the_emu

I am enjoying the debate over whether it was a pen or not, people are since making sane comments, and their opinions are subjective. However, what you seem to not realise is where the ball is, or was heading has absolutely no bearing on whether is was a pen or not. This is a fact.

For the love of god and my sanity can people please understand the laws of the game before making stupid comments.

This, with Long, Mane and Tadic rotating to cause their back liquorice all sorts

I think you're both right. Adebayor got the feet delivered to his feet through a congested midfield, which can only be done through good movement off the ball. What he also done well was hold the ball up, allowing the midfield time to advance. Pelle didn't get the service, due in part to our midfield, due in part to spurs congested midfield, and due in part to lack of movement at the right time. Was no ones fault, it just was, what it was, and it wasn't really working. What I was a bit surprised about was Pelle staying on. Having been starved of supply most of the game I would have thought Long as lone striker and getting given more space to angle his runs beyond their back two would have given our midfield the option of playing the through ball into space with more freedom and regularity than there was... Not that I have a better footballing brain than Koeman.

This is just another puff piece with recycled news, and I'm (going to get vilified for saying this) starting to tire of them a bit. What I would really love is an investigator to really probe the lead up to the exodus, starting with Judas. There's a lot of innuendos and deductions about him tipping off the players he was gone well before he had time to decide, basically hanging saints out to dry

Yep that was my highlight, together with "I never lost to Espanyol"

Lawro's clearly confused what Spurs need versus what they are capable of getting.

Apart from crowing about getting paid triple for doing two thirds of eff all I'm not sure our English defectors will be bending too many ears this year.

Looking forward to chanting "Dont cry for me Pochetino"...

There is already some good work being done by the Saints marketing dept but IMHO this should be on someones to do list in the club... 1 - Acquire saintsfc.com domain for website to increase SEO exposure globally (notice ATM it goes to some ropey fanzine site which can't be good). 2 - Get rid of the current OS and replace it with a website that: a - Has look and feel that is unique to Saintsfc b - Doesn't have embarrassing pay per click adds in it c - Seamless integration with ticketing and e-commerce platforms. 3 - Improve ticketing a - Introduce privileged club membership (beyond season ticket holders), b - Move away from paper based ticketing c - Introduce dynamic reward and promotion based ticketing prices 4 - Continue what we are doing in the football department, investing in youth and performing on the park.

First XI on paper - 6th (Behind Chelski, Citeh, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs) First XI based on the collective and current form - 4th (Behind Chelski, Citeh and Arsenal) Overall squad depth - somewhat difficult and irrelevant to gauge as our competitors need the greater depth for the demands of Europe but a lot of them are already struggling and getting exposed with injuries. Next week will be the real acid test.

So how do teams manage to gain 3 points without outscoring opposition teams?

That was comical, the quickest player on the park taking an eternity to get off the park, at one stage I swear he was jogging on the spot.

You weren't the lone chap directly above us behind the goals revving us up after the match by any chance? Atmosphere after the game was electric, all you could hear was us chanting Dusan Tadic echoing around the whole arena as we were funelling out onto the concourse.

This. Subs will be vital this week I think, as there were a few players who played back to back and put in a real shift last night. Wouldn't surprise me if McQueen, Isgrove and or Reed get runouts end half if we can kill the game off early.

He needs to learn how to put his foot through a ball in front of goals. Maybe Clyne should pull him to one site for some extra tuition.

Arguably it was Scousehampton

One of the twitter quotes... "Adam Lallana is didn't worth money! Rodgers are stupid fool!!!!!".... WTF!

So I'm going to go all out on a limb and predict Pelle is cherry ripe to get a hat trick in another 4-0 drubbing. He wasn't far off at Upton Park when you consider 1 goal disallowed, 1 goal probably caught his hair gel, and 1 good save from the keeper.

So I think Tadic wide on the left and Long tucked in close to Pelle on the right. This then gives Koeman the ability to bring Mane on if required as a wide player to change shape and have something extra for the Mags defence to think about

Total Respect... what for? Taking nothing away from the simple fact he is a brilliant player, the story line here is he wanted to go, the club won't let him go, so he puts in a shift to keep his international hopes alive and still wants to go. No need to get misty eyed over it - if the door is even slightly ajar next transfer window he will put his high viz Nike boot straight through it. Respect if anything has to go the board and to Koeman, for dealing with his sh*te all summer.

Those statistics are telling. if I were to draw a long bow and give Woy and the selectors a very small benefit of the doubt, it may be that they have absolutely no faith in their back two, and so aren't prepared to select such an attack minded full back. As I said, a very very long bow....

Maybe this has been over looked because of the glorious way we trampled West Ham, but in the absence of any noteworthy games this weekend to talk about, I thought I'd raise it for open discussion. For those who saw our game at Upton Park, I refer to a moment in the second half, when we were awarded a free about 25 yards out straight in front, and then it went something like this: - Tadic's first reaction was to run to the ball quicker than you can say "I can bend it like Novak". You could tell he knew he wasn't the no. 1 designated to take the kick (refer next point) the way he tucked the ball firmly under his arm reminiscent to a doughboy bully in the school yard still trying to get his first kick. It was borderline cringe worthy to the point I was half expecting him to stuff the ball under his shirt. - Enter stage right JWP. Rather than discuss the matter with Tadic like a coupe of adults (to be fair he's only 19), he tries to snatch the ball from him - except only the Jaws of Life are going to breach Tadic' vice like grip on the ball. After a couple of attempts and a bit of a verbal remonstration Tadic wins out, JWP walks away, shoulders dropped. - This unsightly scene unfolds right in front of Fonte. He doesn't intervene, on the contrary, he turns his back to it all and walks back towards the halfway line. - Tadic kicks into the wall, and JWP stands hands on hips shaking his head. So, I don't want to raise a debate about who ultimately should have taken the kick. What I'm keen to explore is whether anyone else at the match watching this unfold, shook their head in dismay at the time like I did - with the key questions being: - Should these players demonstrate a little more decorum and professionalism or is the watchword hunger and I'm being a too sentimental? - Should Fonte, as on field captain have intervened to calm things down? - Would Tadic have done it if SRL was still playing for us? - Would Koeman have had any words to the individuals or the collective? Let the discussions begin

Before getting too excited, let's not forget two of our "owned" players from last year sold on have been replaced by loanees that we don't own yet, so the figures are somewhat skewed. In saying that, we would still be well into the black, if we were to include the buy out options after some canny business.

Yep, how did that work for Borrini? Do you really think he would have even been approached after 6 months into a contract if the Saints board didn't know he was unsettled? Do you really think Long wouldn't take a small wage cut...happy wife, happy life? Negotiations work two ways. The truth of the matter is we may well never know the facts, so I'm going to bow out of the debate gracefully and agree to disagree. Out of curiousity, does anyone know what' Morgan is on? A work colleague (Arse supporter) reckons he's only on 9k per week.