CanadaSaint

No, it says what he thinks of the players he managed when he was here, and it's tough to argue with that. Frankly, I don't really blame him for wanting to airbrush the Saints from his CV.

I'm not sure we can play the way Nigel wants to play with Rickie leading the line, and Nigel knows it - which is why he left him out at Man City. He has bought players who really don't fit with Rickie and he wants to play them, but it will take very big gonads to leave Rickie on the bench more often than he starts him. We keep talking about width and pace but I think we have players who can provide that - but not if Rickie is a/the focal point of our attack. I love the guy but I just don't see how he fits, given the players we've signed.

Ince is the guy I've wanted to see all along. He and Clyne could be lethal up the right for years to come - and England internationals to boot. But one of the biggest problems of leaving it so late is the fact that the selling club has little chance to reinvest the money. That will apply especially to Blackpool because they have had a great start, so I fear that we must rule out Ince and perhaps Phillips as well. My hunch is that we're after either Ramirez or Phillips (the back-up option), so we'd better hope that we get Ramirez. But we have multiple permutations up front already and virtually none in the middle of the back row, so - with time running out fast - our priority should be back four signings rather than a battle of egos between two Italian chairmen.

TDD, I don't disagree with your reaction but do you think Cortese and Adkins are fully on the same page? I'm "pro" both of them, very much so, but - looking from the outside - they just don't seem to be gelling for whatever reason.

One of the possible answers would not endear Adkins to the fans one little bit, and it's an answer that makes me feel a bit pukey. Leave Rickie on the bench. Someone said that Nigel wasn't very brave today, but that's a whole new level of bravery for which he would also be criticized.

I'm a big Nigel fan and the "get him out" sentiment is ridiculous but he certainly didn't have his best day at the office today IMHO.

I'm not sure that the negative remarks about Wigan are justified. I suspect that if you look from about 15 game before the end of last season, they've been one of the PL's better teams. They might not have too many big name players but they're very well coached and - despite their budget - they're on the road to the kind of mid table solidity we're hoping to achieve. We didn't play well at all in the second half but let's not make it worse by pretending that Wigan are crap.

What troubles me most is that we already look very predictable in a league that punishes predictability. Two games in and a) an angled ball through our central two has cost two goals and a penalty (Fox saved another today with a great tackle), b) Kelvin is there for the taking on the near post, and c) we'll build slowly and we won't get a team backpedalling with a quick pass out (the freaky breakout against City excepted). There are others. I'm certainly not downhearted but we have a lot of learning to do in a short period.

Round peg, square hole.

I don't think it's just about pace but about stretching teams before they've had a chance to get set. Time after time after time we were so laborious in our build-up play that our only option was to give the ball to a player with a defender up his arse, and then we repeated the exercise. I wouldn't say that Wigan has pace to burn but they sure used the early ball and the spaces well. Lee showed plenty of pace last year but he kept going offside because of our late delivery. IMO it's a tactical problem as much as a personnel problem. I don't want us to ditch our style but use the earlier ball from time to time.

I thought Nigel was out-managed today, which is not that big a deal because Martinez is a smart cookie. But Martinez changed a team playing well while Nigel waited another ten crucial minutes to change a team playing poorly. Our inability to play an early ball, which was evident last year, is going to be a lot more costly this year.

That angled ball past Fonte and Jos has accounted for two goals and a penalty. Sharp should have replaced Rodriguez fifteen minutes earlier. Our inability to play an early ball - not a hoof - is killing us. We always - ALWAYS - have someone up our arses when we receive the ball. Nigel looked a bit paralysed with indecision to me.

Yep. It sounds to me like Bologna need the transfer to go through a lot more more than us, and we're their only option. Cortese is probably saying "Final Offer" and quoting a 24-hour deadline right now - if he hasn't already done so. If it isn't announced in the next 24 hours we'll walk away. Right now, time is our friend - leave this much longer and it won't be.

Thank you for the responses - factual and smart-arsed.

What's the Italian "window"?

Just based on the weekend I'd be very surprised if about 15 clubs, including us, didn't take a run at him (assuming that there isn't a long term injury rumour out there). Frankly, I think AVB is off his rocker and could be gone by Christmas. Again.

Ramirez probably has the higher "upside" but Ince and Phillips probably have a safer "downside." I'd lean toward Ince and Phillips but it needs to be a quick switch in focus and a "no farting about" negotiation because "time's-a-passing" for both Blackpool and us. If I were a betting man, with the Liverpool and Spurs shadow in the wings after two weekend losses, I'd stick my money on us getting just Phillips.

I'd love to see Ince, Dave - can you imagine him and Clyne down the right? But Holloway would go into total meltdown at the merest suggestion that we were after both. I think he'd rather cut off his own nuts.

That's why I think we might be in the period of silence practiced by high-level negotiators - "the first guy that talks, loses." And I can't help but wonder if we're seriously thinking about Phillips AND Ramirez, so our fall-back option might already be in play.

And, so far, nobody else. We're set up for a decent deal or a gazumping, so - in our case - no news is good news.

Seriously, though, we're essentially negotiating against ourselves. Unless someone else comes in for Ramirez, Bologna has a simple choice - Saints or nobody. At some point we have to follow the age-old rule - make our best pitch and then STFU, because the first guy that talks, loses. That sounds like Cortese's kind of tactic.

My read is that if someone else comes in for him, like LFC or THFC, we probably won't get him, but if nobody else comes in we will. So the only news I'm interested in is whether anyone else is making a move.

Note to self: I must learn to read the last page first when catching up on overnight posts. And then I could save myself reading a load of utter testicles.

Judging by the threads you start, I think you're certainly missing something.

As I said on the pre-match thread, it's just as well that there's a lot more spine in the dressing room than there is on here. And we played football.