derry

I think that is exactly what Cortese is doing with Pardew at the moment. I think they do realise that the teams that hoof their way to the Premier come straight back down. Sadly so do some of the footballing promotions ie. Burnley/WBA as they just aren't strong enough. I think they are trying to build a Premier football team, not for this season and maybe next but for the end of their 5 year plan. A really good football team that maintains it's momentum can survive the early seasons in the Premier. I think that is their aim.

Well said Andy.

As if I care Duncan, I have a thick skin. If he stays, it will be on Cortese's terms, I personally hate some of the crappy long ball stuff we default to at times, if we do develop a passing style under Pardew I will be delighted. If we don't it won't matter because it will mean another manager is. I just think Cortese has it right. His autocratic thin skin may be a bit hard to handle but I do know from somebody who has worked closely with him that he does look after people he values.

Suggest you read Pardew's description if himself and his way of doing things, in his interview with the Guardian, which then drew the statement from Cortese which started all the doubt. I don't think Pardew shows up as a proponent of attacking, passing football. The fact we score goals has more to do with the talent available rather than the manager setting up an attacking team. The narrow long ball game we often resort to playing seems to be his default position. If he left tomorrow I wouldn't lose any sleep.

Do Cortese work together? Of course they do. Do they get on? If the last year tells us anything, disagreeing with Cortese isn't the way to get on at SFC. Last year Waigo was recruited from Italy unseen by Pardew, introduced by contacts of Cortese. Waigo was under utilised by Pardew despite changing games after coming on late. At the end of the season despite the speculation Cortese gave Pardew a vote of confidence, however there was a sting in the tail that seems to be ignored on here. Cortese stated catogorically that there was going to be a change in playing style to a more exciting style that would be the 'Southampton' style played throughout the club, after his discussions with Pardew. I thought at the time that Pardew will have a problem with that, as he isn't that type of manager, preferring safety first pragmatism. To date there appears to be no change of style. Waigo went back to Fiorentina despite the option to purchase. It wouldn't surprise me if he isn't a bone of contention between the two. Markus Leibherr and Nicola Cortese are Europeans and I suspect hate the lump it up to Lambert style that we often employ. As far as I am concerned Markus Leibherr and because of his trust in Cortese, together, are the most important factors in SFC. Whilst Pardew is the present manager, if he isn't providing what the owner wants and goes his own way, there will be only one inevitable outcome. If Pardew goes, it might in the short term make a difference on the playing side, but I somehow think Cortese has that base covered if the rumours are true. I would like to think that Pardew is striving to fulfill the aspirations of the owner however I have doubts that the two parties have much common ground. I might not like the autocratic style but is the chosen way and as long as the present owner is getting what he wants out of the club, thats fine by me, because it sure as hell is better than the debacle we put up with in recent years, before Leibherr bought the club.

Alpine is an easy target. It doesn't mean that in this instance he is wrong. He has voiced these concerns consistently over the last month and as yet hasn't been proved wrong. Unless there is a sea change and somebody throws a magic switch and as a lot of people think, we will suddenly perform despite a pretty unconvincing pre season. After next Saturday, there will be nowhere to hide, last season was the excuse season, this season, it's perform or else, no excuses. If Pardew hasn't got it right, and we don't hit the ground running, he won't be around too long.

What really worries me is Pulis, Wotton, Reeves, Doble, Tavizoli, Oxlade-Chamberlain as the backup in a first team friendly game.

I just hope you are right. I hope nobody else is injured against Eastleigh.

At the end of last season after he was given the dreaded vote of confidence from Cortese, Pardew made a pretty strong statement of intent. Wasn't it along the lines of I'm going to build a Championship winning standard team to go straight on up, so what happened to that? At the moment we are definitely short of cover in vital positions, no wide midfielders fit against four last year, hardly strengthening. As far as I am concerned we are better defensively but woefully weak in midfield.

I doubt it, if we play a midfield of Oxlade -Chamberlain, Wotton, Hammond and Dickson against Plymouth we won't be dominant and it will be Davis to Lambert all afternoon.

The trouble with injuries is the recovery time. Lallana looks like a problem, it's a knee not responding to treatment, injected this week, still not right, what's next, a scan followed by exploratory surgery? If that happens it's long term. Richardson already out for three months, Puncheon hasn't played for two weeks, Schneiderlin hasn't played much and without Lambert we struggle. Wotton in midfield isn't sustainable. Without Lallana and Puncheon it will be a left back in midfield with Wotton and Hammond and a 17 year old who is nowhere near ready on the right. Waigo and Antonio would have covered this but they haven't been replaced. The back four is strong, the strikers provided Lambert is fit will cope, but without Lallana, Puncheon and Schneiderlin the midield is sub standard, and when has a championship winning team had a sub standard midfield? If the injured players are ready and fit to play competitively next week, fine, but if not there needs to be at least two reinforcements next week to prevent weakness.

I don't disagree that our best team can hold it's own, but all this game showed, was given a few injuries we are back to sticking square pegs in round holes, eg Mills wide right, three left backs, two little forwards and Davis lumping everything up to Mills/Pearce. Unless the missing players show up soon and stay fit and we sign at least three more, midfield/striker, this squad is too thin to cover injuries and win the league. For the last twenty minutes there were five kids on the field plus Hammond up front with Wotton and Pulis in midfield, Butterfield and Dickson are good players but Reading showed that their changes were the equals of the players that went off and gave us a lesson. The fact we played so many kids and have done all pre season, says it all about the overall depth of the squad, especially as the kids are nowhere near ready yet.

Brian is good mates with my son, he has just moved into new house at Bartley, he commutes daily to Reading and shares transport with Gregor Raziak. He signed a new three year contract last season and is on more than we pay. I think he has also been made captain of Reading. He is quite open that he has unfinished business at Saints but doesn't want to play in div one, I know for a fact that he/his agent have been spoken to, but for him the time/price is not yet right.

I was out with Ron on Tuesday, Adam has just had an injection for the knee problem. It's not supposed to be a problem but one can never tell about knees.

Look, we all know that Cortese doesn't do U turns for anybody except his employer, then he does as he's told. With that in mind Nick needs a dose of realism and stop banging his head against the wall. Just move on, get somebody close to buy his season ticket and go to the matches. It's one thing returning his money it's entirely different stopping him going to matches. One way of finding out whether he is de facto banned is to get a third party to buy a ST for his seat number if it is on general sale for Plymouth. If it is sold provided a one off hasn't just bought it for the Plymouth game, then he isn't banned. If he was banned that seat would surely have been withdrawn until after Aug 6th. Either way he has just over a week to either sort it or get himself a ticket and let the whole business just die a death, because there isn't going to be a revolution.

It may be argued that whilst not in the recognised definition of secured creditors, football creditors are secured against the £48m parachute payments due in this case. The paperwork for this argument is the League's insolvency rules defining the status of football debt and the fact that it has been recognised in a previous court case which was lost by HMRC when previously challenging the payments.

I would have thought the easy solution for him is to get somebody else to order a ticket in the area he wants to sit. That way nobody is any the wiser. As for Nick Illingsworth, I have had quite a few face to face chats with him, nothing to do with Saints Trust, he lives quite near, and I've found him easy to chat with and a decent person.

Cortese!!!!

Something I have noticed over the years, we seem to play a load of meaningless friendlies pre-season with mixed up meaningless teams whilst the top sides play pre-season tournaments against other top sides fielding regular sides. We are playing two foreign sides, three conference south standard teams and Reading and are still experimenting. Over the years we have been amongst the poorest starters whilst those sides that test themselves seem to start well. A week from now we play our only match against a competitive team and apart from Eastleigh are then straight into Plymouth, on Sky, with a 1215 kick off which is our usual scenario for a disapointing result. There is nothing that has happened this season that leads me to believe that our start will be anything but the usual slow start, I hope I am wrong.

This means that about two thirds of the cabin staff who are Unite members either didn't vote or voted against. Put that with the Cabin Crew 89 members and non union cabin staff not involved plus the cabin staff at Gatwick and London City who are working normally and it pretty much finishes it. It wouldn't be surprising if the union calls it a day, tries to negotiate their way out of this mess but eventually recommends settlement, as the next strike could well now herald the collapse of the dispute and leave the management dictating the terms.

Let's wait and see.

I've been told that Waigo didn't like Pardew and didn't want to stay. Pardew is reported to have said that he intends to bring in competition for Lallana on the left. Together with his previous statements of a box to box midfielder and a physically strong striker as back up for Lambert. Which sounds like at least three more coming in. Butterfield's versatility can't be used because he will have to play right back for the best part of three months until Richardon is fully fit.

I've often thought that an efficient way to deal with travellers who break into sites/fields they don't own, without the owners permission, would be to block them and their vehicles in. so they are unable to access or leave the site except on foot. As they all use their trucks etc to make money, denying their use would force them to request access to leave permanently which would be the only solution available. If this happened every time it would soon stop the trespass.

I would have thought that Cortese is more than happy with just 40% of the total capacity sold at a discount but with all the money up front, leaving the remaining 60% to be sold at premium prices. If we have a successful season some matches will sell out, others will have good gates, however the income will be up overall.

I'm still optimistic that there are further signings on the way. For one thing Adam Lallana has been told that a wide left midfielder will be signed as competition for him despite the fact he doesn't think he is a wide left midfielder. We still haven't got the back up for Lambert and no box to box central midfielder. The present depth of the squad is thin, Butterfield can only be classed as versatile if he isn't required as right back which he will be until the middle of October at the earliest. We have cover at the back except for right back, we have four midfielders and three strikers that can be classed as starters, but Connolly and Holmes are fragile, Wotton isn't good enough. We already have one long term injury it could easily happen that three or four could be injured for periods which means this squad just isn't strong enough numerically. Alan Pardew was hard pressed last season to get an endorsement from Cortese and I would think is under no illusion regarding the consequences of a poor start. This season is under the heading 'no excuses', If we are caught short and not looking like a top two side for whatever reason I can't see Cortese leaving it too long without taking action. For that reason I can see further strengthening over and above the three positions mentioned and the overall depth improved, albeit with two or three good loan signings.