Ex Lion Tamer

Obviously the biggest issue is transfer policy this summer. But aside from that I'm keen to know if we will get stripes back next season, and wonder if there is anything that can be done to ensure the idea is in the directors' heads before the decision is made

I thank UKIP for splitting the right like the left has been split for years. Finally we might get an even contest

I just don't understand why you sign a player with his history and then baulk at the first sign of trouble. We knew he had this side, having made the decision to sign him we should be taking the rough with the smooth and getting him back in the team scoring goals to make up for it.

So was Jermaine Wright good after all?

What would Rupert Lowe have got us?

So what sort of committee is it if individual members are signing players? And was Mopo just sitting in silence?

Working tax credits are a completely different thing to the minimum wage and have been around in one form or another for much longer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_tax_credit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Wage_Act_1998

Letting him go on loan last season is the reason we got relegated

It is possible to take tough decisions where necessary while also recognising that your staff will perform better if they are working in a pleasant environment

Seems like a good way to get the profit that Katherina (allegedly) wants, without hurting the team too badly

There's utilising a source, and then there's phrases like "dream-wrecker!" He's a gutter journalist. And I say that as someone who defended the Echo that time

Maybe he'll ban our players from his new club's ground, it would be a good way of guaranteeing a win

He wouldn't have to be a formal bidder to make an informal agreement with new owners that he'd stay on though? And he doesn't have the money to be a serious investor himself?

Poch had his best players sold from under him every summer at Espanyol, so he can deal with uncertainty

Great article

I think the cause of all this is that we won't be getting the investment Cortese was hoping for. From the Leibherrs anyway

I don't understand why Rickie would leave, but its understandable that players like Lallana and Schneiderlin would want to test themselves at a higher level now it looks like we won't be getting there ourselves. Would expect them to wait until the end of the season out of loyalty then go.

The owners are quite right to judge that the amount of money it would take to get into the Champions League is unlikely to result in similar levels of revenue or increase value of the club. It's very hard to turn a profit at that level with the likes of Chelsea and Man C around. Getting into the Premier League is basically the point at which their return on investment peaked and it is time to sell. Probably Cortese knew the money was drying up and handed in his notice in advance of the window to try and pressure the Leibherr's into opening the purse strings. Of course, he timed the end of his notice for the transfer window itself, the point at which he would know if there was any hope of getting more money. Following meetings, it became clear that no transfers would be occurring, so he walked.

All of those papers are trash. This is a reasoned and insightful story: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/15/nicola-cortese-southampton-exit-manager

If Poch can just hang on until Moyes gets sacked, we'll be sorted

Clarke is a better manager than Di Matteo. Not enthused about either though

She'll appoint a new chairman but selling a club takes time

Ben SmithVerified account ‏@BenSmithBBC #SaintsFC manager Mauricio Pochettino will stay for now and will, I am told, be present at his press conference tomorrow.

Don't deny that he did a good job of picking managers but really it was the Liebherr money that stopped us selling our players. And actually Lowe used to do quite a good job of negotiating prices