Under Weststand

Good win today good response to the equaliser, shame about Bournemouth winning late on again. Overall table looking not to bad tonight, just need to win the games in hand now. Only 1 point behind both Huddersfield & Posh with 2 games in hand. Going to be a few more ups & downs before this season is over, but sounds like Lambert is hitting top form at the right time & with Lallana back lets hope we can put another winning streak together at the right time & seal that promotion place. WIFM

All who wore the Halo

We are now well aware that Cortese likes to do his buisness behind closed doors. If you go against this method he cuts you out & refuses to deal with you. Now I'm not saying that this is the right way forward, but people dealing with him must realise that they have to come to terms with this & try to change things from within. Standing on the side lines continuing to stamp your feet & shout to whoever will listen will not endear you to or make Cortese change his mind. I find it a great shame that Cortese has seemingly cut out all of our heritage & put them on the side lines, but if we go back to the pre & take over period we were beset by split factions. Big characters on all sides using their personalities to shout loudest in the media. When Nicola & Marcus took us over I think they came out immediately & said no free loaders everyone pays. This was done to try to cut out any of the old arguments resurfacing, EVERYONE treated the same. No favourites, do we really want to go back to that so soon again. Now I totally agree that we should respect our heritage & respect our heroes from bygone days. But it has to be within the ground rules laid down by the present incumbent. We know about transfers only when they happen, we are all happy about the way he has dealt with the AOC during the transfer window. I'm nore than happy for him to give Wenger a lambasting over it. He is basically using the press & letting it be known you deal with me in private or you stand on the side lines stamping your feet. If he/the club let some players Legends etc get what they want then he is choosing sides & off we go again. I'm not for one minute saying Cortese is never wrong but you need to deal with him behind closed doors. Ask yourselves this do we really want to go back to the days of 2/3 different factions fighting themselves in the full glare of the media. NC appears to me do be trying to do our buisness behind closed doors, I wish our heroes & legends would do the same. Everyone treated the same no factions! Anyone got a better idea?

Whilst I admire the sentiment behind the post alpine, as said above if you'd seen him play then you would have a different perspective. I had the misfortune to see him in a very poor Stockport side this season, & he even managed to look awful here, he couldn't even hold down a regular 1st team place. He was dropped to the bench after 11 (3-cup) games & he was used as a substitute. Should be noted that Stockport didn't try to keep him/extend the loan for the season! He is just to slow not much ability simply put just not a professional footballer. If given the opportunity I'd have given it a right go, just like Pulis, but like him I was only good enough for sunday league football realised this & went and got a real job & played for fun. Puncheon has a temperament short cut & needs to sort his head out somewhere. As for Pulis He will probably trawl around several clubs at the foot of Div-2 for a couple of seasons & then disappear into non-league football. Not knowing the terms of the loan it will be interesting to see how long he holds down a first team place at Barnet?

35-million for Carroll crazy money just plain crazy! Newcastle getting desperate 2-bids turned down now for NZogbia second bid 12-million

Considering the speculation surrounding some of our players to come through this with Lallana signed up Guly signed up a real Bargain in Chaplow, 2 new quick wingers(jury out on these two) AOC still intact not to shabby really. Now down to the serious buisness of securing promotion.

Adkins knows the player obviously likes him & thinks he can do a job for us, so I guess we have to trust his judgement. Welcome to Saints & lets hope you can do the buisness for us.

Whilst agreeing with the argument, he has a history of doing this why he's been on loan & transferred so many times. He will as you say turn it on till the end of the season (as he did for us), but as soon as his place is under threat next season will he battle for his place? and be happy to be on the bench at Newcastle or where ever he is. or will he have a temper tantrum spit his dummy out & be off out on loan again this time next year. He has real talent & its a shame he cannot seem to harness it & get settled.

Could we sweeten the deal by throwing in Pulis as a make weight in the deal,or a B.O.G.O.F kind of thing?

They also said on that article that Swindon have said that a deal is very close could be within hours & it would be the best deal for Swindon & for Charlie Austin. 2 NPC league teams & a Premier league side, sounds like it won't be us, unless we've out bid all others & are the only ones to match their valuation? Oh well that's just out argued myself, great this speculation isn't it! Damn NC & keeping deals behind closed doors

This story is gathering pace now, its disappointing but hey we should all be used to that here. The only stumbling point for me is Cortese does not like doing his buisness in public & I can see him being intransigent here as well, he will be unimpressed with Mark Chamberlain, Wenger & Arsenal using the press to push this deal though! And we all know how NC's behaved when this has happened through the press & with the press involved before. Could be with NC it doesn't happen this window. I think the best think for Saints is to get the money in and move AOC on if that is his choice! (good luck in youth team football for the next 3-years), no loan back either please. Use the money for Mackail-Smith or Austin & how about Antonio back as well. Its football and highlights the importance to get back up the leagues as soon as possible to give us the best chance to hang on to these youngsters.

Excellent news that's three good signings tied up. Would be good to get an end to the AOC speculation. Well done NA & NC.

If we match there endeavour then we should be OK 3-1 Saints keep the run going.

Sky sports are fanning the flames now just been on thier transfer watch that sources close to the player say that Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham & Man Utd are all preparing bids to put in by the weekend YYYYYAAAWWWWNNNN.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/PreviewDetail/0,,10280~2265403,00.html According to this they are checking on Hammond & Lallana who have slight knocks from Tuesdays game.

The January window always seems to be last minute, plenty of brinkmanship this month. Especially when your dealing with clubs that maybe need the money & its just holding your nerve & seeing who blinks first over the transfer fee! We seem in a pretty strong position at the moment, we do look like we've a strong squad so would probably not be catastrophic if we didn't get anyone in. Hopefully we can sign Guly on a permanent deal would be more than happy with Lallana & Guly on 4 year deals by the end of Jan. So 1 done 1 to complete.

Its all Paper carp at the moment, yesterday the papers were full of Fergie joining the race to sign him. He surely wasn't at Oldham just to watch his young keeper & his 4th round cup opponents was he .His dad is someone who will lead him down the correct route to which he sees best serves his son's development. With Saints he has some measure of control over that, being he will be reasonably/well paid, he is being protected to a degree, getting plenty of playing time & developing in the right way at a club on the up. he will hopefully continue to play at higher level at Southampton. he has time on his side and maybe he will get the big move & megga bucks in a few years(hopefully not). Theo went to early cosseted for 3 wasted years in the Arsenal youth/reserves his development stunted. In my opinion he would have grown more strength wise & decision making(still lacking in my view), if he'd stayed with Saints for those 3 wasted years. Alex appears to have a sensible father who brought him to Saints as he thought it was the best place for his son to be, I see know reason for that to change at the moment.

I was hopeful he'd have this type of effect on us as he had a good reputation at Scunny of playing football the right way. He has got everyone playing the right way now & we seem to have an excellent team spirit. NC looks to have made the right choice & NA seems to have the golden touch long may it continue. Well done Nigel !!

What a great result & performance, so often before we've gone to tough places like this and struggled. But we just seem to be getting on a roll now, full of confidence sticking to Adkins footballing principles & not allowing the playing surface conditions to dictate the result to us. Great to see the goals spread around as well. Good interview on Sky sports news also "feet firmly on the floor great team ethic" Fabulous long may it continue.

Winning breeds confidence I don't see why we shouldn't try to win every game we play in F.A cup or not. We have had a great January so far, lets keep the winning streak going, but we should rotate the squad for the cup games.

Liverpool at Anfield would be good, as it would mean United were already out always a good thing. Also Liverpool have a history last couple of years of loosing to lower league opposition at Anfield bring it on!

This will be a tough place to go & win, but the way we are playing if we match their commitment, & continue to play football the way we have been then I'm hopeful we can win. 2-1 Saints but a draw wouldn't be a bad result.

End of the day he is usually funny & off the wall, he had a slight sense of humour bypass & probably lost the excuse of a weakened side when Adkins did the same with 8-changes. No big deal really. There is every chance we will be playing them next year, will be interesting to hear his comments then?

Great result to go with Lallana signing his extended contract, good to see that even with 8 players brought in & complete change of formation & it sounded seamless. Good news and a really great weekend long may it continue.

Most seasons I would disagree, & hope we stayed in the F.A cup as long as possible. But this season we have 1 priority that is to achieve promotion & get back up into the championship. So the last thing we need is an extra game which would distract us in anyway, so I vote yes whilst a Saints win is preferable, Id take a Blackpool win over a draw. I have to agree that the romance of the F.A cup does seem to have dissipated, but that is the nature of the game these days.