Turkish

This was my thoughts entirely. He has done absolutely nothing to suggest he is a good manager.

Okay, we'll most sensible people. A lot of people are certainly far from convinced they have this supposed great relationship.

He played a couple of times at centre back as a stand in and was rubbish. He was also rubbish at right back when he stood in there. I'm not talking about in midfield, i rate him there. he's a central midfielder and a very good one. When he's fit he's in the side in his true position ahead of Steve Davis.

What's it to do with Wade?

Top post and i wholeheartedly agree with all you say.

Not a chance. He was rubbish there last season. he was rubbish at right back. He is a central midfielder. I maintain if we are going to play a square peg in a round hole Jonno Quick is the man to play at CB. he is so fast he could sweep behind the Fonte and Fox as well as providing an attacking outlet by making a long clearance, sprinting forward and reaching the ball before it has landed.

I expect Cortese has kept the number quite low as he wouldn't want a contract issue getting in the way of his team selection, i'm going to go for 10. That means he'll start in over a quarter of the games and then get his guarenteed 15 minutes as a sub every week. You are wrong about the academy players. JWP had started and made serveral subsitute appearances before that. Fulham is the only game that an academy player hasn't featured. I guess they hadn't sung the chairman with enough gusto that morning when they arrived at SMS for duty so were not given any playing time as punishment.

I make no excuse for posting this quote again. “What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.” Sir Bobby Robson As this is how it was for me. An overcast, drizzly saturday afternoon November 30th 1985. Saints 2 Everton 3. My first every game. We stood near the front of the Milton Road end with my dad just to the right of the goal as you face the pitch and my day was made when Steve Moran who was my hero at the time scored Saints second right in front of me. remember so much about that day even though it's approaching 30 years ago now. The excitment of walking down Milton Road and hearing the noise of the crowd, the smell of cigarettes and cooking burgers and then finally seeing pitch, the players coming out to warm up, go back in and come out again and being so excited i didn't even know when the game had started. There really was a magic about the Dell that you just cant explain as a few others have said. There was a reall togetherness about the club in those days and it almost did feel like being part of a family. I may be wrong but these days it's all about the matchday experience, you see the kids going to the club shop and walking round with their bags of merchandise, eating their burgers. For my generation it was about the football and only the football, seeing players you'd heard your dad and brothers talking about, prentend to be in the playground and if you were lucky might get the odd glimpse of on match of the day if you were allowed to stay up. I think Sky coverage with it on telly 24/7, FIFA 2013 and the general consumerisation of soccerball have taken that away for kids today, its not quite so special as it was back then. BUt anyway, Bobby Robson said what it means much better than i can.

You could be into something there. I expect he has to make a minimum amount of starts in his contract as well as play a minimum of 15 minutes every game when he isn't injured or been naughty.

He'll get his 15 minute appearance fee. Cortese gets to give his boy a run out and Adkins keeps his job.

You wait and see, he will get at least 15 minutes on saturday and an academy player will also come on.

He was arrested on the 25th, he was convicted until the 12th of September. Our next game was Arsenal So he was obviously punished or "made to pay" as Adkins put it by dropping him for that game. I guess Cortese must have made Adkins pick him in the squad for the Villa game but the punishment had ben reduced to not getting his 15 minutes!

a few mates of mine have bought from there. As the name suggests, fast moving and buy 'em cheap stack 'em high type company. Dont expect great service apparantly but the cars have all been pretty decent. I understand they buy up a lot of ex company and lease cars so you know they've been pretty well looked after and well serviced etc. Never heard any complaints.

/\ I think one thing that is obvious is that we are most certainly not together as one!

Not from me it wasn't.

Or Cortese rates him as he was afterall, his signing?!

I never said anything about Guly starting every game. Maybe it was around the time of his drink driving and him paying for it meant he wasn't going to get his guarenteed 15 minutes a week minimum!!!

Well he seems to always start him. Seems a bit strange to replace a left back with a kid with 10 minutes to go when we need to score doesn't it?

When he hasn't started hes been sub 6 times this season. 3 times he's come on with exactly 15 minutes to go, once with 23 minutes to go and twice not at all. Although i IIRC i'm pretty sure he had been out injured in the weeks before that so might not have been 100% fit. It's also worth nothing there are rumours that an academy player (not including Lallana) has to be played in every game. This has happened in every game expect the Fulham one where we had to have a defensive reshuffle due to injury. Again i didn't think anything of this until the last two games when i thought the decision to replace the left back with a youth team player when we were chasing the game was a strange one.

I didnt do, but i'm starting to think it might be the case as it's an incredible coincidence that 3 times he's come on with exactly 15 minutes to go. If he gets at least 15 minutes on saturday im going to think there is something in it.

I can see the Saints v QPR game as not only being a relegation 6 pointer but whichever manager loses also loses their job.

We were told on an number of occasions Allardyce is a crap manager who doesn't have a clue. Yet his signed smashed us 4-1 and look at his track record. Took Bolton into the premier league and to their highest placed finish ever, Newcastle and Blackburn were both mid table when he was fired and both got relegated the follow seasons. Took West Ham up at the first time of asking and they are now in the top half. It may not be pretty but it's effective and i have no doubt he'll establish West ham back in the premier league over the next couple of seasons. Not bad for a crap manager who hasn't got a clue.

Of course i'm picking and choosing what to believe. You cant believe what Adkins says AND the rumours can you?! My view is there is simply too much out there to dismiss it as not being true. If it was one journalist and a post on a mongboard they you could, but it is much, much more than that. My take on it is that Adkins is a nice, intellegent man who wants to keep his job. If he hates Cortese and is being told what to do the sort of person he is he wouldn't come out in the media and say it anyway would? Do you agree with that or not? Or do you think that Nigel is the sort of bloke who would come out and public say he cant stand the chairman, should have made more defensive signings in the summer and he's told to pick Guly in a Holloway type rant?

Again, i would expect him to say that.

I remember the Beirhoff thing as being in the echo. As for the Paul allen thing, who knows? I was told that there was some interest, but it never went further than an enquiry by a senior ex employee, i was also told around the same time by another ex employee not to believe all press rumours as there was a lot of pro club PR being spun to try and attract a buyer. I doubt that any story is completely made up just to fill space, in fact a poster on here who works for a red top and i know personally said that every rumour they print, such as transfer stories do have a valid source, not made up bullsh*t like some like to claim. As i've said numerous journalists AND people with connections in the club are saying that he doesn't havea good relationship with the chairman. Fitzhugh fella posted on saintslist, which was then posted on here, only last week what he knows about it and a journlist tweeted yesterday Adkins works in "intollerable conditions" another article said he has fractious relationship with Cortese. IMO there are too many people saying it is the case for it not to have some substance. Adkins is just doing what every employee would do, do you seriously think he'd tell the media he hates the chairman and they dont get on?