Professor

For a moment, logging onto the oS I thought the updating on injuries was going to show an improvement. Insrtead it was a disapointment. The OS says that 'Every Week, Mo Gimpel will give us the latest injuries news from the training ground'. But he doesn't. Currently the report says that Frazer Richardson will return from his dislocated shoulder in October andf that Adam Lallana (knee) will be back end of October. There are no other reports. Doesn't Mo know that Lallana played on Saturday for part of the game and is expected to be in the squad for Yeovil? Richardson must be very short of match fitness, so 'October' looks a little optimistic as the month begins this week, but maybe he will be back by the end of the month. If so, why not 'end of October', as per the Lallana report? Then we know that Connolly, Gobe4rn and Wotton have all been laid of recently, but thgere's no mention of any of them in Mo's report. Could do better.

The need for new signings is as great now as it was last week. Of course the win was great, but it was a relief rather than a romp. The reports are that Saints were the better team, but we still managed just the one goal that Barnard managed to get over the keeper, while they could just have easily have scored at our end. If the goals and luck had gone Wednesday's way, we would now be bottom, so we need to keep a grasp on reality at least until we are mid-table or above. If we were winning 3-1 away from home, as we did a few times last year, I'd have more confidence and it is true that when Lallana is back the midfield will be stronger, but the fact remains that this team have lost 4 out of 8 games.

Anyone know if he can speak English? Presumably his native tongue is Portugese but he must be fluent in Italian after playing there for several years. Apart from Cortese, does the club have any Italian speakers? If there is a language issue, it will take longer to get him to play as Adkins wants, even if he has the ability

Not sure about the 0-0 projection. Surely Saints had enough chances for one or two more to have been taken. We've also heard how Kelvin saved us at the end from one or even two clear chances, so any result from a 2-2 draw to a one goal win either way looks like it could have been possible. What is worrying from the Owls fan's assessment is that it highlights the fact that the 1-0 to us could quite easily have been a 1-0 the other way, if Barnard hadn't got that one chance just over the keeper, and if Kelvin had not made the incredible stop at the end. Had it gone that way, we would now be bottom. IMHO Adkins will be well aware of this and will not be complacent just because the result went our way. This win doesn't reduce the need for new players in the squad and to make a real difference we need one or two who will be first choice selections, not just more squad players. But will Cortese agree to fund the loans?

Internet information makes this less interesting than it could be. I've logged in via my phone to pick up scores from some fairly remote spots but all depends on your connection and whether is a land-based network or satilite. Picking up commentaries is a different thing though and depends on access to a good bandwith. If you just think about the radio broadcasts on Solent, I've been suprised at how far across the south, you can pick it up. Already this season, I've been able to listen on 96.1FM on a standard radio or a car radio, in East Sussex, north of Eastbourne and in Dorset, West of Dorchester. That must be something like 160 miles apart and up to 100 miles from Southampton. Quite a coverage for a 'local' station.

Adkins' (and presumably the dressing room) nic for AO-C. Very much worth his place in the side and proving difficult, if not impossible, to rest. Provides the right side attacking threat that is crucial. At just 17 wouldn't expect him to be the finished article and 5 years from now he'll still be a young player on anyone's measure. In time he will be a goal scorer as well as a chance maker. At the moment, its hard to see who could replace him if he was out injured. At 17, his body is still growing and Adkins has said that he recognises a need to protect Alex from playing too much at his age. With the priority for the club being the need to win games, its not surprising that the manager will put out his strongest available 11 every time, if he can, and his concern about over-using 'Chambo' must be a problem for him. Hard to see any solution within the squad as it is at present, but are the club being fair to their brightest prospect since Walcott and Bale?

A goal should be great. It IS great, and I imagine the Wed fans are worried, but OMG I'm even more worried now that we;'ll let them get back in the game. COYS get that second goal!

Morgan !!!!!!!! Great work!!!!!!

If criticism on this message board was likely to make the Leibherrs and/or Cortese decide to sell up, so be it. If people owning or running a football club can't take criticism they shouldn't be in the business. As for why Cortese is doubted by many people, despite all the good he has done, are the things that many people think he has done badly but the dismissal of Pardew is obviously the biggest issue. Joensuu's post above shows why there is doubt. There may well have been justifiable reasons to replace Pardew on performance grounds but having kept him on the timing of his removal made no sense, hence the speculation such as above. The rumours about applications for the WHU or Villa jobs don't make sense as grounds for sacking, after all, S****horpe would not have sacked Adkins if he had decided against coming to Saints after having applied. But the fact is that the Press Release (and it was a press release by the club, not a statement by the press) gave reasons for the removal that did not make sense and so were not believed. That has left Cortese open to accusations of either bad judgement, bad timing or dishonesty. Not all three maybe, but one of them depending on what the truth really was. Fans are perfectly entitled to debate that and one thing that is BRITISH is the principle of Free Speech!

Quite expected to go to the OS on Friday to see "player X has signed on loan and will go straight into the squad for the game at Sheffield". If the result at Hillsborough is the turn-around we badly need, then fine and NA will deserve all the congratulations that will go his way, but if its another dropped 3 points, the messages on here will start to be a bit less understanding.

Good post. The dawn was already fading when there were no signings in June/July to rebuild and strengthen. If anyone doubted that they should have taken more notice of the poor pre-season. We are now a run-of-the mill 3rd division side and if we aren't careful it will be the 4th division next year. Even if there is a turn around - and the MK Dons game gave us the thinnest of straws to grasp, but even if there is a turn around, - automatic promotion is already unrealistic this year and so is the building of a team that could go into the nPC and set it alight. The five-year plan is now looking like getting to the Championship, and although they will all claim higher ambition, so will about 30 or 40 other clubs.

Just in case being 22nd in the table hasn't caused reality to sink in yet, there was another indicator last night (Tues 21st) of how our team rates against the others in this division. Brighton beat Plymouth 2-0 away from home. This is the same Plymouth that came to St Marys on the first day of the season and beat Pardew's team 1-0. Brighton, who have been well below us in the football hierarchy for 20 years or more, are now 20 places above us in an automatic promotion slot! Meanwhile we look up the table to clubs like Rochdale, Tranmere, Yeovil...... At this rate, avoiding relegation will be this season's achievement if something isn't done soon. I don't want to see Saints playing Crawley next season and with our resources it shouldn't even be a wild contemplation but this club has no automatic right to succeed and if the first team isn't good enough it needs changing. Soon.

The assessments of Pulis as useless are interesting, including those stated as FACT, but there is another fact - that Pardew didn't release him at the end of the 2-year contract and Adkins has had him on the bench. I just raised this in case there is something that they know, that the fans who have assessed him as very poor, do not know, but I can't imagine what it can be.

Oh Adrian, I'm sure we all hope that, without the almost even, but hope isn't a certain way of making progress. Reality is that this team, despite all the expectations, high wages, or whatever, is currently not as good as 20 other teams in the 3rd division. That doesn't mean all the players are not up to it, but we have heard it said by Wilkins, and now by Adkins, that new players are needed. Adkins is being careful not to demoralise people who might be replaced, but he has said it as carefully as he can. He's also talked about Saints' highly developed scouting network, so its reasonable to assume that there is a file with names in it. Maybe the block is money, and Cortese's hold on the purse strings, but every game that passes without strengthening makes this years' project more difficult to achieve, and already sights are much lower. Its hard to overreact when your side is in the relegation places.

Days are passing. Who said that no news is good news. Needs a kicking.

The Bookies don't choose the favourites, the punters do by the amount of money bet. They don't even make the book any more as the whole thing is calculated by a software program that responds by adjusting the odds as bets are placed.

Davis Butterfield Fonte Seaborne Dickson Puncheon Morgan Hammond Holmes Barnard Lambert Subs: Bart Harding Jaidi AOC (rested to avoid burnout but 2nd half sub if needed) Do Prado Goble Watton Not considered due to injury: First choice if and when available: Richardson (instead of Butterfield) Lallana (instead of Holmes) Martin (instead of Seaborne) Sub if available: Connolly (instead of Goble)

This is a fair summary of what a few people have said, including those who saw him pre-season at Reading. I've not seen him, so I'm not arguing, but Pardew obviously decided to take up the optional 3rd year on his contract, and Adkins has already decided to put him on the bench. That does seem to suggest that there is an alternative point of view amongst those who are best placed to know. As fans, we often call professional footballers rubbish, including even some highly paid stars, so there does seem to be some scope for differing opinions. Since SFC are paying him and the managers haven't off-loaded him, I hope we will see what he has to offer in a real match.

Has been consistently slagged-off on this forum, but mainly by people who have never seen him play and who are just going with the mob. He was disliked because he was injured when he was signed and by a club management that was unpopular, but that was hardly his fault. His 2-year contract ended in August, so it must be assumed that the third-year option has been taken up despite many predicting it would not be. Now Adkins has had him on the bench when Wotton and Gobern were not, so these things together make you wonder if he has moved up in the pecking order. Has had a very disjointed career, but at 26, Pulis must be as good now as he is ever going to be, so if he is to get a chance in the first team it must be coming soon. Wouldn't be surprised to see him brought on in place of Hammond fairly soon. Need to see him in the first team environment to make a real judgement.

And Dickson.

Really don't think they would be playing him with a groin injury as this slows down recovery and the risk of longer term absence is too great.

Just an opinion, but The Prof thinks: Back Four:- Martin is not as good as Jaidi was last year but he is now better than Jaidi, who has sadly slipped over the hill. Martin will continue to improve, and Seaborne is adequate as cover. Dickson should have the LB slot. Butterfield is adequate cover until Richardson is fit. Conclusion, no new players needed. Midfield:- Lallana will hold the left slot when he is back. Hammond is not performing well enough in a key area and should be replaced by a new creative central MF player. Morgan is best seen as defensive MF but will do better with a more constructive partner. Alex O-C is playing well but should be cover, or impact sub on the right. A fast winger needed for starting line-up (but not Puncheon). Conclusion, two new players needed, one central MF one wide right MF. Alex O-C, Puncheon and Hammond to be MF cover. Strikers. Lack of goals suggests a problem, but existing strike force of RL, LB and DC looks adequate with RG as second cover. RL and LB to be first choice pairing in 4-4-2 formation. Formation - 4-4-2 preferred at home, 4-5-1 for away games at stronger teams. Subs - Always sub when player fitness, form or booking requires it, but otherwise, subject to situation in game, if scores are level, consider first sub at 60/65 mins, not 70, second sub at 70/75mins mins. Do not sub for tactical reasons after 85 minutes unless trying to waste time.

It was an improvement on the past couple of weeks, a clean sheet and chances in the 2nd half. Still not the team that beat Bristol Rovers, but then, that team had aleady failed against Plymouth and Orient, so its hard to make judgements. Lallana will not be the whole answer, so it has to be some quality players on loan, 2 or 3 I would say, and not understudies like Do Prado seems to be, but genuine first choice players to improve the starting 11. Needing these players is not something new, many of us were calling for signings back in June and July, when we were told to be patient, it would all come right in the end. It hasn't come right and it will soon be October. Unless the quality in the team is improved very very soon, promotion this year will be beyond us. And just a word to the optimists, the play-offs is not promotion. The other 4 teams have just as much chance, so all that a top 3 to 6 finish guarantees is a place in the lottery, and even that is looking remote at the moment.

Dear Mr Kingsbridge, inevitable to be disapointed but I don't think you are quite accurate there. Nigel Adkins has been in the post for less than a week, and has clearly inherited a set of problems, ie., a team that has lost all its games since the last manager left and has only had one league win so far this season. Clearly it is too early to draw any conclusion as to how good a manager, Adkins is, but he certainly is not an 'idiot' and neither is the Chairman. Cortese may have taken decisions many of us don't understand or agree with, but that does not make him stupid. Your prediction that the team will never score another goal until there is new management does look rather extreme, and I would not recommend you placing a bet on it with William Hill. Otherwise, I thought your post was excellent.

I'm afraid that is a misleading statistic, bjk. Being 8 points behind a team may not seem an impossible gap, just 3 wins to their 3 defeats, but that's not where we are. We are 6 points or more behing 10 teams and there are another 11 teams with more points than us. They can't all lose an equal number of games and some will win more than they lose. The gap will take a lot of closing, with every new defeat making it more unlikely, even though some wins are achieved along the way. Top two is only statistically possible if you factor in enough defeats for other teams and that those defeats are averaged out over the division. In terms of probability, top two is now unrealistic. Top six is achievable if Saints do win enough games, but only because the play-off probability allows for 6 teams to have enough defeats, instead of only two teams.