Ken Tone

I remember being devastated when we sold him (for £7 million?) and said at the time "it may seem a lot of money now,but when he's playing regularly for england as the striker alongside shearer we'll regret it" Ah well, I was nearly right !

In terms of the arrest of course you are right, but it does not seem to be in dispute that he was out in a night club in the early hours of the morning. That is irresponsible behaviour in itself. When will footballers realise that there is a price to pay for their huge wages and glamorous lifestyle. They are supposed to be sportsmen in training. They can't just behave like young men who happen to be fortunate enough to be rich. Can you imagine any of the athletes that have gone to the commonwealth games being out on the lam during their 'season'? Surely Adkins has rules over players behaviour during the season? K.

Quite. IF this is a rumour with some truth in it, then the only logical expanation would be that Richardson is some time away from fitness still and Butterfield isn't considered quite up to scratch. IMO he is ok, but nothing special. I'd assumed he was a stopgap until the hopefully better Richardson is fit. Minmd you since Pardew seemed determined to get into the guinness book fo records for number of left backs, maybe Adkins is merely trying to balance the side! K.

I think he might just go with 4-5-1. He'll be more concerned not to lose than to win, to stop the rot..... and anyway 4-5-1 can be quite attacking if it moves to 4-3-3 quickly enough. Let's face it Connolly has been one of this season's greater disappointments. He looked so classy at first last season, but now he is very 'quiet'. He would be better used as an 'impact' sub again -- especially given we haven't got anyone else to come on at the moment! So I'd go for Ricky up front on his own .. assuming he is anywhere near fit at last. After that decision the team pretty much picks itself until AL and Barnard return to give some competition for places

And how do you know that he turned down Peterborough ? Or was that also hype on the part of howe or mitchell?

As but is he Still Nashing his teeth? They're not Young any more. "Love the manager you're with"

LOL Yeh ..but the one Strachan bought last year is up for sale. Has a mouldering pile of saints training kit on the doorstep too.

Yeah , but you get most of the week off ... like vicars

There is logic in that , but given that Solent is a media company, what really matters is how many people want to listen. Based on crowd figures, likely Solent audience figures for the 3 local teams would go in order: Saints, Pompey Bournemouth, Weymouth. There's at least as much logic therefore in that being the order of precedence on Solent.

...... and only one of those chairman is actually in a position to know the truth. The other one is going on hearsay via Howe, and I suspect exaggerrating on the way, to keep his fans happy, rather than them realising that Howe won't be with them for much longer. (Because if he came for interview to saints he'll go for interview elsewhere soon too, and someone will offer him the job... unless of course he starts to fail miserably at bournemouth )

"The United manager is told by the chairman of Saints' Supporters' Trust to think carefully if he is offered the job, given the security of his position at Glanford Park." Bloody hell ..and people wonder why he gets flak on here when he gets sucked into media quotes (or mis-quotes) like this.

The trouble is that pretty much IS the situation anyway. Players can nearly always walk away from a contract by making enough fuss, but clubs have to pay up on contracts. They can't shift players who don't want to move. Pulis is the obvious case in point. It's a one way valve.

No but I listened to the whole interview he gave to Radio Humberside, which I presume Solent took an excerpt from. And in spite of having been up most of the night, then taking a full normal day's training at Scunny and I imagine being in a complete emotional turmoil, I think 'it is fair to say that Nigel Adkins' came over as both intelligent and moral. He has got several diplomas and a business degree you know ... which he took whilst he was working I think. You can knock the signficance of that but I suspect he's a bit brighter than most football people.

Quite. This is chairman saying this ..not Howe himself. I interview lots of people for jobs. It would be pretty rare for me to actually get as far as offering a job to someone who will turn it down. You sound candidates out first. Much more likely scenario is: Cortese interviews Howe and says "we're interested ..will let you know when we've finished our search process". Or even "we're interested" and Howe says "can I think about it before I say I definitely want it?" Fine, says Cortese..we're still interviewing other candidates. Howe goes home and decides he doesn't want to remain in the frame, so withdraws his application. Job never actually offered. Meanwhile he talks to his chairman, exaggerrates a bit and says ..I didn't want it .. implying he probably could have got it if he had. Chairman builds this up another step to 'he was definitely offered it and turned it down.' Pratt of chairman then shoots his mouth off in a completely unprofessional manner. What the hell does he think he is doing breaching confidence like that even if his version is accurate? Result - Southampton definitely, and many other clubs maybe, never deal with Bournemouth again. K.

Surely we can't really be stalling over as little as £50k? There must be more to it than that. Let's face it if we playing against a team this wekend who'd just got a new manager we'd expect the worst. "Opposition's new managers always galvanise even previously duff teams into playing out of their skins to impress new man" is one of the immutable laws of being a Saints fan. IF it works for us too, wouldn't it be worth £50k to 'buy' a win at Swindon?

Well put it this way I am today booking a holiday that will clash with the likely date of the play-off final. This could be because I am still confident of a top 2 finish, or it could be because I don't think we'll even make the play-offs. I'm not sure I know myself! K.

I believe Bob Paisley started out as a physio ..and without Adkins's qualfications. He isn't the big name we'd jhoped for and been led to expect but he is at least intelligent (which is more than you can say for many managers) and experienced at an appropriate level. I reckon he'll do.

He and Dave "to be fair" Merrington should get on well then.

Cue lots of other managers quickly saying they too turned it down, in mass face-saving exercise. Even Phil Brown, after publicly crawling for the job, will find some way of saying he turned it down.

No. I reckon you've pretty much got it taped with that masterly summary of the situation.

Here we go again. Keep up! If you read the other 347 pages on this, you'll see that they would get compensation, via a tribunal. But presumably not as much as SAcunny hope to negotiate. Plus it would be a risk for Saints , if Scunny have any chance of showing that we acted in any way improperly in our approach.

humbrrside saying still in balance ..quite likely he will come

The other one. It's always the other one, whichever one you're on.

The OS statement reads more like damage limitation to me. Trying to give second choice candidate a scrap of dignity by making it look as if he isn't second really.

Sorry mate but I think you are wrong. Can't find chapter and verse but FA and league set rules a few years back to prevent managers being poached during a season. Hence needing Scunny's permission to even speak to Adkins. I think the position is either we agree compensation, or if he resigns it goes to a tribunal. Google wigan v swansea over Martinez. etc It may even be (here I am admittedly unsure) that a tribunal could deem us to have acted improperly (by football 's rules, not real life employment law) and punish us in other ways ..even deducting points