CB Fry

It's perfectly possible to wait and see, and make the observation that he looks sh it e on paper. He does. 7 starts for Celtic in a calendar year and 7 starts for Copenhagen in a loan spell suggests shi t e on paper in my book. But of course I will wait and see. We all will. Jesus, spare us from the happy-clappers.

Looks sh it e on paper, clearly fourth choice CB in the window at best after Jemal, Gorks and matey from Bristol who I have already forgotten. Fontaine. I'm sure the spinmeister generals on the forum will be spinning how fantastic this all is and how Cortese has played a blinder and this signing is absolute proof that we are standing up against agents and revolutionising football or something.

Quite right. He's never managed a single minute in the Premier League. Glad we agree. He has been relegated from the second tier though.

West ham promoted and then taken to eighth and an fa cup final did not require anyone to finish it off and is a far greater achievement than many managers have achieved. Adkins has done nothing even remotely comparable.

You make it sound like pardew's only achievement was a 'fluke' win against bristol rovers. We finished the season before on something like eight wins out of ten plus the cup of course. And pardew built last season's promoted team, as others have said. Pardew was sacked for personal not football reasons.

To be fair, there are plenty of people on this forum peddling out stuff like "we're standing up to agents" and making out Cortese is a revolutionary single handedly taking on the "old ways" of the old guard of football. All of that stuff is equally based entirely on rumours as no one has a freaking clue what is going on. Do be sure to pick up on those people too, won't you?

It's one person on one forum, and even then it reads like they are talking generally -doesn't suggest he thinks LCFC can or will sign him. The pompous preciousness of saints fans on this forum is truly staggering.

Quite right, great post. Meanwhile on another planet there is a breed on Saints fans on this very forum absolutely convinced that we will become Champion's League regulars on the back of our academy, and because Cortese said so, and because people used to say you couldn't climb Everest. Tell that to Everton, sustainably run with the best manager in the game or indeed to QPR going the Jimmy Bullard route, lobbing £60k a week at Joey Barton. If we get to the promised land it's going to take a hell of a lot of running just to stand still.

Never has a post been so wrong. Clearly not the 'job spec' especially as we know we offered 3.5m for billy sharp. We've got our occasional back ups - barnard and connelly. We should be, and i think we are, looking to improve the team, not just pack the squad with mediocrity as you suggest. 'Better or no-one' should be the credo.

Mis-spelling their names proves my point about my own ignorance. What I have got far above you is perspective and an understanding of how real life is actually lived. Stick to your bedroom you computer gaming pedantic freak.

Quite right. If someone who had never even heard of Fontaine until two days ago said "this sounds like a brilliant signing" none of these happy clappers would pick him up on it of course. Initial reactions are allowed. Having not really heard of Fontaine, Gorks or Jay-Rod until we were linked with them and being a tiny bit aware of Waghorne as I live in the East Midlands. I am excited by the prospect of us signing Gorks and Rodrigues, and not excited at all by us signing Fontaine or Waghorne. The tedious happy clappers would permit my opinion on two of the players but slate me for my opinion on the other two, even though my opinion on all four are based on the same level of ignorance, basically a little bit of reading up. Funny that.

We were already relegated before Clive turned up.

Who talks postively about us all the time, especially on Five Live but also on the FLS. So what? We had loads of coverage in the last two weeks. Yawn. Derby got much the same coverage, but of course we currently running away with the league being an entire goal better than they are and we now automatically deserve an hours full match coverage every week for the rest of the season. Yeah. Course there is. Newsflash - Saints home to Millwall is a nothing game, when two ex England managers are squaring up for the first time in the NPC in a big local derby and another game ended seven freaking one. Why oh why oh why didn't they show every single kick of Saints v Millwall I ask myself. Except at the beginning of the round up and at the end when the tables were talked about. Yeah, not a single mention. ****ing retarded. Sure they do. Except Barnsley. There is a clear pro Barnsley agenda on the Football League show. Always has been. Or is it Ipswich? Or Peterborough. Yeah. That's it. Speak to any Peterborough fan and they'll tell you that the BBC definitely have a bias towards them. No. Hang on. I think I mean Derby. Derby fans love the BBC because of their blatant pro Derby agenda. Or is Burnley? I'm sure the parade of utter spackers on this thread grizzling about how the BBC spends all their time thinking of ways to be biased against Southampton fu ck ing Football Club can tell you which clubs feel the benefit of the bias of the evil BBC. See you all next week for the exact same drivel. The BBC hates Saints. Boo-fu cking - hoo.

Not having a pop at nigel, but it is hardly revolutionary thinking to use three subs by the seventy minute mark. It's not like every other manager refuses to use a third sub on the off chance the keeper might get injured. We're doing very well and the substitutions worked but lets not start making stuff up. He hasn't invented the idea of using three subs.

We did win our next game 4-0, though. And in the previous season we'd won seven of our last ten, losing only one, and throwing in a cup final win at Wembley on top. But no, winning streaks were a complete alien concept way back in the dark, dark days of this time a year ago. Christ almighty.

Yes dear. The bbc are sooooo anti-saints aren't they? It's quite sickening how pro-coventry they are. Always been the way, though. BBC world famous for their pro Coventry bias and their utter hatred of southampton.

I can imagine what could happen. Solid top ten, flirting with top six, proper go at the cups. Not ever champions league, bar a everton-style oneoff. We will not ever become the champions league regulars you have in your bedroom bound computer game obsessed geeky little mind.

That's just lovely. Never going to happen. Even if we finish sixth two reasons in a row, our best players will still want to join chelsea or man united. We couldn't stop them. And being 'well managed financially' and champions league qualification are mutually exclusive concepts for unfashionable clubs. We'd have to spend millions and millions more than our turnover. So. Never, ever going to happen. And seriously, who cares?

Yes, these are exciting times. I have always been pretty confident that this regime will see us into the Premier League, although Adkins has to deliver far beyond anything he has achieved in his career thus far if he is the man to take us up. Once we are in the Prem we will see, but one this is for sure - we will not ever become a Champion's League club, and no one should waste any energy even thinking about. Look at that spack of a manager that Blackburn rovers are currently employing still labouring under the believe that he is creating a Champions League standard club. And laugh. The put red and white stripes in the background, and imagine us saying it. It's not going to happen, which is absolutely fine and dandy for me. Mid table Prem ten years in a row would be astonishing for SFC and that's what we should be aiming for. But let's get promoted first, and let's have a go as of now.

Oh my aching sides, wikipeople: Nicholas David "Nicky" Maynard (born 11 December 1986 in Winsford, Cheshire) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Portsmouth FC and currently lives in Portishead, Somerset. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Maynard

Not quite. My recollection is we went all out to get promoted under Pardew, and when he didn't do it, he got fired. That Pardew season was patently not about planning for the season after, it was to get promoted there and then. Thankfully, Cortese is not listening to the wallies that suggest we have to have a season in the division to acclimatise to the league so we're all nice and ready the season after or maybe the season after that. If getting ready and bedded into the division was really that important, Coventry City would be the runaway favourites for the title. We've got a good bunch of players and a bloody good team and a good manager. Go for it. This season. What he said.

Stoneham would have been an utter pile of sh it. By the way, how are your heros SISU getting on - you spent several months swooning about how utterly wonderful they are, and a further few months *****ing about the great opportunity we had passed up on. How is that working out for our friends in Coventry - all as fabulous as you said they would be?

Pretty sure that when she left GMTV she was given some Chelsea related gifts and there was some best wishes videos from some of the Chelsea squad. Fiona Phillips defection has been covered on this forum several times, not just some wikipedia thing.

Players interviewed on TV are hardly likely to say "I sat it out until I was happy with the dough they were offering me, Brian".

Leeds are on their third choice strikers and had a pretty poor day at the office. And not sure they are "one of the best teams in the league". Seventh place last season, and on paper at least, weakened with Schmeichel gone and an early season injury crisis. Leeds, along with us and about 12 others are just one of those teams in the play offs shake up, and could finish anywhere between second and fifteenth. So lets not get carried away. I can see why we seem to be chasing at least two potential experienced CBs.