doddisalegend

Carlisle are an improved side to the one we beat twice last year, so I can see this being tougher than some think. Team wise Butterfield is recovered according to the BBC so butters back in for Richardson IMO. Barney and Lambert up front Oxo and Adam on the wings and Chaplow and Morgan (yes I'd drop the captain) in the middle of the pitch, rest of the back four has to be Harding and Fonte plus Seaborne (though I'd prefer Jaidi for this one I think) Score 2-2

By that thought process our Nigels not that good then becuase he has a massive advantage over every other manager bar Lee Clarke, makes Poyet look even better. At the end of the day the succsess of a manager is judged in games won (which in turn will relate to titles and trophies) weather he does it like Eddie Howe on no budget or like numerous Chelsea bosses with a **** load of cash doesn't matter as long as they get results.

yeah it's split into four quarter seasons (and then give a final season total at the end) in the first quarter niether Nigel or Roy make it into the top 20 (Gus Poyet is in there though) they've now moved on to the second quarter of the season so not to many games have been played lets hope Nigel can keep it up.

eh? surely its a pretty good indicator though. In fact a manager can be crap at everything else in the job if he wins games people will rate him.

I like Nigel but what are you basing that on according to the league managers own league table http://www.leaguemanagers.com/managers/mpl-league.html Nigel is the third best manager in all four Leagues however Gus Poyet is the second best so also the best manager in league one. Last year according to the same league table AP finished the ninth best manager in all four leagues over the whole season I'll be interested to see where Nigel finishes but I wouldn't mind betting it will be somewhere in the same area of the table (although last year he didn't finish in the top twenty)

Fair point but what about the whole Bignall loan why we couldn't have used Doble in the situation is beyond me? Doble could have come on and got a bit of first team action against the Daggers rather than some kid from Reading

Surely Doble is going to at least get on the bench soon for saints.

Teams can do well with small investment and small crowds but its usually a fleeting thing not a long term deal. I assume the idea is to get Saints into the top ten of the english football elite and keep us there in which case it requires investment and good size crowds. The only thing I wonder is will moving up leagues effect numbers, it's assumed that higher leagues bring higher crowds but I wonder if our crowds are bouyed up be resonably cheap ticket prices. From personal point of view I probably won't to be able to afford to go to so many games at PL prices as I do know.

Like others have said you could never fault Wotton for his commitment just sad that his football skill never matched the commitment. Good lucke to him always gave his best so I could never dislike him and his celebrations after winning the JPT where very funny.

The problem with football plans is surely that football isn't that easy to predict. For example one dodgy reffing blunder that costs us a game resulting in finishing in the playoffs rather than automatic promotion. Than we lose the playoff final after a freak own goal by Lallana off his backside. Hey presto the whole plan is Kaput. What if we get a rash of injuries to the first team? I'm all for having a plan but surely the plan needs to be flexible becuase no one can predict football that well, there's no garuntee we will go up this season then what happens?

Preston want rid (doesn't get on with the manager and earns to much by all accounts) so I assume if he plays well enough up to December and doesn't have a bad injury we will sign him, listening to the radio interview with him before the match today he'd be happy to stay too.

wow. Didn't go today (daughters fifth birthday party) but I snook down the shed to catch the score at the end of the game, looks like I caught the best three mins of the game. We're through to the next round can't ask for more really. BCC match stats said we had 15 corners is that true? when oh when are we going to start making more of corners we really should have scored at least once from 15 corners.

According to another thread Wotton might be on his way out (loan) I assume that with Chaplow coming in he's figured he won't be getting much playing time. The problem is finding players who are any good who want to be sat on the bench, this is what the devolpment squad should be for to back up the first team during injuries and suspensions. Claridge on one of those bbc blog thingies he does said as a player he rather play in the Aldershot first team than the Liverpool reserves I imagine any player worth his salt has a similair outlook. you can only make the squad so big at some point you have to except that you may hit a bad patch (in injuries and suspensions) a deal with it then, thats what emergency loans are for.

more like OXO, maybe having a Southampton youth player will become the PL's next must have accessory ever club who is anyone we'll have one.

true but Morgans not really come through our youth system, Adams been a first teamer for a while, Mills is apparently good enough for the championship but not us and Martain after a promising start this season can't even get on the bench. I just wonder why we're loaning in other teams promising youngsters (like Bignall) rather than giving our own youth players the chance to step up. Bignall was only brought in as a back up it would seem so why not give Doble (or other youth teamers) that job? a bit of time in the first team can't hurt. Bringing on say Doble at 4-0 up against the daggers is surely better than giving someone elses youth player experince.

I know he's just come back from injury but he is going to have to improve a lot over his performance on tuesday, having seen them both Butters would be my first choice RB at the moment Richardson was awful gave the ball away with depressing regularity, never got forward and didn't put in one effective tackle.

Yes but the OP said who could play at championship level they both have with no problem unlike say Lambert or Hammond who haven't. Preston wanted to get rid of Chaplow because he fell out with with the manager (and is on a fair old wedge at a club with no money) not becuase he's a bad player he's played most of his football in the championship so I think he has proved he is good enough at the level. As for butterfield he to, has spent a great deal of his football life in the championship last season he played 37 championship games doesn't sound like a utiliy player to me.

mostly agree however Chaplow and Butterfield where both playing at championship level comfortably last season so I see no reason why they couldn't again next season.

Didn't see enough of him to form an opinion on him really, wonder if Doble might get a chance as a backup striker now. Apart from oxo the youngsters don't really seem to be breaking into the first team.

Are you suggesting our manager doesn't have the balls to make players play the way he wants, does he not have control of the players?

Where as being stuffed by a team in the league below would do the team a world of good? the team should be trying to win every game they play I would be mightly ****ed if the players had the same attitude as some fans, when you pay hard earned money to go and watch Saints play you want to see the players trying their best regardless of what game it is. Big succesful clubs (which is what we are aiming to be in the long run) manage to compete in both cups and league evey season with no problems.

yes it has and he has be given permission to play in the FA cup to boot hopefully there is a deal to be done he is not nigels plans it would seem.

I was all set to go with my son for this one until my other half pointed out it's my duaghters 5th birthday party on saturday my suggestion that we hold at SMS didn't go down to well with the female side on the house ho hum . I'm gutted I ****ing love the FA cup. I really don't understand why so many fans (not just saints ones) can't be arsed with cups anymore these days most clubs would rather be bottom half of the PL than win a trophy (I remember Tony Pulis saying as much in an interview last season) I know that the leagues are the money spinners but really what about the glory of winning something.

I think it's more to do with his stance on NC there are some who on here he get very agitated by anything deemed anti NC. Leftback says some interesting stuff some of which fits my perceptions of what is going on behind the scence but his rabid anti NC stance tends to mask alot of what he is saying as just bitter ranting.

How do you know what the results would have been if we had not played a cup game before hand? we might have still lost those games we will never know you've got nothing to compare to. We won a ****ing cup only saints fans would complain about winning a trophy after 34 years of not winning anything.