Professor

The Daily Mail........... When did that rag last print anything that was true?

I'm feeling confident that we'll make a good start by beating Leeds and that this squad will be competing in the top six. I was equally confident last year before we lost to Plymouth. This year I might revise my expectations at the end of August if it looks like my confidence is not well-founded, but at the moment I believe we have the players and the playing systems to be up there with the best.

The principle is fine, that people from outside the EU should not be able to come to Europe and take away opportunities for European workers, including football players, but that principle is already broken by allowing players who are internationals to come to play here. As a result we don't have English or European football in the Prem and this is perculating down to the Football League. Since the principle is so openly by-passed, one argument is that there is no point of trying to hold the line. Might as well just have completely foreign teams playing in the shirts of what used to be English football clubs. On the other hand, holding the line, and even pushing it back is what UEFA are trying to do. If you support Platini in this, ts not possible to complain about the obstacles to signing a North African player. I hope we do get Jemal because it seems to be what other clubs are doing, but I'm still not happy about what its doing to club football where I like to kid myself that the players actually care about the club they play for.

No way would I miss the first game back in the Championship but I should have had a car full and all three others have dropped out, due to Sky and the ticket price. Have a feel that 22k will be as good as it gets.

I'm a '1' but I reserve the right to change my prediction on 1st September after 5 games!! I'm also relying on the promised 3rd quality signing.

This absolutely does not merit a separate thread.

Worth bearing in mind that West Ham are still going to lose players - Parker in particular will be off. Be interesting to see if he even gets picked as they may not want to risk an injury that could jeopardise the transfer fee and leave them picking up his wages for half the season.

Thanks Alain! Thats set the season out so clearly its saved me spending a lot of money on gate money! I'm still going to the Leeds game though.

The Telegraph hack is following in the traditions of the British press, by writing something with no basis in fact. There is no evidence of Saints having a fragile defence since no other L1 or Championship side conceded fewer goals last season than Southampton. Saints had 38 goals in the GA column, 2 better than Brighton in L1 and matched only by QPR in the NpC. That was 20 goals better than Norwich who were on 58 GA.

Don Goodman, in The Guardian hasn't taken any risks on his top end predictions. He's got 13 promotion challengers. Of the rest, he's got 6 predictions for mid-table and only at the bottom has he's limited himself, by having just 5 relegation candidates. I can imagine next May he'll be claiming how well he did by predicting the 3 promoted clubs, without mentioning that he got another 10 wrong!

The only press prediction for the season outcome in the Championship, that I've seen so far is in The Times (Mon 1Aug). True to my impression that the press are obsessed with 'celebrity' managers The Times has Allardyce, Ericsson and McClaren as their top 3. The paper predicts Saints finishing as low as 16th. I might well file that prediction away to send back to them next May. If all three 'golden boys' miss out on promotion, even better. Anyone seen any other press predictions and what do you think about them?

According to Adkins interview recorded just after Steve de Ridder completed his first training session - so that would be before the WBA game - the transfer-in target this summer was three or possibly four new players. Obviously Cork and de Ridder are the first two but in the interview Adkins is very positive that a third signing is in hand and that a fourth remains a possibilty. He also says they are only interested in quality players. The squad already looks very good with the two additions we have, but add two more, or even just the one more, and we'll be well up there in terms of strengthening alongside the clubs that have had all the close season publicity. The press, with their 'celeb' obsession focus on ex-prem names and managers like Allardyce, McClaren and Ericsson but we might just give them a surprise.

This isn't just about Jaidi, but simply that the vacant No.5 shirt suggests that NA is not confident in Jaidi, Seaborne or Martin as first choice for that slot. On top of that he's said he's looking to make another signing, so having already strengthened in midfield and attack, where else in the squad is NA likely to have a higher priority?

That isn't really true, because last year wasn't a bad start - by the end of August the record was P3, W1, D1, L1, (GF5 GA2), so 4 points after 3 games and a positive GD of plus 3 was a fair indication of top half and a 4-0 away win suggesting things would get better. It was parting company with the manager followed by 3 straight defeats in Sept that dropped us down the table so unless we are expecting Cortese to part company with Adkins this August, then common sense would suggest that the first 5 games will be used by fans and management to assess the prospects.

August is not an especially a tough start to life in the NpC except the 3 away games to 2 at home put the balance slightly against Saints. The teams we play were all in the Championship last year and finished in positions 7, 9, 10, 13 and 17. Leicester's position last year doesn't reflect their team building this summer, but overall these 5 games seem a fair test to show how Saints are likely to perform this season. We may be playing with Seaborne and Jaidi covering the 'vacant' CB position but otherwise the squad is pretty well complete. If we are in the top 6 by 31st August a genuine challenge will look to be on. If we are in the bottom six, then it will be a real concern. The law of averages would suggest somewhere in the middle but unlike Poyet at Brighton, Adkins has not been talking about a consolidation year, so top six is presumbly the aim. What are the prospects for where we'll be after those 5 games?

Depends on who you talk to, Ron. Saints fans in the pub I was in included a couple of people who thought Gorkss was better than what we have but most felt the club should choose the best CB available and not limit their choice to a club that happened to want one of our players.

Given all the indications that the club wants to fill the No.5 shirt with a new player, if a signing is made this weekend or early next week, is it too late now to bring him into the side against Leeds? The Jemal saga hasn't gone on as long as the Cork saga but there are substantial differences and one can imagine Cortese turning away from Jemal if he feels there has been too much prevarication. The reported attempt to land us with a makeweight CB as part of a Puncheon deal didn't excite a lot of fans and perhaps NC felt the same. But the shirt is still unfilled so we have a fertile ground for speculation. Could it be that Seaborne is currently the first choice alongside Fonte? If so, will he be encouraged by knowing the club want to replace him? Will it make him try harder against Leeds or leave him disillusioned. Despite some technical weaknesses, I've always seem him as a trier but does he have a future here? Jaidi, it seems they felt was worthy of another year but age does mean less reliability. As for Martin, another signing will keep him down the order, so you could ask if he is going to make the grade after 2 years as a Pro, although he is only 21 so time is on his side but also he might still need a bit longer before he could be a regular starter at Championship level. So where do people think we are going with the left-sided CB slot?

Whilst it would be nice to part with Puncheon does that actually improve the first team since Puncheon isn't in it? If the signing targets at CB and Striker were cash-dependent so that we had to sell in order to buy, that would be understandable but that doesn't appear to be the case. Hopefully, NC/NA will get the best CB they can, unaffected by wanting to offload Puncheon as that could mean taking less than the best available. As for a striker, do we need one as we have three proven performers plus Doble and Guly? I'm sure Jason's agent will be trying to find him a hole somewhere - lets hope its not too deep.

This thread seems to be out of the "In George we Trust" box as its too easy to worship whoever is in the chair when the team is doing well, as it did when Burley made the Championship PlayOffs in 2006/07. Last season's team was largely Pardew's team, plus AOC and Chaplow. Adkins got them to play, but before he came the squad were already favourites for promotion. Not knocking him at all, but its a bit early for 'Sainthood'!

Shame that Dan Seaborne doesn't seem to have made the grade - definitely out of favour after the mistake at Peterborough, but clearly Adkins has made his assessment. If Jemal is likely to accept the SFC offer, he does look the better prospect, short-term as well as long term. Gorkss wasn't that well appreciated at Blackpool and although he did play regularly for QPR last year, the fact remains that they don't want to keep him. Better than what we have but probably not the best we could get. If QPR want Puncheon we should take their money without having a player foisted on us who we might not otherwise have been interested in.

If he comes to Southampton because Stoke have lost interest, that is by no means "beating Stoke to the signing....". For a North African coming to play in England from Switzerland, ihe shouldn't be expected to have an interest in any particular club and logical that he should look for better money from a club in the Premier League before settling for a second tier club. If he's good enough for NpC level we should be glad to have him, and then set about coaching him to be better. But if we do sign him, I hope we can be spared the PR quotes about how pleased he is to be here, etc., as he'd be pleased to be anywhere that will pay him enough.

Very impressed by Steve de Ridder's interview on Saints Player. You don't have to be intelligent to be a good footballer (evidence W Rooney) but an intelligent footballer is likely to make more of his ability and deRidder comes over as very bright and very balanced. Good English speaker, as are virtually all Belgians from Flanders (he's from Ghent), so fitting in will be that much easier for him.

If I was running a professional football club as Chairman and managing director I'd expect to be earning more than any other employee. But with SFC privately owned, what the person running the enterprise is paid is not anyone else's business. If the Echo were hoping this would be a sensational disclosure leading to unrest amongst the fans, they'll be disapointed

If the next signing is Jemal, the squad seriously does look complete. Not at all concerend about not signing a central striker as we already have three excellent ones in Rickie, Lee and Dave Connolly. Once that number 5 shirt is filled, I think we can be confident.

Can see him being ahead of Alex in the selection order. If so, not only is that great for Saints as evidence of signing a quality player, but it might also be good for Alex, not just to bring him down to earth but also as an incentive for Alex to develop his ability.