Badger

Whether he is a good signing for them hinges on the David Connolly factor “ if he can stay fit …”

Absolute nonsense of a tournament, and it seems a pretty hollow success for Chelsea - leaving aside the $ won of course - as it means fuck all to most fans. The whole thing is a Watneys/Texaco Cup type tournamnent designed for billionaire owned clubs in the 21st Century for a global tv audience. In truth the Watneys/Texaco Cups meant more to the real fans of the clubs taking part at the time. No doubt Chelsea and their players will be crying about too may games towards the end of next season. I consider myself fortunate to have lived trough a bit of a golden era of football 1960's - 80's , before it started on the slippery slope to what it has now become.

Our scouts obviously see him as an ideal player for us then. Can see why.

By that time we’ll be outside the transfer window. Some decisions have to be made sooner.

Shame as they were impressive the other night.

Sanda and Quarshie are the great unknowns, but if they show signs of being capable at this level then I’d be quite happy to see Wood out on loan (as well as Bednarek and ABK being shifted). Am hoping we keep Edwards as proven in the Championship already.

Agree with this. It’s pointless making comparisons with the mens game. I don’t watch a lot of the woman’s football, and in truth don’t watch a lot of the mens, except Saints or a team I’ve got an interest in. When I have seen the England womens team I was surprised by some of the tackles going in, and in fairness they seem to put their all into it (contrast Rooney coming off the field for England criticising supporters). The coverage pisses me off, but that is the same for the blokes game, and a reflection on the media rather than anything else. We can say the standard isn’t the same, especially goalkeeping. But we’re used to substandard GK’s at Saints anyway.

Must admit the prospect of ‘badgering’ one or two of the refs/assistant refs would have greatly appealed to me in my much younger days. Agree with many of the points you make.

Earlier posts on here suggested that some Armenian bloke (playing in Russia) had been the target but he wasn’t interested. No idea who next on the list might be. Perhaps we’ve identified an even more obscure target that no one has heard of (that does seem the Saints way).

Up to now I’ve thought things have been handled well, and respect and dignity shown. This sort of nonsense tends to trivialise the loss in my eyes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpqnwpxle79o ‘Retiring’ shirt numbers. Could understand West Ham doing it for Bobby Moore years ago (1993 when it had barely been heard of before) but it’s become a bit trite now. I expect our commercial dept are waiting for the chance to ‘retire’ a number to join the trend. Load of bollocks.

Not necessarily. I had dealings with a Commercial Director at an EPL club a few years ago who said that cost of insurances were so high that many clubs preferred to carry the risk themselves.

Interesting. Whether he can impose that regime and system here remains to be seen. This is likely to prove critical, and define his time and success or otherwise with us.

Not wishing to detract from your main point but I’ve previously read comments about our support not being raucous enough and sometimes considered ‘too middle class’. This might be exemplified by your opening gambit. I bet such a sentence probably hasn’t appeared in the memoirs of an ICF or other ‘top firm’ insider.

Yes, he gets a few groans when announced, but most seem to give a cheer almost overwriting has last ‘dropped bollock’ in the previous game. I’m normally met with a couple of disapproving looks from a couple of nods when I express a groan on hearing his name. This is the great dilemma of course, although Saints players get an easier ride than if they were playing at a lot of other clubs. But although the support has never been that bitter or volatile, I do recall large audible groans at The Dell for certain players, Lew Chatterley springs to mind. And there was a palpable sense of indifference to Ian Turner when he started out with us.

Against National League opposition perhaps. As skilful as he is at Championship level, he remains a bit lightweight in my view. Good job he had man mountain Smallbone alongside him as an enforcer last time down here. Charles may offer a bit more physical presence in MF, otherwise we need to recruit in my view.