CB Fry

Look, I'm with you. There are some good things happening, clearly, and I think we will get promoted and Cortese and Pardew are the architects of that. But I am not comfortable with the attitude on some on here that every single decision he takes is correct and unquestionable. The Luvviest Lowe Luvvie never got anywhere near some of the messiah worship on here. He's made some stonking and pointless errors which will be of no benefit and are a waste of energy when we're supposed to be getting promoted. I share your Annnnywayyyyyyy. Move on!

While at the same time he is doing all he can to stop the media reporting anything, or speaking to anyone at the club anymore by controlling photographer access and press conference attendance. Obviously because the rumours were just made up by the media on the bus into work.

Not sure where you are getting this "folklore" from, but it isn't anything I've said. Nice try though. I refer you back to my previous statement - if Cortese can't hack the gnats p*s* of scrunity from managing a league one club without releasing bleating statements about "his baby" and how horrid people are being simply frightful then god help him in the Premier League.

What about it. It doesn't say anything we don't already know, and there is a hell of a lot more to that story than the GCSE interpretation you and NickG have swallowed whole - Echo wrong, Cortese right. I know you are a big fan of the official site, but some of us are looking for a wider perspective than some video interview with the kitman, and anodyne corporate guff press releases. Anyway, there is nothing in NickG's post above that says what you say, which is that Matt Le Tissier shouldn't be able to comment any issue he sees fit to comment on regarding SFC. MLT, and anyone for that matter, can say what the hell they like about SFC. And Matt Le Tissier has earned that right.

MLT works for the media as a commentator. Of course he can comment on what the hell he likes, and I remember all he said was "stick with Pardew". This is the real world, not a computer game. If Cortese can't hack the gnat's p*ss of media scrutiny in League one then he isn't cut out for British football full stop.

Quite. The references to "outside parties" in that statement is childish and worrying. Let's not forget that included in that group of "outside parties" is one Matthew Le Tissier, who Cortese has decided has no place commenting on Southampton Football Club as we learnt over the summer. Let's not forget that he is the one carrying out pointless bans that gain the club nothing. He's the bully, not the bullied. There's plenty of you who have decided that Cortese can do nothing wrong and is incapable of making an incorrect decision. Well bully for you. As far as I am concerned this season should be about Southampton Football Club trying to get promoted by winning football matches. Not Southampton Football club versus every single media outlet, the Football League, anyone who ever expresses any opinion and almost anyone that isn't Nicola Cortese. Too much energy wasted on pointless pursuits.

I have got this man to thank for my love of the phrase "fannying about". Legend.

What a load of old guff. It's a shame we can't revisit the lowe era, the wilde meltdown, the burley season post play offs, the lowe return. This forum has never been this happy clappy community you speak of.

He says from Austria. I've not noticed any infringement of my civil liberties whatsoever, at all, in any way shape or form at any point in the last twenty years. What I am not allowed to do exactly in this Orwellian Police State you seem to think we're supposed to be living in? Oh sorry, got to go. The Stazi are kicking the door down.

How is avuncular a pejorative term all of a sudden? He looks and seemed like a friendly, kindly uncle. What's to get upset about?

As far as the press photography issue goes, the only person on a stupid little crusade is Cortese. In playground parlance, "he started it". But lord knows there is enough threadage on that here already. I think we've all established our positions.

Great thread. Thanks for the "match report" Wes Tender. Tributes read well on the Echo site too. What a guy!

It's hypocrite. And it's not hypocrisy to charge for content. It would only be hypocrisy if the Sun were saying SFC should let fans in for free. Which, of course, they're not. In fact, they're not even asking for pictures for free. So that would be no hypocrisy at all there. Muppet. This is just dopey garbage. Guess what, no one thinks we'll lose games on the back of freaking photo ban. And, err, everyone here has figured out we don't have a shirt sponsor. So jolly well done on your sharp eyed satire of absolutely no one on earth.

Too early to say - the effect of the cuts made haven't been felt yet. Probably will be for the long term good but will be a lot of short term pain, and not just in the public sector. The economy has been built on an ever expanding public sector and there are many businesses built on the back of very lucrative public sector contracts - from builders to caterers to consultancy firms. Pull that rug away quickly, and that seems to be what is happening, and it will be a domino effect back into recession. Don't get me wrong, churning taxpayers money through to private companies aint no way to run a country. Just worried that fixing it this quickly might be a bit of a seismic shock for more than just a few grumbling civil servants. Beyond that, the coalition team seem competent, but Clegg and Cable keep forgetting they are in government and think they can continue to spout off responsibility-free as the Lib/SDPs have done for the last thirty years. Well chaps, you can't. You've got a country to run.

Fifth would be abject failure. We'd have the play offs to redeem but fifth would still be failure, not least for Nicola. Try your 'do tell' routine on him, sunshine.

Harsh. Cherednik was the 'main' signing, gotsmanov was the makeweight brought along to keep company. The kleber chala if you will. All three of them are all time saints legends.

That's a link to an earlier thread. What's new that you need to start a different one?

My thread was about the Steve Coppell that was heavily linked with Southampton football club as manager not that long ago, and much speculated about on this particular forum as a DOF subsequently. That Steve Coppell. That Southampton football club. Heard of them?

Not really - that role is nothing like the Director of Football role that Lawrie Mac carried out alongside Ball, Merrington and Souness, which was to sit on the board, be a link from boardroom to training ground, be a sounding board for the manager, and negotiate player transfers and contracts for the first team. Coppell might want to do a job like that, Pardew may want someone to take on some of that workload, and maybe more importantly Cortese might still want a DoF in that mould. I'm not even saying I want it to happen but it is a role that could come about. Les Reed is an irrelevence in that scenario.

Video is excellent, and him holding up the mosiac was a real heart strings moment. Well done Saints.

Appreciate most want to talk about more important matters, and quite right. But still surprised not to see a thread on Coppell here today. Has shown a couple of times he's a far better manager as an underdog working to low expectation (Reading, Palace) rather than in a position where success is expected and pressure is higher (Man City, Bristol). Kind of suggests he may not have been the man to take on the immense pressure that comes with getting Saints into the Championship pretty damn quick and may also explain why he didn't end up coming in the first place. That said, we may still be planning to employ a DoF (I think that hasn't been ruled out yet). Pards of course played for SC who I think would be a pretty benign, but wise and experienced DoF. And SC's statement specifically mentioned retiring from "management" rather than football entirely. In the fullness of time, of course, could be a nice little development.

I only caught the end of it - was it me or where names coming up before the balls had been drawn. I know there was seeding but how did they decide the home and away stuff - Saints seemed to come up as a home draw before anyone had pulled a ball out. I obviously missed something - can anyone elighten?

Yawn. Bolton.

That's a nice idea.

That's a bit of a churlish comment, of course they are going to be sensible and respectful reporting on a story like this.