CB Fry

We do not need "loads of cash" to get promoted from League One. And we barely need a "really good manager" unless you describe Nigel Adkins, or Colin Calderwood as "really good managers". We need a good manager. Er. That's it. What are you people on. We're not trying to win the Champions League.

Shut up you pointless troll.

Indeed it is, combined with your point about the right (different) manager in place. I'm sure this is the view held by almost all Saints fans, which is why the original poster's point is so baffling. I don't know anyone that thinks it's going to be "a piece of ****", especially not next season.

No one is saying its a foregone conclusion, but it seems to me anyone that even suggests that getting promoted within three years is a possibility gets slaughted by the doom mongers. In reasonable memory, lets say from 1980 onwards, Leicester, Sheff Weds have not won more "glittering prizes" than we have, and Forest's double European Cup win did not actually help them get promoted from League One last season, some twenty years later. But those clubs in size stature and fanbase are like us. They are more like us than Oxford, Swindon or Oldham. Is it possible for us to be in L1 for the next fifty years, or twenty years, or ten years. Yes, its possible. Is it possible for us to promoted from L1 in the next three years. Yes, it is possible. I'm sorry but the second of those is far more likely than the first, and it is ridiculous that a view point like that is described by some (not you) as people thinking it will be a "piece of ****".

Sheffield Wednesday and Forest were in tip-top shape when they went down were they? Leeds were minus 15 points at the start of last season and fuc ked. Anyway, you are supporting my argument - because I take it you don't think it's going to be a "piece of ****". Does anyone here?

Yeah, that's right we've got so much more in common with Swindon (that'll be one season in the top division in their entire history) and Notts County (one season in Div One 1991-2 and bugger all before and since) and Brighton (top division mid eighties for a couple of seasons) than Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester. Right you are then. By the way you forgot Bradford and "Separated at birth from Saints" Oxford United too. The clubs I have named are comparable to Saints. The clubs you've named, and I've expanded on, aren't.

Frankly, these people who "think its going to be a piece of ****" is just a figment of your imagination. If you can find any posters on this forum who "think its going to be a piece of ****" please point me in their direction by linking to posts where they say anything like that. And in the real world I haven't spoken to anyone who thinks it's going to be "a piece of ****". You're ranting about nothing.

What a silly sentence that is. That just means you're right and everyone else is wrong regardless of what anyone else says. A masterpiece of meaninglessness sir.

Make your mind up - most people on here are saying we'll be promoted in two or three years, and you're saying that expectations are too high. I'm saying people expecting us to be promoted in the next two or three years have their expectations about right, not least because most comparable clubs have achieved precisely that. Expectations, in my opinion are not too high at all. In fact I get annoyed by the ridiculous doom mongering making out that we're on course for the conference in two seasons.

Err - Forest fans did get up in three seasons, and narrowly missed out in the play offs the other two. And Leeds made the play offs last season despite being 15 points shy and did again this season. More than likely to go up next season. Man City did it in one. Sheff Weds did it in two. Leicester did it in one. Not sure why you thinking it so terribly unrealistic to think we may get promoted in the next two or three seasons?

You didn't dream the quote up - he said it just as Arry had joined us and Redknapp was a bit arsey about it. I'm not sure he'd go to Pompey - he doesn't need to, and I doubt he wants to join a club on a post cup final lull where everything looks down and player clear-outs are on the cards.

Chill out. Football club signs some rubbish players and may have also passed up on some other players. Gee whizz. It's such a pity we signed useless f*ckers like Marsden, Beattie, Svennson and Neimi. PS - there was not a meeting where Southampton football club had to decide between signing Didier Drogba or Brett Ormerod there and then.

DaMarcus Beasley is utter sh*te. Calm down about Drogba. He was rubbish in his first season for Chelsea and they spent £20m on him. We were looking at him several years before that, and if we had signed him there is no guarantee he would have become the same Drogba we know now - remember he has a tiny attitude problem and Saints may well have bombed him out after a season for being an arse. Remember, Skacel and Delgado would be whinged about as "great lost world beaters" to this day if we never got round to signing them.

But your accurate analysis of his skill set is precisely why he is only going to get a job at the likes of Sunderland. He's a great manager at a certain level, but I wouldn't give him a job to get, say, Spurs, Villa, Man City or Everton into Champions League contention or to acheive Europa qualification as a minimum requirement (as it would be at those clubs) season in season out. Sunderland is likely, the only think stopping him would be the "I'm going to take a little break" routine. Newcastle or Boro would also be very good shouts, especially if both persevere with Shearer/Southgate and it doesn't start too well as I am sure it won't for them both. I expect WGS to be back in management at the first big job of the autumn, rather than walk into one straightaway. My shout for Celtic? Steve Bruce.

You seem to be confusing Gordon Strachan, by a country mile the most popular Saints manager of the Sky era and welcome in any pub in the city whatever he does for the rest of his life with Glenn Hoddle, who is a c***.

Correct. The self aggrandising "some of us have a club to save" bucketeers are just getting in the way, as is Crouch. The sooner we get to the eleventh hour brink, the sooner we get taken over. Crouch coming in paying the bills all the time just removes the urgency so any negotiator worth their salt will just drag it out for longer. Why pile in when Ted Rogers is going to pay the wage bill anyway? Just wait another month. Put the buckets away and lets get to the eleventh hour asap.

What the ****? Mickey Mouse just means "shambolic" or "inconsequential" whatever its applied to, there is no special definition to be "applied to football clubs". Anyway, I came on this thread simply to say: The Toon have no relegation clauses in their players contracts. Arf.

So you are completely disregarding his excellent record with the Welsh National Team and his even better record with Blackburn over several seasons, then?

This is why businessmen will continue to make huge sums from football fans. They are, by and large, idiots. I'd quite like our new regime to be reasonable, rational, honourable businessmen with some kind of track record of genuine success behind them. Just any old bloke, oh I don't care. Rapist you say? Fair enough, up the saints. And I wouldn't be so bothered about this "anyone will do" attitude but the precise same people will be droning on about the "spirit of Southampton" and "honour" and "loyalty" and "fans taken for granted" and "the true meaning of football" within six months of the new regime taking over.

It is only ten games a season live. Annoying really because you'd think we'd probably have been on once. And I think its only the Carling Cup semis and final. But the highlights will be good - I bet they put the CCC goals on a loop on the red button every Sunday like they used to with the FA Cup, as well as a proper highlights prog. Shame I couldn't give two ****s about the CCC next season.

Correct. Sick to death of posters sticking up nonsense about "we're in Division three, deal with it" and making out that our relegation has turned us into Weymouth. Being manager of Southampton Football Club is still a cracking job, and being a hero at SMS would be a brilliant opportunity to an experienced manager out of work for a while (hello Steve Cotterill) or for a lower league boss thinking they can take on a big club (hello Alan Knill, Paul Tisdale). It is a job managers would jump at. Can people stop overplaying this "we're so pathetic" routine.

How was it "hidden" from him? Every single fan knew about the Derby and Sunderland interest long before he went on strike. Saints were trying to get the best price for him. Jones going on strike made him look like a **** but that's because he is one.

But we are talking about Southampton. See what we did there?

I couldn't disagree more. Madjeski is the last man I can think of to go "balls out" for promotion. His next manager will have a strict budget to work to and promotion will happen if it happens. He won't buy it.

Sorry, I think the irony was lost on you. My original post about South Today clearly states I had made it up, so when I said "There is absolutley no question of the validity of the statement I made earlier regarding Matt Le Tissier and tonight's South Today" it was because I had made it up. Never mind..... I love Monty Python and the Holy Grail too*.