisors who was involved in negotiating the deal. I wouldn't mind betting that that is the reason why Cortese said he 'had no choice' but to sack him. Whether it was because of Cortese's attitude towards Pardew that led him to talk with Newcastle, i guess only Pardew himself will know.

I'm from Shrewsbury and was in the same boarding house at school as Michael Palin (though not at the same time). If we're using this as a guideline for being a salopian, you could also say Michael Heseltine, John Peel, Willie Rushden and Nick Hancock are also salopians.

Haha! Yeah that was me :-) Checking out my missus were ya?!

Yeah we popped in for a cheeky burger for lunch and there he was, complete with Vietnamese nanny in tow looking after the sprogs.

Bluddy hell Torres, I was in the Red Cow with him yesterday as well! Tried serruptitiously taking a photo of him but the missus gave me a bollocking so I stopped.

My cat is called Mickey and my dog is called Lambert.

Seen it mentioned a couple of times in this thread about Antonio being taken off at Wycombe, with the intimation being that he couldn't handle the bad pitch. The way I saw it, the reason Antonio was taken off was not because of his own performance, but because it just wasn't working with Puncheon in central midfield. And rather than replace Puncheon with Wotton, Pards decided to shift Puncheon out to the wing, and that obviously meant Antonio had to go.

There have been plenty who have written him off or slated him in some form or other during the course of this season. And I can quite categorically state a true FACT that they are all idiots. I don't recall a bad game from him this season, and most games I come away thinking how good he was. Today was his best performance; not only did he run the show going forward, but broke down so much from the opposition. This guy is such class... the best midfielder we have had for some time. It is hard to compare his ability with those players we had in the Premiership, but I struggle to recall enjoying an individual performance from a central midfielder as I did today. Morgan, you are brilliant.

There is major re-engineering works on the line between Surbiton and Clapham Junction all day on 28th March. Practically, I'm not sure what this means but would either mean a replacement bus service, a re-direction, or cancelling of the services altogether. Anyway, I have emailed South West Trains to find out, so will post the response on here.

Wes Brown looks like a Timberland boot (though I'm aware neither are snacks).

Nick has never claimed to be the voice of the fans. In fact, from reading his posts on the Ugly forum, he is quite happy to take the p*** out of himself for constantly being labelled this by the media. As far as I can tell, he neither believes it himself nor takes it seriously. Nick is merely someone who is passionate about Saints, has opinions, and is happy to express those opinions when asked by the media.

I really don't care how many feckwits inhabit this forum... the reason I resurrected it is for exactly the reasons I said in my original bumping post... "Keeping aside some of the strange views that we should have got rid of Adam (and Morgan as well), it was an interesting reminder to me of the player that Adam was last season. It is remarkable the amount of progress he has made in just a few short months, which would indicate the amount of progress that he can still make if he stays on the same path. That said, I am a bit nervous about January coming around and the sharks circulating." I think it is a very valid comparison to see what people think of him now, and a worthy discussion point. Hence why I bumped. Apologies to anyone who was confused by this.

I had a bit of a re-read of this thread tonight; some interesting views in here and definitely worth reading, so thought I would give it a bit of a bump. Keeping aside some of the strange views that we should have got rid of Adam (and Morgan as well), it was an interesting reminder to me of the player that Adam was last season. It is remarkable the amount of progress he has made in just a few short months, which would indicate the amount of progress that he can still make if he stays on the same path. That said, I am a bit nervous about January coming around and the sharks circulating.

Pardew knows what his best team is at the moment, but if we suffer from injuries and loss of form (Trotman?) we have very little backup. I think the only players on the bench at the moment who Pardew would consider as an adequate replacement are Thomas, Murty and Papa. We need a deeper squad, especially as the games are now coming thick and fast.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Papa is an infinitely better player than Antonio. Papa knows when to play it simple but also knows when to take on his man. He has created far more opportunities than Antonio, and in general is a far more well rounded player. Yes, Antonio has a good impact but is there really any value in having that impact in the first 20 minutes of the game (which is the approximate time that the opposition take to work him out)? Sad thing is, if Antonio had been a sub today and came on in the last 20, I think we may have won. Both players have their place in the squad. But as much as I think Pards is an excellent manager, this is one decision he is getting wrong at the moment. Papa should start, and Antonio should be the sub.

I was in the Kingsland and in line with those offsides towards the end. He got them all spot on. There were two where the player was coming back from an offside position, and the last one was criminal on Papa's part... he was looking right across the line yet still decided to stay offside. My opinion is that the ref was pretty much spot on today, apart from their foul throw.

If you wish to shun decent debate in favour of childish digs, then yes. Fact is, Alpine Saint made a perfectly reasonable point for which there are good arguments for and against. Most people have chosen to respond sensibly with their point of view (thus stimulating good discussion), without allowing personal prejudices to come into it. St Will, you are clearly in the wrong here and any sensible adult can see that.

I was careful to say 'At the moment, he appears to be a one trick pony', because I am aware that he hasn't been used in a more advanced role yet. But given the fact that I have watched a lot of football over the years, my guess is that, at the moment, he is the sort of player that is less suited to a starting role because he will offer less defensively. Particularly as he is a right-sided player, and whilst Lloyd James has played well this season, he is not yet the finished article from a defensive point of view. I don't think Lloyd should be left exposed in that way. It seems that Pards is thinking along the same lines as me, and I am glad of that. We have enough attacking outlets to break teams down, without Antonio on the pitch. But if Plan A fails as it does from time to time (failed against MK Dons and Leyton Orient, but worked against Gillingham, Oldham and Southend), then he is a great option to stretch the game. That said, there may come a time when it may be worth starting with him at home to see what he can do. The Paint game springs to mind as an option for that.

There is no way this guy is worth 500k. Reading would be p***ing themselves laughing if they get that, for a raw young player who has had no impact on the game, and anyway is surplus to their requirements. 50k might be worth it. He is quick, but also very raw. He has scared a few full backs in L1 with his pace, but he needs a whole lot more than that to become a starter in the team, especially as we move up the levels. For me, he is an impact player to come on for the last 30 mins to stretch the game and take advantage of the greater space available. For me, Papa is a far more complete player. He knows how to defend, he has a good first touch, knows when to play it simple, but also knows when to take on the defence. He also knows where the goal is, as proven by his goals. At the moment, Antonio seems to be a one-trick pony, namely to kick it a long way past the defender and leg it after the ball. In the early stages of a game, the space simply isn't available to do this. That said, they are both key players in ensuring we have multiple strategies depending on the situation in the game. So I would like to see us sign them both up permanently... but Papa is the most important of the two for our long term growth.

Lowest point off the pitch had to be when that Fialka fella came on to Sky Sports, and it was plain to see for everyone that he didn't have a pot to p*** in. I did a bit of research into him both during and after that interview, and I became painfully aware that the takeover just wasn't going to happen, and something had gone terribly wrong with the Pinnacle bid if they felt the need to put him in front of the cameras. As for the lowest point on the pitch, I think it had to be just before the Bristol Rovers game, because unlike others who have posted on this thread, Rovers was the turning point for me. OK, we lost, but for the first time we saw how Pards wanted us to play and given a slight swing in luck towards us, it would have been us that came away with the three points. As disappointed as I was, I said to my brother as we walked out 'we are going to **** the Gills on Saturday'. And sure enough, we did.

FFS, I'm 34 years old and I've just had to take a pill for my blood pressure. That's what comes of a lifetime supporting Saints.

Agree. In recent weeks we have been playing more like a team than I have seen us in years. It all started at the Bristol Rovers game, and we have not looked back since then. Although Connolly is obviously an excellent signing for us, I am a little concerned that bringing him into the side may upset this formation that is obviously working so well for us at the moment. But obviously it is great to have another option!