Dr. Kucho

Only Velthuizen (who,s personality could be a problem) and Zoet are worth looking at. Got my Dutch mate keeping a close eye on the rumours in The Netherlands, any news will be posted.

That Newcastle goalkeeper on loan at Celtic, Forrest or Forster whatever his name is, seems to be a decent goalie and wont be Nr 1 at Newcastle with Krul around.

Lukasz Fabianski has said he wants to leave Arsenal, 27 years old and probably wont cost to much.

Rubbish selection, no Holt, Richards, Johnson. Downing, Gerrard, Lampard, Henderson, Carroll. Different manager, same dross.

Martens would be a good signing, attacking midfielder who can also play on the left wing. Great passer of the ball and highly skilled. Holman has signed for Villa, Maher is being watched by City and as for Elm, his setpeices are amazing.

Should be exactly the same as the home kit but with the red in black and the white in light grey:smug:

Velthuizen has just signed a new contract with Vitesse. My mate reckons he would be a gamble, he played 1 season in Spain for Hercules and that didn't work out. Mate of mine lives in the same village as Velthuizen and knows him, says he is arrogant and he thinks himself he is greatest goalkeeper around.

It wont happen, Vertonghen has stated he only wants to move to a club playing Champions League. Zoet is indeed on loan from PSV, though at the start of the season PSV bought a young goalkeeper (Tyton) from Roda JC and Zoet wants to play regular football. Zoet is highly rated in The Netherlands and one of the big surprises this season of the Eredivisie.

Lasse Schone signed a 3 year contract at Ajax a few weeks ago, and the goalkeeper we were linked to in January Robin Ruiter has signed for Utrecht. I reckon Nigel might have been looking at Vurnon Anita from Ajax, a defensive midfielder who has been linked to clubs abroad or maybe Niklas Moisander from AZ Alkmaar, a defender and the captain of AZ. Other players linked to clubs around Europe are Otman Bakkal from Feyenoord and Jens Toornstra from ADO Den Haag. Jan Vertonghen from Ajax has stated he will be leaving Ajax this summer, most likely to Spurs or Manure. If Adkins and Cortese can pull that transfer of it would be the deal of the century.

Blackburn and Aston Villa.

Anyone got that picture with all the players in it, with the words ``You got owned by Southampton``? It was on here a few months ago.

My nerves are killing me. COYR!!

Farage was right on what he said about housing going to foreigners, I have been in the situation he talks about. I am a British Citizen (born in Southampton) but left the UK when I was 4 years, old moving around Europe for my fathers job. I want to move back to the UK when a job in my profession comes available (I am 26 now). Last year I went to apply for a NI number and all they said was that I needed a post address in the UK, I used one of a relative and they never asked any questions. After receiving my NI number I was able to apply for all kinds of benefits including housing, it was amazing how easy it would be to claim all these benefits. At my former job I had a colleague who was moving to the UK as his parents live there (he is from African descent and has never lived in the UK). After receiving his NI number (and still living and working in the Netherlands) he contacted this guy who sorted out all his benefits and was already receiving housing, child, and some other benefits, before even living in the UK. Claiming benefits in the UK is so easy compared to the Netherlands (for the record, I don't claim anything, never have and hopefully will never have to)

Rickie you want to play a game at Anfield next season, then score some f*****g goals. Morgan you want to play a game at the Emirates next season, keep it clean and pass it forward. Kelvin you have unfinished business in the PL. The rest of you, don't f**k up and lets finish this in style guys.

Voted for Lambert, Hooiveld a close second.

RW/RM: Papa Waigo, the guy is worth getting just for his goal celebrations.. On a serious note, what's Steed Malbranque up to? He left Saint-Ettiene in September and haven't heard anything since. Always rated him, has PL experience and could show De Ridder how to play on the right wing.

Cardiff, Birmingham and Blackpool to win so Middlesbrough have nothing to play for Saturday. And a Leicester win.

We need another goal asap, I can see someone been sent of soon with this ref.

26 years old. Born in Bassett and lived there till the age of 4 when my dads work dragged us to mainland Europe. Have spent time over the years in Spain, The Netherlands, Australia and a short stint in Southampton. Been back in The Netherlands for the last few months but hope to move back to Southampton in the near future, depending on job availability. Started supporting Saints 12 years ago through my mum as she would always watch the final score to so how Saints were doing. First game was the final game of the 2006/2007 season against Southend, 4-1. Have sadly never been to a away game but when I move back to the area the first thing is to get a season ticket.

Great start to a Saturday night and how Leeds didn,t score? Davis MOTM by a mile.

This. Stayed in St Kilda whilst in Melbourne and the place was great, a mixture of Greek, Victorian and Italian architecture, a nice quiet beach and pier and good pubs and bars. The weather might be similar to in the UK but I enjoy the seasons and changes in the weather. Couple of years ago I spent 6 months working in the Canary Islands and everday was the same weather, only had (light) rain twice, it became boring after a while and started missing the changes in the weather. Another reason to go to the Melbourne area is the Great Ocean Road and Wilsons Promontory national park. Having said this and although Australia is a fantastic place and the people are amazing (especially the woman) given the choice I wouldn,t want to live there. I like the outdoor livestyle but like stated above Australia is very remote and you do miss some kind of history, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide city centres all look similar in some kind of way. If I had the money I would buy a place on the Dorset, Devon or Cornwall coast, the UK isn,t as bad as the Daily Mail make out and within 3 hours of flying you could be in Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome or Prague.

Didn,t visit Perth whilst backpacking, though if you are thinking of moving to Australia go to Melbourne, best city in Australia by a mile (out of Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne)

Mate just got back to me regarding this guy. He says that we could face a struggle getting him as he would most likely be number 1 goalkeeper at FC Groningen and FC Utrecht, though Robbin Ruiter has stated that he doesnt want to move within the Netherlands and would only move abroad. He is highly rated by the Volendam fans and one of the best players of the Jupiler league. On another note my mate says that De Ridder and Hooiveld also played in the Jupiler League, and that you can compare the Jupiler League to League 2 here.

Mate over in the Netherlands mailed me to say that we are interested in Volendam goalkeeper Robbin Ruiter. His email (he apologises for his English), According to Dutch football website Voetbalzone.nl Southampton are 1 of 5 clubs (others are Feyenoord, Groningen, Vitesse and Utrecht) interested in 24 year old Volendam goalkeeper Robbin Ruiter. The article says that Southampton manager Nigel Adkins was in crowd watching him in the home game against Fc Oss (1-2 home defeat) last Friday. The article then goes on how Southampton were relegated in 2005 but are now on the up and that former Eredivisie players Jos Hooiveld, Steve de Ridder and David Connolly play for them. Then today voetbalzone updated the article with Volendam manager Gert Kruys confirming that Southampton have shown interest in Robbin Ruiter and that Nigel Adkins was in the crowd Friday. This is the article, http://www.voetbalzone.nl/doc.asp?uid=154636 and this is his webpage (its all in Dutch but heres the video section http://robbinruiter.nl/videos/ I cant say much about Ruiter as he plays in the Jupiler League (Dutch second division) and I know little about that league. I have asked him to get some more information on this guy and how he is rated by the Volendam fans. He says he will get back to me, though that could take a while knowing him. He also states that he is not ITK and simply just passing on the message.

Hello, After reading this topic I phoned a friend over in the Netherlands who was friendly enough to translate the whole interview with Poortvliet. The interview was done by football magazine Voetbal International. (he apologises for some of his English) VI: How do you look back at your time in England? JP: It was an awful time. At the start it sounded great, I had always dreamed of being a football trainer in England. Though from day one I was in an awkward situation. It started with the court case against Helmond Sport, where I was working at the time. Its sad it all went that way. I had a great time working at Helmond and I hoped they would let me go, sadly they didn’t. However I decided to fight the case because Southampton really wanted me. I had hoped the club would have supported me throughout the case, regardless of the verdict. The verdict was that I had to pay Helmond 75 thousand euro. When I signed my contract in England, the small letters in my contract stated that I had to pay the amount myself. The contract wasn’t what I expected, it was a rollover contract, that after every year there would be a option for the next. This was after we had agreed on a 3 year contract. VI: Why did you sign? JP: It all came very sudden to me. I was there in England on my own without a manager or anything. I didn’t know any better so I just signed. VI: What else went wrong at Southampton? JP: Southampton is a den of vipers, I soon found out. It’s a club going in all different ways. Over the last few years many people have been in charge of the club and still have influence on the organisation. The chairman at the time, Rupert Lowe, was hated by almost everyone. He signed me, but he was soon pressured to sack me. Lowe got very restless, he started interfering with everything. He started moaning about the fact that our goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis, didn’t join in with the football. Davis has been a goalkeeper for 20 years, I cant teach him in 1 day how to play a ball I would say. We started having all that kind of pointless arguments. They started doing all kinds of strange things. At the end I there all on my own. The goalkeepers trainer and the assistant manager were sacked, both for no apparent reason. It was a madhouse. No one at Southampton has ever heard of working together, everyone wants to be in charge. It drives you mad. VI: You would function in a tandem with Mark Wotte, who was appointed at the same time as you as academy director. What was his position? JP: He has never done anything at all to support me. He was out for just one thing, my job. VI: The rumour has it he was critical about you to the board. JP: That was what I heard as well. I constantly heard rumours how he was trying to nick my job. Officially he was appointed as academy director, however on Saturdays he was never at the youth games. He was always in the directors box watching the first team, home and away. That’s Mark Wotte for you. When you see him its obvious, in his suit with his chin up. He thought he was above me and that he deserved to have my job. Eventually he got what he wanted. After I had been sacked he took over right away. His mission was accomplished, well done. VI: The combination Poortvliet-Wotte was impossible. JP: It was a mistake to put us two together. We are completely different people, but I did my best to make it work. I wanted to include him in everything and I didn’t mind working with him. But for Mark that wasn’t enough. He had his own agenda. Eventually are working relationship got that bad that one of us had to go. He or me. I then tried to get rid of him, I am honest about that. But the club didn’t want to sack him and I was sacked. At the start I was upset about it, however eventually I was delighted, I lived under huge stress for 6 months, I was glad to be home. VI: Southampton had some bad results whilst you were in charge. You were sacked, when the club was second to last in the Championship. JP: The squad was very young and almost all the players were between 17 and early 20. Fiscally we were poor and we missed a natural goalscorer. But I did what I had to do, develop young talented players and sometimes we played some very good football. Eventually I sacked due to poor results, that happens. Mark thought he could do a better job. In the end Southampton were relegated. Very sad for the club but I was happy they did. I felt done by Mark and when he was relegated it was a relief for me. Under Mark they reverted to playing the English game. He played the older experienced players. The transfer value of the younger players went down again. He ruined all the work I did at the club. VI: Was the adventure financially interesting? JP: Don’t be daft, I had a basic salary and had to pay Helmond Sport. It has cost me money. It was one big fiasco.