derry

I think that the writer mixed up N'Doye with N'Daye. I think he would be exchanging one bench for another. With us if Adkins rated him he would be playing and that would be all important.

Because they are going to need it. It will be interesting to see how he tries to play. He says that the target is to stay in the Premier, however he is a safety first manager and that won't go down well at SJP unless the results are good. Rather them than us. Happy Christmas Colin.

Why not indeed. Happy Christmas Bert.

This seems strange as we had agreed a fee for him to join us at the end of his loan. It could be that Fiorentina think there is interest out thereand are trying to auction him, but not playing him isn't going to help get a big fee for him. If we are the only bidders, along with our ability to write a cheque out, providing Nigel Adkins is convinced, it could be that we would become a possibility. His agent is obviously trying to get him a new club and I suspect he is talking to us. He would be a great signing even with a right sided 4-4-2 in mind.

Excellent coverage from our three lucky posters. This confirms some of the things about Nicola Cortese that have come from someone who worked for him and is still at the club. A demanding boss who treats those who respond to his requirements well. It sounds as though he has a good grip on the requirements to make this a great club. He has my support. A statue as company for the great Ted Bates would be a good gesture especially if the fans could contribute something towards it.

If we get to the Premier we are going to have to have it

Not according to Adam Lallana who was surprised how fit and strong he was at pre season due to training over the close season.

Maybe a bit of planning was in order, If there is a group why don't one of you take everybody's customer number and book all the tickets early, which is what I do for my group so we always sit together in our usual seats. There is no trouble getting usual seats if one books as soon as possible. I would prefer a period for season ticket holders to claim their seat but it is as well to be prepared if that doesn't happen.

At least he will gurantee them mid table in the Championship by the middle of next season. The Toon fans will love his narrow long ball game. At least £2m for Lambert. Who else could he take? Fonte.

N'Doye not N'Daye

He wouldn't stay as he disliked Pardew. Still pigs could yet fly. Pardew is absolutely ideal to stabilise Newcastle in the middle of the Championship. The Toon will love his long ball narrow game plan.

Never mind airconditioned stadia in 2022, more importantly what about 32 air conditioned training camps!!!! Training outside in 50C would be a good reason for players giving it a miss.

Refusing the request to commemorate the deaths that happened on the stadium site when asked, is what brings criticism. The right thing to do was allocate a site for the plaque as near as possible to the site of the shelter. Comparing it with other sites is irrelevant as it is a request that applies only to SMS and only really became relevant when the stadium was built.

Why didn't Putin bother going to the selection process? Because he didn't need to.

Pretty much what she said. She obviously did a good job because she was promoted into an area she wanted to work in.

Look, Lowe built the stadium and 'etc' covered all the rest. 'Whoever was concerned' shows that nobody is being targeted, however subsequently I saw that the lady's grandson 'Golden Balls,' has posted in the Lounge Blitz thread and stated that his grandfather was trying to get Lowe to agree but he wouldn't. So it was Lowe.

I know somebody that worked for the management under Cortese and still works in the club. She has, apart from saying that he is a demanding boss, said a lot of good things about how she was treated personally by him. So your statement is too radical by far. Suffice it to say that there are a number of people that dislike him.

Nicola Cortese has taken plenty of stick on here so when he acts like a decent human being showing consideration and compassion it is good. SMS is a vast area with plenty of places to put up a plaque to the unfortunate fans killed on the stadium site. Whoever it was who turned the request down had no sense of history or how the people of Southampton feel about those unfortunates killed due to enemy action. It is right that there is a plaque on the site.

On the official site there is a report that a lady whose husband survived a direct hit on the air raid shelter at the the old gasworks because he went home for lunch. Eleven Saints fans were killed on Sept 26th 1940 in the shelter by the direct hit. The shelter was sited on what is now St Mary's. For years the lady's husband had tried to persuade the club to put up a plaque as a memorial to those fans but they had always refused. As soon as Nicola Cortese was made aware of the request he gave it his support culminating with Kelvin Davis presenting the plaque to the lady at the BBC Radio Solent broadcast on Tuesday night commemorating the 70th anniversary of the blitz. The plaque is to be put up at SMS. If Lowe etc, whoever was concerned, had refused this request they should be ashamed of themselves, especially as it is a Swiss citizen that is now doing what should have been done years ago. Sadly the lady's husband has passed away so was unaware that eventually his dream did come to fruition.

Well they would know about that with the massive crowds they get at all their top division games and most of their best players abroad.

I think you are pretty close to the problem. A player also has to go flat out at times. I have been watching Lambert carefully for a few games and one thing which is really getting up my nose is that he isn't raising his pace to flat out at any point. On many occasions when he is changing position he trots which most of the time is fine, but then he suddenly has to make a burst of pace, but doesn't and continues at threequarter pace even though it is obvious he needs to go flat out. Lambert can give so much more than he is doing. If he is injured he needs taking out of the firing line. If he is not, he needs to make more effort, go flat out at times and if he doesn't, he should be used as a sub until he sorts himself out. At the moment one goal from about 25 games is not good enough for the main striker. Four penalties and a deflected free kick muddy the waters. Lambert doesn't earn a starting place at the moment and until he does we have to find another way of playing until January. However it may be that Saturday has brought things to a head and the next time we see him play, he will either be fit or motivated preferably both.

Adkin's interview post match, "Lambert came off injured"

However he caught the one deep cross early on so there were no more hit into the box. He also made the one difficult save he had to make. His kicking is adequate and his understanding with the defence is wrong to criticise as it's his first game fo about a year and never with this back four.

There is no way of finding out at the moment the answers to some vital questions. Firstly does he have some deep seated injury or injuries and is he being kept going with injections? Secondly if he doesn't have an injury is there something else medically that is causing problems? Thirdly has he got some attitude problem relating to an alleged enquiry from a higher division? Going back to yesterday there were two occasions that he opted to play crosses when he could have scored, as he probably would have done last season, at the very least tried to score. This I think is the point Weston Saint is making. What really stood out for me was his running which was a long way off flat out. Even though there were times he needed to go for it, he never got above three quarter pace. If there is no injury issue this is unacceptable. I personally felt that he should have been taken off because of this. In the event I was surprised he was replaced at half time as it used up the third sub. I thought then, either he was injured or Adkins had addressed the problem head on. I am not surprised by the rumour but hope that it isn't so. Either way Lambert should be left out until a) he recovers, or b) until he sorts himself out. The way he is playing is devaluing him as a player and it is not fair on the rest of the team to have a player that is so short of effort whatever the reason.

With due respect that is more a reflection on two players not up to the mark than the ability of Hammond or Schneiderlin.