trousers

Anyone know if Wotte employed these winning 4-4-2 diamond tactics we are seeing today whilst he was manager of the reserves and/or academy team(s)? However, given part of his remit was to seamlessly integrate the reserves & academy players with the 1st team one assumes he was actually embracing and copying what Poortvliet was doing with the 1st team, otherwise how would this seamless integration have worked? Good to see that he's done a u-turn now though.

Yep. Totally agree

Going over old ground here but comparing Wotte's tenure with Pearson's isn't like-for-like. When Wotte took over the 'head coach' badge from Poortvliet he wasn't starting cold from square one. As for writing off Wotte, it would appear that someone convinced Lowe to write him off as head coach nearly a year before folk on here did...

The OS article at the time he was signed (only on loan BTW.....) Dutch defender Jan-Paul Saeijs has spoken of his desire to succeed in English football at Saints following his move to the south coast. "Southampton is a big club and compared to where it should be it's standing at the moment is too low," he commented. "This is a Premier League Club and I want to come here to make a contribution." At 30 years of age, the centre-back will provide plenty of experience and admits that he will be no stranger to the set-up that Head coach Jan Poortvliet has put in place at the club. "I'm used to playing with younger players, because I did so at ADO den Haag, in Holland and I know that a good mixture of younger and older players is what any team needs. "I feel that I can help the youngsters here and I hope I can make myself into an important player at the club," Saeijs added. The defender is also familiar with his new boss and hopes to impress the former World Cup Finalist from his homeland. "Jan has a fantastic record in Holland and he's a good coach too. I am happy to have passed my medical and I'm fit to play whenever the manager wants me to." That may happen as soon as this weekend should clearance come through in time and the defender can then prepare to live out a long term dream of his. "I said to my girlfriend that I always wanted to play in England, I love the football here and I think that it is the most beautiful game in the world." In his career to-date, Saeijs most notably played for Roda JC, where former Everton player Raymond Atteveld was manager. Atteveld, Everton's first ever Dutch player, made Jan-Paul his captain, before he lost his job in October last year. Jan Poortvliet had been tracking the 6' 3" defender for some time and as soon as his situation became clear, the 52 year-old swooped to claim his services. "I know him personally very well," Poortvliet explained. "His mentality is good and his character is very strong. He's good in the air and quick enough to cover some space when required, so when we knew he was available, we got in touch." "He is a good tackler as well and has even played up-front when he was younger, so we are aware that he can score goals too." "He was very keen on coming to England and helping Southampton to get better results. At 30 he's also a very good age for a central defender and he has played almost 250 league games in Holland." http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/search/?mode=movenav&page_id=11199 Hmmmm....perhaps we do owe credit to Jan on this one then....

Here's hoping they keep up the winning habit.... (come on, don't say it didn't cross your minds too.... )

Hmmm....Food for thought....

I'm doing both. i.e. enjoying the here-and-now at the same time as being frustrated about the past, multi-talented chap that I am....

cheers - superb goal by Paterson

I'm not too sure either, but let's say, for example, that we share the server with Charlton's forum, then if we cut our usage from 50% to 30%, Charlton's mob might just soak up the extra 20% for themselves? Depends if we have a fixed allocation on the server or not I guess. Pass.

..

Alas, no

Point is though, he was originally Lowe's original first choice. The unanswered question is what happened, or was said, this time last year for Lowe to 'tweak' his plan and bring in Poortvliet to work "alongside" Wotte....??

What item of clothing did Wotte swing above his head at the final whistle this time?

Aren't these guys are going to get knackered pretty soon?!

I suspect it's more of a server sharing problem than a problem with this forum per se.

Which (again) begs the question....Who convinced Lowe not to go with Wotte at the helm from day 1? Wotte himself? Van der Waals? The more we win under Wotte the more explaining there is to do IMHO

Why cheer for a bloke who didn't want the top job when Lowe offered it to him last spring? (allegedly) Yours Devil's Advocately....

chance would be a fine thing....

Hands up who predicted 3 nil to Saints....

bump

response time is a disgrace! FFS!

One more please

This site is too slow FFS

This page refreshes automatically every 2 minutes Correction - 74:43 David Wright takes a shot. Blocked by Simon Gillett. 74:43 David Wright takes a shot. Blocked by Simon Gillett.