CB Fry

1 Saints 2 Derby (lovely story if Cloughy pulls it off) 3 Leicester (winning the play off final - the East Mids clubs are well supported big clubs, and means nice local aways for me) 4 WHU 5 Leeds 6 Forest (have to say don't really care about the rest of the top six if we go up but these three are "proper" clubs worth being in the Prem. I for one, am bored with the Swanseas and Blackpools going up. Seriously, **** off back to league one) 22 Portsmouth, from being 17th at half time on the final day. Sorry, they and the greatest fans in the world deserve some pain. 23 Millwall 24 Bristol City (again, these two not really bothered) 18 Blackburn 19 Bolton 20 Wigan - in contrast these three north west clubs have sh1te support compared to Derby and Leicester both of which, like us, would easy get 30+ in the top flight week in week out. And they come from two-bob toilets rather than actual cities in their own right. Total waste of space in the Prem, the lot of them.

Completely this. Cannot believe this thread has been going so long. When I first heard the rumour I thought "no chance" and nothing has happened to change my mind. We don't need James Beattie, we don't need to waste money on James Beattie, James Beattie is not in form or in shape, we are clearly not, ever, going to sign James Beattie. All the James Beattie "well he was quite good two and a half years ago or something" supporters can all say "I told you so" when he is banging them in left right and centre for any other club - he's a free agent so there must be loads of teams after him if he really is that good.

Changed it for you.

You know this how? We won our last game under him 4-0 - I doubt you're saying Adkins has lost interest in his job this evening after today's 4-0 win. This is old spent argument anyway. The point is there are two good managers who used to work for Saints now performing well in their natural habitats - Pardew was as ill-suited to League one as Luggy didn't quite fit the Premier League. Both are now on home turf and doing very well.

Quite right - I railed against this pointless argument pre-season and I'm still banging on about it now. Utterly absurd that you plan for promotion next season, or the one after that. The best season to get promoted is the season you're in. Now. In the championship especially this idea that you build and build and build is a myth. Championship teams are incredibly transient - if a team don't get promoted that season the squad very often breaks up, or the manager leaves, or the money dries up or the momentum goes. It's a myth that promotion teams are slowly built - they are thrown together and launched into the Premier League. Have a look at Millwall, who finished nicely ninth last season, all ready with a jolly lovely platform to build on. Oh. As good as bottom of the league. Look at Coventry - they've had about fifteen consecutive seasons of "building" for a promotion push and they've got nowhere near. Thankfully Cortese has got this one spot on - we're going for promotion this season, hopefully as champions. Let's get on with it.

Hats off to two ex-employees (nothing more than ex-employees, of course) plying their trade at either end of the professional game. Alan Pardew: pretty astonishing start at the Toon, up to third and unbeaten with a team he's had to rebuild with not much money. Pretty darn good stuff. And the only person with any genuine honesty about Carlos Tevez - as the rest of the media soft-soaped about "gosh I've never ever heard that happen before" he was right in there and said "it happens more than you think". Paul Sturrock: despite a bit of a flop at Argyle (never go back) he shows he definitely has something in the bottom two divisions as Southend, who are completely skint, are at the top of the league just like his old club. I liked him a lot at Saints in his short time, and I am always pleased when he does well when in his element in the 3rd/4th tier - he's got two clubs promoted since Saints and he's on track for another. So well done Luggy and Pards for a start to the season almost as comparable as our Nige and the absolutely stunning Saints. Almost, but not quite - they're good, and we are a PHENOMENON.

Why are the only teams that are going to be "sussed out" are at the top of the league? Surely Burnley, Millwall, Watford and anyone else are just as likely to be "sussed" out as much as any team at the top? As the season goes on all clubs learn more and more about all the other clubs.

Win a cup every day of the week. I have no interest in Saints being in the champion's league. Which is handy because we probably won't ever be. A cup final is a day out, a trophy, a lifetime's memory, something in the record no one can ever take away, something that creates lifetime club legends, for those of us that don't view great players as "nothing but employees" of course. I bet Everton fans would have loved to have won a cup instead of their aborted knocked-out-in-qualifying champion's league campaign.

Hmm, so ex-Southampton players have some kind of emotional contract with the clubs where they have their greatest success then? You're saying being a southampton legend is say, somehow, more than just a job? Well, um, not if you are Matt Le Tissier, it seems. So I this "being a Southampton legend" is just a job sometimes and some kind of emotional blackmail at other times. Decided by you as and when. Beattie should sign for Pompey in a heartbeat if they want him. With the fan base we've got, we don't deserve any more bloody legends. Maybe Pompey might show some gratitude to him in the future instead of writing them off as employees paid to do a job like you do.

Our goal difference, after ten games, is plus thirteen. Jesus we're good.

Not really how TV works though is it. There is a reason why Coronation Street is on at half past seven and not quarter to midnight. When ITV had their brainwave to put Premier League highlights on Saturday evening (7ish it was, with Andy Townsend's tactics truck) no bugger watched it. Or they did, but in precisely the same numbers that watched Match of the Day at 10:30. I watch the FL show on iplayer or if its on, on the red button on Sunday morning. It doesn't warrant going on any earlier Saturday night, but a regular BBC repeat mid morning (or mid afternoon) on a Sunday would be a good idea.

This made me LOL. Anyway, I remember the days when Rupert Lowe tied up confidentiality clauses and everyone got jolly upset and outraged. Turns out they are now officially a brilliant thing to do.

More evidence of the anti-Saints bias on the BBC then. Great interview, BTW.

I confidently predict that in a few years from now, David Chell will be held in much higher esteem than anyone previously involved with the club.

The five year plan includes getting promoted this season. We will not finish anywhere near 17th, you know it. Stop trolling you tedious idiot. I will return to ignoring you.

Sorry chaps, you're going to have to start swallowing this: "That was quite emotional and got under my skin. I hope we are celebrating like that again next May. "And I don't just expect to be promoted this year, I want us to be champions" Nicola Cortese, September 2011. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...champions.html

You'd better take up your query with the chairman. "That was quite emotional and got under my skin. I hope we are celebrating like that again next May. "And I don't just expect to be promoted this year, I want us to be champions" Nicola Cortese, September 2011. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...champions.html

Do shut up you troll. "That was quite emotional and got under my skin. I hope we are celebrating like that again next May. "And I don't just expect to be promoted this year, I want us to be champions" Nicola Cortese, September 2011. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3833092/Nicola-Cortese-I-want-Southampton-to-be-champions.html

You're looking forward to a time when the all time Southampton Football Club legend is a chief executive? You absolute spanner.

I've had my "visit" and am now fully supportive of everything this current regime does.... You never know, after tonights shenanigans in Munich, you could be closer to realising your ultimate dream - Carlos Tevez in the red and white. Get him in on loan. Finally the megastar to deliver untold success, as you always said........

Two good posts and a good thread. The weekend was somewhat bizarre that it took about five minutes of some people saying "Cortese has got this one wrong" before others had leapt into "right fine so you all want to get rid of Cortese then?!?" defense and "these ex-players are nothing more than ex-employees" attack. It was some kind of surreal meltdown. Happy to admit I got carried away too, but was attacking a) the people belittling MLT b) the people refusing to accept Cortese could ever do anything wrong, and c) the people weaving stupid theories blaming the newspaper for forcing him to say stuff. That's what wound me up more than anything Cortese actually said. And sometimes I do try and write the most furious polemic I can. It gets the forum going, no question. Cortese is doing a brilliant job all in all, the league doesn't lie, and neither does the transfer balance sheet. But Alpine's good opening post does pose the question about the past and the future. Well, lots of great contributions on here already about what our past means. I have one more line about the future. If you don't learn from mistakes now it can affect the future. Cortese, as we move up the divisions is going to have to be slightly more circumspect then it seems he is now. Yes, of course he will still need to be focused and hard nosed but scoring own goals by getting carried away with his own legend will be dangerous in the wider gaze of the Premier League. If he needs a role model, I'd say his manager is a bloody good place to start. Or, failing that, pretty much any cheif exec from Prem clubs you cannot name. Most of them are pretty low profile.

That'll be you and the Chairman then - he expects us to be Champions this season. At least two of you aren't surprised.....! Point at Cardiff would be fine, and twenty points from nine games would be phenomenal (and well within the 2 points per game typical requirement for top two). What a team!

It came from unneccessary pointed quotes he gave to a national newspaper while he and the rest of us have been basking in the unknown pleasure of being top of the league. Matthew Le Tissier in his recent newspaper interviews had been full of praise for the manager, the team, and Lambert and Lallana in particular. It's a crying shame Cortese couldn't take the opportunity to move on as well. Get on with running the club Nicola, and leave your petty feuds behind. That answer your question?

I got upset about people on this forum defaming the name of our greatest ever player. You're ****ing your little pants about a Sky journalist having a pop at our chief executive. Our chief executive. My hero was a brilliant player, an inspiration to me and my brothers and without doubt the reason I love Saints. Yours is some bloke in a suit.