Ken Tone

Everyone thinks that whatever their own management style is, is the the one that works. It's like the way that everyone thinks they are a good driver, when demonstrably most of us aren't. Well let's be honest; what I really mean is most of you aren't. I'm just trying to win you over by phoney empathy ... another good management tool that the OP's boss seems to have perfected ;-) I've seen and experienced management by fear and by positive motivation ...'love' for short. Both work actually. 'Love' works a bit better than fear, but it's harder to achieve. As to Saints, yes Pardew will have his own style which will suit some more than others. When *the* overall boss of an organisation changes, it causes changes all through that organisation. Some workers adapt .. others leave. K.

Me too, on both counts. For the first few games of last season I was amazed at how well he had the youngsters playing. Yes he was limited and knew very little about English football .... he definitely had to go .... but most of the problems we had last season were out of his control to be fair, and he seemed a decent bloke. K.

And if there is an age problem, you can (or certainly could ..haven't tried recently) pay *in advance* to upgrade a kid's ticket to an adult for the one-off game. Sensible approach on the part of the club and no one defrauded. K.

It's never a nice day in Oldham, at least not at the football ground. Haven't been there for donkey's years but when there was a big open terrace for away fans the wind blowing down that slope was the coldest in the league. Bitter! Segregation wasn't too good either, especially since they habitually opened all the gates 15 mins before the game finished so the home fans moved into the away end looking for 'fun' if the away contingent was small. No doubt it is now all-seater with central heating. K.

No attempt to belittle coming up from me, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but we played 4-4-2 against Bristol Rovers. So many attacks from them came down our left becasue Mellis wasn't there to stop them in midfield. The problem with our recent play has been that whoever is supposed to be on the left of midfield, especially when it has been Mellis, has constantly drifted infield and left Harding exposed at left back. He can't mark 2 or 3 players at once all by himself. Personally I think Harding has beeen a revelation at LB: an excellent signing. As to the ballboy rants that others have mentioned, I agree it doesn't look too savoury, but they do need sorting out a bit. One lad in front of the kingsland is often too busy texting to respond quickly to the game. It must be frustrating as a player running to the line to take a quick throw in, to signal to the ballboy 2 or 3 times that you want the ball, only to be ignored. K.

Well yes it is, unless the police say there is a crowd control/safety issue (surely not for this game) or the TV people dictate (also not for this game). K.

I think the club has shot itself in the foot here. It has forgotten how many fans travel a fair way to games. I'm sure I'm not alone in finding it just about impossible to get to a 7pm k.o. after work. Even 7.45 is difficult with end-of-rush-hour traffic down the A34 and M3. In effect the club has decided to make it 'take the little kids' evening for only those people actually living and working in Southampton. Fair enough, but I hope later stage games in the JPT are at normal times. Will be the first home game in any competition (as opposed to friendlies) that I've missed n about 12 years. Give them a shout for me. K.

I have no idea about this partuclar issue in the Itchen, but I echo the praise for Luker's responsiveness to supporters. I wrote to him this morning complaining about tuesday's unannounced late closure of car park B and got a reply within minutes, followed by further communication from a more appropriate employee. Personally I've got him on the "one of the good guys" list. K.

Don't think anyone really knows why they sing it. It goes back many years. Bit like Stoke and 'Delilah'. But to be fair they do sing it loud ....drowned out the northam from where I sit in the kingsland, and not just when they scored. K.

No. Trust me. It'll be a 0-0 draw at full-time, exhausting extra time, lots of injuries, then a close defeat for portsmouth on penalties. Carlisle emotionally and physically drained for saturday. Portsmouth humiliated. Ok? ;-) K.

You're assuming that Pinnacle ever really had any backers. Lynam's public statements on here were self-contradictory ... a consortium ,1 wealthy backer, the bloke from the London semi, a consortium again... Try reading his posts again. They're quite amusing in a sort of gallows humour, Walter Mitty, sort of way It seems very likely that, whoever they were, Pinnacle would in effect have been borrowing to buy us, so in effect the club would have been still pretty heavily in debt, as Pinnacle would have had to extract from club income enough 'profit' to cover their debt re-payments. So no mortgage as such , but loan repayments instead, albeit for a lesser amount than the old club debts allowing for the cheap purchase price. K.

Surely this shows a lack of understranding of how fans behave? If you think about the move to St Marys' no one designated the home bit of the northam as the main noisy home fans section. The police dictated that the away fans had part of it, and the home fans who like to be close to away fans therefore went there. We already have the whole of the chapel end as a 'home end'. It's just that the noisy fans choose not to sit there. IF the police agreed the necessary physical gorund alterations to put away fans in the itchen north -- the only possible alternative in terms of crowd managment to and from the stadium -- then the northam could indeed be given over entirely to home fans. But the reality is that then the current itchen north home fans would be just as likely to go to the itchen centre or south, as close as possible to the away fans. Why would the directors etc want to be in between away and home fans, and why would anyone buy an expensive box above away fans in the itchen? Or if (very unlikely) if the police agreed to put away fans in the chapel, all that would mean is that the noisy home fans would sit next to them there instead of in the northam. K.

Thanks Difficult to decide what is deliberate. Some handballs are in effect self defence, to avoid being hit in the face (or worse!). Deliberate, but ........ I suspect the one on Saturday was pretty much accidental, but he did seem to 'bat' the ball away a bit. K.

Where in the rules does it say a handball has to be deliberate? This is serious question. Some commentators talk about hand to ball, or ball to hand, as if that matters. Others talk about whether the player gained an advantage by the hand ball whether it was deliberate or not. As far as I'm aware, handall is handball. We lost a penalty last season when McGoldrock protected himself in the wall. Btw I saw it clearly hit his right hand and said in a bitter tone, "and that was a handball" thinking the ref had missed it, so was delighted when the lineman had the bottle to give it in spite of so few shouts. K.

The club's motive is presumably to make it easier/more suitable for young kids to go. I can't see any other reason for the change apart from an assumption by Saints that it'll be a young kids' night out rather than a normal crowd. Otherwise they'd move all evening games to 7. K.

Surely it was Strachan that was keen on yogurts? Remember the classic Delgado quote? "I've got more important things to worry about. I've got a yogurt that goes past its sell-by date today." K.

Doesn't Frannie hold some sort of saints youth scoring record, playing as a striker ? ...which made his 1 goal in a millenium at first team level even more remarkable. K.

You mean Trevor Hockey, aka 'the werewolf' ? Now there was a player. Saw him playing for Norwich once many years ago when I was at uni there. Sent off in the first few minutes. As to this thread, the set up at Saints now seems excellent, the squad pretty strong (and will be better when Holmes and McLaggon are in it) and if I hadn't seen most of the games with own eyes I'd assume we'd have won 3 or 4 by now. How we've gone 6 league games without a win with this team in this league is beyond understanding. K.

Good grief! The swear filter took out 'until' because I put it in brackets, as in ( until someone ..... ) but without a gap. Isn't this getting just a bit silly? K.

I actually think we have more chance of winning 2- or 3- nil than of 1-nil. At 1-nil, if they attack a bit near the end of the game we will go to pieces yet again as the crowd gets nervous and makes the players nervous... result 1-1 or worse. Whereas at 2 or 3 up maybe we will gain some confidence and stay positive *****il someone remembers Leeds) K.

Good grief no! It's nothing like as streamlined as that. K.

Yes I'm glad you compliment each other well Dean, but more importantly do you complement each other? I have this awful vision of the oppostion midfielders running past James and Hammond as they pause to say, "Oh well done, Lloyd. You really are good at this game." "On the contrary Dean, you are the best I've seen in this division. And such a fetching haircut too." K.

They are not brighter and they are not thicker , but that does not mean exams are easier as such . It means they are working hard and are being better prepared. When Roger Bannister ran the fiorst 4 minute mile it meant he was the best in the world. Now it is almost common place. Does that mean the mile has got shorter? No. It means that modern athletes train better and have better equipment. Ditto students. More of them achieve good grades but it doesn't mean they are inherently more intelligent, nor that exams have got easier Of course that does mean that someone who gets a grade A now might not have done so 20 yearsd ago when students weren't so well 'trained', but then Ussian Bolt might not have run so fast in plimsolls on a cinder track either! K.

Wikipedia (not reliable I know) says he's 5'10" and calls him a winger/forward. Sounds as if he started as a winger but had a successful season or two as a striker at Cork. If the rumour is true maybe Pardew sees him as a sort of generic forward ...playing on the wing til/unless McLaggon or Holmes displace him , and as back up to Paterson and Saga alongside Lambert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_O%27Donovan K.

[quote=SaintRichmond;432016" I would have adopted the Lawrie Mac approach ..... " OK, if you won't give 100% whilst we are PAYING you 100% .... then you won't get a game ...... and kindly pass that on to your Polish Team Manager " ......... THAT would have worked Where we are now I agree it's best for all that he goes, but to be fair to the bloke he WAS giving his all to Saints, and scoring goals, until Lowe in effect said "Ok if you won't take a pay cut then you won't get a game and kindly pass that on to your Polish team manager." We stopped playing him, brought in Stern John - much the same sort of player and also on big wages - and loaned him to anyone who'd pay him. It's not a good way to instill loyalty. For me he's not shown any lack of effort this season. Had a good game early on, then was dropped again. What scope is there to show commitment as a 90th minute sub? As I say it's best for us and for him that he goes given the situation and the history, but do we really have to slag off any player that goes? K.