Professor

Personally I have nothing but utter contempt for the sun rag, but its one of life's lessons that if you take a decision such as Cortese has done, you need to think through the possible retaliations of the people affected in case you might finish up worse off. Cortese is still a young man and clearly of high intellect, but maybe this is a situation that doesn't crop up in the world of Swiss banking and where more experience of the British media may have helped.

Why should service people get free tickets over anyone else? We all (most of us) work for a living and the services is a job choice like any other. If its about people doing a dangerous job, how about free tickets for trawlermen, merchant seamen, commercial and lorry drivers, miners, oil and gas riggers, construction workers..... All jobs in which people get killed. If its about troops being killed in Afganistan - they shouldn't be there in the first place. Its not the fault of the soldiers that they are there, but these sort of schemes encourage the public to be patriotic about fighting wars that the UK should not be a part of. Anything that encourages the politicians to put our young people in danger without a good reason need to be thought about very carefully.

Is it legal under the laws of the game? Isn't a player only allowed one touch of the ball?

Agree, having seen both make some nice touches and layoffs against Plymouth but they just don't seem to work as a pairing. We do have Ryan Doble, who came on for Connolly in the Reading game. Although it doesn't seem clear whether his best position is MF or striker, he does appear to be genuine prospect and at 19 could be ready for his chance as Rickie's understudy.

If the £7m is true it shows what ludicrous inflation there is in transfer fees once a player has played for a team in the Prem, or Euro equivalent. Jones is worth a fraction of that and personally I wouldn't do a straight swop for him with Lambert, but clubs are mesmerised by the so-called 'top level' tag.

Hard to understand the negativity about Dan Seaborne. Did the CB pairing let any goals in last night? Some people have been on his back since he came here - any poster saying he didn't rate Seaborne from Day 1 obviously didn't watch him play before he decided his attitude. I didn't see him last night, but I have seen him playing very assured and with excellent positional play.

Pardew is quite right to want to get the fans behind the team and its true that home advantage is mostly due to players raising their game in response to the crowd. I'm just not sure that criticising the fans is the best way to do this. He was being critical by talking about the negativity from the crowd without acknowledging the reasons for it. It was good that he went to the crowd at the end, but then he messed that up a bit by some mof what he said in his interview. As for the thing about teams raising their game when they come here - is that what caused Liverpool to put up their slogan 'This is Anfield'? Was it to encourage teams to raise their game? Hardly. It would be nice to see less excuses and more confidence in Pardew's interviews. He leaves you feeling he's getting ready to explain away the next defeat instead of getting ready to take the credit for the next win. Maybe he could look at some Jose Mourinho interviews.

Alex O-C on a run into the area and scores 2 - 0

But your not having both because you're NOT saying stick with him regardless, you are saying replace him if results go badly. Its only a question of how many bad results there have to be. He'd almost certainly be gone if there were even 10 defeats in a row, let alone your 20, but what is more interesting is how few defeats, (or failures to win) do there have to be before even Pardew loyalists start calling for him to go. Something less than 10 I would think, which could mean that you're not so far away from Alpine as your debates with him might suggest. What makes AP a bit more vulnerable is that he hasn't delivered as much on team building in the close season as many fans were expecting, so there is a lot riding on results. On the other hand, as I've said before, a win tonight and another win on Saturday and the picture will look very different, but it will also look different if there are two more defeats. I am expecting a win tonight, even though Pardew has talked the tie down somewhat, and I'm sorry that I can't get there to see it. COYS.

So which is it? Stick with Pardew regardless, or support calls for him to go if there are a string of bad results? can't have it both ways. No one would seriously expect the manager to be sacked for one defeat, but it has naturally raises the question of 'what if there are more defeats?' as well as putting more focus on the failure to sign the striker support / central MF / wide MF that many fans have been expecting all close season. Beat Bournemouth and win against MK Dons on Saturday and things will look very different, but lose both games, and then what? The higher the expectations, the greater the pressure, and expectations could hardly be any higher.

What no one know is whether the failure to do more to strengthen the team over the close season is due to lack of funds from ML, decisions by Cortese on how to use the budget, or Pardew not having recommended signings. We can rule out a firm decision not to strengthen, as Pardew has stated publicly that he wants at least two players but its difficult to see where the responsibility lays. The worrying thing is that this should have been resolved about two months ago, and that even if signings are made soon, any benefit from them will be later than it should have been, and may even be disruptive in the short term.

As it happens, I did play in the old Hampshire League before it became the Wessex League and I have managed at local league level in Sussex, but you don't need to have coaching qualifications to have an opinion. My point is that some of the decisions yesterday were questionable at the least but you may know better and certainly your opinion is entirely valid, whatever it is.

Under the Itchen, there were just 3 queing positions for food and if you joined the queue just before the half-time whistle, you got served just after the re-start. There was no obvious reason whey there couldn't have been 4, 5 or 6 people serving instead of 3. The extra sales would have more than paid for the extra wages.

Pardew is certainly a better football manager than any of us who post on here. Some of us would have brought on Lallana at half-time thinking that if he was fit enough to play 30 minutes he could probably do 45, but Pardew knew better. Some of us would have brought on the second sub earlier than the 90th minute so that fresh legs might make a difference, but Pardew knew better. Some of us would have used Oxlade-Chamberlaine as the second sub because he'd played more games in pre-season than Holmes, but Pardew knew better. Some of us might have substituted Connolly, not because he wasn't playing well, but because he was too similar to Barnard, and of the two Barnard's flicks off seemed to be having slightly more effect if there was someone to pick them up, but Pardew knew that keeping them both on was better. Some of us would have thought that of the available subs, Lallana could have been brought on as a striker alongside Barnard, with Alex O-C coming on at left MF, but Pardew knew better. Those ideas are obviously plain daft, which is why Pardew is Manager and fans are just fans.

The point of this thread is not what bets have been placed at bookies, but is about the failure to strengthen the squad in areas that fans, and the manager, have identified. There is view that the timing of that strengthening was crucial to get off to a good start. That hasn't happened, so that even if players are brought in over the next few weeks there is now an element of bolted horses and stable doors about it. We all hope the team will do well during the autumn, but more investment at the right time could have replaced hope with confidence.

There are committed fans for at least another dozen clubs who would say just the same about their team. Its blind faith and complacency but people are entitled to it if it makes them happy. What is wrong is to criticise others who don't share that complacency and believe that more needs to be done to ensure we really do have the best side in this league and one that can make the step up to the next level. Leeds and Norwich have already found there is a difference at the next level, and it looks as if we might have learnt the same lesson today against one of last year's bottom 3 in the Championship. With only two sides guaranteed promotion, the 3 points already dropped coul;d make the difference next April. Anyone who thinks that it just needs Lambert back is implying that we are a one-man team, but we need more than just Rickie. Midfield is weak and it shows, and the cover for Rickie is inadequate as Connolly and Barnard are too similar to play together. If we compare this year's squad with last year's, which a lot of the argument has been about, don't lets forget that last year's team, even after the January signings, lost to Tranmere, Lost to Gillingham, drew at Wycombe...........

In case you've misunderstood me, I don't think Carter was a definite target for Pardew and that he would have had to look significantly better than Hammond for Pardew to be really interested. Otherwise, all he could have had here would have been a squad place, which on his money expectations was probably never a goer and I suspect that is what came out in the post trial chat. As for why a player would prefer a 2 or 3 year contact with a L1 side instead of a loan to an nPC club, its quite simple - Money! If Saints had wanted Carter badly enough they would have let him know that there would be enough money on offer that he would be unlikely to refuse. But there wasn't.

Dickson was average as wide MF but to be fair its not his position. When Lallana came on and Dickson replaced Harding at FB, he was definitely an improvement on Harding and his attacking FB play was far better than his MF role. Disapointed that the MF didn't play more on the ground, and that the defence gifted so many high balls to the Plymouth defence, that just sent them back.

When you don't win a match failing to score can be one of the factors. Pardew seemed to focus more on Plymouth getting a goal than us not getting one. As for why we didn't, there were some moments when we got into their area, but they had it very well packed. I thought the build up from midfield was our weakness as we didn't seem to stretch their defence, but maybe others saw it differently. To be fair to Pardew and his interview, he probably doesn't say on air what he truly believes, or what he says to the team.

A good performance, despite players missing due to injury or fitness; A good workout against a side that were in the Championship last year; We took our chances up front well, but were just unlucky that shots hit defenders legs or boots; Our defence played well and restricted them to just the one goal; We don't have the pressure of being favourites now; Norwich lost their first game last season but still came top; Southampton are traditionally slow starters so this result is quite normal for us; Every team loses a few games, so we've got one of our defeats out of the way early. If any more are needed Mr P will provide them in his post-match assessment.

Because its not a case of comparing them, but contrasting the need for central MF against wide MF. Pardew might have gone for competition/cover for Hammond and Morgan if the player offered a real prospect of strengthing the side. It looks like Carter didn't reach that level and since Pardew had already said wide MF was a priority a bid for two wide players is now more likely.

Logically this is a very probable development. Having looked at Carter in case he was a better option and not having gone on to make an offer, it makes sense to go in for Antonio. He's said to have had a good pre-season, Reading have other wingers as first choices, and he could slip back into the Saints team with players he already knows. For Antono, a 2 or 3 year contract here must be more attractive than his 12 months extention to stay on the fringe at Reading. If the bid is £500k that suggests NC will wave the chequebook if Pardew convinces him the player is right.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/8309835.Saints_chasing_England_Under_19_star/ Rumour from the Echo site of Wed.

Millwall have taken Carter on 93 days loan. If Pardew had wanted him 3 months at Millwall would not have been in the frame. This isn't a case of missing out on a player, the disapointment is that Pardew, or his scouting staff, haven't yet found players worth making a bid for in all the positions that need covering.

Sorry my friend, not angry at all, but just worth correcting mistaken statements. The assumption you made was that Carter went back 'because he didn't want us'. That is not what The Echo report said, or what Pardew was reported as saying. You have no idea what offer was made, so whether his decision was on the role he would have here or the wages, it remains the case that if the club had wanted him badly enough they could have offered him length of contract, guarantees on selection or more money. The assumption I make is that he was offered less than that because Pardew did not rate him highly enough. Carter is not wanted at PNE where the fans don't rate him either and he has now had to accept a short term loan elsewhere to maintain his existing wages. The article in no way contradicts this conclusion unless you want to read into it words that are just not there.