saint1977

Whoever posted about Alison Goldfrapp, I've got a friend who works for radio and she is indeed a nutter, she was OTT obnoxious before and after being interviewed. Jack Charlton - not surprised DSM found him crude, even his own brother can't stand him. I've met Sir Colin Cowdrey and had a couple of pints with him - top man and sadly missed in the world of cricket. Anyone who came out of retirement to face Jeff Thomson at 100mph on bouncy pitches is a brave man! Two of my friends asked Dicky Bird for an autograph at Northlands Road and Dicky said "**** Off" and that's not the first time according to other cricket fans. Met Matthew Hoggard and Jimmy Anderson in Barbados in 2004 - nice blokes but they were quite a few sheets to the wind, particularly Jimmy who had forgotten that a West Indies spirit measure is more liberal than ours! Hoggard wasn't affected though - he took a hat-trick about 4 days after!

2-0 sfc

Ideal for us, the player and Spurs then and a good chance if he's any good of an extension until the end of the season. Wonder if he'll feature V Blackpool?

Erm no, I had an open mind on Holmes, particularly as we beat competition from Leeds and Forest to sign him and both clubs have signed some decent players this summer (as have we based on early performances). Pulis has only ever been signed by his dad, has made a dreadfully low amount of token appearances at each club Pulis Snr has managed and to be honest I think if he was going to join it would have been part of the Davies deal. I've seen plenty of BWP and Euell though and I know that not having them on the payroll would be good for SFC, if it means they join a CCC rival even better!

Agree with CL, I love SFC but glad to be out of a city heading into a steep decline. Soton used to be a genuinely nice city when I was growing up but now nothing is done for the city's people or to promote the city's rich history and heritage - granted there is the Titanic Project but that's about 30 years overdue! It hurts me to say this but look at Gunwharf and look at Ocean Village. The section of the city around what was Tyrell & Green and the old High Street is a dump remisicent of East Berlin in the Communist era and needs pulling down asap - it resembles Portsmouth in the 1980s. Parks still look nice but the city centre needs huge regeneration and a decent light railway system to kick the cars out and to enable M27 users to travel through to Dorset or Sussex without suffering from the laziness of 50 years of crap Soton planning. It's so sad that my home city has become such a toilet, luckily I park in Woolston so I don't even have to go into the city centre for games. No accident that the city is in the doldrums and the crime rate rises. When I was a kid, we built ships and were GENUINELY the home of Ocean racing!

Seconded although a loan left-back if Surman is sold would be key. I guess Skacel will be the cover LB if Rudi isn't found a buyer.

I think that some of the stick Lowe is getting on this thread is a bit unfair - w/p ruled out Adebayor and WGS has said his attitude wasn't ideal even then. However, let's at least get the facts right, Drogba was not a unproven 17 year old, he was in his mid-20s and scoring goals in France, hence he went to Marseille. Why he didn't join us I have no idea - could have been Rupert but maybe WGS wanted Phillips more (bad error of judgement if so) or maybe the agent was trouble and got a bigger slice of the action from Drogba joining Marseille? It certainly benefited the player you would have to say!

BWP to Plymouth? Please be true! Luggy's had a bit of trouble attracting players to the West Country so how about Euell as well?! Come to think of it, maybe Anthony Pulis is missing the West Country so perhaps Stoke could send him there and not land us with a donkey amongst our young, hungry team?

Hope Mick and family are OK - a real Saints legend and one of the great British racehorse trainers.

That was a sickener, on a par with Bent's flukey 93rd minute lash for Everton to steal a draw after we'd battered them for 85 minutes. That said, Higgy was OK for us, people remember the OGs but he was better than Claus that season (NOT OVERALL) and certainly 100 times better than Jakobsson or Davenport, 2 of the worst clowns to disgrace our shirt. Jakobsson's first half display V Norwich ranks as one of the worst 45 minutes I've ever seen from any Saints player. Don't worry folks, this ain't going to happen: - We haven't got £1.5m, barely £1.5p - Wages, even fringe PL players are on unjustifiable wages now. I would never pay Higgy £20k p/w but that's the overinflated market for you, which is about to go pop judging by last week's PL gates, let alone the CCC - We've got Wayne Thomas to do a similar job

Didn't see the highlights but for those that did, did the Trent Bridge conditions provide swing? Trent Bridge was a featherbed pitch but ever since the new stands have been built, it has swung quite a bit and also seems to have had a bit more zip.

Gutted I couldn't make it last night, hope I'm not a jinx against Blackpool and the terrific football stops! Looking forward to it and seeing how Jermaine Wright copes with pace and movement at him. Awful really that relics like that kept Gillett out of the side, a player Blackpool know well. Have always rated Gillett ever since I saw him in his early reserve appearances. Lallana too was very unlucky not to play last season, hope we can get him to sign a new deal. Home draw V Rotherham and then a big one at home would do the bank balance a power of good. When's the last time S4E/TSF/TSW was uniformly positive like this?

Sadly SW you spoiled a good point - getting behind the lads - with a totally unneccessary reference to Lowe. I've been watching Saints since the early 1980s and you can't tell me that Jimmy Case, Neil Ruddock, MLT, ****erill and others were not playing with passion! This is aimed at all TSW users - Lowe is cutting costs and going for his because we are insolvent, not just skint. If JP keeps this standard of play up, Lowe gets a lot of credit for a brave decision but this is a holding period folks. If investment comes that clears some of the debt, Lowe and Wilde are off and I don't blame them. This club is in the crap BIG TIME, hence I will be there on Saturday. We will have to bring in investors just to keep the academy at it's current size, let alone providing more players and the club is on the very edge of administration. Let's just enjoy the football folks!

Well said Weston and investment would enable us to develop this structure further and allow JP to keep other young players like Andrew Davies as well. Moreover, we'd be able to sell the young players for proper money without the bank breathing down on us and buy other young prospects from the CCC and League 1. The academy is not cheap to run and we need more money to keep it going strong with the right leadership. We've been down the road with Wilde of just buying shares so the investment would have to be significant. The football bubble is finally bursting as the economy falters - Newcastle couldn't fill SJP yesterday even with free tickets to schools, Plymouth were sub-10,000 despite Swansea taking a good travelling support and there weren't many 20,000+ gates in the CCC yesterday. Good news for Capello perhaps - clubs will have to give bright younger players a run.

Sounds like Peter Keen would be a great acquistion should we ever get some investment to develop the current model further!

If Skacel is still here on Sept 2 and can get fit, the thought of him and Holmes down the left would be excellent and make right-sided players at other CCC clubs very worried. Surman isn't a LB but wouldn't get into a midfield berth at the moment the way Gillett, Morgan S and Holmes are playing.

Gutted at missing this one as at wedding in the West Country of one of my best mates but superb result and it sounds like a great display with football as I like it played. Bit sick as I've been to Pride Park a few times and never seen us win, let alone in style! Can't wait for Blackpool game now.

Spot on, it's always happened. Even when Saints were at their peak in the 80s, there were still kids with Liverpool shirts on. Heck, when I was a secondary school around 1990ish, there was even a lad in my year with a West Germany shirt on who was supporting them over England (English lad). A Bayern fan also congratulated a Man U fan after England beat the Germans 5-1 in Munich and he was astonished when the Man U fan (probably from Farnham) said "I support Argentina mate".

Probably true with the bank in control, trouble is if we well any more we won't survive in the CCC and it's going to be hard enough as it is. These young players are really going to learn in the deep end - if they swim, SFC swims and properly establishes itself as CCC calibre club (sorry folks, that's where we are presently, it hurts after almost 30 years at the top level but it's true), if they sink it's -17 in League 1. I want option A but it's a huge ask on JP and the lads, I don't think a lot of the posters on here really understand how tough a season this will be. Fingers crossed we'll be OK.

Skacel might still go I reckon if a club do a deal on his wages but Euell and Thomas (thanks George) are more likely to be sold for glue than be signed by anyone else, particularly with the daft wages they are on.

Exactly. Regardless of whether this story is true or not, that should be JP's number 1 and number 2 priorities - 2 season-long loan full-backs. If there is anything left for a striker, that's important too but not top priority.

Only ever signed by his Dad - looks like Blair Sturrock Mk II and he follows Paul everywhere and isn't professional standard either.

Amazing building, I can't believe anyone can build that high! Having said that, work is not far enough getting underway on an EVEN taller building in Dubai. This building is not far off of being twice the height of the Empire State Building, which is enormous and it makes Canary Wharf look like a toy.

I'd agree with most of your ratings Mick and you confirm what I've been thinking about James, good young midfielder who can push the lads in possession at present BUT not a right-back - we really need a loan full-back if we have any chance of staying up. Not surprised by Gillett at all, he always impressed me as a younger player for the reserves and I'm amazed at some of the rubbish the club has bought in preference to him in the past. Height in central midfield is irrelevant if you are technically and physically strong. JP is right to want another striker (albeit one on less wages than Saga or Rasiak) as we short there but we MUST get a full-back rather than a centre-back. Why doesn't JP also loan out BWP to perhaps Luton or Aldershot in L2, just to get him some games and at that level he might score goals and gain confidence? Sorry Mick, you are dreaming about the Skates, Chavski might have whopped them 4-0 but they are light years ahead of us and it would be embarassing, especially with Redknob in charge of them. I felt sick enough at Phillips scoring Saturday's winner, I think I really would spew if the Skates took us apart, which they would.