Arizona

You see this I don't get.

I don't like Lowe either, but I doubt his salary is x% of the matchday gate receipts. The only entity suffering by boycotting matches is the club.

Personally I would still go to see Saints if Hitler was the chairman. I think it's sad if people are refusing to turn up because he is in charge. Half the people on this board probably think their boss is a w*nker. Would you resign because of it, or just grin and bare it because it's a nescessary evil?

When Lowe was in charge in our first CCC season, when we had a slowly declining chance at the playoffs, we had attendances of over 20,000. The last match before he left was Leciester at home in 2006 when 26,801 came through the gate. Since Lowe hasn't done anything of note between then and the start of this campaign, I find it hard to believe that is the reason 12,000 people have disappeared.

I know I am going to sound like a stuck record/Skacel's agent/boyfriend/whatever here, so there is no need to point that out, BUT...

From reading match reports, listening to comentary, watching highlights and the Barnsley match etc. It seems we are badly missing a decent final delivery and a bit of quality from the wide possition.

I could be wrong. If DMG and BWP were fantastic wingers today and Pekhart missed 7 or 8 sitters, then please correct me, but I get the impression we just aren't creative enough where it really matters. Lovely passing around the midfield, but nothing in the final third.

If Skacel's appearance fee is seriously going to bankrupt us, we might as well call the administrators now.

I hear a lot of, "they are still young, they will learn/gel as the season goes on," but guess what, fans accross the country are all saying that. We said it last season, we said it the season we went down.

I doubt the Palace, Derby and Barnsley fans are sat in their cars now saying, "that's the best start to the campaign we could have hoped for, the wheels are really going to come off in the next few weeks"

I'm not so sure that people avoid games because of Lowe TBH. They might use that as an excuse, but actually I think most are put off by the appaling value for money in supporting Saints these days.

Edit: I guess Stanley would disagree with that.

nope not at all when results are what really matter but the positive things that we are doing is still much better than some of the tripe we were served last year.

 

if they can get enough points to make us safe and play the game the way they are trying to then it will be a big improvment on last year.

 

dreamland would have us being the next arsenal or ajax and walk away with the league and onwards

Are you serious? I admit I haven't been to any games this season, but f**kin' 'ell, just how entertaining was this 0-0 against Barnsley, 0-1 against Blackpool, 1-4 against QPR etc?

2 points from 4 home games so far and you are saying it's a big improvement on last year.

All thoughts on here please.

Totaal Voetball W00T!!

I bet she's got a good support!

By the looks of that pic, she can play the holding role up front quite well. Maybe we should play her with Pekhart.

Think we need to work on our set pieces a bit. From Sky sports website:

58 - Caught by Kelvin Davis (Southampton)

57 - Southampton freekick taken by Andrew Surman

All match and doughnut related chat on here please.

any jam ones?

Ooooh. Now I'm hungry...

Kasey Keller.

BWP and Pekhart have both had decent efforts. Barnsley yet to have a decent shot on goal.

First half chat on here please.

Match build up on here please.

From BBC:

Southampton striker Thomas Pekhart is pushing for a place in the Saints team after scoring in midweek.

Fullback Lloyd James is doubtful so Paul Wotton may play in defence. Morgan Schneiderlin and Michael Svensson are both ruled out.

Barnsley have no new injury worries ahead of their trip to St Mary's.

Reds boss Simon Davey is considering handing Anderson De Silva his first start of the season. Only Maceo Ritgers and Michael Coulsen are unavailable.

BWP has not played regularly at all and players just may need a season to gather the step up they have taken' date=' look at Ronaldo, needed a season ( im not saying we have a ronaldo).I have found how much my own abilities have improved playing in a ****e local d league to Hampshire A league as a kid, they are all kids so will grow stronger,bigger and quicker.[/quote']

 

Last season BWP started 30 games and appeared as a sub in 14. The season before he started 19 and made 25 sub appearances. He has appeared in all but 13 league matches in the last 2 years.

 

If that doesn't count as regular football I'm not sure what does.

 

Ronaldo showed progression over the seasons he was at Man Utd. If anything BWP seems to have gotten worse. When he joined he looked sharp, full of energy and knew where the net was. Last season he managed less that 1 in 5, looked lazy and disinterested and hasn't scored since Burley left.

It's going to be a very sh*t 1-1 draw.

An honest answer needed.

 

Could this team, eventually be a Championship promoted team?

 

I just see if they are playing week in week out at a higher standard off football they can only improve. Confidence will be low, but they are young and will be determined to improve.

Myth IMO.

If a player isn't good enough, he isn't good enough. It doesn't matter if he plays 4 or 40 games a season. Take Ormerod for example, played regularly for us in the Prem for the best part of 2 years, but was never really good enough. More recently BWP has played regularly in the 2 years since he arrived, but if anything seems to have got worse. Having joined from a Prem accademy, I'd say he was League 1 standard at best.

In short, it is too early to say. Some of our players will improve and become decent CCC, even Prem standard players, others will fade into obscurity and be sold to League 1 or 2 club, assuming we don't become one ourselves.

Just more sensationalist BS from the Dailly Star. One fan (Probabably Barnsley's version of Master Bates on a wind up) posted something abusive on an internet message board and suddenly that's news.

Whilst not strictly academy, I included Jones, plus Mills.

Mills yes, another c£600k tribunal fee I'm guessing.

Jones we signed 3 months before his 20th birthday, so to call him an accademy product would be some way off the mark.

That seems a lot. Care to elaborate?

Walcott - c£10m

Bale - £10m

Baird - £3m

Best - £600k

Cranie - £600k

Blackstock - £600k

I make that around £25m since we sold Bridge.

Maybe best to wait and see how this pans out, as your crystal ball is no better than mine.

I guess we'll find out in time. I just don't think that forcing a load of kids into the first team and selling the best ones makes for a strong football team.

Which part of my post do you disagree with anyway?

Maybe the reporter was in Tuvalu when he wrote that.

Just an thought. Usually clubs develop maybe one even two players in a season sometimes none at all.

 

If we managed to bring through say 5 or 6 with others queuing up to play, that could really work in our favour.

 

Once word gets out that we are getting a lot of youngsters into the first team, it could be, that high quality youngsters/parents will see the odds on their sons making it shorten, and want to come here. Also players like Pekart/Cork etc.

Thrusting young players into the first team isn't developing them. For some of them, we may be doing more harm than good. Take Gillett for example. Started the season strong, but now the going is tough, there are very few wise heads to turn to and he is struggling. Same with DMG, White, James and other youngsters to a varying extent.

People will only queue up to pay for youngsters if they are good enough, not because they have been in the first team all year. If this team continues to play like this for the rest of the season, we'd probably get £1.5m for Lallana, maybe £500k for DMG, MS and Holmes... that's pretty much it.

You have also completely ignored the appaling state of our first team. Imagine this lot now, without the players above. Not only would we be relegated, but we would keep sliding downwards and in 2 years be fighting the drop to League 2.

Parents sending their kids to our accademy... given choice, would you rather send your kids to a League 1/2 accademy or someone like Spuds, Villa or Middlesborough?

Kids are not the answer. You can blood maybe 3 or 4 into a good team each season. Having 8, 2 free transfers at centre half and a goalie is just suicide.

Anyone remember the trip to Sheffield Utd last season? It made such a pleasant change hearing Blades fans moaning that we were diving, cheating c*nts who clobbered our way through the game and didn't deserve to win. I am so fed up of teams saying we are the best team they've played all season, right after they've just beatten us.

Yes but from a financial point of view if we had spent loads of money then and still got relegated we would have been in a bigger financial mess.

 

 

I think also if a player wants to move we should let him go - Beattie wanted to go in the summer of 2004 he did not do much after that for SFC

If we had spent a bit of money on the defence, we would almost certainly have stayed up IMO.Yes I know if we were relegated, we would have players we couldn't afford, but we could still have sold them. Look at who we brough in. A kid from Spuds and a left back who couldn't get into the Prem's second worse defence.

If we'd spent say another £4m on a decent LB, RB and centre half, we'd almost certainly have avoided the drop. If nothing else we wouldn't have thrown away those 7 points against Villa, Everton and Middlesborough. t was a false ecconomy. If you think that would have risked the financial stability of the club, look at where we are now. Bottom of the CCC having to play our youth team to stave off administration.

I agree, if a player wants out, we should let him go. However he then needs to be replaced.

Gillet thought after first couple of games was going to be good but think last two games not looked so good.

DMG/Dyer/BWP are not too young

I was responding more to the phrase, "ready for the first team" rather than "old enough"

Personally I think BWP will be in his late 30s and still not be ready for the first team.