The Kraken

I agree with that. But I just got the impression from an early time that Reading were very keen to give him a go in pre-season and make the decision from there. And by all accounts he did well for them when he has played, so the chances of them wanting to let him go must have slimmed an awful lot, they wouldn't get a lot of money for him and he's probably on low wages so it's not really a gamble for them. I've still been hoping that they'd decide he's surplus to requirements but its looking less and less likely, even more so with notching today.

Why would he agitate for a move to a lower league club? Especially if he has the confidence in himself that he'll break through into the first team. Much better on a personal level to do that in the Championship than in League One.

Christ, that's arguably our 4 most important players out injured. Hope it's just a precaution for next week otherwise we're going to really struggle.

True. Anyway, as I've perviously said I'm well beyond where I'd like to be without the full facts, and I'm sure they'll come out eventually.

I fail to see the connection though DD; surely by that rationale the club would also be looking to cut out the likes of DBP who made money from his coach scheme. Then you're getting into the fellas on street corners who sell flags and merchandise, where does it end? Like I said, I would very much agree with you if that was definitely the reason NI is unable to get a season ticket. But surely, even if it were the case, why the veil of secrecy whereby they won't even tell him why he is excluded? That on its own makes little sense to me, whatever the reason ends up to be.

This is massive speculation on my behalf, granted, but if he has not been allowed to buy a season ticket why should he be any moe successful trying to buy a matchday ticket? Anyway, I'm getting well beyond where I wanted to be without being in posession of the full facts.

If that were indeed the reason for this, then I would of course agree with you. I just don't think it is though, and is more a reflection of his previous article(s) about the club.

I think the whole point of this is precisely that he can't do this.

I think this sorry episode again highlights the major communications breakdown inherent at the club. The club are seemingly intent on putting up a huge barrier between themselves and the fan base, whereby the only conduit of information comes through the official site. Previously supporters were able to contact individual staff members directly for answers to personal or public questions, this is now seemingly being severely restricted. Akin to the Daily Echo ban, this smacks of bitterness and supreme pettiness by SFC.

Just another talking shop for the same old faces to get their oxygen of publicity. No thanks.

There are and can be no excuses for the season ahead; a substantially slow start to the season will be met with criticism of the manager and team, and rightly so.

First of all I don't believe friendly results are meaningless; while I also don't believe they're hugely important, I do think there is definitely some significance to putting together a good win/performance or two to get the team into the right mentality. I'd certainly much rather we won all our pre-season games than lost them, that's for sure. That said, I can also see the separation between the "lack of pre-season" last year and the comparisons to this year. Last year was seen as a lack of pre-season as most of our current players did not arrive until the season was underway; similarly AP only had 3 or 4 weeks to work with the squad prior to the big kick off. This season, while results are below par of what we hope for, the fact is that the players have had a reasonable amount of time with the manager and each other to prepare for the season ahead; so even despite the fact that the results aren't yet up to scratch, I can go along with the argument that all the other pre-season training with the bulk of the squad is still taking place. I have always maintained though that if we got into August without being very close to the full squad for the season ahead I'd start to get concerned. Yes, I know that the window is open until the end of August and beyond for loans, but I still think we're 3 players short for the whole campaign, and the injuries to Lallana and Punch show how light we are in those areas. So I'm hoping to see at least 1 signing by the end of the week to start to address this. Our first XI is still perfectly good enough to kick off the campaign, but it would be nice to have the backup in place with the squad before long.

Without knowing what wages he was on it's hard to say what he'd be looking for. That said, he may have completely had enough of living in a foreign country and be willing to take a significant step down in wages just to return. I'd certainly like to see him sign, but won't be holding out too much expectation for it. Think he's probably a shade below Premier League level now but could easily do a job in the Championship.

“It's not been until now, the third week into July, that I have been able to begin to make discussions and contact with potential new clubs" Yet another example of how, as much as we would all like them to be made earlier, not all transfers can be conducted by the first week in June.

Agree, but as AP has been beating the drum since close season about his desire to bring in a new striker as cover for RL and a new wide man I tend to discredit the theory that he's only now just realising we're a bit short in these areas. I still also believe we'll make use of the loan system so unfortunately may not complete all the signings we probably need until beyond the season gets underway. But as long as the majority of our players are available for Plymouth I'm confident we can get through those first few games with few troubles until the final reinforcements arrive.

“The next couple of weeks I would look to bring in a couple of players if I can to strengthen us offensively a bit.” Tick tock, tick tock. Without Lallana and with Puncheon doubtful we really are shorn of a lot of our attacking threat. Need to sort this asap, which I'm sure we will.

Last year Alpine predicted we would finish 16th - 18th. Being as this year he thinks we'll do worse, I can only surmise we're going to have a relegation dogfight on our hands this year.

Alpine's wind ups are getting worse and worse.

Spot on.

We get the message FFS.

Yet an unfortunate Crystal Palace second string side (in all likelihood sober and disease-free) lost 2-1 to the same Sutton Utd team last week.

I can't believe I just wasted 10 minutes looking through your depressing post history to pluck these out, but here you go. Lallana and Schneiderlin can't cut it and should be replaced. August 2009. Morgan Schneiderlin, "Strong contender for Most Overrated Player at Saints, currently, imo." and "He's not what we need for League 1, imo." September 2009 "List the players still at SFC with suspect temperament/commitment. Saga Lallana Schneiderlin Anyone else?" September 2009 "Can anyone see Cortese putting up with this much longer ? Sorry, I cannot. He's an experienced professional who has given huge support to the manager and players who arent delivering. I expect to see more changes in personnel over the next couple of months." September 2009. Anyway, as I said you're much more prone to making negative, controversial statements and sniped against the club that usually can't be proved or disproved one way or the other. Although I did quite enjoy your assertion earlier where you think we'll get off to as bad a start to the season as we did last year.

Because he doesn't offer solutions to anything; just unsubstantiated criticism that cannot be proved or disproved one way or the other. Ask for any solutions to a problem and you'll just get a response telling you that the manager should be capable of making those decisions. Although when he does venture out of his comfort zone and predict things (rather than just snipe) he shows up his cluelessness; for instance at the start of last season by claiming that Lallana and Schneiderlin did not warrant their places in the team and should be replaced. And I happily predict that his doom-laden predictions of us getting off to as bad a start as last season will add to his list of wrongness.

And proven wrong many more times too.

Calm down Tubby. This is from The Evening Standard back in February... "Southampton manager Alan Pardew is lining up a summer move for Barnet winger Albert Adomah". I think even by your harsh standards that's pretty early recognition that the wide areas need strengthening. And AP can hardly be blamed for not signing Antonio if Reading want to keep hold of him, which appears the case right now.