aintforever

It was Wilde's execs that screwed the club up, all Crouch did was take over after their mess. Crouch actually did a good job by keeping us up while also making some tough cost cutting descisions like loaning out Skacel and Rasiak. Pearson has proved a shrewd appointment and allow him to bring in loans like Perry and Wright saved the club from relegation and administration.

Oh please, Alex Ferguson is about to dump Jan's team out of the FA Cup, he's gonna be nice. I notice he said "interesting", usually managers in this situation expect a "tough" game. For "I expect an interesting game" read, "this crazy Dutch fool is gonna try and out pass us".

It looks like it will have to be Perry and Lancashire on Sunday which should be funny. BTW we have had 10 different CB pairings so far this season - that is shockingly bad management.

I fail to see how by getting dicked by their reserves we are going to encourage Sir Alex to loan us some players.

I don't see what money has to do with it, we can afford Cork. What is worrying IMO is that we have lost a player we wanted to keep to a shower of ****e like Watford. It might be that he was good mates with the guy at Watford and there is nothing we could have done about it. But it may also be the case that he just doesn't want to be part of some dozy chairman's experiments - given what has happened in the past I think we can be forgiven for assuming the worst. The guy was here half a season, he was playing regularly and playing well. You would assume he was half settled here, bonded with the other players/coaches and have a bit of loyalty to the team. To chuck all that in for a **** hole like Watford sugests to me that SFC is the circus we all think it is.

How do these buy backs benefit the football team? They obviously benefit Lowe because his shares are worth more, they obviously also benefit Lowe because it makes the club harder to takeover. How does it benefit the team?

It might be that we were just unlucky and that he wanted to meet up with his ex coach, or maybe he hated it here and couldn't get out quick enough. We will probably never know why because we are always fed the same spin. All we know is that after spending half a season here he would rather play for Watford than Saints.

It doesn't reflect well on our set up when clubs like Watford poach our best loan player.

Apart from Perry and Cork most signings have been a waste of money. Scheiderlin looks a good player but has rarely played, Holmes looks OK but same problem. When you look at the amount of players brought in and we still don't have an experienced natural full back on the books, it's shocking management. We have very little money and have gone half a season playing either an England under 21 midfielder or a Czeck international midfielder at left back.

Top 2 is impossible. There is no reason why a good manager couldn't have us comfortably mid-table or sniffing around the play-offs though.

Our best hope Sunday will be to concede 2 early on then try to shut up shop and hold out for a respectable 2-0 defeat.

Someone in the trust.

It does look like the club's policy is to sign shed loads of young players in the hope that one of them turns out to be the next Walcott/Bale/Jones and sold for huge profit. In theory a good idea, in practice will probably get us relegated. Is two new inexperienced youngsters really what we need in the team?

Surely signing two players means that the rumours of being close to administration are complete bull****e?

What a load of crap, I suppose Woolworths going bust is the customer's fault too.

Why should a football club be any different from a submarine? LOL

Don't get the Smith one but thank god we finally have a left back. Skacel's been doing an OK job there but it's a waste playing him there, he will be way more use further forward.

Cork is not going back.

I used to support it but now it has shown it's self up for what a completely toothless organisation it is. My understanding of it is - because it is set up as an official trust then it gets certain privileges, like after every board meeting it gets a report on what happened by a board member. But because of it's official status it cannot, by law, criticise or campaign against individuals - only comment on policies etc. It is a complete waste of time, and not representative of anyone. If anything in times like this it is actually doing harm to the fans cause by not acurately reflecting fans opinion and being bound by rules which stop any direct action.

The current set up is taking us down, that is obvious. Does anyone seriously think this bunch of kids guided by a manager with no experience of Championship football will be able to improve at the business end of the season? Not a chance. Surely all Southampton fans should know the one thing that is vital in a relegation scrap is experience. We saw that last year, and numerous seasons before in the Prem. An inexperienced young team with an inexperienced manager trying to play open attractive football in a dog eat dog Championship relegation fight - that is THE recepie for disaster. Bring in a Dowie/Davies/Boothroid now - that is our only (slim) hope.

The scary thing is that starting next season bottom of league 1 on -10 points is probably now more likley than not. A really scary thought is that if we can't drag our asses out of that situation and agree a CVA thing, the next season could be -17 at the bottom of league 2.

Saints 0 - 3 Reading

But does Leon Crouch want the hassle in taking control of the club sliding towards League 1 again?

My rather optimistic theory is that this Fulthorpe thing was all set to happen but Lowe and Wilde wouldn't accept the offer for their shares, thinking it was worthwhile giving it a shot themselves to try and rescue their investment. Now as it is obvious this in not achieveble, I am hoping they will accept the lower price to try and salvage something from their investment and Fulthorpes lot can save the day. There is now obviously no way forward without investment, it's accept a nominal amount or get nowt at admin. I just hope this is the scenario or we are ****ed.

I see Lallana picked up an "injury" in Xmas day training.