SaintDonkey

Patterson on Saturday reminded me of McGoldrick at the begining of the season. Looked good when he was on the ball but made very little effort to chase down the 50 50 ball. As such he gave far too much time to Wednesday's defenders and keeper allowing them to build from the back. Bradley does at least chase everything down when he is playing well, but I'll admit he does have a historic tendancy to go missing.

Question is where - I don't have sky and suspect all the pubs round where I live will be showing the West Ham vs Tottenham game. I guess I'll just have to hope at least one of the pubs near the Emirates is so vehemently anti-Spurs they'll refuse to show the Tottenham game...

I like that team - although I'd nominally put Skacel at left back and 'drew left midfield with the pair swapping roles as needed. I thought Lallana was wasted on the wing against Wednesday and looked far more threatening when he drifted inside. I'm a bit worried that James might be a bit lightweight against Palace but the nice thing is with the players on the pitch you can rejig if there's issues: -------------Davis--------------- Cork----Perry----Pearce----Skacel ----------Surman---Morgan----------- James-----Lallana---------Thomson --------------BWP--------------- Maybe even switch Lallana up alongside BWP in a straight 4-4-2

Unfortunately it's Burley - for all the criticisms leveled against him he took us to the play offs and left us within touching distance of them again. No other manager since Strachan has got close to achieving anything like that. Pearson didn't have long enough to judge really, but I would say his record really doesn't live up to this 'Pearson as messiah' legend that has grown up around him.

It is a great shame that Navyred should leave this board nbecuase of this thread. However the original poster had a very good point. Paterson was guilty of not chasing lost causes, true he was never going to reach most of them but denying the opposition that little bit of time and composure would have helped us hang on. As it was he correctly judged when he could and couldn't reach balls - but missed the point that denying the opposition time can make all the difference at this level. What we saw of him he is a good player but he needs to learn - as I believe McGoldrick has to some extent learnt - that it's as much about the balls you don't reach as the ones you do.

Bugger - I was going to toddle down after work if I'm finished in time, don't want to get a ticket in advance in case I'm not. Palace do have their 'neutral' stand, where I was last year since I went with a Palace fan, and you can buy on the night there. It's really not the same though

Rory Delap. Never lived up to the tag of being our most expensive signing but did a job where ever he was asked on the pitch and there was of course that goal against the Arse. If only we'd truly appreciated how far he could throw a ball.

Origin guardian story here http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/15/economics-globaleconomy US national debt: 8.4 trillion I guess we can't look there for a saviour...

Unless it were in the Champions League group stages and we needed a draw to come second in the group and thus avoid the favourite in the next round it's always got to be a win.

Can we play well for 3 games in a row? I reckon so - Birmingham, Derby, Birmingham back in August. I don't think we played that well against Exeter the match before even thogh we won, but we did play well against Birmingham and lost just as we played well against Wolves and lost. So a win tonight please. And then a win on Saturday!

Mike Wilde was chairman June 2006 to February 2007 before being ousted by his own appointees and Crouch (~7 months can't be arsed to work it out exactly since this is just a comparative measure). Leon Crouch acting chairman from February to July 2007 (before being ousted by those same appointees) and from December 2007 to May 2008 (~11 months) Ken Dulieu was chairman from July 2007 - December 2007 (~5 months) What it boils down to is that between them they converted £3.4 million into the black into £4.4 million in the red. I do blame Wilde, but I lay more of the bame at the doors of Msrs Dulieu and Crouch who held the reins between them for two thirds of the period in question. A period of stewardship that saw Saints drop from around the play off places to avoiding relegation on the last day of the season. Do I blame Lowe for the overdraft that was accrued while he was out of the picture? No of course not that would be entirely irrational. I blame him ultimately for our relegation from the Premiership - and accept that with a Premiership income the situation wouldn't be so dire. However I'm not so deluded as to think that Southampton would have remained in the Premiership forever had it not been for his actions. We were struggling at the wrong end of the Premiership when he joined and at least he got us a new ground, an FA Cup final and a couple of decent league finishes along the way. I want Lowe and Wilde gone from our football club, but while they're here I'll grudgingly accept what they need to do to save the club from extinction. I shall continue to support the Saints and I will never wish for anything less than a Southampton victory on the pitch.

So the thread title should be 'Lallana sold according to some bloke who rang up Radio Hampshire' Being realistic, if things don't improve off the pitch with better attendances or - dare I mention it - investment, we all know Lallana will be sold in January. The only question is really how much.

The problem is can the club afford not to sell the players let alone redress the problems in the team? Maybe they should just come straight about the financial situation. Something along the lines of "If we average 20,000 per match for the Plymouth, Wednesday, Forest, Reading and Doncaster matches we won't have to sell players - if not we will have to sell. If we average 30,000 we will be able to give Jan 2 million quid to spend" Would that make you happy or at least understanding of the situation? (n.b. figures given are pure supersition!)

Let's face it with attendance at rock bottom there's no way we're not going to be selling players in January. And Lallana is probably the most obvious sellable asset (remember we're talking about selling players people might actually want to buy - rather than players we'd like to see sold). V odd for it to be agreed already though.

From the fall in attendances at St Mary's it sounds like the same could have been said of the Saints 'fans' of a couple of years ago - except maybe they were more discrete about it.

It sounds like a nice legal loophole - but I'm guessing the relationship between SLH and Saints would have to be restructured for us to take advantage of it, and Mr Barclays might have a thing or two to say about that!

I have no problem with people expressing opinions - I was merely pointing out that replying to a reasonable post with 'Go away Rupert' isn't really contributing to any debate

There's nothing wrong with debate, but the original post drew replies 'Go away Rupert', 'I am sure that you must be asleep...because you are dreaming. Sod off and take Lowe with you', 'Thanks for that Rupert.', 'hehehehe. A Skate on a wind-up. It must be, considering what complete inflamatory drivel you have written.', 'Well, thank you for that. That`s me, a supporter for over 50 years put in my place.', 'The Red Bag 81 posts Monkadill 82 posts.............no coincidence there then ?','Is that you Shimon?' and more but I get bored of reading the thread for you. None of these contribute to the debate, they merely accuse the original poster of being a PR stooge and do the pointless 'how dare you say I'm not a fan' **** waving. The only one with a hint of truth in it is alpine saying that the post is a wind up. He's right in it being a wind up post, but that's far more to do with the mentalilty of posters on here than the content of the post. SaintRichmond, I'm not certain whether full houses ever week would save the club - but it certainly would help it and make it far more attractive to potential investors. And finally Lunatic fringe. You're right SFC will continue to exist in some form or anotyher - but without the fans that will be as a non-league team looking forwards to the local derby with Eastleigh.

This thread reminds me why I've stopped coming to these boards. Not the original post, that was a fairly honest appraisal of the situation we're in. Everyone leaps on as if it were a person attack against them - grow up please the world doesn't revolve around you. The honest truth of it is without bums on seats the club is in financial freefall and that will kill the club more surely than any misguided action by Rupert Lowe, Michael Wilde or Leon Crouch. Without fans this club will die. We may not be the ones who got it into the state it's in but we're the only ones who can get it out of it.

Well done Saints on this one - I am going to take it up, partly because it's a good deal, partly because the club I love needs the money more than I do at the moment. Only issue is where - I normally move about the ground supercitiously, a good result same place next match, a bad result move to the next stand...

[hooray a football thread!] I disagree about Gillett - he comes and goes but generally he's an okay player. My attempt at a line up would be: -----------Davis Cork--Wotton--Perry---Mills ----Morgan----Surman Thomson-----------Skacel ------Lallana -----------Pekhart Subs: Forecast, BWP, Patterson, White, James Bugger it's really hard to work out who of our non-striking strikers to stick up front!

He actually played a rather peripheral part in the fall of Norway - in fact his proclaimation on April the 9th (where he unilaterally announced himself as Germany's puppet president after the German invasion) is widely thought to have strengthened the will of Norweigan forces not to surrender, who prior to his actions looked likely to follow the example of the Danish forces who had surrended earlier that day. As such it is generally accepted that he actually postponed the fall of Norway by several weeks until June 10th. The argument that Quisling betrayed secrets of Norways defense don't really hold water since he had no role in government since 1933 and had no direct knowledge of the restructuring of the defences in the late 1930s.

Ah well at least they're being honest and coming right out with the fact that we can't afford his appearence fees so it's all about getting him off the wage bill. I'm relieved there's no crap about there being a logjam of strikers!

Skacel is probably the best option at left back - but he should be played in an overlapping role with the player in front of him prepared to track back. Astoundingly that's exactly how he was used on Tuesday! Also I think the fact that he tired significantly in the second half might just support the theory that he returned from the close season with an appalling level of fitness. Just maybe he hasn't been playing not because of any influence from on high but because he hasn't been fit?

I've been playing with the idea of getting a half season ticket when they become available and a Palace supporting mate pointed out to me that they're running a scheme whereby if you by a half season ticket before the end of October you get 3 games in December thrown in http://www.cpfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/0,,10323~1417489,00.html. Seems like a good idea to me, encourages sales, boosts attendences and gets the money to the club sooner rather than later - so I guess there's not a hope in hell that Saints would do similar. Is there?