Professor

Four players out of the Academy, not just into the first team squad, but judged by Adkins and his coaching team to be capable of playing in the Premier League. How much time any of them get on the pitch will be down to performance when opportunities are offered but they all have one advantage of youth which is speed and fitness. If two of them, or even just one, get extended runs in the team this season, that will still be a tremendous outcome for the Academy because we aren't talking about L1 football any more. Fingers crossed for them all, and for the fans.

Came to Saints when it looked like his career might be over at the age of 32, after having played very little football for two seasons before being released by Sunderland. It was hugely to his credit that not only regained fitness, but as he said himself, he became one of the fittest players in the Saints' squad! As a result he brought genuine quality to the Saints' team and extended his career by three seasons, scoring some crucial goals. The winning goal away to BHA at Withdean in 2010/11 season was a memorable moment when he came to the fans with his trade-mark, arms wide, celebration! Football is a cruel game, leaving talented players facing a career change at a young age, although in Connolly's case, he's done well to stay in a Championship side until almost his 35th birthday. Thank you, David, for your part in three fantastic years for Southampton FC. Very best wishes for the future

Its a fair comment that Saints don't want to create a poor team by picking up average players whose Premier League experience amounts to a season or two with a relegated club; but that's not the picture with Matt Jarvis who has a pedigree going back to Wolves promotion in 2008/09 and has had an England call-up. If Jarvis can play on the right wing he could be the replacement for AOC that no one else in the squad has managed to be. Even if we don't get Jarvis, it would be encouraging to know that Adkins is looking to sign a quality right winger.

You've had that wig too long, mate.

It has been said that you never win anything with kids but many players who go on to have international careers are already worth a Premier League first team place at 18 or even younger. We have the obvious cases in point of Walcott, Bale and Chamberlain. The limit on subs in the Championship has restricted the opportunities to try out the current young players in any meaningful way and in the Prem its may be unlikely that Adkins will risk more than one young player at a time in a starting role. As I recall, I don't think Walcott and Bale played together very much in the first team, if at all. But if its true that we do have 3 or 4 players coming on with Premier League potential, how can the club go about giving them a try, because if players are brought in at a fee for the relevant positions the opportunities will become even more limited. Not sure how this is going to work, or what risks are involved.

The page on this link came up but the box under Rules and Regulations stayed blank. So I agree, it does seem that there are none.

Glad to see this opinion of Reo Coker as that is my impression as well.

Mr Klasnic is 32 and probably on a downward trajectory. We also seem quite well covered with strikers and what we need are players that are better than what we have in positions where we are weakest. RMF, Attacking MF and CB likely to feature before strikers. If looking at Bolton, Reo-Coker possibly, but although NCR has activated his release clause, presumably there would still be a fee and then there's wages to consider within whatever the new age structure will be. Can't see Cortese being rushed just because a player is suddenly available.

Hard to see the basis for this other than blind loyalty. If its results on the field, Pardew's team has got 67 pts from 37 games. Nige got 72 points from 37 games but Pardew's team did that in a more difficult league. I can only think that it must be Nigel's media interview style that puts him ahead of Pardew.

4th from bottom would mean a dreadful season with relegation fears for most of the time. That is not the plan.

A word in support of Lee Barnard staying. Has a good goal scoring record and a touch of Premier League experience with Spurs. Career interrupted by injuries but that seems to be in the past. He may have learnt a lesson about off-field activities and could be coming to his peak over the next few seasons. Reasonable to see him as one of 4 strikers with Rickie, Billy and Chung and that if he takes his chances he could compete for a starting place.

If the administrators of the game, here and in Europe stick with their fair play plans, it will become less easy for owners to buy the title as per Chelski and El Mancity so its hard to predict where the game will be in 5 years. Living within a club's means is not just about containing costs, it also means increasing income and Saints are miles away from national merchandise sales a la Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool etc. We are also behind a lot of Prem clubs on ground capacity, so it will be interesting to see what happens on the infrastructure front as well as on the field, although the team performance is obviously crucial. It must be the case that the 5 or 6 clubs with a national profile have an advantage that will be very hard to catch up to, but some of those can slip away as we have seen a few of them do occasionally in the past

There may be some merit in it, but nice ring it does not have.

The club did the right thing to give Dave Jones leave to concentrate on fighting his case. Jones may have thought he was at risk of being sacked because of the poor results under him but he wasn't sacked. With the unsubstantiated allegations against him it was bound to affect his concentration on the job and since the club was at risk of relegation it needed Jones' full attention. Hoddle was brought in as temporary cover but it was Jones and, I think Mrs Jones, who made unfounded claims that the club were acting unfairly, that ultimately made his formal departure inevitable. Since then, he's never really done enough to make you feel we lost a great manager, and maybe he will now be back at his right level in next year's championship.

If I remember rightly, the stadium was to be named the Friend's Provident Stadium, to which 'St Mary's' got added due to fan pressure so that officially it was the FPSMS but it simply became called the SMS from day one and in due course, FP left the scene anyway. It seems an obvious problem in adopting company names that as sponsors go, so new names have to come. I can't keep up these days with what the Grand National is called, and the Premier League is just that to most people without the name of the world's worst bank being added. I hope they don't sell the name as it cheapens the club. I wonder if the owners of the stadium names at Man City and Arsenal realise that those names do nothing to add to the pride of supporters in the way that Anfield does for Liverpool and I suspect most Newcastle fans are still going to St James' Park as far as they are concerned.

Could be worse. Could be like Celtic and Rangers. Having to play Portsmouth that often would be unbearable!

Too many signings could break the spirit of the team so Adkins' comment about evolution could mean few new, maybe 3, while bringing in a couple of academy players.

There's almost a sense of guilt voting for one player when there were great performancs all through the team but I've given my vote to Billy Sharp. He was a constant threat, keeping the Coventry midfield and defence busy. The slight flick he gave to Lallana's shot, which turned a shot that would have been bloicked, into a goal, was striker's instinct and I'm not sure he's been given full credit for how good that was, even though he's been credited with the goal. His strike that led to Jos Hooiveld's goal was another example of how dangerous he is in the box and through the game you could see the great understanding between him and Rickie. As a pair of strikers I can see them doing well in The Prem - and we still have Chung to add to the mix! But let's just make sure that Rickie takes the penalties.

Really unpredictable until we see the additions to the squad. I could see 6 or 7 of our present first 11 playing in a top half team, but my feeling is they will need 3 or 4 quality players with Prem or international experience to move things up a little.

For a man in such a tough job managing a group of strong personalities in a professional football club, someone very much in the public eye, Adkins is a strange character when it comes to media interviews. We all know he basically says the same things every time and rarely talks on a truly personal basis. What he said about his management career at SFC not lasting forever was akin to saying that the only certainty in life is death but it was a peculiar thing to bring up at such a time. Could it have been that in an unguarded moment he let his defences slip and we saw some of the uncertainty that is in his mind. Maybe he does worry about his future despite the fantastic result of the last two years and perhaps Cortese is a hard man to work for but the idea that there is any threat hanging over him is just unthinkable. Advice to Nigel - and I know its almost insulting to offer him any - would be to get some close season PR advice on how to handle the media and how to simply talk in an interview without falling back on a few over-used phrases. Let the guard down Nigel and enjoy the job!

Make fun of it if you like, but whoever did it was simply STUPID.

What a day... It has to sink in now that this is one of those days that will forever be part of the history of the club, except it is more than just a historic day because consecutive promotions are very rare. That Norwich did it in the previous two seasons does nothing to diminish what an amazing achievement this has been and that as today’s fans we have been privileged to see it.

Come out of Central Station and find the Number 10 bus service. It's 7/8 minute bus ride to Ocean Village where a popular pre-match pub is the Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis (Wetherspoons) (In Canute Road by the traffic lights - find on Google Maps). From there its about a 10 minute walk to St Mary's - no problem to find as there will be loads of other fans going the same way.

My team prediction is not what I'd like to see but what I think Nigel will play. I think he will go cautious, with 2 defenders and one MF as subs. I don't think he'll risk going without a GK on the bench and that although he will expect to win my guess is he'll be happy with a 2 goal lead and be desperate not to lose. I agree that if Connolly is still injured it will be Barnard on the bench. I suppose he could, go for SDR on the bench instead of Connolly/Barnard and move Guly up front if he needs to replace a striker, but I am expecting him to go for a negative bench as he'll see that as a positive way to get the win. We don't need a hatful of goals, nice as that would be.

Davis Butterfield Fonte Hooiveld Fox Guly Morgan Cork Lallana Sharp Lambert Bart Harding Martin Hammond Connolly