Professor

What another load of total crap from people like aintforever and Seatbelt who just take the standard saints depressives attitude of lets blame the chairman. "Poorvleit is foreign and doesn't know the CCC" so shouldn't be appointed manager - but the Prem is packed full of managers who haven't previously managed English clubs, some of whom seem to be doing OK. People who follow football should learn one thing, that the game is complicated and there are no easy answers. Man U are in 15th place in the Prem - does that mean their manager is crap, or their chairman/owner is to blame. Its just as stupid to make such claims about Saints as it would be about any team.

Absolutely true. Staying at The Dell was probably not an option, although Lowe always said that the move to the SMS was only viable if the club retained its Prem status, which it did at the time that it mattered, but we are now playing second tier football in a first tier stadium and until the club is in the top six of the CCC, which will certainly not be this season, the gates will not recover.

Agree with the need for specialist FBs, and that Surman, good player that he is, playing as a midfielder without a LB behind him is not the answer. But there is no transfer window open until January and only emergency loans are possible now, so we have what we have for the next 3 months at least.

The sales quoted were decided by the players concerned, not by the club. In all of those cases the club was reported to be trying to dissuade them from leaving, but no club can keep a player who wants to go. Richards to be with Hoddle at Spurs, Bridge for huge money at Chelsea and Beattie for career reasons. As for transfers in, no club can spend money it does not have, unless it has a multi-millionaire owner, which even today only about 8 or 9 clubs have. The whole basis for Arizona's post is flawed, including the fact that the club 'invested' in a new manager and in 5 new players to try to avoid relegation. We were all disappointed, as are all 3 relegated teams every year, but there's no point trying to re-write history to find a way of saying Saints should have been immune when you find the CCC packed full of other relegated ex-Prem clubs.

Hands up all those calling for a change of manager who have criticised Lowe for having too many managers. If the problem is the system, we can expect JP to sort it. If the problem is the selection, he can sort that as well, and unlike the fans, he sees the players all week in training, so he knows better then us what the capabilities are. But if the problem is weaknesses in the squad the problem is serious.

Blackpool wasn't a bad performance, and it could have gone either way, as could the Ipswich game but we have to do better than this at home. The cup game against Brum suggested we could, but that promise has faded. One thing you do get with JP is honestly in his comments and it does seem he wants to move the balance back a bit towards experience against youth. Wait to see Saturday's selection with interest.

This was a 'must win game', maybe not so much from the points position with only a handful of matches played, but because if we can't win games like this at home, the season looks very bleak. There is no easy answer, if there was JP would be doing it, but we are missing a pair of specialist FBs and fans have been saying that since Day One.

Tottenham are bottom of the Prem with less points than us and without a game in hand, but does anyone seriously expect them to be relegated? We aren't bottom because of losing a game, but because of Plymouth winning. BUT - Ipswich is a 'must win game'. Lose, or even draw at home, and then the doom-mongers may be right.

How about Alpine, 70sMike and anyone who has no problem at suggesting how others should spend their money, setting an example by donating a week's income to the club every time the team wins. Since Alpine expects them to lose every game, it shouldn't frighten him......

Can't see Skacel putting in much effort as he doesn't want to be here, but expect JP to give him a go, especially as there are so m many games coming up that he needs to use the squad.

Agreed. If Perry was fit, he should have played. He did well against Blackpool to compensate for Killer's weak game and to change both CBs was a change too far if not enforced

And if Oz was elected to the chair, no doubt everything would suddenly be fantastic, and we'd only need 10 men to beat sides away from home, we could start paying players £20K a week and have world class players lining up to join the club. Too easy to carp at a result where luck played as much part as skill, probably more so, and not to have any opinion about what could possibly be done differently.

How sad it must be to follow a team and to adopt a constantly negative attitude unless it is topping the table. The table only matters on the last day of the season, and we all know where the team was at KO on the last day last year - and that it was other team's results that kept us up, so there's plenty of scope to improve on that. We now have a squad with promise that is not being outplayed and was not outplayed on Sunday. Poor refereeing decisions and off-side goals happen, but over the season they will even out. The club is fighting hard and it deserves more supportive fans than people whose comments are virtually always negative, but fortunately, those at the QPR game kept up their support right to the final whistle.

So Alpine has been sussed yet again, not even bothering to distort the truth to justify his negative position on just about everything Saints-related, but according to Nickh, now just making it up! But turning back to this thread, the 'sussing of our great ex-manager, (Thanks be to the SFA!) - the relief he showed at the one-goal win over a third-rate footballing nation told its own story of desparation. Truth is Scotland shouldn't be third-rate football nation themselves, but they have looked like that for too long and that one-nil win could yet be the highlight of Burley's career!

One person's 'charge to the playoffs' is another person's 'fluking sixth place', but either way, Saga doesn't mention what happened next. Maybe Saga has always had respect for his Teachers.......................................................................................and Bells, and Dewars,and Famous Grouse......

Shepherd cannot 'buy' Southampton, because the club is not a private company, it is a plc regulated by the stock exchange, and owned by the shareholders of SLH. When shares are traded the fact is published, and some are traded from time to time, usually in smallish values, but buying shares in a plc does not gurantee gaining control, anyway.

Davis; James-Perry-Cork-Surman; Schneiderlin-Wootton-Gillet-Holmes Lallana-DMG Subs: Bart-Lancashire-Skacel-Pekhart-John Saints to win 2-0

Eight new signings through the close season up to the Transfer Close, plus Svensson's comeback. Three or four players being brought into the first team from the reserves. Reached the 3rd round of the Carling Cup. Surely all of this ought to be enough to keep the chat going! But three 1-goal defeats in the league have left us all feeling down. Two or three games without defeat would make the chat look up again.

But it wasn't a waste of time at all, was it. The questions Wilde did answer were about some of the challenging and controvesial issues that people on here, and in other forums, have been discussing. It gave us a good insight into what the board are doing. Sceptics may choose not to believe them, but some people will do that whatever the board says. Surely Wade is not suggesting that if Wilde does a Q & A session, he should accept every question, including some of the out and out aggressively unpleasant and insulting ones that a few people here suggested. Realists need to be consistent as well.

So a one-goal defeat against Blackpoool, to a penalty, and suddenly the 2-goal win against Birmingham doesn't count. The three league defeats have all been by one goal, which does not indicate the team is being outplayed. Fact is the Blackpool game could have gone either way. Lucky we have a head coach to pick the team, because if it was done by a committee of fans who want to change after every game, stability would be the very last thing we would have. Coaches don't just use performance in matches to assess the team, important as that is, they also use performance in training. The starting line up this week will reflect both, which might or might not show a change or two, but don't expect JP to throw out the babies with the bathwater. Personally, based on Blackpool, I'd drop Killer, but maybe he'll do better in training this week.

Most of us would like to see Saint's shares bought in large numbers by someone intending to spend money on the team - not 'invest' in shares but SPEND on the team. Although, spending could not happen now until January, anyway. These share movements are NOT large numbers. As already pointed out, what matters is the trading price of about 28P a share, not the face value. So, only about £30,000 of shares transactions, and this may not even be £30K of shares if it is a smaller block being bought and then sold. Nothing to get excited about.

Glad to provide amusement! Any time. But Offix has misread what I said. I did say that the club depends on the fans as customers, but I was also pointing out that fans do not get to vote on who holds positions on the board. You can certainly take that further and say that if the decisions of the board reduce the number of customers and income falls, eventually the shareholders might act against the board, but it is the shareholders who have the power, not the fans. It is also true that some fans believe that they can use the economic power of the customer, through actions such as a boycott, to force a change of management, but for that to be true fans have to risk even more damage to the club they support, and no guarantee that things will ever be better.

I agree with this, which I don't believe is inconsistent with what I said.

Yes, I think he did evade some questions, but I think that is better than giving dishonest answers and is why I think you can treat the answers to the questions he dealt with as being factual.

Its interesting that Michael Wilde goes public with very straightforward responses to a set of direct questions, but for some people the debate has to move towards whether he is being honest in his answers. SFC is not some Eastern European state during the cold war, where information has to be manipulated to keep the leaders in power. Wilde and Lowe do not depend on the support of the fans to run the club. Supportive fans are a factor in the financial viability of the team, but that is as far as it goes. The board has no need to lie to the public, yet some people dismiss almost everything they have said. For his interview, MW had advance notice of the questions so if anything he felt should not be answered he was able to exclude, which should add to the confidence that what he did say was honest. The intereswt a few people continue to show towards our briefly-in-post-ex-manager, has been demonstrated on a number of other threads, and is now entirely irrelevant to SFC, but it is a fact that statements were made by the club at the time. Why not just move on.