SaintBobby

I would say the manager's job is to get the best out of his playing squad. If the players look unmotivated or unfit, I would blame the management.

Immense performance. Some exceptional displays. Particular mention to Lee Barnard who was titanic. If we keep playing that well, we will win this league with room to spare.

Puncheon. And play 4-3-1-2 with Lallana or Guly in the hole.

I'm open minded on Martin - no strong feelings either way at this stage. Would have voted for Ian Harte if he was an option...

I'm surprised people are so anti-Harte. I think he'd be a great signing. I'm not wholly convinced by Seabourne, Martin or Jaidi at centre back and woudl prefer Harte-Fonte as the starting CBs. Also, don't see why it won't happen. It's not like us being linked to Benjani et al. Sounds like a plausible signing, although one vague report on Sky Sports hardly makes it a racing certainty.

Le Fondre would be a great signing. Didn't he score 4 goals for Rotherham last Saturday? He ticks the winger box, but not the back-up to Rickie box (he's about 5'6" isn't he?) This is why I thought Antonio was a good move - he ticked three boxes; winger, impact sub and possible CF. Sounds like the injury rules him out though. Although am not sure he was a real target anyway, just a fanbase desire.

I can't explain why I dislike Puncheon so much. Maybe he flatters to deceive. Might also be because in our present starting XI I assume he's the one supposed to have electric pace. He has some pace, but low voltage.

I'm so conflicted on this one. I still have a bias to what are now called "marquee signings" (I don't know why they are called this...do we erect a tent when they arrive?). I remember wanting us to sign Rene Haguita, that mental Columbian goalie. Partly cos he was quite good, but mainly cos he was great fun. I don't think we should sign Nicky Butt for a totally hypothetical £80,000 a month, however: 1. If this was on a one season deal, it's a salary of 8 1/2 months from September to mid-May. That's £680K. Or as a weekly wage about £13k. 2. If it doesn't work out at all, we lose £680K. That's annoying, but not a complete catastrophe. If it's the difference between promotion and non-promotion, it's well worth it. 3. By comparison, signing - say- Brian Stock at a transfer fee of £1.2m and on a salary of £8K a week on a three year deal involves an outlay of up to £2.5m. I'd prefer to do this, but it might be 4 times as expensive as signing Butt. 4. Butt is 35 - turns 36 in January. That's not too old to turn in a good run of games in League One. I still lean against because: 1. He doesn't obviously fill a slot we desperately need. If our defensive midfielders were Pulis and Wotton, I'd be very keen. But he's not obviously miles better than Schneiderlin or Hammond. 2. The main thing we lack in the team at the moment is pace. If we gamble £700K on pace, fair enough. One thing Butt clearly ain't is pacey. 3. There may be prima donna problems (would he want to be captain and would Rickie et al resent him being a higher earner?)

Listened on Saints player. Sounded like it was easily our best performance of the 4 games so far this season. Am not overly bothered that we lost, was pleased to hear that we seemed to play well. Still keen to see us go on a winning run, as we are in some danger of falling into a cycle of "unlucky" draws and defeats. I think we still need some more options from the bench (again, Connolly and Chamberlain are our only gamechangers). I think I'm going to start to hate Jason Puncheon as well.

To Colonel Bogey: Guly's only got one ball The other's in your f-ing goal..... (insert next cpl of lines...) Suspect it will be "Guly...there's only one Guly"...

High risk - in football, not financial terms - but exciting. I'd just sort of assumed he was a winger, so seems that's the other slot we need filled. Never heard of the bloke before, but this smacks of real ambition by the club. (same sort of reaction as when we got Papa. I'd neevr heard of him, but his record sounded very good for a L1 side) Chuffed.

I think Puncheon is our most over-rated player. Not our worst player, but not as good as either Antonio or Waigo. His decision making can be wretched and he doesn't have the pace that you expect him to have. Hope he goes on a great run and proves me wrong, of course. Maybe it's a bad patch of form, not an absence of talent.

I'm assuming the idea is that we are a few steps down the food chain. E.g world class player moves to Man City for £40m, they then make pretty decent player available to,say, Bolton Wanderers for £4m, who in turn then sell on one of their players to, say, Nottm Forest for £1.5m. This then makes Forest's Nathan Tyson surplus to requirements and we snap him up for, say, 600k. But we need to wait for a domino effect above us before this becomes feasible. I'm not 100% convinced of this logic, but it's not obvious madness.

2 games in (3 including Bournemouth), and we have been below par in every one. And against modest opposition too. I'm not slitting my wrists, but this is a VERY inauspiscious start. It can be turned around. Of course it can. But it needs to be turned around. Because if we continue on this trajectory - performance wise - we are heading for midtable. Something, somehow needs to happen to bring about a massive improvement. I know some are saying that we deserved to win against Plymouth and Leyton, but I don't see it. Certianly, we look nothing like the best team in the league at the moment.

and we can be sure there won't be any duff signings in the next 12 months. especially, if we don't make any...

The guy I spoke to is high up behind the scenes. Im very confident he knows whats going on. I agree theres not a big problem if we sign great players on Aug 30th rather than average players on Aug 25th. But the problem, as described to me, is not that. It's that AP has a "not made here" syndrome. I.e. he doesnt like recommendations from otehrs on principle.

I have been told by a pretty high up source that the money has been made available for Pardew, but he's been very picky about who to sign. It does seem strange that we have been so limited in transfer activity though. I don't really accpet that we can be held to ransom as a rich club. That would be true if we had our heart set on one particular player, but (Antonio fans aside), we don't. We need a fast winger or two...if club X is asking too much, go to club Y. If they are asking too much go to club Z. There must be literally dozens - if not hundreds - or professional footballers who fit the bill. Same goes for a new CM.

It seemed to me that we really lack pace and imagination. Connolly and Chamberlain are the only impact options from the bench and while they both have merit, they aren't really impact players. Barnard was probably MOTM and was a bit unlucky not to score, but I think we only managed two shots on target in the second half. That is not good enough against a team as poor as Leyton Orient. At the moment, we don't look like a top six team, let alone champions. I don't think we can wait until Xmas before making changes. If the next couple of league games do not show a remarkable improvement, we need a change at the top. Major issue for me is whether we want a putative new manager to have time to act in this transfer window. I am starting to believe that AP's reign is not going to last much longer and is not going to end happily, but I hope he can prove me wrong in the next match.

Pretty poor stuff. Overall, a dreadful game of football. I am beginning to think there is something is wrong on the management side. It's not the result, it's the performances. The team look unmotivated and guileless. There needs to be a dramatic improvement and fast.

Good first fifteen minutes, but a bit flat since conceding the equaliser. Doing okayish but don't look sharp.

Sounds good. The academy has ebbed and flowed, but this is great news and I love the way the club handled it.

Great to see. I saw Lallana's first game in some pre-season friendly (vs Anderlecht?). He was dreadful and taken off at half time. This kid shows the same kind of promise, so am not concerned if he's not showing utter genius at every stage just now. Well done, Alex, what an opportunity - and very well deserved.

It's not essential. If we don't get promoted, we will still get crowds of 18K+ next season. Sooner or later, it would be nearly impossible NOT to get promoted. There is virtually no level of plausible medium term mismanagement that won't see us get up to the Championship. If we don't make it this year though, I think we're into another rebuild scenario. I doubt Lambert, Lallana, Fonte, Schnedierlin et al will be playing 3rd dividion football next season.

You'd have to be inhuman to not cut Nicola Cortese some slack. I have always been sure he wants the best for the club - sometimes question how we should go about it though. I'm actually not that reassured by the statement on the OS. But I think I am going to get through the grieving process first.

Ok, guilty as charged. I scream at people for starting pointless threads. And maybe this is another one. I'd really like to see this site move back to being a properly discursive and respectful exchange of views amongst Saints fans. I think we have a problem with a few personalities dominating. I'm not one of them. Don't have either the time or strength of personality. I'm a D-lister at best. What drives me mad though is the bunkerised attitudes of, say, half a dozen or so individuals. Actually - one by one - I'm sure they are all well meaning and very decent folk and want the best for Saints and Saints fans. But this forum is in danger of becoming a personality clash zone between a handful of individuals. That risks destroying the forum's pledge of being "The number one independent Southampton FC website". My own pledge from hereonin is to: 1. Try and focus on football - or closely related football affairs. 2. Try and take each post at face value - not to ascribe motive to the poster 3. Try not to flippantly post in rage or to make a name for myself by doing so 4. To take a very long hard look at myself is I'm posting more than 20-25 times a week I've definitely broken all these rules in the past. I'm going to try not to do so again. I would hate to see this forum collapse in on itself. I love Southampton FC and this is easily the best site for celebrating (practising?) that on a daily basis. My genuine thanks to all those - steve, baj et al - who run it. But I do think there's a real danger that the many good things that this site brings are being overshadowed by our collective inability to behave like mature adults at all times. Anyone agree?