CanadaSaint

Absolutely, and that "hard-nosed" quality was usually injected by an undisputed on-pitch leader - one player who demanded more of those around him, and who could pick the team up when it was flagging or losing its way. He was especially hard on the "floaters" and those who were quick to forget the "game plan" or their role within it. Being an ex-pat I can't tell because a lot of it happens "off the ball" and out of camera view, but my suspicion is that we didn't have such a player last year and we still don't have one now. As a consequence, other teams take advantage of our fragility rather than us taking advantage of theirs. I thought Hammond was going to be that kind of player but that doesn't seem to have happened yet. And now he might be replaced by Guly, who is extremely unlikely to fulfill that kind of role.

Dave, I agree with most of what you say, but (as I said on the Reasons or Excuses thread) I do think they feel an understandable pressure at SMS. I also think that this problem is compounded by the fact that other teams raise their game when they come here. It's further compounded by the fact that AP often seems to be out-coached in the half time interval. This is why, for me, the Rovers game is a very big one for Pardew - and he has set it up to be a very big one with those comments. If we fail to perform well there, he's lost his only real excuse.

I'm very disappointed in Pardew because I think we are still exhibiting serious failings we showed last year, including the inability to break down defensive teams and the tendency to be out-coached at half time. That – to me - makes the “it’s early days” argument invalid, and most ‘explanations’ for these problems are just an excuse. Good manager address problems by making changes in the tactics and/or the squad, and in my view AP has yet to prove that he can do that. On the other hand there are two factors that IMO are valid reasons. I think Ottawa makes a good point – that fan anxiety can transmit itself to the players. It’s easy to say “They’re professionals and shouldn’t be affected”, but I can see that it’s bound to have a negative impact. Pardew mentioned this after the Plymouth game and I don’t think it’s just an excuse. Compounding it, in my view, is the fact that many teams “lift their game” when they come to SMS – the stadium, the large crowd, and our status as the bookies’ favourite to run away with the division. For these reasons I think the Bristol Rovers game is a key one because we get away from SMS and the two valid reasons don’t apply.

Given our performance on crap pitches last year, I hope they'll address this PDQ.

This is a recurring theme we urgently need to address. P.S. Proud of Miss Canada. We like our women lippy.

I'm trying to figure out how Cortese might react to us picking up one point our of six in the league but winning two cup games.

I'm in the group favouring zero tolerance but there's something strange about this. A fair number of our posters go to away games regularly, and we normally hear about it PDQ if there were any problems before/at/after a game. I don't recall hearing about any significant incidents in the past year - and certainly not any escalation in problems involving Saints fans. So, are the police right, or are they "inventing" this problem? You have to wonder what's going on here - especially when it was police stupidity that sewed the seeds for the problems after the Pompey game.

It's all very well people saying that these are "early days" but it looks and sounds like we're exhibiting exactly the same failings as last year, but now we don't even have the "impact subs" we had then. The failure to address known weaknesses (squad and tactical), the inability to break down defensive teams, the tendency to sacrifice width too early in attacks, the over-passing in meaningless spaces, the absence of a credible "Plan B", the tendency to be out-coached at half time, and the inability to reverse the hoofing trend when it appears are problems this year, just as they were last year. Something else worries me. We have brought in a succession of players who were well-regarded by the fans of the club they were leaving, but their games have gone downhill as soon as they arrived here. If we don't get Jaidi out of there, playing alongside him will take Fonte's game down the toilet as well. These characteristics are, to me, indicative of managerial weakness. And when people like Weston and Derry feel it's time for a change, I'm convinced it is.

Ironic, isn't it, given the intent of the original post? It looks like "Take it in the spirit in which it was offered or leave it alone" is beyond the comprehension of some. The progression of this thread proves that it's unfair to expect the mods to solve this when the remedy rests in the hands of the posters. The b*tchers, snipers and sneerers will soon have the forum to themselves because more and more of the moderates are becoming heartily sick of it. Many have already left.

Lest anybody think that, somewhere along the way, we forgot how to be a family club, take a read through this thread and the Markus tribute thread. The family soul of our club is very much alive and well. Thanks to everyone who has contributed, however modest or major their contribution, for making me feel so proud of my club again. But, above all, thanks to Markus for rekindling that flame.

If you knew your comments were "heartless", why did you bother posting them? It doesn't say too much for you, does it? Especially as the man in question has allowed you to continue to have a "life of saints viewing." That's yet another in an ever-longer list of the kind of needless, sneering posts that are dragging this forum ever lower. God, I despair at some of the people who post on here these days.

Markus, there's a lot of Saints fans up there, checking in every week to see how the team's doing - including my Dad and my Sister. I'm sure they will all welcome you with open arms, just as we did. Once you join this family, you never leave it - wherever you go. RIP.

What wouldn't surprise me at all is if Markus A) left formal provisions for financing aimed at achieving the objective of the five-year plan (i.e., reaching the Premier League - and in strong enough shape to stay there), and B) stipulated that Cortese should receive a minority ownership share. Granted, that's pure speculation on my part, but it would keep Markus's goal in place and ensure the ongoing interest of the man he entrusted to achieve it. If that's true, I think we can count on Cortese's ongoing involvement. And probably a Cortese who's even more determined to succeed than he already was.

I'm still waiting for - and dreading - a "What we don't need ..." from Dave Merrington. It normally triggers bad sh*t.

Excellent. Now we need to show that we can put sides away instead of letting them hang around. Let's get that second goal and then start stroking the ball around.

Of our first three games, the one that gave me the willies was MKD - just because we've beaten them every time. If we lose in the league (Plymouth), win in the cup (Bournemouth) and then lose in the league (MKD), after what happened last year, Cortese might well go completely and utterly ballistic.

Right now, this very minute, the most important part is playing out - the half time tactical talk and adjustments. I've always had misgivings about AP's effectiveness on this front, and he was out-coached again on Saturday. We'll see if it happens again tonight ...

I've always felt sorry for the poor little "z" - stuck at the end of the alphabet and regularly screwed over by the "s"! Boy, Zaints zuck tonight, eh?

Perhaps we're not prioritizing the cups this year.

The circle of people concerned about how NC is handling things is much broader than you and Secret Site Agent seem willing to acknowledge, which makes you just as guilty of believing "that (your) viewpoint is the right viewpoint." We're not all as vocal as Dune or Stu or Hypo, and we're not all as "anti-Cortese" as they seem to be, but we hold what we believe to be valid concerns. I think we truly have the ability to become one of the country's leading clubs under Liebherr and Cortese, but I also think that Nicola needs to make some adjustments in his personal approach if that's to happen. If he doesn't, this isn't going to end well - for any of us who love the Club, so there's a good argument that blind allegiance is a dangerous thing. Why is it that every dicussion on this forum degenerates into "Us versus Them" and "Luvvies versus Haters" - along with all the associated sneering and sarcasm - when there's a legitimate discussion to be had? I'm another one on the point of giving up on this forum because of this kind of immature sniping.

I think that's exactly what he's doing - or, more to the point, what he thinks he's doing. And I wish him well with it because English football is unsustainable in its current form. But there are - as usual - some "howevers". Firstly, his vision of sustainable football in the future is likely to see games priced out of the reach of some of the current fan base. The signs are already there. Secondly, his plan can only be achieved if we enjoy success on the pitch - so don't expect too much patience on the Pardew front; I suspect he feels that he's already shown too much. Thirdly, he (like Rupert) wants to upgrade the Academy so that we develop more from within rather than pay ludicrous transfer and agents' fees. Fourthly, and this is where I have the biggest worries, his impulsive and confrontational nature is starting to lose him support among the very people whose support he'll need in order to succeed. (Or, viewed another way, he's p*ssing off people who can make life difficult for him if they don't like him.) He has arguably p*ssed off much of the fan base, the media, his fellow chairmen, many of the SMS staff, some the club's historical icons, and a number of others. He has even (allegedly) fallen out with the redevelopers of Staplewood (and delayed a key part of his plan), and firing Pardew (even if he deserves it) would cause good managers to think twice about coming here. I want Cortese to succeed as much as anyone, but he needs to pause, ponder and make some significant adjustments in his approach. He would demand exactly that from Pardew if things weren't going so well. He needs to apply the same standards to himself.

Couldn't agree more. People keep saying that the delivery was great but IMO it wasn't. Delivery has to be geared to the recipient, and many of our final balls - especially the high crosses - may have been crisp but they weren't geared to the two who were playing up front today. That could and should have been sorted out tactically but I think AP may well have been out-coached at half time.

So, last year's inability to break down defensive teams (and, God, are we going to see a lot of those this year) remains uncorrected. Jaidi is even slower (in thought and action) than he was last year, and that's going to kill us again and again. We still use three passes instead of two. Our final delivery from wide remains poor. Unless those ongoing problems from last year are corrected we will fall short - even when Ricky comes back. We're a team with more style than substance. I don't think that's what Cortese had in mind.

Imagine the mess that Dave Merrington could make of that.

Good topic, SSA. To me he's an intriguing combination of family man, banker, businessman and football fan. Depending on the time, a different one of those can come to the fore - including a really p*ssed off football fan if we drop points we shouldn't have dropped. Psychologically, I think he's a visionary, he's decisive and he's egotistical. He doesn't tolerate fools gladly and he despises weakness, disloyalty and loose lips. I have no doubt that he's working to a plan - to succeed in a fiscally responsible and sustainable way, not just by constantly throwing money at a wall and hoping some of it sticks. Like Rupert, he doesn't like paying transfer fees and - even less - agents' fees. He'd rather sign free agents and bring players through the academy system - because that gets us away from two of football’s biggest financial killers – big transfer fees and ludicrous wages. That’s why Stapelwood is such a high priority for him. When it comes to the other things he's doing, I think he's taking a page out of the airlines' book. The price for the basic service is affordable but look-out if you want any extras - extended payment plans, parking, memorabilia, food & beverage and so on. If people are moaning about this stuff now, give it a while – I think he has many more plans like this. He wants to increase the average spend per supporter significantly because that's the way to sustainable success - not finding a sugar daddy. He’ll never say this publicly but I suspect he’s quite willing to accept that some long-time fans just won’t be able to afford to go to football in the future. In fact, the combination of visionary and egotist is probably working together to make him - at least in his own mind at this point - the man who will lead football to a more sane and sustainable future. And that might be exactly why his PR skills are so lacking. He doesn’t care whether you agree with him.