CHAPEL END CHARLIE

While you're perfectly free to express your populist anti US bile you might care to remember the freedom you enjoy now was in large part bought with the blood of American fighting men and the industry of it's workers .

Not being a PLC anymore is there any legal requirement to publish properly audited accounts ? - if not we may never know the answer to your question .

Let me get this straight - They've already sold most their best players for big money but still can't afford to pay a miserly £5.5m transfer fee in one go and want to do it on installments You almost feel sorry for them - almost but not quite .

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence .

Shame Stern has turned us down because HCDDAJFU , I reckon our 'generous' offer was not quite generous enough . All the signs are Mr Leibherr intends to run his club as a profitable enterprise :smt107 and we're not about to pay over the odds to get (or keep) anyone -not necessarily a bad idea considering this clubs recent history . There's plenty of speculation Rasiak & Saganowski are off soon as well so the need for striker reinforcements is patently obvious , but let's wait and see what happens before we start hitting the panic button just yet .

You're welcome rugger boy

You say you'd be happy to see Stern John leave because he's 'lazy' and then you say you rate Rasiak ! "It's logic Jim , but not as we know it"

Rugby is utter gash - Too much body contact / not enough skill involved compared to God's game No one understands the rules and over dependence on completely arbitrary refereeing decisions Their balls are strangely shaped The bloody game keeps stopping every 30 seconds :mad: Inexcusable amount of physical thuggery tolerated or even encouraged Rugby Union played and supported almost exclusively by the upper & middle classes Will Carling The only game when putting the ball out of play is actually desirable The Aussies are far too good at it (ref my intense hatred of Cricket) It's going to ruin our beloved SMS pitch Unbearably smug 'we can hold our drink and never get into rucks like you lower class plebs' type comments Popular with the Ruperts of this world Apart from that I quite like it .

It's not that they're wicked or naturally bad , it's just coming from Portsmouth , it's driving them mad .

He sure does OBS - my elite team of researchers have unearthed this taped evidence of his rampant xenophobia . He should be ashamed of himself .

Where are you getting that from ? The ever reliable Wikipedia has him on 54 goals in 182 appearances in British football (all clubs all competitions) = 1 goal every 3.5 games or 11 goals per season on average . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grzegorz_Rasiak

I seem to remember Mark Fry saying that Pinnacle beat to the exclusivity period 'another interested party' (which I now take to have been Markus Liebherr) by a matter of hours only - such a shame as time is the one asset that once lost can never be fully recovered . What a sad irony it is that MLT - probably the greatest player ever to grace this club with his presence - should be unwittingly involved with dubious chancers who ended up harming it .

I really don't know what to make of Lallana - the lads natural talent is there for all to see but he can be frustratingly ineffective in influencing a football match , that's hope Alan Pardew can turn him into the star he could well be .

I wasn't at the game today but obviously well done to Rasiak for scoring - I'm always happy to see any Saints player do well . However I'm not convinced he really wants to be here nor am I at all confident he'd make it into double figures even if he does stay . Stern John could/should the main man for us this coming season .

Sheffield Wednesday and Greek club AE Larisa FC linked with a move for Saganowski : http://www.thestar.co.uk/sportheadlines/South-Yorkshire39s-football-rumours-.5490572.jp

I was especially interested in Alan Pardew's observation (to paraphrase) that our younger players have ample technical ability but lack the knowledge of how to win games , how to react if we go behind , how to compete with their peers in the cut and thrust of competitive 1st team football - 'gamecraft' you might call it . The guys only been here 5 minutes but already he's cut right to the heart of the problem our academy seems to have developed in the last few years , in a similar incisive move he (correctly IMO) identified Stern John as the best option we have in the striker department without any particular difficulty . I'm seriously impressed with AP's first week in charge , he appears to possess an instinctive feel for the British game that was shockingly absent in many of his predecessors (Nigel Pearson accepted naturally) . What a pleasure it is to see our long suffering club finally in the hands of professionals , you know - people who actually know what they're doing .

I can confirm without fear of contradiction that the total went by at least one ST at 9.30 this morning - here endeth my first and last moment of ITK glory .

A top two finish must be highly unlikely this season , we'd have to out perform established L1 clubs (such as Leeds) and both the other ex CCC clubs that came down with us - none of whom are handicapped with minus 10 points I might add . If that wasn't enough of a problem our squad (as it stands anyway) is significantly weaker than the group that failed so dismally last season and Alan Pardew has precious little time to sort it out before the season starts . There's nothing wrong with ambition however , if AP sets the lads a hard target and they fall just a little short of that we may still find ourselves in the play-offs - at least that's not entirely out of the question which is more than any sensible person could have said this time last year .

Judging by some of the heated arguments on here can we be the 'Bitter Twitters' .

At a 'gut feeling' level I'd go with Stern John every time over Rasiak or Saganowski - I feel he's just the better choice and judging by a recent poll on here that seems to be the feeling of the majority . Add to that the fact that Stern actually wants to play for this club and I'd say the argument is more or less closed .

I'm obviously the only person on here who hasn't really seen Prutton play since he left us , but if he is anywhere near being the player he was before he left us he'd easily merit a place in our current midfield , a bloody nice chap as well BTW - although a few match officials might disagree .

The very same daft idea occured to me DP

Any proper football fan will always put his club before his country - but I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd rather Saints won a throw-in than England won the world cup as I have heard said !

I see no reason why Matt Patterson can't replicate something like the goal tally DMG reached last season as he looks like a good prospect to me , although I'd expect to see a more established striker brought in to the squad . As it stands the club only has 4 recognised strikers if as reported Saga & Rasiak do indeed leave and Stern John signs - and with 3 of those unproven to a large degree the need for further reinforcement is quite clear : Matt Patterson Stern John Jamie White Kayne McLaggon + Adam Lallana . (more of a midfielder really IMO)