Patrick Bateman

Same applied to Barnard as applied to Sharp - top blokes, deserve to play football. Thanks both for their performances and goals for us and hope it works out elsewhere. Just a shame it's taken a change at the top to sort this out ...

And therein lies the root of the matter here. I think we all (?) wanted him to be the success that an Italian International should be at Saints and we've seen some glimpses - but the lack of goals, lack of creativity and general "randomness" haven't done him any favours. Honestly, I am a bit gutted it's not working out and now appears irreparable, but hopefully he can still give us an income and there must be someone out there we could buy. I'd love Berahino at Saints, or Zaha - they wouldn't cost more, surely?

Agreed. Top professional, came in, did a job (well), helped get us over the line and seems oddly treated since. AND he scored against the Skates, what more could we ask for? Very best of luck to the bloke.

This one for me, hopefully still in solid red.

1. He's a CFO and has all the necessary qualifications to do that role very well (He's a grad from a good Uni and he's worked for a consultancy who are hard to get in to) 2. He's now an INTERIM CEO. Most CEOs in most companies have Accountancy backgrounds for good reason 3. None of Lowe, Cortese, Wilde, Oldknow etc etc etc have a much more "qualified" background 4. What did you expect? It's the CEO of a company, football aside, he's looking after the health of a company first and foremost 5. He's interim 6. Congrats to to guy for being asked to fill in from CFO to Interim CEO!

Tell me where this is the case? Do insurance companies offer new or existing customers incentives? Do Virgin Media, Sky and BT offer new or existing customer better incentives? Do mobile operators offer new or existing companies better incentives? Energy providers? Even retailers target new customers by the use of coupon code sites (Voucher Hub, Quid co etc.) where they give better offers for "new customers" rather than customers who have been contacted through a database.

Totally agree. The guy is respected by many and is probably more instrumental in the actual football set up at Southampton than Cortese - maybe that's obvious, but I never see anyone say that? I think he is and will be a pivotal member of the team.

Makes sense, thanks - very grey area in terms of accounting. This was a good read if you/anyone is interested; http://www.bbk.ac.uk/management/mscmres/publications/seanpublications/agameoftwohalves/Gof2H-chap7.shtml

Incorrect - as accounting rules state that assets depreciate. I was just doing some reading and found this which backs it up; "it certainly appears that the conditions for football players to be classified as intangible fixed assets.Intangible assets are generally capitalised on the balance sheet at their historic cost - i.e. at the amount it cost the entity to acquire the asset - and are then depreciated over the asset's useful economic life, if they can be purchased or sold separately from buying or selling the business as a whole. Therefore soccer players should be capitalised in the balance sheet and amortised over their useful economic life. This leaves the problem of how to deal with players who are not acquired but are, instead, developed internally by a club. An intangible asset arising from internal development shall be recognised if, and only if, an entity can demonstrate whether the identifiable asset (soccer player) will generate future economic benefits and the cost of the asset can be measured reliably. This suggests soccer players developed internally by a club cannot be capitalised until their estimated replacement cost can be determined when they become successful."

Players are not "assets" they are staff. Assets are tangible and include; the ground, the training ground, Jackon's Farm, equipment etc., and then guaranteed income. Our market value will be the value of the land + equipment on the asset register and future income. Players are staff and do not count; staff have no tangible value in business terms. Any decent Accountant on here will hopefully be able to explain this more concisely than I.

That, he did - looked full of confidence too and you can almost bet in another world, that had he hit it before being crippled, it would have been a screamer of a goal.

I swear some of you have no idea about football and just watch/support because you're trying to fit in or be fashionable. Rickie was excellent in the first half with clever little passes, lovely bits of vision and helping to pull people out of position to create openings for others. In the second half granted, he was quieter, but I actually think Sunderland upped their game, closed down and our players generally started to look more tired. He therefore had less time and space to make the nice passes and quickly tired. But first half he was very good again with his movement, closing and link up play. Additionally, remember what Pochettino said about playing "FROM" a position. Rickie plays FROM the front line, but actually he is really an advanced midfielder in his play. Jay plays FROM his position to often become the main striker.

I don't think many would disagree with you. That's what I love about football fans; the fickleness. "One Jerry Edwards"

Of course not. Not a bad thing if he comes back with someone with even more money, but of course, if he doesn't, then I'd rather be backed by someone who "isn't interested in football but is worth $3bn"? All hypothetical of course. You can well imagine he had in Pochettino's ear to tell him to hang on longer while he gets his sh*t together.

"NC vs Katharina Liebherr for dummies" But it sounds exactly right. I can well believe that he was left to it when we were in the lower leagues, but suddenly with Premiership income potential and players costing a significant amount, there may well have been a sudden burst of interest. Maybe she genuinely didn't have time to pay much attention to Saints, what with all the other companies in her portfolio and having left him to it, finally got round to "that football club" and gained interest. All perfectly feasible. And then gaining the interest would obviously upset someone who really wants to be the number 1 and accountable to himself. I am still sure he'll be back in all honesty - there will probably be a meeting of minds halfway once she realises that it's an enormous overhead and she's more in the public eye (which the Liebherrs don't appear to like) and also once he realises he's come across as a bit of a kid having some of his toy taken anyway, but he enjoys it. Just my opinion of the last couple of days with what I've read.

Why? We have a very wealthy owner, from a family of very wealthy people. Unless Cortese returns with someone even more ridiculously wealthy, then it's a silly thing to wish for in my opinion.

Jesus Christ. Calm down. If he wants to go, he goes and we get £30m according to the other thread, which according to many people will buy us a lot of talent and a decent replacement. Our fans are hilarious. We still have a club - if one or two players are so easily swayed and want to leave, we'll get [good] money for them to buy players who want to be here.

Who are these utter helmets at the training ground asking Pochettino whether he's still the manager? 1. Yes he is 2. They'll have been told to say nothing 3. They probably know no more than we do in reality 4. FFS

Seems to me like Cortese will walk, Katrina will sell and the new owner would be Cortese + new backer. It all smacks of a game of cat and mouse. As far as I'm aware, Cortese was instructed to find a buyer for the club - obviously he wants to buy the club (with a.n.other backer) but she didn't want to sell to him, probably because it's Cortese and he's trying to buy it "on the cheap" and now it's blown up to such a state that he will have to walk away in order to assist re-buying the club. That would make sense to me.

Ah well, thanks and see ya. Was never going to be top class and took up a valuable squad number ...

Told you to leave your woman at home didn't I? Dinlo.

No.

14 points I think. Sunderland are now on form just in time for us to play them. Arsenal are simply too good. Hull are a good side at home and we'll struggle against Liverpool I think. So I'll go; Sunderland - L Arsenal - L Fulham - W Stoke - W Hull - D West Ham - D Liverpool - L Palace - W Norwich - W

Wow. I completely agree with you and I really hope he is - nothing against the others, but Lovren wants to lead, you can see that on the pitch, by his tweets, but his conduct.