Gordon Mockles

I think all the old boys need to stop dreaming about Real Ales...it won't happen! Well, maybe the bulk standard John Smiths bitter but not real ales. Has anyone actually ever had a real ale in a football ground? Strong lagers won't happen either. Can you imagine the carnage on opening day with Yorkshiremen drinking in Southampton all day, then necking Elephant Beer, Wife Beater and Leffe at St Mary's. They wouldn't be able to focus! Having said that, Leffe on tap would be amazing! That or a decent lager like San Miguel or Red Stripe. Red Stripe would be suited as someone rightly mentioned.

I don't understand the love affair with Hammond. He's not a good tackler and not really defensive but doesn't get forward and rarely gets goals which sort of nullifies his use. He has the touch of a rapist, often gives the ball away, doesn't have pace and is quite feisty and always poses a red card risk. I've seen Hammond have 'some' decent games but I have noticed many more times where his perfomances and constant giving away of posession has exposed our team and made him the weak link. Our midfield has been the main cause of concern for me for quite some time despite our league finish. We should not have thrown games like Tranmere, Rochdale, Brentford, etc. One major change which would galvanise our squad would be replacing Hammond or pushing him to squad status. Chaplow coming in helped this but once Morgan got injured, same old habits came out again. Ambrose would be great. Or, someone in the Quashie or Carlton Palmer role. I don't see Hammond (like Claus) as a natural leader unlike the fore-mentioned names. We need another leader, another midfield general - like Marsden, Carlton, Jimmy Case, etc. Or, even a bulldozer player that breaks up the play like Viafara and Palmer did (doing the ugly stuff) with a more cultured passer of the balll (like Morgan or Safri) playing off them. That would make such a difference, especially with players like Oxo, Guly, Lallana, Lambert or a similar new transfer that can both create/score off these middle men.

Errrrrrr, no. Apline's dead right. If Pardew had prepared, if we signed players earlier to get them established in training and IF AP had not delayed transfers and stalled signings (knowing he was leaving, for which case you could blame Pardew not Cortese), only one win would have won us the title. Highly avoidable and highly frustrating. Least Apline wants to learn from mistakes and this was certainly one. A prudent board would realise this and I hope our commitee took note.

You are consistently negative so I understand the banter with you but I am in agreement, we do tend to. It's frustrating. I am hoping to be proved wrong this time but remain quietly cynical. Also, it's the acid test for Nige. January isn't fair judgement to player pulling power but this pre-season will be the test. I am hopeful we recruit strongly and not continue soley with this young and unproven gamble but utilise the quality available and recruit both talented potential and proven players with experience like we did with Fonte, Ricky (despite no Championship time) and possibly even Butterfield and Harding. Adkins is back, players must report back soon after a well earned break so I am hoping and midly confident the ball is well in motion...surprise us all nicely with a Cork type signing and a show of intent. Time to hit the ground running if we're to build for the Premier League and if Cortese truly is serious. Our current squad has class but falls some way short of really competing with the likes of West Ham, Birmingham, Blackpoor and the like. Great fixture list. Home game Boxing Day, New Year at Brighton away, Skates on my birthday and before Xmas and Leeds at home. A great opener against similar calibre and a good test in front of our home crowd. COYS

Makes me laugh all these self-proclaimed people of principle and feckless fans that berate footballers for wanting to make as much money as they can during their short careers. Yes, they are over-paid, many struggle with monogamy and have arrogance in abundance twinned with egos almost as large as a certain ex chairmen but can you blame ANYONE for trying to earn as much money as possible in their lifetime? More so, those with children. It makes me laugh at the sheer double standards. Absolutely laughable. I mean, you may have worked your way up the ladder for XXX.limited in Winchester on £36,000.000/P.A. (Having been an apprentice since school). Working hard you vastly enhance the production output of the company. Then, some Blue Chip London company head hunts you and trebles your salary, making you a partner and head of production. Brilliant! Downside being, you won’t be doing what you loved most, managing the masses and working with the people. They prefer to use your skills acquired at boardroom and management level. Mind you, they are paying you 3x what you did earn. Would you be a sell out t*sser taking the position and would you turn it down on your staunch principles? You’d be thick if you did, sticking to some obscure belief that you must keep it real, keep in touch with the people and earning too much money is bad, evil and plain wrong? I doubt it although you may well hear further bizarre words of misguidance from people who deplore success and, of course, aren’t at all jealous. You may even be lucky enough to meet the smug hindsight gang – unashamed men of the highest intellect that could resolve all the world’s problems after observing many failed attempts by the highest authorities. Not all aimed at you Snail but it does make me laugh when people berate a player for being a squad player and moving to one of the best paying football clubs in the world. I’m sure they are noble to a fault and principled beyond belief and would remain on £9,000/week rather than accept a 4 year contract on £65,000/week (pure guess work) for just training and the occasional appearance. Much better for our future to earn 10k/week more at another club BUT you’re playing football. Forget the 9.5 million extra you could have earned at Filthy Rich FC! Unbelievable opinion. Absolutely ludicrous. No offence. Just the funniest case of double standards I have ever read. Must be trolling.

I thought Cortese was pretty clear and concise in that we have NO debt. Liebherr's don't work in debt. Self sufficient, high standard facilities and professionally run club. A far cry from our past self-serving Chairmen. It's actually weird going into transfer windows feeling excited, knowing that football decisions made are as good as can be expected and not ridiculous decisions made by idiotic pig farmers with ZERO knowledge on football yet arrogance to believe they know more than life-long professionals. Professional FC. I am hoping Adkins can attract some quality this season/promotion push since his reputation has been good this season but equally important is a manager's rep. in attracting the quality footballers, something we have yet to see from pre-season. Pardew wasted the last pre season/opening campaign (I believe setting us up to fail to egostistically enhance his own rep. to the detriment of the club) and it is way too long since we got off to a good start so I am nervous and hopeful we finally beat that trend. We've certainly ironed out many repeated patterns of failure but the catalyst for that repeated failure was mainly 2 Chairmen and their decisions (Lowe and prior) and we seem to be a far cry from those lowly days. COYS

Until he’s passed his driving test (if he doesn’t in fact have a driving licence, young enough to be borderline!) and bought a sensible low powered first car…a WAG mobile like a Merc AMG or a Range Rover Sport. The insurance will run into thousands but I’ll expect he can afford that with his top 4 club signing on fee! Oh, the tabloids making up stories again, filtered down by The Echo’s borrowed journalism hacks! Still, when he does go (which he will despite our good intentions contrary to the tried and tested anti-Lowe farmed player forumla for personal dividend support), he'll have a much deserved, juicy signing on fee! Nice work if you can get it. I expect Bale's moved onwards and upwards since his Mk4 Golf days living at the shabby Dell flats! (no offence residents but aren't they Barratts build? LOL)

OOPS! Wrong thread. Thought this one was about Jack Cork!

Cos big Nige inherited a superb squad of senior professionals, a motivated fanbase, a solid boardroom accompanied by a world class coaching set up & brilliant physios! I'm glad Nige sorted out the latter. I remember the length of player lay offs in the Burley era & before. Good old Oakley not having his contract renewed due to his injuries yet it was our dumbass physios that treated him for the wrong strain, aggravating the problem & extended the injury time substantially. Oh the gool old Burley era. Incompetency in every facet! Lol

To be fair, no! Lol

He was a snail & complete sh*te! He only came here as part of one of Burley's 'special' deals (I won't elaborate more). I'd love to see us get Cork in. Our midfield needs some consolidating & if Hammond can be pushed to back up/squad status, more the better. If Oxo goes which is likely (although I'd like to see one more season) then bring Danns in on a free, make a move for Pilkington & a pacey striker, then we've one hell of a squad. Esp. if we seal up the defence with a slightly more mobile centre back in the Jaidi role.

LMAO That is worryingly mental! LOL

OOPS! Wrong thread. Thought this was about the Saints\Sibley announcement. Must have clicked on a Dale Stephens debate by mistake!

Well, we'll be the team laughing as I think they'll struggle next season. Think how long it took Saints to settle into St Mary's. They've the hoodoo of a new ground & a whinging, classless cabron like Poyet to boot! Skeletor needs to get over his Saints obsession & back to managing his team in the castle of grey skull! The tosser!

You think? I don't! First half was woeful, poor quality hoof football. It wasn't good despite the result. Yet again we made a vast improvement second half with more urgency, passing & movement but it wasn't a match deserving of many plaudits considering how poor Wednesday were. I'm not sure if it's the squad not following instructions or Adkins tactics but we certainly need to coach the squad in playing both halves. Pleased with 3 points but I defintely have concerns how we have be playing as of late. Colchester start, etc. Hope we buck our ideas up for Charlton, MK & Brighton. Don't think we'll get let off the hook so easily.

Originally Posted by benjii Pedant. I think he was the young player caught up in the spit roast scandal! ;0)

Think he was the young player caught up in the spit roast scandal!! ;0)

Originally Posted by Cabrone Yeovil will give us a tough test but if we show some mental strength by keeping our heads and put on a professional display I can only see one outcome. 2-0 or 3-1 to us. Lmao I love the intellect of this forum at times!! ;0)

If you'd been to many of those games (dunno whether you have or haven't), you'd have noticed we've dipped in form, failed to beat poor teams & subsequently dropped points & yet again failed to gain ground on our competitors whilst playing poorly (sloppy passing, poor finishing & lack of attacking impetus) for substantial periods (dare I even mention the opening 20mins of Colchester, Walsall, Tranmere, Notts County, Brenford, etc.) Call me picky but if I see Brighton capable, B'mouth more so & considering our assembled squad (despite Chaplow, I felt we had a poor transfer window since our pot of gold is hardly that, the Liebherr's want us self sufficient which should be achievable with our gates) yet that Southampton mentality seems to be evident in patches. Thinking we're better than we are. That's my only theory since we've always been that way reagrdless of manager, squad, chairmen, board, etc. I'm hoping we'll pull it together & keep winning. We're getting some good results but some people set their sights low & forget we're in League One. I expect better. Yeovil & chiefly B'mouth will define if we've done enough to actually secure automatic promotion. Let's hope so as we certainly aren't as consistent as Brighton for whatever excuse our fans give.

I thought everyone knew, it was nothing to do with phones. Blackmailing Skate landlords, who'd have em!!

I hadn't known this so a huge, sad shock. He was fantastic for us, both on the pitch & the finances from his transfer. Really sad news, knowing cancer all too well. RIP big man. Thoughts with his loved ones.

LOL Nice one Ronno!! ;0)

Here here. All those that banged on about offside were short sighted to what he actually brought to the squad & his goal scoring assists & picking out Lambert was superb as well as his ability to track back & turn of pace to change defence into counter attacks. Numerous JPT matches, Walsall home when the team were stale until his sub, numerous other chances but sadly fickle fans & detractors only saw what they wanted to see. We miss his input a lot IMHO.

Yeah, and finished (as in the stadium build - if that isn't what you meant!) unlike MK (not knocking it though, loved the set up at MK, the auto turnstiles & the way the concourse was set up so near the seating/viewable bar a partition. Preferred that to our/the usual set up (down steps, away from view/daylight) ;0)

See below. I can confirm myself it is true & regularly heard my colleague liaise with AC but it's hardly confidential, it was in the public domain. WSP were the planning supervisors & dealt with Andrew Cowan. Some people get narky on this forum to any volunteered info. so make your own judgements but this is so trivial & I assumed common knowledge. Sadly, I suppose the plethora of trolls that now seem to plague the aether have this effect. Muddy the waters. As for the structural comments, all buildings would be vacacnt during works & as someone rightly suggested, this would likely begin May time anyway (end of season). Obviously, any new terracing would involve significant structural work (which is always over engineered anyway) but the original model was designed as part of that concept. Let's just be thankful no Aussie companies will be near St Mary's as Multiplex couldn't have made Wembley a bigger mess if they'd tried.