doddisalegend

Well done Rickie saints legend. People seem desperate to write him off all the time but I still think he has a lot to give yet.

Still worse than Jack Corks 87.2% though and Cork has a better accurate long ball stat which kind off backs up the (seemingly) general opinion that of the two players for that position Cork is the better passer of the ball. Offensively Victor has been disposed far more times than Cork and has less successful dribbles. Defensively Victors stats are better than Corks. Which again pretty much points to the general feeling that Victor is better defensively but Jack Cork gives us more attacking edge. The trick for Poch is deciding which player works better against which opposition. Seems to me their is a place for both of them.

His passing has always been dodgy but he is a unit and gives the defence more cover than Cork. Cork seems to suit our possession style game more IMO. Perhaps we should play Cork from the off get 2 goals up and then shut up shop by bringing on Victor. I think maybe it's just a case of horses for courses depending on what team were playing as to which player starts. As for today harsh on Jack to loose he place in the team after his recent form and hardly surprised Victor was poor today after a long lay off so I'm not going to put any blame on him.

From the today's BBC match report Jack Cork was introduced for Wanyama at the break, and the attack-minded switch paid dividends. Hard to argue with that....

to quote Nigel when we signed Jono "He's willing, he's got a great attitude and I think he'll fit in excellently," Saints boss Adkins told the official club website. "He's got a good physical presence about himself and we're delighted that he can come and join us." We signed him because the manager at the time knew him and thought he was worth a punt just the same as Osvaldo and Poch. Plus the Eastleigh thing sounds rubbish Fotre is an international striker who has played way above Eastleigh's level all his career he may not be great compared to our current players but he would be a massive step up for a club like Eastleigh.

Really....I think Jose would disagree:)

I think that has a lot to do with peoples expectations of what a full backs Job is bombing on in overlapping attacks (Fox) or defending (Harding) neither were PL quality but at least Harding knew what a tackle was.

Can't say I'm bothered Man City goal aside can anyone say he really had much impact here?

Interesting that the best thing most people have to say about Danny Fox, a defender, is he chipped in with quite a few assists the lack of praise for his ability to errr ...defend speaks volumes

yeah off load the dead wood and let the academy boys play (though I like Puncheon and think he could still do a job here). We're going to finish around about where we are now in the league anyway and we have an outside chance in the cup hardly worth paying over the odds on January panic buys for. Give the youth a chance to get PL experience for half season when the pressure is off because we are safe.

Can't help it the guy gave me bloody kittens every time I watched him play. You could have run a train through left side of defence every time he played. Luke Shaw was like a breath of fresh air after watching Fox play. I hope the guy does well at Forest but he has to be one of my least favourite saints players of the last few seasons.

I'd quite like to see Jono quick given a run out in the PL just for the crack...... Guly isn't even a striker he says himself he is a midfielder and doesn't score many (I think the 11 in the championship is his highest number of goals in a season in his career).

Good luck to him seemed like a nice guy. Not terrible going forward but couldn't defend for toffee, so often out of position in wasn't funny, and he wasn't fond of tackling much either. If Nottingham forest fans are hoping for something way better than Harding (and Fox is probably a tiny bit better than Harding ,at least going forward) they are going to be pretty disappointed... Still if it makes room for another of our seemingly endless academy talent to play I'm happy.

Thank god we didn't cash in. Another good performance by Jack again tonight (currently MOTM on the post match thread again tonight) by my reckoning saints MOTM for the last three games in a row.

Seen him twice now. First time was in the FA youth cup against the skates scored a hat trick but weirdly I didn't think he was one of the best players in that team that night. Yesterday he scored a great goal, mostly from his own hard work, and had a couple more chances. He didn't look out of place at all playing with the first team (which is a credit to our system of bring youth through).

Cork was excellent again yesterday (as he was against Sunderland) he reads the game very well which results in him intercepting a lot of opposition passes and his passing is very good which means he doesn't give the ball away very often. On the downside he is pretty crap in the air and a few times was to easily pushed off the ball by the opposition. I reckon if we could put Corks brain in Vic's body you'd have a world class DM as it is Victor and Jack are polar opposites as players so which one you want in the team probably comes down to weather you want a brick **** house destroyer or someone who links up play better. As others have said I'd like to see Jack and Victor tried out in the same team just to see how it works.

Well I'm going today and looking forward to it. The Burnley game was great fun so I'm hoping for more of the same cup game football today. Put out a strong team and get a good result, the league is done for us this season anyway, the cup is the only thing that holds much interest now IMO. I expect saints to win this well even without Lovern, Gaston and Osvaldo available. Is Victor available again now? As for those suffering Post Cortese Trauma you need to get over it. Winning the PL, being in the CL and a full 50,000 seat stadium were all pipe dreams that you bought into. Saints are still in a great position for a club of their size and life goes on enjoy what you've got and stop lamenting what you never had.

Can't ask for more than that. That statement is all very encouraging. Looks like will survive life after NC after all.

According to this BBC article he was a lovely man http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25420261 Spend a few hours at Southampton's Marchwood training centre and you will form a different view of Cortese, The kit men and the groundsmen know him as Nicola, not Mr Chairman. He knows the names of their wives and family. He sends birthday cards. He actually seems to care.

So just to see if I understand this. The take over article in the Mail(?)was based on the journo knowing a bloke who owns a SunSeeker yacht who was told by the guy that sold him the Sunseeker yacht that all the employs at Sunseeker know the ins and outs of a deal that a Chinese business man who owns Sunseeker is planning .........

Carson Yeung........

I love all these NC is coming back posts. Reminds me of all those King Arthur legends in years to come little saints fans will be told of the Semi mythical Don Cortese who sleeps somewhere under St Mary's with a band of mega rich investors and at the time of Saints greatest need will emerge to lead Saints to the promised land of the Champions League...... With regards to the rumour if NC left because he felt he wasn't in full control surely he would look for an investor who is happy to let him have full control while throwing money at him I can't see this investor being like that so I'm not sure NC gets much out of a deal like this (maybe some sort of big fat finders fee?). Also part of me really doesn't want my club to be the next Citeh with a horde of foreign stars and millions of plastic fans which being the PL richest club we would no doubt become (I realise I'll be alone in that).

Maybe after five years of obsession like that he (or his wife) got fed up and wanted a bit less stress? I'm sure he has made enough money out of saints over the last five years that he doesn't need to work again.

Surely that backbone came from knowing he had the Liebherr millions backing him so he a) had no need to sell b) because of a) he could, if a player really wanted to leave like Ox, he could hold out for a really good price. Previous Saints Chairman didn't have the financial clout to have as much backbone as NC

That's the truth of it. Apart from a group of posters on here I never got the feeling NC was that popular with saints fans I talked to else where. Personally I thought he came across as a bit of a nob jockey and quite a few things the club have done didn't sit well with me. Truth is though that nobody (including me) was that bothered while things were going well on the pitch.