stu0x

If you substitute the word '********' for the word 'stat', then sure Penalties conceded 98/99 - 08/09 (Premier League only) 1. Manchester United: 18 (8 home, 10 away) % at home: 44,4 2. Arsenal: 23 (8 home, 15 away) home %: 34,8 3. Chelsea: 29 (8 home, 21 away) home %: 27,6 4. Liverpool: 32 (11 home, 21 away) home %: 34,4 Surprisingly enough, the table for penalties exactly mirrors the table for results. It's almost as if the teams that win the most games (and therefore spend the least amount of time in their own penalty area and most in the opposition's) proportionately concede/are awarded the least/most penalties... It amazes me how many people believe such ludicrous myths in football when they can be clearly and irrefutably debunked in seconds.

Since when did signing for Charlton become the yardstick of a good player?

I'm pretty sure every Frenchman gets on well with every other Frenchman, simply on account of being French. David Ginola and Gerard Houllier get on famously, after all.

James Richardson is easily the best anchor in football media today, albeit that isn't saying much. I recommend you listen to the excellent Football Weekly podcast he hosts (during the latest episode of which ironically, they read out an email complaining about the lack of coverage of Saints and the rest of the panel gave him a right digging about that now being his 'area of expertise'). His knowledge about Serie A is encyclopaedic and although on the podcast he is happy to anchor and play the foil to the 'boffins' like Jonathan Wilson. his analysis of the game is both vastly superior and more reasoned than 99% of the idiots on the liked of MOTD and Sky. Literally. Richard. That said, he did look uncomfortable last night, which I put down to a combination of him having gotten more used to the format of radio than tv, and the **** poor quality and direction of the show as a whole. BBC seem convinced that this jokey 'matey' approach to football coverage below the Premier League is the way to go. James Richardson certainly has the quality and professionalism to turn it up several notches and and deliver a mature, knowledgeable and worthwhile programme. Whether the production team are prepared to let him is another matter entirely.

In which case, what possible difference would inserting a compulsory 'option to buy' clause in every loan make? You will simply have a replica of the farcical situation in Spain and Portugal, where players have astronomical compulsory buyout clauses in their contracts because they have to that no buying club will ever meet, and the selling club is perfectly at liberty to accept a rational, lower, offer should they wish to sell. The club borrowing the player will still loan them, because they still get the temporary services of that player (which is after all *what they wanted in the first place*) and if it works out they are at liberty to offer a lower reasonable sum at the end of the loan.

Your argument criticising the loan system eats itself when you start it with "now that we have signed Guly"... In fact we've arguably had greater success with the loan market at Saints in the past two seasons than 95% of other clubs out there. It is unlikely that we would have signed Chaplow, and certain that we would not have signed Guly, if we had not been able to take them on loan. Our two major loan players last season (Papa and Antonio) had a significant effect on our season. The loan market is perfect for a club in our position - we're upwardly mobile, and able to offer the chance of attractive first team football to players at Prem/CCC clubs. Despite us being favourites to go up, a player from a higher division is far more likely to come to us on loan than permanently. That way both sides of the deal keep their options open. If they perform and we're promoted, we sign them permanently. If they don't or we don't, we aren't lumbered with a long contract we don't want.

Yes I totally agree. I wasn't suggesting that he's mentally unprepared to excel, more that he's unwilling to push himself to do so, as you suggest. We all know people who have the tools but underperform professionally due to a lack of 'ambition' or whatever you want to call it, so there shouldn't be any surprise that it would affect a footballer like anyone else. The key is getting him to *want* to perform at a higher level. Puncheon himself, Adkins and the coaching staff, and the fans all have a part to play in that. The problem is if the fans are on his back a week's worth of motivational work by Adkins can be undone by five past three on a Saturday afternoon.

I agree, he obviously has ability. I do think that Puncheon is one of those players that settles down into his 'comfort zone' very quickly. Wherever he goes he tends to do very well for a few matches before settling at a lower level (it's not that surprising, it happens to 95% of people in their jobs, albeit not as quickly). What that means is that it's obviously a mental rather than physical thing and he needs to be constantly pushed and challenged to up his game. The vocal criticism he gets from the fans will achieve exactly the opposite. With that in mind, the next few games could be absolutely critical for him. With 3 away games in a row, and with him likely to play all three, this may be the perfect opportunity for him to get his form back away from the home crowd. If he can up his game, play well and get a couple of goals or assists in that time, he'll come back to St Marys a far more confident and effective player. One thing is for sure, he's unlikely to rediscover his form at home with the prevailing atmosphere.

His knowledge of the club is from the disastrous 08-09 season though, so that might count against us instead of for us!

Apologies if already posted/discussed. I think this could be significant for us. Harley is one of the names that has been floated around for some time as a possible target of ours. Exeter have apparently rejected "several" bids from Brighton. Exeter's financial model essentially revolves around selling one of their 'major' players a year to help them break even - last year it was Seabourne, obviously. With Exeter having gone to press about rejecting their offer (which they don't ordinarily do), it suggests that there are other offers on the table which look more attractive, they wouldn't throw out Brighton's approach so publicly without an alternative. With Brighton being top of the league, and a good deal richer than most of the other clubs in the division, I can only really think of one League One club that might have put a more attractive offer (from both financial and promotional perspectives) on the table... I stress I am not 'ITK' but have some (limited) inside knowledge of the club so the above is based on rational reasoning as opposed to wild speculation... It would also fit in neatly with Adkins' comments about strengthening the squad and having already made offers.

No not particularly, It's not uncommon for an ABH/GBH job to take 6 months, particularly if it's a dust up (so you're looking at charging more than one person). It may well be something as simple as waiting to get digital CCTV downloaded or blood results back from the lab, both of which usually take upwards of 8 weeks. It doesn't work that way. The Crown prosecutes people. The concept of 'pressing charges' doesn't exist. Whilst it's true that the cooperation of the 'victim' is important, it's not unusual to go forward anyway, particularly if there's a public interest to do so, there's a public order issue, or there are counter-allegations - all three of which probably apply in this instance. Er no, that would be extremely illegal. Of course he can. You can assault someone anywhere on anyone's time. Whether he's technically 'at work' or not is a moot issue, criminal behaviour suffices for gross misconduct. Look at it this way - if you employed people, would you want them committing criminal offences whilst 'off the clock'?

I was unhappy when he took over, not because it was him but because of the whole timing of it and the likelihood that it would mean another season in league 1. From day one the target was promotion. If we achieve that, I'll be happy. If we don't, I'll be unhappy. Spanking Daggers or getting beaten by Huddersfield along the way means nothing in the long run. So I'll judge him on the last day of the season.

Ironically enough that's exactly what it is for! Thanks for the suggestions. I'll get in contact with someone at the club (I assume David Luker would be a good bet?) and see if they can help out, and if not I'll hot foot it to the next home game.

Does anyone know if the club has anything like regular open training sessions? Basically I'm very keen to get a shirt signed by (some of) the squad for someone as a birthday present, but don't really know the best way to go about it. And I live a good few hours away, so whilst I'm more than willing to make the trip I don't really want to do it speculatively. Any advice gratefully received.

I don't get it. Why are people arguing with this guy as if Bournemouth are our rivals? We've been propping them up almost as long as I can remember. You wouldn't get into an argument with your hamster would you. Just give him a pat on the head and move on.

Rory Delap

I didn't say the best we can hope for is mid-table, I said it was a realistic result. As you've said, made a very similar start to last season. What subsequently happened last season (ie going on an insane run which saw us averaging about 2.3 points a game and scoring 4 every other match) was the exception, not the rule. Everything came together. Chances are, we won't repeat that sort of performance again. One of the many many variables that all came together last season will change. We're already seeing Lallana out injured and Lambert out of form, however temporarily. Neither of those things happened last season, and they were arguably our two most influential players. To assume that a repeat of last season's form is a fait accompli is blind optimism entirely unsupported by every shred of evidence. We don't need to win 3 more games than Huddersfield in the remaining 39 fixtures. The top of the table is not a static target. We need to overhaul every other team in the division bar 2. Or in other words, not only do we need to go on an amazing run of form, we need every other team in the division to not to do.

And we've promptly thrown all that improvement away in the space of a few weeks and seem to be back to where we were before, if not worse. Another way to look at it is that now, if we do go on an absolutely blinding run like we did last season, putting 4 goals past most teams and destroying the rest of the division... we might *just* sneak into the playoffs. And what's the likelihood of us doing that again? Mid-table is now a realistic end result of this season.

No. It's because last year, when we had just been relegated, had -10 points for the coming year, a squad full of players who were clearly not up to the job, and were a complete shambolic mess, we managed to attract a recognised manager with experience not only of management in the Premiership but promotion to it. SFC is arguably now light years ahead of where it was then, and this is the best we can do? But then why would any manager worth their salt put their metaphorical head on the block and take the job now?

There is absolutely no chance of getting Martin O'Neill. Quite apart from the gulf in levels and all the other considerations, it is well known that the guy is an absolute control freak. He demands to be personally in control of everything at the club, there were a log of people at Villa Park who breathed a sigh of relief when he went as he is a tyrant. There is no way Cortese would be prepared to give a manager that sort of control. He'll, he walked out on Villa because Randy Lerner wanted him to trim the wage bill and not spunk all the cash. I think you have to look back at when Pardew was appointed, it was a massive coup to get him whatever people may think now. The situation when he was brought in was arguably a more attractive one than the current one to any prospective manager (not least because of the sword of Damocles that is obviously now hanging over the post - who is going to take the job knowing that they could get the bullet in such spectacular fashion?) So I think we can forget about getting a high profile manager, unless it is one with something massive to prove - Zola being a perfect example, not quite sure why he would have *any* credence as a manager, his record is barely better than Shearer's. There was a lot of talk within the management structure at Exeter last season that we were looking at Tisdale, maybe there was something in that, it's certainly a more realistic appointment. Problem is, given the circumstances that now surround the club, there is realistically no chance of getting someone who has a better than average chance of doing better than Pardew. The whole thing seems to make no sense at all.

This is just about the only post in this thread that actually holds any merit whatsoever. 80-90% of the rest would be hilarious if they weren't so utterly idiotic. It always makes me laugh how people think they are authorities on policing, despite having exactly zero knowledge and experience. I wonder if any of you ever wander into your local A&E and start advising the trauma team on how to treat a sucking chest wound?

Agreed, although I'd say we'll be top 6, positioned for the traditional post-christmas surge.

Presumably you were expecting Kaka, with Real's midfield getting a bit congested and all?

Hang on a second. I'm not one to condone personal abuse of posters or any of that nonsense. So just because there's been a bit of a (in my opinion entirely justified) backlash against some of the muck-throwing on this thread, you can't just use that an as automatic get-out against any legitimate criticism. As far as I can tell, the assertation about the pitch announcer simply makes no sense. Cortese doesn't muck about. If he wants to fire Pardew, he fires him. He doesn't play stupid games with the pitch announcer. Likewise, he knows full well that the announcer is hardly going to keep his counsel. This is an internationally experienced lawyer and businessman. So to just say "it happened" doesn't hold water. Either a) it didn't happen, b) it happened and we are wrong about Cortese, he is apparently some kind of business retard, or c)... (this is the option you fill in to support the assertation) There we are, no abuse whatsoever. Are we able to have an adult discussion?

Absolute nonsense. Whatever anyone thinks of Cortese, I think everyone has to admit he is fiercely business-focused and ruthless. If he was going to bin Pardew, he would have done it. He's not the type to dither on pulling the trigger. So what possible reason would he have to give such a clear sign to the *pitch announcer*, of all people, and then not do so. It gains him nothing and potentially costs him a lot.