Chez

CB is without doubt our weakest area with Thomas yet to prove his fitness, Perry being a liability IMO and Lancashire looking like he has great potential but with no idea when that will be realised. If Lancashire toughens up he could well be a very decent player as he has the ball skills required. Getting Saijs back is extremely important. A ball winner or two is a must. Having said defence is a weak spot I look at our midfield and wonder where are the goals going to come from if Surman leaves. We seem to be OK for holding midfielders with Gillett looking good. I can't stand Wotton but at least he has heart. I'm keen to see if Gobern can fill that role. When moved into the middle he reminded me of Carlton Palmer. A drop down a league won't do him any harm either. The problem though is creativity. With Surman assumingly gone that leaves Holmes and Schneiderlin. I certainly won't be holding my breath for Holmes to beat a man and Morgan doesn;t seem overly keen to get in the box so IMO we desperatly need to find some pacey wide men and attacking midfielder and I have already mentioned N'Guessen a million times. I don't see Thomson as being ready and I am far from convined Lallana is a wide man. Is McGlaggon more suited down the middle? If McGoldrick leaves then Patterson/BWP ticks all the boxes for me. Mind you Rasiak and Saga might still be here!

some very good observations in your post. I agree with just about all of it especially his ability to link the play. The lad has a very good first touch and then the vision to do somethign with it. The one thing I would say was that when he was playing up front on his own he simply did not work hard enough to get in the box. He never busted a gut to get in the six yard box ever. He made exactly the same runs (or lack of them) as when he was asked to play at the head of the diamond. The difference being was when he was in that formation it actually helped us that he held back and provided some cover should the move break down. When he was the only striker there was not a need for him to walk to the enge of the box, we needed him right in there. Casual, laid back or lazy? When playing up front he was lazy IMO (and I had backed him all season I must add). He certainly bucked up though once Stern John ****ed off. Funny that. He has quality and for that reason I don't want him to go because I have seen an ever eroding levels of quality at the club over the last 5 years. We''ll sell him and then buy ****e.

seeing as we have been relegation candidates for months (well all season actually) and having zero funds available I think I'd of had my scouts looking in league 1, 2 and below rather than above. I'd be very interested to know if anyone on here knows any of our scouts and withotu naming names have they spent a lot of the season doing just that. I mean how many times have they watched N'Geussen for example?

can you offer any more information about these players? Are they free/cheap because their current clubs don't want them or are you talking about compared to fees for well known players?

did you not notice Grayson dropping down a division to manage Leeds United. If the money is right and owners make the right noises about ambition then any manager is a possibility. I just wonder if there is not someone in the lower leagues (other than Tis) that would be suitable?

following on from your question does a private owner actually need a board at all? Could he/she not run the club themself making all decisions (perhaps with a CEO) and doing all the work as well if he/she wants to. I guess if a limited company uis created then a secetary and chairman are minimum requirements for a board.

we will have had to have done this last season in order to have the knowledge to buy them this summer. Have we?

an effective board needs a range of diverse opinions, but they all must be pulling in the right direction. We at least know that Crouch is a fan and wants the best for the club so that is a good start. Lets hope the other members feel the same.

yes Holmes is over rated IMO. Surman is underated.

I thought Cox was going to cost teams over £2m? Beckford is going up a league and Lambert doesn't want to leave so not sure any of them would come even if the £1m was made available, Patterson might be the instant solution.

very good point and as soon as I saw him against Reading away I said that he looked just what we needed - height, strength, workrate and ability. Him and BWP would have offered the perfect combination of height and pace. That partnership played all season would have kept us up IMO and Patterson would be the million pond man (if not more). How much did Rangers buy Karl Rafferty for? Patterson looks as good as him to me.

perhaps the ther players and tactics were cack? McGoldrick and Lallana were in their first full seasons and should never have been expected to carry the side.

surprised you served him to be honest.

yep, look how we replaced Safri with Wotton last summer. At the higher echelons of football you need quality players to have any hope whatsoever of winning the league. McGoldrick will go and we'll bring in some useless load of old ****e on less money. Our scouting system is toilet. I doubt we have a clue who is decent in League 1 never mind League 2.

he was England U20 captain whilst at Saints. He hasn't progressed a great deal since leaving us. A few games for Pompey in the cups, but mostly he has been out on loan in the CCC. He is still young so is a prospect but it pains me to say anything good about him to be honest. ****ign skate judas ****.

Interesting arguement and £1m is a lot of wedge for a League 1 side. I'd have to argue though that we need quality to get us out of the league not money to waste on old ****e. If we sold him who would be his replacement, some load of **** I bet. Also I have got to pick you up on two of your points let me give you some facts about the previous two seasons for David McGoldrick in 2006/7 Saints League starts 1 Saints FA cup starts 2 Saints Subs 8 and they were for 25, 14, 9, 1, 10, 16, 1 and 30 minutes. in 2007/8 Saints League starts 2 (58 and 45 minutes) Saints Subs 8 and they were for 11, 5, 11, 2, 10, 23, 28 and 17 minutes I don't see how anyone can describe 2008/9 as anything else but his first full season for Saints and at CCC level. James BT was extremely average. He worked hard btu absolutely no quality of end product. A terrible scoring record and little sign of what might come. Fast forward 5 years and he was an England striker.

Blackstock and Best didn't really get lods of chances, not that I am great fans of either, but how anyone can say that Beattie performed badly for us I will never know. In the early years there was little end product, but he was a top top player for us scoring some wonderful goals. Cranie got very few chances and has done nothing since leaving, so doesn't fit either of yoru criteria. Decrap, well say no more.

seriously? I'm amazed anyone considers Holmes to be even remotely close to Surman. Holmes is poor.

Mark Yeates has impressed me greatly whenever I have seen him. Great free kick taker. Same division means it might be a problem btu if we look like we are going to chase promotion then maybe he will see the potential.

no worries, I usually just spend my time arguing with Arizona about Skacel or Saga. I didn't realise there were still people out there that think Pearson was useless. He has a point in that we spent a kings ransom on loans to keep us up, but I can't imagine we would have signed so many ****e players over the summer if he had been here. Michael Morrison would have been at centre half for starters.

my mistake we went from 1 win in 13 league games. Plus an embaressing defeat to Bristol Rovers in the FA cup showed how truely bad we were at that point.

time has told. We didn't employ him and the next guy took us down, or will you only conceed once he has kept Leicester up? No doubt that will be down to Mandrichs millions though so we will never know.

and there's nme thinking it was you that was mystic meg offering us preditions that we would have gone down with Pearson.

after timing? No idea what you are trying to say but you are welcome to check through my posts and you will see that at the time I thought Pearson shoudl be retained. If you are trying to point out the Lowe did well with WGS then you are right. Not sure what bearing this has though on him letting pearson go and bringing in JP.

as you keep rolling out the 21% stat I'll repeat the fact that our win ratio in the 8 league games before he took over was 12.5%. We were going backwards at an alarming rate and he managed to turn that round by galvanising the squad and getting them fighting like their lives depended on it.