SaintBobby

Its madness to even consider sacking AP. Yes, recent performances in the League have been average. Not great. Not awful. Just average. If people were facing the sack in Britain for an average six or eight weeks on their main area of work, we'd have total chaos. What's even madder than any suggestion AP should be sacked or placed under review is the idea that winning or losing the JPT final is decisive. In terms of AP's position, its irrelevant. Im still buzzing from Tuesday's win. Can't wait for March 28th. Hope and think that I'll see Saints win some silverware for the first time in my 29 years of supporting them (the Ted Bates trophy doesnt count! This just about does!). But the idea that this has anything to do with the manager's position is totally unhinged.

As I posted on another thread, weve shown near-league winning form since game 8 of this season. Id expect us to be clear favourites next season and to further strengthen the squad.

We had a truly dire start to the season. Combine that with the ten point penalty and play-offs were always going to be difficult. We didnt win any of our first seven league games, if I recall. Since then, we've W 11 D 6 L 4 (39 points from 21 games). That's pretty much league winning form. No doubt we've hit a rocky patch in last few games. But no reason to panic. Talk of ditching AP is total madness.

Make it 3-0 quickly .....then rest Lambert for last fifteen minutes

I'm a huge fan of the new regime, but from what I can surmise, they are not handling this well re: The Echo. The media in this country are not - thank God - beholden to abide by the requests of NC and others. It's important to understand that the Echo didn't break an embargo. They decided to publish a story about the new training ground based on information already in the public domain. Deciding not to acede to Cortese's requests should not be grounds upon which to ban them from St. Mary's. Since then, there may have been petulance and over-reaction on both sides, but it's in everyone's interests that this dispute is brought to a close. In general terms, I think the arrical of Liebherr and Cortese has been brilliant. But my worry is that if there were true - but unpalatable - stories about Southampton Football Club, would any media that reported them also be subject to such draconian treatment? The problem, of course, is that this has probably now become about face-saving rather than about the original dispute.

Pretty modest, even turgid, performance. Papa Waigo changed the game. We seemed to really pick up the pace after he came on. Lambert and Barnard haven't quite clicked yet. Was worried that Lambert was limping in the first half. We are running him into the ground. Fonte looked brillaintly composed. Seabourne okay - but i probably prefer Jaidi for a bit of bite. Mills was a total embarrassment today. Harding back in the starting XI please. Any of Lallana, Connolly and Puncheon might have opened the game up for us earlier. MOTM: Antonio. Wotton did okay as a battling midfielder. Schneiderlin looked half hearted for much of the match, but did come alive towards the end.

I hope this is the end. I don't want them bleeding. I don't want them wounded. I want them dead. I feel bad about saying this about any football club. But for the skates I make an exception.

This game will sell out. Comparisons with the last cup game are not relevant. We played the skates 3 times that year and havent played them since.

Overall, I think our league performance this season is mildly disappointing. Anyone who argues its "pi ss poor" or "really impressive" is mad. It's mediocre.

Disappointing result and (by the sound of the Solent commentary) a pretty shabby second half performance. But I agree that it's not the end of the world. Leeds lost 3-0 at Swindon (having also been beaten in their last league game by Exeter). Charlton lost at home to Leyton Orient last night. Norwich only just scraped a win at Carlisle. But those three are probably going up - and 2 of them in the auto places. Funny old game etc. I still think the play-offs are just achievable. Although the cups - much as I love them - are now getting in the way. I think there's a 75% chance we'll still be in League One next season. But in 2010-11, I really, honestly do beleive we'll walk this league! I do worry about those who say we should be making the play-offs. Not because I don't admire their ambition, but because it seems the term "play-off" is getting conflated with "promotion". Even if we make the play-offs, we probably won't be promoted. I'll settle for: 1. Winning the JPT in March 2. Beating the skates on Feb 13th 3. Finishing 8th or 9th this season 4. Winning League One with 100 points next year. I also think that's what I'm going to get.

A few questions: 1. Has anyone else fallen in love with Mrs. Bobby Moore? Seems like a nice lady and picked the right ball out at the end. 2. Which players will have left Pomp%y by Feb 13th? 3. What happens if they fold? Do we go straight to the quarters?

Obviously want to win both. But would probably take (from the fairy godmother) two draws as opposed to one win and one loss.

Would prefer Carlisle I think. Having c. 70,000 at Wembley and being odds-on favourites to win is preferable I think to having c. 80,000 and being slight underdogs. But MK Dons are no walkover. The betfair odds on each team winning the trophy are: Carlisle 2.3 Saints 3.1 Leeds 3.5 MK Dons 3.5 I derive from this that the bookmakers have Saints v MK Dons as a virtual coinflip.

I've never understood why the rule is decribed this way. If away goals count double then Carlisle are 4-1 up...

V annoying.

Merrington's an idiot. A few moments ago he said that he didnt understand why Antonio had been pushed up front when we had Connolly and Waigo on the bench. Then when Antonio breaks through he says this was exactly what he meant and what he was asking for. Moron.

According to a mate of mine who's a Gunners fan, the Arsenal fans were all signing "We're all standing on a future block of flats.." (to Yellow Submarine) at their last visit to Fratton Park. :-)

I quite like Papa, but on balance wouldn't sign him. I think the agreed fee is £500K and his wage demands may be high too. He's good, but I think we can do better.

Centre forward please. Massive burden on Rickie's shoulders at the moment. Am a big fan of Connolly and Papa, but think we lack depth here. Not persuaded that DC will play more than 50% of our remaining minutes. Think signings so far are both exciting and sensible. But if - madly - Saints were to hand the transfer kitty over to me right now, I'd buy a £1m striker.

Overall, I'm not sure that opinion is enormously divided. For me LJ gets a 6/10. Or a C+. He's okay. Not great. Not embarrassing. He does alright at RB. RM and CM. But if I heard he'd left Saints or was out for the rest of the season, I wouldn't be paricularly upset. The reason I'm in the "anti-LJ" camp is on practical terms. Right back strikes me as a position where we could credibly - and cheaply - improve our starting XI. Obviously, for the right amount of cash, we could buy a better player in EVERY position. But as we stand now, I'd say it would be very difficult and/or very expensive to find players willing to come to Saints who would be measurably better than our current GK, LB, CBs, Midfielders and CF. (My other issues are whether we need a better left midfielder/winger and who is the 2nd striker with Rickie (if Connolly isnt going to be fit for at least 80/90%+ of our games)) I think I'd be saying that Davis, Harding, Fonte, Jaidi, Lallana, Waigo, Scheiderlin, Hammond, Lambert and Connolly are a tough "starting ten" to improve on. In most of these positions, we also have good cover. But for, say, 750K I think we could get a MUCH better right back than LJ.

Oh my, if true (which seems to be) this is an absolutely fantastic signing - on a par with getting Rickie Lambert.

1. He has a track record of saving English south coast football teams from extinction. 2. No one wants to see any of the 92 teams actually, finally go to the wall. 3. He is a billionaire, so can easily afford it. 4. He could pick up Portsmouth for a song - maybe £25m or so. 5. Portsmouth are at least certain to be playing at the same level as Saints next season, and could just conceivably be playing two divisions higher. 6. He could then spearhead the south coast dream - resisted only by the dinosaur die hards - of a single, united Hampshire team that could genuinely aspire to take on the giants of English football. Of course, point 6 would require some deftness of touch and a genuine sensitivity to long standing supporters of both clubs - and a few difficult decisions would need to be taken. 1. What division should the new club play in? The two clubs should only formally merge in June 2010 and some of the finer details of the merger would need to be concluded in July. In August 2010, the new club would obviously start from the highest divisional status achieved by either Portsmouth or Southampton in the 2009/10 season. If Portsmouth are relegated and Southampton are promoted, the point is moot. If, however, Portsmouth are relegated but Southampton fail to secure promotion, the club would begin life in the Championship. If, unlikely as it may seem, Portsmouth avoid relegation, the new club would begin life in the Premiership. 2. Where would the stadium be located? On simple business principles, Fratton Park has reasonable real estate value for retail or residential redevelopment, wheares St Mary's is on a brownfield site and can only be used for sporting purposes. Also, Fratton Park has limited capacity and would be hugely expensive to expand - whereas St. Mary's can already accommodate 32,000 in modern surroundings and can be fairly easily extended to allow for the anticipated substanial growth in support for a united Hampshire team. 3. What colours should the team wear? This decision should be made on sartorial grounds alone. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't like the style of the Portsmouth socks. These are a simple, yet elegant, red. In order to maintain overall brand consistency, it would make sense to ensure the shirt broadly matches these, and the shorts go some way to off-setting them. A red and white striped shirt and black shorts should do the trick. 4. What should the new club be called? It would only be fair to amalgmate key parts of both teams' names. From the name "Portsmouth Football Club", the words "Football Club" sound rather good. From the name "Southampton Football Club", the word "Southampton" has a nice ring to it. So, a new, single, united Hampshire team called Southampton Football Club could be playing at St. Mary's next season in red and white tops, black shorts and red socks. The team will be playing at Championship level (or even above) and will have a very bright future ahead of it. If I was Liebherr, £20m or so would sound like a great investment.

Thierry Henry at Juventus? (or is that the exception that maybe proves the rule). Actually, I think players can sometimes blossom from a change of scenery and that picking out the best-perfoming fans' favourites can sometimes cost a premium.

I wasn't at Elland Road for the 1-0 defeat, but thought Leeds were immense today.If we matched that team - away - that's grounds to be cheerful. Very lazy (and typically brainless) decision by ITV pundits to give MotM to Beckford. Their backline was awesome. Really is a funny old game. Colchester losing 7-0. Gees.

Yes. A bit of a disappointing draw IMHO. Only good thing about it is that we're at home. I guess it's a worse draw for Ipswich. I hope we concentrate on the JPT and trying to nick a play-off place. I'll get excited about the FA Cup when/if we're in the last 8. Would have prefered a big team away.