Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd

Exactly. I heard something on the radio last week that said the only reason why the deal didn't happen in the summer was because Saints were holding out for a larger fee upfront. They got what they wanted this time round and that's why he's gone.

Exactly. He's looked good all season. I don't understand why we're not looking to make a bid for him.

I'm sure that would be the first thing they'd insist on. I would think there's at least 10 players with a similar clause already.

I could see Koeman going there. And yes, Hughes would be a better choice than MP. That said, it looks like the board have decided to stick by MP no matter what, which is very worrying.

The best we can hope for is a loan until the end of the season with an option to buy if we stay up. I just don't see this happening. Why on earth would he want to come to Southampton when things are as bad as they are? Be honest, other than the fact he used to play for us, he'd be better going to somewhere like, Leicester, Watford, Burnley or Everton.

Just goes to show, manage a player well and he will deliver. The problem we have is that we've lacked a decent man manager for a couple of seasons. Yes, VVD has behaved like a ***** and could have handled his departure better, but he saw what was on offer and it was obviously far more attractive than amateur hour in Southampton. My guess is that the players morale is at an all time low because they can see that the club is being run by *****s, from top to bottom. I spoke to Niall Quinn yesterday. He spent time with Cortese when he was at Saints as he was working on a piece for Sky. He said the way NC ran things was incredible. All the players were educated at the club. If they underperformed academically, they didn't play for the U-18's. It encouraged players to work hard and made them mature quickly. The reason why we did so well financially when selling young players like Shaw and Chambers was because they were seen as mature, well educated individuals by the bigger clubs. It meant that they didn't have to invest as much time and money because they were getting quality individuals, instead of rough & ready teenagers who needed to be educated and disciplined. Clubs wanted young players from Southampton because they felt like they were getting the finished article, even though they were only kids. He was saying all that a lot of what Cortese did has gone now. Some aspects are still there but we're not doing anything better than other Academy's in the country, whereas we used to be one of the top clubs in Europe for young player development.

Because it's never been about Football. It's all been about money and somebody making as much as they can in a short space of time. The asset stripping has been going on for a while now. Just a shame that people couldn't see it coming earlier.

I hate what Premiership football has become so I understand why some people are saying that going down wouldn't be all that bad. Our return to the Premiership was nice while it lasted but let's be honest, it's no fun seeing your best players sold every season, whilst the board churn out lies about turning us into a force in European football. Katrina has been asset stripping the club for the last 2-3 years. All the money from the sale of players that hasn't been re-invested and now a huge sum from the Gao family. She's done very nicely out of it. It just shows that she doesn't really give a **** about the club. For me, the final nail in the coffin was when I heard about being bought by a Chinese investor. The likes of Sky & Chinese investors are ruining the game. Give me 3pm kick-offs on a Saturday afternoon and games that whole families can afford to attend. Surely that's better than this ****e that's played by greedy posers with no loyalty, sleeves of tattoo's, Bentley's and all the skill of Iain Dowie. Wake up people - The game is ****ed.

10 & relegated.

Exactly. This is not the answer.

The way I see it is that if all those 0-0 draws had finished 2-2 or 3-3 he wouldn't have been binned off.

Spot on!

What's the problem? Why not have something to help soften the blow? My initial stake was £2.00. I pick 3 games every week where you choose both teams to score and pick the winner. By the end of last season I'd got over a grand in my Paddy Power account. I took most of it out and spent it on gig tickets. I left £100 in, which I lumped on us going down at 25/1. What goes on at the club is out of my control. I'd love to see us top 6, which is what Les Reed & co told us we're were building a team for. However, that wasn't going to happen when the club sell the best players every season. The bubble was always going to burst. If we stay up I'm happy and it's cost me £100 that I never really had. If we go down I get £2500 to go on holiday and try to forget about the awful season. I see it as a win-win situation.

Snap.

Backed us to go down at 25/1 the day Pellegrino was announced. Stuck the £100 balance that had built up from an original £2.00 bet in my Paddy Power account on us going down on the basis that I'd have £2500 to cheer myself up if it happened.

I rate him. I'd be cashing in on FF, problem is that nobody will want him based upon his current form.

Redknapp said something similar. I'm not here to do your homework for you. There's plenty of talk from the pundits about the current state of affairs at Southampton.

Where as Rolf Harris is clearly yours. FWIW, Merson is now saying that he thinks Pellegrino will be sacked if we put in another performance like we did against Spurs.

Quote, Paul Merson "Pellegrino has one of the safest jobs in the Premier league. There's no way Les Reed will want to admit he made a mistake in sacking Claude Puel". He then goes on to say that he thought Puel's appointment at Leicester was a strange one but he's changed his opinion of him as he's having a real go. He also says that it shows that the problems at Southampton were probably player related rather than a management issue.

It'll be interesting to see how he does given that most players that leave us for bigger and better things rarely seem to improve. Of the following players which are better, worse, or about the same since leaving Saints? Clyne - I'd say about the same. Lovren - Worse. Mane - Better. Lallana - Can't call this one. Liverpool fans say he's a better player but I'm not convinced. Shaw - Worse. Schneiderlin - Worse. Wanyama - Better. Alderwiereld - Better.

The pundits don't seem to think he'll be sacked either. They're saying he has one of the safest jobs in the league because Les Reed won't want to admit that he's made a mistake. They're also starting to say that they think we'll be relegated because we don't score goals and we're now leaking goals. Basically the press are saying that the years of selling our best players have finally caught up with us and you can't do what we've done without it having a negative effect in the long run.

If he's unsackable then we're relegated.

Make my Christmas and sack him. Not often I'd wish a defeat upon us but hopefully Spurs will demolish us and that'll be the end of his tenure.

It's Christmas. We've not improved one bit since day one of the season and we've now got injuries to three key players. Whilst the injuries are not the managers fault, the poor performances are. These players are capable of better. Act now. Get rid of the clueless ***** and let's start a fresh in Jan and try and salvage something from this season.

You beat me to it.