pap

We're owning this. Ref is sh!t. I think Lambert could have got three f**king penalties from that one encounter.

Cortese has turned up and has a fetching winter coat on. The rumours are untrue. He looks nothing like an Ewok.

They say "least said, soonest mended". However, the papmobile won't start, I forgot to speak to the garage and it is still broken. So perhaps what they say is boll0cks.

An orgy of blood and p!ss, I'd wager.

I'll say this. It's been a long time since I've been as curious about a Saints game. No idea which way the result will go.

Love ya VFTT, but this is richer than a Boxing Day turd. Been a tumultuous few days, which is why I've not commented on some of the more emotional statements doing the rounds. I'm not saying you're wrong; it's a highly charged situation which has polarised opinion. However, you've made your feelings pretty clear on the decision itself and those that support it. Think the Professor is entitled to an opinion too.

First off, I'd like to call on all Southampton home boys to keep 'em peeled around pie emporiums, fish and chip shops, pizza parlours or the venerated kebab shops of our fair city. Turkish is correct to raise the Sturrock factor, so if you see MP tucking into a large donner meat pizza for example, flag your concern.

I am looking for officers for a new conspiracy website.....

Bearsy, did I say that you could use the little sign-off I've popularised on here? I mean, I approve and all that. Just nice to be asked is all. I bet NC asked you to supplant my position as SaintsWebs arf-factory. I bet the pair of you have been planning it for months.

Yeah, anyone who speaks Spanish, including a couple of the players.

I agree that a lot of individual things have been handled badly, not just alienating our fans but also likely to antagonise neutrals who've previously had a soft spot for us. Problem is, neither we nor they know what was really going on within the club. People are performing detailed condemnation based on black-box information. The most distasteful things about NA's exit are the pre-meditation and communication. The communication was handled terribly. The pre-meditation, though interpreted as a stab in the back by some (it was), might make some positive difference in the future. I don't think we're ever going to be a billionaire club spunking 50M on established superstars. I'm fairly aligned with the plans of the board on the path to success. Train and keep the best youngsters in the world. We do the train part well; it's the keeping that's been the problem. My overall take is that NA and NC had markedly different agendas. NA was happy enough scraping survival in the Prem. Why wouldn't he be? The sun shines out of Martinez' arse and all he manages to do is save Wigan every year. NC seems to genuinely believe we can do this European lark, and that MP is the man to push the youth agenda. Most Saints fans would be happy enough to survive relegation, but if that's all we do each year, we're going to continue to be perceived as that attractive little talent farm on the South Coast. This is a big roll of the dice to push us forward and as you point out, has lost a lot of goodwill and put us under the microscope, with Cortese being viewed as some invasive virus systematically destroying the pillars of what made English football so great. Such charges have been laid before, particularly around the time of the Pardew sacking along with the odd "difficult to deal with" murmurs during the transfer windows. Well, I ask you - the likes of Peterborough who were going on about our "derisory" offers. Where are they now, exactly? NC may be ruthless, but has been vindicated on his big recruitment decisions. I'm not saying he will be here. Externally, changing managers might be seen as a tremendous gamble. Internally, none of us really know what was going on. May have just reached the point where a change had to be made no matter what.

I was listening to Colin Murray's Five Live show. John Hartson and Pat Nevin were both on there saying how bad the sacking was. Bit later, Colin asks them whether NA would be a good manager for Swansea or Everton. They were not as keen then. Same dismissiveness toward Southampton as always. NA is a good enough manager for us, but not for Swansea or Everton. Hmm.

I'm being realistic. Back when Alan Nixon first broke the RdM replacing Adkins story, I spoke with him on Twitter about why it was happening. He spoke then of a rift between Chairman and Manager, over transfer policy, and that the key point of difference was the level of ambition in the transfers. I made the point back then that Cortese probably wanted the big names but didn't trust Adkins to manage them, and that Adkins would be more comfortable with low-key signings than international superstars. The Mirror article bears this out somewhat. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/tensions-over-transfers-saw-nigel-1546179 So whatever ride we've experienced as fans, the situation at SMS between chairman and manager has been broken for a long time. Left to continue it'll result in factions. It's not fair to players to have to divide their loyalties like kids in a messy divorce. Long term, that situation just isn't tenable and even though the vast majority of people on here have had their fingers in their ears whenever bad news rolls in with the tide, the reality is that the club has been rumbling along with this internal strife since last season. A bit of conflict can be very useful in arriving at a good decision, but too much can become corrosive. I think NA getting sacked by TV was appalling, but again, being realistic - he has exited the club with his head held high and already has suitors. Bottom line; most organisations cannot function if the link between the executives and the management is broken.

Flawed because we have a "League One" team?

Exactly. Like it or not, the autocratic-but-financed model has got us where we are. It'll also get us to where we need to be. Some very harsh decisions have been made along the way, but so far, the management recruitment decisions seem to have been well-judged when viewed over the longer term. Appreciate that things are still very raw at the moment, naturally.

Neutral? Nah. The man clearly has an agenda, which is "I know how football clubs should be run". He's making assumptions on NC's decision with pretty much the same information that we all have; the various tidbits that have popped up in the media. I'm with Lord D on this one. There is saying; you don't know what goes on behind closed doors. We're starting to get bits and pieces of info now. It's clear there was friction between chairman and manager. Only one winner when that happens, I'm afraid.

Ah, the League One standard players that hammered a lot of Championship teams? Or the ones acquitting themselves well in the Prem now. Can you let me know when Rickie Lambert is no longer a League One player? Ta.

I never speak about the specifics of work on Twitter or anything else. Even when doing professional updates in LinkedIn, I just talk about the tech I'm using, not about projects - and certainly not about changes to organisational structure!

That is a good article, largely because it doesn't seem to have been scribed on the back of a high horse.

um pahars posits that it is possible to run a successful football club in an effective and efficient manner. There are good examples of well-run clubs to be found around Europe. You can even find some in England. Arsenal are famously well-run; except they now have no "success", at least relative to their all-conquering days in the 2000s. Look at the clubs that have won the Prem lately. Man City - money, mercenaries and egos. Man Utd - leveraged massively on debt. Chelsea - see Man City, but multiply number of managers by 2. Irrespective of whether Financial Fair Play is correctly enforced, there's still going to be a divide on how football clubs are owned and operated. Long term, a solution that would be ideal for many is for the club to be owned by the fans, and have an elected President. I like democracy; I can go with that. Personally, I don't think we've got enough support for this model (yet). The only thing that will garner us support are impressive performances on the pitch. I've still got mates my age who are the biggest Hampshire hogs you'd be like to meet, yet talk about Saints fans as if they're a different f**king breed or from a different f**king planet because they chose a successful football team to support way back when. THEY ARE FROM SOUTHAMPTON! And that sh!t really needs to end. I was only 9/10 at the time, so my memories may be a bit unreliable, but I have never seen Southampton (the city) buzzing about Southampton FC as much as I did in 84/85. I remember seeing people get excited about Saints that were never excited before, and have never been excited since. We need more 84/85s, and we need a trophy. Sad to say, but the reason a lot of the glory-boys end up supporting the likes of Liverpool and Man U is because those teams have had very successful periods. From our perspective, a 84/85 season is an even tougher proposition than it was back then; the top teams often have subs benches that cost as much as the opposition's entire squad. The PL now features some of the best talents around the world. For me, it comes down to a question of what we need more right now. A more democratic decision making process or results on the pitch? I'm perhaps doing the question a disservice by presenting these as mutually exclusive, so let me put it another way. Would a more democratic decision process help to get better results on the pitch?

I don't know. Conclusions look like a hit piece to me:- I love MLT, but I'm not sure him and Cortese having a chat is going to make a great deal of difference to our fortunes this year. Long term, I'd like to see that rift healed. And wtf is this "supporter's mission" supposed to be? According to some, being a yo-yo club is alright. Others, just staying in the Prem is good enough. Some want more.

So "we" refers to half-brains, presumably with you among them? Fair enough. Carry on.

I'd go along with this assessment, although I'd argue that probs the biggest reason behind the pap and Turkish truth and reconciliation effort is the sheer amount on numptyism we're both collectively facing when people say things we just can't ignore. While I'd be keen to avoid ascribing specific labels to anyone, I rather feel that it's a bit like those moments in zombie films where two people who'd be utterly opposed in the human world stand shoulder to shoulder to fight the mindless horde. Given the other replies, I do not want to see The Kraken pass without mention. I see him as some kind of sniper, camped out in a tower, obsessing over ammunition and only taking a shot when he's got a good target. Meant respectully, 'yo.

Classic case of why it's a good idea to keep your mouth shut when you don't really know what you're talking about. Lessons were learned.

You know what, I've seen some weak attempts to take Turks out in my time. I've clashed with the fellow myself on occasion. Score draw, by my reckoning. Still, I do wonder who "we" refers to in your post. Are you speaking for the entire forum? Or is it a personal circumstance simply omitted, such as living in a commune where you all make collective decisions? Another possibility I've considered is that there actually multiple people at your gaff, each taking it in turns to press a key until the post is finished. As you can see, I'm confused. Who's "we"?