trousers

If Matt Le Tissier can be persuaded to be head coach then count me in.

It's certainly gone eerily quiet after the initial storm....someone at the club "had words" perhaps?

Hmmm.....Two in goal with Davis up front could actually work I reckon...

Why has it taken Jan 6 months to "raid" one of his old clubs? Redknapp takes mere days....

Where the devil is Roman anyway....you'd have expected him to pop up now that his old sparring partner has got a new mention!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/article-23613601-details/The+top+10+worst+January+transfers/article.do The top 10 worst January transfers The January transfer window never fails to bring in a fine array of truly awful footballers. Players who appear to have never even kicked a ball before flock to these shores as teams go crazy in their hunt for a bargain. With millions being spent every year on over-the-hill journeymen, fat hoofers, and players who are “unknown” for a reason, here is our definitive guide to the top 10 worst January signings of all time. Have we missed anyone? 10 James Beattie, 5 January 2005, Southampton to Everton At Southampton he couldn't stop scoring. At Everton he couldn't start. Unveiled as the Toffees most expensive signing, £6m, it took Beattie a year before he became truly awful. His link-up with strike partner Andy Johnson was non-existent and in the summer of 2007 David Moyes scratched his head and pondered who he should get rid of. No prizes for guessing how that turned out. 9 Lee Bowyer, 6 January 2003, Leeds United to West Ham At Leeds, Bowyer was an exciting young English prospect. Then he was involved in the infamous nightclub incident and his life somewhat fell apart. Unfortunately for the Hammers, so did his football. In his first spell at West Ham he was a shadow of his former self, always a yard off the pace. Bowyer was later to leave for Newcastle, where after several fights, he returned to Upton Park. 8 Fernando Morientes, 13 January 2005, Monaco to Liverpool For Spain and Real Madrid he scored sublime goals. For Liverpool, he couldn't hit a barn door. At the time £6.3m seemed like a bargain for a player of his caliber. And yet 18 months later Liverpool were lucky to get £3m for him. Morientes went back to Spain and scored 18 goals in 28 games for Valencia and earned a call up to the Spain squad. Rafa must have been livid. 7 Jan Kromkamp, 4 January 2006, Villarreal to Liverpool Rafael Benitez's worst ever signing, and that's a bold statement. Rafa brought the Dutchman to Liverpool in a part-exchange deal with Josemi, who was also pretty useless, going the other way. If Steve Finnan had been worried about a younger defender coming in, he needn't have been. Kromkamp was woeful. More suited to the slow passing of the Dutch leagues than the pace of the Premier League. 6 Djimi Traore, 11 January 2007, Charlton Athletic to Portsmouth Liverpool's weak link became Charlton's, and then Portsmouth's. In a spot of wheeler-dealing Harry Redknapp spent £1m on the Frenchman and Charlton laughed all the way to the bank. The following January, having played 12 games for Pompey, he moved to Rennes on loan. How did that man ever win a European Cup winners medal? 5 Ricardo Rocha, 23 January 2007, Benfica to Tottenham Brought in as cover for injury-ridden captain Ledley King, Rocha was yet another Tottenham defensive failure. Spurs spent more than £3m on the Portuguese plodder who signed a three-and-a-half-year deal. Four months later he requested a transfer. 4 Eric Djemba-Djemba, 31 January 2005, Man United to Aston Villa So bad they named him twice. United signed Djemba-Djemba as a potential replacement for Old Trafford legend Roy Keane. Unfortunately he was so horrendous Ferguson flogged him to Villa for £1.5m where he made a handful of appearances, usually as a substitute, before Martin O'Neill loaned him to Burnley. His contract at Villa was not renewed. 3 Michael Ricketts, 31 January 2003, Bolton to Middlesbrough Up there with the worst of them. At the beginning of the 2003 season things were looking good for Ricketts. The previous year he had bagged 15 goals for Bolton, and earned himself an England call up - appearing against Holland. Then he fell out with Sam Allardyce and was shipped out to Middlesbrough where his career fell apart. A year-and-a-half later the striker joined Leeds on a free transfer having scored the grand total of three goals. 2 Nigel Quashie, 17 January 2005, Portsmouth to Southampton A journeyman's journeyman. QPR, Nottingham Forrest, Portsmouth, Southampton, West Brom, West Ham, and Birmingham, Quashie's played for them all. You have to be worried if your club buys the harbinger of death this January. Bryan Robson said he had the “experience of relegation fights”. I wonder why that is? 1 Jean-Alain Boumsong, 1 January 2005, Rangers to Newcastle Boumsong. The very name sends shudders down the spine of any Newcastle United fan. To the rest of the footballing world, cue mass hysteria. A first class donkey who somehow cost Newcastle a stunning £8m. And Rangers had got him for free in the first place. Alongside Titus Bramble, Newcastle had a defence that could have been picked apart by a bunch of 12-year-old girls.

Great minds.....no offence...

So that's where 'Roman' has been the last month or so....

Chin up guys....we're only 18 points off the play-offs edit: damn, beaten to the cheap playoffs gag

:smt044:smt044

Cheers for that. So it would seem that the writing is on the wall regardless of which movers and shakers in barclays are dealing with the SLH account....

Which bit?

That'll happen by default if/when we get wound up and re-emerge 8 leagues lower....it's sounding like the best option by the hour....

Yes....

I suspect the trail will go cold on this one as it's got "smoking gun" written all over it.....or so it would seem....

That'll be a Friday then.....

I don't wish to unduly worry you but your brain is starting to work like mine...! p.s. There's been quite a few 'long time registered, no previous posts' newcomers of late....

Depends what his next club in waiting have requested during any transfer negotiations, I guess....?

They would probably counter that logic by saying that to issue a denial would grace the accusation with too much credibility, I guess

Blimey. I think that is what they call a 'bombshell' in these 'ere parts! All we need now is an explanation of the NAMG 'episode' and we've got the full set!

Grim Reaper stalks Southampton in 2009 Posted By: Sam Green at Jan 7, 2009 at 22:26:00 [General] New year, new anxieties for many football fans. And among those teetering on the verge of despair must be followers of Southampton. The Saints are rivalling Charlton for the title of most distressing fall from apparent Premier League comfort. Chairmen at places like Blackburn, Middlesbrough and Portsmouth must break into a cold sweat when they consider such rapid changes of status. And there appears to be little relief on the horizon at Southampton. The latest AGM resembled a playground squabble over who blew the money. Jack Cork, the on-loan Chelsea defender and arguably their best player during the first half of the season, jumped ship to Watford, Stern John has been sent to Bristol City because Southampton cannot afford his wages, Rudi Skacel wants out and 10 more players could be off in the summer when their contracts expire. In the current climate, one can hardly imagine the club's two brightest young things, Adam Lallana and Andrew Surman, sticking around long term. Avoiding administration and relegation this season would be akin to winning the Champions League for a team in Southampton's perilous position. The amount of national coverage this is now getting would tend to back up the suggestion that the end is nearer than some might think/believe/hope....

Maybe Glenn Hoddle's football academy will acquire the 'rights' to the 'Southampton Football Club' name and re-establish the club in the British Gas (Southern) Division 2 league as a 'finishing school' for his academy?

I wonder who'll be first to ask: "Who was the email from?"

The paradox, IMHO, is that the longer we cling onto survival, or even mild success, the longer Lowe, Wilde and Crouch collectively retain an influence over the club. I know many people refuse to see the 'short term pain, long term gain' route as anything other than people not being 'true supporters' of the club but, for me, it's crystal clear that the only way this club will be able to move forward over the foreseeable future (and beyond) is to take a major step in a rather painful direction.

So it sounds like it was shear coincidence that Paul Allen's private 737 was was in the country a few days after the story broke (end of April 2007)...? What was this correspondence and how did a third party (Richard Chorley) get to see it? cheers