An advantage of the EFL

[Dark Munster]

1 hour ago, The Kraken said:

That’s what we said in 2008/09 and look where that got us.

In 2008/09? A couple of years earlier maybe, we were skint and bet the house on red and lost.

[Fan The Flames]

6 hours ago, gio1saints said:

 

Quite ironic that in your first post you dismiss the “useless bunch of refs” as essentially biased towards bigger clubs. so a hard NO to sin bins.
 

But in your very next post you argue that decisions should be left to the referee more and VAR less or not at all. 

Do you mean to say that VAR is even more useless and biased to big clubs than the referee alone? That’s what I’m getting? Or that both referees AND VAR are useless and biased?
 Quite a bold statement either way seeing as VAR was supposedly designed to remove or at least reduce referee subjective bias on key decisions. 

VAR and refs are different things, VAR is run by refs, they are all part of the same system.

If you impose a time limit then you have to defer to the onfield decision if nothing conclusive is found in time. So the ref has to make a decision that the system can defer to, I'm not saying it's better if left to the ref, I'm saying time limits requires it.

Currently refs can allow the game to continue knowing that VAR will sort it out. For instance the West Ham v Arsenal 'was the ball in or out' goal, currently in that situation the ref can think that was possibly out, but allow the move to finish knowing that VAR will sort it out. With time limits they shouldn't do that.

There are difficulties with every approach, but having the game stop for three to four minutes for VAR to re-ref it is not in anyones best interest.

We haven't got a good bunch of refs at the moment and we have a reffing system that sees the rules as the centre of the sport rather than the football. They are too defensive and lack transparency or accountability in my opinion.

[Lighthouse]

2 hours ago, The Kraken said:

That’s what we said in 2008/09 and look where that got us.

A slight difference there in that we basically wasted our first season down with a disinterested Redk*pp going through the motions. The second we improved but still underperformed with a hugely talented squad, scraping into the playoffs.

It could still all have been fine. We sold Bale, Baird and Pele for about £12m, which should have balanced the books but we went and squandered the lot on more old expensive journeymen like Euell, John, Thomas and Safari, whilst keeping all the top earners and still somehow not having a defence for the first game. A nanogram of common sense in the summer of 2007 and we’d never have gone bust like we did.

[Dark Munster]

29 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

A slight difference there in that we basically wasted our first season down with a disinterested Redk*pp going through the motions. The second we improved but still underperformed with a hugely talented squad, scraping into the playoffs.

It could still all have been fine. We sold Bale, Baird and Pele for about £12m, which should have balanced the books but we went and squandered the lot on more old expensive journeymen like Euell, John, Thomas and Safari, whilst keeping all the top earners and still somehow not having a defence for the first game. A nanogram of common sense in the summer of 2007 and we’d never have gone bust like we did.

Mission accomplished for that bastard Saggy. Took us down (with a thumbs up to Mad Milan after the capitulation at Krapnotarf), and then kneecapped us to make sure we didn't go up. Then went back to the cesspit down the road to cheat their way to a FA Cup.

IMO our worst manager ever (below Branfoot, The Clown, Wigley, Gray, The Dutch duo, N. Jones and the rest of the losers we've had).

[Kenilworthy]

47 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

A slight difference there in that we basically wasted our first season down with a disinterested Redk*pp going through the motions. The second we improved but still underperformed with a hugely talented squad, scraping into the playoffs.

It could still all have been fine. We sold Bale, Baird and Pele for about £12m, which should have balanced the books but we went and squandered the lot on more old expensive journeymen like Euell, John, Thomas and Safari, whilst keeping all the top earners and still somehow not having a defence for the first game. A nanogram of common sense in the summer of 2007 and we’d never have gone bust like we did.

Stern John though did a good job, scoring 19 goals that kept us up. Not sure what he cost. Probably not much as he was makeweight in the £6 million deal that took Kenwayne Jones to Sunderland.

[Lighthouse]

34 minutes ago, Dark Munster said:

Mission accomplished for that bastard Saggy. Took us down (with a thumbs up to Mad Milan after the capitulation at Krapnotarf), and then kneecapped us to make sure we didn't go up. Then went back to the cesspit down the road to cheat their way to a FA Cup.

IMO our worst manager ever (below Branfoot, The Clown, Wigley, Gray, The Dutch duo, N. Jones and the rest of the losers we've had).

I refuse to believe Harry Redknapp was capable of or interested in anything other than Harry Redknapp. I genuinely believe he was always out for number one and ducking in and out of Pompey when it suited him was just a means to an end.

19 minutes ago, Kenilworthy said:

Stern John though did a good job, scoring 19 goals that kept us up. Not sure what he cost. Probably not much as he was makeweight in the £6 million deal that took Kenwayne Jones to Sunderland.

John was a separate deal for a little over £1m, IIRC, plus a fairly hefty wage packet. He may well have scored a lot but ultimately he was a big part of the problem which sent the club into administration. Rasiak, Saga, BWP and DMG was a more than capable selection of forwards, far better than we have now. They should easily have scored enough goals for a vaguely competent manager (with even a basic understanding of defending) to finish top half and stay financially stable in the process.

[Turkish]

3 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

A slight difference there in that we basically wasted our first season down with a disinterested Redk*pp going through the motions. The second we improved but still underperformed with a hugely talented squad, scraping into the playoffs.

It could still all have been fine. We sold Bale, Baird and Pele for about £12m, which should have balanced the books but we went and squandered the lot on more old expensive journeymen like Euell, John, Thomas and Safari, whilst keeping all the top earners and still somehow not having a defence for the first game. A nanogram of common sense in the summer of 2007 and we’d never have gone bust like we did.

Wayne Thomas who we signed for £1m when Burnley would have taken £300k 🤣🤣

 

[Lighthouse]

7 hours ago, Turkish said:

Wayne Thomas who we signed for £1m when Burnley would have taken £300k 🤣🤣

 

I vaguely remember it being £1.2m but yes, ludicrous. We absolutely shat a brick after the Palace game and everyone quadrupled their prices. Thomas would have been a decent enough signing, six weeks earlier for £300k buy hey ho…

[SaintBobby]

That period from the 2005 relegation to 2010 was both mental and brutal.

I don't have the stats and wouldn't know where to find them, but it sort of feels like 50% of all players in Saints' full history came in and out of the door in that 5 year period. And most were dross.