CB Fry

Difficult to say really, it was certainly enough to be clearly heard amongst 70,000 football fans. Was probably a few hundred - it's worth mentioning the atmosphere was pretty disjointed all afternoon - the singers being spread around the place meaning songs didn't really take off except in little clusters. So in that context, a collective noise like a boo must have been from a not insignificant number. But it was nothing like a majority of fans. It was, frankly, just a bit strange and not really worth dwelling on. Just ridiculous people on here pretending it didn't happen and that Sky or TDD is making it up. But then we had the same smart arses pretending the Echo made up the trouble in the car showroom after the pompey game "to sell papers" so I'm not surprised.

Let's get this straight. I was there, and when the screen was on Markus there were cheers, and when the camera moved to Cortese there were clear, audible boos. There was nothing else happening in the stadium that would have resulted in simultaneous booing. And no, it was not Mawhinney, unless you seriously think more Saints fans cheered Mawhinney than booed him, because the cheers and boos where seconds apart. Funnily enough in those seconds Markus, then Cortese were on the big screen. I turned to my mates, and the other people around me, all of which said words to the tune of "what are they booing him for" and such like. And remember Mawhinney got booed when they said his name, which was before that. He got his boos. Christ almighty. It happened. Get over it.

It happened when the ten other people on this thread said it happened. Pre match - Markus on screen - cheers, moved to Nicola - Boos. It happened. Not alledged, nothing to do with Mahwinney or Mexican waves. It happened, pretty clear all round the ground.

This. Ten points off the play offs at the end of the season is "par". Acheiving it will not be an outstanding achievement, just acceptably good. Lots of people on here drone on about how terribly difficult we've had it, but I'd bet all the money in the world that Kenny Jackett, Danny Wilson and Aidy Boothroyd would take our resources over what they've had to make their silk purses from.

Merrington obviously didn't read the thread on here after that game that said his role as a commentator is to say how brilliant we're playing regardless of what's actually happening on the pitch.

PompyPride - not allowing a level playing field? Or challenge that Chelsea shouldn't be allowed to play Drogba? ... restraining Portsmouth from playing in the premier league, because we invoked administration under the insolvency company act is .. an unreasonably restraint, stoping us trading and playing in the premier league. who man united or Chelsea choose to play has nothing to do with this fundamental freedom which is to act within company law by protecting the company and giving it time to re-structure its debts and survive a winding up petition. You know what, I'd keep schtum about "company law" if I were you. I'm not sure your scu mmy little club has got the moral high ground here.

I thought having a manager who doesn't hand pick entirely his own backroom staff was a bad thing. Oh, sorry, that's when it happens to us. When it happens to another club it's a measure of consistency. Beautiful contortion act to make out that despite sacking a manager after one game and said manager spending money on new players they have more staff consistency than we do. It's the usual story - every other team has it easy, Saints have it tough. Why could they? Their change of stewardship was a hell of a lot later than ours was and at least Pardew got to select which players he wanted to buy. I'd love to see the whining on here if we had a manager inheriting a squad hand picked and pre-seasoned by the previous manager. I doubt many fans would be talking about "measures of consistency". What ever happens its the same old story Southampton - battling impossible odds all the time regardless of money spent or players bought. Britains underdog. Every other team in britain - got it easy.

£1.7m you say. £1.7million! One point seven whole million! We've bought at least three players for a million each this season, and we easily spent One point seven whole million in January alone. Add to that we kept our million pound goalkeeper and our million pound midfielder we already had, plus the likes of Lallana who could have gone for about £2m. Anyway, just saying.

Hey, I am patient, and I don't want the manager changed and I do think we will make top two without much difficulty next season. The points I am making is about the performance standard this year has been okay and nothing more. With the resources we have thrown at the team this season then it's not much to ask to be minium 10 points from sixth. And we probably will acheive that come season end. But that was "par" and pretty sure Cortese and Pardew were aiming for above par, especially when we started parachuting in £1.5m centre backs from the league above. That is patently not the actions of a club gradually scaping together a team from the wreckage. It's the actions of a club that wants success yesterday. In that context performance this year has been below par. There's too many seeing Saints as some underdog team scraping up the table against all odds. Frankly that's offensive to the rest of the division who we tower over financially and with infrastructure. So to everyone - I don't need lectures about "give the manager time" and all that horses h it. I've heard it and you'll notice I haven't ever said Pardew should be given anything else than total support for the forseeable. I don't want him sacked so spare the cheap points scoring implying I do. My comments are mainly aimed at those suggesting he has achieved some miracle this season, when actually we're still below par.

If all we needed was time, then we didn't need to spend any money. Kenny Jackett got Millwall to the play offs in his first full season on a shoestring, and Danny Wilson is doing much the same at Swindon in his first full season. But we have blown the rest of the division out of the water financially, and we are not Man City trying to get atop of the Premier League as your cliched comparison suggests. We are trying to outdo Swindon, Huddersfield, Colchester, Millwall and MK Dons to reach the giddy heights of sixth in third tier. Not quite the same as winning the worlds biggest, richest and toughest league. Nicola Cortese says today we've thrown too many points away, but I guess he's just a Championship Manager geek you can ignore.

How about neither, and who says "we have the money to start over again"? There is a lot of arrogant complacency setting in on this forum that we will have a bottomless pit of money to spend forever. Pardew was given boatloads and boatloads of cash for this level with a view to getting in the play offs this season. I think it highly likely he has spent most of the summer budget already. That's why it was imperative to put together the gold standard run into play off contention to reflect the platinum standard investment. And that's the heart of the point I have been trying to make which everyone misreads with their tedious "oh you want to sack the manager" snidey replies. Too many fans want to have their "look where we've come from, slow and steady building" cake and they want to eat it too with talk of even more money in the summer, which isn't really "slow and steady building" is it? It's chucking money about. Skint teams like Swindon do slow and steady building. Other teams, like us, chuck money at it and then expect results immediately, which is fair enough - otherwise why bother spending anything? If all we want is slow and steady building well we could have done that with frees, kids and loans like Swindon, Colchester and Millwall. Too many Saints fans want to have it both ways - Harrods spending and Big Issue "we're so helpless/look where we've come from/slow and steady" mentality. Well you can't have it both ways, and a poor end to the season, if it happens will show that you can't. And you certainly can't assume "we have the money" to do anything.

Shouldn't "the game plan" assume that League One is going to involve lots of matches on ploughed fields, and lots of games with referees who are, well, lower league standard. Anyone managing a football club in League One should be planning for those incredibly likely scenarios. Otherwise there is something chronically wrong with the plan.

Wouldn't that mean spending money which of course doesn't make any difference to performance on the pitch according to you? Surely we'll be fine if we spend not a penny this summer because we'll have stability and a pre season and everything?

No, just know more than you do. Which isn't difficult as your regular routine of embarrassing yourself on here demonstrates. Anyway, fingers crossed we scrape free of the drop zone, eh?

Still in a relegation battle according to you though, so I know more than you do. But then we all know that.

So bumming around around 10th in the third tier you see as some kind of triumph but you are nitpicking our record in the biggest league in the world? So you think we should have been challenging for the top four with Ken Monkou, Hassan Kachloul, Robbie Slater and Chris Marsden in our team? So success only exists in the lower leagues

That would be why they gave him transfer funds and a pre season to prepare for the following season then Gunn was given one game.

Honestly, you don't need to press the cliche button so soon. I don't want Pardew to leave, never ever said he should. But I am fed up with people who won't accept that this season is currently below par. Being within 10 points of the play offs - ie play off form all season - is par for a club with the resources we have. We're not quite there but we might just scrape it by the end of the season. At the end of the day if you can't suggest we should do better when we have spent what we have spent then when can you? It wasn't so long ago you couldn't move on this forum for bellyaching about a previous chairman who wouldn't invest in the team "if we'd only bought Malbranque etc etc". It's hilarious that when we were skint the accepted wisdom was that "investing in the team" was the way to succeed and previous chairmen were slaughted for "not investing in the team". But now we are investing in the team and all anyone can say is "it doesn't mean anything, you can't get success from spending money". And instead of aknowlegding what we have got, it's just whining about what we didn't get "we didn't get a pre season". I bet Swindon would have sold their pre season for a £1m striker. It's rank ingratitude. Blessed with everything we could want, but still whining about one thing we didn't get. As far as investing in the team is concerned, Nicola and Marcus shouldn't have bothered then. I wish we were as skint as Millwall and Swindon. Because christ you'd have some grizzling on this forum then.

"You need to give all of the teams an equal chance, which we did not have in this case," stated Grant. Yes, that's right Avram. You were cheating by spending money you don't have on players you can't afford. Other teams in this year's relegation scrap were and are not cheating. The teams you finished above last season weren't cheating. You were. The teams you knocked out of the FA Cup and finsished above the season before weren't cheating. You were. The nine point deduction is a fair punishment for cheating and restores the equal chance for all teams.

None of that is the point though. The point is there are far too many fans droning on about how unlucky we are, and look what we've been through and all that guff. We are the luckiest team in the division - we've been given everything we could dream about. If you blow every single team out of the water financially it is not unreasonable to expect that to be reflected on the pitch. It's the same in any business on earth. You spend some money and plan to get a return on that investment. There's too many Saints fans who seem to think we should spend millions and millions and millions of pounds but not expect the manager to achieve anything with that investment. Just a shrug of the shoulders and "money doesn't mean anything". Finish fifteenth. Yeah, fine. Money doesn't mean anything. Well, one day we might have none again, and we'll see what the "money doesn't mean anything" brigade have to say then. In fact I know what they'll say. They'll say: poor us, we don't stand a chance, we haven't got any money. Funny, aint it.

Most teams in L1 actually don't buy any players. Lots of frees, lots of loans. And no one in L1 has bought a player for £1m for about five years since Bristol City I think did it in the mid 2000s. Obviously I'm not saying any of those players are bad buys but they cost money. And it's the favoured arse-achingly boring cliche of the lot that money doesn't make any difference whatsoever. Well I think it's made a difference to us and I am grateful for it. I don't make out it is an irrelevence. Well in a funny way I wish we'd were still skint because you'd be bleating a different tune then.

Eh? Being within 10 points of the play offs would be "par" for the resources our club have. We're therefore below par. And Cortese and Pardew were aiming for the play offs at the start of the season, so it's them that are deluded. And you're deluded for thinking we are somehow more unfortunate a football club than, say, Swindon, Millwall, Colchester (Colchester!), Wallsall, MK Dons and Huddersfield. You can bleat on about how we didn't have a pre-season (diddums) but al of those clubs and many more would kill to have what we have. And finally, not sure what the "with all we've been through....." line is anything other than defeatest guff. If we were still skint and slowly rebuilding post admin then fair enough. But we're not - we are in excellerated growth. We are blowing other teams out of the water with single players that cost more than Swindon's entire team. But don't let that stop you going on about how helpless pathetic and hopeless it is for Britains unluckiest football club.

You are wrong. Ferguson has never been anywhere near getting United relegated. The point is the biggest spending teams are funnily enough all at the top of the league. City have had two managers this season (oh no, NO PRE SEASON!!!!! for Mancini) and are still on course for fourth, which was the target on day one. If you ignore the minus ten we still aren't even in the play off zone which really was the standard for this season.

And "relative to the division" we are Chelsea/Man U/Man City in terms of spending. So "winning more than Dave Merrington did" is not really the benchmark we should be aiming for, is it.

How could Pardew "not have any idea what he was getting into". I thought he was a professional football manager with top flight experience being appointed to take over a club in the third tier of English football, with more money than any club at that level for over a decade. How could he "not have any idea"? Aren't we paying him to have "an idea" or two? I'm getting heartily sick of people making out that Saints are the hardest done by club in British football. Getting a club spending millions with the second biggest fanbase in the division promoted from League One is NOT some unrealistic footballing miracle. Cortese must wish he'd never spent a penny on players because he has invested millions and millions and millions on playing talent only for ungrateful berks to pontificate about how "money doesn't make any difference". I wish he'd spent zero. Nothing. Just stuck last years kids out. Because buying Lambert and Barnard and Hammond and Harding and Puncheon and Fonte makes no difference apparently. Cortese should have spent nothing. Because money doesn't solve anything, does it? Then you gits would have something to bloody moan about then.