krissyboy31

I lost it with him when he appointed Wigley and made exactly same mistake he'd made a couple of seasons earlier appointing Gray. The cheap in-house option and it was that (non) decision above all that cost us our Premiership place.

That's what EUFA and FIFA want but I think they have different agendas (no change there). It might work against us though, because we wouldn't be able to sale too many of our homegrown youngsters or we might infringe the laws. Especially if they go to 7 or 8 in the matchday squad.

Nah, Fuller wasn't fit when he was here but not lazy.

I'd swap a 21 year old Beattie for DMG any day of the week.

Are you a better bet 1 on 1 than DMG?

I think it is his 'bull in a china shop' attitude more than anything. True just being here is enough for a lot of the very antis to kick off but I think it was the way he came in, immediately relieved the manager of his duties then closed one of the most popular of the corners, immediately turned a lot of people against him. Many of the financial decisions that have been made have had to be made and although some hurt, I don't think many of those are held against him (with the exception of the loaning out of ALL of John, Saga and Raz. I think he may have got away with 2 but 3?).

When are we going to try that formation?

So Walcott is an Arsenal homegrown and Bale a Tottenham one. Just been on the news that if they try to impose the rule on the Prem there would be legal action.

I think that Jamie White shot last night was the best struck shot I've seen from a Saints player this season. I think the majority of our players practice tippy tappy passing too much and do not practice wellying the ball in training. Shooting, like any other skill, is something that needs plenty of practice. Bobby Charlton said he would practice hour upon hour hitting a ball against a wall with either foot. As an attacking player, it's no good having the ball skills of Mr Wu, if you can't shoot.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'd be delighted if it worked but at the moment, as you say we are light-years behind the likes of Ajax (and Arsenal for that matter). Another obstacle is the one hour travel rule. So we can't sign up under 15's from west of Dorchester, north of Oxford or East of Worthing, but I suppose that also helps us in some ways.

A couple of things about Ajax's "academy". They are one of the big 3 clubs in the Netherlands (the biggest traditionally) and therefore have the pick of most of the decent youngsters in their country. Holland also does not have the stringent work permit regulations the UK does, therefore they are able pick up youngsters from all over the Dutch colonies and also Brazil. We have to wait until players are full internationals from a top ranked country, by which time they are too expensive for us. In past years these players have graced the Ajax team for years to come, suplimented by a few star internationals, which made them one of the best in Europe. These days however, their "academy" is mostly used like ours, to develop players for their sell on value.

Yes but one of them is playing us.

Exactly how I see it. Even when games are going into the last 10 minutes.

I apologise, I thought with Charlton's point they had moved within 3 of us, but looking at the table ALL of the bottom 3 are within 4 points of us.

Conversely, we have failed to take advantage of their poor runs. Whereas we may have been well clear of the relegation zone by now, if we were to lose on Saturday, we could quite easily find our self in the botton 3.

Playing the system we do. The midfield 3 need to be much more flexible. They need to hold when the oppo has the ball and protect what is a very fragile back four and then when we have the ball they have to bust a gut to support the main striker. To me, they do neither. Time after time when we have the ball in advanced positions, there is only one man anywhere near the box so the ball is either smothered by the defence or we have to pass sideways or backwards losing the momentum of the attack.

It's not a case of playing a rigid 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-2-1-1 or whatever. The problem we have is that we are not flexible. JP plays his system come-what-may, regardless of match situation, opposition or personell available, In some games it works well (usually against the better teams that want to attack us) but more often than not it gets stifled or nullified and we run out of ideas. We do not have a plan 'b' or plan 'c', which all good managers have.

What do you mean? It's going to be a whopping 12 degC in Southampton on Saturday.

I think you are right to a certain extent but I am convinced that the attendances would not have been so poor this season if we had dropped the ticket price. At say £20 (just MHO) the average would have been nearer the 20,000 mark than the 15,000 we are currently seeing.

For a Wiltshire man, his ooh-aar accept is pants......Of course he's Scottish!!

Most games in this division are winnable, we just don't seem to win many of them.

I thought we were told at the begining of the season that the capacity with the corners closed was 26k. This also includes the corporates and there's no discount on corp packages and therefore I can't see there being any more in there than usual.

Our Academy is no better, nor worse than the majority of the FA Premier Youth Academies around the country. We have produced the odd international player, quite a few decent Prem/CCC standard players, many more that make a living in the lower leagues but the vast majority of players fall by the wayside because they haven't got the mentality or talent to make it. The trouble with the current upper management is that they think just because a player is good enough to be offered a contract at 16/17 they are all going to turn out like Theo Walcott. If only that were true. Even in the current first team we have some very good players, most are just about adequate but several that are not good enough for the level they are playing.

Quick question, I may have missed it elsewhere! Are the corners being open? If they've sold 23k already and expecting something like 28k, it would suggest so.

If I remember correctly, he criticised the previous adminitration for cashing in on Walcott and then did exactly the same with Bale when he returned.