CHAPEL END CHARLIE

Maturity :confused:

You've made the (surprisingly common) mistake of believing that opinions expressed on here have any effect whatsoever in the real (off line) world . Always remember that there are only a few hundred regular contributors on here compared to a fanbase of 30,000 or more - who are themselves largely powerless to be frank . Some examples : Did years of savage criticism on here of the previous chairman (who's name cannot be mentioned) have a major bearing on his final demise - Not really it was Barclay's . Is there any evidence that managers have ever listened to our opinions when selecting the team - No and nor should they . When 9 out of 10 Saints fans clearly stated they wanted Nigel Pearson's retention as manager did it make any difference - Obviously not . As for Paul Wotton for what it's worth I've seen this player play on numerous occasions and for the life of me I can't see anything more than your typical ageing journeyman player , not really worth a starting place in the team for my money . I say this in the sure and certain knowledge that my or any other Saintsweb opinion will not have the slightest influence on anything .

It's not about formations its about peoples right to express their opinions without people like you jumping on their backs every time they do like a fully paid up member of the Alan Pardew Taliban . This is far from 'hogwash' and if you really cared about participating in 'debates worth having' as you claim then you might care to encourage minority opinion rather than suppress it . Alan Pardew is a good manager doing a good job for us - who's saying anything else ? but as far as I'm aware he is still a human being capable of human error just like the rest of us . When his divine status is confirmed I'm sure you or NickG will be among the very first to tell us .

Alps there are forces at work on here that threaten the very continuation of this forum . In this thread for example the Professor merely raised the possibility of the team adopting another formation and maybe performing even better than it has recently - now whether you agree or disagree with that it's still a mild enough premise I would have thought but judging by some of the reaction he's garnered you'd think he'd called for the managers instant dismissal . If people are deterred from raising football issues on here for fear of being labeled as a 'traitor' to the cause somehow (your religious fundamentalism comparison is very apt) then before very long this place will fade into nothing - and that would be a great shame .

But why do you want to restrict the debate ? - people who disagree with you have just as much right to put their view over as you do . If we can't discuss a football issue such as the best formation to adopt for instance for fear that some see it as a quasi-heretical slander on Alan Pardew then what exactly is the point of a football forum ? Personally I'd rather keep this place alive by discussing threads such as this than any number of artificial 19C style trolling exercises that so many seem to enjoy for some inexplicable reason .

Leyton Orient fan reaction - some blaming their manager for his substitutions . http://www.leytonorient2.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=222797

Exactly , I think it generally established that this is a place for Saints fans to freely express their opinions on all matters SFC related - if this ever sounds like we are setting ourselves up as somehow knowing more about the game than the players/managers who are well paid to actually do the job than that is a misunderstanding . The Professor is perfectly in order to raise this issue and some of the criticism he's had is rather OTT I'd say . There are a few on here who'd like to turn this forum into some glorified cheer-leading group (no names - no pack drill) but all things considered that might prove to be rather dull for thr rest of us .

Oh just a minor aside , still rather more than you can manage apparently .

Top comedy trolling

Hmmm ....... I see our last two comebacks have both coincided with the withdraw of Paul Wotton from the game - not that I would suggest there's any connection between these two events of course .

We just can't stop scoring 3 a game can we - pity one went in our own net !

Like the Mockingbird sport does no harm in the main , no need to shoot it or its followers then .

Sent off again :confused: - Oliver Lancashire now holds the FIFA world record for red cards received in relation to minutes played . (I may have made this up)

I saw somebody wearing a blue PFC jacket outside the Bargates on my way to the match last Saturday :mad: - I can assure you I found this as instinctively aggravating as many/most on here would but when I thought about it a bit more it seems to me this is supposed to be a free country and people can wear whatever bloody clothes they want to - that's their business not mine . The tribal nature of the game is well understood and can add to its enjoyment at times but when you take it to extremes (such as abusing complete strangers in the street or resorting to violence even) then you're going too far . Perhaps this is rather too primitive an aspect of our human nature for the more mature football supporter to overindulge . That Pompey fan can walk the streets of Southampton with a far better chance of surviving the trip unscathed than a Saints fan wearing the red & white in Pompey could - that's a good thing .

Considering the very serious (potentially illegal) stuff that has been allowed/encouraged on here recently people being unpleasant towards each other seems to pale into insignificance .

If Dean Hammond gets bashed for not scoring enough from midfield then just imagine the lorryload of crapola Morgan Schneiderlin must take every day - for the first time in my life I feel sorry for a Frenchman .

Poppy Montgomery from that dull series about the FBI's missing persons unit .

Every point dropped must be damaging to some extent - I can't for the life of me understand why that simple truth annoys you so . I'm sure you want us to make the play-offs this season (so do I) so the 15 or 20 dropped points at the start of the season may well be a deciding factor on whether we achieve that laudable objective . Time will tell of course . As for any criticism from myself regarding Alan Pardew's alacrity in assemble the current squad that is most definitely not an argument I've ever made or will make . For the record I think the management team (backed by the owners money) have done very well in signing players this season , I trust we our both clear on that point . The 'no preseason' argument I find not entirely convincing , if memory serves AP had 3 or 4 games to work on the team (new managers are often thrown straight into the action) and the majority of our players most certainly did undergo a full preseason training routine either here or at their previous clubs . We did IMO have a respectable enough squad for this division ready for game one against Millwall , a squad that perhaps could have done rather better than it did . I have accepted ad infinitum that AP's late arrival here has presented us with a problem - almost every team has problems and their managers are paid a lot of money to overcome these problems , that is their job is it not ? I note with interest that Alan Pardew seldom if ever uses any of the numerous excuses I read on here all the time to explain our poor start to the season , perhaps some on here would do well to follow his (admirable) example . ....................................................................................... I think I'll leave this here as we seem to be going around in circles , what's past is past and lets concentrate on what looks like a very bright future .

Yes that's the one , you know that little club in Dorset that are so skint that they have to have 16 year old school boys on the bench just to make the numbers up .

To be fair I never claimed other clubs had exactly the same problems as us did I ? I do say many other clubs have their own problems to overcome and may have made a rather better job of it than we did initially - 3 quick examples : AFC Bournemouth - Young inexperienced manager running a pitifully small squad with no money to spend even if the FA lifted their crippling transfer embargo = top of L2 Newcastle Utd - Their owner has been trying to offload the club for months , managerial situation in chaos all summer and one of our academy boys playing as a regular 1st team striker = Top of the CCC . Colchester Utd - The chairman let both their well respected manager and team captain leave after the season had started = 3rd in L1 scoring at a rate of 2 points per game (we are on 1.5 points per game btw) In addition there are countless examples of managers arriving at clubs mid-season and instantly improving their results - I'm sure you can see the obvious truth in that . The point I must continue to make is that 9 points after 9 games was a pretty damaging start in all honesty and that any number of excuses will count for nothing next May - you just have to make the best of it .

Apparently we do , it's a little known regulation buried deep in the forum rules .

......the kiss of death for any winning run .

Hang on a minute , calling for an improvement in the teams (poor) initial results and passing some final judgment on Alan Pardew as a utter failure are not the same thing at all . Who exactly were all these people on here calling for his immediate dismissal anyway ? - 2 or 3 at the very most if memory serves . I've accepted that our preseason was disrupted so many times that I'm not going to repeat myself on the subject , suffice it to say that this is obviously true . It seems to me however that it's equally true that many other teams in this division had (to a greater or lessor extent) their own problems to overcome - arguably some made a better job of it than we did over the first 10 or so fixtures . I have to say with all due respect to our opponent's that the standard in this division is not particularly high frankly , bearing that in mind perhaps there was an opportunity to climb the table at a somewhat quicker rate than we did despite of our difficulties . Fortunately we have just about enough games left to repair this damage to our season - I'm quite sure both of us and every other Saints fan on here for that matter hope that we do .

Ok then - that's your opinion . My opinion is that raising concerns regarding our poor start to the season should not be a matter for embarrassment to anybody - the record shows that after a significant proportion of the season had elapsed we were averaging only 1 point per game (relegation form) - it seems to me perfectly in order to raise that on a SFC football forum . Those asking questions in my opinion had a better grip on the realities of modern football than the 'give Alan Pardew two seasons regardless' faction , this is a results business after all . We're playing well now and (more importantly) getting good results and as long as that continues everyone will be happy , it was ever thus in football . I don't give managers unquestioning support - they have to earn it .

2 points per game is a hard target , I see ony Chelsea , MUFC & Arsenal are currently achieving that in the EPL - no team in the CCC - and just the top 3 in L1 . Differcult as it is you have to say with the squad we have now and the form we're in it's not impossible by any means . For the record our current PPG stat' stands at 1.5