Chez

Not sure I follow?

Any reason why you don't think it is him? I imagine he knows pretty much every French player worth knowing... Supposedly the luckiest manager in the world, which is a handy trait to have.

Perhaps the players we have here and how Martinez wants to work and play the game may be the perfect fit. Maybe not. BY the way, beat them and finish above them and who the **** is laughing now?

How would they get to know what his wage was? Unless of course a rival chairman told everyone what they might be of course! What is a our wage bill at the moment by the way? Creeping up steadily as I recall, offset by the bigger TV money of course, but don't think for a minute that we are paying peanuts to a top stars.

I certainly don't know, but wouldn't he know exactly what was being demanded by Austins agent, as West Ham enquired about him? Why would he come out with a figure unless that was quoted to him by the agent? It's amazing how we choose to ignore evidence and information that we don't like the sound of. Feels to me like some Saints fans simply don't want to accept that we may be paying a shed load of money to an injury prone player that hasn't really provided value for it just yet.

In the short term maybe, but if he is successful (and RK isn't) doesn't that just show who is the better club? No excuses. I am not saying it is a possibility or I want him. Just putting it out there as none of candidates mentioned grab me much so much so that I still want to push Gary Rowett's name even though he's probably not quite ready for it.

Decent job at Swansea and he did pretty well at Wigan considering the funds and players at his disposal. Obviously less so at Everton, but does that mean he is a busted flush? Pretty much every manager `fails' in the end. Good timing is everything for managers. when you take over, what you have in the squad when you get there and who you can bring in whilst you are there. In the end its all about matching manger, players and club. Look at how successful Adkins was for us and how he has struggle since. Is he a good or bad manager? Maybe Martinez is totally the wrong guy, but I'm struggling to see the right guy in all the names mentioned so far.

If you were an egotistical director of football at Saints, you wouldn't half want to show the world that it was you, the board, management and the backroom staff that were more important than RK to the success in the last two seasons. You could make that point perfectly by appointing the manager who had failed at Everton and then still be in the top 6 in the table come next May. Of course that would require Martinez and the team to be successful... or have we gone beyond the point of being able to suggest managers now?

on a fractionally more serious note, wouldn't appointing Martinez be the closest thing to it - effectively saying that in our structure, with our practices/procedures, support and `black box' behind him we think Martinez can do as good, if not better job than RK. If you were an egotistical director of football at Saints, you wouldn't half want to show the world that it was you, the board, management and the backroom staff that were more important than RK to the success in the last two seasons. Achieving that with the manager that failed at Everton might rubber stamp it. Of course that would require Martinez and the team to be successful...

you are kidding? This design is fugly

The idea of keeping players for `one more season' but allowing them to go on a bosman is wonderful except that when they do go the following season you still need to replace them, but you don't have a big hefty pile of cash on your pocket in which to do so. I hate to say it, but in the long run its financial suicide to sign players for millions and then allow to leave for nothing. If we want to make steady progress you just can't do that and we won't. That said if we don't get reasonable offers (I'm looking at you Levy) then we wont allow them out the door.

I don't see any drop off in sharpness this season, nor any reason he can't continue doing what he has been doing for two more seasons. Yes he goes through periods when things don't go well, but he leads the line well and offers a good alternative to the pace of Long. I worry about Austin's fitness, so allowing him to leave would be a slight gamble IMO. With no genuine young striker coming through it must be worthwhile us keeping Pelle at SMS.

Good prospect when at Brum, but not sure he has fully lived up to that yet. Time on his side, but didn't he struggle to get in the Norwich starting eleven last season?

This is true, but will Austin stay fit and can Rodriguez ever get back to where he was. If not then allowing him to leave could end up costing us goals and points.

so a hint of Intimately Beckham then.

Talk****e is so frustrating. A radio channel almost exclusively about football could not be a better idea, yet they still somehow manage to completely **** it up with their boring format, same guests, same questions, annoying self righteous presenters and not stop betting plugs. If they did it properly it would be fantastic.

Time share him with Everton. We get the sunny months.

I'm with you. Away kit is disgusting. Home kit, not much better. Don't give up your day job

Looks bloody horrible IMO

Said it several times that I just don't see Howe joining us, but if he did I'd like to say that I like his style of football, I like how he presents himself and I like the job he has done. Would he have the respect of our big ego players and could he demand respect from players we want to bring in? I don't know and for me that is the only concern. I could not care less that he hasn't got European experience. There are loads of managers that do, but so what. It's six games. Doing well in the prem is how the next manager will be judged, not Thursday night football.

How much money did we lose on him?

Some rewriting of history going on here with claims that the club would have sacked him if he didn't sign a new contract. What a complete load of rubbish. Knowing he was off we would have got our ducks lined up and if there was a 'Pellagrini dead duck' effect, causing the team to lose a lot of games we may have pulled the plug at that point, but not a chance we would have sacked him this summer. Everton coming in for him now may have been a blessing as we avoid that situation of him turning down a contract and us being in limbo. We will never know.

http://m.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/14544812.Saints_not_interested_in_De_Boer__reveals_agent/?ref=twt towards the end of the Echo article

The question is, will Austin ever be fit? If Pelle was allowed to leave and then we relied on Charlie we could end up being a little short in that department.

Good shout. Advantage over some of the other overseas managers of having played in the Uk too of course. Not so sure we are quite big enough to get him though.