CB Fry

When Kevin Keegan signed for us way back in 1980, did all the "real" Saints fans shrug their shoulders and decide to wait until he'd played ten games before they decided he was a good signing? Just asking, if gut reactions to signings are so terribly wrong.

Seriously? They've called us Scummers for at least as long as we called them the same. The only difference is Pompey fans desperately and laughably try and make it all "political" by making up fairy tales about people from Southampton breaking dock strikes in Portsmouth. The Skate thing came up from Saints fans in fanzines trying to come up with something different from Scummers because that's what Pompey call us.

This cuts to the heart of the issue. I was excited when we signed De Ridder. Never even heard of him before. Was excited about Danny Fox, have to say never knowingly seen him play. Thought Gorkss would have been a good signing but again, can't say I've ever remember seeing him. There is nothing wrong with having a feeling about a player. The main issue here is that for everyone, the idea of "lets see how he gets on" is not the preserve of the happy clappers. It's what everyone thinks. But people should be allowed to be underwhelmed without being set upon by a load of happy clappy bedwetting hysterics desperate to stamp out anything other than "he's a super duper super Saint and I love him already".

Played well today, did very little wrong and plenty right. Plays it nicely out of defence. He came in as an underwhelming signing, and fans were right to be underwhelmed because he was at least Adkins fourth choice centre back of the summer, and he had a less than inspiring record in the SPL. I have no idea why some people on this forum get so upset when every signing isn't greeted as a new messiah. If he never signed for Saints, no one would give two sh its about him, no idea why a man becomes an infallible god head the minute he signs a piece of paper to play football for us. On today's evidence he certainly fits how we play, and may well merit an extension to the loan. Still don't see how that means no one is ever allowed to be anything other than schoolgirl estatic whenever we sign a player. I reserve the right to want players to actually do something before I wet my pants about them.

That's a bit harsh on Nigel Adkins. He can only beat what's put in front of him, and a good start is a good start. I am presuming that your "don't hold your breath" rule applies to all managers, rather than just ones you don't like?

It was the third game of the season, was it not. Not sure promotions are decided after two games into a season, and we won the third. At the end of the previous season we won something like 10 games out of twelve, and won a cup at Wembley. Adkins picked up the mess caused by the departure of Pardew, not the mess caused by Pardew. It's an important distinction. I think your memory needs a bit of a jog too.

Completely disagree. Great rule and I hope Saints adapt something similar. The likes of Pires and Nigel Reo-Coker commuting to the midlands every day is ridiculous - yes it's possible but creates not a shred of affinity from player to club or area, and reinforces the here today, somewhere else tomorrow attitude. And if players want to play the family card, fine. Don't sign for a club in the midlands then. Football players, especially in the Premier League, are, in the main, a bunch of greedy, selfish, thick as pig shi t c *nts. Forcing them to live in something approaching the area the club is based in seems like a bare minimum for the £60 odd grand they're pulling down a week. Well done Villa.

I await with interest your next riveting contribution to the forum.

Unsure is not afraid, and it certainly isn't "more afraid of success than failure". This thread has turned up no one at all who is more afraid of success than failure. And all the "unsures" are talking about money and future financial implications, which you insist isn't what you meant the thread to be about. So they don't count either. Cortese is very confident, yes, Adkins is here to get promoted, yes. I have no problem with this whatsoever. What's your point here? Lastly, as for your sense of humour, your first post was quite hilarious, so well done.

People are getting sidetracked by a fairly dopey comment you made, and then hilariously tried to pretend you didn't make, forgetting that the nature of web forums is what you have written kind of like stays written. As for this question you keep asking - sorry, it is not the perceptive, piercing, insightful question you think it is. It's just gibberish. The answer, for everyone, everywhere, is NO. There, it's been answered.

Something in the region of £65m I believe.

Quite. I note with interest no one complaining about "lack of coverage for the championship" has actually come forward and said they would sit down and read a two page article on Coventry City. Because they wouldn't.

Hang on, what do you want? You want "rumours" in the media but at the same time you're grizzling about negativity and slagging off when someone "comes out with a snippet". Any rumour is going to get a proper going over on here, even when they are based in facts - we had weeks of pompous idiots saying "the papers make stuff up" when they dared to suggest Alex O-C might be leaving. So make your mind up - you either want rumours and the slagging off that entails, or you want a media blackout. You can't moan about both things.

Your opinion certainly chimes with the chairman who is expecting us not to just go up, but go up as champions. However, you have to remember that the "we're trying" mindset is that of the manager, who like it or not, is going to be playing stuff down all season. He is patently not Billy Davies and he has his we'll keep trying and see what happens post-match routine perfected. But let's not forget that behind the scenes I have no doubt focus is there. But I think you have to accept that the next four games are not make or break at any level - not for this season, not for the club, not for nothing. If we lost all four of them we still would be in touch for if not still in the top six which before christmas is absolutely fine. Plenty of clubs have had a storming first half of the year before petering out. We will have a bad run this season. However annoying it is, and it does annoy me as you know, people being equivocal on a web forum won't actually stop us winning games.

Not really. It was last season, as our awful start meant we had no room for error. We have given ourselves plenty of room for error as the season progresses. QPR lost only six last year, but Norwich lost 8 and they both drew plenty. Of course, there is a faction of absolute idiots on this forum who think we only need to get what the third place team gets and then we'll finish second. Those people would point to Swansea losing 14 games. But then, they are convinced that 80 points is "enough" to finish second and laugh at those who disagree. So if you listen to those wallies we've got plenty of games to lose.

Quite. Never has an opening post been so completely overegged. But heaven forbid anyone questions any of it - "few can doubt we'll be spending £40-50 million in January", "we have the best academy in the country", "it was Leibherr's dying wish", "doom and gloom from some of the fan-base", "what's wrong with our mindset", as if contributors on this forum are stopping the team winning, the classic attack from the simpleton happy-clapper, especially as, we are, umm..winning quite a lot. Despite the "mindset" of errr, people on a forum dragging us all down. And picking apart this drivel is apparently "trolling" according to some.

Biscuits.

The main difference between the two was while David Beckham secured a mulit-million pound contract with Real Madrid, Anders was only successful in getting his agent to pretend he was being tracked by Barcelona. A really good acheivement getting to that many caps for his country though. I remember celebrating the free-kick he scored at the 2002 world cup nearly as much as anything the England team did that tournament. If you squint, he could be in our FA cup away kit....

Absolutely, there has been loads on us recently. Won't stop the divs making out that the "BBC are against us" and "the media have an agenda against us" and all that guff. I always wonder how many of these people grizzling about newspapers and TV stations not giving coverage to "the championship" would read a two page interview with the manager of Coventry City, or watch a twenty minute profile about the Cardiff manager. I know I wouldn't. I'm not really bothered. Which is kinda why the Daily Mail and the Guardian aren't bothered either. So don't pretend you want more coverage of "the championship" when what you really want is just loads of stuff about Saints. Which is fair enough, but also utterly unrealistic.

I think you're talking about a miniscule number fans here. All I can see are lunatics saying we desperately need a 50,000 seater stadium for when we're in the Champion's League "regularly".

But the question "are you afraid of success" was entirely based on a supposed fear of spending money, and the fear about us being finacially unstable. The entire first post is about money. Read it again. The entire first post is about money.

If I may be sold bold to say it is a pretty dopey question all in all. As far as Saints go, I am not afraid of anything and I have no idea why the only measure you are using for being afraid or not is a demand to spend loads and loads of money. If we get promoted then great, I completely supprt the Cortese plan to get promoted automatically this season. Never had any time for the rather sillly theory that it's better to stay down for another season to "get ready" for promotion. There is very little evidence of clubs gradually building and building to promotion. When it happens it is one big push in one season. I have no doubt we will spend some money in January - I think even more likely if we are fourth than if we are top, funnily enough. It will be no where near twenty million - the regime haven't spent that much for the entire time they have been here, and neither would we need to spend that much. No club that has been promoted from the second tier in the last decade have spent anywhere near that in the January window, so why on earth would we need to submit the squad to such pointless disruption? When we get promoted, let's see - I doubt we will be spending £50m. It's got nothing to do with fear, it's just sensible. I am not one of those who thinks we can or even should be aiming to get into the Champions League anyway.

The original poster said "few can doubt" the Leibherrs will give us £40 to £50 million to buy players if we are top in January, which was then downgraded to the equally fanciful £20m. How can challenging ridiculous amounts like that be trolling? If anyone is trolling, it is the original poster, who has a reputation of setting up utterly spurious arguments. We won't be spending anything like twenty million pounds in January. Nothing like it. How that can then be translated as Saints fans being "afraid of success" is just beyond me. Opening post: troll.

But why is it the team in second (conveniently the team with about 85 points) the one that magically disappears? Why not the team in fourth, or eighth, or twelfth or twentieth?

For one, I have made no comment about "the top after ten game" statistic, so not sure where that little dig is from. But I am absolutely delighted that I "cannot follow" your idea that 80 points is enough, when frankly it isn't. 80 points would not have got us to second last season. Or in 2009-10. Or 2008-09. It would in 2007-08. Well done. But not in 2006-7. Or in 2005-6. Or in 2004-5. Or in 2003-4. Or in 2002-3. Or in 2001-2. Or in 2000-1. So one season out of eleven has eighty points been "enough" to finish second. Do you think you, and MLG, and all the rest of you wallies will be able to follow this? No, it's not. Because that is what teams in second place tend to get. They get 85 points, or 87 points or ninety points. Us bumming about being satisfied with 80 doesn't actually stop other teams actually trying to finish second getting that number of points. As we can see, 80 points is enough to get second in one season out of eleven. That, to me, is pretty bloody relevant.