CB Fry

What are you saying then? Are our competitors Spurs and Liverpool for CL spots or Cardiff and QPR and other mid-sized clubs? Come on Mr Comprehension, do tell. PS. My frame of reference is real life, not computer games.

Chuffed to the boll ocks just to be nominated. I hate you and everyone like you, Bearsy.

That sounds like you are talking about "merely adding extra seats" there, MLG. Is it about that after all then? And at last we agree. Villa and Everton are bigger clubs than us. And our expectations are not to be competing regularly for CL spots with Chelsea and Man U but with QPR and Cardiff in the clogged up middle of the Premier League. I reckon our stadium is big enough for that to be honest.

Cardiff and QPR are potential rivals? I thought you said we were bigger than Villa and Everton?

Yes. None of those things will better enable us to compete at any higher level than now. Kinda like Reading and Bolton having hotels has not catapulted them into the Champions League, and Chelsea are in the Champions League because of a billionaire owner, not because they have a hotel. That stuff is neither here nor there if the objective is competing at the highest level possible.

Not sure how spending millions and millions on expanding a stadium we currently cannot sell out for all but the obvious games (despite having the best season we've had for thirty odd years) is going to "increase revenue streams" or help us "compete", especially as we will go from an apparent debt free club to one with significant non-team related debts commitments. And, as far as I can see, we are "competing".

I didn't realise it wasn't so great at SMS. Just goes to show all the "haven't won at x since y" stuff is all balls. Don't think we'll win tomorrow though. We never win in Newcastle.

Look, I'm not saying we would get relegated, but we would get relegated.

We are playing a lot of games but this is an important one and we should be trying to go as far as we can in the FA Cup. There are people on this forum who think it is "naive" to think we can progress to the later stages of a cup and finish top ten/eight but I'm not one of them. Funny how Gordon Strachan managed it with far fewer resources than MP has got now but the way some of you lot talk you'd think we've got some threadbare patched up mini-squad.

Chris Waddle.

Unless you can speak perfect Spanish then how can you possibly know this? Pochettino is the only manager in the league whose words go through not one but two filters before they end up in print.

Well yeah. We've long had the sign over Newcastle at home. Virtually guaranteed three points every season.

If it was at Turf Moor it would have been.

Once again you are making up opinions for me. Never said we should try and win all competitions. Never said it. Never said we should play our strongest teams in all competitions. Never said it. Was happy with the team we put out in the match against Bristol City. Perfectly happy. As as for me "forgetting the league cup" what on god's earth do you want me to do? We're out of the sod, so luckily you don't have to take your children to a cup final which other seems you only give a sh it about when whining about Portsmouth. But well done, make up opinions and then have a go at me for them.

Cannot take those kind of risks when finishing seventh-maybe-eighth is at stake. Wigan FFS.

If we do try and win that game we WILL get relegated. Not saying we will get relegated but we will get relegated. I mean, look AT WIGAN FFS.

IF WE TRY AND WIN A CUP WE WILL BE RELEGATED RELEGATED RELEGATED RELEGATED. LOOK AT WIGAN FFS. I'm not saying we will get relegated of course, but we will get relegated.

Pretty sure the consesus last season was Sir Alex won the title with an incredibly average UTD team, basically the absolute opposite of what you're saying. And it takes a heck of a lot to consistently deliver top 8, again the absolute opposite of auto pilot. Other than that, you're spot on.

Which, of course, is not a history rewrite at all.

It's just you blathering on about "fielding our strongest team in all the cup games". I've never said we should do that. But do I think we could finish, say, eighth, and, say, get to the FA Cup final? Well yes I do. I don't really struggle to visualise that as possibility for a Southampton side. Struggle to understand why you think it so beyond us.

Indeed. The problem was how much it dried up for nigh-on a decade until Bridgey turned up, with Oakley the notable exception. No question Lowe refocused the club in that direction while Bradford, Coventry, Sheff Weds and others were spunking untold millions on dross. (...we stuck to spunking untold thousands on Lee Todd, Michel Nilsson and Darren Kenton)

Seriously, apart from the obvious players we can all name it wasn't that great immediately pre-Lowe. Who came through between Shearer and Wayne Bridge, the first one in the Lowe years? Oakley and that's about it. Lowe employed Prost, Jennings, Elias and so on. He had Cortese's touch with managers when it came to academy bods.

The "I'm-not-saying-it-will-happen-but-I-am-going-to-mention-possible-relegation-if-we-dare-try-to-win-a-cup" routine is fast becoming the biggest trend on Saintsweb. Bring back the good old days of "chopping-and-changing-managers-never-works". How come no one mentions that any more? After all, "it-takes-three-seasons-for-a-manager-to-build-a-team". How times change.

The "I'm-not-saying-it-will-happen-but-I-am-going-to-mention-possible-relegation-if-we-dare-try-to-win-a-cup" routine is fast becoming the biggest trend on Saintsweb. Bring back the good old days of "chopping-and-changing-managers-never-works". How come no one mentions that any more? After all, "it-takes-three-seasons-for-a-manager-to-build-a-team". How times change.

Still waving your Table Mountain fridge magnet around like it's a doctorate in African History, then? Well done. The Judith Chalmers of Political debate is at it again.