Legod Second Coming

Actually I can tell you a true story about Scouting. Mate of mine's lad plays for a Premeirship Academy. Anyway, he has to leave because dad (my mate, nameless) gets a job up north. Within one day of arriving in the north, having decided that said youngster needs to get settled into school first (he's 10) before going back to football, my mate has three phone calls. From Bolton, Liverpool and Everton. Al enquiring about his ten year old!!!!! Unbelievable!

Or Warsaw's, the jury is still out...

Friend, I want to disagree. You want to know where money gets you?? Shooting your 15 year old daughter, your wife and yourself because you cannot face the humiliation of losing it all?? How, tragically, tragically sad. Really, truly. Is this how we now measure the value of human life? Who says football has to be this way? Who says life has to be this way? Not me, not anymore.

LOL, we are all entitled to grow up and see the light friend!

Years ago Phil, a friend asked me if I would want to win a million on the lottery. I told him I would rather earn it, if that were the choice. And that's how I feel now. If this team could achieve just some minor success, it would mean more to me than an oligarch-sourced Champions League trophy. Really it would. I'd rather win a Johnsons Paint trophy we earned!

Stev O Is he related to Earwig O of the joke fame?

Is it Steven or Stephen?? I need to know.

Years ago, I would have said that this club needed to invest in playing talent. I cried out for a Keeganesque signing. A whopping name - massive. Bring me a Beckham I cried. Over and over. Spunk money away on the best names on the highest salaries. What a fecking idiot I was (still am, sure, mock me). What the feck would I want to support propping up the ludicrous modern footballer's wages for? Perpetuating the myth of SKY's glamarous Premiership - with all its drama and excitement. Drama and excitement?? My ass. What a mug. I'm cancelling my subscription as soon as the cricket is over. Because finally, finally, finally. King Kev has proved it. Money doesn't buy you the one thing that I really want to see in my team. A little bit of 'class'. Ahsley with all his cash is like the rest of the Premiership and the new owners. Easy come, easy go money without any roots in what local football clubs are about. They're about local people, supporting local teams, ideally filled with local players. Feck the Chairman. I give not one hoot who he is nor where he came from. At last, I can look out on the pitch and see players playing for their shirts, their club - my club. And players like Gillet, Surman, White, James, McGoldrick - my players. Giving 100% for my team. Well, thank the Lord for that - at last. Bring it on I say. And if we lose doing it, so be it. At least I feel some pride again.

It's not the Arabs, if it wasn't for OUR FECKING GOVERNMENT you and I would actually be paying somewhere around 40p per litre of diesel. And if it wasn't for sovereign wealth funds like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, right now our economy would be totally and utterly fecked!

Bring him in as DoF!!! Go on Rupert, you know you should!!!

Minty you are spot on fella. Football at the highest level will simply consume itself. You'll have a ridiculous league - a bit like the NFL or World-Series -where clubs will have no homes and play wherever around the world the highest bidder takes them - like the F1 circuit. Why? Because money rules and there's more Liverpool fans paying more money in China and Russia than there are in Stanley Park. Which will leave a kind of 'provincial' league here in the UK. Of which we will be a part and with any luck we'll be a significant player within that league. And slowly, as the world wakes up to that old Cree Indian philosophy, people will come to appreciate us for what we are and do. The philosophy? Oh yeah, it's on my office wall: "Only when the last tree has been cut down, Only when the last river has been poisoned Only when the last fish has been caught, Only then, then will you learn that money cannot be eaten." Shame football doesn't appreciate this, or governments, but there you go...

Alps, serious question, do you think there is an advantage to Rupes exacerbating our problems for public effect? OK, on a pyschological level, he can look 'more heroic' but I'm not sure he's really that egotistical... then again... From a very good business perspective, however, there could be value in this: 1. It decreases the expectation of fans, which is good for the team - if not immediately for the attendances! 2. It puts pressure on agents and players with regards to contracts. 3. It encourages offers for players who might not otherwise want to move. So, while personally, I think we probably are just in the sh!t. I also think you have very sound business reasons for ensuring we communicate the depth of our crisis for maximum 'personal/SFC' gain. What dya think??

There wasn't a day last year when I didn't dream about seeing the players we have sold... seeing them LEAVE!!! On a serious note, Rasiak is a shame, Davies a real shame. But between them, the squad bumbled to a pitiful (if highly entertaining on the day) car-crash end to the season. Bar Davies, EVERY player sold was given some right old fearful hammer on here. Even Safri was lightweight really, Viafara inconsistent, Idiakez crocked, Ostlund erratic, Wright....

Really? In the first six competitive games last season we had conceded 13 goals. Thie season, 6. I'd call that over 100% improvement, personally.

Hmm, in the same way as if one of our shots had gone in?? If the player had played on Saturday as they played: in the first half against Birmingham in the league against Derby in the league against Bimingham in the Carling Cup we would have won. They didn't, we didn't. Not convinced that full-backs would have been the tipping point.

I am or-gasmi-c.

Which is your usual retort when you reognise someone might be right... I don't even think I have heard the word Uppity since Roger Hargreaves... This is a messageboard, of course people are opinionated - otherwise they wouldn't be here expressing them now would they? Your assessment - dour - might turn out to be right, given time and evidence. But your constant claims (from game one), for example that Morgan Schneiderlin is a lightweight just looks plain wrong -until we lose to Blackpool and now it's right all of a sudden?? He's been immense in previous games, where were you then? I accept your pessimistic outlook. I happen to think that if you're going to call us lightweight, come on and do it when we have beaten Derby and Birmingham too. The evidence of whether we can beat teams at or around our level is currently 50/50. So why the panic button?? You're simply too anxious. You need to chill and take the odd defeat on the chin. I said before, I think your expectations of this team are totally unrealistic. Winning three games in a row?? What Saints team of the last two decades has done that?? Judge harshly when you have the evidence, surely? And I am a bad, bad loser.

I agree, prices are the same regardless of the value of players on the park - which is something the club has to address. But (and let's take the incumbent management out for a minute) this is a real catch 22. Drop prices and there is no guarantee of increased attendance. And whether you call them kids or whatever, the point remains - they're ours for the first time in a long time and I'm glad you'll be there through thick and thin with them, as will I. I fear though that we're like the boy who cried wolf at the moment and when we really know it's not another false dawn, maybe people will come back. Me? It's never been about winning (albeit that's the preference) nor about quality of entertainment (albeit good football beats bad), it's about escaping real life for a few hours every week. It's nice to do that and see a team working for each other and caring passionately about doing the right things. That's the reason I am so much more optimistic now than I was at this point last season when it was obvious that the manager couldn't give a hoot and had neglected his defence criminally. Contrary to popular belief I am not happy clappy by disposition...

You missed 3. Because if you thought Saturday was worse than Palace at home (1-4), you need your head examined - no offence - or are exaggerating for effect. Saturday was the kind of dross we have served up for two decades on and off. The difference is THIS time it's our home-grown kids still learning their trade. Look inside yourself and tell me your mood has nothing to do with the inclement conditions and the many false dawns this club has experienced?? Vesting that in these kids is hardly their fault is it?? We were poor on Saturday. The previous home game we had shown flashes of exceptional football. That's how it goes with kids.

Seriously, read the posts Alpine. "I was beginning to think he was a genuis but now he needs much more time in the lower leagues..." If that doesn't tell you all you need to know about the lack of balance and consideration given our situation I don't know what will. CRACK!!!!!!!!!!! What the feck was that?? Oh that's right, the sound of knees hitting the underside of desks...

Yep. Prozac - two for one at Costco... I notice we weren't being bullied and lacking tactis against Derby or Birmingham when we won?? Although bizarrely apparently Birmingham did bully us in the league but not ten days later... I posted on Thursday, I think, that the euphoria and gloom are ridiculous. We have green shoots not marigolds or lillies. We have played six competitive games. What happens is that you and other pessimists draw conclusions from defeat and extrapolate them across a season. Yet do not draw any conclusions from victory and simply give a cursory 'congratulations'. To remind you, the manager's current win ratio is 50%. If it drops below that before November, let me know... But my money is on us learning lessons from Saturday and beating QPR.

Remember watching a bloke called Moran, Shearer, Le Tissier?? We haven't had a main act since the 1984 team. Was watching Saturday was worse than watching Jeff Kenna, Benali, Horne, Heaney, Dowie... ??? You don't know right now whether you're watching diamonds or coal.

On that we are 100 agreed. Personally, just from a 'gut feeling' watching, I think we got a bit too carried away with ourselves and went into the game thinking we could roll Blackpool over believing our own hype. But hey, so long as we learn and this does not become a recurring them, I'll take the odd rough with a bit more smooth!!!!

Err, two contracts in a week??

Don't really disagree with what you're saying, although it wasn't really that effective against us. At home they beat us twice not by virtue of their style of play but because our finishing was appaling! At Pride Park twice we showed that playing good football will earn you at least a point. I agree that we have little evidence on which to judge but I am frustrated that people are using Blackpool as an example of an approach that will work against us. They were in no way a Derby type outfit. They played counter-attacking football but predominantly down the wings until Hammil went off. Yes they hit it long a bit (but probably no more than we did). My gut feel is had we played with the same zest, buzz, pace - call it what you will - against Blackpool as we did against Birmingham, then this debate would be rendered pointless. I don't think Saturday showed any lack of tactical nous by our management team - more a lack of failing to apply the basics that had previously been working so well by our team. I think in an earlier post you ascribed this to tiredness (or at least made the point that tired players make basic errors through tired minds). To me, that's what was happening on the pitch, not a brilliant strategy effected by Blackpool.