Professor

The 'frustrating' comment is both good and bad. It might suggest that deals fell though for players we wanted, or targets refused to sign but it also suggests that we are still looking to recruit. Overall that feels positive although as always it depends on how the players bought in perform.

In that case Charlie, why did Adkins have him on the bench and bring him on against Man City for the first Prem match of the 2012/13 season on Aug 2012? He was on the bench again the following week against Wigan but didn't come on until 76th min when Saints were already 1-0 down. His last game was against Stevenage in the League Cup when he scored one of Saints' 4 goals and was then subbed 5 mins from the end to give Sam Hoskins a run out. And that was it. On 1 Sept he was sent on loan to Notts Forest. How anyone could assess his Prem ability on that is a mystery.

Quote Originally Posted by Saint_Tony: It is very harsh indeed, if I recall correctly he came of the bench in the opener against City? Should have at least been given a chance but that's the way football is these days, the club is evolving at rapid pace, even Jonno quick can't keep up Tony is correct sfc4Prem. He didn't say Billy 'got the opener' but that in the opening match against Man C, that Billy came on from the bench - which he did, 5 mins from the end. Why Adkins then made no more use of him after he'd scored 9 goals in the promotion run remains a mystery.

Enjoyable read, and although Saints' fans will have known most of the information, the article is aimed at a wider audience. Even for Saints' fans it may have been the first indication that Forren was sold for £3m.

They might be, I wouldn't know except that if there are clubs like them then by definition they are not unique. I am saying there is no club like Southampton.

There's no such thing as a 'club like Southampton' because this club is unique, whereas there are clubs like Swansea, Fulham, Norwich and so on.

Disagree with this completely. What makes you think Pompy will survive in L2?

How long is it now since a player was sold by SFC that the club would have preferred to keep? Was Chamberlain, in August 2011, the last one? In retrospect his decision to go to Arsenal, just as Saints were about to storm the Championship and get the second consecutive promotion looks quite wrong-headed compared to Shaw's decision to commit to the club that brought him through. Had Chamberlain stayed at Saints, there is no reason to think that he would not have been selected for England in 2012 and he would be more high profile in the Saints team than he is at Arsenal. Shaw comes to work by the Southampton Waterside in one of the nicest parts of the country, whereas Chamberlain has the questionable joys of north London.

As I recall, Forren was 'stolen' from under the noses of Liverpool who were going to give him a week's trial, but with Adkins already on the way out, it had to be a Reed/Cortese decision, although I thought something was said about MP being asked if he approved the signing. Altogether a sad episode and I still can't understand why MP didn't give him a run out for all or part of the last game of the season.

OK, so most people on here don't like the new season shirt but can we at least agree on one thing - it would look good as a costume for the groom at an Indian Bollywood wedding? Maybe next year we'll be able to pair it up with a shirt that would suit the Bride.

What I can't understand is why the club pays good money in wages to coaches and scouts when we have far better assessors of football talent sitting in the stadium or following the club on their computers, who could do the job for nothing. And to think that some of these people employed by the club to check on players hold coaching badges and spend hours watching live games, whereas people with no badges at all can do a better job watching video clips on You Tube.

Saints are not unique in having to work hard to make signings for the Premier League. The likes of Man City and Chelsea have also missed out on players they were linked with. Hard to be patient when as fans we don't know the daily events going on but eventually judgement can only be made when the window closes. When a signing is made, assuming it is a player of international standard, we may feel a bit better.

I know the Scottish FA have mainly Sunday league sides from which to find players to represent Scotland which is why the Scotland side usually contains a few players who have qualified because their Great Grandmother once went there for a dirty weekend, but Fox has played for Scotland and you don't get selected at International level by being total rubbish. I don't know what SFC paid for Fox in 2011 but a couple of years earlier he was valued at £1.5m at Celtic. All this rubbishing of Danny Fox seems to have more to do with the poor attitude of some football fans that says 'lets pick on someone and say he's useless' without stopping to think that the professional coaches who evaluate players probably have a more reliable opinion.

There's a report that the Cardiff bid is £11m, although that's just as likely to be an old story as it is to be untrue but much as I want to see SFC make some signings, I'm still not a fan of Wanyama and feel we could do better if Cortese is really working at it. Last season we had already dropped points by the time we made the final signings and we'd dropped even more before the new players were settled in. Let's not have more of the same this year because as the days pass the potential targets get their future settled elsewhere.

Should SFC employ Mystic Meg? She might be dead for all I know, although if so, I wonder if she saw it coming? But definitely as relevant as picking on any other random name and suggesting the person CDAJFU. Only went onto this thread because didn't know who or what TP was but at least I've been able to post a negative comment which always provides some satisfaction for a football fan.

Not a good idea to 'Love' the new kit, because (1) 'new' it is not, it is a copy of shirts worn by other teams, and (2) its not even the club's new kit, its just a shirt to be worn for this season. Those who have donated their £50 - foolishly in my opinion - will be asked for another £50 next year for next year's 'new kit'. Better be careful about supporting the badge as well, as there's a striped scarf on the badge, so how long before that goes.

Not buying the shirt, home or away, but it won't harm the club as I've never bought a replica shirt in my life and regard the whole scam by football clubs as a rip-off that sadly, too many fans fall for. I do wear a Saints' scarf but only when the weather dictates that a scarf is needed anyway for an afternoon out.

I realise that if the Club had produced a shirt with the picture of a Dog Turd on the front NickG would have loved it as he's somewhat blind to any failings at SFC, but the fact that this been shown to be an Adidas 'off-the-peg' kit and not a design especially for Southampton rather undermines the suggestion that there were any design options at all.

I used to complain that premier League football was becoming an international competition between foreign-owned football team playing in the names of, and in the colours of, what use to be English Football Clubs. You can strike out the colours now, for us only the name remains. After more than half a century supporting the Saints I'm worried that my allegiance will start to erode if connections to the City and connections to the past disappear. It is a worry that we seem to be on that road. If the fans had been asked for an opinion on the shirts there is no doubt what the answer would have been, which of course the management well knew, with the result that fans were not asked and instead they try to brainwash fans into buying this outfit by saying what a wonderful shirt this is. So is Arsenal's, but I don't support Arsenal. BTW glad to see the new shirt is 3D. I remember the old days of 2D shirts and they were very difficult to put on.

sale of replica shirts has become a common rip-off across football but fans must blame themselves for falling for it. The cynical marketing ploy is that each year's shirt has to be noticeably different or fans will carry on using an old shirt. So that's what fans should do. If you want stripes wear stripes, regardless of what shirt is being used on the pitch.

Living in Sussex, 20 miles from Brighton but a decent drive along the A27/M27 doesn't take long to get to home games. Used to live in New Milton and work in Lymington which meant home friends tended to support Boscombe and work colleagues supported Saints. Fortunately, I'd already become a Saints' fan while I was still at school and always felt at home in Southampton, whereas Bournemouth is more like a foreign country. I was at The Dell for the first home game in a European competition, The Inter City Fairs Cup. Miserable wet night and we lost to a side from a remote part of Europe, known as Newcastle.

I don't think this is quite what people are saying. Of course no club can recruit players who are fans of the club and every player wants to earn what he thinks he's worth. The point is motivation, as that can provide the extra effort on the pitch that can make the difference in performance. Other players sign saying they can see the club's ambition and want to contribute to it, obviously after they have agreed the right wages, but in Wanyama's case we haven't heard anything about wanting to play in the Premier League for football reasons. Instead, all we've heard about is money.

Footballers are not the exception, we all work for money, but people perform better if they enjoy their work and share in the objectives of their employer. If money is the only driver, the employer is better off without the employee. We only have the press reports to go on, but there is nothing in those that would make me choose to take on this young man who appears to be advised by people who have more interest in enriching themselves and less in furthering his career. Can see him failing wherever he goes.

Absolutely. Even if the excessive demands are bluff and Cortese calls it, this player and his cronies are all about money and less about football. NWOB.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/10503278.Wanyama_reveals_Saints_offer_was__not_right_/?ref=eb The player can say the terms 'were not right' but the club can equally say they were prepared to meet his unreasonable demands. At no point has Wanyama appeared to be a player who wants to come here which must mean we are better off without him. He's had an incentive at Celtic to try to be noticed in order to get a deal from a TV rich club but once he's got that and has the money coming in there is no guarantee he will perform. Lets hope we can draw a blue line under this and look for a player who has the ambition to take Saints forward.