Charlie Wayman

Hard to disagrre with that sentiment, as we now even paly like the effing Italians... 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0

Wish I could get excited about watching this lot on Saturday but fear that Poyet will just park the bus in front of goal and rely on hitting us on the break. Dreading a nil-nil and the more likely 1-1. Fast open game it will not be, Seagulls are in poor form right now and Poyet remains a prize sulky ***** of a spoiler! Still if we could mange a 5-0 we might rid the league of the bastard.

The real worry is that after 5 years or so Bialkowski has been unable to demonstrate his sufficient worth to oust an aging old codger like Davies especially as youth is very much vaunted by the present management. Let's be honest, Davies van makes a few howlers that are clearly age related. This is what should worry us - if he's good enough, he's old enough! Nobody has come in for him either and in this age with Hart already a veteran between the sticks for the PL's top club and his country surely Bilakowski should have made it into saint sfirst team by now? Time to move him on and new lad brought forward onto the bench... For sure, Davies loves to have Bialkowski as his deputy as there in no threat whatsoever to his tenure in the saints goal. Don't give me crap about 40 year old GK's in the PL either, as Friedel and Schwarzer are from a different planet.

Of course not, you can always get tickets for away matches one way or another

Football finances are about as transparent as a black plastic bag at midnight in a thick fog so it might be a tad unfair to single one bloke out and send him down as a lesson to the others when probably hundreds of others have been doing similar or far worse things. We need to separate our emotions about Redknapp leaving Saints from the pending legal proceedings of Customs & Excise that affect football. Spitefulness is inherently childish and does no credit to the people who are so blinkered in their outlook.

that should have read "neither STs or Members".

These things tend to be self regulating. When I bought extra tickets for the Brighton game earlier in the week some guys in front of me were refused tickets because they were either STs or Members, in other words club restrictions were in place to try to be fair to real fans and that's how it should be. Some friends of mine who are not supporters are just interested to come along to see the odd match to see what all the fuss is about. Nothing wrong with that as long as they are last in the queue as it helps swell the crowd and the coffers, it's only the same with theatre or shopping trips to London which you do once or twice per year but no more. Resentfulness is unfortunately part and parcel of being a real fan, we can and do get jealous of our club through a rather misguided sense of 'esprit de corps', like a group of old comrades who've been through the trenches together - as indeed we Saints fans feel we have - with a subsequent resentment of those who turned up after the fighting was over to help share the spoils.

Balls too small

I was surprised to see Hoskins go out but not at all surprised to see Forte go, after all Phil Brown has been making inquiries about him according to press snippets so that one looks like a done deal. But then I was surprised when Gilllett went off to Donny and Lloyd James went off to... etc. No doubt Adkins and Co have assessed the lad so maybe he just doesn't have what they're looking for? I don't buy this "out for experience" lark, how many lads come back and make it to their first teams? You tell me Welbeck, I'll tell you Cork etc

This has developed into a fascinating discussion which I could not participate in as I am a three-a-day non-subscriber (accepting the epitaph - "bloody miser"). Lowe's decision to limit the stadium to 32500 when we were doing well in the PL disappointed all of us at the time but clearly was based on very effective research at the time, as the number of times we reached absolute capacity since then has been minimal. I know some will argue that people might have been deterred because the stadium wasn't big enough to guarantee people getting a ticket at the last minute, but by and large Lowe got it about right (for once!). This time it is different, we are in the deepest recession that any of us alive have known and it is set to get a lot worse before it gets better. £40 a ticket is going to be way beyond the means of many blue collar fans who might be worried about their ability to stay in work and keep their heads above water. In 2001-2 when SMS opened we were on the crest of the biggest bonanza wave that our economy ever experienced and every one felt good and rich and it was in that era of relative prosperity that Lowe made his decision and got it about right. For these reasons Cortese will take his time over any decision to expand the stadium even if we get to the PL and the "Wow!" factor is enough to fill the ground for the early part of next season. If the momentum lasts the whole season and we survive in reasonably good shape of course he'll reflect again but one guesses he will want three or four seasons of sustained sell-outs to even consider taking the project forward to cost study phase. This suggest we will be at around 2016/8 before anything is even likely to happen. If we really do well in the PL and the recession has passed through by then, that is when it might be worth taking a risk but for now "risk averse" is the order of the day.

It's worth reminding people that a loy of people were denied a seat at The Dell during the last few seasons simply because of the restricted abvailability there. This led to a pent up demand which was satisfied only when SMS opened and may explain why we sold out so often in those early days. There was the 'novelty' factor for many of just being able to buy a ticket at last afetr years of disappointment! Now that that novelty effect has well and truly worn off there is less demand for most matches and only certain clubs can offer enough appeal to attract 32000. Certainly Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, Wunderland etc are hardly worth getting out of bed for so it won't be 32000 every week even in the PL as some opine on here. Maybe four times per season - no more, so a bigger stadium will remain a pipe dream for some time ahead.

Don't be surprised to see us establish ourselves in the top flight and be on a par with Spurs, Villa & Everton, rather than struggling against relegation Nicole Cortese is an ambitious bugger and won't be settling for anything less. Expect to see young foreign players from Italian Serie A clubs and France in January. If you're looking at the likes of Billy Sharp you'll be looking in the wrong direction. If the British guys from lower leagues were good enough they'd be with the top 8 clubs by now so ergo they won't be good enough for Saints.

This is the sort of snooty ******** talk that football just doesn't need. It's a bare arms and spades business not an effing literary convention!

The headline is a joke isn't it? Guly and Schneiderlin have always oozed talent, it's just that many people on here used to think people like me were loonies to keep saying that Guly and Morgan would be our future big stars and the two players most likely to be targetted by the bigger clubs. Now it seems everyone is coming around to the same opinion

No way. Didn't you hear Adkins diss him with faint praise? We need intelligent footballers from now on. We have mostly intelligent footballers already - no place for bone-heads here.

"We are Southampton, We are top of the League" What else do you want us to say? 12 points above 7th placed Derby County. Should amke the play-offs then?

If you change a winning team every week this is what you get. It also seemed to me that Nigel switched tactics around so often that our players lost the plot a bit and didn't know where to play or what was expected of them. I saw him do the diamond hand signal a couple of times (to win the football back - he says) and then the 4/4/2 and then goodness knows what towards the end. Sure it's good to change tactics but to do that the team needed to be playing like a well-oiled machine in automatic and it just wasn't doing that last night. I hear all the stuff about "the squad" which is great if you are ManUre or ManCy or Gooners with at east two first teams but we aren't yet so for heaven's sake let's play our best XI and it's up to the other's to fight their way in or bugger off if they don't like it.

You've probably put the kibosh on it now buddie!

Let's hope he can keep all of them happy. It was quite noticeable on Saturday at the end of the game that both de Ridder and Schneiderlin ignored the clapping fans in the Itchen and rushed down the tunnel looking anything but pleased. All the others milked it for all it was worth.

They can be heard "effing" in every song all around the ground, kids and women don't need to hear fou-mouth chanting and singing all day. You don't hear so much of it away so what's wrong with these local youngsters, surely we don't have the lowest education standards in the country? It shows us in a really bad light on TV as it all comes out very clearly. With that lot of morons in the ground we'll never be seen as a respectable family club again whatever our football achievements. Even though it should be easy to identify the people involved, one doubts the club have the balls to deal with it.

Very pleased indeed. Guly's finely judged header for the first goal was worthy of Goal of the Day! Wonder if Hansen is watching?

Yep!

As of yesterday there were "plenty" of tickets left so guessing 24/25 tops. They don't have the 'glamour' of "Bubbles" United, poor area so don't expect a big travelling contingent

Lovely, lovely lad. Have loved him from the time he arrived here. What a super star he's turning out to be and some of his comments on the OS confirm him as The Super Saint. We are very lucky to have him, such integrity and determination; never whinges and just tries harder each time he drops to the bench. Hands off all you PL posers, he's ours. Morgan, Morgan gives us a wave!

They hate me for saying it, they hate Alpine for saying it so they'll be on your back any moment now. Deep down 'though even those guys who gloss over every set back must be getting a bit anxious. Also this match seems to have cast the die, if Cortese truly instructed Adders to get us out of this cup - and it really does look (as Dave Merrington implied) that we didn't want to win it - then it doesn't bode well for Nigel if he doesn't secure us automatic promotion. Hope he keeps the smiles going after this. Guess we won't be interested in the other cup either so who will bother to turn up?