derry

Really!

Reading between the lines I suspect this was a make or break meeting and Alan Pardew wanted to stay enough to agree to whatever NC required. Looks like the long ball game will disappear.

Nicola Cortese quoted on SSN.

It is very likely that ML and NC are unhappy about the final finishing position. What we don't know is the cost to the club of Pardew and his management team, or the promises made by AP and NC to each other at the start of last season. We do know that NC provided the finance to sign a lot of good players, and strengthen in the January window. We do know at the middle point of the season there was a public disagreement regarding the relative ambitions of the two parties. The owner wanted promotion but Pardew prioritised the cups realising late that missing the playoffs was a big issue for the owner. I think Pardew badly misjudged the situation and made the cardinal mistake of briefing the press against NC, who responded on BBC Solent. That may have been the breakdown in confidence as seen by NC. We know what happened when the Echo went against NC it appears he doesn't compromise. Having said that It may be that sacking Pardew is not the intention. ML and NC have been brought up on European passing football and possibly view some of the long ball dross served up this year as not the way they wish their team to play. It could be that the meeting is to set the parameters down for next season both automatic promotion and the way the game is to be played, together with transfer targets, budgets, staff review, retained lists etc. The element of doubt may be that for Pardew to stay he has to recognise who is the boss and embrace the principles being laid down. If he doesn't then there will be a parting of the ways. Players are used to changes in management and usually carry on as usual. Pardew will leave or be sacked at some point, in any event it is the way football is.

It could be that we no longer need the season ticket money to fund operations and transfers.

It's the fact we made no improvement on our position relative to the play off places since Christmas. After 23 matches - 7 points behind, after 46 matches and a expensively strengthened team, still 7 points behind.

Interestingly Frank, we were 7 points off the play offs after 23 games at Christmas, brought in 4 players and are still 7 points off the play offs after 46 games, having made up no ground on the top six at all. I think it is the strengthening in January then the failure to reach the play offs that has done the damage. After bringing in two centre backs and conceding the equaliser 20 seconds after scoring with a minute to go at Millwall on Jan 16th, allegedly led to NC questioning Alan Pardew that night. Which then led to the public statements by Pardew and Cortese. I think if it turns out that Pardew is leaving, the decision was pretty much made then.

At times we played some decent stuff but also some route one rubbish. We were tactically exposed in some games such as Brighton (h), Swindon (h) and poor in a number of away games against poor opposition. Alan Pardew did a decent enough job in division one bearing in mind the ability we were able to sign. Is he replaceable? Of course he is. What we should really be concerned about is Markus Leibherr not enjoying owning Southampton FC. He has already said he would only be interested in owning the club if Nicola Cortese ran it on his behalf. As far as I am concerned the two people we don't want to upset are ML and NC. If they don't like Alan Pardew for whatever reasons and they want to make a change then that's fine by me. Given a choice between ML/NC and Alan Pardew there is no contest.

Steve Coppell!

I would have thought SMS on a Saturday afternoon with Saints playing away would be akin to the middle of the Sahara.

I thought that at the time but the tip came from a couple of non connected sources. We were never able to confirm one way or the other.

After 23 games we were 7 points off the playoffs. After adding Fonte, Barnard, Puncheon and Otsemobor, 23 games later we were still 7 points off the playoffs. May be that the owners just don't think that was a good result after the investment in January.

I was told at the time, that Mark Hughes was interviewed at SMS for two hours on Sat Mar 6th, at the same time we were playing Tranmere away. Which was why Weston and I were were trying to find out, whether anybody had seen Nicola at Tranmere. As far as we know he wasn't there.

Alan Pardew has done a decent job. A poor demoralised team, points deduction and not a lot of time at the start. A good squad with a winning mentality at the end. Taking that a stage further does anybody really think that a good manager, taking the present squad, no points deduction and with further strengthening couldn't win this league next season. Alan Pardew included. Markus Leibherr and Nicola Cortese are successful people who have bought a football club and have a dream like all of us. They obviously know what they want, apart from success. I think part of the problem is they aren't seeing the sort of football they want. A lot of games this season has seen us humping the ball up front, maybe they don't want their club to play this way and just aren't enjoying it. I know if I wasn't happy, in their place I would make changes. I also think the Waigo situation could possibly could be a problem, if Cortese who brought him in wants to keep him and Pardew doesn't. We certainly have the players to play passing football, the third goal yesterday was a delight to watch. There may be nothing in this, but the lack of comment from the club over the last week, with the Echo running a 'Pardew must stay' campaign, makes me think that there is substance or at least a level of serious dissatisfaction.

Isn't the club just an asset of the company? Sell the club free of debt to a new owner. CVA for existing company then liquidate at the end.

Just an aside. The penalties scored by Lambert etc in the cup penalty shootouts are not counted in their official season's goalscoring totals.

The strikers would love him with the quality of his delivery. A right sided Hoolahan.

Probably only the Mirror won't headline it unless it is to try and spin it like Mandelson making a fool of himself. When your in a hole stop digging.

What a bunch of twits. Just adding fuel to the fire. It doesn't matter what is done or said now because the damage is there. All it did was expose to the public what has been said about him, and showed the shallow character of the prospectve leader of the next government.

After 13 years of unmitigated failure, except for the bought and paid for voters, it is hard to see why anybody would want to vote for a party led by that hypocrite.

I think the really interesting bit is just about to kick off. The people at the bottom, NATS/CAA are going to be fingered as the enquiry bandwagon gains momentum and in turn the leaks about which government minister got involved will come out.

It seems to me that the reason the UK is now open is that Willie Walsh called the regulators/politicians bluff and launched 26 longhaul flights to the UK on Tuesday. Faced with turning back these flights or opening the politicians reasoned that the Wednesday morning row would be a vote loser. I have flown for years in close proximity to erupting volcanoes in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Mexico and Asia and the only criteria was stay out of the ash plume. I found it bizarre that the whole airspace plus 23 other regions was closed on the simulations from the Met Office computer. Up to now areas affected by erupting volcanoes were marked by a symbol on the sig weather charts and it was up to pilots to stay clear of the plume. It appears to me this whole episode was a gross overreaction by the regulators/government departments. The airlines proved at the weekend there was no problems but nobody in authority would listen, but when the engine manufacturers stated that the current levels of contamination outside of the plume was 1% of the acceptable contamination it finished the ban. It is my opinion that in clear air and outside of the ash plume that there was no problem. A much more sensible approach would be to map the plume and create a 30 mile buffer. Virtually all aircraft are GPS/INS/IRS equipped and even if not still under direct radar control so avoiding the plume was not a problem.

Oldham came to SMS with the fourth best away goals against in the division. It means that it was totally predictable that they would defend rather than attack. So what do we do, play a one paced totally defensive minded, non passer, as one of two central midfielders and as expected he contributed little or nothing. At half time we replaced him with Lloyd James, whose lack of pace gave us practically no improvement and as a result was replaced after 25 minutes. The midfield selection was the real cause of our problems as it effectively wasted 70 minutes of the game with an inneffective team. It wasn't until the last twenty minutes that we played penetrative football, albeit unsuccessfully, against a last ditch massed defence. Puncheon had plenty of possession, but in the main was pretty poor, however once he moved into centre midfield with Waigo and Lallana on the flanks, we looked quite good. With the fact that Oldham were known to be defensive, the last thing we needed was a defensive midfielder and Puncheon should have been paired with Hammond. This was a pragmatic safety first team selection, when what was needed was a positive attacking team. This is one of those occasions that cause some people to question Alan Pardew's ability as a manager. After giving it a go at Yeovil and succeeding despite 10 men, I had hoped he would ditch his pragmatism against the negative Oldham, but he unnecessarily reverted to type and sadly we failed to win because of it.

I think it's the opposite. WIDE not NARROW.

'Coffin dodgers'