The Kraken

Are you really that fickle that you believe one result proves anything about a whole season? The only thing this thread proves is that you have quite an unfortunate habit in being unable to see the good in a convincing win and despite that can quite contentedly carry on being a persistent voice of misery.

There's no point reasoning with idiots like that. Given the propensity that "Cloughie liked a bung", it would only be a true idiot Derby or Forest fan that would classify as him as anything but an absolute genius and complete legend. Nobody is saying Lawrie is a flawless character; but it is thoroughly sad that such a trivial and inconsequential matter as an expenses account can mean more in the scheme of things to some people than all of his achievements for the club. Of course, it's obviously a bit more than that. And nothing to do with the fact that most of his major detractors seem to have been of the "Lord Lowe" persuasion; no, certainly not.

I had the good fortune of being in the Terry Paine Ambassador's Suite for the final day survival game against Sheff Utd. The Ambassadors Suite is like the regular corporate suites but ratcheted up a notch or two. As part of his duties at the time it was Lawrie's responsibility to host the day in the suite, usually accompanied by a few ex players. On this occasion he had with him Glenn ****erill, Jim Steele and Nick Holmes, and we were lucky enough to be on the table next to theirs. Now obviously the result that day helped, but I have to say that being there for that day, have the big man welcome us, chat amongst us, give a few speeches throughout the day, and hear the reverence with which Jim Steele and Nick Holmes spoke of him; it all added up to the best day I've had watching Saints. Ever. Lawrie is perhaps one of the most engaging people I've seen connected with the club, and talks about Saints with real passion and knowledge. I truly think the club are missing a trick in not having him continue in this role. I don't know how much the tickets cost in the Ambassador's Suite (mine were a gift from my parents but I've heard in excess of £200) but whatever it was for me it was money well spent. And if some of that money (expenses or otherwise) goes into paying the host for being the central figure in such an overwhelmingly brilliant day , then that's alright with me. I've got far better things to do than be bitter about the fact that our best ever manager continued to earn a living from the club he helped develop.

I didn't fancy this tie in the first place, and I can't see us beating them. 1-3 for me. Although it would poetic brilliance for their last game in existence to be getting turned over by their fiercest rivals, I just can't see it happening.

Why? You do know that the Premier League / Football League have no determination on whether a member club goes into administration, right?

Actually agree with pretty much all of that. Spending money to have the likes of Thomas, Jaidi, Perry on the bench doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. And while I think Morgan and Hammond are a very good partnership, I've never really rated James and certainly not Wotton in that position. I've really not seen enough of Puncheon to suggest where his best position is, but if it is indeed left wing it seems strange that he's come in to challenge Lallana who has been one of the season's best performers and who AP clearly rates very highly. I think Hammond has been a big miss lately and hopefully when he returns we'll look a bit more solid. But I agree, perhaps we could have signed 1 less CB to instead buy a quality CM box to boxer.

Lallana has scored 13 goals from midfield this season. And despite your continual criticism of him, I'm yet to hear a suggestion of how we should better line up without him. I don't think I'll ever understand your problem with Lallana and Schneiderlin, I have no idea why you single those two out for so much criticism. Still, its your opinion, not mine.

As much as I think our current badge is a bit amateur looking, it is certainly unique and has become instantly recognisable as Saints. The original design and the various modifications here, while nice looking, really don't say "SFC" to me. For better or worse it's a simple design and has a good reflection of the club and the area. So I'd probably opt for something like the centenary badge with 125 instead of 100.

Dear God; how much lower do that rag have yet to stoop?

So you started this thread to get people's opinions; saw that the majority of opinions didn't tally with your own; then set off on a childish rant and accuse other supporters of "not being a proper fan" because they rank league promotion and a Wembley appearance above your season highlight of a one off FA Cup tie. File under idiot...

What a simple life you must lead.

This exactly. "They" don't even come onto my radar this season. Looking at it rationally they're a Prem team, and we're in League 1. We have bigger things on our agenda (promotion), so do they (staying in business, then relegation). As much as it would smart a bit losing to them, it's very low on my list of prioroties this season and I'd take a JPT final appearance and a few more wins in the league over one hollow victory against those bitter imbeciles.

The Echo didn't need to miss the reporting altogether. They could have run a pre-feature article explaining that the club were officially announcing full details of the plans the following day, and that all details would be contained in the following day's edition. It probably would have increased their circulation figures for both days. I'd suggest the mojority of people who buy the paper don't also read read the online editions or other online news sources so it would be less of a concern to them that the news was a day older than it perhaps could have been. Unfortunately the Echo chose to chase a minor scoop, and despite being asked to hold off for official details and (perhaps more importantly) comments from the club they stole the club's thunder to make the big announcement. Right or wrong, it wouldn't have hurt the Echo to wait 24 hours before going to press. What has happened since is childish from both parties.

It really isn't. This coming part of the season was always going to be hugely important, either for this campaign and/or next year. Unlike you I won't be giving up this season's promotion push until its mathematically impossible, but it is looking increasingly unlikely that it won't happen this year. However, from now until the end of the season is when the side really need to start finding their consistency, putting strings of consistently strong performances together and getting back that winning mentality. If we make the playoffs this year then great; but if not we need to finish the season as one of the top form teams of the division so that the summer is spent making small modifications to a winning team rather than wholesale changes. Then we can hit the next season running. So to that end, our form from here on in means everything. This season's expectations have divided opinion amongst many on here, but there is very little doubt that pretty much everyone (including Pardew, Cortese etc) views the initial goal of this project to get out of League 1 within two seasons. Not getting promoted in half that time is ibviously a bone of contention for some, but I for one am still looking at the bigger picture.

I've seen him play a few times as I've got mates who are Palace fans but, watching him again on TV right now, Danns definitely looks like just the sort of player we could do with right now. Very busy but skillful, composed and with an eye for goal. Shame.

And released from the club (contract expired) at the end of the 2008/09 season were: Svensson, Hatch, McNish, Davies, Smith. But you'd probably only count Ryan Smith as an actual first team player. Whatever; it's a fairly hefty turnaround of players!

Cheers John; Saints' Soccerbase page is really not very well maintained; I had to fill in a couple of gaps myself but clearly missed those. It's quite interesting when you hear Pardew say our squad is too big; yet by those calculations we actually have a smaller squad than when we were relegated. Not that our relegation side was anything that should be used as a benchmark, or course....

So the Echo estimate we've spent £3M, which coincidentally is the same amount we received for sales of players in the summer. Out have gone 8 players: McGoldrick, Dyer, Surman, Wright-Phillips, Euell, John, Rasiak, Paterson. In have come 10 players: Murty, Harding, Lambert, Hammond, Jaidi, Fonte, Seaborne, Otsemebor, Barnard, Puncheon. Currently out on loan are: Poke, White, Lancashire, Thomson, McKlaggon. Currently at the club on loan are: Waigo, Antonio. It certainly shows what an overhaul of the club we've seen in the past 6 months or so.

This strikes me as being an excellent suggestion. Quite frankly, the more the merrier should we get to Wembley; to suggest that some fans are less welcome than others is completely absurd. There just needs to be an element of fairness to the distribution of tickets, and this would seem the best way. That way anyone who has been to just a handful of games can pretty much be guaranteed a ticket, and those that haven't take their chances. Up to 40,000 tickets available though; can't see this being a problem.

I think it'll just be a classic style collared shirt with red and white stripes. That's what is typically associated with the club down the years, and what the first "Southampton FC" team wore. I wouldn't have minded the above as an away or 3rd shirt, but it certainly doesn't strike me as being traditional to our history. Although Arsenal's plum coloured home shirt was a step away from the usual and I liked the idea of that....

Perhaps something like this (based upon the Umbro England kit....)

And also comment about how much nicer Norwich's kit is, and why couldn't we have one as good as that.

I don't know enough about Puncheon, but the one thing I'd have thought we were missing was a CM player who will weigh in with a few goals; a League 1 Lampard, if you like. If Puncheon is that man then great, I think we have all we need. Otherwise that's the only place I can see where we may be a bit light.

I agree. One particluar (doom-laden) poster often refers to Saints as the "Man City of League 1". So let's have a look at City (all figures from Soccerbase). 2006/07 season, finished 14th. Throughout close season and January transfer window City bought: Bianchi, Geovanni, Petrov, Corluka, Elano, Caicedo, Benjani, Bojinov. Total spend £32M (+ Corluka undisclosed). End of 2007/08 season, finished 9th. Throughout close season and January transfer window City bought: Jo, Ben-Haim, Kompany, Wright-Phillips, Berti, Zabaleta, Robinho, Bridge, Bellamy, De Jong, Given. Total spend £92M (+ Ben Haim, Zabaleta, de Jong and Given undisclosed). End of 2008/09 season, finished 10th. Throughout close season and January transfer window City bought: Barry, Santa Cruz, Taylor, Tevez, Adebayor, Toure, Slyvinho, Lescott, Viera. Total spend £93M (+ Tevez undisclosed). Current position 6th. Moral of the story; success takes time and spending vast amounts on players is no guarantee of immediate success. Even if we are supposedly the Man City of League 1 it's clearly still going to take time for the team to settle and the class to consistently shine through.

As an aside, I thought the three club rule only applied to permanent moves and not loans. It seems I'm wrong with that. And if that's the case, then it would mean that Saints can't loan out Lancashire to anyone but Grimsby. Doesn't make an awful lot of sense to count loan moves to me.