Arizona

The sales quoted were decided by the players concerned, not by the club. In all of those cases the club was reported to be trying to dissuade them from leaving, but no club can keep a player who wants to go. Richards to be with Hoddle at Spurs, Bridge for huge money at Chelsea and Beattie for career reasons. As for transfers in, no club can spend money it does not have, unless it has a multi-millionaire owner, which even today only about 8 or 9 clubs have.

The whole basis for Arizona's post is flawed, including the fact that the club 'invested' in a new manager and in 5 new players to try to avoid relegation. We were all disappointed, as are all 3 relegated teams every year, but there's no point trying to re-write history to find a way of saying Saints should have been immune when you find the CCC packed full of other relegated ex-Prem clubs.

It's not that I am upset at our best players leaving. Every club is a selling club to a varying extent. My gripe is more the fact that every time a good player was sold, he was replaced by a cheap bargain.

You say no club can spend money it doesn't have. Check "investment" in the dictionary and you will sort of see what I am getting at.

January 2004, the squad badly needs strengthening to avoid relegation. We sell Beattie for £6m, spend £2m on McQ, bring in 3 loans and a free transfer.

Cork, Lallana Schneiderlin certainly are

Hmmm. Just shame about Gillett, James, White, Mills, Hatch, Thomson and Lancashire. And I still have my suspicions about DMG, Dyer and BWP.

that is that sorted then...

 

well done you

 

 

NEVER ONCE read a thread of any seriousness begging for lowe to bring in a rich backer..

 

infact, I remember saints fans being proud as punch that clubs like bolton and charlton were making it public that saints were the model to build success on...

I wonder what we are the model for now then...

I am pretty sure that given a bit of decent investment, we wouldn't have been relegated and ultimately, we'd be much financially better off than we are now.

One of the main factors in our relegation was constantly selling the likes of Richards, Bridge and Beattie and bringing them in with cheap bargains on CCC sized transfer fees. I am not saying a massive fee guarantees success, but players like McCann - £1.5m, Jackobsson - £1m, Yahia - £300k, Nilsson - £500k... FFS!

BUT...how many were calling for "major investment" in cardiff in 2003 or in Romania in n the UEFA cup?? NO ONE..

 

it has only been in the last 3 years that "investment" has actually been a huge issue in football in england and in the last 18 months - 2 years it has been a real issue at saints..

 

but hey, lets not let that get in the way of a moan..

 

Lowe stepped aside once, albeit under pressure but he stepped aside once with a "manifesto" of promises of investment etc?......but hey, dont let THAT get in the way either...

Well, I was when we sold players like Bridge and brought in complete gash like Neil McCann.

BWP seems to have one good game (take Burnley (a), Barnsley (a) or Bristol City (h) last season) then be complete gash for the next 5 games.

Hasn't scored since Burley left either.

Arizona is not redneck land. That would be the "South", as opposed to SW - states like Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, the Carolinas, oh and Georgia.

 

HTH

Indeed. Think more "Wild West" than Rednecks. Arizona is more like Texas or Nevada, neither of which are particularly redneck areas.

Scottsdale is also a really nice part of Phoenix, or at least that's where the best nightlife is to be had.

I'd hope for better, but with this squad, 21st really would be a good finishing position this season. Our target this season has to be to avoid relegation. I really am not expecting anything more than a brave fight against the drop.

Hang on, we couldn't afford Pearson, and we can afford Davies?

 

Look chaps, we can't afford ANYONE.

 

Credit crunch and all that. Fact of life, let's not dwell on things that anyone can do anthing about, except for Mr Barclays.

But we can afford to pay Wotte AND Poortvliet and fork out £300k a year for the next 4 years on Schneiderlin's transfer? I have never heard of any club releasing their manager because they couldn't afford him. It's ridiculous. JP and Wotte's appointment was about Lowe doing it his way, plain and simple.

FWIW I think there is no point in bringing in Davies. Our problem at the moment isn't so much the manager as having a ridiculously small squad, short on quality and experience.

1 Soccerbase says 3 goals Palace, Barnsley, Sheff Utd

 

2 Agree that John played better with Saga than anybody else but John has scored goals wherever he's played.

 

3 DMG only started 2 games last season how many did you expect him to score?

 

4 Why can't he continue scoring at his current rate which would make him a 20 goals a season. Why is Saga a 20 goal a season striker in your opinion when he proved in his only full season he wasn't anywhere near it.

 

5 Pearson was appointed on 18/02/08 and played Plymouth on 20/02/08.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/?s_year=2008&s_month=2&page_id=131&startfrom=90&startfrom=60&startfrom=30

He was on the sidelines waving his arms around. If we had won the game nobody would have discounted the game from his record.

 

6 There is no 6

 

7. As you say nobody apart from John scored many last season so why is everybody criticising our lack of goals this season as something new. Rasiak had 8 goals in 26 appearances.

 

8 I need to get out more

I guess without wanting to go off on more obscure tangents, I just think Saga is the most complete striker we have (had). Last season he struggled to perform and I wont deny I was disappointed with his goal tally. He takes a large share of that, but so do Burley, Dodd and Gorman, as well as the midfield which was so hopelessly uncreative in the majority of games he started.

People are saying at the end of last season if you had a choice, everyone would have kept John, not Saga. I wouldn't. Knowing we were implimenting a system with one up front, I'd have kept the striker with the work rate to go it alone, as well as the capability to score goals and defend from the front.

I'd say every player bar John, Vignal, Skacel and Davies was poor last season. We had several players like Surman, Rasiak and Saga who, used and motivated correctly, could perform so much better.

Saga managed a massive total of 3 goals in his 15 starts and 17 sub appearances (probably a similar amount of games as John had without Saga on the pitch).

David McGoldrick has 4 goals in 8 appearances this season and theres a lot of people think that isn't good enough.

 

Saga started against Plymouth under Pearson and we lost that game. Under Pearson he scored 1 goal in 10 appearances. Hardly the stuff dreams are made of.

1. I make it 4 goals - Palace, Preston, Barnsley and Sheff Utd. Which one aren't you counting? Anyway, splitting hairs, not important.

2. Perhaps, but John doesn't treble the strike rate of the striker he is playing along side, or defend from the front.

3. DMG didn't score at all last season. Are you saying he shouldn't be in the side not because of that?

4. 4 in 8 is a very good return for DMG this season, however I don't think he is capable of scoring 20 a season, but Saga is. Defending from the front not his strong poing either.

5. Pearson was appointed about 1 hour before that game, you cannot seriously include that. It even said on the OS, "although Pearson was nominally in charge the team had already been picked and prepared"

7. Many people go on about Saga's tally last season, but nobody except John really excelled. Rasiak got something like 7 goals in 10 games, before Burley realised this was dangerously close to the 19 goals he scored in the first half of the playoff season and dropped him again. BWP pretty much matched Saga's scoring rate and was like a fish up a tree in most other aspects of his game.

8. If you noticed point 6 was missing you really need to get out more.

Who is that?

Have only seen the Blackpool game this season, so I can't really say whether our current system is the right one, but might going back to 4-4-2 be a better idea? I was thinking along the lines of:

Davis

Gillett Cork Perry Mills

Lallana Morgan Surman Skacel

John Pekhart

Forts? I reckon it would get more out of some of our players, specifically Surman, Skacel, Gillett and John.

Not sure you can be that short and be effective in a central role. Some smart a*se is now going to point out Dennis Wise or something, but I think maybe Gillett CDAJFU at RB.

He was always the striker we should have kept. Last season John managed a massive total of 5 goals in the games Saga wasn't on the pitch.

His work rate creates chances for others and prevents defences taking their time and building moves from the back, which pretty much translates scoring more conceding less.

We never lost a game Saga started under Pearson. Oh what might have been...

IMO he is just an attention loving tw*t who keeps on spouting offensive jibberish in the hope that someone finds it funny. It seems he has found an audience for it though, probably the same people who think big brother qualifies as entertainment.

I don't get why women find him attractive either. Looks like a complete fruitcake to me.

What's the difference between a Ferrari and a box full of dead babies?

I don't have a Ferrari in my garage.

Lee Hoos stated that we didn't want him to go at the time, but he insisted. How can you be sure he is fit?

 

If he is fit and wants to play, then he has to be considered. I didn't say I didn't rate him, quite the opposite, however it appears his ambitions lie elsewhere. Hertha wanted to sign him but decided the package was too expensive. (source : British Embassy, Berlin)

Hoos also stated that Rasiak was offloaded to help clear the "logjam of strikers." We then went 3 months with nobody but John scoring from open play. It was all bulls*t.

It can't be a coincidence that him and Rasiak left within minutes of each other (plus the alledged Viafara to Stoke deal which fell through), the evening the transfer window closed. More to the point, I've heard from a seperate source that the club made "significant" financial gains from both loans, and the offers were too good to refuse at the time.

How can it be that 7 months ago we had a huge wage bill and were trying to keep Skacel, yet now every man and his dog has packed up and gone?

I am sure he did want to go to Hertha. Skacel turning down a move to Hertha would be like one of our youngsters turning down a move to a midtable Prem side.

I dont think Rudi has ever shown his quality for us his head isnt right and he cant be fit so dont play him I say stick with Dyer or play DMG wide and Pekhart up front

What about the last 2 games he played in midfield, when he was by far the best player on the pitch? Or the one before that when we beat Wolves 6-0? Or the 4 goals he scored by Christmas 2 years ago? Or having the most assists AND joint most goals from midfield in the playoff season? Nope? Ok, he's sh*t.

I once saw a documentary on ambulence crews, and one of their call outs was to some bloke who had twisted his ankle playing football. What was weird was everyone, including the ambulence crew, thought this was a legitimate reason to dial 999.

Anyway, that story seems to be making a meal out of what was, in all likelyhood, a prank call.

The new Sergei Rebrov...

I was told by the airport MD that it's the width of the runway rather than the length that restricts the size of the planes (can't have engines overhanging the edges) and that BAA has no plans to change this. But we are getting way off topic...

Southamptons runway is 1,723m. Ryanair will not fly to any airports with a runway less than 1,900m at the bare minimum. There are very few jets in service smaller than the 737s Ryanair opperate, other than the small regional jets flybe already uses.

Width could be a factor, but it would have to be a f*cking narrow runway for the engines to overhang the sides.

Edit: Just checked, Southampton's runway is 37m and 46 is pretty much bog standard for most airports, so they would probably have to widen it by about 9m.

As airlines go, flybe are a pretty safe bet. In fact they are one of the few airlines in Britain currently taking delivery of new aircraft. I believe they also made a proffit last year, could be wrong on that.

We didn't want him to go to Hertha, but he insisted he wanted to go as he wanted to play in a top league, to help his international ambitions.

 

As well as not playing at all, his international ambitions are stalled. He has been offered around but priced himself out of a move. He, I believe was poor in the half he played for the reserves before injury. Apart from training he has had two and one half games and missed preseason due to Europe which he didn't play in.

 

What the hell has he done to warrant being brought in.

Okay...

1. "We didn't want him to go to Hertha." Who do you think you're kidding. It became apparent that we weren't going to get promoted after the Norwich game and Crouch was trying to save money. I supposed Rasiak leaving and Viafara having a deal fall through, at the same time, 2 hours before midnight is pure coincidence?

2. He wanted to go to Hertha. Now there's a moral dilema. Sit on the bench at a struggling 2nd Division side, watching Euell do a very bad impression of a left winger, or go and play in the Bundesliga and (sucessfully) fight for a place in your national squad for the European Championships. ANY of our players would have done the same, ignoring the fact that Berlin is much closer to Czech Rep than Southampton.

3. Priced himself out of a move. Would you take a 40% pay cut to go and play for Ipswich? That doesn't mean he doesn't want to be here at all. It means he doesn't want to go to Ipswich.

4. You blame him for missing preseason and seem to be implying that because he chose to represent his country at the Euro's he doesn't want to play for Saints. Do you suppose Liverpool want rid of Torres for the same reason?

5. You "believe" he was poor in half a game? So you didn't actually see the game, but it sticks with your oppinion that he is sh*t and lazy, so you are taking it as gospel?

6. Even assuming he was poor in those 45 minutes (I'm not saying he wasn't), I'd say Davis was the only player who hasn't had a poor game so far. Better to try something that might not work, rather than stick with something which definitely isn't (a lesson Burley never learned).

6. He should be in the team because he has shown in the past to have natural ability on the ball and has more first team exerience under his belt than Gillett, Shneiderlin, DMG, Lallana, White, Surman and Holmes put together.

you really need to look further than hoddle imo

he would need money to spend (something that we dont really have),without money he would do just the same job as JP is doing.

hoddle is not the answer,money is the answer and as long as people refuse to attend home games it is something we will be without for a long time.

i know the only way to attract fans back is to play and win with style but this obviously isnt going to happen much this season so people need to bite their lip and come and support a team that will struggle,its not nice but they are your team and they need our vocal support as well as our financial support.

please dont give me some old sh1t about not coming because of lowe as it doesnt wash with me,they are your team they need you ,so get your arses along and support them.all of the stay aways never stayed away when we were in the prem and the 2003 cup run,lowe was in charge then as well by the way.

SFC, like any business, supplies a product to draw income. And, like any business, if you seriously degrade the quality of the product, you will lose customers. This is made worse by the fact that the price hasn't been lowered in accordance with the drop in quality.

Lets take it in some other context. Say a cinema was in financial difficulty and to save money they sell their projectors and sound system and replace them with a black and white projector with subtitles. Them to save money they only show old movies from the '80s.

Would you pay the same price as before to go and watch a movie there? Would you then tell the people who didn't to show more loyalty to the cinema?

If you lived in say Bournemouth, London, Oxford or even further away, would you travel to Southampton and back every weekend to watch Saints play? I am willing to bet the answer for a fair few people is no at the moment.

Until Skacel commits himself 100% to Saints, he can rot in the reserves.

Can't see the point in playing Skacel unless his head is right and he's totally committed to the cause.

 

IF he is deemed as physically and mentally fit, then I'd put him in at LB and push Surman foward.

WTF are you guys basing this assumption on? Just because he hasn't been picked for the team, doesn't mean he doesn't give a sh*t.

Sometimes I think people have been completely brainwashed by the "youth team good. Old players bad," propaganda on the OS.

Two thoughts on this.

1 - Since leaving us Hoddle really has acheived very little and would do no better than any other manager out there IMO.

2- I think our problem is the squad of players more than the manager. Our squad is just woefully should of both quality and depth and we are only shooting ourselves in the foot refusing to play Skacel. No manager would excel with this lot.