NickG

Safri is the only big miss, Saga would have been if he had his confidence back as clearly has the ability - the rest -not up to and and time to move on

early days but Gillet, Schneiderlin and Holmes look head and shoulders better than Licks and Viafara. vignal has been replaced by Surman.

and us! bet we proved them wrong!

suppose you would have moaned about just a portuguse teenager if we had signed Ronaldo? What's the problem with midfielder at LB worked for Benali, Bridge and Bale! Look at the performance not bizarre negatives

R Wright K Davis but fairly close J Wright James C Powell Svensson c Perry Davies A Surman Surman Viafara Gillet II Holmes Safri Schneiderlin Euell Dyer / Thomson John John Saganowski Lallana Why is this years team going to get relegated?

heading in right direction already

good feeling -optimistic for the season / future but expecting defeat today as hard first game -so nothing to lose

far from said surplus to requirements! Said high earners / good offers etc

keep saying it, but although far from perfect squad, honestly feel that on the whole it is better than this time last year -and until the JD/JG era we were mid table. Would change if we lose more of Kelvin, Rasiak etc

which replacements Powell v Svensson II v Schneiderlin??

shows the wider football worlds view of the two's tenure with us.

JP, at this very early stage, seems best of both. good football of GB the drive and discipline of NP

don't think people are saying they want shot of him, more some are saying club are idiots for getting rid of him and others realising we are broke and perhaps can live without him. He may come back a better player as last season he did need to build his confidence.

can see both sides and think both should not get stressed! MLT was a legend (better use of the term than on another thread running). Created and scored hundreds of goals but I do see what some are saying in that he is not the type of player who springs to mind as a playmaker. He was a one of a kind. I see a playmaker in more of a traditional static role, relying on a quick turn and pass to create an opening. MLT was so much more.

GB -resigned from us to become international manager. NP -sacked by us and went to first division. No comment just thought would through it in!

you're right, even more worrying! Must lose mental arithmetic ability over 40!

Both born in Southampton and starting going in about 78, when 11 and 13. I have stayed here and been going for, god thats 20 years! My brother moved around world and ended up in Cardiff years ago. Used to come here for odd game but missed regular football and wanted to take his nippers so started with Cardiff. But would still have said Saints his first side but after years of watching them and rarely seeing us he has just starting saying "us" when talking about Cardiff!

when they have seen our style of dynamic high quality football -no other club will be able to say they are a footballing side!

he does have defence in that he was a saints season ticket holder when we grew up and until he moved away. He then had a premiership team and lower division team -how times have changed! he tends to sit on the fence but think he first team is now Cardiff but hey blood is thicker etc

we all know the squad could do with an injection / retention of skill and experience we also know we are broke

my brother is a Cardiff season ticket holder so thought would ask his thoughts on the game. first thing he said was how bad our season is going to be, much the same as the journalists who don't look into it he was under impression that we just missed relegation and then sold our first team with no replacements. I then tried to explain the way we are playing based on 3 preseason friendlies and JP comments. Found myself sounding quite enthusiastic. He said it would be interesting as their strengths are pacy fullbacks and footballing midfield. Thought they would put our young fullbacks under pressure, would try to play good football but do like time on the ball. He did say that although they rate Jones the feeling is that he is not great tactically and they sometimes try to out think the opposition and get it horribly wrong. Think that will be interesting -will other teams try to play their normal game or adapt to our unusual and well publicised tactics? told him to watch Schneiderlin!

Ferguson is stuggling to hang onto Ronaldo, O'Neill -Barry, its the way of the world players move on.

to be fair I don't think anyone is saying NP was a failure, I certainly think he did pretty good. But to say he was excellent or a legend is just wrong.

glad we agree, so revenue is still low -which higher paid players should leave?

look at league tables for day GB left day NP took over last day of season. It is just inaccurate to say GB had us in relegation battle, or that NP was "great". We were under performing with GB, we dropped further under JG/JD, NP steadied the players (who not long before had been doing ok) had too many draws, should have had us safe before last game and scraped through. Seemed very decent character.