Alain Perrin

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.

F*** me you've got good eyesight! You make a valid point though. Man for man we probably are better, but as a team we have yet to deliver. Despite the disappointment, I think there are positives from tonight's performance.

Sorry! I was just referring to the first part of the sentence.....

I thought Alpine_Saint didn't get to many games?

Why do our fans insist on jumping to conclusions before the full facts are known?

Oh please. fdajh lhskjhk sjfkhsfaakl ahsjhsk fieieoua fhah. .... Sorry you couldn't understand the last bit, wait a moment whilst I wipe the vomit from my keyboard.... You've no way of knowing what motivates ML to appear in the photo, nor RL for that matter. I'd suggest that any leader / owner should appear in the team photo, because it promotes togetherness. No doubt if RL hadn't appeared in the photo, he'd have been criticised for being aloof (hence my 'any stick to beat him with' comment above). Don't get me wrong, I think (and have always contested) that RL did a lot that was bad for the club. I find the double standards that some are applying at best amusing, at worst vomit inducing. Anyways, well done Markus - good to see you bonding with the players. Now all we need is some clay pigeon shooting and the vision will be complete....!

I sit in the XXXXXXX stand and there's no way I'd move. I won't set foot in St Mary's again if that happens. Regards Tom in Moscow

Big difference is 'any stick to beat him with'. There were plenty of things to criticise Lowe for but, in my opinion, the rabid mob didn't help their cause by picking on trivialities (I'd include boardroom carpets, jogging with the squad, pictures of trains and a million more in that assessment).

In Lambert we have the thing we didn't have when Jan Portvliet was in charge, a natural goal scorer. If we could create as many chances as we did then, he'd be scoring for fun. My solution would be: 1) Pass the ball from the back, not all the time, but more often than the hoof downfield. 2) Mills and ANO to take the corners, not Lallana. His corners are either floated (see point 4) or don't clear the first man. 3) Play with wingers - and tell them to hug the line, get to the byline and cross it. 4) Drill the crosses, none of this floating **** we seem addicted to. 5) Mix it up. Sometimes through the middle, sometimes down the wing, sometimes hoof it. We have the ingredients, they just need to be mixed in the right way.

Genius....

In fairness that didn't stop a raft of posts on here regarding Lowe's personality flaws. It seems you might be exercising double standards. Personally I don't like him because of his funny accent.....

RL and ML played hockey together.... FACT!

Personally I think bringing Waigo on for anything more than a cameo would have been risky. Imagine if he'd messed up an conceeded a goal. Blod him for 2 minutes and let him tear it up next week. The future's bright, the future's red and white.

With Papa on the pitch...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS6T8FqJ0WM

I'm not sure you'd say the same thing if you'd bought time of the first throw in on this, or other occasions that this might have happened. Loyalty to Matt Le Tis aside, what he did was wrong, cheating and illegal. That's not anal, it's a fact. Is it as bad as murder (or worth all the threads on here)? No - but it doesn't make it any more right. I don't agree that MLT should get a 'pass' because he was loyal to Southampton (I'd argue that the loyalty was more driven by laziness / contentedness then genuine, bleed for your cause loyalty, but that's a separate issue), equally I doubt very much anything will come of it other than a few more book sales.

Ahhhh an anti-Lowe thread. How I've missed them. I find it funny that the vast majority of posters on here seem to have a problem with balance. Lowe was divisive and that caused damage to Saints, equally he did some good things for the club too. Had his time come? Yes. Were his intentions honourable? I think, yes. Was what was good for Saints FC, good for Rupert Lowe - also yes. But it's history. The future is brighter than recent history, in part because we have a stadium and a training ground to be proud of. Rupert Lowe, in part, made that happen and, for that reason, I think he shouldn't be hated. I think petty vandalism sums up the whole affair, from the train to the carpets, some of the issues that generated tens of thousands of posts on here, were just petty.

The reason Saints always kick off towards the Northam is that, in the first half, when a sunny 3pm kick off, it is harder to see the ball when playing to the Chapel. The sun, setting in the West, shines over the Chapel into the Northam end goal. That's why you'll see defenders and goalies shielding their eyes and, if it is sunny and the opposition win the toss, they'll often switch. The sun is lower, usually below the stands by the second half. It is therefore not going to get in Kelvin's or the defense's eyes. Like Tesco's - every little helps.

We will win at Charlton next week. Why? Because we are Saints and that is what we do, the unexpected.