StrangelyBrown

Absolute disgrace. Too many poor performances, no urgency and very poor tactical decisions (or lack of) by Koeman

Attacking midfielder. Surely you wouldn't expect someone writing for a red top to actually know what they're talking about would you?

Wigan, Villa and Reading. But not much to keep either us or Sunderland out of it - Sunderland's form is abysmal. I get the feeling its going to be a nervy ride.....

Both of those are midtable established Premier league teams, we could compete with the wages, but we couldn't offer the security of guaranteed premier league football.

Are you saying that we can simply just sign better players? My assertion is that it isn't that simple and that better players wouldn't want to join a team that are highly likely to be involved in a relegation struggle. If I was a player capable of playing in a mid-table premier league team I wouldn't join a team that has only just come up who are fighting a relegation battle. I'd also choose a side like Newcastle that have been higher up in the league in recent times in preference to us. I don't think any of the sides around us in the table have signed better players than us with the exception of Newcastle, who you could argue are performing well below their capability.

I'd say successful. Given that we were one of the favorites for relegation at the start of the season we can't have been a very enticing prospect no matter how lofty our ambitions are. We quite have avoided spunking ridiculous amounts of money on overpaid journeymen (i.e. the QPR recruitment model). Instead, we seem to have concentrated on recruiting young players with potential. As far as I'm concerned the verdict is still out on a number of them; Mayuka and Vorren clearly don't quite fit into our first team yet, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they won't in time. Both have come from inferior leagues and it may just take time for them to adjust to the quality, physicality and pace of the premier league. Having said all that I cant believe we didn't sign a left-back. Danny Fox was clearly playing at his level in the championship and relying on a 17 year old academy graduate (no matter how good he is) for a whole season seems to be a bit naive. If we stay up, I will expect us to do a bit better in the transfer market as we will be an "established" premier league team.

this, with a small change. He turns, he smiles, he waves, ..... he gets 29 thousand brown envelopes thrown at him, followed by w@nker signals

WTF. This is possibly the strangest decision since we got rid of Lowe. A bad day for saints

My gut feel is that if we lose Adkins is gone, if we draw and play well then he'll get another home game to sort things out. I've got a feeling that Hughes is screwed unless QPR win. I think Hughes' position will work in our favour.

I think we'll start reasonably well, but the season will fall apart a bit over Christmas when the injuries start to mount up and we'll finish somewhere between 14th and 17th. Although if we sign a couple of more experienced players with a lot of Premier league experience, we may do a bit better. I fully expect us to get hammered by someone like Stoke (probably both home and away).

Surely Pahars was the "first choice" in that team?

what song do you think he'll sing?

Im not sure I understand where you are coming from with this post? Surely a high risk to the balance of the team would be to throw 5 or 6 new signings straight into the first team. History shows that this isnt NA's approach. Surely NA's mitigation will be to take a measured approach to introducing the players to the first team i.e. bringing players off the bench to begin with and not just the fact that he has watched them play? Consequently, the impact and likelihood of the risk would both be minimal?

I reckon more like 1 man job easily in 6 months to do the lot, but then its my job so what would I know

Is anyonwe planning on watching the game in a pub in London, in which case which pub? Everywhere I know of is showing Liverpoo vs Norwich

I'm not sure its that simple. It strikes me that the big clubs are very wasteful when it comes to talent and a lot of potentially good players at big clubs end up on the scrapheap because there is too much competition for competitive football. I'm not sure a footballer's development is simply down to training at an academy with the finest facilities. I personally think there comes a time when a young player needs first team competitive matches to develop and playing youth football with a handful of league cup games isn't much of a substitute.

Although this is good for us, I hate the notion that we will get ahead because the rules have become less fair. What happens to the likes of Crewe who have developed countless top players and rely on the proceeds to survive? It seems to me to be just another step which shifts the balance of power further towards the big rich clubs.

If this did actually happen would some of the clubs eventually find themselves voted out? Given that some of the biggest clubs in England with the biggest followings aren't in the premier league and some of those that are there are purely there because of their sugar daddies and not their capacity to generate revenue. What next - invite Barcelona and Real Madrid to join at the expense of Norwich and Wigan? It would ultimately be a disaster for football in this country, but I cant see it happening.

Why? Brett consistently missed chances that he should have taken. I just think the comparison with Barnard is completely unfair as he has the end product at this level and like most people I never saw Brett playing at this level for Blackpool. I suppose you think that Brett was a quality Premier League striker, which explains why so many premier league teams were fighting for him when he left us? Just because someone runs around a lot does not make him a good footballer.

brett is a crap version of dirk kuyt - tries very hard but ultimately is playing well beyond his capability. When he played for us he worked his socks off but there was no end product. I can't say the same for barnard, but I didn't ever see brett play in league one. There is literally no point in a centre forward who has no end product.

You missed Andy Sinton and Tony Dorigo from the Graham Taylor years

Thats only if half of it doesnt fall down in the meantime

We're only the 2nd largest in League One though. The list makes interesting reading and shows who the potential sleeping giants are List_of_football_stadiums_in_England

lol You should see my parsnips