CB Fry

They can all afford to pay Lambert £8k a week, and they'd be in a division above us*, and would be amongst the favourites to push for the Prem the following season. If Lambert decides "actually, this could be my only chance to play in the CCC" and he wants to go, then we'd have to sell. It's perfectly possible. *assuming the worst of course.

"Where we have come from" is blowing every single team in the league (and almost every single team in the league above) out of the water in terms of transfer fees and wages. When are people going to stop making out we are still so terribly hard done by. We're the luckiest team in the league bar none.

Er, yes we are. If you think we have a sustainable squad for L1 football you're off your head. Oh. You are. Clueless. Utterly clueless.

Err, if you actually read that thread from way back, you'll note no one was calling for Pardew's head. It was a clever little thread title, but even the originator of said thread wasn't calling for Pardew's head. Didn't stop you wheeling out your usual arse-aching bore routine though. Why don't you read what is written instead of what is in your head.

No, and the fact is no-one was calling for his head. Check my posts if you are bored enough. All we had is drama queens wheeling out the longevity Lawrie Mac chestnut the minute anyone even suggested that performances weren't great in the first weeks of the season. And they weren't. Pardew is delivering instant success, the kind of which the likes of you were saying was "unrealistic" "impossible" and "we'd do well to just stay up this season" at the start of the season. And there are plenty of posts to that effect from August and Sept.

Little update on Leeds United and Ken Bates here. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/04/football-league-ownership-leeds-united Still bemused why on earth Leibherr bothered to take the club over, pump millions into it and appoint one of the best managers in the lower three divisions when some Saints fans swear blind that Leeds were better off in their first L1 season than we were. I think there's a lack of gratitude somewhere. Strange, ain't it.

For the "overwhelming majority" I'd say every single Saints fan. The only exclusions would be lunatics who are not statistically significant, none of which are on here. There isn't anyone on this forum who isn't going to give Pardew until the end of this season. There are barely any who wouldn't give him longer either. The problem is the arse-ache-ers are desperate to engineer some uprising of a "Pardew out" campaign so they can pat themselves on the back and drone on about Lawrie-Mac-took-three-years-etc-etc. But sorry, that campaign just doesn't exist. And more beautifully than that, Pardew is delivering success instantly, this season, just like people like me said he would. Pardew's success is not borne of "longevity", it's borne of the instant success that every single successful manager from the last twenty years, from Wenger to Moyes, from Boothroyd to Phil Brown, from Gordon Strachan to Martin Jol, from Paul Tisdale to Paul Ince, has delivered. Pardew's success is instantly delivered and yet another nail in the coffin of the fallacy than to achieve anything a club has to go through three seasons of mediocrity because that's how Lawrie did it. Well Pardew has done it in mere months. Instant success, instantly delivered. That's how modern football works and it has done for the last twenty years at least.

Well not quite. The string backing track was always a sample from an Orchestral version of a Stones song, don't remember which one. It wasn't a secret and there was nothing to "prove". I think the Stones lawyers got involved when the song became such a big hit and saw there was coin of the realm to be made. But you're right, the Verve boys get diddly.

99.9% sure that as of this season the Champion's League final is now at the weekend, I think Saturday night. Makes it more prestigious apparently.

I fear Pompey may be on the Road to Nowhere with this lot. They sound like Slippery People to me.

Sorry, you can't have it both ways. The sneerers and the whiners sneered and whined at people "you can't judge him on one season, he needs time, no such thing as instant success blah blah bore bore etc etc etc". You can't then claim that the success this season has "taken time". It hasn't. It's taken no time at all. Pardew has been in the job only a matter of months. If it's "not long enough how dare you judge him blah blah bore bore etc etc" for people to judge whether he should be sacked or not, then it's certainly not long enough for the same people to claim it as a victory for continuity. It's a victory for people who believe in instant success. Like me. It's instant success, just like I said the day he took over. I expected instant success and Pardew has delivered it. And when have I said anything about the team at the start of the season? I knew Pardew would change things, and I knew that would bring about instant success. The instant success the arse-aching bores sneered at. Guess what, they were wrong. *The season Leeds got into the play offs had Notts Forest, Roberto Martinez's superb Swansea team, big spending Doncaster and very strong teams from Southend under Tilson and Brighton under our own Dean Wilkins. But yeah, every other season apart from this one has been a piece of p is s. One-eyed Saints-so-hard-done-by ill informed bull sh it. But then that is your forte.

LOL.

I'd rather be owned by a billionaire, with a manager supported by the entire city. I'd take Southampton in Summer 2009 when the whole city was revitalised by our new billionaire owner, dynamic chief exec and big name manager. I'd take that over what Leeds went through. Leeds went from the play off final and one game away from the Premier League to L1 and utter meltdown and Ken Bates raping the club within a calander year. With a football mad city in complete turmoil. With local businesses stiched up by Bates. With a fanbase feeling their club had been stolen away from them. With protests and hatred and fury and boycotts. But they had a first team coach and a kit man, so obviously much better than being able to spend £1m on the league's foremost striker. Yeah, the big picture definitely says Leeds United had it easy. If the picture was completely reversed, and we'd kept Wotte and Gorre but didn't get to buy Lambert, or Harding, or Hammond or all the rest of the big names Marcus's billions have got us then you'd be whining like a b1tch how hard done by we were. I very much doubt you'd be crowing about how lucky we were to have "a football back office operation". So yes, I do want to "compare details". And yes, what you posted previously was utter horsesh it. Christ.

Yawn. It's people like you who sneered and mocked anyone who thought the play offs were possible this season. People like you that sneered and mocked the idea that Pardew could make an instant impact. People like you that sneered and mocked and pontificated that we'd all have to wait three seasons to acheive anything because that's what Lawrie did. Well, thank fu c k you're not taking the team talks. Thank fu ck you're not in the dressing room telling the team to forget doing anything this season, and that all we and the players should expect is to be clear of relegation. Pardew is delivering instant success. Just like I and others said he would, and you said was "unrealistic". Pardew is delivering instant success, just like Alan and Nicola knew they would. Instand success, instantly delivered. Well done Alan and a two fingers to the arse aching bores who gave up this season as a bad job before a ball was kicked because "it takes three seasons to do anything". No it doesn't. I've never thought so. Alan Pardew never thought so. And guess what. I'm right, and Alan Pardew is right. Two fingers up to the arse aching bores.

What a load of horseshi t. Leeds were in total disarray, their fans were in uproar after what Bates had done to them and they had five more points than we did deducted. And they hated Wise. Getting pretty sick of people trotting out this myth that Leeds danced down to League one in a conga of calypso joy all ready to charge back up again. Leeds had it at least as tough as we did, if not worse. Unless you are comparing Leibherr to Ken Bates. I know who I'd rather have.

And pressure is the best excuse for pushing for the play offs this year. Because if you think this is pressure, next season, as runaway favourites and a "promotion or bust" scenario the pressure will be immense.

Riiiiight. They've only beaten Burnley FFS. They'd still be going down from here without minus nine. They are relegated.

Yeah, sorry. Leeds fans were all united with the way Ken Bates put the club into admin and then bought it back himself. It was one big happy family at Elland Road when they went down. It was indentical to the feelings in Southampton around the Leibherr takeover. Just the same. But hey, they had a pre season and everything.

Where was all this thinking when Lowe got battered season after season for "not investing in the team" then? The only people who say "money doesn't mean anything" are fans of clubs with shi teloads of money. If we were skint you and everyone else would be grizzle-arsing about how can we possibly compete we haven't got any money we need to invest in the team blah blah freaking blah.

What a load of rubbish. When was the last time Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool or Arsenal finished in the bottom three? Because everyone's equal and everyone can beat anyone so the league must be in a completely different order every season. Funny how you were saying completely the opposite when you used to whine and moan about the "lack of resources" that the likes of Burley and Poortvilet had. Oh.

It also makes a difference to have the whole city united behind the club, management and team and it makes a difference to have millions to spend on players and wages and with the best backroom team in the league. It also makes a difference to be 10 points down rather than 15. Leeds had none of those things, but of course they had it easier than us If we had Ken Bates in charge instead of ML and Cortese I'm sure you'd find something to grizzle about.

Plenty of people screaming like women to the tune of "when did he say it...PROVE HE SAID IT...he never said it...when did he say it" whenever anyone talks about Cortese aiming for the play offs. Like, well, you do. Offended by the very idea of aiming for the play offs. Calling people who think we should be aiming for the play offs "negative moaners". There's a lot of it about NickG.

The fact that you think The Times has an established veracity over and above the Echo shows you know absolutely jack sh it about newspapers. Cortese said it. Get over it.

Not really, it is what Cortese said. Get over it. There were people on here claiming that the Echo fabricated what happened at the car showroom after the Pompey game to "sell papers" and everything. People living in a world where everything the Echo says is, like, made up and stuff really are a bit dim.

What gets me is the negative people who get offended when anyone says "we're aiming for the play-offs". ML has spent all this money and people don't think the team we support should be any better than mid table in L1. How negative can you get?