SNSUN

There's a hole in your defence, Dear Nigel Dear Nigel, There's a hole in your defence, dear Nigel a hole. Oh, this isn't the "chants I hope we NEVER sing" thread?

Barton, while a half decent player, was a massive tempramental risk, Wright-Phillips is massively overrated - his talent is based on pace, which he'll lose quickly in his early thirties. Young is past it and Ferdinand is not brilliant either. Add to that Zamora, Cisse and Taiwo and you've got a wage bill that will eventually cripple you. Especially if they go down tomorrow, which unlikely, I hope happens.

I agree with others, Defoe is a class act and perhaps Englands second best striker. It doesn't surprise me he finds himself out in the cold with Redknapp as his manager though. Whoever he goes to will have a good player. I'd rather we sign good players than names though. The Norwich style of signings over QPR's anytime please.

I've been re-re-reading MLT's autobiography and Ball as manager brought about his best period. A manager that knew a good player when he saw one and had contacts in the game to boot. Should've stayed, as Hoddle should've. Bugger stats, Adkins is the best for me. Two promotions in two seasons, I'd like to have seen the others manage that.

Was that the sponsor on Kevin Keegans shirt in his time playing for us? Mark Zuckerberg is older than he looks.

We "lucky" Tube workers got driven around the Olympic village on a bus as a "treat" and I must say it is a god awful structure. A real eye sore. It's supposed to represent the Olympic rings but it doesn't. Mind you, I think Modern Art is pants, in my uncultured way.

Lidl/Aldi, or in even more run down areas, "independent supermarkets" serving food from around the globe. (Especially Polish.) I was in Hounslow today as you can tell. CCTV on every street. Police that prefer doing paperwork. Litter next to a bin. (The bin may or may not have been set on fire.) Bus Stops that smell like fresh sex. A general smell of wee or poo.

I wouldn't be surprised if Adkins and Pardew were fighting it out for the England job in a few years too...

Despite not being from Hampshire, on my oft family holidays to the area (Hampshire and Dorset) I used to love listening to Radio Solent - especially this song they used to play on match days. Loved the song ever since.

http://www.oldfootballshirts.com/en/teams/s/southampton/old-southampton-football-shirts-t40.html There's a few old shirts on here. My personal favourite is: because dspite it being blue it was smart and went well with jeans. :-D I also like: for it's simplicity. As long as it's not:

Big bet on West Ham next weekend, a sort of 'happy either way' scenario.

I was actually chuffed when we he joined, because he was a high profile name for a League One side. (Especially one that had a challenge as we did of the -10 points.) He had money at his disposal, and he signed the players he thought could do the job of promotion. They did, and he will always be the manager that signed Lambert. He also guided us to Wembley, and won us a trophy. However I do think that any manager worth his salt could've done just as good a job as him, given the finances Markus had afforded the club, and ultimately after things started going stale, Cortese made the correct decision to appoint Adkins. Pardew would've gotten us promoted IMO, but not as quickly as Adkins did. What Adkins has done is nothing short of miraculous.

What has happened to us, the downs downs downs then the ups ups ups, in the last 3 years have, weirdly, been good for us. But the best way to have spent it would have been in a coma, just waking up this summer after, say, the summer of '04. Had we stayed up though, I do think we'd have strengthened over that summer and done better the following season, especially in defence. Also the likes of Walcott and Bale would have come through. Perhaps less early than they did, due to restricted chances, but they would. Harry Redknapp though would never have left had he kept us up - we'd have ended up worshipping him due to him pulling off a great escape. (eeeewwwwww I feel dirty for saying that...)

Up to a point I'd agree - Cork and Fox have been consistant if unspectacular, Jos was a masterstroke (although I admit that could have gone both ways) and Sharp was inspired (although anyone towards the top of the table could have seen he'd do a job for them.) - but they've been far from very poor. They have all strengthened the squad to the point we got promoted, and only two other nPC managers can boast that. I agree Pardews' signings were more successful in the long run, but I would reserve judgement until we can see what he does this summer at a level he's not used to.

Even £2 million is too much. Based on his age (he's no spring chicken) and his form in the second half of the season, we'd be lucky to get a million for him. Perhaps if we had sold him in January we'd have got £2mill, but not now.

He is indeed. He should never have left us.

I won't question Falque's talent, it's hard to judge based on one cameo, but I do think it was a bit of a panic loan. We'd had a bad run of games, players were dropping out injured and he was brought in to solidify things. Wasn't that the spell where Fox was playing at centre back?

I'd just like to thank you guys for the lovely link to www.buggermefrombehind.com. It was most useful. (The above may have been a lie.)

Actually, if you're in the know about you not knowing who we'll sign, then you are in fact in the know about not being in the know. Ahem, no signings yet? Buck your ideas up Saints. :-)

With the team as it is? Yes, I'd bite your hand off. After a summer of transfer activity? Probably not. But if it meant we could continue to rebuild the team to make us a force in the Premiership, then yes. Look at Newcastle, while they had more of a Premiership core of players than we do, less than two seasons after promotion they have a team fighting for third place with some quality players in their team.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jan/17/newcastle-freiburg-pa****-demba-cisse

I remember this prediction - definitely coincidence but impressive nonetheless. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4832776.stm

We'd be overpaying by about £8 million! He's OOC, and will go to a top club. Sadly.

**** Man Utd 3-0 at St Marys. Man Utd change their shirts, claiming Rooney looks too fat in grey. They change to blue, which doesn't solve the problem, then change into red, which still makes him look fat. Eventually they go with skins, which answers the question of why Rooney looks fat. Goals scored by Jos, Rickie (penalty, a foul on Sharp by Evra which results in his sending off) and Morgan (with a 30 yard screamer). The Saints are back in town. All the newspapers report how dire Man Utd are, only the newly formed News Of The World giving us any credit whatsoever.

With Rickie and Sharpy thin and fit, the motivational Rhino was no longer needed. (Other motivational animals such as Hippos and Elephants are available.)