SaintDan

Next season he will be our star man, play a blinder at the world cup and be sold for twice what we paid for him to Real Madrid/PSG

I am gutted about losing Nigel as our manager as I was about WGS when he left but both are regarded as Legends now at our beloved club and held in similar lights to MLT & Bates. Had we lost to QPR in Nov it could have been so different with Nigel sacked for different reasons and us all reflecting on him in the wrong ways and even worse we could have ended up with Arry again. I am all for stability in the club and would have loved Nigel to stay but I do not believe that Cortese will tollerate relegation now we are here and therefore the man plans ahead and doesnt leave us lumbered with a Steve Wigley equivalent for weeks whilst we are looking for the next coach. It would have come easier after a loss but now its time for the fans to get behind the team and support SFC from the top, get behind the team tonight as Nigel will be doing too! COYR!!!!

Rate Punch this season but could be a bit like Adebayor, play well until he gets a new contract then feet up again. Would love to be proven wrong on this though! For me we should be signing Matt Philips or equivalent!

As we've said with many of our promotion seasons gone by 'Its in our hands now'. We are going to have a torrid month and a half but then we can push on and sort out our Premier League spot for next season. At the moment we are on 21 points so lets say we need 40 to stay up...... Home wins against West Brom, West Ham, QPR will give us 9 of those and potentially Stoke but wouldnt want to take part in sky sports final day show if at all possible. Without the Stoke points being taken into consideration realistically we should be looking at win/draw at home to liverpool putting us on 31, then the away games.... Wins at Wigan, Reading and Newcastle would seal it as we'd be taking points of them all as well. February is a great time to play Wigan if past seasons are anything to go on but Newcastle is a tough place to go so i think best hope for that one is a draw. Then we can be looking at draws at Swansea, Sunderland and Norwich with my heart saying one of those games will be our Hull away last season and get the surprise win. Also we have Everton at home which we really should be winning to stay up and it would be nice to beat a real premier league team in our maiden return season. Looking at what we have left to do I genuinely fancy our chances but stick with Adkins over the next 6 weeks because they wont be as rosey as what May will hopefully bring. QPR, Reading and Wigan for the drop IMHO.

I think that the opening post talks a lot of sense, the expectations have been set very high from our previous 3 seasons and I remember many seasons being in the Premier League coming home far more disappointed than I have this season (Aston Villa games used to be a major disappointment with a 4-1 Dion Dublin riot and 1-0 defeat in a rain soden Dell particularly standing out in the memory). The facts are we are inexperienced and Nigel has started to lose his positive edge but we may as well stick with it and push on there are 5 other teams in the same boat as us 3 of which we have coming up in the next six weeks or so (QPR, Norwich & Reading) plus there's also Swansea who we play in 2 weeks. I agree that it is time to accept relegation if we can't pick up 6/7 points from 9 in those 3 key games but up until now I dont actually think it's been that bad with only the Wigan loss and the nature of the Arsenal and West Ham losses being the most significant factors leading to fans doom and gloom. We have shown that we can hold our own in this league particularly with 30 mins against Utd, the second half against Villa and the first half against Fulham. We all knew it was going to be tough!

Agreed I am only making an assumption on Mayuka but still day 2 into a new job its a big ask, I did have visions of a Paolo Wanchope vs Utd debut performance but hopefully more to come from him!

The key thing with the substituitions today was it was 3 attackers for 3 attackers when we needed the midfield/defence tightening up in the last 10 mins...... I've no doubt if Cork was fit he would have replaced one of the forwards but it surprises me Chaplow isn't on the bench, he might not be Premiership standard but his remit would have been play your heart out for 20 mins and break up the play which was clearly where we had Utd shaking throughout the game with Morgan and S Davis nicking the ball time after time in midfield. Adkins has way exceeded any expectation and got us playing great football but big mistake yesterday bringing on Guly (the ever reliable scapegoat) and Mayuka who's English is probably very minimal. Even if we'd left Lambert on his last legs I think he would have been there marking Ferdinand for the corner? I fancy another similar performance against Arsenal where we could get something if we play like we did today but its the Wigan & the like games where we need to pick up the wins, top 6 is a bonus. In summary if we'd have been offered this goal difference after the first 3 games I think we'd have taken it any day, just a shame we didnt get the win against Wigan.

Helicopter hovering over the water by town quay........Owen to add to our 15 strikers?

Was the original CVA put forward by BC and accepted or from TB? If it was BC does that not mean that the PST have to put forward a whole new CVA agreement and have it accepted before they can go forward?

I am excited. To be where we are now compared to two years ago when we lost to Plymouth on the opening day of the season is way way beyond anyone's dreams. I imagine Pompey future following their opening game of the season against Plymouth tonight certainly won't be mirroring ours. I often wonder why we are compared to Norwich and not more Swansea other than the back to back promotions and Lambert/Holt comparisons. The Swansea comparisons seem far more...... 1) I didn't watch a lot of Swansea's football last season but I saw 25 odd games of ours and the style of football we play is similar to Swansea, pass and move. 2) In Brendan Rodgers they had a young promising manager but untried and unexperienced in the Premier League which is where Adkins sits today 3) All the pundits had Swansea at a 20th place finish in August 4) They didnt have a particularly productive summer bringing in Graham (an promising young forward but untried at Premier League level) - J Rod, Routledge who I wouldnt have said was a key player for them last season, a new unknown goalkeeper (perhaps Vorm is a little bit better than Gazzanigga and I personally think another new keeper is needed), Leroy Lita who wouldnt be wanted here anyway but for comparison purposes we've got Billy Sharp and probably the most significant signing Steven Caulker on loan from Spurs which we are striving to emulate at the moment. 5) The who team was fairly inexperienced at Premier League level 6) They started the season at Man City If we can match Swansea last season this season then I think we can all be happy come May and I really believe we stand a good chance of doing this. What we clearly lack at the moment is cover, mainly in goal, CB and LB/LM, with our right wing options probably not up to scratch unless Guly has been on a decent crash course of English and understands now we boo him because he doesnt put in the effort and not because anyone thinks he isnt any good. I feel Fonte is being unfairly criticised by a few on here when one of the reasons he has put his foot off the pedal is because he is a guaranteed starter and has probably been one of the first names on the team sheet since the day he signed, he will get better if there is competition for his place. What ever happens this year, lets enjoy it, lets forget about the silly prices and the lack of white stripes and get behind the team, the Premier League is where we wanna be and hopefully will stay for many years to come. In NA and NC we trust, win it for Marcus and do it the Southampton Way!!!!

End of the match lyrics changes if we are winning.... He stands at over 6ft 3, Rickie, Rickie He TOOK us to the Premier League, Rickie, Rickie....etc DID it for Marcus!

So lambert gets straight red and suspended 3 games but schmeichel was only banned for 1 game after a straight red and plays a blinder against saints in what would have been match 2 of his suspension....why?

Why oh why did we not sign Charlie Austin last season???

I agree with the comments about Holmes being strong going forward however on Wednesday night his general control was poor often losing the ball or the ball rolling out of play. He also didn't look comfortable on the right hand side in the second half (not his natural position I know). I think he is a good squad player but will need to be replaced with better should we get promotion this season/challenge for promotion next season as I dont think he's enough cover for the quality Lallana offers. TBH I was a little disappointed we didn't get Wade Elliott on the deadline day, allbeit he did nothing for Brum when he came on against us last week but as a local lad he would have been an excellent no 2 for Lallana.

Slightly off topic here..... where does it show potential ability on footie manager?

Lee Barnard, Barnard, Hes short and he's f**king hard! He got dropped for Nicky Maynard Lee Barnard, Barnard

Simples solution, give all season ticket holders R1 Carling Cup for free. For what they would sell in Merchandise, programmes, beverages etc they would make up for in loss of ticket sales. I know it would cost more in staffing/policing etc but building a little bit of goodwill/PR with the fans would encourage potentially more season ticket sales ie buy a season ticket and get 24 games. Plus it would encourage more fans to buy tickets for Round 2 therefore giving us a better chance to progress further in the competition. I know people regard the Carling Cup as a lessor cup but could we really say that anyone didnt enjoy their day out at Wembley March 2010. Thats not me saying we would get to Wembley but a good cup run boosts morale and last night's result has meant we are now on a winning streak of 8 games!

What date were the details announced last season?

All private companies must submit accounts to Companies House.

I think there are a few key points to look at on our accounts: In January there was talk of AOC going for £10m, should this be the case then that loss would be changed to a profit (granted the whole amount would not be paid upfront but this puts things slightly into perspective). We have £2m in the bank therefore cashflow seems to be managed significantly better than before, perhaps a little too cautious. These accounts are based on the end of last season and our attendances this season have been higher once again therefore Match day revenue will continue to increase. Also if you consider that most football clubs make a loss (Arsenal being one of the few exceptions) we are not doing too badly considering the financial backing that we have. Overal I think one of the big plus points from these accounts is there is a clear indication that there is continuing support from the Liebherr family which is what we want to see as fans: "Going Concern Although the company is reporting a loss for the year and has significant net liabilities, its principle indebtedness at the year end was to its parent company and shareholder. (Liebherr family) The parent company Director (NC) has received assurances from the controlling party that funds will be made available as and when they are required to fund commitments for the foreseeable future. The company financing is inextrinicably linked with that of its parent company. Accordingly the Directors consider it appropriate to prepare the accounts on a going concern basis (in laymans terms they intend to trade for the next 12 months)"

First Saints Game:- 1992 - Leeds (H) First Away Game:- 1996 - Middlesbrough, Won 1-0 Clayton Blackmoore handled on the line and Magilton blasted in the penalty Best Away Trip:- 2003 Villa Park for the Watford Semi Final. Favourite Saints Memories:- Watching us when we beat United 6-3, Matty scoring the last goal at the Dell and Franny's goal against Leicester. Worst Saints Memories:- 2005 relegation - we only needed to win to stay up and Utd had nothing to play for. Preferred Strand St. Mary's:- Block 42. Preferred Stand The Dell:- Milton Road. St. Mary's or the Dell:- Dell easy choice. Best current player:- Lallana or Fonte Favourite Players technically other than Le Tiss:- Kachoul when he first came, Parhars, Bridgey and Eklund. Favourite Players cult wise other than Le Tiss:- Francis Benali. Favourite unsung heroes:- Claus and Ken Monkou. Favourite Manager:- WGS. Most hated Players:- Eyal Berkovic. Worst Players:- Jermaine Wright. Worst Manager:- Redknapp! Where will Saints be in 5 years time realistically:- Bottom Half of the Premiership

Carlisle away is a big game, if we can win that then it wil put us in high confidence going into two home games that if won will put us comfortably in the automatic promotion places.

Liebherr no 1 is going on the back of my home shirt for this season, the shirt is a one off shirt as was Markus

Thank you for saving our club and history Markus, I'm glad you had your day at Wembley that was for you! RIP. Saints fans should remember and honour him by getting Liebherr 1 on the back of their 125 anniversairy home strip and the club should honour him by renaming the Itchen Stand the 'Markus Liebherr Stand'.

'Pardeeeew, you are a red, We took a great song and made it better! Remember that Leibher's in all our hearts, And then you can start, to make it better! Naaa na na na na na na naaaaa na na na naaaa Paaaardeeeew'