Turkish

The hype around this guy is ridiculous, He's a scout FFS. The club tell him what we want and he goes and finds it. We recruited perfectly well without him as did Spurs.

That doesn't mean he's a premier league striker, it means he's a striker that's played in the premier league. dextor Blackstock played and scored in the premier league, he wasn't a premier league striker either, as the rest of his career will testify.

We signed Pelles replacement in January pal, but still people moan.

It's good to see you've lost none of your desire to launch a passionate defence of your hero at every opportunity and there was me thinking you'd stopped crying yourself to sleep every night with his picture under your pillow Yes the current product is still below standard it should be and yes work needs to be done to improve it. However the rot set in when your boy was running the show, demanding premier league prices for a league 2 product and generally treating loyal customers like sh*t. Once they'd found other ways to entertain then they stuck with them and you couldn't blame them it's was cheaper, better and they'd simply got out of the habit of taking customers to football. One of my clients who had a corporate seats since we moved to SMS now does a Jonathan Palmer racing day twice a year, another as I mentioned buys season tickets and they go for meals in Oxford street, other people I know do other things. What they all have in common is they left when Cortese was there stating the price, product and his attitude as three major factors. He didn't think he needed local business. I notice you asked me to name them, now why would I do that? Are you going to ring them up and say "hi it's noodles from mongweb, Turkish says you stopped buying corporate season tickets because of Cortese and I'm checking it's true?"

Those saying they wouldn't begrudge him s move are dickhe#ds. This is a bloke who signed a new deal only 8 months ago earning more than he could ever have dreamed of when we signed him for a million quid in 2010. Because of us he first got picked for his country then because a legend in his country by winning their first major trophy. Yes he's been good for us but we've been great for Him. Had we never signed him he would probably still be a middling championship player. I'd begrudge him a move because we'd have got to where we are without Jose Fonte, he wouldn't have got to where he is without southampton FC.

Another legacy from Corteses chairmanship I'm afraid. The standard of the boxes dropped considerably under his tenure whilst the price continued to escalate. Many business I've dealt with decided to simply book a handful of season tickets and entertain clients to a meal and drinks away from the stadium. I know and couple of restaurants in Oxford street benefitted hugely from the fall out from Corteses disastrous reign. Although the current regime at saints are building some bridges once you've lost customers it's hard to get them back, particularly as the price is so high and there are so many options for corporate entertainment these days.

You're entitled to an opinion on everything Fred, this is a football forum not a borstal. In fact you shouldn't even judge someone by their opinion, more on what sort of person their opinions make them. Which if here is anything to go by, most are pompous, arrogant know it alls or clueless bed wetting saps.

Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish but it's ability to climb a tree then it'd spend its whole life thinking it's stupid. I'm not saying the helmets on here are helmets, but they appear helmets when they talk about football. Maybe they should stick to what they are good at, probably computer games and finding good porn sites.

Despite the fact that this forum is full of master tacticians, finance experts, transfer gurus, physios and so on let's be blunt at least 90% of the people who post on here haven't got a f*cking clue what they're on about.

You sure you didn't go for a p*ss and your son ran onto your lap top, logged into here and posted in exactly your style , then ran back downstairs whilst you were having a slash?

I'm glad you've finally stopped crying yourself to sleep with Corteses picture under your pillow pal.

Of course there is, up until the point we were challenging for promtion to the premier league he was doing a great job, then his ego started running away with him. He was always a bit of a disaster with commericial relationships, going through numerous sales managers demanding ridiculous amounts for sponsorship deals, treated people inside the club very badly, fell out with plenty of would be sponsors, local businesses, even managing to get himself banned from a popular city centre rsturants because he was such a Bellend as a bloke. On the football side though it was all going well. The players were happy, the were treated like royalty, we were winning, things were looking good. Then he lost his sh*t after we lost at home to Reading and it all started to unfold for him. The realationship with Adkins started to go downhill, he wanted to take control of signings, started spunking money up the wall at the training ground culminating in us having a £15m development which ended up costing £40m. Then the lack of income plus the disastrous signings of Ramirez and Osvaldo and you can see why he had to be got shot of. Its fair to see that what we've achieved whilst in the premier league is inspite of Cortese not because of him. And don't fool yourself into believing he was responsible for the early signings, like Lambert and Fonte, do you really believe and Italian banker with no interest in football would know enough about the lower leagues to bring Lambert, Jaidi, Fonte, Hammond etc to the club, all players key to our rise? Quite simply he wanted control over everything because he thought he could do a better job than anyone else who worked at the club, a classic narcissist, which was his downfall.

What a guy! Picking the team, choosing the tactics. Training the players, making the signings all along with spending someone elses money like it was a game of monopoly! You can say what you like about Cortese but he was the master as spending money, not quite so hot when it came to making it though. Still when he finally accepts the Ac Milan job they've chased him for since 2010 then we'll no doubt see a similar such upturn in their fortunes!

You haven't

Isn't it great to see the club doing so well off the pitch. Our last figures showed commercial income was up to £10m. I'd expect to see that figure double now the we've signed 3 large commercial deals recently with Under Armour, the 7th biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the premier league with Virign media and the recent deal with sportpesa with multimillion pound figures muted for that as well. It seems wreck it Ralph is doing a good job on this front and we've come an awful long way since the worlds greatest businessman, the most driven and ambitious CEO who ever lived had to give the shirt sponsorship deal to the largest recruitment consultants in chilworth.

panerai. FACT

I agree. After 4 years at the club he's no closer to being first choice than when he signed. When McCarthy joins he'll be down to third choice so he's actually further away if anything. Despite the odd half decent performance he's show little to suggest he can step up to be our number one. He'll probably end up a competent championship keeper.

The mark of a greater leader and a great human being. Able to adapt to the situation, make vital decisions at the right time and humble enough to change previous convictions if it'll be in the interests of the club or individual. Les Reeds on fire You're director of football is terrified

The only fool round here is you pal, as you prove time and again. Think about it dumball, why would the player and agent want it dragging out? Certainly Mane and Van Dijk would have wanted the moves pushed through as they'd have got substantial pay rises. The agent would want it to happen as he'll get his cut. The only reason for it not to happen is so saints can keep the money in the bank longer saving a few quid along the way. Had we had Van Dijk involved in July we'd have progressed in Europe and got the four points we'd have needed to champions league qualification. Saving a few quid in wages has cost us Big time yet we never learn.

We like to leave our big signings right to the end of the window as these tend to be on the highest wages so the penny pinching board can save paying the big money out over the summer when they're seeing no ROI. Its a risking strategy and we've got lucky the last 3 years but we've also missed out on some top targets due to the sake of 5-6 weeks wages. We will pay for this strategy sooner rather than later, our luck will run out.

He was one of our best players when he wanted to be, about 4 or 5 times last season. People forget that for a lot of the season he was very very average, during one of his suspensions a lot of people felt Romeu had done well enough to keep his place in the side. He's a vey good player on his day but his day for us were few and far between for us last season. Romeu is a good player and with a full preseason under his belt and a year in England we'll see more from Claise this season as well.

The new Yohan Folly.

When you say part of, do you mean cooked for someone who was out there?

Not quite pal. Don't you think it's strange though that they were charging through the streets of Western Europe when they thought a cartoon only a small percentage of France would know about made them look bad. Yet a murder spree in the name of Islam raises little more than a murmur.