Polaroid Saint

should have let McG take it ;-)

bolox

958 Saints Fans - although Will Cope says alot of 'em would have been there on Tuesday night as well. At least they weren't at Rotherham. Brilliant. I love Will Cope. Actually I don't; clearly I think he is ****e, but he provides a good 'boo-boy' on match days.

Will Cope on his usual top form again then.

Just got back from playing footy myself - blimey, two goals to the good? come on saints. I have a crafty bet for Saints to win either 3-1 or 3-0... ...another goal for Saints and I'm buying the Muffins tonight ;-)

******** to all this. Have none of you ever heard of Positive Thinking? Bhudda, Brahma, The Dali Lama? Karma, Bad brains and PMA? Come on fellas, there is a while to go yet. Lets not become a joke in football, like them Geordie Boo Boys. Thick n Thin lads, thick n thin!

Interesting how similar this is to our current club crest. Both have the shield in spilt in red and white haves (or party per fess argent and gules, if you will!) with the Mayflower heavily featured. And both have a golden 'badge' (fortress/justice or halo) above a red and white banner. I s'pose we could wear red and white feathers instead of scarfs?! Might catch on...

like the badge and the idea. I'd prefer one of the later kits - with red and white quaters tho. I love that historical kits site - some brilliant ones in there. particular favs are brentford, everton, watford, york city and bolton (1884 kit - king o' the mountains!). worth a look!

Quite Right. Ironing is always a pressing matter. Stasis innit? Lets see how the next few league games go, a few more points and people will be back at SMS and back on TSF (or whatever it's called now TSW? SWF?) too.

And now a sensible reply: The shananigans at West Ham show the traditional club manager to be on the way out true - Fridgeirsson "friend of the owner" - (odd job title) Said: "About a year ago, we began to feel we were vulnerable in having a structure with one manager who runs all football matters," So there you go. And with Keegan gone, well - another one bites the dust (I should image he'll be straight back to Glasgow and donning his soccer circus ringmasters shell-suit pretty sharpish).

Harry Redknapp Cucks Sock.

Arsenal? Relegated? You think?:wink: Seriously I agree to a large extent. But those teams with a well established sugar-daddy (or stoopidly high financial turnover) will have the option of splitting off to the fabled euro super league. This will be the end of the Football League as we know it. At either ends of the football league there is a financial disparity that is threatened to cripple the game. Teams dropping out of Div2 into the conference have the opposite problem to teams trying to get into the Prem. Conference teams are often better structured with no history of debt compared to teams - like Torquay to site a recent example - who have been struggling for years. As a result the better funded ex-conference teams have a greater chance of survival, possibly even success, in Div2 just like the at-least-one-year-of-sky-cash-plus-parachute-payment teams dropping down into the CCC have an (financially weighted) advantage of going straight back up. Whilst I appluad a league structure that allows smaller/newer clubs to enter the football league, having the top lopped off and a disprotionate number of (IMHO) under-supported teams (sorry Rusden et al) replacing large town and city teams in t e Football League is simply not good for the game, for clubs, for fans or even for the neutral spectator. Homers mythical IThaKa

Well, based on his style of football, I wouldn't be surprised if West Ham come in for JP! Curbs was doing alright at WHU (injuries and lack of options in the transfer market not withstanding), but Hammers fans always want to play passing flowing football. Which is wot we does, innit!? Seriouisly, if we are worried about any of our young talent going in January, we should also be worried at the very impressive start (performance wise) that JP has made. If/when the result start reflecting performances it'll be noticed - other clubs watch managers as much as players these days.

The best thing about this little is how much more life-like and well-proportioned it is compared the original Ted Bates statue. Nice deepest-darkest-new-forest beard too, aargh.

Great original post LSC, I agree sir. Plus, "the Governement" or rather the FA (as it's their job not Mr Browns) ARE doing something about the current state of English football. They are attempting, from youth and grass-roots up, to put the beauty back into the game. And by jove I think it might just work, WE (all fans, players, officials) need to support it and it may take a whole generation to achieve. But it'll be worth it! in the mine time, it's lovely to see Saints playing football again. Hurrah.

been dogged by injury and a lack of his fathers willingness to put him in the first team of the club he managed. nothing unusual there. Has turned out for the welsh U21s. Could be an inspired signing. Still prefer the look of Gasmi though. *sigh*

No no no, not points scoring. Just tired of the old 'change the formation solves all problems' gambit, so tend to react strongly, sorry! ;-) English footballs tendency to dwell on the myth of magic formulas has been/is still one of its big big problems. You clearly understand how teams adapt during the course of the game and your example is great illustration of exactly that - A free flowing system that is well adapted to the laws of the game. The fact someone wanted to name a formation WM (or christmas tree or what-have-you), is all well and good and if it helps with tactics and mental approach to the game for the team (players and manager) then I'm all for it. It's probably unfair on Chapman as a manager though, to say his successes were purely down to a formation choice. (Brilliantly) it was not the fabled WM formation that was succesful, but the manager and players themselves that implemented it. The key point is that 42121, the title of the thread, is media/fan short hand for all number of possible formations Poortvliet wants his team to play in during the course of the game. People will continue to use a managers percieved choice of formation as a stick to beat him with when things ain't going smoothly (and hail his genius when all is sweet).

1965 is right Doc! He is a modern-football thinker, you, it seems, are less so! 'Formations' are the preserve of the media and fans who like to think they know what they are talking about. Formations are fluid in a 90 minute game of football and players have long been able to adjust accordingly. 442, 433, whatever, is merely short-hand for saying how many 'recognised' strikers/midfielders/defenders are on the pitch. Man Utd may well be playing a 4411 now instead of the 46 they used last season, but, really, Fergie is not bothered what YOU call it. HE calls it tactics, NOT formation. Sure it's a subtle difference; but "Change The Formation" is a completely redundant call to improve a struglling side - change the tactics, attitude, approach, etc maybe, but 'formation' is just a label old-school managers, the media particulaly and many fans fall back on when they cant see ways to improve the play of the squad through decent coaching etc. Styles of play have changed of course, but 'formations' have little use other than as a small part of in-game tactics. Although talking about their various merits make good copy and pub banter, it rarely effects the play of the team. Any famous 'formations' through the years are based in propaganda as much as any supposed effect on the team.... ...expect posts about 'wingless wonders' etc...