SaintBobby

about 300K plus bonuses...about 450K overall

Good god almighty. What a nonsense.

Because the ref was in black? (as was Smith, the Swindon keeper...)

A truly lamentable performance. A crushingly disappointing transfer window and a truly feeble start to the season are beginning to tip over into the disastrous category. Saints are deservedly in the delegation zone. This was yet another excruciating display. The team lacks pace and creativity. To have lost five games already is a woeful under performance. On this display and others, we are miles away from being candidates for promotion.

I think Adkins will be a terrific manager for us, if we get him. I don't care that he's not a household name. The man's record and reputation are just what we need. Southampton FC have, however, yet again been a total embarrassment with regard to media relations.

Im with the general consensus that we need a new wide player or two. But I think there are width options even within the current squad....a few thoughts: 1. Dickson left-wing hugging the touchline 2. Mills left-wing...same gig 3. Holmes left-wing....same gig 4. Puncheon as left winger, not on the right wing cutting inside 5. Lallana on the right wing, not on the left wing cutting inside 6. Oscar Gobern? Or have we loaned him out? am not saying any of these options are great, just that they do offer some width options.

Congratulations...youve managed to start a thread on a new topic. Not, for example, "My thoughts on Nigel Adkins" or "Saints 0 Rochdale 2" I think you're getting the hang of this place!

I'm not surprised we haven't got a new manager yet. A source tells me that Nicola Cortese spent 7 hours with the Sports Editor of The Sun today. This - combined with the three hours he spent with the same man yesterday - explains why he hasn't had the opportunity to appoint a manager yet IMHO...

He made it up FFS. He doesnt have a mate at the sun....

So true. Some of the pessimists on here aren't just barking up the wrong tree. They are in the wrong forest.

Maybe we should nominate hypo....or would that be like having Clark Kent and Superman as the media spokespeople?

Our academy production line is pretty good, I think. Even in Div 3. At the start of last season I went to Newport IOW v Saints XI (was the youth team...it was the night before the Ajax game at SMS). Some excellent prospects - especially Ben Reeves and the tall bloke with the strange name who plays at CB but takes a mean penalty (he came on against Reading in pre-season I think).

That's very well done indeed. And utterly convincing at a first glimpse!

Totally understand the "underwhelmed" feeling if it is Adkins. But I would be elated. He's not a "marquee signing", but he would stand a great chance of getting us promoted.

Probably true too. And the Sports Editor of the Sun (salary c. £250K) wouldn't spend much time making peace with NC. Otherwise, the story from Kaiser Shoze was very plausible...

Oh and the other implausible thing here is that the Sports Editor of The Sun would spend 3 hours with NC. It's not impossible - but 15 mins absolute max would be my guess. The Southampton p*ss-take is a very trivial part of their portfolio.

If true, the Sun will definitely run with the "Adkins appointed" story in Wednesday's edition - or, if the meeting was post-deadline (which would mean finishing after 11pm to fail to hit the last edition) - on their website. They might take the **** in the article too "non descript club appoints non descript manager" headline.... If that doesn't happen then NC did not confirm the Adkins appointment. Sun journalists do not keep this info under their hats. Additionally, they will almost certainly write up the 'fact' that "a grovelling Cortese prostrated himself at our editor's feet, pleading for forgiveness and mercy in a humliating climbdown that left the once-respected Swiss banker close to tears etc etc". If this sort of story doesn't appear in the Sun tomorrow, then your source is wrong. These guys don't take prisoners.

On the Nick Illingsworth thing, I have never met the man and have only heard him on radio once or twice. The only axe I have to grind with him is over Silverspoons. I don't much care if he's a media tart. Nothing wrong with that. If people on here don't think he expresses fan opinion well or accurately, I have a very genuine proposal. Could there be some sort of SWF spokesman? Conceivably even elected by a poll on the site. Or else just appointed by the admin team? What the media want is a "go to" person who is reasonably articulate, can lay some claim to being broadly representative of the fanbase and - crucially - is available for comment. (if someone starts to turn down interviews because they need to put the nipper to bed or are too busy at work etc., you would swiftly be dropped even if you're amazingly erudite). If there are good reasons to believe that NI is giving a poor account of Saints fans, I wonder if this might be something worth considering. Obviously if people start saying "let's have alpine, I'll pay for the satellite link to Austria" or "DBP would be a great laugh and should be manager too", then that's all very whimisical, but don't be surprised or complain when Nick Illingsworth is on the airwaves next time.

I'm happy if it is Adkins, but don't think it is.

If Adkins is taking training at Scunny, I would guess he's out of the race, no?

5pm and no press conference scheduled for today. It would be most unusual to hold one in the evenings, but I suppose an announcement might leak. I fear we could be hanging on a while longer...

Afraid I do want them to go into admin. It's harsh, but I'm interested in the narrow interests of SFC. Also, i think a ten point penalty is a fair penalty. It reflects the fact that you've put more/betetr players on the pitch than you had a right to.

The max bets bookies are accepting are £50. So the 45k stuff is rubbish.

No press conference called as of 11am. At some point, we should have this thread locked.

It's basically (a). Although if some other group/blogger issued a press release at a pertinent time it could be a variant of (b). The BBC has a massive database of spokespeople categorised by topic area. Once you're on that, you tend to get called back again and again on the same topic. I have some sympathy for NI, because of a previous job I had, I'm quite often wheeled out on TV and radio to comment on the fortunes/misfortunes of the political party I used to work for and have also received the "who do you think you represent?" jibes. The fact is that media spokesmanship isn't democratic. They aren't looking for an elected representative necessarily - they are looking for someone who is broadly representative of the fan base (though not the officially elected leader of it) and/or an expert and/or reasonably article and available. NI clearly ticks at least the last box. When they do vox pops outside SMS, they don't ask the fans there what authority they have, they just interview them.