Rebel

I have to say I was hoping for a bit more if a wow factor - the launch also seems to have been a bit of a damp squib! And I don't understand why a business-to-business company would sponsor a football club - particularly a recruitment company / IT managed services company supposedly in the global marketplace It's makes much more business sense for a consumer brand or even a regionally focused company. It's certainly a come down from Friends Provident or Flybe! I was hoping for someone like Skandia or Aegis (or whatever it's called now - was Fortis). I can't imagine the deal is worth that much to the club - smacks a bit of last resort - if not a favor to someone! It's a bit of a stupid name and a daft logo as well - and there website is not even that clear about what they do. Reminds me a bit of the Sanderson deal which had a similar 'favour' feel to it! I think I would have preferred to have remained sponsorless!

The truth is O'Neil was down on the South Coast to meet up with an ex-player of his - he had dinner with him and his father and watched a Saints game at St Marys - from that truth a rumor spread as people had genuinely seen him down here. I was told this by someone who knows the ex-players father - something I know to be true as we've talked about that before!

It's a weaker league than last season - but we have a weaker team than last season as well. Norwich, Leeds and Millwall were very strong teams for League 1 last season - as shown by their league positions in the NPC this season. Swindon and Charlton are considerably weaker than last season. Peterborough are a lot worse than the three teams that went up. Huddersfield are about the same as last season - as our MK Dons. Only Brighton are stronger than last seaon really. At the end of last season we had the best team in League 1 - but we let the team get weaker over the summer - not stronger. That's the biggest difference for us!

Howard might give us the leadership on the pitch we so desperately need as well - and if nothing else it will capture the imagination of Saints fans as he is a local boy coming home to the club he supports - which might all give the club the little lift it needs to push on for automatic promotion

You are kidding about Hammond right!?! At times he is bl**dy awful - recently against Swindon and against Yeovil he was the worst player on the pitch for most of the game. He failed to track back time and again, his passing was abysmal and his tackling poor.Hopefully it's just because he needs 3 or 4 games to get match fit! Both Morgan and Chaplow are far better midfielders. As for that both Howard and Surman would improve our team right now. What we really need is a CM, a winger and a striker before the loan window closes to cover for Chamberlain and Lallana as well as Barnard if legal issues take him out of the team - as well central midfield!

I think we're mire likely to see Joseph Mills and Ryan Dickson at leftback next season ad Harding will be out of contract in the summer I think

Or Jason Puncheon!

Andrew Surman from Norwich - to get him match fit on his way back from injury.

I think Peterborough will be beat Bournemouth - they are a very different team now to the one that got thrashed by Bournemouth earlier this season! Also I think our third defeat of Bompey could be a psychological nail in their coffin - and lead to a collapse of form from them

there are quite a lot of bad loser Bournemouth fans out there tonight - particularly on Radio Solent! 3 games and 3 Saints wins this season - that says it all really!

Morgan and Chaplow over Hammond every time. He has far too many bad games lime he did today - he is not a good passer of the ball at the best of times and as captain fails to lead the team.

That Brighton are a lot more consistent, probably have more desire and definately had a better pre-season/summer than Saints! Oh and that stability on the pitch, keeping a manager and building a team from one season to the next are all keys to success!

Wasn't Raheem Sterling bought from QPR just like Shelvey was bought from Charlton? It's a shame that clubs like Liverpool are allowed to buy the best young players from other clubs. There should be a transfer ban on players under 21.

N'Guessan and Forte both disappointed - all pace and power but no touch and no end product. N'Guessan didn't even look interested to start wit. Probably the worstv1-0 win I've seen. Saints had no spark. Barnard should have started the game alongside Lambert. The lack of performance today summed up a wasted January transfer window.

Supposedly Lawrie Mac was being paid £75,000 to host an ex-players table in the hospitality suite and head the Ambassadors club - and I imagine Mike Osman was being paid a good amount to be a match day host or announcer or whatever it was. I imagine the ex-players working for Saints FM were also very well paid - Mark Dennis etc And from what I've heard Jim Hone, Lee Hoos, Andy Oldknow and Paul Jones were all on very good salaries for directors of a business with only a c.£15 million p.a. turnover. Before that Lowe and Cowan were very well paid as CEO and Joint MD - not to mention the bonuses, expenses and dividends they and the non-execs (and larger shareholders) all shared - all supposedly well above average for the size of the business. Ken Dulieu also got paid to be Chairman - when he wasn't going to be under Wilde's mainfesto As I understood it - it was unusual for non-executive directors to be paid at a football club - but ours supposedly were. Just some examples - I expect there are more! I'll give you a lot of it is hearsay - but as our players wage bill was a lot less than our turnover for most of Lowe's tenure the money went somewhere - and under Hone and Co it just continued but with different faces Just look at Everton's accounts - released today - to see how all the money that flows into football clubs from TV and ticket sales flows out to the players - a club of Everton's scale shouldn't be running at a loss - but it is - and the reason is all those agents fees and player wages that are far too high Tickets prices are probaby 2 or 3 times what they should be in the top flight as it is

Who is making money out of this event - that is the question? Osman, Lawrie Mac, etc - or is the money going to charity? Perhaps they should have waited for the club to organize something - or arranged something with the club. I have a feeling that maybe they did - but they disagreed over who was going to be paid exactly what for doing what! Osman amongst others - including Lawrie Mac - has done some good things for Saints - but they've also made money from the club - particularly under the Wilde and Crouch regimes.

Chaplows penalty was very soft - but nowhere near as bad a decision as the one give against Chamberlain. Seaborne had a terrible game - gave away a penalty, and let McKail-Smith score the first goal. Too often our defense tried to play the ball out of trouble when they should have booted it into touch. We also seemed incapable of playing the game out - keeping of the ball - at 4-2 or 4-3. What were we doing longballing it from the back with a one goal lead and only minutes to go? - at best giving the ball away for a 50-50. Sometimes our players seem to have no game intelligence whatsoever.

It will be on in the Exchange - on at least some of the TVs - a few of will probably be in there. They will probably have the Man Utd game (or whichever Premier League game it is) on at the same time - with the sound on for that one. The landlords an Arse...nal fan so can't really expect much better from him than that! The White Swan used to be the place to go but it's got new owners now. O'Neills will probably have both games on as well.

At the moment no more than 5. Can't say I'm really impressed by either of our two transfer window signings - neither seems to have set the world alight and at 23 and 24 (?) probably won't get much better. Other than pace I'm not sure they will give us much. In his brief appearance on Saturday N'Guessan seemed to have no touch at all. I would guess one's a replacement for Puncheon and the other a replacement for Barnard. Are they any better than Puncheon and Barnard - probably not? Are they impact players - don't think so! I would guess none of are substantial bids were accepted. I don't really count Chaplow or Do Prado as both have been here for a while now - they are not really new signings - and neither are Lallana or Oxlade. The team which included all 4 of those players needed strengthening in this window if we are to clinch an automatic promotion place - and a marquee signing to give everyome a boost - fans and players. Still it looks like we've kept Lallana and Oxlade so its not all bad! Lets hope we can get some better players in on loan in the 'loan window'!

I'm starting to worry that they are not good enough for the Championship - and possibly not good enough to get us out of League 1 this season. We need a 20 goal striker - if not two - to get us automatic promotion this season. The play-offs are a lottery at best - and when it comes to luck ours ran out a long long time ago! As it stands right now I am starting to worry about promotion this season. We are really suffering for not having the stability in management and team set-up that Huddersfield and Brighton have got - the momentum is with them at the moment. If we don't make it up this season it will be a complete rebuild over the summer as we will lose Fonte, Morgan, Lallana and Chamberlain without a doubt. Lambert, Guly and Barnard as well probably. Adkins is the right man for that - but it might take him another 2 or 3 seasons to build a team that is good enough to go up.

Barnard certainly didn't look like he could make the step up yesterday - and he might be unavailable for a little while as well! Hopefully it was just an off day but maybe just maybe we should be looking for another striker. Overall he's probably a better striker than Jackson but we need real pace and he might just be getting frustrated at not playing every game and not being first a first choice striker. Maybe he'd welcome a move to Norwich, up a division and a team on the edge of the Premietship. He might also fancy a move away from any off field issues in Southampton. In the long run we are going to need to replace both Lambert and Barnard - yesterday convinced me of that if nothing else - if we are going to go all the way back to the premiership.

Norwich were interested in Lee Barnard when we bought him and I think we were interest in Simeon Jackson over the summer so it could happen. Maybe if they chuck Surman on loan into the deal as well - that's if he's close to playing again - it would make sense for us. We desperately need some pace upfront which Jackson would give us and we could do with Surman to add some depth in midfield and it would give us someone who could pass the ball at the level ad Morgan and Chaplow.

Scholes, Owen, Hernandez, Giggs, Nani, O'Shea - not a bad C team. It wasn't United's full first team I'll give you that - but it wasn't exactly a third string either.

That we lack pace - and don't have the killer instinct when we go forward - particularly on the break. In Chaplow, Morgan, Oxlade and Lallana we have 4 premier quality players. That we desperately need a young pacer striker - or two - with real quality if we are going to make the step up to the Championship - neither Barnard or Lambert looked good enough.

Walcott played briefly for Newbury not Swindon