Gordon Mockles

Where do Turks get their money? The same people that purported hearts & minds when Iraq was invaded & denied it being about oil & gas. Funnily, none of these articles were expanded upon by the news agencies... probably because those involved have controlling interests in all the media & news groups. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8746223/Tony-Hayward-in-line-for-14m-windfall-with-Vallares-Genel-merger.html Back to football....

British mentailty of wanting to tell people but not wanting to listen! We could learn a lot from nations of a more sub-servient mentality because when you listen and take onboard comments, you learn. I'm all for ambition. I think Nige had a better way of managing the players and pyschological aspects but what we lost with that we gained with tactical noose. I think the talk of CL finish was foolhardy and upset the player mindset for the subsequent West Brom loss.The team were on the beach. No issues with news reporting though. Hacks will always look to report, regardless of journo agenda. We moaned when we were not in the news, now we are......

He's a good player that I feel will come good and, besides, it is his first season moving from the Italian (zzzz) league. Anyone who is writing him off and saying he's no good and he has his chance is moronic. Give them time, he has shown touches of class and clearly has ability and skill which we lack outside of Lallana and Puncheon.

Quite possibly the most deluded and incompetent man in sport but after his comments from his last destructive stint, I have ascertained he was merely not for real. Trying to wind up the fans with his comments (i.e. he thought he did well for us! WTF?!) and he should never be engaged or taken seriously again. Wind up merchant who was the most destructive chairman in our chequered history. Thank f**k for admin. and finally ridding ourselves of the parasitic reigns of the self-serving chancers! Write off the Bale debt, yeahh.....nice one! Even at the time, no matter how desperate, it was a bad idea. With one foul signature, that self-appointed "power broker" wrote off a good few million from SFC coffers. Nice one Einstein!

Outstanding! I'm pinching that to share. Brilliant. Best chant of the season and brilliant seeing the Sky pundits trying to remain straight faced.

Yeah, that Malcom Elias doesn't know what he's talking about!! LOL Actually, is he still around in the land of people that spit when they talk? Is odd how he had a trial. Thought he'd have been vetted by the scouts but I suppose, you intend to splash a few mill, it's your prerogative.

You're an absolute weirdo with your comments!! Adkins was not supported pre-season by Cortese. It is strongly suggested he was sacked twice but the board/committee changed Nicola's mind. Also, from the list of transfer targets, not one of Nigel's is purported to have been brought in. These have been strong rumours from credible sources since day one but it isn't worth commenting on here because some people cannot handle rumour and some don't come to light so it is assumed the person passing on info. in good faith is an attention seeker. Ahhh, the internet is full of 'em!! ;o) It is not sh*t stirring having a dig at Cortese. Why is this line always spouted when the board are criticised?! It is a club, the are open to judgement. More so when we are doing so poorly. To be fair, I should not really quote your comment as I commented before that you were a supporter of that tw*t from the Cotswolds and you defended him even while he came back for a second stint and to bulldoze the remaining ruins of our club which does tend to render any of your opinions entirely invalid!! I think most people with decent contacts have heard about Les Reed and his involvement and you only have to speak to a few well placed people (I won't even divulge who, it's easily done) within the club set-up or involved with club affairs to realise the problems. As someone wisely intimated and a sentiment I echo, it is odd Nigel hasn't been sacked yet which does lean towards a degree of leniency if someone had been helping select starting line-ups. I do strongly believe team sheets have not solely been left for Adkins to decided (and transfer targets were definitely given to him) and 2 friends I trust had told me that Nicola lacked respect and trust for Nigel, treating him pretty much like a boot boy/physio. Take of that what you will but I listen to people I trust and judge it against actions, interviews and using instinct. I have always liked Nigel and you cannot not like the guy but I do think he has over-achieved and is out of his depth in this league. However, he should be judged by selecting his own team and tactics and if Cortese and his 'trusted advisor' do not lend him another trust and respect to orchestrate first team management, then they should appoint someone they will trust and leave along to manage. This is why Pardew walked. It concerns me the ethos of a club if they send out rumours like the Pardew/Fontegate debacle. Seriously, that's alarming cowardice. Adkins is still learning but it would have been good to have gathered some momentum and thought about defence. We did try, supposedly, to sign Butner and some Barca kid amongst others in the scouting rumour mill (defensively) but that accounts for nothing because everyone knew, we desperately needed to bolster and already shaky defence and all we did was bring in Championship standard defenders (all be it, Clyne is class). We do seem to have a great coaching set-up but we can't coach cr*p players into World Class PL defenders. Certainly not on the time-scale Cortese expects. Even Barca blood their team about 10 years in advance, and build from the ground up. Adkins will improve but whether the club will lend him that patience, I do not know. I doubt it. Cortese, judging by actions and character, lacks empathy and is an impatient man although I am not adverse to a change now as we may need it but it also may be too late by Xmas. He wants results but needs to offer the platform for success and perhaps be a little more flexible and reasonable in demands. I question why the Butner deal fell through and the other defensive incomers pre-season. Maybe not the club's fault but why did we not ENSURE we signed a solid back 4 well in advance? We always do this. LEARN from past mistakes FFS. We need better defenders and a midfield. Simple really but we all knew that 4 months ago!!

Thank you. I had heard the same from 2 reliable sources although the usual smug numpties chose to berate any opinion they take a dislike to. Strange people!! Jay Rod was mentioned by Adkins and I would like to think he chose Clyne who I rate but the truth is, I doubt he did and most people well placed whom I know all stipulate that his entire list got overlooked and only signings pushed through cos of Les Reed's bloody influence. There is something fundamentally wrong if this is true - it is wrong if a manager managing cannot build his plans and tactics from his own transfer targets. I'm not saying it is impossible to build from someone else's choices but it bloody well helps when your squad is built as per your vision/selection. It ties in with the strange subs, players often changed early in the game/half time (as if, the manager didn't agree with the selection in the first place) and the persistence of Reed pushing through Cortese's obsessions with pushing the kids through too quickly. All a bit familiar. The Lambert situation has some similarities to when that tw*t from the Cotswolds came back and shipped out Safri for no logical reason whatsoever (much like Lambert being dropped and if an offer comes in, he will be gone despite quality) other to push through the kids. Jay Rod over Lambert is stupid. Much like those useless kids we had before and pushing out Safri (the last decent professional of any merit we had left). Sounds a bit harsh on Jay Rod in this example but he's nothing special (touch, pace, etc. really lacking and I reserved judgement long enough).

Fully agree & most with connections realise this but numpties on here attack anyone suggesting otherwise for some odd reason. Adkins didn't get anyone on his list of transfer targets targets signed. All Reed & Cortese's. I don't understand Adkin's role - motivational coach?! Cortese only sees Adkins as a physio & has no respect so perhaps he should appoint someone who's decisions he trusts. Or maybe no-one new has come in cos no-one wants to work with Cortese since his reputation precedes him. Reed is a coward. He needs to step up & share the burden. He's certainly no stealth PL manager! Choosing Jay Rod over Lambert. Lambert will be gone in Jan. Cortese is like Lowe with money, as CB Fry once said. I expected better but he's just like all the other money men & their bloody trusted advisors. Misplaced trust. Let the managers manage & identify their own transfer targets.

What over reactionary b*llocks! He is a proven manager with a good track record & the only reason he f*cked off before was due to Lowe meddling & trying to get involved with the managing side. Redknapp realised the sh*t he was promised wasn't sold as seen & departed. Fans over-reacted massively imho. I'm not saying I want him back but some of the responses we had were ridiculous. You only see what you want to see. Some say that is happening now with Adkins &, to be fair, I am fast losing patience with Cortese's alleged lack of respect for Nigel. Lack of respect for anyone. Seeing Nige only as a physio. If he's not trusted enough to be allowed to manage, bring in someone who can be allowed to manage, despite how much I like the guy.

My point which you seem to have missed is the attitude of bankers. Not my favourite people & a law unto themselves. Judging by reports since Cortese's arrival, he's no different. "Sue me, I've got loads of money" attitude. Les Reed clearly has Cortese's ear & the board did persuade Cortese to keep Adkins against Cortese's "take no sh*t" attitude early season which would have been a ridiculously harsh decision of rumours are to be believed. It's that same old scenario, a manager should be left to manage. Forgetting what I have heard, team selections & sub decisions I truly do not believe are solely coming from Adkins & I don't care what anyone says, I trust my instincts & feel assured on that. I also feel Ricky will be gone if an offer comes in Jan since Rodriguez is clearly favoured despite him disappointing me greatly. Ricky looks sharp & him playing second fiddle is a ridiculous decision. Sorry to drift off topic.

Not at all. I couldn't wish for someone to be more different & I am so glad for the success he had brought us. Unlike that arrogant imbecile of the past whose name I don't even like to mention, Cortese has the one element to his personality that all his predecessors lacked, ambition. It's just the recent rumours & behaviour about management & squad concerns me somewhat. People will froth at the mouth defending it & cut me down for mentioning it but I question Les Reed's involvement & his influence on Cortese. Then there is Cortese himself. I feel for Adkins because I feel he is snookered although he may also be out of his depth & being supported by other staff. Who knows but the subs & selections are very strange & inconsistent which hints differing sets of decision making. Just my view. The Lowe comment you make is just plain dumb!

I'd always assumed she was Swiss from her accent. Could be wrong. Anyway, I shouldn't acknowledge that comment due to past comments from the poster clearly rendering his opinions obsolete. Also, people should not be getting narked about anti Cortese comments, it's a feckin chat forum. Conversely, those grateful for the success he has brought us (all be it down to Markus ultimately), me included, should not be naive or even angry just cos some are outspoken. Anyone with a modicum of judgement clearly realises, Nicola is a bit of a ***t & often rude & uncompromising with people & seems to look down on those not living in his upper echelons of wealth but each to their own. Some are here would argue all those people, whether in business with the club or elsewhere, are wrong or have an axe to grind. What's wrong with a good old fashioned opinion? It's not illegal....yet. Therefore, despite some opinions being a bit OTT & strong, it shouldn't matter. You make your own bed, you lie in it & I think it's clear, Don Nicola has certainly ruffled a few feathers along the way & can be quite petty. Let us hope the builders do a good job & we don't have the "sue me then, I've got loads of money" attitude that we may have allegedly had as a bullying tactic in the past!

How can someone stir, which in essence must be talking or "chatting" on a chat forum, silently? That makes as much sense as your past reasoning behind supporting our last chairmen and look at how well that turned out? Petty people with axes to grind aside, the new site at Staplewood will look good once it's done. I believe, personally, there has been a design change & the paperwork (drawings, specs & such) is currently underway. I have drawn many a site & building plan over my career & generally, when you have just finished the drawings & specs, the lag in processing that work allows just enough time for the Architect & client to change their mind again. More frustrating if structural or construction since it had a knock on effect to all the coordinated M&E services within the design so you have to go through the entire process again. It's the nature of engineering. Annoying but it pays the bills.....if they pay on time!

I know, odd. It all sounds very familiar. Next thing you know, we'll get irritating users posting sychophantic cr*p, dig digging up any anti chairman posts & trying to manipulate the forum mood. Oh wait....Hoho ;0) It is amusing how opinions annoy some so much. It begs the question, why visit a forum? Unless they prefer clueless nodding & inane mutual agreement. There's nothing like healthy debate. Live with it. Regarding the complexities of the construction process Steve enquired about, it's likely not design & build & likely the project management route as mentioned with a main contractor being overseen by the Architects along with, I would assume, an M&E consulting engineer. Whether structural consultants were also used prior to construction, I would not know. A job of this ilk would likely be carried out in this manner with the Architect having control from start to finish. So, in essence, the Architect working directly with the club & project managing the main contractors, consulting engineers & all associated contractors. Because of this structure, if major or substantial deviations were made, documentation & amendments would need to be drawn up & approved to legally & officially protect the contractors, sub contractors & consultants; otherwise they could end up doing work out of spec which the club could refuse to pay. I'm not saying this is what happened but it's a distinct possibility & could fit the profile of our chairmen. It could also be wild conjecture but its worth posting just to irritate questionable posters that like to dig, dig!! :0)

If I understood what the hell that comment meant, I'd elaborate. Keep on taking the tablets chief!!

Staplewood used to be the football ground of Road-sea (really nice facilities at the time - in the 80s/90s). A relatively young club that did really well, winning all sorts. I remember the son of the owner (Rob Price) used to go to school with my bro until his Dad divorced (I think) and his financial backing went and the club seemed to nose dive after that period. Shame really. The club sold the facilities in Marchwood to Southampton and the club use it for training and development, reserve team games, etc. and academy facilities.

Well done for making a sweeping assumption towards the builders being at fault without any facts on the matter or knowing who is at fault. It could easily have been unreasonable demands from the club bearing in mind we have a CEO not renown for his empathy. Maybe you should wait for the facts first.

What's weird about suggesting Nigel may be under pressure from elsewhere to make decisions, infering he may be from committee of management? The question arises a lot in football with varying power struggles & the dichotomy between football management & the financiars (or chairmen & advisors) wanting influence & control...or is that too off the wall & crazy for your ickle brain to rationalise?! Or perhaps you're just more passively accepting than I, which is a concern in itself.

Was it Adkin's decision to keep J-Rod on?! Without wanting to stir up controversy, I have a feeling some remnants of a past chairman are starting to surface which is worrying. I'm hoping Nigel hasn't been gagged or become too much of a yes man. Same thing I mentioned before about Cortese's signing, Guly starting so many games despite him not being all that good. Can't be coincidental & a couple of players had interesting views on Les 'bloody' Reed but best not to shop someone on here. I find it most disturbing they favour J-Rod over Lambert. Ridiculous. Penalty ability alone, that's a good few points & Ricky looks sharp. Ward-Prowse has been good but should be used sparingly. It's a bit (sorry to say) Lowe esque pushing them on too quickly & if Cortese had bothered to pay attention to our history, he'd have seen where that philopshy got us with the last cluster f**k of a board full of morons. Still. We have brought in some class with Gaston & possibly Mayuka but I struggle to understand why the obvious frailty of the defence was not addressed. We all knew so the bloody committee should have which begs the question, were they over ruled or could we not attract anyone? Money talks but possibly we played hard ball too much. Pure conjecture of course. I just hope we don't offer Lambert out in Jan & I hope we keep hold of Ramirez cos big clubs will try & unsettle him despite rules to the contrary. Glad Fox is being dropped as he often forgets the rule of defenders is to defend. Agree with Duncan about Alpine. Stop whining on. Most would like to talk football. Not read pages of futile bickering. I hear enough of that with the catty secretary at work! Say your bit, then move on. It's like you relish arguing yet it winds up most people. Positive attitude as cheery old Nige would say. It's early doors & we will pick up more points but we must stop giving opposition acres of space cos we wear ourselves out attacking. Did it v Villa & we make it easy for relatively poor attacking lines. No wonder the stronger sides bang in loads. Naive. Merson brought up a good point, we play or attack like we are Man Utd or Arsenal but we don't have enough players of that standard. Or words to that effect. Implying defensively when we lose possession which is frequent. Take heed Nicola & Les. Understand the professional opinion but keep the positive, attacking belief.

Is that really the official stat? Wow! I have skills. I am the attendance guessing mack daddy of St Mary's. Despite my fan guessing excitement, that's not a bad attendance. Villa brought a lot, admittedly. 30, 750 was my guess Sat. Not sure why I even went for a 750. Usually work in 500s. I have skills! I have got it so close, almost spot on, so many times. We should start an attendance guessing thread from within the stadium...if the networks weren't so overloaded that texts could actually get out! Having said that, now I've made a point on my past success at attendance estimates from visual judgement, I'll probably be miles out in future. I thought the crowd were great Saturday. They did Nige proud!

Premier League is about the last 20mins as City proved and I predicted (along with many no doubt) a repeat for United. I cited the subs not helping but do concur Lallana works hard and he and Lambert may well have been shattered but bringing on an untested forward from another league in such a critical time of the match was a risk. My main concern with Adkins (or the committee) is the emphasis on forward play without shoring up the already wobbly defence. Fox is good going forward but defensively leaves us exposed hence the scouting for Butner. No point in identifying weaknesses if we don't address it otherwise it appears like a PR exercise. Many identified this weakness and Yoshida was reassuring but LB is still a concern (Shaw would be a help but the committee think he is now ready so respect their judgement) and this lack of bolstering has proved an issue which has bit us on the a*se but let's not overdo it. We played well v City and Utd for periods but mental fatigue or concentration and fitness and lack of experience against such unforgiving opposition punished us but I like to think we have learnt so put it down to experience. If we keep throwing away games, then it will be a problem but a sense of perspective is needed. We never do well against the Gooners.

Have you not heard, "we do things privately here, behind closed doors" as Adkins has parroted once or twice. Thing is, if we have a committee system, then who ultimately has overall say on sporting matters and squad selection? The Chairman? The head of football support and development? The Company Director? The forlorn football director (if not the same person)? The first team coach/Adkins? Wouldn't be the first time someone with money feels their business knowledge and own narcissistic-projection deems them worthy enough to start meddling with football matters and influences player selection...not that I am suggesting this. If someone else picks the line-up, then that person should be the one answerable unless they have no faith in the manager which begs the next question, then why are they in charge? Not stirring up anything but valid points worth considering.

Surprised Ramirez was on the bench and I question whether Adkins is out of his depth although the fixture list has not been kind. I fear the subs lost us the United game and I fear Adkins is toast. I am not over-reacting as I remain calm, early days but there is not much capacity for error in this league as you get punished, we we have seen against City and United. Even Wigan but that was more down to statues and a p*ss poor, lack lustre performnace and those home games are where we simply cannot afford to drop points. I may be unfair criticising Adkins sub decisions but I do question many of them. He has often changed players at half time and, to my knowledge, it is tactical and not down to injury which begs the question, does he know his best starting 11? Why change so soon? Obviously, different opposition may dictate personnel swaps but it could also be perceived that Adkins may not be picking the team (Les Reed is cited a lot from within the club, they can't keep all info. air tight despite wanting to). It doesn't seem a coincidence until the drink driving incident, Cortese's reputed signing, Guly, started every game yet I would certainly have others in his place as I feel he skips too many challenges and we can do better. He's ok but not PL level imho. Just an opinion, not scape goating. Anyway, early days but 14 goals and bottom of the league not good but we have a good spirit. I just hope the Villa game is the catalyst to charge onwards. If not, I fear it could be pivotal, without wanting to over-dramatise matters more than some already have. I have faith but from the look in Adkins' eyes, his cards may be marked. I think some heard rumours of Cortese wanting to replace Adkins from the outset but the committee persuaded Cortese otherwise but I can't substantiate that and some on here will probably get all narky about posting an opinion or rumour to that effect on a "chat" forum but such is life. I like Adkins a lot as a motivator, manager and generally nice, positive chap but I do fear his cards are marked and Villa will be the acid test. Lose that, he's gone. It would be a shame but quite a few close friends with contacts within the club fear he's as good as gone and out of his depth. I question how a manager can be answerable if he isn't picking the team, as many have intimated. Ridiculous scenario if all is to believed. Hopefully Ramirez will start next game and he won't tinker around too much with the squad. I am still astounded how our LB issue has not been sorted out as we clearly have scouted and identified it as an area of weakness and unusual to switch centre halves in match, but not beyond the realms of sense but who knows. Fonte seemed to be dragged all over the place by what I saw on tele highlights. Season starts at Villa. Let us hope for the better or we may see the start of the PL Merry-go-round back at St Mary's!

I'd never trust someone with a mullet for their styling choices alone. Let alone how to run a business! Can't stand Lawrenson. Long lost chuckle brother. He must be one of the other brothers people don't know about!! To you....