SaintBobby

Gees. Can people get away from "press conference called" stuff? The media doesn't work like that anymore. If there's a calling notice or ops note sent out, it is 99.9999999999% likely to be about (a) a photo op for something already announced or (b) something crushingly dull. The days of "pray, will gentlemen of the press care to gather in the foyer of the Grand Hotel for the purpose of hearing an announcement pertaining to the activities of the honourable Southampton Football Club (association rules)"....are over. Dead. Gone. Never to return.

Dear "nutjobs" (which I mean in the nicest and most flattering way), I'm helping to pull together an article for the Daily Mail website tomorrow on Porstmouth FC, finance and lessons to be learnt. It's not a sports article as such - but drawing parallels between Portsmouth and governments spending too much money, racking up debt - who suffers, who gets away with it, how "moral hazard" is encouraged if proper punishments are not dispensed etc. I'm a fairly frequent visitor to this thread, but would enormously welcome any contributions and advice on the following points: 1. Assuming CVA2 is approved, what's the total hit to the taxpayer/HMRC over the last few years? 2. And on the same basis, what's the hit to non-football creditors? 3. What are the most egregious examples of player signings for transfer frees or on salaries that Portsmouth didn't have? This isn't necessarily TBH (if he was signed and offered a good contract when the going was good, that's prob not as bad as a player on half the amount signed when the finances were obviously disastrous). 4. How "obvious" is it that the 2008 Cup winning team was bought and paid for with money they didn't have at the time? All/any help much appreciated.

Top 3: Man City (by a mile - 8-10 points clear) Chelsea Arsenal Bottom 3: Saints Reading West Brom

Can I just say if we get relegated it wouldn't be a total disaster. Is Adkins up to what? If we end up relegated on goal difference, I don't think he's a crap manager. If we end up staying up on goal difference, I don't think this proves his genius. Anything above 18th would be a fantastic achievement. We can't expect Saints to keep just rising and rising. I think those who say we could end up 10th or 11th-ish are VERY optimistic. Sure, it's possible - but that should be the absolute max of our hopes this year (not "probably top 10, maybe Europa League" or whatever)

34-ish is probably enough to stay up. I'd take 17th right now.

We don't seem very vocal on the pitch compared to a lot of other teams. Am all for the "together as one" stuff - but you still need a leader of men. Agree it should be a CM or CB and should not be Hammond.

I can't work out whether teams with a load of international players will start fresher or rustier than teams like Saints? I don't mind playing the good teams at the start, not sure I'd want to begin with 4 or 5 "must win" type games. Most important early match is Wigan at home, of course. Isn't a rule of thumb that you probably need to win about eight home games to stay up? Given the height of my ambitions (at present) is to avoid relegation, I'm most interested in the St. Mary's fixtures against the "bottom 10-12" much more than the glamour fixtures. Quite a shock to the system to see the fixture list - in the last three seasons, we've started about 90% of league games as favourites. Them days are gone (and a good thing too)

I'm appalled. According to MLG's unambiguous, peer-reviewed, scientific criteria of the "bigness" of a club, we are bigger than Hull. Managers from smaller clubs should not be able to compare their outfit to bigger clubs, natch.

Completely agree. What befuddles me is that every football fan seems to think much the same. So, what sort of market research do they do at the BBC?

Who knows? I'd be surprised though and maybe a little worried. If we spend £24m on transfer fees, we're probably committing to another £24m on salaries.

It's all a balance IMHO. I like the way the squad has been built and the "buy young and hungry" strategy. But there is something to be said for age, experience and leadership. I think we may be a tad lacking here.

I think how much we spend on transfers is just one end of the issue. We should look on the whole package of wages and transfers. Robert Green on a free transfer would eat up a major chunk of our budget, for example. I'm sure we'll spends more than an additional £20m on new players. But a good % will be salaries.

This seems an argument for more signings, not early signings.

I'm delighted. I plead a hefty degree of personal ignorance - have seen him play just 3 times plus the obvious highlights/clips etc. But all the "background noise" is good. He's clearly highly rated by Adkins as well as other top flight managers. Young, bags of potential, voted by his fellow pros in Championship team of year, played for Eng U-21s etc etc But, I'll try and wait for ten games or so before forming a firm view. After all, I was a shoulder shrugger on Hoovield signing and an air puncher when we snapped up Agustin Delgado...

That's even more moronic, why would we pay £1m for the privilege of playing a friendly against Wolves? Would make sense if it was maybe £50K - £100K, but not at £1m - we may as well just write them a cheque.

Southampton now hold the all time league record for the number of consecutive games in which they have avoided defeat if leading at half time (now something like 50ish?)

I'd say a major improvement, but may be wrong. May turn out disappointing, sure. But seems to be highly regarded and definitely destined for Premiership. Not sure Sharp had any Prem clubs after him. £7m-ish surely reflects this (e.g. I'd be amazed if we sign a player at that level as a back-up or squad player)

I hear ya. Am just saying if Kelvin is say a B+ and Green an A-, this isn't as big a gain as replacing, say, Richardson (C+) with Clynne (B+++)

Moyes is an utterly superb manager. I'm amazed he's still at Everton. My other ideal candidate if something awful happened to NA would be Martinez. Must admit, the rollercoaster of the last few years has left me disorientated about who we might realistically attract and who we can't. I still haven't got used to thinking of us as a Premier League club again.

I reckon Green is better than Kelvin, but not by much. Also, there are disruption risks (Kelvin is a big force in the dressing room etc). If we are going to spend really big bucks, I'd like to do it on players who are much better than our presenting starting XI and very likely to play a large majority of games if fit. For example, I'd say J-Rod is a major improvement on Sharp so merits a massive outlay. Yes, I know it's a squad game, there will be injuries, loss of form etc etc. But I'd probably prefer to spend the £2.5m pa we might give to Green on a much better right back or right winger.

Not saying you're wrong, but motivation is important. E.g. Leeds was essentially an evolution - and a successful one. Based on footballing decisions. If e.g. we were relocated to Bristol and rebranded the Southern Red Bulls, I'd have a major sense of humour failure. Even if someone could show me that the club would now be much more successful and would sell more replica kits in Thailand.

Lol. I'm not alone then. This should delight all those posters who say we don't move fast enough? :-)

It's madness as far as I can see. It's not so much the change of colour (although that's bad enough), it's the implication that changing the kit to red and having a dragon as the main logo will lead to a surge in support in Kuala Lumpur. Are Asian football fans so easily seduced?

It seems to me that being blind or deaf significantly impairs someone's experience of the game, whereas being wheelchair-bound doesn't necessarily. If more space is made available for someone in a wheelchair and a helper, should they pay 2 or 3 times the amount? After all, for a sell out match, that's 2 or 3 able bodied people who can't get in to SMS and the club's bank balance suffers accordingly.

Actually, I wldnt say no to Skacel returning. Even if he only seems to play well for Hearts. Guthrie would be a great free signing. Especially if Hammond is leaving (I guess he will be, but no source for this)