SFKA South Woodford

Oh what a trap to fall into! We will not walk this league next season, no matter how much we spend. Our fans need to realise that this league is already pretty strong this season, but next year it will be even harder, as three more championship teams and a big spending Notts County will be in it, as well as those already good sides we are facing this season. Only three sides will be promoted this year, as we know, Millwall, Brentford, Huddersfield, Norwich, Charlton, Colchester, Leeds and Walsall are all good sides. So even with three of them having gone up, we are looking at a league with a further good side added to it next year and the prospect of having to spend a lot more money to get a team good enough to stand above it's competitors. So we either need to get promotion this season, or to have added enough strength and quality to our squad to have been promoted without the hindrance of the minus ten, which will then only need to have a couple of new additions made for a sustained promotion push next season. On the subject of the panic caused by Saturdays defeat, I don't think it's a case of expecting the team to be undefeated, I think it's the complete surrender of a performance, 'Kelvin apart' that's really got people worried. If the same happens tomorrow night, then signings just to toughen up the squad, rather than improving the quality greatly, will need to be made.

Ridiculous, anyone who believes this is misguided. Read what some of the other teams in this divisions supporters are saying about us, and remember that they know what they are talking about, as they have the experience of this division. Most say that the longer you spend in his division, the harder it is to get out of, and if we don't want our team and supporters standards to drop and stagnation to set in, then we need to be getting out of it as soon as possible. So hanging around for a season without even threatening the automatic promotion positions let alone the playoffs, is not an option. The squad needs the additions to become competitive against the likes of Huddersfield, we need combative players, not the statues we currently have.

Yes, looks like she might have changed sides and be munching on the welcome mat now.

Don't think there will be a second signing and unveiling today, as Pardew and the team will have left St Mary's and be on their way up the M3/A34 on the coach by now. Let's hope that Monday brings an addition by five o'clock, who we will then see play at the County Ground on Tuesday evening. I wonder what it is that's holding up all these deals that Pards and others keep telling us are almost done?

Just like Thomas on Saturday then! Even if Saejis was only brought in as cover, it would improve our squad. I'm pretty sure that 90% of Saints fans would be happy for him to replace Thomas or Perry when either gets injured or suspended as opposed to Lancashire, and for the games where his defending may have been a little suspect, there were others where he kept us in it, or made challenges that got us the points. I doubt we'd have beaten Preston if Lancashire had been playing. He was a bright spot in an otherwise poor defence last season.

In my opinion the squad still needs two centre backs 'one of which is able to attack the ball in the air', a central midfielder with decent passing ability and vision, a pacy winger that can put in a decent cross or come inside and find the back of the net and a striker with pace and an eye for goal. I think with a team like that, we would be in with a great shout at the play offs and maybe an automatic promotion slot.

Not sure about that, we still need cover for most positions. Can you imagine how bad it would be if Harding and either Thomas or Perry got injured? Molyneux and Lancashire in the defence, and we'd be thinking that Norwich got a good result yesterday in no time. Pardew said in his post match interview yesterday that the porblem in the second half was that we didn't have any strikers on the bench, hence the ball keeping coming back at the defence and Millwall getting stronger. So I think that he is shifting his recruitment priority to that department for a while. Anyone know why Rasiak wasn't on the bench? Is he doing a Kenwynne and refusing to play for us now?

If that's the case, he should try using this service: http://www.thescoutingnetwork.co.uk/scouting.htm In this day and age, it's not a long and difficult process to find out all the information he would need on any player. If the new regime are happy to let the team stagnate for a season because of the points deduction, then they should come out and say it, rather than let their inaction speak for them. Even if the plan is for steady progress for this season, then they need to get it going now, not when we are points adrift in a relegation battle, by which time it may well be too late. What a record that woud be for Herr Lieberr, it even took Rupert nine years to achieve his first relegation. With the way things have gone so far, will all of those calling for calm and patience, still be so calm on September the 1st, if we have only managed a couple of points and a cup exit from our first six fixtures and have perhaps lost our two experienced strikers, with only two more free transfers having been added to the squad? It will be a crime if we aren't at least in the top ten of this division at the end of the season, anything less will be an abject failiure for a club our size, and will not have produced any progress, steady or otherwise.

Ok, but the question that then has to be asked is, 'why does it take so long for the new regime to sign a player?' Harding signed 24 hours after Pardew took over, why then did it take four weeks to sign Murty, and why did it take two weeks to offer Stern a new contract? If Pardew cannot get the players he wants from the list of out of contract players, why doesn't he pick up he phone and offer another team a fee for one of theirs that he does want? The other teams in this league have been signing players on both free's and fee's, so it cannot be that there aren't any available or that wont come to Saints, we are after all one of the biggest fish in this pond. If as has been suggested, Whitbread is the best defender in this division, we should be approaching him and offering him the wages he is after. Should we do the same for five or so of the best in this division in other positions, then they would more than likely see their dreams of playing at higher level, achieved at the end of this season. If the club show ambition, it will not only attract players but the fans as well, so the outlay or at least a significant proportion of it could be recouped. The old regime was always beaten with the 'Speculate to Accumulate' stick, so where is it now, when there is such a good opportunity to achieve with only a modest outlay? We want the best for our club, which doesn't mean hanging around in this division. We need to get out of it at the earliest possible opportunity, or knowing our fans, there will be people on this board saying things like 'Saints are at their level, we have no right to expect more' or 'we can't expect to be a Championship club, our fanbase can't support it' The board need to act now, before apathy and annonimity start to take their toll!

Yes we need to make some qaulity signings, but it would also be nice to make some in the interim that will make our squad competitive at least, which it is not at the moment! Pardews words in the BBC article and the piece on the Echo website, do not make me think he is very confident of picking up any points before he gets a few new players. The situation we are in, is not going to be helped by falling further behind our competitors before we start to pick up some points. Let's not forget we are effectively already in a relegation battle because of the minus ten, so let's try and win that battle as early as possible, so we can enjoy the second half of the season and whatever bonus's that brings.

And in the mean time, Saints fall further points behind everyone else and their goal difference starts to take on epic proportions with Lancashire doing his impersonation of the keystone cops trying to defend. The squad needs reinforcing now, not in a months time or in January when the transfer window opens. As for this cr*p about needing time to assess players, we got relegated last season 'unless that has escaped peoples minds', which proves those that we have weren't good enough, so it doesn't take a genius to work out that new ones are needed. Pardew is not an amateur, which means that two weeks is enough time for him to work out where it is deficent. After all he managed to work out that the squad needed a left back 24 hours after his first training session.

A great man, who had a great career, and through his achievements touched people in so many countries. Football has lost one of it's greatest servants and will be the worse for it. Ramsay won the world cup, but for me, Sir Bobby was the best manager England have had. Whenever he spoke you could feel the warmth of his personality through his words, a true gent who will be sorely missed. Condolences to his family and friends.

Not if you listen to Pardew, it isn't! He said last week that the board have told him that the top six is his target for this season.

He's had almost a week and a half to analyse the squad and in that time the squad have played four matches, how much more time does he really need? The two results from the games in which the back up players have been utilised, should tell him all he really needs to know about the squad, mainly what we all know. That we barely have a team of 11 players, let alone the squad of 16-22 players that will be required for a full season of league football. It would have been a different story if we had kept hold of a few more of the players we had and then added to that squad, but we not only had a weak squad in the first place, but have lost most of the best players from it. I'm not saying we should go out and sign a Dele Adabola type just to add to the squad strength and who looked half decent for five minutes in one match, but there are players out there with proven ability or players that Pardew would have seen scouting reports for, either from our scouts or scouts at his previous clubs, which with inaction will be lost to other teams. With less than two weeks to the start of the season, we need players for the squad, or we'll be in the same situation as last season, of playing boys against men, and look at the results of that, relegation, dwindling attendances, fan infighting and losing or drawing matches almost every week. We don't have to be in that position this season, so lets not start that way again.

Weird then, that the official Bayern Munich website has articles about players that they are in negotiations for, before they have signed them from the other club. Pardew has already said he has identified the areas of the team where it is weak and changes need to be made, so he should be aware through the agents network which players are available for those positions and what their attributes are, and should also know the quality from the dross, even if it's only the free transfer players he's looking at for the time being. He already said that a lot of precious time had been wasted, in which he missed out on some players, so why is he missing out on others rather than acting to fill the gaps? If he doesn't make those changes by the end of the week, we'll be days away from a new league campaign with only half a team. God help us if Thomas gets injured next season, as playing Lancashire will be like having a further points penalty imposed on us. Pardews comments about it taking him a year to get a team playing as he wants them, are not exactly confidence boosting, especially as he has been set a tough target of a top six place by the board, which doesn't look like it's achievable at the moment with his words and actions.

Exactly, one of the biggest problems with our team is that the players do not seem to either think about what they are going to do with the ball, or how they are going to get it, either from the opposition or from one of the other members of the team. The first few yards of play in football is in the mind, it appears ours don't have the speed of thought to cut it, in which case they should make up for it in endeavour, and as we know they are (Gillet apart) lacking in that dept.

Have an area set aside in each concourse on matchdays where the fans can meet and chat to a couple of ex saints players at each area.

How self righteous can one person be? You have been on here crowing about administration and how you were responsible for ridding our club of Lowe, Wilde and the so called 'Dutch experiment' and how we should all acknowledge how you have been right all along. So to accuse GM of being attention seeking is, do you not think, somewhat a case of the pot calling the kettle black? Anyway here it is Stanley for you and all of your ilk, my apology to you for being right along! Thanks to all those that just sat by and did nothing to help save our club as it nearly went out of existence, those of us who lifted a finger were so wrong!

Well done you! I'm sure there'll be a long line of people from this forum wishing to pat you on the back. I'd rather not have gone through the last few months and having come so close to losing our club thanks! But hey, at least you were f'cking right eh!

And so be Satan, Bigfoot, the Abominable snowman and the Loch Ness monster!!!! I guess you have proof of these?

At a meeting of London Saints soon afterwards, Lowe said that the club were put under pressure by both the Premier League and FA to suspend Dave Jones at once. I have a relation, who was accused of the same crimes against some kids on the estate where he lived, he was sent to prison for more than a year on their word alone, and was only released when those involved where arrested for other crimes and admitted that their statements were a tissue of lies as they disliked my relation. His life was ruined, he has never been compensated for his ordeal, he has never been able to get anything other than menial work since, and his health has suffered badly as a result. So I sympathise greatly with Dave, and wish him only the greatest of success, hopefully one day with Saints as I know that he still has a soft spot for Saints and it's supporters.

They had already been negotiating the deal for several months before it was announced this time last year that the Japs were going to invest with a view to taking over the club.

He did say that things had happened behind the scenes, but wahat credibility does he have, no one would believe him even if he had proof, there would be people claiming that he has made it all up. Lets not forget, he is the Anti Christ to a lot of Saints fans. In response to Phil's conspiracy theory, i've been wondering whether Fialka could be the Spurs fan with the rabid hatred of Saints that used to post on Saintsforever.

It has been widely quoted on here in these last few months that to gain a CVA you have to negotiate an agreement on price with those creditors who own 75% of the debt in order to gain the CVA. This would then strengthen the position of both Barclays and Aviva to play a little hard ball, they could ask for a 100% of the monies owed. However, both of them wanted to cash in on the debts owed by the PLC as quickly as possible, so they may still be willing to make a deal with any new owners. It's my understanding that so long as they can reach an agreement with the majority holders of the debt and obtain the CVA for the PLC, then it's the best and also possibly the easiest way to resolve the future of our club. Just so the FL do not in any way have to budge and inch on their position.

As I was attempting to say last Friday, this seems to be the crux of the matter and the only way that a deal for Saints can be done.