Chez

Buying the club was a smart move and good advice from Nik Nak, no doubt about that, but that's a bold statement. If the money was there I guess players like Shaw and Lallana may have stayed rather than go to Man U and Liverpool and we would have challenged for CL, but there is no guarantee of that. we will never know

16th, I thought it was always 17th? Try to be consistent Dalek

what about net transfer spend + wages?

I certainly didn't. but maybe that's because according to the Southampton FC posted accounts they made a loss every year after administration in 2009 up until 2014 (accounts to June 2014), when we made a £7.1m profit. Cortese left in January 2014 of course, half way through that financial year.

he looked very solid, and kept Murphy quiet after he had run Valery ragged, but I'm not sure he offers enough in attack, especially if he is asked to play as a wing back. Personally I like Stephens in the middle bringing the ball out. Vestergard and Bednarek don't have the ability to do that.

You are correct. Who wouldn't have done the same in his shoes? Just for context though, he played 3 champions league games in total and sat on the bench in the FA Cup final. He played 2 whole minutes of the Community Shield. He might have got more caps for France if he had stayed at Saints and continued to perform at the very high level he was for us, but then again maybe his form might have dipped here too. Who knows. It would be interesting to know how much he has enjoyed the period since he left.

did he take into account The Clot played him out on the wing?

that's a hell of a probate period. What happened, did Cortese contest the will he was meant to executor of?

I too missed it having spent years glued to the site. Annoying. Funnily enough I missed the spoons revelations too. Typical.

Nik Nak departed three and a half years after her father's somewhat unexpected death. If there was an expectation that he would inherit some of the club (as you suggest) and that was denied/ignored by Kat, then I think that `overlooking' would have caused a much earlier departure to be honest. Doesn't mean he wasn't fuming at how control of the club was wrestled away from him though. There was lots to dislike about the way he went about things, but that ruthless and single minded focus on building Saints up is something we have missed.

Agreed. If you are breaking your own transfer record for a striker and he's coming from another, perhaps lower league, you'd want them to at least have hinted at being a prolific goalscorer...or maybe even just a threat would be nice!

Interesting comparing the two in terms of career goals/games records: Sala 85 goals from 215 games. Carrillo 63 goals from 245 games. To be fair to Carrillo, he started in the Argentine top flight, whilst Sala scored a shed load of goals whilst starting in the French league 3 and 2. If you just compare their strike rates at their most recent clubs (Nantes and Monaco): Sala 42 goals from 117 games, Carrillo 21 goals from 95 games. there is obviously more to being a striker than simply scoring goals of course, but both are 6'2 and would be expected to lead the line. I think Sala is 28 whilst Carrillo was 26 when he signed for us. Like you said, if he joins Cardiff hopefully he is more Carrillo than Crespo.

yeah, no skate has ever mentioned the 4-1 win in 2010 when they were two divisions above us. Personally, I hope we get them in a later round and we get to witness either a 4-1 destruction of them or a late Steve Moran-esque winner. The scenes in 2011 when Ricky scored at **** Park will be hard to beat, but a last minute winner would probably do it.

at games there has never been anything but total backing from Saints fans.

brilliant result. The bottom has closed back up again. Cant ask for much more than that. It reminded me of many games at St Marys whereby we dominated possession, but didn't create enough ad the opposing defenders just won every header in the middle. Thought the three centre backs had great games. The fullbacks were dissappointing for multiple reasons. Valery is rash, Target lightweight. The midfield ran hard, very hard. Redmond covered so much ground.

McCarthy takes so long with the kick outs but they all go straight to the Leicester. A bit more ****ing care needed. Turning over possession so cheaply will cost in the end. Great wrk rate from redmond btw

Higginbottom on my stream said there was no contact whatsoever. He's ****ing useless as a co commentator. He sounds like he knows what he is talking about, and obviously has the pro career experience, but when you consider the actual words the only conclusion is that he is clueless. I agree with you. I thought Albrighton made as much as he could from the slight pull by Valery. Foul yes, but all players just seem to know how to dive these days when there has been minimal contact.

great defending by Redmond. Wish Target could offer something in that regard. He is useless.

that aged well

its a fiver a year I think. Not exactly a kings ransom is it.

Is the forum at its busiest when we are utter ****e and things are going to hell in a handcart? Twitter and whatsapp is eating people's time I suspect. No more, no less than that.

closely followed by Forrest away in the FA Cup in 93 and Reading, also away in the FA cup, in 97.

Pretty sure Barclays were only owed £4.4 million when entering administration, which was our overdraft at the time. It was Barclays decision to reduce the overdraft from £5m to £4m that effectively brought about administration, although obviously Lowe actually instigated it with the `bouncing cheque'. Roughly £23.1 million was owed to Norwich Union I believe, which was the loan to build the stadium. I think we owed player wages too for the previous month (or two). The undisclosed, but reported fee of £13m paid by Marcus, bought him 100% of the shares of Southampton Leisure Holdings. The phrase "paid debts off in full" was used to describe the deal, with reference to the "bank debt, tax and trade debtors". I don't recall there ever being mention of outstanding taxes though. £13m obviously does not equal £30m (the rounded up figure used to describe our total debt at the time of administration), so someone didn't get paid in full at the time of acquisition. The term `payment plan' has been bandied about on this forum over the years, and the accounts showed a payment of £4m was made to a previous debtor - probably Aviva (formerly Norwich Union) on gaining promotion to the premier league. However, I find it hard to believe Markus paid of 100% of the total £30m debt off. Why on earth would he? My guess is Aviva took a hit, but someone on here will know better than I.

yeah me too. Gabbi is quicker across the ground, offers better movement and no one has ever questioned his work rate since he was here. In the past he has run around chasing balls with no support. Under Ralf the support (press) is there, so he seems like a decent fit to me. In terms of finishing, they are similar, but Austin gets into better areas more often, which is a genuine weakness in Gabbi's game. he just doesn't get `in there' enough. I think Gabbi has a much better first touch. The ball doesn't stick with Austin at all (certainyl this season anyway). Both offer little when the service is of an lofted variety. I think the key difference is Gabbi's name and reputation is decent in Italy and thus he can still demand a fee. I get the impression he is also keen to go back to Italy. I think Austin has a reputation for having no knees and being injury prone. Whether that is founded or not I don't know. I don't think he has any desire to leave. You cant force a player out these days, thus Gabbi is the one out the door...maybe.

brilliant Norm. Like that reply a lot.