pap

Finding out via TV is specifically what I was saying is disgraceful. If that is an intentional snub (as opposed to genuine timing cock up) then it deserves condemnation. If someone's face doesn't fit, you should tell them to their face. What's done is done. In every other respect it has been seamless. Timing is fine. Still in a transfer window, so time to close deals, etc. The real question is whether Pochettino is the step forward NC says we need. Everything ends badly hypo. If you want to spend the rest of the season venting, that's your lookout, but NA walks out of here with his head held high and should waltz into another job. This BBC piece examines the issue dispassionately. NA's Prem record is not great. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21084754 If NC felt he had to go, was never going to be anything but messy.

So if you know you're going to sack Adkins, what is the correct manner for the club to do it? NA finding out via TV is a disgrace, I admit. Apart from that, what would you have changed? When would be the perfect time to sack him? Do you line a manager up first or do you sack him with no replacement in mind and put spotters on the roof of SMS in case Phil Brown shows up?

You're trying to prove you are right by using the sheer weight of supporting opinions that complement your own, hypo. I thought it was obvious.

Last time Adkins future was really in doubt, couldn't vote either way on the poll. Haven't voted either way in this one either.

They are entitled to their opinion, but that's all it is. By the end of the season, they'll either be right or wrong.

Translation: "Of course I'm right. Just ask anyone else on the bandwagon if you don't believe me"

Have a go. See if it works. Take pictures.

The first of the "dirt" articles. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/southampton-sack-nigel-adkins-the-writing-1544510

Is it a large chequebook, like you see on telethons, Kev?

Backs up my lil theory:-

When Pardew was sacked, people were moaning because a replacement was not lined up. Can't really win, can you? I've seen this happen in the workplace. One contractor is leaving with another arriving to replace him on the following Monday. Is it nice? Of course not. But it's the best way for a business to get over the transition if it feels that someone has to go, even more so if the incoming employee is prepared to bone up so they can hit the ground running. That is what has happened here; team performances may even benefit from his preparations. Nige has known the score for a long time. He elected to stay on with the club despite clearly feeling his job was in danger after he achieved promotion. You could see the friction between him and Cortese as they were supposed to shake hands with each other. You were only immune from the obvious if you didn't want to see it. I think most people, myself included, have been shocked or upset by Nigel's departure today. Moving forward, what we do? Start hissing at the players like they do down the Bridge? Have a go at the manager? Not go because we don't like the Chairman? I've supported this team under worse chairmen and less talented management. If we're relegated at the end of the season, then we'll have questions to ask, and Cortese isn't going to feel as bulletproof in his decision-making. Until then, I'm reserving judgement and am going to give Cortese the benefit of the doubt. It's really the best choice if I want to carry on with this whole supporting Saints lark.

I'd like to float a theory. A lot of people assumed that the ol' cliche factory routine was a front. Had to be. Back to back promotions speak for themselves. Those were clearly the actions of a footballing genius guarding his true intentions; keeping the opposition from knowing what we were up to. What if the cliche factory routine was genuinely Nige's football philosophy? One of the very first things Nigel said after his appointment was that football was a simple game. A lot of managers have done very well out of getting the basics right and motivating their players. Nige strikes me as someone who is very good at the meta-game, the individual battles, opportunity creation, etc. There have been times where I've wondered whether he knows how it all fits together. Cortese wants to bring in a Southampton style. If NA had responded in TV interview style when asked about his footballing philosophy, I'd have to wonder how impressed NC was.

RdM to replace NA, just before start of this season, I think.

I found it odd that Alan Nixon "got his RdM story wrong". He got so much else right.

Not shocking. Mentioned in other thread. "Parting of the ways" was mentioned right after we achieved promotion. Defo something in Nixon's story too.

Yeah, but people were saying we wouldn't be promoted after the news broke. People are saying we'll get relegated now. No-one knows, but it turned out alright last time. Personally, I'm not relegating us just yet. Adkins got us where we are, no doubt. Automatic promotion from League One was an amazing achievement, as was the successive promotion to the Prem. However, we should have won that league last year, and West Ham, supposedly a worse team, have made a brighter start to life in the Prem. In hindsight, it seems there has been tension for quite a while. Remember his "parting of the ways" slip-up after the Coventry game which secured automatic promotion? Quite a few of us thought that was dodgy at the time, and anyone suggesting friction has got an earful for their trouble. Is the decision totally shocking? No, and people have short memories. Was only a couple of months ago that many were saying he was out of his depth. Fair to say that both he and the team have learned to swim in Premiership waters. Hand on heart though, I can never really call our games this season. There are games that I think we can theoretically win, but I'm never confident of victory this season. Each one is a bonus. One swallow does not make a summer, and while I'm proud of some our recent results, there have been a ton of missed opportunities, in respect of our play and our results. Long term Saints fans are used to snatching a draw from the jaws of victory. Maybe we make allowances for that. NC clearly doesn't.

Just been reading the Pardew getting sacked thread. Eerily similar.

Well, as tight a ship as SFC run from an external perspective, most people within an organisation have the inside track, even partially. I did not know about the Twitter messages, so cheers for that.

Like many, I was totally floored by the decision earlier in the day. As I've heard so many times, we are where we are. This has all the ingredients to be a disaster for the club, but having read his "CV", it does look a good mutual fit. The obvious concerns are going to be communication in the early days, players' attitudes and whether or not we're going to get relegated. However, some of the things I've read about him I really like, especially how he likes his teams to go at the opposition. According to Pep Guardiola, "Some teams wait for you. Other teams look for you. Espanyol look for you" ( might not be the exact quote ). Now I'll admit that commentators do annoy me when they equate our possession-based game for lack of bite, but mostly because they do have a point. This also sounds like it might be the ideal fit for him. Imagine having to do a job and having all your best tools taken away from you each year, then asked to do the same job. If our plan is genuinely to build a team from the youth and keep them, then it'll appeal to someone who has seen his best talent leave on a cyclical basis.

No, he's just not the sort of nationalist knuckle-dragger that would find the headline appealing.

You better hope my dad doesn't see this. He won't have The Sun in his house. This headline is an oft-cited justification.

Agree. The Pardew sacking was worse in that respect. People would be moaning if the club had no permanent manager lined up.

Everybody nose that.

Super. Hostile environment at SMS from now on? Just what we need, Chelsea-on-sea indeed.

Going to look like an absolute joke decision to some. I hope that NC knows what he's doing.