Turkish

There wont be, we do our business in private.

Rodwells move to City is just a smokescreen, trust me.

I nominate myself, TDD, CB Fry and Krackers.

Maybe he is going to be unveiled at the same time as Jack Rodwell and Adam Johnson?

Man. Everest.

He's back now apparantly.

The bloke that turned down Spurs as they didn't offer him enough money. *presses hold on excitment button *

Quite. I thought all you needed was a good academy and a good manager to suceed where everyone else has failed in breaking into the top four and staying there. Dell sized mentalities seem to be overunning the asylum at the moment.

Yes. It's average and most of the teams are no better than the top half of the championship. Add to this we are the most attractive team for a player outside of the top 4 clubs and we are nailed on for success.

Forest are the new Blackburn.

:lol:

This.

Exactly. On the one hand Cortese has massive ambition and rescource when it suits, such as the chucking 20,000 seats onto the stadium on a whim and worry about how to pay for it later, yet now apparantly we cant afford to buy established top flight players.

I dont know why people are maintaining that Barcelona dont spend money and dont buy established players. Mascerano, Villa, Alves, Fabregas and Sanchez to name a few were all esablished players who cost at least £20m each, lets get that out of the way first. Barcelona do spend and they do spend big when they need to. Much like the "you dont win anything with kids" Man U reference you like to use. That team of Scholes, Giggs, Beckham, Neville and Butt were complemented by experienced and expensive signings for that time. That Man United team are the only one in the last 20 years to build a successful Premier league side with a high percentage coming from their academy. When Villa tried it by signing young English talent and building a team with Young, Milner, Barry, Downing and co they were all on their way once a bigger club knocked on the door. Even Arsenal cant hold onto their top players, why are Saints going to be able to when these clubs cant? As for it being embarassing; well It is embarassing when on the one hand the chairman of a club just promoted is saying we are going to be challenging for the title and then signs players from the championship. Hardly backing up his talk with actions is he? If we were a supporter of any premier league club and a newly promoted side had done the same thing we'd think they were nuts. As a collegue put it when he read Corteses comments "has your chairman been on the crack?" If Reading had been telling everyone that would listen they were heading for the champions league and then signed the players they have what would everyone think? More walking the walk and less talking the talk from all involved at SFC i think.

Something about the Southampton Way.

You said ever, so you meant last 10 years. In that case i'd agree that in terms of success and enjoyment it's been the best in the last 10 years. although the 2003 team was better.

I think the 1984 team might disagree with you.

As i said above, when i first saw him i thought he was good, skillful intellegent but a lacking that burst of pace to be a top 4 player and a was a little bit lightweight, but he's bulked up a bit since then and would go on to make a decent midtable premier league player. I certainly never thought i was watching one of the best players i've ever seen.

Agreed. All this sh*t a few months back about is this the best Saints team ever as well. It's not even the best Saints team of the last 10 years FFS.

No, but i didn't ever think he was going to be as good as the best player we've ever had, only a div would do. I thought if he did well he'd be a good midtable premier league player, hopefully this season he will prove he is, he aint and never has been a top 4 player. Maybe you need to rein in your expectations..

That's the thing though, Barcelona do spend a lot of money as well. Alves, Fabregas, Sanchez, Maschareno and Villa cost well over £100m between them. yes they prodcue some great players from their academy, but they are complemented by top players who have been brought in for a fortune.

Just how f*cking good did you expect him to be? He's been arguably the best player in a side which was in the top 2 of the championship all last season. Nothing to do with him signing a new contract 18 months ago and saying he wants to stay here. THen playing for a team last season that were top two all season and are now a premier league club themselves? Says a lot i think.

Not at all mate. UNlike a lot of people on here some of us are not confusing ambition with ability. People keep going on about aiming for the stars and applauding Cortese ambition and drive, yet this might well prove to be our undoing. A man who has achieved successive promotions and taken a team into the premier league less than 2 years after being near the bottom of league one and got them there 2 years ahead of schedule should be lauded by the clubs owners, instead of that we are in a situation where he has been verbally sacked at least once in the last year and appears worried about his job, if rumours and stories from inside the club are true. We've got the chairman and manager telling players we are going to be in Europe and challenging Man City in 3 years time, yet the activity in the transfer markets suggests that they are either just words or an unrealistic expectation of the sort of players and fees they will cost to get anywhere near that sort of level. Whilst the other promoted clubs are talking about staying up, our management are going on about Europe, does anyone really think given what we know about Cortese that he'll accept a battle against relegation this season? If we are struggling Adkins will be gone and a new man brought in and no doubt will be given the same remit and the same scenario if we dont reach Corteses standards, we've all seen in the past what happens when clubs chop and change managers. I honestly think this club has a very bright future if people are reined in a little and ambition matches ability. Saying we are aiming to challenge Man City is utterly stupid when we are buying players from the championship, however good they potentially might be. I sincerely hope that Cortese isn't expecting anything other than a relegation battle this season but he is expecting more. We've seen him lose his rag with the manager when things are going well and we are overperforming and achieving targets ahead of schedule so god knows what he'll be like if we are struggling. We do stand on the verge of what could potentially be another golden era for the club, but we are also only a tantrum away from throwing it all away.

I'd be surprised if Adkins is still here this time next year. Corteses ambition could well be the downfall of this clubs progress and all you clowns applauding the embarassing "challenge Man City" comments and ' reach for the stars' attitude are going going to be in for a huge disapointment and rude awakening.