CB Fry

You are getting awfully het up about something our new Chairman said we could be "A little bit like". But really well done on the deep analysis that throwaway line really needed. It's like listening to an autistic teenager struggling to deconstruct a proverb. But funnier of course. Ralph Krueger: member of the World Economic Forum. Strawlock: utter dinlow on football fans forum.

Nobody needs to mention it because only you seem to be thinking that RK thinks that Saints are going for the Superbowl. Everyone else took his couple of quotes as they were intended, especially as it was an interview contextualising Saints for a US/international audience, rather than contextualising the GBP to to a Southampton audience. I hope you do drop our Ralph a quick email, because I reckon he has no idea whatsoever that there are different "constraints" in the English Premier League compared to the NFL until you've mentioned it just now. Because if you don't he's going to look a right chump on Monday morning when he starts asking Poch about his upcoming draft picks. Thank god you're here.

"We can be a little bit like the sentimental favourite in the organisation, like the Green Bay Packers". Key phrase there is "little bit". But really riveting stuff about the NFL draft system, Strawlock. Apparently it's all different and that to the Premier League. Who knew? Oh. Everyone. Everyone knew.

Odd. I was in the middle of replying to Frank's piffle about glass ceilings and how we can't possibly replace Luke Shaw with eight million pounds. Oh, and generally laughing at his seemingly desperate need for the SFC chief exec to pretend we can get to the top four, regardless of actually having the means to achieve it. And merely finishing twelfth in the Prem is now beneath Franko. Let's see how that plays out in the next few years. He's a funny old chap.

Sounded a bit chaotic at the end but a nice win, and a brilliant start to our exciting new era. A fantastic time to be a Saints fan again.

I called him a quitter because he quit. On my planet we call that a fact. I inferred he didn't have skills to progress us further because he refused to accept a change in emphasis. Getting to the highest level involves facing onto adversity, change management and getting your head down and going again. That's what top level sports and business people do. That ain't what Cortese did. He was so driven to take Saints to the Champions league that he ran for the hills the minute he stopped getting his own way. Or, if you will, he quit. He quit. He quitted. He quitified. He is a quitter.

What? I am saying Cortese left because he couldn't have total control over everything. That is a fundamental flaw because it stopped him taking us further. He's quit you know. Had you not noticed?

You don't see anyone agreeing with me? Apart from Badger, Saint Richmond (about as far from one of my "yes men" as you can get) and, I think, Ottery too (difficult to tell with his posting style). So two posters with the same theories as me posting within the last half hour or so. But yeah, no one shares my view. Grasp that stick, or have we all got "flawed judgement"?

Hilarious you accuse me of grasping the wrong end of the stick. He does lack the skills to take the club into the Champions League because the key skills he needed was to "manage upwards" to give him the room to achieve that goal. Being pig - headed/single minded etc is plenty to haul the club out of the lower divisions but in the billionaires row of the top six you need to have a little more in your kit bag. He couldn't cut it. So he quit. Grasp that stick.

I think RK has articulated a fair more credible and aspirational vision for SFC in the few weeks he has been here than our tiny Italian friend did in four years. Any old chump can daydream about the Champions League. It takes a bit more nous to be have the sharp focus on what we are about, what makes us different and what we can capitalise on to make us grow sustainably. Got to say I am loving this guy so far.

Glad you quoted this NickG. It confirms the facts: he quit and the club wanted him stay. In other words, rather than a man with a vision and determination to take his beloved club into the Champions League regardless of the obstacles put in his way, Nicola Cortese ran for the hills the minute he faced a little adversity. Basically he did a great job taking the club out of the lower leagues but he didn't have the skills to cope at the highest level. A quitter.

Urrgh. That makes me sick. Looks just like something Stoke or Sunderland would do. Bring back the days when Nicola Cortese had the foresight to make SFC the only club in world football wearing an all-red kit. Just so unique.

We buy two seven or eight million pound rated players and neither of which will improve the first team? Are you serious? On planet earth, Nathaniel Clyne cost us £2m and improved the first team, Lovren cost us £8.5 - £500k over, granted - and he improved the first team. Boruc cost us significantly less than seven million. Seven million less in fact. And we all know how much the likes of Fonte and Lambert cost and they are established Prem players. And you are now turning your nose up at 12-15th place finishes in the Premier League, like that is somehow beneath us? And sneering at us spending paltry eight million pounds on players? What club do you think you support? Seriously - who do you think we are? Difficult to come to any other conclusion other than you are mental. It's all jolly sweet that you swallowed all the fairy tales our little sharp suited Italian Wizard of Oz spoonfed to his media chums in the Daily Mail and Sky Sports News. But we know now that was all just emotional blackmail to maintain control and get his hands on more of the dead guy's cash. You fell for it. More fool you. Your hero with all of his "vision" of the "possible" was to arrogant to have the "vision" that it was perfectly "possible" that his employers wouldn't let him just do what the hell he liked, with attendances, corporate income and sponsorships falling all around him. He did an exceptional job with managerial/coaching choices, player recruitment and the academy. But the rest left a lot to be desired. Anyway, he's gone, gone, gone. You're going to have to support a different club to satisfy your desperate need for Champions League football and to rise above the pitiful situation of Saints scrimping to buy players for meagre amounts like eight million pounds. Oh, the shame of it.

Anyone want to buy a set of personalised number plates?

If there's one thing Franko hates, it's vagueness. Still blathering on about possible/probable too. You're spoiling us.

I haven't said we shouldn't do it, just that it won't really be relevant to our performance in the Premier League. It would be a nice "brand extension" and a form of relegation insurance. Unless you are seriously suggesting Chelsea Village is wot won the Champions League for them.

Plymouth and Brentford, eh, MLG? I can remember when we were bigger than Everton.

That's the problem with this kind of scheme. Really not much more than relegation insurance, a potential secure revenue stream (or asset we can flog) were we to end up skint one day. No one is going to rocket into the top four on the back of a hotel and a Wagamamas adjacent to their stadium.

We used to sell out when we weren't investing in the team and fighting relegation. Imagine how many fans we would be turning away if we were top ten, with multi million pound signings and four England players in the team? Imagine how big the stadium would need to be. Just imagine.

I, for one, welcome our new Canadian/German Ice Hockey overlord.

All day? I've been at work sweetheart, posting on here before 8 and after 6. You are cute. The clue is in name as to why I haven't responded to your "banal point". Well done on the clankingly obvious. I look forward to you back referencing this for weeks to come. Love you.

Says a man quoting Dalek, who has spent the last six or seven years on this forum pretending to hold views he doesn't actually hold and then repeating them over and over and over again in a one-note trolling routine. Get him to do his Hoddle routine again, it am so funny.

Nice to see the internet's dumbest back from care in the community. Well done on concocting a little reply for me. My advice to you is - when you write off a forum thread topic as "everyone's favourtie mongboard game" and "ludicrous" then try jolly hard not to then play the game yourself. You start to look rather silly - which, for you, is a piece of pi ss.

No response to my simple question then, Strawlock? Remember you hate "everyone's favourite mong board game" about "who would you rather be?". Except when you are "just asking" Hull fans whether they'd rather be us. Well done. It is pitiful just how painfully thick you are, and dealing with you is like tipping a wheelchair into a canal. So for that I am sorry. Because I know you and your lickle brain can't help it.

The renowned Hugh Jorgan not serious? Unlikely.