CB Fry

We'll be a Birmingham or Fulham at best, a Sheff Utd at worst. In five years time we will be somewhere between 8th in the Prem down to 12th in the CCC. We may have had a season in the Prem. I sincerely hope we won't be building a brand new stadium because five years will not be enough time to create the business case for building one. A 40-45,000 seater stadium (probably about £80m worth of mortgage) would require us selling c26,000 season tickets a season with a waiting list. For at least three seasons. Then we might start thinking about it. So 2020 maybe.

I don't think the chairman is allowed to say anything apart from barking out their names. He's not allowed to rephrase questions or pick them up on points or anything. The rules they have all agreed have conspired to make this rather drab and I think no one except the anoraks (bores like me) will watch the one on Sky next week. This isn't going to "re-energise interest in politics" I fear. And it must be costing ITV a fortune to have no ads for 90 mins of primetime.

Pardew delivered instant success. You said it couldn't be done. Pardew did it because of the fantastic investment into the team. You said money doesn't make any difference. Wrong, wrong, wrong. No one is calling for Pardew's head yet. You've been making out they've been calling for his head in your dopey dreamworld since about August. The key word is No-one.

Hope the national grid is ready for a mass switch over to Have I Got News For You at nine o'clock.

Pretty sure they drew lots. There are about 70 rules around the debates so rest assured its all been covered and agreed. Tis a bit dull in the opening exchanges, it has to be said.

If you read that thread - that "when" was the point of the discussion, but none of it was "now", which is how you read it and have been boring people about it ever since. What you're sore about is Pardew is delivering in the kind of timeframe people like me said was perfectly possible and you pompously said was unrealistic and impatient. Pardew delivered instant success and you can't stand it because it blows your arse-aching guff about needing three years clean out of the water.

Hopefully a bit of clever politicking by Pardew to keep Cortese on his toes. Let's hope Pardew doesn't end up with his bluff being called.

I've never forgotten that thread. Mainly because not one person on it wanted Pardew sacked, and neither does Alpine. And neither does anyone on here. But doesn't suit your little routine does it, so you carry on living in your dreamworld.

Eh? Pardew is delivering the success I said he could deliver and was possible from August onwards. When people on here sneer and talk down to you for believing the play offs were possible in August then yes I will come on here and crow at people like SOG who decided what I thought was "unrealistic" and I "needed a reality check" and was "impatient". Well I was right because I said the play offs were realistic back in August. So don't come on here and tell me this season is a success. I f ucking well knew it would be. Talk to the mongs like SOG who were talking about "just staying up" in August.

Not sure what you're being smug about. Pardew is proving you wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. You say there's no such thing as instant success. Wrong. You say no manager can achieve anything until they've had three years. Wrong. You say money makes no difference. Wrong. You said in August anyone who thought we'd be challenging for the play offs this season was impatient and unrealistic. Wrong and wrong. Well some us believed. In instant success. In money delivering that success. In fighting for the playoffs this season. And some of us are right. And it aint you. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Has the penny dropped yet?

Win the next two, and they are extremely winnable, and you're right. And, at that point, we then start really fu cking with the heads of Uddersfield and Colchester. Two points off with a shi te hot goal difference with a couple of games to go might see our competitors crumble.

Charlton one up against Colchester.

I think the only person who "gets off on failure" on this forum is you. You're the one who decided anyone who thought we could challenge for the play offs this season was "unrealistic" "needed a reality check" and all those other sneering comments you dished out at the start of the season. You also sneered at the idea of Pardew delivering instant success, which he has done this season, because it doens't fit your "everyone must be rubbish for three years because that how Lawrie did it" world view. And you sneer at the idea that buying players equates to a better team and better performance. It's your comments that makes Cortese shake his head and think why bother. Why bother giving Pardew any money for players when the likes of you shrug and sneer and say "it doesn't make any difference". Well screw you and your negativity. Thank you from me Alan Pardew for delivering instant success as I said you could and the likes of SOG sneered at: "What is this so-called instant success, you need a reality check sneer, sneer, wouldn't happen, doesn't happen, never happens, Lawrie said so" Thank you from me Cortese and Markus for spending money on fantastic new players. They've made our team better while the likes of SOG sneered at it: "money doesn't make any difference, doesn't buy success sneer sneer" Thank you for the fans who like me talked of the play offs in August. And not the likes of SOG who sneered at the very idea "get a reality check, grow up, kids today these days sneer, sneer, sneer" There's one person who "gets off on failure" on this forum and it's you.

Why would it be a mistake based on this season? Leeds are third, one point off automatic promotion and I'd stay still very, very likely to be promoted automatically. Leeds aren't eighth and they've been nowhere near eighth. They've been challenging for automatic promotion every single week of the season, including this week. An indisputable fact. As I said in the previous post, if Saints were in that position and people were completely writing off our chances of automatic promotion you'd be going ballistic. Leeds being one point off automatic promotion is another indisputable fact in my opinion. Look at the table. Kenny Jackett was doing a good job at Christmas and he is doing a great job now, again indisputable facts. It's just a myth that Kenny Jackett was being dragged through the streets of Deptford as some monumental failure because Millwall were eighth at Christmas. He was doing a great job and no one wanted him sacked. But if we are eighth at Christmas next season it is categorically not the same as Millwall being eighth at Christmas. It would be more like Chelsea being eighth at Christmas, or Leeds being eighth at Christmas this season. Which, funnily enough, they weren't. Much like Leicester weren't eighth in L1 last season's Christmas. They were in and around the top two. And Forest weren't eighth in L1 the Christmas before. They were in and around the top two. Because that's where clubs trying to get promoted need to be at Christmas. Not plan to be god-awful for half a season then hope to make some late charge. But hey, we don't want to compare ourselves to big, rich, well supported clubs like Forest and Leicester. We're nothing like them. We're teeny tiny pauper underdog Southampton. Just like Millwall.

Must have been a different Kenny Jackett and a different Millwall that finished fifth last season then. And as you accept - no one expected Millwall to finish top two. So why would the Millwall board sack Jackett for being eighth, perfectly well placed for the playoffs? It's an utterly false premise and bears no relation to our club, our expectations and our resources. And Leeds aren't now eighth weren't ever eighth and aren't going to finish eighth and are currently, err, third, one point off automatic but you've written them off for promotion. If someone else on this forum was saying this about Saints you'd be tearing them off a strip. Jackett was not asked to deliver automatic promotion at the beginning of the season. Grayson was and he was never eighth at Christmas and he's third now. That is a comparison suitable to Saints but you're ignoring that and making out that we are actually more similar to Millwall than Saints. Tiny, teeny, plucky underdog Southampton. Scrimping and scraping a team together with coppers and loose change just like Millwall. This is coming from you of all people, Mr spend-lots-of-money-and-success-will-definitely-follow. But now, success, for you, for a billionaire bankrolled multimillionpound team, is eighth. What a triumph that would be.

It feels like you are not destined for a season of struggle to stay in the division in August. That's what it felt like through out the entire 1990's (funnily enough it pretty much coincides with MLT's tenure). It went away (for me) at the start of Hoddle's season when it felt we were well placed for mid table. The feeling came back at the start of Sturrock's when staying up would have been fine. Feeling like a proper prem side feels like you belong there. Bolton, Blackburn, Fulham and Birmingham will go into next season feeling like "proper prem sides".

Sigh. We've had all these debates before. If we really did get full houses every time for yeovil and orient, what Would be the point of bothering to get promoted? It's just tediously disingenuous to pretend all football matches are of equal worth. They're not, so please get over it. Our first trip to wembley in 30 years gets more fans than a dead rubber against orient. What an outrage. Christ.

No. League one (and two) will finish on the saturday, the ccc on the sunday. Prem on the sunday the week after.

I'm all over your posts like a rash am I?! You're the one that keeps inviting me out for a drink. It's like being groomed by a facebook perv. Look, I am happy to admit you are the superest dooperest fan around. You're the best. But **** me you have zero sense of humour.

How so? It's the kind of story only the echo would report at this stage. If tried and convicted it'll make a line or two in the nationals and on the bbc.

So just to confirm in your world george burley was fantastically successful at saints. But on the other hand chelsea with league titles, euro cup finals, cups and season after season of top two, three finishes is proof that money doesn't buy success? What utter garbage you write. Over and over again.

We will never be rid of ego maniac we-know-best uberfans with these two fundemental beliefs: 1) "Doing something" is the only solution and as long as you are "doing something" you are beyond criticism. We're trying, how dare you question anything. 2) Saints fans know what's best because they are Saints fans. No other qualification, experience, background or attitude matters. Give the job to a Saints fan because they are a Saints fan. And the statue, the monument, the living shrine to these eternal we know best we are uberfans beliefs? What could it be....

We won't go all out to win the JPT next season. It is a trophy quite often won by L2 clubs for that very reason - Luton and MK won it as fourth tier clubs in the last couple of seasons. Pardew won't say it, but JPT will no way be on the agenda next season.

I'd rather read it. Far quicker. And who on earth wants to log in and watch an interview with the saints assistant manager? :smt015 I want newspapers to boil down the key points and tell me. Thank god they are still about to do it, in electronic or print form. Anyway I think Wilkins makes a fine point - our looming presence will prey on the minds of our rivals. We need a perfect end to the season, and us having that I am convinced will help influence one of our rivals to choke. As the song says, The Saints are coming.

That's a awfully long messageboard post for someone who "doesn't give a ****ing feck who booed" and closes it with "FFS Get a Life". God knows what "scale" of booing you seem to think I am "pontificating" about. All I've ever said is a few fans booed and you could hear it. On the day, in the ground I'd forgotten about it seconds after we all had a laugh about it in the moment. I'd call your "it was silence misconstrued as booing" as "pontificating" personally, but as you said it and you're superdooper fan you must be right. This thread is only amusing because of the lengths people are going to pretend something didn't happen when it did, especially people who then say they couldn't give a "***ing feck" about it. It seems you do, dear. I'm sorry you won't ever see me in the Saints Social Club, but do have a pint of anorak on me.