The Kraken

Exactly this. The sheer scale of our attractiveness could have been our undoing; ownership of Jacksons Farm, training ground, city centre ground plus countless other assets, all extremely attractive opportunities for developers to come in and make a quick buck potentially to the detriment of the football team. As I said earlier the administrator has a duty to extract the best deal for the creditors. The needs and desires of the football club come a distant second to that, thereby putting us at the mercy of the whims of the highest bidder. Add in the fact that our adminsistrator was led a merry dance by a bunch of chancers, you'd also have to question his ability to recognise what was or wasn't a decent future for the club. We got very lucky with the owners we got.

Wes, don't get me wrong I'm with you, I always thought it was more likely than not that we'd emerge from administration in better shape than before; and given the massively concerted efforts of a very significant portion of the fanbase in previously trying to get rid of Lowe, then a lot of supporters couldn't really try to claim the higher ground if it did go t*ts up. But even despite that, while I of course fully accepted that administration was the only realistic avenue for us to take, I'd be lying if I said I saw it as anything but a huge gamble with who we'd end up with in charge. And like you say, thank God we avoided the chancers and charlatans and emerged with the real deal.

You make it sound as if it were a simple option we had up our sleeve; that's not quite how administration worked for us. We were placed into administration at the behest of the bank when they deemed we could no longer sustain paying back our overdraft facility. Given that you recognise how much worse off we would/could have been with SISU, does it not highlight the potential pitfalls of administration, and who your club can end up being owned by? as you say, we got extremely lucky with the owners we ended up with; but I really wouldn't care to speculate just how bad it could have been instead. Administration was always going to be a massive gamble. Yes, we were very attractive to a well-intentioned investor; but we were also very attractive to any old punter looking for a quick way to make money. And the job of the administrator is to find the best deal for the creditors, not for the football club and it's future endeavours. History does tell us that, in many cases, clubs have entered administration and (after the initial setbacks) come out much stronger. But there are also clubs that have actually come off worse from adminsitration too; that could have happened to us too. The likelihood was that administration was going to be the best option to us, but I don't think I'd have massive issue with anyone who didn't just assume everything would be fine and approached the whole scenario with a good deal of trepidation.

I'm not saying it would at all; I've never suggested that. But claiming that we'd hold on to our top players should top 4 clubs come sniffing around is just a bit naive IMO.

Cortese says we will live within our means, rater than be financially bankrolled. Which means that no, we cannot compete in the wages department; certainly not with the top 4 or 5 clubs, not even close. We will always be a selling club; there's no great shame to it. Even Manchester United lost Cristiano Ronaldo when a bigger and more attractive club came knocking. Liverpool lost Torres for the same reason. Competing with that while still living within our means is just impossible.

If the big clubs like Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea come calling for our top young stars then we're not going to be any more successful in holding on to them as we have done in the past.

It's splitting hairs but I don't consider tying Hooiveld to a contract to be a new signing. Aside from that, I think if we do do go up we would take a similar approach to this year's window by making another 3 or 4 additions in the summer; with a striker in the window, to be fair it's not far away from 6 or 7 like you suggest.

I'd be amazed if we signed 3 new players in January. I can definitely see a striker, but the only extra addition I'd expect would be Hooiveld, and I wouldn't count that as a new signing. If we do go up then yes, I'd expect us to lose the likes of Dickson, Forte, Holmes and Jaidi. But we don't rely on them anyway; they're not first teamers right now, some are not even first reserves. If we do sign a striker in the window it will be with the Premier League in mind; and from then onwards I just can't see us needing or signing another 6 players. Lets hope we find out which one of us is right or wrong.

7? You think 7 of our current first team players are incapable of stepping up? Which ones do you think? I think it would be totally against Adkins' way of thinking "together as one" to make that many sudden changes. 3 or 4 new signings at maximum is what I'd imagine.

Nice to see one of ours appear on an opposition site and appear eloquent and not in search on winding them up and taking the p*ss. But I think he does gloss over our takeover a little, as if administration is a definite answer. It isn't. We should never, ever forget that we got massively lucky by being taken over by a billionaire. The Pinnacle debacle highlights the chancers that are out there; there was absolutely no guarantee we would get new owners as good as the ones we have. Look at that lot down the road, they've been in admin a couple of times and have a rag tag collection of crooks and shady characters in control of them. Of course, Coventry have far better facilities than them, but not having ownership of the stadium is a massive disadvantage to them. Administration doesn't always bring the owners you hope for; it's a roll of the dice and is no guarantee of an upturn in fortunes.

Yeah, I was agreeing with you, if that didn't come across! There are some positions where I think we might need to improve (jury out on Richardson, Connolly, Hammond, Schneiderlin, Davis and still Hooiveld IMO) but I think at least half might actually surprise a few people and make a seamless step up. Even still I don't think the side we have right now would be terrible, certainly not any worse than the bottom 5 or 6 Premier League sides right now. And with the obvious few improvements we would make I don't think it would be an enormous step up to hit mid-table. But obviously that's a long way away yet, and there's still lots of hard work to be done in this division.

I think what Norwich and Swansea are doing in the Premier League show that you don't necessarily need to make wholesale changes to survive; those two are doing ok despite keeping the nucleus of their sides and improving in a select few positions. As much as the PL is a closed shop for the Champions League places, the bottom half is much of a muchness. Wolves, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, West Brom, Stoke etc, mediocre sides who play for survival every year. And I believe we have a spine of a side who, while would need adding to, could still compete with a small number of additions.

Thankfully I don't think the scenario would actually happen; if we were unfortunate enough to lose both Lambert and Lallana for an extended period I do believe we would look to replace one or both of them with a new/loan signing.

It all depends how you'd classify "f**ked", really. I think it would scupper our automatic promotion potential, for sure. I also think it would impact massively on our play-off potential. So in a sense, yes, I do agree. It wouldn't of course, turn us into a poor team; but I think it would take us right out of the running as one of the top 4 or 5 sides without those two and with Guly and Connolly/Barnard up front.

Ultimately of course, we all hope that we'll never find out, in which case it's just a subjective opinion. I think we can agree that in Lallana and Lambert we have two players who any side in the division would welcome into their side. And you're right that Adkins would certainly look to change things around if we lost them; I just genuinely disagree that a forward line of Guly and Connolly would have anywhere near the effect we currently have, and especially without Lallana weighing in.

IMO you very much under-estimate the impact that Lallana and Lambert have on us. Lallana is earning more and more plaudits this year than ever before, the BBC yesterday classified him as "by some distance the best midfielder in the division", and I see no reason to disagree with that. Its a statitstical fact that we are significantly worse off without him. And as for Lambert, he completely dictates the way that we play and would be an enormous loss; he wins most headers played up to him, but most of all he holds the ball up and brings the rest of the team into our attacking play. I think without those two we might struggle to hit the top 6.

I feel a bit sorry for Kean; he's clearly massively out of his depth as a manager and a stooge for the owners. The parallels between him and Wigley/Gray are obvious, but I always find it a bit sad when there are such focussed campaigns intent on having a seemingly reasonable enough man fired from his job. Saying that, the decision to hire him (and put him on a five year contract) was just a disaster waiting to happen, and I suppose he'll be well compensated if he does get the gun.

Together as one. We're all on the bus. It's as simple as that.

Wow, 3 players in 12 years, we're a really unforgiving bunch aren't we? And none of those were under Adkins' stewardship, which was the point of the original comment.

Really? Aside from Hooiveld (who has clearly proved a few people wrong) who else was this true for?

It's probably a conspiracy. Or something else. Get over it. We were the main game for the previous 2 weeks. And tonight the second game. Stop bleating.

Always said he would be a class addition; Harding is decent, but Fox is a step up. Great signing.

I truly don't believe that anything you've said in the past about Saints would lead other fans to think you're a loonie...... Certainly not the bit where you promised that, upon Nigel Adkins' appointment, you would stop supporting the side as it was the biggest mistake ever. And also that you promised you would stop frequenting this board. How did that work out? Your "wind-ups" are so sh*t, I do wonder why you actually put the effort in. Is that really the best you can do?

I'm not sure what he could do that Rickie Lambert couldn't. And being as RL is so important to us, in that we play through him and he will therefore not miss many games through choice, I don't see the point in signing someone similar but less good. If we do sign a striker (and I do think we will in January) it will, I imagine, be someone very different from the options we have right now.

Does it? Wow. But then you do seem rather odd and contrary, so you carry on and I'll do the same.