Toon Saint

Don't know whether it's just because of Les Reed - Poch gave a ridiculous number of debuts to youngsters at Espanyol, though that was partly through necessity. I thought that his experience of coaching youngsters was one of the major reasons we went for him? Cortese said as much in interviews. That said, not sure why the likes of Guly and Jos are on the bench at the moment. They don't offer much and they'll be gone at the end of the season. Would much rather those places go to the likes of Turnbull, McQueen, Rowe, Flannagan etc., and give them some game time.

Looks like Jake Flannigan was training with first team today. I wonder whether there will be a couple more senior debuts before the season ends?

Viva voce, with an 80,000 word thesis to finish before October. Horrid.

A few Twitter folk are suggesting a round of applause in the ninth minute. ScummerAndProud ‏@sparkythebabler 58m Deffo think 1 minutes applause in 9th minute would be great to support Jay! #saintsfc I think the 9th minute has something to do with the no. 9 shirt that he used to wear. Forever in our memories, Jay.

A bit of posthumous recognition, at least.

Mayuka has 3 goals in 15 games for a poor side in the French league. No way does he have a future with us. Lloyd Isgrove - despite some half-decent performances in the Carling Cup and excellent pace - hasn't featured a lot for Posh in League 1. He's hardly knocking down any doors and expect him to be released in the summer. In terms of in-house options, Omar Rowe looks the best bet to supply some pace to our front-line given his performances for the U-21's. Not too sure about the progress of Jake Sinclair, though perhaps someone more in the know can enlighten me? Carlos Vela would be my 'dream' purchase to fill the J-Rod void - though imagine he wouldn't come cheap. That said, I'd be more than happy for us to go in for Ings. Young, talented, with massive scope for improvement, and a Saints fan to boot. His value will undoubtedly rocket if Burnley go up though, and the guarantee of regular PL football would probably mean him committing to Burnley for at least the season. Would be a hard deal to push through IMO.

A terrible shame, especially for something so innocuous as controlling the ball - let's hope the six months recovery period cited by the club is no longer. The timing is obviously awful for him with the WC. But the only thing I can take from this is that at least 4 of those 6 months will be spent recovering while this season fizzles out and pre-season for 2014/2015. Still, absolutely horrendous for the lad.

Ah ****

I'm not defending anything, merely trying to make sense of a comment that was posted on here by somebody else.

That's Itchen Dan who posts on here a lot. Think he is talking in terms of performance levels not injury timescale.

Owen thought he would make a good pundit because his family told him that he was opinionated when he watched football from the comfort of his sofa. Sorry, but how is that criteria enough for him to be inflicted upon the rest of the football-watching populace? Monotone voice, monochrome personality. An exponent of the 'say-what-you-see' brand of punditry (even though he is invariably wrong), and dull enough to make Andy Townsend's spew of nasally banalities appear inspired. Utterly hideous and wooden pundit who is quite happy to chirp that 'I've seen Southampton a couple of times this season....[insert vaguely patronizing platitude]' as though that makes him an expert on teams outside the hallowed top 6 clubs. I lost count of the blundering inaccuracies in yesterday's game (Lallana from Liverpool, Southampton 'drifting towards 6th,7th,8th') and was in complete disbelief at how they seemed to gloss over the 5-yard offside decision as 'marginal'. Not a great fan of Carragher - he seems to be trying too hard to be controversial amid the (deserved) Gary Neville fanfare - but at least he has a bit of passion in his delivery. Michael Owen, get the f*ck off my TV, seriously.

Always hard to tell with knee injuries, though I do fear he's done his ACL. Let's just hope its similar to the Gaston and Dejan injuries and that it isn't as bad as first feared. (I thought both could be out for the season given the manner in which they went off the field) Either way it is going to be tough for him to bag a WC place, but let's just hope that it doesn't affect his career long-term. Gutted for him!

Very jealous! I was going to go to the Glasgow gig on the current tour, but the gf had a hen night to attend so couldn't make it unfortunately. I've seen them a few times now - the last when they played 'Smother' in full - and they've been incredible every time. If there are any Field Music fans on here, then I'd also recommend this tune by 'School of Language' - basically the side-project of Peter Brewis, from Field Music. Looking forward to seeing them next Monday:

Wild Beasts - A Present Tense - is the best album for me this year. I'm a bit of an uber-fan, but don't think there is a better band in Britain at the moment (or for the last few years). New album is more lyrically direct than previous albums with a more synth-driven sound, but still they sound like nobody else around. Utterly brilliant. Prime cut is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VsgIgV4NNI

Saw Ms. Garbis at the Sage, Gateshead, when touring her last album. One of the very best gigs I've been to, amazing to see how she constructed all the multi-layered harmonies in her songs, live. Really liking the new material as well.

"We will look at that at the end of the season. The focus is on the team; the focus is on the club. There will be plenty of time, come the end of the season, however it finishes, to evaluate everything" "There is no point in having any distractions now and I don’t want any distractions...there’s another year and we will take it from there." Brendan Rodgers on extending his contract at Liverpool, 15/03/2014.

Good to know that KL has signed off improved plans for the site, and she is not just finishing off designs planned while Cortese was at the helm. Hopefully indicative of her 'ambition' for the club. Do you know when the site is due to be completed MLG?

Cork played Toure off the pitch last time around, we'll need him to be on it again if we are going to have any hope of a result. Morgan in for JWP, but otherwise same line-up as against the Toon. They have problems with our style of football (as evidenced in last three games) so I'm quietly confident of an upset. COYR!

Deary me, Mr. Rogers isn't blessed in the charisma stakes is he? At least Hans sounded pretty optimistic about plans for the Summer. A bit early IMO to leap on these figures as examples of Cortese's poor business acumen. The commercial revenue isn't fantastic, but we were saddled with a sponsorship agreement signed before promotion to Prem. If Cortese was still here, who is to say that he wouldn't have been able to negotiate a much more lucrative deal for the coming season - thus putting us in a much better position, financially? While we might contest the merits of each transfer in 2012/2013 season (Mayuka, Forren, Ramirez,) Cortese took a calculated risk and it paid off by staying up. We have consolidated our Prem status with ease, and with the base of the academy and training ground, it's clear Cortese wasn't just after short-term handouts from KL all the time to pay the bills.

Yet you're happy to spend hours upon hours peddling negative sh*te on here. The moment someone calls you up on it, you run off scared citing 'crass personal abuse'. Really?

So predictable and boring. What a wet blanket you are. Poch brought Clyne off at half-time after his error gifted Spurs a goal, is that not evidence of changing his game plan with some degree of urgency? Out of interest, what manager do you think could do a better job than Poch with resources at his disposal? Try and keep it realistic. Would be interesting if you could actually offer any solutions rather than spouting negative horsesh*t 24/7. It is beyond tedious.

Heard the roar from the Toon Army at St. James', as I was walking from gym to library. My reaction as well.

Would love it if we could raise one tier and have a standing only section there. Sadly, I think it is a long way off from happening - especially when you get prats like Dion Dublin spouting absolute rubbish about it on Match of the Day. The very idea of it seems to reduce some to hysterics, so much so that it precludes any meaningful conversation about it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26098424 Clubs like Bristol City and Villa are obviously pushing quite hard for safe-standing, so there would need to be some sort of trial period before a 'family-friendly' club like ours considers installing.

plop