saint1977

Indeed Nick, Leon really came up for Saints when it mattered. There doesn't seem to be anyone in their consortium who really has the clout to do the same and living in Devon these days, their so-called fans buyout looks rather different to the one at Exeter! I cannot see how they can service potentially £14-18m of liabilities if people on here are correct - and it could be more - in League 2, without a sugar daddy of some kind. That's without the considerable working capital they will need, especially with the wages they have been used to paying and lack of bringing young players through - O'Neill, Harris and Magri excepted but that's poor for a club that have spent the last 20+ years in the top 2 divisions. I have to say, I don't think they have gotten away with it anymore....

Sensible post as usual from you Crowds, I'm gutted but I can't bring myself to barrack the new guy. Hopefully we have a venting of frustration on Monday as we had after Pardew's sacking at the Rochdale game (but with a far better result!) and then we have a continuation of progress. I'm probably being stupidly over-optimistic but it's either that or the club nosedives and we end up back where we were pre-Markus.

The racism isn't surprising - just look at the reaction to the BBC article on the EU. There are plenty of thick people out there, after all someone has to vote UKIP. Nevertheless, I feel sick for Nigel - awful decision. I will support Nigel but won't direct any abuse at this new guy, I don't want a repeat of the Chelsea Di Matteo/Rafa situation. However, the Everton performance will tell us plenty about the players view on this - I expressed concern early on that they weren't playing for Nigel but boy they have been giving everytning for him since which is why this is so unfathomable. Will be furious if Guly starts ahead of Rickie on Monday night as S Clarke and others have suggested.

I'm stunned - I mean we've all seen some nutty decisions with Saints over the last 25 years but this tops the lot, I mean this is worse than Guy 'Biscuit Tin' Askham appointing Ian Long Ball Branfoot or Lowe's foolish Dutch disaster. I've been pro Cortese until now but it needed to be a top manager to dislodge Nigel, not a non-English speaking Espanyol flop. WTF are the players thinking right now? It's pretty clear what the fans think of it. Speechless and getting texts from all my mates from around the UK asking what the heck our Chairman is up to. So sorry for Nigel - bet he gets an NPC job with a club on the fringes now, he gets up via the play offs and we pass him. It'd be what we deserved as well. 'One Nigel Adkins' for 90 minutes solid on Monday please.

We aren't losing as many late goals as we were in 2004/5 though Adrian - like Boro home which was so demoralising. Also, that squad had far more PL experience but the club was in utter turmoil at the time which it clearly isn't at present, which probably didn't help that squad allied to a lack of fitness after the Sturrock/Wigley debacles. It's probably related to concentration at this level but I honestly can't recall that many goals conceded at key times in the last 10 this season. Jerome's was a wordly at Stoke, we've conceded plenty of poor goals to stupid individual errors, mostly the GKs and Jos but hopefully that's reducing. Having Clyne fit at Villa will help as Cork can screen the back 4 again, Cork coming into the side and the dramatic decrease in goals leaked is no accident. JWP is a fine prospect and he did very well at City away but Saturday was a learning curve for him. However, we do need to get a couple of centre halves in this week but that's been the case for some time now. I'm sure the club are working on it as I type!

Very happy with last night's display. Guly was unfortunate, 99/100 that goes in the Chapel and it was a stupid free kick to give away by JP. Boruc looked solid after a wobbly start and should retain the jersey. Back 4 were all outstanding and any of them could have been MOTM. Morgan did well and that was Davis's best game for Saints by far. Gaston was lively throughout but right decision to sub him as he was tiring. Puncheon did well free kick apart and put in an excellent defensive shift supporting his full back as did Guly. Rickie held it up nicely and won a lot of headers. J Rod and SDR were handy coming on as subs. Well done to Theo and Ox at the end. The only sour note for me was that tasteless 'French Jimmy Saville' song aimed at Wenger. The 'geese' one at the Emirates was original and funny, last night's song had all the charm and grace of a w@nk stain.

As other posters have said, Northampton, Swansea and Wolves went down the divisions rapidly. Two others I can think of that descended into the basement at a huge rate of knots are Bristol City late 70s/early 80s (including a caretaker stint by Roy Hodgson) and Sheffield United during the early 1980s from their Tony Currie heyday.

At least one CB is a certainty, I got the impression we were still searching for one extra in August. DMC - possibly but JWP can also play there. Can't see us signing a 4th keeper although Boruc is only on a year's deal I guess. Yesterday was excellent, dominated and how it only ended 1-0 is anyone's guess. Thought the ref had made a blooper with Punch's header even live, seemed to be more a tangle between Fedirici and his defender. Don't think anyone had a poor game and considering Reading are scoring goals regularly we restricted them well apart from hitting the post and ALF's header late on. Hope Adam and Yoshi are OK because we need them both fit.

The refereeing in both those games was pathetic but at least in the Villa v Stoke game it didn't totally ruin the game like it did in Arsenal v WBA. Clarke rarely criticises officials so rather than the usual slap on the wrist, the PL will hopefully listen to him. Both referees ought to go for an eyetest though, Mertesacker has clearly punched the ball behind for a corner, the first penalty was harder to spot but the push by Ox before the second was very clear and no excuses for missing it. Even better, why doesn't football get the 4th official using their time properly and have them as a video ref? It works well in Cricket and Rugby. They can commuinicate through an ear mike and alert the ref as to anything that has happened which could be a mistake to be clarified by technologu, including penalties. Also, what happened to the goalline technology pilot, is it being adopted?

Oh feck - neither of those injuries is good news but Yoshida is worse as we are so thin for our CB cover. Hope both are precautionary.

Up to a point I agree and certainly the moronic decision to omit Monty has been reversed. India are still well on top after Anderson and Broad have criminally wasted the 2nd new ball. At least Jimmy bowled decently with the first one but I'd still like to see him bowling nearer 85mph. Broad has been terrible, he must be big mates with Cook and Flower to still be in the side. Even Cook gave him some foul looks after yet another slow-medium 77mph long hop got cut for 4. His batting has gone totally as well. Best to cruel to be kind and say he won't feature v NZ away/home and Ashes home, needs a full season with Notts to get the spite back in his bowling and some time at the crease. If he has a good summer, he could be considered for the Aussie Tour. Will be glad to see Finn fit again and Meaker get a few Tests to see if he is ready for the Aussies. Onions would do better than Broad or Bresnan. Well done Monty and Swann (again). 300+ for India is a big score on that surface with our depleted batting line up and the surface really starting to turn. Pujara looks a superb prospect and Ashwin has batted well too, should love bowling on that pitch too.

OK, our defence is worse but barring one moment of Sunday League farce from Gazza and Yoshida - I hope they really got some major grief in the dressing room after for that, they both let the rest of the side down with their laziness - we looked more solid with Cork in CM. Cork screens the back 4 and West Ham are more effective at this so the likes of Collins get less exposed. Hopefully Nigel, Les and Nicola have learned this the tough way and the priority will be to keep clean sheets first and foremost to give us a foothold in games, not this 'Southampton Way' empty corporate guff.

I was pleased Obama was re-elected and even more delighted that the Tea Party got smashed to tiny bits everywhere bar Texas. This should make the budget negotiations a bit more feasible and dare it say it not hijacked by the far right to same extent. It is always good to see extremism fail in any part of the world, time for the Republicans to wake up and smell the coffee and let the Tea Party split off as a seperate loonies party.

Besides the tax issue, which I don't think is quite as straightforward as some instances of corporate tax avoidance recently although the Cayman Islands wheeze should interest HMRC - when are the Conservatives going to deliver on Thatcher's promise of increasing competition via privatisation? 25 years have passed and I still can't change from the utterly useless South West Water to another supplier (and no, I don't have a well in the bottom of my garden!).

Spot on, that's the player I've seen although Billy is very unlucky to be out on loan when we have utter wastes of time like Lee in the squad who seems to have Darren Anderton's fitness record minus 99.9% of the talent. Mate of mine is a Swindon fan and said that Austin was a bad influence towards the end of his time there and allegedly played a key role in undermining Danny Wilson, hence Burnley got a good deal. He's apparently more than a bit of a lad off the pitch as well.

Spot on. I cannot see Nigel staying on if the same lack of workrate, effort, concentration and desire is on display to the nation tomorrow night again which if the stupid tactics are in evidence again it will be. Sacking Nigel is kinder on him as well, if he can't enforce his way of getting results on Reed and Cortese as if this carries on he will be unemployable. Nigel has lost his spark and perhaps a fresh chance at one of the NPC's bigger clubs might be his way of proving a point.

Yep, what we're seeing from Norwich and even Reading had a go at QPR today. Tomorrow will tell us whether Nigel has lost the dressing room and training ground. Never mind 433, 'Southampton Way' empty corporate guff, we are 100% where we deserve to be and that is bottom. Let's see if there is some heart, fight, leadership, organisation, workrate and pride because we haven't seen any so far.

Too right we should be doing better with the squad we have, stupidly and unprofessionally lopsided that it is, Adkins is very lucky to still be in the job, we are so far adrift assuming that we get another beating tomorrow night that it almost makes sense to have his nose rubbed in it for the rest of the season and to have to clean up his mess. Defeat tomorrow night effectively ends the season unless we win 5 on the bounce, Norwich are keeping clean sheets through sheer committment and wanting to do it for Hughton. 26 goals conceded in 9 goals, almost all of them soft goals that we'd have conceded 2 years ago, tells you the reverse is probably the case at SMS.

This thread will make more sense after Monday night. Win 3-1 at WBA and Adkins will have pulled a blinder. Draw or even worse lose and he looks a total chump. Nigel has put all his eggs into Monday night's basket so let's see if the senior XI are right behind him and come up with a result. It was embarrassing last night but will be soon forgotten with a second league win of the season. If we lose at WBA however, the display and tactics at Elland Road will come under question again and he will be verging on untenable in the role.

Bale, Adebayor and Dembele rested to face us - oh crud! If we can lose by less than 2 goals that would not be too bad. Need to ditch all this 433 garbage and get 10 behind the ball, Chaplow in the middle with the skipper's armband and get in their faces. Hit Rickie as early as we can with Mayuka picking up on the second ball. If we try and out-football Spurs I can only conclude that a) our management team are clueless and b) we'll lose by far a margin of far more than 2 goals. Seriously, I grew up watching Lawrie's teams in the 80s and I'd love for us to play like that in the top flight but we have to face realities and stay in the league first.

Never going to happen - seriously. Can you imagine Harry and Nicola getting on? Probably the best thing that could happen IMO is that we stay in touch at the bottom and don't get anymore than 5 points adrift before January 1. Then Nigel is told to buy 2xCBs and 1xLB ready to start the first PL game after that and is told that's his number 1 priority. Moreover, if I were NC, I wouldn't allow him to sign ANY midfielders or strikers unless we have an injury crisis. To be honest, I'd have recalled Martin before now and offered Palace Jos instead.

I think it's actually too high - Jos would be an average of 2 this season. In fact, given the spot fixing allegations in sport, he's lucky no-one has looked into that own goal v Fulham. That shot was going so far wide. Jos seems like an honest lad so it probably wasn't deliberate but it was very strange mistake. Even so, he's been a combination of Jakobsson and end of career Claus post-Jumpin' Jaks this season. Funnily enough, Fox has reminded me of Bernard a lot too in his positional play. Yoshida I feel sorry for as he ain't a full back and if Nigel tries playing him there next week I think either Crosby or the squad have got the speak up and stop him. Fonte - you think he's turned a corner and then he does that. Treat it as a sending off, 1 week fine for costing us the chance to get a result through deliberate handball, that'll put a stop to it. In fact, fining defenders for the really poor mistakes might be the way to cut the real gifts as we can't bring anyone in until January. They won't like it and the PFA will kick up but how else do you use a stick to get highly paid people to do their best if the carrot won't work? Also, Nigel, FFS stick to a goalkeeper. It wasn't the week to bring Boruc in and what did Gazza do wrong v Fulham?

Too right Manji, imagine if Romney and the Republicans got their way, all TV would be like Fox News e.g. a constant stream of far right propaganda. The BBC has a world-reknowned and deserved reputation for quality, the people that want to end that are ideological extremists. After all, who would you rather trust with your news - John Simpson or Kay Burley? In fact, I think I trust George more than Kay. Also, the old line about impartiality comes out. In my lifetime, the BBC has had far more dust-ups with Labour than it has ever had with the Tories - Iraq and 'sexing up' anyone? Governments expect the BBC to help them out but that isn't it's role, it's responsibility is to the viewer. Would ITV or others run detailed programmes like Watchdog on a long-term that protect consumer rights without fear of upsetting sponsors? Also, the only reason the tabloids are opening fire on the BBC is that they were brown-nosing Savile even more than everyone else and they don't want their pathetic journalism exposed. Yes, the BBC did wrong and those who brushed it under the carpet need prosecuting with haste but this ideological nonsense from the far right needs curbing.

I think we need to bring about the change of manager now and hope that a bit of fear does the trick to galvanise the team to at least make some kind of effort and run hard. The regime and team is too kind and fluffy at the moment, get Chaplow with the skipper's armband, he's not the best player ever but he'll get in Spurs faces and Morgan excepted as he's been the only other player who has tried for the shirt this season, the rest need to follow suit. Get 10 behind the ball when they have possession and break when you can. We'll need Mayuka's pace on the break. I want u to be a horrible team to face and for St Mary's to be a tough place to come, we are simply too easy to beat. The fans are going to turn big time next week if they don't see a million times more closing down and work rate. We are the 20th best team so we have to outwork and fight teams.

For me Nigel has lost too much respect by not managing upwards properly and robustly e.g. Cortese and Reed. Would have liked to see him assert his territory in public but the bufoonish transfer activity over the summer - it was obvious to all but morons that we needed a couple of CBs and a experienced LB instead of JR/GR - tells you he isn't in proper charge and you have to be be able to deal with sharp politics at larger clubs. I mean who in their right minds plays Guly if you don't need to, I can only assume Guly has a clause in his contract saying he MUST play if fit. So whoever comes in, they have to set their stall out publically from the outset - Guly transfer-listed and playing the system THEY believe is right. Moreover, players need to play in their proper positions, so you bring in Reeves/Dickson/Shaw, only a d ick head would play one of our ponderous CBs at full back!