SaintBobby

I basically agree with this article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2093995/How-vilification-Stephen-Hester-cost-billions.html

Agree 100%. If we;d only got Hooper, we'd be pretty certain of a top 16 finish. Having only secured Billy Sharp, I'm much less sure.

Almost always, yes. They'd try to sign a contract "subject to medical" in most cases - but given the rush, that may not ahve happened today. However, I'd be surprsied if the medical is taking place if there isn't already some sort of agreement on contractual terms.

Taking bets on that?

Let's not.

Fox at centre back? Is Hoovield injured - having been subbed at the Leicester game?

I'd think the fair thing would be for all Pompey's unplayed fixtures to be forfeited 2-0, but existing results to stand (I'm not sure why I say 2-0...I seem to have some dim distant recollection that this is the standard "default" score). But the rulebook couldn't be clearer, as I understand it, and ALL results would be expunged. I can see why the league would want to keep them afloat. It would look odd to suddenly switch to a 44 game season when you're more than halfway through. And, of course, there are revenue implications (Saints would stand to lose c. £1m if the game at St Mary's is cancelled). Offsetting that, the club's struggling against relegation are surely going to be utterly insistent that there is a mammoth points penalty.

A lot of folk can be like that (disproportionately those at around about the age of puberty, as another poster suggested). There's nothing wrong with that per se - but people behaving in such a fashion can't reasonably expect to be listened to very much or taken at all seriously.

Query: does Chainrai have an incentive to keep them afloat? Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere...but if the club owes him £17m isn't he best advised to spend several £m on keeping alive the possibility that he gets some of that back? E.g. if he could get them over this hurdle by spending £2m and they restructured so as to pay him back £500K a year for 34 years, isn't this a good deal for him? Or are the sums needed so vast that he probably needs to take a £17m loss on the chin?

This is great. In terms of all those saying "they'll make it"..."we've seen this before" etc... Well, yes...you maybe right. BUT..most madly run companies take several years to go bust. Desperate and absurd measures are taken to keep the business afloat. Months - if not years - of agonising and increasingly farcical moves are attempted to keep the show on the road. But eventually, death happens. It's not like Woolworths suddenly went "pop"...it dies agongisingly over a few years. The skates are probably in same position.

Paul Jones (didn't we have Maik Taylor beforehand?) Similarly, Niemi when there was no apparent need to replace Jones. Claus Lundekvam (such an underwhelming signing, no one noticed) Agree on Beattie being a shock success (wasn't he the makeweight in Kevin Davies going the other way?) Also, what about Brett Ormerod?

They are both mad at a guess...or more likely enjoy a perverse wind-up. The "we're not out of the woods yet" is a particular gem. Let's spend £10m on new players to make sure we end up 17th...:-) My own impression was that we utterly walked the game (I watched it on the stream, but wasn't actually there in person). Yes, some things went our way...and you could just about re-imagine the game as a massively flukey 1-0 win to Forest.....but you'd need an imagination that dwarves Tolkein, Asimov and Arthur C Clarke combined. In modern, professional, English football, you will very rarely bear witness to a more comprehensive and deserved away win as we saw on Saturday. If you're not ecstatic with the performance and result - or at least completely and unquestionably satisfied - you probably need a level of therapy and support that this website is incapable of providing....

Carlos Tevez

Thanks for the precis of the NA interview. Is the implication that we want Lee, Hooper AND another striker. That's a LOT of firepower...

He always seem to be totally behind Saints...often using "we"/"us" etc. I actually think his criticisms have been reasonable too - even if i don't always agree with them.

But you're sticking to a likely future record of W 1 D 1 L 18 between now and the end of the season? (I think that would surely be the worst run over 20 matches in our 112 years of existence...) That wouldn't be a "gentle slide down the table" (that's what I'm anticipating - I think we'll probably end up 3rd - 5th tbh) - it would be a collapse down the league almost without precedent in the entire history of association football.

I'd like to join in the thanks for whoever found the hahasports link - was great to watch the game. And surely we can't be many years away from this being a standard, official service? Looked like a stroll in the park to me - certainly after the first Saints goal. The central midfield trio were awesome - and having Cork rather than Morgan drfiting down the right seems to work better, which I'm sure will inform NA's tactics in future. Rather pleasingly, it's difficult to pick a MOTM - but I'd probably give it to Connolly. Good link up play, got a goal and generally made a nusiance of himself (I thought the red card was slightly on the harsh side - but only very, very slightly). Happy days.

Why are you worried about these teams when you think we're going to finish 17th? Boro and Hull will be miles clear of lower mid-table - you need to be keeping an eye on the Watfords and Peterboroughs. Are you still predicting one win, one draw and 18 defeats from the next 20 league games?

I've just made a very rough calculation on the odds of us finishing the season with 54 points or fewer. It's about 8,000/1, I think.

For the umpteenth time, are you still taking bets?

Move along. Nothing to see here.

lol

It's a bureaucratic nightmare unless a LOT of tickets are at stake. I mean setting it up because, say, 25 people would otherwise miss out isn't worth it. I do think general sale phone calls should always be allowed. At the moment, I can't imagine a home game that you'd miss out on (as long as phoning to book a ticket is as okay as going to SMS). If we do go up, it might be necessary, I guess.

Yet more proof of NA's and NC's underlying incompetence. You couldn't be more right. Have you considered dropping a note to the Liebherrs about taking on the chairmanship of the club? I know it's a long shot, but we need to stop the relentless negativity at the top of the club...

I agree. I think Adkins is now on probation. Anything less than 4 wins from the next 5 games and he needs to be shown the door like Burley (should have been). It's all been rather disappointing recently and the guy hardly seems to put a foot right. The track record isn't much to crow about either. Our present relegation form is likely to be the norm from now on. It's time to begin to think about changing the manager....