CB Fry

Yes they do. But Matt Le Tissier is in a tiny minority and pretty much every other footballer in the world is in the majority. If we pull together a team of, say, six wonder kids that gets us into fourth place against all odds, I would still bet my bottom that at least half of them would be off to go to Manchester or London or Spain within the following twelve months. And if you want private conversations with contributors in this forum, then I suggest you PM them. But don't PM me.

I wouldn't call him an idiot but I personally think he could have done more and been more if he had left.I wouldn't call him an idiot or even ask him about it, because he has answered that question comprehensively over the years. And MLT is one player and there are hundreds more who do leave smaller Prem clubs to make more money elsewhere. And while I would never call the man an idiot - plenty on this forum were calling him nothing more than an employee paid for doing a job while he was here. Let's see how much you defend Matt Le Tiss next time those jibes are thrown around.

Amen to that. That's why i get sick to the back teeth of the "we're going to be champion's league regulars". No we're not and we shouldn't try, because the only way a club our size can even think about it is by over spending on players who would only come here for the money we'd be over spending on them. That's not to say we couldn't have a team of young academy grads that shock football and power to fourth place in like Everton did, once. It's just not that likely, and we'd struggle to hold on to a team like that beyond a season. A team of young academy grads powering to 14th is fine by me.

I was going to point out something about Chelsea in 1983 having low attendences or something but I drifted off. "They said they couldn't climb Everest" always works. I'll stick with that as proof.

No one needs to "know him" to know that SISA is a fiction in his mind and the mind of Citizen Chorley. They represent no-one, have no membership, no meeting or reporting structure, no nothing. Doesn't stop him spouting off to radio stations and newspapers using the Independent Supporters Association name to give himself cache. He's a liar and a self publicising gimp. You don't need to "know him" to know that. And if he doesn't want people that don't "know" him to not have an opinion on his actions and behaviour, may i recommend he stops spouting off to radio stations and newspapers pretending to represent a supporters body.

And people are saving up for next year's summer holidays as well.

More than Ted Bates, or Ron Davies, or Matthew Le Tissier, or anyone. Unfortunately we have some significant divs in our fanbase at present who have decided that they support their football club because of the chief executive. Wooo-hooo go that man in a suit.

Not in a gazillion years.

£14 a week? Luxury! TG: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor. MP: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness." EI: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof. GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING! TG: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a corridor! MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph. EI: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US. GC: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake! TG: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road. MP: Cardboard box? TG: Aye. MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt! GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY! TG: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife. EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah." MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'. ALL: Nope, nope.. Life of Brian was on last night... Anyway, concur with the sound advice on this thread. In the current climate, with Job one, I wouldn't worry too much about haggling, and definitely don't even think about it until you have a concrete offer. And your original assumption is corrent - £18 to £24k means they have pretty much no intention whatsoever to pay anyone anything close to £24k.

Bit of a waste of time getting "done deals" sorted with players that aren't preferred targets isn't it? No wonder it took us to 10:55pm on deadline day to sign a centre back.

Boo hoo, some one said something horrible on the internet and I want to prove them wrong. Who cares. He looked sh i te on paper to me, just like De Ridder and Fox looked good. And Jemal and Gorks looked good and Fontaine looked shi te. That's why I said on paper, to distance my remarks from any knowledge whatsoever. I didn't claim to have any. The rest of that post was clearly a dig at the happy clappy drones than any comment on the player whatsoever. Just opinion on a internet forum. God knows why a few loons want to turn it into "everything Southampton football club ever does or ever will do from now on is right" toss fest. If people don't actually want to discuss anything apart from "how wonderful and correct everything is forever" then a football forum really isn't for you. And if anyone is really that bothered what I think about Hooiveld then if you dig around there is a line or two from me about him having seen him live at Derby last week. Guess what, it's positive ladies. Well fancy that.

I am LOLing from the "bignose" bit at the beginning - "right, that's your last warning" - and don't stop from there. I'd forgotten about Palin playing the bloke hanging up in the prison cell - "a fair days work for a fair days pay" "nail some sense into em" (Basically a parody of our very own Dune). Brilliant, brilliant film, easily one of the funniest film ever made.

Thanks for turning over to La Liga, mate. Sheesh.

When was this debate then? This was announced ages ago - even before the Swiss takeover if I am not completely mistaken. Either way I think I have missed this debate that is "finally over".

When Kevin Keegan signed for us way back in 1980, did all the "real" Saints fans shrug their shoulders and decide to wait until he'd played ten games before they decided he was a good signing? Just asking, if gut reactions to signings are so terribly wrong.

Seriously? They've called us Scummers for at least as long as we called them the same. The only difference is Pompey fans desperately and laughably try and make it all "political" by making up fairy tales about people from Southampton breaking dock strikes in Portsmouth. The Skate thing came up from Saints fans in fanzines trying to come up with something different from Scummers because that's what Pompey call us.

This cuts to the heart of the issue. I was excited when we signed De Ridder. Never even heard of him before. Was excited about Danny Fox, have to say never knowingly seen him play. Thought Gorkss would have been a good signing but again, can't say I've ever remember seeing him. There is nothing wrong with having a feeling about a player. The main issue here is that for everyone, the idea of "lets see how he gets on" is not the preserve of the happy clappers. It's what everyone thinks. But people should be allowed to be underwhelmed without being set upon by a load of happy clappy bedwetting hysterics desperate to stamp out anything other than "he's a super duper super Saint and I love him already".

Played well today, did very little wrong and plenty right. Plays it nicely out of defence. He came in as an underwhelming signing, and fans were right to be underwhelmed because he was at least Adkins fourth choice centre back of the summer, and he had a less than inspiring record in the SPL. I have no idea why some people on this forum get so upset when every signing isn't greeted as a new messiah. If he never signed for Saints, no one would give two sh its about him, no idea why a man becomes an infallible god head the minute he signs a piece of paper to play football for us. On today's evidence he certainly fits how we play, and may well merit an extension to the loan. Still don't see how that means no one is ever allowed to be anything other than schoolgirl estatic whenever we sign a player. I reserve the right to want players to actually do something before I wet my pants about them.

That's a bit harsh on Nigel Adkins. He can only beat what's put in front of him, and a good start is a good start. I am presuming that your "don't hold your breath" rule applies to all managers, rather than just ones you don't like?

It was the third game of the season, was it not. Not sure promotions are decided after two games into a season, and we won the third. At the end of the previous season we won something like 10 games out of twelve, and won a cup at Wembley. Adkins picked up the mess caused by the departure of Pardew, not the mess caused by Pardew. It's an important distinction. I think your memory needs a bit of a jog too.

Completely disagree. Great rule and I hope Saints adapt something similar. The likes of Pires and Nigel Reo-Coker commuting to the midlands every day is ridiculous - yes it's possible but creates not a shred of affinity from player to club or area, and reinforces the here today, somewhere else tomorrow attitude. And if players want to play the family card, fine. Don't sign for a club in the midlands then. Football players, especially in the Premier League, are, in the main, a bunch of greedy, selfish, thick as pig shi t c *nts. Forcing them to live in something approaching the area the club is based in seems like a bare minimum for the £60 odd grand they're pulling down a week. Well done Villa.

I await with interest your next riveting contribution to the forum.

Unsure is not afraid, and it certainly isn't "more afraid of success than failure". This thread has turned up no one at all who is more afraid of success than failure. And all the "unsures" are talking about money and future financial implications, which you insist isn't what you meant the thread to be about. So they don't count either. Cortese is very confident, yes, Adkins is here to get promoted, yes. I have no problem with this whatsoever. What's your point here? Lastly, as for your sense of humour, your first post was quite hilarious, so well done.

People are getting sidetracked by a fairly dopey comment you made, and then hilariously tried to pretend you didn't make, forgetting that the nature of web forums is what you have written kind of like stays written. As for this question you keep asking - sorry, it is not the perceptive, piercing, insightful question you think it is. It's just gibberish. The answer, for everyone, everywhere, is NO. There, it's been answered.

Something in the region of £65m I believe.