Alain Perrin

I wonder how Jan Portvliet would have done if we'd had someone like Rickie up front? In the early days of his tenure we seemed to create lots of chances, but lacked the fire power to put it away. There still would have been problems in the team (muscle in defence), but it could have made the difference between promotion and relegation.

Hmmm, maybe he was responsible the global financial crisis - maybe not. I think this is SOG's point. Lowe gets/got blamed for far more than he was responsible and in response some of the 'luvvies' responded by crediting him for more than he was ever responsible for. I am a 'luvvie' or what I would prefer to call a realist. I don't think Lowe was the anti-christ, nor do I think he was Jesus Christ. I'm posting less because the Lowe debate/subscription charge killed this board. 90% of posts were about that, not about football and the posters like me who were football first (hmm, nice slogan!), politics second lost the will to live/post. Hence why there are fewer posters/posts on here than there ever were.

Ah Norwich. I swear I nearly had a heart attack when Camera (sp?) scored. Probably the most dramatic single moment I have experienced as a Saints fan. I believed.

Pointless. You'll just get the rustle of crisp packets from the Kingsland. Regardless. What right does Thorpie-the-**** have to tell anyone how they should support their club? If you don't like it, go and stand next to that bloke with the bell at Pompey - I guess he's a proper 'football person'....

Not sure what it was to be honest. I always think that offsides where the ball has been played a long way (like the one described) are very difficult to judge. Unlike the linesman, our interest is at the other end of the pitch. We should have a rule on this forum that, if you sit in the Chapel or the Northam, you can't have a (valid) opinion on an offside decision. There is no way that you can judge when perpendicular to the action. Officials get a bad name too often because fans make proclamations about things they, at best, have a compromised view of (and that's before you bring in the bias!). Officials are human and will make mistakes, it's part of what makes football fun. And whilst I don't agree with replaying games after dubious decisions, I do think the FA/FIFA should be punishing players that try and kid the referee. Honest mistakes vs. dishonest behaviour.

Sorry matey, he was three yards off side. Wait for the TV to see what I mean. I thought the officials were generally good today (especially given the conditions). I thought the KD goal kick offside was dubious though

Ratings, smatings. It's all opinions. If you could accurately reflect a player's performance in a mark out of ten, then you might as well not play the match and just let the statistics decide a la Championship Manager. I thought James was always a threat going forward, he did deliver some good balls into the box, but also some duff ones too. He also made himself available for attacking moves. Personally I think his weakness is his lack of pace. We get very exposed on the right and all he can do is slow the defender, he doesn't have the speed to recover his position quick enough. Brighton bested us in heart and desire, and with an injection of pace at crucial times. Saints showed up late and were always playing catch up.

Touchy feely is fine if you are in social work, teaching or group therapy. Man up. This is business. Different world Missed your sales targets? "Awww... come and have a hug", rarely works. In my experience you need a mix, in the example I gave, the current CEO is the 'good cop' (he's the friendly guy, your buddy, the man with the personality), current COO is the 'bad cop' (the terrier who the CEO sends in to sort out crap and tear someone a new arsehole). Damn right I'd leave if the Bad Cop became CEO, but in balance it works.

Hmmmm a thread without Lowe being mentioned (aawww nuts!). I support the view that footaball should be playable in a park with jumpers for goalposts. The sooner you introduce rules dependent on technology then you'll kill that spirit. If you remove the uncertainty and (perceived) injustice from football, it'll just sanitise it too much. There will be nothing to talk about.

Rubbish. At my company the COO is complete tosser. However, he gets results like you wouldn't believe. No friends, just results. Any company needs a mixture of good cops and bad cops.

I think we should trust Pardew to tailor the formation to fit the opposition and the passage of play. The point of scouting is that we should use that information, to pick players who counteract the opposition's strengths and exploit their weaknesses. That's why the keyboard warriors who say "we should pick X over Y", actually know **** all. Sometime's Wooton is the best choice to counteract their hulk of a CM, sometimes you need someone more cultured to pass around them. Horses for courses. Any game is over 90 minutes and, in my opinion, 4-5-1 is a useful tactic to stifle the opposition and run them around a bit, followed by 4-4-2 to sucker puch them in the last third of the match.

I'll freely admit I didn't think Pearson was the man for Saints last season and, despite his success, I still don't. There is a world of difference being in league with cash (as Leicester were in Division 1) and being in a league with a youth team and no cash (as Saints were last season). Based on the fact he'd struggled (albeit over a limited number of games) to keep Saints up the previous season with a Gucci squad, you can see why Lowe made the judgement he wouldn't be able to do it with a Primark squad. I think it easy to get caught up in the emotion of the Sheffield United match and forget the Burnley and Hull debacles. We survived, just. Make no mistake, Pearson is proving to be a good manager. I just don't think the end result for Saints last season would have been any different with him at the helm. Personally, If I was Lowe I'd have done the same and replaced him. If he didn't, and the patchy (or worse) form continued, then the same people crowing now about how good Pearson is/could have been, would be criticising Lowe for 'employing a boot boy'. Best to live or die by your own decisions, rather than other peoples. IMHO.

Bizarre over reaction to what was a sensible post by Dubai Phil. I assume that your strong belief in complementary tickets would stretch to Rupert Lowe. After all, he had a significant hand in getting the stadium built that the freeloaders are all wanting to sit in.... None of these guys should be short of a quid, and if they have any loyalty to SFC I am sure they'd willingly buy a ticket.

Fair play. But are we long ball?

I think there's a world of difference between 'slap' and 'head stamped on'. Personally I'd not arrest them, I'd parade them round St Marys bollock naked with the Saintettes ridiculing their tiny ****s. No matter how you try and justify it, there's no need to stamp on someone's head.

I expect he'll slice his first drive into the rough only for it to bounce off Neil Shipperly back into play.....

What a bizarre comment! The more moronic posters see players as being ****e if they're not performing Ronaldo-like, week on week. When the team isn't performing, even the most skilled player struggles to make a mark. Wotton does a job, mainly around muscle and motivation. Properly deployed he's effective, not spectacular, but effective. He certainly doesn't deserve the grief he got, just as he hasn't become Ronaldo overnight. Personally I think anyone who uses the 'worst player to pull on a Saints shirt" moniker should be kicked to death in the centre circle as half time entertainment. Extreme, yes, but a player can only play in the role assigned to him and with the players around him.

The reason Hoddle didn't have 100% backing of the board was because some of them were nervous of the 'customer' reaction. I don't think we needed Hoddle to set the world alight. Just be better than Wigley and save us from the drop (neither Spurs nor Wolves were relegated under his tenure). Lowe did insert relegation clauses in contracts (like him or loathe him, he drove a hard bargain on transfers), it was Wilde and his cronies who signed players without them in. Meaning relegation to League 1 / loss of parachute payments were always going to drive us to the abyss.

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=423139&highlight=wotton+worst#post423139 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=422907&highlight=wotton+worst#post422907 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=422890&highlight=wotton+worst#post422890 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15901&highlight=wotton+worst http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=418645&highlight=wotton+worst#post418645 http://www.saintst://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=399380&highlight=wotton+worst#post399380 http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=394225&highlight=wotton+worst#post394225 This would be the Wotton whom the sages on this board declared was not good enough for this league, or, wait for it, my absolute favourite, "the worst player to ever pull on a Southampton shirt". It just goes to show how big the gap between what people think they know and what they actually know is. Wotton ain't Maradonna, but he does a job.

It's no brains for you really. Assuming we filled SMS every game only delivers about £10m a year in ticket revenue (before the costs of stewarding, policing, staff etc.). It's dwarfed by the TV income (hence why Wigan can survive with a half empty stadium). Every little helps, but tickets are but a small part of Murdoch's Premiership.

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/ecfc/Tisdale-proud-players-narrow-Leeds-reverse/article-1237333-detail/article.html

Perhaps you should give Pompey some advice on getting a new stadium if it is that easy. SMS alone didn't cripple Saints. Player wages, lack of relegation wage reduction clauses, declining crowds due to relegation, too many managers, fan uproar over Hoddle.... all more valid reasons than SMS.

There was a problem for the two kids standing in front of me. Had everyone sat down they could have seen that dismal performance. Standing is inevitable, but against the law. I believe safe standing would benefit both the standers, the short arses and the sitters. Until then, by persistently standing, fans inconvenience those behind them, cause stewarding issues/expense and, to some measure, disrespect the 96 lives lost at Hillsborough.

"Who is the most 'glass half empty' poster?" - the results would be interesting, if irrelevant. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. The one thing I do find funny is that amongst those critical of Pardew are also people who roundly criticise Lowe for sackings 40 managers in 40 nights. It begs the question, does the tail wag the dog. We all want results, but results take time. It takes time to build a team. An example. Every fan who saw Saints play Swindon saw the game crying out for a substitution. Pardew did nothing. Why? Does it make him tactically inept, or does it make him a genius? I think Pardew was thinking, 'Better to loss a point here and get to know my team, than bring on Rasiak who I know is leaving next week'. I don't know this, but the guy isn't stupid. And not making subs at Swindon was so obvious, he must have had a reason for not doing so. If not - we are ****ed

I agree with you Alpine (even though you got me infracted for using the word ***t which, as David Cameron / OFCOM have proven is appropriate and inoffensive). At the end of the day every fan is entitled to their opinions. However, I will always base my opinion of those that were there more than those that were not. In my opinion listening is no substitute for watching (either live or tv), worse still are those that comment having followed the match thread / teletext. I think that's what gets peoples goat up.