SuperMikey

Why not The Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium?

Agree with that, we need some natural width in the squad to feed Rasiak and Lambert, and we completely lacked that on Saturday. Ideally i'd have Thomson and Holmes on the wings (or a new RM) but that'd mean that some better players than them would miss out on their first XI place. However, you just can't play two players like Rasiak and Lambert up front together and expect them to create their own chances, so i'll go with T and H on the wings. I'd pick: ---------------Davis-------------- Murty---Thomas---Perry---Harding ----------Gillett---Schneiderlin---- Thomson-------------------Holmes --------Lambert---Rasiak--------- Subs: Bialkowski, Lancashire, Wotton, Lallana, Saganowski, Patterson

The Maccabees - Colour It In Metallica - The Black Album Radiohead - The Bends Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape Biffy Clyro - Puzzle System of a Down - Toxicity Ash - Free All Angels Vincent Vincent and the Villains - Gospel Bombs Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Journey of Dreams A bit of variety never hurt anyone

Finished my mix today, just got it right flowing between songs and genres methinks.

If 19C was a pigeon...

Do you do this on purpose?

What i'd pick: Davis Murty Thomas Perry Harding James Schneiderlin Gillett Lallana Rasiak Lambert Subs: Bialkowski, Lancashire, Mills, Thomson, Wotton, Saganowski, Paterson No width in that squad at all, but imo that is close to our best XI. Would like to see a new CB playing instead of Perry because I think he's too old to be able to play a full season at his best for us now and I doubt that Lancashire is good enough at the moment to step into the frame. Mainly used that formation to showcase Lallana in his best position, he can be a great player for us this season if played properly and in the right position. Also, James doesn't have the pace to be played on the wing, and he is strong in the tackle, so playing him at defensive midfield would allow him to cover for our defence and act as a 5th defender during attacks. Would also like to see slightly more articulate play from Harding and Murty in respect to defensive clearances. I cringed every time they hoofed the ball out of defence straight back to the opposition, so maybe we could implement a 'build it up from the back' strategy? Schneiderlin is a great passer of the ball, so if he came to collect the ball from defence more often we could actually spring some decent attacks rather than wasting possession. I also really hope that Rasiak stays, because it seems that him and Lambert up front together worked very well on Tuesday, and i'm sure that they could both score at least 15 goals this season each if they stayed. Otherwise, it's not such a big loss, because if Saganowski stays then we still have a lot of quality available. Also, on the subject of Matt Patterson, i'm not too sure about him. He puts himself about a lot, definately, and he scares defenders a bit, but I don't see anything about his game apart from his work rate that would make me play him over somebody like Rasiak or Saganowski. He doesn't have the technical ability that Rasiak and Saga do, and he's not exactly got pace to burn either. I think for this season at least, he should remain as a substitute or time-to-time starter, not a first team regular.

Shame about Rasiak, but I don't blame him for leaving after the way he was treated last season. I have a hunch that the 'unnamed club' could be Watford, because they've been showing interest in him for a long time. As Buzzin' Orn said, Will Hoskins CDAJFU, so maybe we could incorporate him into the deal somehow? What we really need is some pace up front, and Simeon Jackson is definately the guy for that. Whether Gillingham will let him leave to a league rival however, is another thing entirely.

Is the game definitely tomorrow?

P*mpey at home! Get a couple more players in, a few more wins under our collective belt and we could 'ave 'em!

Any radio links that will be doing commentary tonight? Free ones I mean..

Different player, I know, but what about a song for Fish Mills? Surely there's something in his nickname that could merit a song..? One idea that I had was a pretty short one, anyone can sing it, feel free to add verses to it. (To the tune of 'Hey Jude' by the Beatles) Naaaaa, na na Na Na Na naaaaa, Na na na naaaaaa, Fiiiiish Mills! I'm sure that it was used for Ruud van Nistelrooy at some point, no shame in a little bit of plaigarism though..

Pretty much what everyone else has said, we need a commanding centre back because Perry is old and while I feel that Thomas is better than Perry, his fitness should be considered. Perry and Thomas on a rotating basis next to a new CB, with Lancashire as Plan B would be great. We also need width in the squad, but Mills and Holmes are good at LM so that isn't the priority. We can't keep playing Lallana out wide, because frankly he is NOT a wide player. His position is in the hole behind the strikers. Jake Thomson could make the step up to the first team, but I think we need a player with great pace, and while Thomson could put good crosses in, getting past his man is a problem because he's not the biggest. Assuming the two poles are off, we need a new striker. Preferably pacy, willing to do Lambert's running and a good team player. Noticed Mifsud mentioned earlier in the thread, I seem to remember him being able to play on the wing, and quick as f*ck. Sign him up quickly imo, he's versatile and has the width we need. I like the sound of this Raynes bloke from Stockport, sign him up too to play at CB. Now, the striker is a bit trickier. People are placing too much pressure on Patterson, and while he did look very good on saturday, we can't rely on him week in, week out, because he's not experienced enough. Someone in his late twenties, pacy and good with the ball is needed to partner Lambert up front. Any ideas folks? I've run out! Also, Matt Oakley would be fantastic, although whether he'd want to quit his Leicester captaincy and drop a division to come to SMS is dubious.

2:15 to 2:38 in that video is absolutely class! Reminds me of MLT!

They don't seem too happy on the forum, hoping that they'd get more than 800k, think they're assured relegation now, can't believe he's gone to a team in our league...blah blah blah. It's nice to be a buying club Hopefully this rumour is true, because he's exactly what we need. We were crying out for a target man on Saturday, hopefully we can start scoring some goals now!

O rly? I follow Scottish football, Bryson seems to be a very good player, would definately be happy with signing him. A few more players we should be looking at are Andy Jackson and Colin Samuel, both from St Johnstone (my second team). Jacko was out for most of last season with an achilles problem, and had a 'mystery illness' recently, but he's back fit now I believe, and HCDDAJFU! He's young, strong, good on the ball and knows how to score goals. Colin Samuel is a T&T striker who can also play on either wing, who doesn't score as many goals as AJ, but still chips in occasionally. He's 27, which is exactly the age of player that we need to be signing, and would give us some much needed width. Both of these would be excellent squad players imo, and Bryson would certainly add an extra dimension to our midfield. Sign 'em up AP!

Nearly sh*t a brick when I saw him, great to see him back at SMS. Would love to have him back at some time doing some sort of ambassadorial/DOF role, possibly even manager in the future. Also fantastic to see ML with the Saints scarf on, I had an ear-to-ear grin plastered across my face for about 20 minutes after seeing that!

Henry and Owen are past it tbh, I heard that Cristiano Ronaldo went for a KFC with Markus in the city centre last week to discuss a possible January move. Could be a decent squad player. I also hear we're signing God on a three month loan. Supposed to be quite good, he's getting on a bit now though.

Official player of the year? Kelvin Davis How many penalties in the league will Davis save? 4 Most goals we will score in a league match? 5 Our final league position? 7th What round of the F A Cup we will reach? 2nd

Well, that probably wasn't worth waiting for..haha. AP basically repeated what he's been saying in his interviews so far, -10 points is a big handicap, looking to achieve mid-table, be it by january or the end of the season, and if we are still in L1 next season then promotion is the only achievable goal. Also commented on the 'very professional' fashion in which the board is operating, we're working on a 'tight ship'. AP said that the board will be thinking in 5 years time 'we're in the premiership' or 'why are we not in the premiership?', which shows that they seem to have the ol' 5 year plan in full operation. They showed some footage of the Ajax game (our goal and then footage of Wotton falling over and various players running around) and seemed to focus on the swiss element at the club, with the swiss flag being shown at the very beginning and the very end of it! Feeling very positive now, hopefully with a few more good signings to strengthen the team we can finally achieve what we have the potential to do.

I've got us down for 14 points from that lot (excluding a win at Northampton in the cup). If it actually comes true i'll be astonished!

Even though it's only been in pre-season friendlies, Thomson has really impressed me so far. He was great against Farnborough and has done well in other matches. Imo he should be starting on the right with Lallana in the middle.

Twix.

I'm with the negativity tbh. Even though we've only played a handful of pre-season games, it's painfully obvious where we need to strengthen in the squad. The squad we have at the moment is not a bad squad by any means, but we won't achieve anything near to what the fan expectation is without bringing in some new faces. We definately need cover at centre back, because Perry is ancient and Thomas seems very injury prone, and Lancashire is a bit gash. 2 new centre backs please, Mr Pardew. We also need a pacy winger who can provide good service to strikers. In retrospect, keeping Nathan Dyer would've been the best option because I think he had a lot more to him than some people realised. I do, however, acknowledge that his transfer fee helped pay the wages and keep the club running for a bit longer. We also need a goalscorer if Rasiak goes, and if he stays, a hard-working player who will do Raz's running for him, because he won't do it himself.