TijuanaTim

Great question my friend and believe the answer is yes on several counts. Sigi Schmid is an out and out winner as is Dominic Kinnear. The obvious choice would be Stevie Nichol, however he is so happy here who knows. Our own Colin Clarke did a good job in a couple of places. If I had to choose I think I would want Schmid, who has won championships his whole career and never rests unless he is winning....he will work and work, when he gets tired he works some more to cover every option to ensure winning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigi_Schmid

Smooth....that's what Alan Ball used to be when operating our midfield and pulling all the strings, Bally was a huge proponent of the US game. He felt he returned a better play when it got a bit stale back in the UK...per request another link. God I wish we had two great up front again, like this combo Wilton Felder and the great soulster Bobby Womack

That is an incredible irony mate...that's what he used to do every summer in California, fly in and help Coach Britton teach the hot prospect kids how to execute the 'far-post' header. Let's be fair, Ron had all three attributes to be the greatest ever headerererer, he got height, gave it power and had unreal accuracy. After his 43 goal season he was 'double-teamed', battered and fell victim to some really synical 'late 60's-early 70's defending FFS

Been gone a while mate....is that Loadsamoney and Bugg@rallMoney??

This is a royal Cluster-Fu¢k, hopefully we don't have to keep taking sides in this negative soap opera and soon both 'sides' will be gone. Quite honestly who gives a rats a$$ who is right or wrong, let's face neither camp could organize a p!ss-up in a brewery...A new broom will sweep clean!!

Far enough mate...btw the New England coach is ex-Liverpool Steve Nichol, surprised at him to be honest, as he normally seems more conservative.

He was insistent I sent you all genuine 'Seasonal Greeting' from Chris and him in New Mexico. He has a bit of a cold, but is looking forward to Christmas in a lot more comfort than last year. So thanks to everyone that has wished him well or helped. He is saddened by our current plight, however, he believes as long as we keep swinging the ball into the 'far-post' we'll knock a few in and be alright. Ron also reminded me that when we had the big win at OT we were on a really bad run...guess what, we've got Man U coming up again and luckily none of the big three stars are playing this time (Best, Charlton & Law).

You forget I am proud to originate from England, no players have more heart - guts and dogged determination than the English to go with good fitness. I have never at any stage or never will suggest we can not match others for fitness/determination and resent you suggesting that...so hopefully you only misread what I was writing or read between the lines or something mate.

Thanks so much mate and a Cool Yule to you too, Ron is doing fantastically, he is happy, healthier and in much less financial strife. http://www.giveittoron.co.uk/ I will be chatting with him in about 15-20 minutes. Warsash FC founded 1895 - The Crabs, enjoyed my time with them as a youth, reserve and 1st team player and manager. Good to see them at it again....how many Bevises, Chases and Edwardses do they have playing these days?

Yes we have however, are we to smart to learn? Is our situation so perfect we cannot seek improvement? Or should we only tell people how to do things and not look and listen ourselves?

Merry Chrimbo to you too mate, are you getting to any games now and if so how are they looking to you?

Fair enough...just thought it was pretty fascinating when you can see what each and every player gets. And how cheaply (as our Saints are broke) you can pick up a well disciplined, fit, strong, decent, young player with great motivation and attitude for.

Not at all, just that Argentine players have not recently succeeded, generally speaking, that well in England....besides the two that spent virtually all their formative time in Brazil. I played for a good Argentinean team for 3+ years and have huge respect for them. They are great in Spain and Italy...but England?? Crespo and JSV for example - there was 100,000,000 pound well spent huh? John Harkes did more in England than the two put together..and yes he cost, wait for it...fu¢k all.

Surely we should pick up a couple or three useful, hard working, diligent, willing to learn, eager and CHEAP young US players, desperate to prove themselve's and American football.

You are right, so you get them young (ala Franklin, Kljestan or even Kyle Davies who we already have) or you get the likes of Joseph who is a Commonwealth citizen.

Hello clark, Have you heard of John Harkes, Brad Friedel, Tim Howard etc? I would suggest that there have been as many if not more US successes recently than Argentina (who are mega). Freddy Adu is still a kid and has performed excellently during his development He is now becoming an established international after a glittering youth career. In the recent Youth U-20 WC Freddy was generally regarded by experts as one the major successes of the tournament, giving Bart a nightmare amongst other outstanding games. I have never heard anyone call Dempsey 'Ronaldo', what is your source ?(expect no reply on that one as it appears nowhere after a net search). If anyone did say that they must have been high! Boca would be just exactly what we need right now, sad to say he would not play for a team as poor as us right now. If Eddie Johnson came to the Galaxy he would be their fourth best striker and they were bottom....Fulham signed an average player. Landon Donovan is the best ever US striker. American players can't be described as anything but fairly humble as a generalization, due mostly to the fact that they are fairly unknown and basically third class sporting citizens. I apologize if I offend, however I do think that sometimes as English we do look at US players and think they are inferior, sub-standard and attach many out-dated, negative stereotypes. I don't care where we get good players that we can afford from as long as we get some!! I talk of the States and the MLS because I know about it, I understand their weaknesses and their values. I don't know about others on here, but me - I just want what's best for our Saints. Maybe more people should spend more time channelling positive though and energy towards Saints and less whinging and espousing ill-informed negativety. Oh and Shalrie Joseph....bet you'd never heard of Pahars 10 years ago either and Celtic had a 2mil bid for him turned down???

You speak a lot of truth there mush, btw did you dig LLS?

'LLS' mate, absolutely. He is responsible for one of the greatest ever 'casual' jazz-funk classics right Hey expected the abuse and snide stuff, all the same look at what they paying some of these excellent yong players...mind-boggling. Kljestan for 60 G, he is as good as anything in the CCC and Franklin for 20 and change, we could afford that for a kid that was MLS Young Player Of The Year....or should we just be typically Anglo - smug - blaize and superior. We need solutions, even if we maintain our current 'youthful' policy, so take the blinkers off girls and think about our club rather than self-satisfying anti-American blurb.

Thinking about needing a few more players. Well we ain't gotta lotta dosh so where is a large pool of pretty decent CCC quality, English speaking, well disciplined players. Hey I know some of the non-pro Americans amongst you may find this cause for abuse...oh well. Some may find this value added and for that it is worth posting. Here is the full list of MLS salaries http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/9_7_08_salary_info_alpha.pdf Now imagine about 2/3 of the dollar amount to deduce pounds. Also, those amongst you that say "Hard to get registered"...I get it, however many are young (like Kyle Davies) and some are Carribean (like the awesome Shalrie Joseph). Most would give their right nad to play in Europe - especially England. e.g. Sasha Kljestan earned about 60 grand last year and he was the national Team's Young Player Of The Year, Sean Franklin earned 20 odd grand and was the MLS's Young MVP....take a look.

And they're playing a meaningless game prior to their humbling early exit from Europe, still nowhere near meeting our eight European victories!!

Nice article...interesting viewpoints, I'd have t'say!

Do you think old Blakey from 'On The Buses' (Adams) that is down at fp falls in the same catagory as Ince and Keane...I certainly wouldn't want the tvvat here.

It would be nice if anyone wants to give a brief summation of his game later ;-)

Heard good things of him, what's your take?