Belgiansaint

Charlton, Blackpool, Watford and Norwich will all lose points between themselves on Saturday. A draw in Brum would be fantastic and even a defeat wouldn't be disastrous given those circumstances.

@corky morris & dark munster: Skacel, Euell and Saga were available. Somehow, and regardless his being undoubtedly out of his depth, JP wasn't allowed to pick them (Rupe's plan A: the kids will walk this league and all our financial problems will be solved as we'll save on the wage bill + we'll get lots of cash when bigger clubs knock at our door). Now MW is allowed to pick them (Rupe's plan B: I open my eyes and leave football matters to football people). What a difference a free rein makes!

Shall we then talk about how Ipswich were analyzed?

sshhhh! she's still married

that dizzy feeling of 3 wins on the bounce... I might uncork a bottle of white burgundy as a nightcap

Just an hour gone and Ipswich have made their 3 substitutions. Playing with fire IMO.

Perhaps not the place to discuss that, but considering their predicament and their starting point, this goes down as a real achievement. Oh what faith can do! Wish Saints follow the same path upwards.

Whatever he did or went for, phew!

Whatever he did or went for, phew!

In fact it does make sense, theoretically at least. If you take it that the basic philosophy was to develop an "Ajax culture" at Saints, you need to implement things like they do over there. As of the age of 10, kids wearing the Ajax shirt play the same system and it is no paradox that the best trainers in terms of footballing education at Ajax are to be found with the youngest kids and the bloke who manages the senior pros is "only" there to coach the team. He may be better than those working in the youth system in terms of international football experience, man-management, working with stars, etc. but he works with the end product and gradually breeds the most talented teenagers in and doesn't teach the skills. But this system only works because they start very early and are absolutely ruthless with those deemed not to be good enough (while keeping an eye on potential late developers). The problem at Saints was at least threefold: a) the youth system doesn't seem to work that way in England (do Saints have 10 year old sides?), b)the youngsters were thrown into the battle way too early in their development and c) if we stick to the Ajax comparison, they do have that mix of seasoned pros and youth which RL didn't seem to want to have around. So to come back to my inital point, if you accept that MW is better than JP, it comes as no major surprise that he was made to work with the youth/ressies to help them cross the bridge towards the 1st team and JP was there to implement the devised system at the highest level.

Might be early to tell, but could this be the kick-start to the season?

we'll walk this league from now on

Live text I get, but I wanted to listen. Seems that they don't broadcast overseas for rights reasons.

"this service is currently unavailable in your country". ****s! thanks anyway 1965onwards

link for ssn please?

I would have kept Licka's wife. :-)

CMFG or Franny

when checking on the beeb' website for the score, I clicked on the "league 1" link...

What I fail to understand is that drinking and aggro "culture". It seems to happen only in England. I can go out in town here or anywhere in the country, occasionally come across a pro footballer and there never seems to be any hassle. Just chit-chat, a drink perhaps, and then let people go on with their lives, be they champions or relegation strugglers. My hometown club are second from bottom in our top league and no-one would ever dream of having a go at the players if they were to be seen in a restaurant or a bar. It's not we don't take things to heart, it's just none of our business. You might read the occasional press report that the manager has run the rule on players for breaking the curfew and that's it.

Could be if you consider The Ordinaries get half the crowd

Just read on the BBC's football gossip column that swansea were ready make a bid to the tune of £ 500 K.

What p***es JP off is that, as a fellow member of the Dutch pro football managers association (CBV), MW should have stuck to the CBV code of conduct according to which no coach agrees to step in as long as all details of his predecessor's departure have been settled. Hence the "When everything is settled, Wotte CAN (not "MUST" - poor translation on Setanta) do what he wants." The association's director has warned Saints that MW had broken their code of conduct.

Can't help thinking that things MIGHT have turned out differently on occasions if we'd kept one of our three proven goalscorers. Nice comeback anyway lads, credit where it's due

Lowe will tell you he actually sacked only one or two. Now, if you make life impossible to someone, it's technically true they'll go on their own initiative. That's how vicious I believe he can be. Get people down to a point they can't take it anymore. The man is a pillock.

I can testify he always had time for the fans, even the away fans. I mean, in his playing days in Antwerp, we as kids were in awe that a world cup finalist would grace Belgian pitches and he'd have a small chat and sign autographs no matter the colour of your scarf and that shows a good man to me. I remain a fan of his vision but as someone said earlier "right guy, wrong time". Best of luck.