Brussels Saint

I'm on it.................research in progress..........

Just because we sign them on extended contracts, does not necessarily mean we see them as prem players. If you notice we are pretty much signing up all our existing players who have bankable value. Lets say we do get to the Prem and at that point want to move Harding, Barnard etc. on. There will be plenty of buyers for 2 proven Champ, L1 performers and the price we can extract would be considerably more than letting them go on a free as they are out of contract or in the last year. Anyone else reckon I have cracked NC's masterplan as to why players who are unlikely to figure for us at a higher level are all getting contracts?

It would be pretty good, especially during the summer. Did we not only average 23500 during our last play-off season in the Champ? That would be a good benchmark. My guess will be around 25k.

Nope! Great player in his day, but that day has passed. Been so long since he has done anything, so cant figure out why we would risk the reported wages, disruption etc. Beckford worth the risk, Bullard not.

If Nigel believes he can manage him then we would be nuts to turn down a proven PL standard striker. 27 is not exactly ancient and he will score goals.

There is no doubt he is top class. When the rumour was first posted on this board, I really hoped it would happen, the exact type of player we now go for. Worth every penny of the rumoured 20k+ per week he's on.

This works well. http://strongvpn.com I watch iPlayer/4OD etc using this on my iPad. Cost is $55 year. It should also work for the Sky Player too if your "friend" gives your Dad the log in! I would also use it for Sky Player, but unfortunately you can only sign up to Sky with a British address and credit card.

Yup, definitely works, I was watching Saints Player on my iPad last night. 2.99 for the full version. Bargain!

Thanks for this, I have been trying for ages to figure out how to get Saints Player working on the iPad. Result!

Wallace. If nothing more, it was the first ever goal I remember seeing from Saints on the TV.

Ali Dear.........

This tactic is straight out of the Jose Mourinho Inter Milan coaching manual (not seen yet if he still employs it at Madrid). If this is the standard of coach NA is looking up to and stealing ideas from, we might as well accept relegation now. (do I need to do the smiley winky thing?)

See Hypo, if you posted more sensible stuff like this, you would avoid the abuse you get. Good post. Personally I quite like the comedy element of the photo and its clearly "tongue in cheek", although perhaps when it was decided to put this photo up, it was known how much he had negotiated for AOC. I'm guessing the fans this type of thing most winds up, are the more traditional, not easily impressed, fan on the board types. Cortese is now developing a bit of a cult following and many will love this because it builds upon that. The rest of us just had a bit of a laugh at it. No big issue.

I love the way he says "we" whenever discussing Southampton, despite supposedly being there to comment on the football in general. Hardly any of the other clubs former player commentators do this, referring to each team by their name instead. Shows how much he still considers himself to be one of us.

Quite a lot for me to be honest. Bizarrely this tends to manifest itself in how likely the missus is to get some action. Saints win, I jump on her, Saints lose, its like I've just swallowed a couple of Bromide tablets. Saints win 3-0, crack open the vaseline!!

I think we will finish between 7th & 9th which is a pretty good season. Anything below 12th a disappointment. 6th or above a pleasant surprise. To be honest I dont consider there to be that much difference between us last year and a mid table Championship side. Adding Cork and De Ridder pushes us a little higher. A decent CB and we could well be set for the play-offs. As such not that much apprehension. Guess a lot depends on expectations and most Saints fans have these set traditionally low based on, well, its the Saints and its what we expect. I'm betting NC is expecting playoffs however, as he perhaps has a different view on what we should be able to achieve, not having lived through all the previous years soul crushing average-ness (is that a word?)

I fully agree a huge part of a successful defence is what happens in front of them, however I think you are mistaken about Morgan. Morgan is a defensive midfielder period, out of the two of them Cork is more likely to play further upfield, but actually overall they make an excellent pairing as both understand the importance of protecting the back 4. I've always wondered a bit why people see Morgan as a primarily attacking player, maybe because he is technically very good. I guess I've seen him play about 15 times and each time he sits deep in midfield looking to collect the ball from the back and use his passing to initiate attacks. He's almost never in the opposition box (as Cork was against WB when he scored). Admittedly when he was really young he was a bit lightweight and breaking attacks up was not his strength, but in the last 2 years he's really added this to his game.

Haha...........this beats all! Brilliant.

Being stood just behind the players and NC watching everyone down on the pitch, last game of the season. Was quite emotional and a perfect day. For sheer mental celebration though, Chaplows goal was up there. As sussexsaint already said, back where we belong.

Good to hear my Ajax Supporting Dutch workmates were not winding me up about De Ridder being pretty decent. Encouraging start it seems.

I checked on this with them too. True they may have been mixed up about his time as a kid, but they were clear it's Steve De Ridder from De Graafschap that they were giving their views on. 3 of them are season ticket holders at Ajax and they genuinely thought he was going there this summer and would have been pretty pleased about it. Seems way may have had more financial clout at the crux.

Am in Amsterdam today and obviously the first thing I did, was ask the guys who work for me here what they know about Steve De Ridder. These guys know Dutch football really well (they told me Poortvliet & Wotte would be crap and get us relegated), so I trust their judgement. Seems De Ridder was part of the Ajax academy as a kid, but did not quite make the grade. Once he left however he really developed and showed what he could do and was probably De Graafschap's best player last year. There was lots of talk in Holland that Ajax would re-sign him this summer as they had him penciled in for one of their winger positions. Seems though not to have worked out due to cash (Not sure if its De Graafschaps valuation or wages)? He's strong, fast and direct so according to them will suit the English league. One Ajax season ticket holder said he is probably first team big 3 (Ajax, PSV, Tweente etc.) Dutch league standard. All pretty positive to be honest and good to hear. My feeling is that he probably was not originally part of the new 2-3 player plan, but perhaps the OXC situation forced us to act and bring a quality right winger in.

God help us if Dalek picks up on this thread.............

Mike, you have been a master. Thank you.

I love how its assumed Cortese makes every minor detailed decision at the club. I imagine he spent many a long hour deciding if to make this reserved seating or not..........can't take too long however, as he then needs to decide if its the smoked salmon or foie gras starter in the Markus Liebherr Suite before the game. FFS if he goes for the smoked salmon he really has no idea.