The Kraken

For me its more a case of cutting losses; I've not really seen enough of him to suggest that he can consistently get on the ball and influence games as much as he perhaps should. Plus I'd prefer to see Lallana in that number 10 role, which I think would play to his strengths much more and bring the best out of him; that would also allow us to bring in some real quality to play wide midfield as I don't see persisting with Rodriguez out there as our best option.

Has anyone said that then? Overall they've done well; some good signings so far, some poor signings so far.

If that's the case, why did you not comment on the judgement of Clyne, Yoshida and Rodriguez as good signings? If you can't judge on bad transfers, surely you can't judge on good transfers either, and they were worthy of as much detailed commentary from you as the "bad" ones?

Good lord

I don't think anyone is debating that fact, Michael.

I went shopping in town last Saturday, through West Quay and the precinct. I must have been there for at least an hour and I didn't see one Saints shirt being worn; not one. After the first day of PR banging the sales drum it would seem as if they've since nose dived. Compare that to the sash shirt which was seemingly everywhere in the first few days. Failure all round really.

Agree with this. Apart from the "we are better than that" part, in certain instances.

Nor do I

I don't think you understand the concept of how best to improve the side by utilising transfers By your methods we'd still have the same team that won promotion from League 1

Dear me, I think the idea is we get ones better than we already have, thus improving the side

Well being as, according to the club spokesman, the person involved was banned from the site I imagine someone felt some effect. Being as the likely outcome is that the work will have been undone and made good at the contractor's expense, I'd hazard a guess that it was fairly unprofessional stuff to cause your employer such unnecessary expense and poor advertising. Being as its perhaps unlikely that that company will be retained in future, the long term effect on the company is not a positive one. Being as he's a Pompey fan I guess there's a few on here who wouldn't be surprised to hear that. It's one thing to try out a poor wind-up; I'm still amazed at the utter stupidity of all the hassle he's caused himself by filming it and publishing it before the works have been signed off and paid. What a complete helmet.

Of course it was; it was also unprofessional and thoroughly f*cking stupid.

Liverpool is one of the best cities in the country to go out in, so its a bit pointless to highlight that various other towns and cities don't come up to scratch. Its a bit like saying Southampton isn't as good for a night out as London.

We've already got one of those in Rodriguez. And plenty of teams play with "wingers" despite the fact that the role has changed somewhat in recent years. Walcott, Chamberlain, Valencia, Nani, Moses, Zaha, Lennon, Milner (cr*p); all examples of wide players/"wingers" from the top clubs.

I doubt we'll ever know what the true level of season tickets sold is; they've never been revealed under the new regime and that probably won't change. But I doubt it'll be as high as that post-Cup final / pre-Europe level. Anything above 20K is very decent, at a complete guess I'd reckon on 21k or 22k.

Its not exactly unknown for us to hit that figure. Take 2003/04; 23,000 season tickets sold. Then factor in the 3,500 for segregation/away fans, corporate fans must be around 2,000 - 3,000, plus comps and family tickets for staff; playing sides with full allocations with those numbers you're probably only looking at around 2,000, 3,000 max regular tickets actually on sale per match.

That is true! Though hopefully my mates will have a slightly more sane grip on reality than some of our youtube scout-wannabes.

Depends who you listen to. A couple of Celtic sseason ticket holder friends of mine have said that he's a total bargain at £12M and will be playing for a top 4 club within a year or two. I suspect the rtuth is somewhere in between.

This seems to be the common consensus and one that I'd definitely agree with.

I'd rather we signed players and then played them in their strongest positions; the positions we bought them for. Seeing £20M of talent in JRod and Ramirez oftentimes not played in their strongest positions (never mind not played at all at times) was baffling.

I used to watch the youth team that Franny came up through a lot, and as a striker back then it's fair to say he was a fairly volatile character on the pitch. Gradually made his way back from striker to defender. It's testament to his work ethic and what he brought to the team that most if not all new managers that came in at Saints immediately dropped Franny but ended up reinstating him after a while, he must have been a superb addition to have around the squad, and he truly got how much it meant to play for his home town club. A top man too, by all accounts.

Giggidy.

For a legend like him you'd also have thought that more people would have realised his first name is Marians.

I remember being at the Dell in the 80s and seeing a banner some wag had made and taken along, reading: "Portsmouth. Scummers of the south". I have to admit; I've never understood their "pony fiddler" jibe. Perhaps there was an epidemic of equine tomfoolery in the SO area that completely passed me by.