Pat from Poole

Couldn't agree with you more re Burley. Was astonished that Scotland and Palace were daft enough to employ him.

Anelka, when Saints beat Liverpool 2-0 at SMS, by any chance???

Very much agree with this. I also think it's interesting if CMS has gone to Brighton for really big wages, as it could really disrupt whatever pay structure they have in place and cause team disharmony etc. This is one of my worries if we are looking to sign David Nugent, I don't see him settling for less than £20,000 a week, and is he really going to make that much of a difference to us to justify breaking any pay structure we may already have?

I have spent about 15 years being bemused by this. Think it boils down to us not really being great singers as a bunch of fans. We can be very fervent and passionate when the mood takes us, but apart from the few hundred of us who will pretty much sing all game, a lot of our fans just don't seem to want to sing. Which of course is their right and they've paid their money etc...

Yeah, this would be the neat way to play this. Though I guess most clubs probably think we are minted anyway with or without the AOC sale proceeds.

The Bierhoff one was comedy, a supposed marquee signing with which to open the new stadium at St. Mary's. Until he told Lowe his wage demands. So the marquee signings ended up being Delap and Anders Svensson.

Monkou was a true legend, one of my favourite ever Saints players. I think Branfoot's signings of Beasant and Dowie were overall decent signings.

This seems to be their main message board, interesting to note somebody on there say that Sharp likes to be the top dog at a club, can't see that being the case if he comes to us..... http://www.drfc-vsc.co.uk/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=999999&id=163171&Itemid=108

Well, not entirely. Most clubs also employ agents to sell their players, touting them around for the best price.

McGoldrick is a bag of sheight though.

I remember this all too well, I presume you recall seeing the old duffer hanging out of the first-floor window of his abode before the game, chucking coins at us? Highly comical.

So much of it is about fitness in my opinion. If Adkins has them running up mountains until they puke in pre-season like Strachan used to, then I think we'll be halfway there. I've lost count of the number of opening day games I've seen Saints lose over the years when the players looked embarrassingly unfit.

Patrick Colleter did that unforgettable tackle on Poyet, of course. I remember him mainly for this, plus trying to start a fight with the whole of the Notts Forest bench. Proper nutter.

1. Monkou 2. Niemi 3. Pahars 4. Ekelund 5. Dia

Before my missus had our first child, we both played pool for our county (Dorset). Having kids kind of puts paid to hobbies.

Agreed. They'll still get 30,000 crowds for most games as well, they really should finish in the top two.

They seem to think they're signing Robbie Keane FFS.

The managerial situation at Wigan may be having an impact. There is absolutely zilch chance of CMS coming to Saints, we shouldn't be worrying about him.

Given the anti-Saints keyboard warrior activity of a number of Brentford's fanbase a couple of months ago, I'm sure you will all feel a degree of sympathy for them, given that their new manager is to be one of the worst strikers in the history of Southampton FC.

I'm sure I read in a paper somewhere that the ex-GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips was at the away leg in Belgium, as some kind of rebellious deed to annoy her parents. Though she now appears to be a saddo Chelsea plastic. I don't think i am entirely making this up, random though it sounds. Can anybody confirm I am not mad?

That's a very good point. I believe Cheats FC sold Pearce to Boscombe in 2007, well before their financial problems hit big time. Why should they be allowed to continue to reap the benefit of a sell-on clause following administration? (I expect somebody to now say that we benefited from a sell-on clause after going into administration ourselves - Leon Best maybe?)

Branfoot sending Jimmy Case down to Boscombe in his first few days as Saints manager was a pretty bad start to a far from glorious reign.

I'm no great fan of Seaborne, but I seem to recall that the 4-4 game at Peterboro was played on a pretty windy night, and he may have misjudged the ball played through for CMS as the strong wind caused the ball to move unpredictably. They were difficult conditions for anybody to defend in.

He's a proper centre-half, him. He'd be a really good signing for Saints. He stormed the Boscombe Player of the Year awards.

Why don't you just give it up? Personally, as the father of a disabled child, I find his past comments abhorrent. And if he's such a good manager, why has nobody pushed the boat out to persuade him to give up the easy life in Spain?