CB Fry

15,000 of the worlds greatest and most loyal football fans squeezed into Farton yesterday I see. It's when you're down and up against it that true loyalty is really shown and it is inspirational to see so many ultra loyal Pompey megafans taking the time to wash the car yesterday afternoon.

It's a shame he doesn't have a track record of getting out of this (or any) division with tons of resources, a squad packed with stars and a massive weight of expectation from one of the biggest fan bases in the football league. He doesn't even have a track record of walking into a club, shaking it up and reviving it. He's only ever worked at one league football club and that's been for 14 years where he's been part of the furniture and in an unquestioned position of respect/authority built on years of service. He simply won't have that at St Mary's. We'll see how he goes, but I don't think he is the perfect fit some are making out. Massive, massive gamble IMO.

Garbage. Anything other than promotion would still be a monumental failure. Let's not have any of this "rebuilding" nonsense whenever the new man takes over and let's not start the spinning that "won't it be amazing if we finish mid table, oh haven't we done well". Top four without fail this season is the requirement. Promotion either auto or through the play offs is the absolute must. If you need any clarity on that, ask Nicola Cortese.

LOLtastic. The OS is as full of as much spin and bullshi t as any other outlet.

I've been out of the country all day, so I have only sketchy knowledge of what's happened today and in what order. But from what I can see now, it does look like a shambles with no one from any side looking good - Katkins crying off back home, the Scunny chairman giving it large, Cortese quibbling over compensation. I have a fear that Mr Cortese will get bored with dealing with "outside forces" and just appoint Wilkins, as he is "popular with the players" or somesuch. Much like Lowe when he couldn't meet the staffing demands of Moyes or the financial demands of McClaren and lumped it all on Stuart Gray.

I can almost hear your premise creaking under the weight of those assumptions. Sturrock was highly regarded, but was never described as above. Steve Wigley's mum wouldn't have described him as you have, and no one except the occasional Lowe-luvvie windup merchant decribed him as such. Stuart Gray, at the time, was a reasonable punt, but the appointment was regarded as such by all concerned at the time. L1 is lower risk in terms of "potential" as the stakes are lower, but the job we need doing - promotion this season without fail - is not best suited as a "breeding ground". The debate is whether we think someone like Adkins is "potential" or "proven". He's delivered promotions, but he's been at the same club for 14 years. He's never had to walk into a new club, take it over, shake it up and deliver results. Whereas, for his faults, Phil Brown has. Any manager is going to be a risk because the demands here, this season, are immense. It's not about potential, it's about bottle!

Nice that you left out the line from my post about me not being a Keegan lover to "prove" that I am. Outstanding arguing skills. Sheesh. And I didn't actually say I think Keegan is better than Martin O'Neil, just that I have doubts about MO'N taking over at Saints tomorrow - these are more about why he would come and whether he would stick it out. All a bit Clough-at-Brighton. He could get to January and think "why am I here, the West Ham job just came up". Of course you can say the same thing about Keegan but I personally think if he decided to come to Saints, he'd stick around long enough to get us promoted. My point is more about "fit". Keegan coming to Saints tomorrow is, in my opinion, a brilliant fit and he is all we need to guarantee guaranteed promotion, and that's a cast iron guarantee. I guarantee it.

That's funny, in my original post, I made it clear I was no Keegan worshipper and expected him to fail at Newcastle second time round when he was appointed. Not quite deluded and mental. My eyes are wide open. Delusionals look at people who have acheived nothing whatsoever and decide that they would be brilliant two divisions down purely because they were rubbish two divisions higher. That is mental. And yes. If Keegan took over tomorrow we're promoted in May. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Get on board.

Get over it. It's a football discussion forum. Funny how everyone else reading my post on Keegan got precisely the spirit of what I was saying. Well done you for coming back with "there's no such thing as a guarantee". No. S h it. Sherlock. Have a good night.

Not really. Your argument was that average managers at Prem level would be brilliant managers lower down. You used Pearce and Zola and claimed that mediocrity higher up equates to brilliance lower down. Being that Pearce and Zola weren't average, they were dreadful, the point barely stands up. Comparing the pitiful achievements of Pearce and Zola who got jobs on their "name" rather than ability and failed with the achievements of Kevin Keegan - hello second place in the Premier League - is a total joke. Keegan would do well at Saints because he is precisely the kind of manager we need. What we don't need is an overhyped name like Pearce who are proven failures. No hypocrisy whatsoever.

Is Brown's "short run of form" that got Hull into the Prem and then kept them there better or worse than Adkin's failure to keep S****horpe in the CCC in his first season there? Is keeping a team in the Prem a better or worse achievement in your first season at that level than being relegated from the Championship in your first season at that level?

Based on my opinion. Problem with that?

The "sports editor" of The Sun has not, and never will have, three hours spare to have a meeting with the chief exec of League One Southampton. That rumour is spectacular in it's wrong-ness.

I agree with this. I worry that Adkins could be our Mike Walker - did a phenomenal job at Norwich, those of us old enough to remember Jeremy Goss and Bayern Munich yadda yadda. But was at "his" club, and his comfort zone - stepping up to Everton really didn't work - away from "home" he was lost. So I worry that Adkins is Scunny through and through - he knows his club inside out, he was the flipping physio. Is he the man to walk into SFC and own the place. I think that is what we need - charisma and leadership on and off the pitch. That said, another manager came from a league below and is doing alright at Everton. But I am not sure Adkins is another Moyes and if he comes he really needs to win, quickly.

People said similar things when Hoddle joined Wolves and Tottenham. And he proved people wrong by being an utter, utter pathetic failure at both clubs. And a **** to boot as well.

I saw Emmanuel Adebayor at St Pancras station today. If I had spoken to him I am sure he would have said that that Eddie Atkins was set to be unveiled at St Mary's tomorrow morning.

I did and do support Pardew. I've expressed my views on Les Reed elsewhere today.

I think we should give him a minimum of five years before we can judge him, people these days are too quick to judge give him a chance people are so impatient etc etc etc blah blah blah. Oh. Sorry, this is someone you don't like. So all your usual pompous lecturing about how horribly judgemental people are start to sound a bit hollow don't they? Biggest hypocrite on the forum by a country mile.

I knew you'd be with me. Didn't Keegan play for us once?

Got to say I would love it, LOVE IT if we got Keegan. Was talking about this the other day and I honestly think that Kevin Keegan is the only guaranteed success from all the available candidates and I include MO'N in that. Keegan will get us promoted, this season, no question, without fail. I truly truly believe it. At this level, with the players we have, all we need is Keegan. We need his star quality, his inspiration, his personality, his passion and drive. Keegan and a couple of hand picked coaches. Organise them. Make them feel ten feet tall. Tell them they can and will win the division. I have doubt about every single candidate in the frame, except Kevin Keegan. Guaranteed, guaranteed promotion. And it's worth saying when he went back to Toon, I thought "he'll fail". I'm not some kind of Keegan worshipper. But I just think if he walked into St Mary's tomorrow, we'd win the league no problem come May. I'd love it.

I'd rather be remembered for winning the league than revolutionising the coaching/administration systems of british football.

Fair enough TDD, I did say I understand the theory. But it is proven not to work more often than proved to work - Spurs being a very good example when Harry came in on the understanding that the continental system was junked and he was undisputed top man. Billy Davies is banging his head against a wall at Forest as we speak. It's hard to think of really successful systems. If we have the cash to get a top draw manager, why don't we just do that. Just the very presence of the system is a problem perception wise from the off. Don't give the commentators, the gossips, and us the excuse to blame everything on 'the system'. Pick a manager, back him and let him stand or fall. Most managers in this country just want that and are happy to take it on their shoulders.

To be fair, first off, there won't be a press conference, just a press release. That is as likely to happen at 9:30pm as 9:30am. Lots of sackings/appointments/signings get announced at night. Being that Nicola has an interesting habit of releasing info at 'convenient' times for him (11:35pm, Bank Holiday Monday) it wouldn't surprise me if he dropped a press release during the middle of the second half of the England match.

Can I be first to coin the name Nicolowe Cortese please? If this is the structure the Chief Exec wants, then it may work, it may not work, but it this is precisely the blueprint Lowe had for the club, which some people need to remember before they viciously defend it because now it's Cortese's idea and therefore a masterstroke. For what it's worth I think, in theory it is pretty sound, and does in theory protect against the destabalising nature of managers coming and going and their assistants coming and going. The problem is that in practice, the presence of this kind of additional coaching team contributes to instability just by being there, and the usual muddying of who does what and who is responsible for what. It's overengineering to minimise a future problem, but at the same time creating a load of present problems anyway. When it comes to it, you're better off just accepting that managers come and go. Building a structure so in the event that is just unnessessary complexity. And of course you can have an academy director, fine, and the team manager can have little input into the academy, but that can only be through the choice of the first team manager. The academy director is not at the same level as the first team manager. I sincerely hope we don't go down this route.

Forum member slagging off the Echo for getting it wrong, when they, err, haven't got anything wrong, shock horror. Either that, or I've missed the Martin O'Neil unveilling press conference that you seem to have seen.