Red

This! If NC wants a change than fair enough it's up to him, but pay the guy who delivered his 5 year vision in 3, his full contract and then some as gratitude. NC, IMO has been great for us, but he does have a tendency for some strange decisions, and it does not make any business sense either - if true of course! Company I work for (Global multinational), conduct an annual independent (IDC) study and it concluded that negative news about a company gets 10 times the attention than a good news story! No real surprise). Must be more to this that we are not aware of? NC - just pay NA his full contract and any bonuses he may have achieved depending on where we end up - end of!

Ha Ha Ha - Pot, Kettle, Black, Calling ...... this has to be the funniest post of the year!! Who is the king of the Neg's? .... can't decide, very tough call. Luckily, and more importantly, the game is much simpler - we will win hands down if "turn up on the day".

Maybe 180? 360 would put you back exactly where you started from :-) Sorry couldn't resist! Good move however, hope he keeps it up now that he is secure?

Why don't you just man up and admit you are a tosser? We lost - it happens, just get over it. Frankly they deserved the win, in spite of our poor luck, just not our day. Interestingly enough for people who thought AP was a tactical mug, I think he got it spot on today, and picked the best tactic to counter our system perfectly - as shown on MOTD2. Exciting as our new system is, there is a way to counter it, and Newcastle did it perfectly. Hopefully not too many other teams will do likewise for the rest of the games??

Thought we were generally poor today - may be too long a break? However without the two gifts for France day we would have drawn! Just hope it does not matter at the end of the season.

I for one do - keep it up! Good of you to make the effort - I keep an eye out for 2 or 3 other teams for various reasons (lived there, relatives associated with club etc. etc.), but can't muster the effort to even view their site let alone post!

So ericb, are you man enough to stand by your claim? I will definitely place a bet with you!

How much and what odds? Serious question - make it worthwhile and I'm in - given that it's a "fact" I have all to lose so make it attractive! Naturally need an exact date (within two years) for my side and for you when the sale officially happens (within said two years).

Yep - I just wonder how many of us just don't bother commenting more as the kids kick off all the time? Me for one! FFS this is a Saints forum, so let's stick to Saints comments - if you for what ever reason disagree with a "Saints" related comment then say so (no harm doing it nicely either!). For personal comments and worse, why not go to your own part of the forum some where else - I am sure the Mods would create your own "mine is bigger than your's" part of the site, to stop boring the utter crap out of those of us who just what to banter about the mighty Saints! Loving "The Project" so far BTW :-)

If you look closely, it seems he almost bottles out of it, until several team mates point to him and egg him on to do it - which shows they rehearsed it and shows a great team spirit, and that the team are reacting / acknowledging the crowd banter re: Punch chants. Great bit of humor as far as I am concerned - similar to the Charlie George (one man went to mow) and Roy Keane (where's your jacket) goads - for the older supporters! Wasn't there also one about Shilton and "playing away"? Can't quite remember that one, but seem to remember it was funny at the time.

This. If we can really press them hard from the off, we can knock MC off their stride and not let them settle, but not sure we can maintain that for the whole game - if we do we will win I am sure. Yes, Aguero is a concern, but only if he is allowed the right delivery and time - cut off the supply by the early and quick pressing and he can be nullified. And please sort out the defensive tactics - either we play for off side by quick exit, or we have two men on the posts, but not a half way house.

Agreed, and it is going to take time. However, in yesterday's game we only really pressed well and early for about a third of the game, which is when we looked most dangerous. Maybe a fitness issue, but our worst spell of not pressing was most of the first half, so not sure that is the full reason. I think in the heat and pressure of the game, we revert back to type (understandably), and so it is going to take a while for the players to adapt to the new system - just hope we have that time? BTW - interesting comment about Clyne by Left Peg, and I agree, but find it strange as he is young, energetic and full of running, so would have thought the new system would have suited him better??

oh - give it a rest! Sure you would have been over moon if he was sacked for Glenda!

I don't care how good your bowel control is - everyone is going to learn how to wash their kegs in public if anyone pulls the Punch stunt again!!

Well I guess you don't work in sales then? Real challenge is when the customer says NO (or rather when he prefers the competition), and then it's down to selling your value add (vision in this case) versus the competition (as long as you genuinely believe in it). NC is no mug - he has consistently sold our vision to many who could have joined bigger / higher division clubs. Not 100% of time granted, but more than his fair share. If Coutinho talks to us and looks over St. Mary's prior to making a decision, and he would silly not to evaluate all his options, we might have a chance. Having said this, I agree €13M seems quite a gamble - TW and Oxo went for about the same (considering the exchange rate at the time). No idea about the wages, but would sooner have our old boys back! As some have mentioned, it is dreamland stuff that we are now bidding for these caliber of players!

This! Also, I just wonder if Shaw in particular isn't a strong clue here? We spent a fair bit on Fox in CL, and the widely held view was we were improving on what we already had and he would step up to the mark if we got promoted, which we did. Only then we try and sign Buttner (clear sign NA does not think Fox is up to it in PL), who ends up at MU but is not really a great success. We continue with Fox, and only when we are in dire straights do we try Shaw - who turns out to be excellent and easily better than all of the above! Add to that, that we potentially have another one or two left backs nearly as good or better in future, and makes you wonder why we didn't make more effort in areas we were much weaker in (CB, Keeper). Possibly to a lesser extend you could make the same argument for JWP - played a lot early on and then did not get a look in - is he any worse than some lately?? So possibly NC did not see NA as having the best judgement on when to introduce the academy plays with ability at the right time - not all at once but one or two when they were good enough?

Completely agree - except why does it have to be a blue line?? Why not red or black or in the sand or ....... well you get the picture BTW - agree it could have been handled better, but did NA really get a raw deal from us? We picked him up from the obscurity of S****horpe, gave him a great contract and lots of dosh to build a great team to get promotion from L1, and NPC (which was probably unexpected, but great credit to him). So now he has a great reputation (thanks to us and the money he had to spend), was well paid, and will no doubt get generous compensation, and will absolutely get a much better and higher profile job than he would have if he was just moving from S****horpe. He would not have done the double promotion with anyone else as they would not have given him the funds, and certainly not with Scunny! So good luck Nig - you served us well, but think we also greatly helped your career progress - as long as you get a decent new job soon (which is a "home banker"), all should be well!

Ah, but will people admit they went OTT or were simply wrong, should that happen? I for one am not holding my breath!!

Er Yes, to the first point! Look at the mirror Pochettino article carefully, and the clues are there - he likes a passing and pressing type of game, not allowing the opposition to settle, and playing/building from the back (guess what Sherlock - exactly Forren's strengths). In all most all of our games, we have hung on for dear life at the end of games, sometimes failing. Whilst we did not concede, it has been particularly evident in the last three games. People should really think before engaging foot in mouth!

Yes! HTH

Brilliant - made me laugh and puts today in to some sort of context!

I think this is the reason - only thing that can explain the timing - NA unable or unwilling or both to get players NC believes we need (both in the summer and now), so get rid now and give the new man a fighting chance to get the new players in before the window closes. If he can't get semi decent players in, then he has no hope of getting the real good ones as we progress?? Gutted BTW.

Out of interest, are you sure about that? I thought player still had to be registered by noon Friday for games moved from the usual Saturday fixture - I am sure that is the case for Sunday games - not quite so sure for Monday, but is the FA open Sunday for player registrations (outside of deadline Sunday)?? Do agree that we would not have been foolish enough to let Seaborne go without cover - unless Fonte is back??

Yep agree with that - probably even in terms of who has had a better game in the last 10 or so games. Since AL has been injured (and also earlier in the season when he was off form), and before anyone gets in a spin, it happens, all players have a spell of bad form - does not make them a bad player, just that for some reason they do not perform at their peak (Rooney??), we have struggled to find effective cover on the left. Gaston is crap on the left, which is clearly not his position, so why play him there? His best position is in the hole (or #10 striker), but then RL has played that role in recent games and has been very effective, AL could also play well here! We have tried Guly and JRod on the left and both have been hit and miss really. Personally, I think Guly is better in the hole or upfront. So I think we have too many options for "the hole" (if you pardon my expression) and none for the left (even when AL is fit again, I think he would be much more effective in the second striker role personally). I know Punch has been great on the right, but I would put him on the left, Gas on the right, RL in the hole and JRod upfront. Hindsight and all that, but we should have spent our £12M on a superb lefty (can we covert one of our three excellent LB prospects to LM?). I think Gas will be an outstanding player for us in time, it's just that we need to survive for now or he will be off in any case. It's a pity some of the new recruits haven't worked out or taken their opportunity (TL, Mayuka) or indeed likes of Deridder!