IronCitySaint

So our two best players leave in one day, just a couple of days after getting back from the World Cup. Don't reckon the new manager would even have spoken to them. On this basis we better hope the world cup lasts until September 1 as when the other players start getting back this could get ugly.

Has to be Lallana for me. Apart from being captain and star he is the one player in the team that offers something different. He puts bums on seats and generates interest from outside and is a match winner. A lot of the other players mentioned in the 'spine' of the team are good players but there are a lot of similar players available in our price range if one or more would leave. Sell Adam and you could not possibly buy another player of the same type for the amount we could spend. That is why we should not let him go unless it is for some astronomically bonkers amount of money. Stupid to fanny around with offers in the 20-30 million range. Tell anyone interested straight up that they would have to offer a ridiculous amount to even have it considered, oh and he has a new 5 year contract anyway. Highly doubt that will happen.

I agree with pretty much all of this. And, yeah, what is the point? There was a lot of similar debate during the time of Lowe when a lot of emphasis was put on the youth team at the expense of the first team. It was clear then that anyone good that came through the youth team would be sold. It looks like that model is returning and that we will never have the full benefit of the academy if the board are not strong enough to hold onto the prospects until they have fully contributed to the cause. At least the top four teams will be happy. They don't need to bother too much about their own academies and youth development because they have us doing it for them.

Can't really agree with this. Having lived and worked in North America for 20 years I can say that this kind of thing happens on a daily basis here. Plenty of management speak bull**** on one hand and doing the opposite on the other hand. Few are really concerned about reputation here - it is all about 'give me the money.' Yeah, everything is fine today, but you are all fired tomorrow. Add to this the fact that North American sport culture simply does not translate to football culture and you have a dangerous combination. What happens in North American sports when you have a bad season? Well, nothing. No relegation, no loss of TV money no devastation of the team and you get the best draft pick the next year. Great! I am not sure that Ralfie fully understands the impact of ripping a team apart in football. Anyway, he is probably just the mouthpiece and is not the man making the decisions. Anyone with any value will likely be gone before the season starts and maybe even before the world cup. It is open house at SFC.

He can go **** himself as far as I'm concerned. Just another one passing through. Just hope that the board reject any approaches he makes to get our players but don't have a lot of confidence they will have the balls to do so. He needs players to implement his style and it is only natural he will be after some of those important players in our ranks. They had better not let any of our young players follow him to spuds. Funny that the two players shown next to that twitter statement will probably be the next two out the door. But, of the seven clubs finishing above us this season, I would count Spurs as the one least likely to win anything over the coming years so it is not much of a step up. Let's see him trying to get Emmanuel Adebayor and the like to press the opposition throughout 90 minutes. I'll take next March in the sacking sweepstakes.

Amazing performance. If we could only play like that every week who knows what we could achieve.

Some have said losing is OK as long as they learn from it, but are they really learning from it? Last season there was a big deal made about the number of points lost from winning positions and Saints were the worst in the league in that for quite a while. Yesterday on the commentary here in the US they said that this season only West Ham had lost more points from winning positions than Saints. So it seems that the team are learning very little from losing if those stats are to be believed.

We must have the worst conversion ratio in the league. Painful performance again and such a promising season totally dead.

I'm not one for over-reactions, but this has been utter, utter crap. So much for all the talk during the week of this being the biggest game of the season!

At the Dell one man that used to stand near me would shout 'come on you red and white machiiiiiiine' at the start of each half without fail. Not particularly annoying (or funny) but he did it every game for years. Also remember one occasion at the Dell where they had a parade of disabled people at half time and there was one lady in a wheelchair that was completely paralysed, and her name just happened to be Tracy. One of the blokes behind immediately shouted 'Tracy, you slag, show us your *****.' It was just so wrong everyone around him were just staring at the floor and pretending he didn't exist.

Not sure there is any fanfare required for not renewing contracts for out-of-contract players or loaning out players who want a chance to play elsewhere. The manager simply decides which players are not in his plans or will not be in the 25-man squad and the others are let go. Same thing happens at every club every season.

Seems like some are lining up Lallana for this role. Hopefully Fox won't play so will not register. Personally, I plan to hate Ramirez this season unless he scores a minimum 15 goals and lasts 90 minutes on at least one occasion

West Ham in 1994. Last game of the season and we needed a result to stay up. It also happened to be the last game before the North Bank was made all seater so the locals were in feisty mood. I was on a coach organised by the club that broke down on the motorway to the game. We sat for about two hours waiting for a replacement coach that finally got us to the stadium at halftime, when the game was 1-1. Three quarters of the way through the second half the West Ham fans from the North Bank had a pitch invasion, coming to 'visit' the Saints fans in the Bobby Moore Stand. After the match restarted we were 3-2 up with a minute to go when, in traditional style, we conceded an own goal followed by another pitch invasion by the locals. The ref was fed up with it all and blew the full time whistle before 90 minutes was up. Luckily, due to other results, we just about stayed up.

Unfortunately totally inevitable

This really looks like Saints from the first six weeks of the season. A huge step backwards in the last two weeks. Pathetic defending.

How can Shaw be too sick to start but well enough to be on the bench? A bit strange. Hope it really is a sickness because he is the last player that deserves to be dropped.

Amongst the squabbling this discussion about the FFP rules are very relevant to whether a club can break into the top 4-6 in the league. I can't see how it will help us in the short to medium term as Man. City have already shown the way forward in openly flouting the spirit of the rules with the massive shirt/stadium sponsorship deals. The authorities said they were going to investigate that type of deal that clearly are priced above the value to the sponsor, then went on to ignore it. Not only do those clubs entrenched at the top have much higher earnings through the turnstiles, but will gain sponsorship deals vastly above what Saints can get so the gap may not close at all and nobody new would be able to break into the elite as the owner cannot subsidise it. Blackburn would never have been able to win a title under the FFP rules. There is really no comparison between the way US sports are run and the proposals in the FFP rules. The major sports in the US have a salary cap of a dollar amount that applies to all clubs, not based on revenue. Yes, teams are allowed to break the cap but then have to pay 'fines' into a pot that is redistributed to all. It does even out results somewhat and is great for competitiveness. Owners and fans of most clubs outside the top 4 would benefit greatly from this model if applied to the Premier League. We might actually see a different team win something. I cannot see the Man. Utd's of this world ever agreeing to something like that or the regulators ever having the balls to try it. Of course, there are major downsides to the way US sports are run as well, as seen by the constant strikes/lockouts which result from arguments over revenue. The only way I can see us getting there would be due to a 'perfect storm' of events unfolding. Abromovich gets bored of Chelsea and pulls out, SAF quids Man. Utd and they go through a period of turmoil, Wenger stays and gets even more crazy in his transfer policy, Spurs bankrupt themselves with their new stadium, Liverpool keep on being Liverpool. Actually, all those things could happen in the next 5-10 years and hopefully someone is ready to take advantage of it.

Good performance so far but really need to take advantage of some of those chances as Everton will surely be better in the second half? Very surprised Ricky didn't tuck away one of those chances. As others have said, it has a jammy 0-1 written all over it at the moment.

I think you are one of the guys always demanding 'hard evidence' for every comment made on here so where is the evidence that Nigel knew all about this amazing plan? Not just some whim from a passing comment made by Nigel at the end of an emotional day at the end of last season, you know, real evidence. I doubt Nigel thought he was working to some plan 22 games into the season that would see him replaced after a good run of results.

He should be careful. Pardew sacked after a 4-0 away win. Adkins sacked after a 2-2 comeback draw at Chelsea. If we win at Old Trafford in a couple of weeks the new guy may not last the month.

Everything was just going too well, wasn't it? Why does this club get saddled with Chairmen that care more about their own ego than SFC? This Cortese guy is acting just like Abramovich, but without the money. It is a clear statement of "this is my club and I do what I like." Appointing someone with absolutely no experience of English football and not even being able to speak the lingo is likely to destroy the close team spirit that has seen us through the first months of this season. Who is this guy and what has he achieved to deserve replacing our most successful manager in years? Absolutely outrageous decision. I was confident we would survive this season under Nigel but this has destroyed all the good feel around the club and can see us finishing in the bottom two now. The rest of the country and the media will rightly think we deserve relegation after this. Hope the players stick together and see it through but they must be as shocked and angry as the rest of us. One day when everyone has forgotten this argies name (can't even remember it now) Nigel will be having great success with some other club. Whoever that is, they are the lucky ones.

It is strange, but the BBC World News ticker was stating 30 minutes ago that Nigel Adkins has 'become the first casualty of the Premier League season.' But then checking all the other news websites there is nothing so maybe they just jumped the gun.

That's OK lads, don't worry about jumping or tackling or any of that kind of stuff. Carry on.....

It seems like the performance gets worse each game and I can't remember seeing a team so disorganised. It looks like nobody knows their roll out there - they are all over the place. The two centre backs are actually doing OK but are doing the defensive work of the whole team. Midfield is so far from the defence that they are no help at all and the full backs each have two men to mark and don't know who to pickup. Midfielders can't pass five yards and don't tackle. Looks like we will concede each time WBA get the ball but it also does not look like we can score anymore. At least at the start of the season we conceded but also looked like finding the net once in a while.Oh well, whole second half to come. 3-1 win for us! We don't do first halfs.

Coldplay song 'Us Against the World' has a line in it that says "And the Saints Go Marching In." Wonder if Will Champion had anything to do with that?