Rebel

Chaplow didn't have a great first half - gave too many balls away - but worked his socks off! Pretty much the same with Puncheon. You cant knock them for their work rate. Second half Chaplow was everywhere - and was one of the main reasons we turned a draw into a win. Barnard has to start with Guly Do Prado - and Lambert needs to drop to the bench.

I park at the same place as I used to for the Dell - its free and its a fairly short walk to St Mary's - is also fairly quick to get to the M3 considering the football traffic. You could park at the Southampton Solent University - I think its free again at the moment (unless the Students Union get their act together). If you park near the entry or exit its very quick to get out and is very close to St Marys. Entry is off East Park Terrace.

Rickie has scored 3 goals in the last two matches - but weren't two of those from penalties - and of the 4 goals he has scored so far only 1 has been from open play he does add a lot to the team when fully fit and raring to go - but he is not firing on all cylinders at the moment - surely you can see that perhaps its the kick-up the arse he needs - starting on the bench - to jump start his form and fitness - or perhaps its a rest on the bench so he can get fully fit or shake of an injury he's carrying! maybe the problem was I was watching Lambert too closely - lets not turn him into the Messiah - he's not Matt Le Tissier - he just a player that's a bit short of form and fitness at the moment (and only a blind man would dney that!)

I'd start with Guly and Barnard - and then substitute Guly for Lambert at some point early in the second half! The movement of Guly and Barnard would cause any teams in this division real problems - and after Guly's match winning performance last Saturday he has to start - plus he would work better with Barnard than with Lambert. Barnard would make the runs and find the space in front of Guly - not something Lambert was doing. Also Lambert needs a kick up the arse, a rest or shock therapy to get him playing at the his best again - and this might just do it!

Derby County got away with having the holding company go into administration without getting the 10 poin deduction - and didn't a similar thing happen at Leicester as well! Plus West Ham's holding company went into administration but they alos avoided a 9 point deduction! I hope Liverpool do go into Administration - get the -9 points and then get relegated! It would teach all those plastic scousers a lesson! I really do loathe their holier than though attitude. It might also make Liverpool face up to reality and share a new Stanley Park stadium with Everton. Be funny if they both went down though! More than anything else Liverpool's situation proves that you cannott really run a football club as a business - 90% of every clubs revenue has to be reinvested in the playing squad - either wages or transfer fees - simply to stand still. The cost of sales in football is simply too high for any sane person to invest in a club as a business. The American's at Villa, 'pool and Manc thought they could import the American way of doing sports business - with no relegation, trades instead of transfer fees, caps on wages/salaries and an equal share of the revenue generated by the sport for each Franchise. But they didn't understand that the Football market works on an international scale and reckoned without the Russian Oligarchs, Arab Oil Billionaires and clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona! Having said all that buying a club like Southampton for c £15 million - and then spending another £15 million to get it promoted to the Premiership does makes sense as if things stay like they are now the club would be worth at least £50 if not £60 million with an annual revenue to match in the Premier League!

It used to be a bank along time ago - a Midland Bank I believe. Wasn't it Bar Centro after that?

Let's not mention all the millions he and his fellows took out of the club over those 10 years in excessively high executive salaries, bonuses and excessive dividends - and all the fat contracts awarded to companies they also owned. All legal - but it was money that could and should have taken SFC to the next level. Lowe did a lot of good things - but he was always in it to make money for himself and his cronies - be they fellow directors or hid shareholding friends. At one point he was the highest paid CEO in football - and I never understood why we needed a CEO and an MD. We were also one of the few if not the only club to pay the non-executive directors a salary - and lets not forget the excessive expenses they all claimed! But he proved that even a well run club couldn't be run as a business indefinately - the cost of sales is too high and the need for investment constant.

to be honest professional footballers should not be out on the town at 2.00am in the morning- eitheron a Saturday night after a game or on any other day of the week they shouldn't be drinking alcohol either they are paid an awful lot of money to live healthy lives, eat healthy and play football - that's why they are paid £3000 a week- over £150,000 a year - to be professional sportsmen whatever else happened the players should get fined a weeks wages and put under curfew just for that if anything else happened they should get punished by the law just like anyone else - and if that means going to prison they should get kicked out of the club on constructive dismissal and sued for the value of their contract - or what's left of it anyway! sure people deserve a second chance but they also have to take responisbility for their actions

He was great and got a great reception at Matt's testimonial - but before that he always got a lot of abuse at the Dell - mainly coz he always gave 110% and always scored against us - and enjoyed celebrating that

Perhaps we're going for a bald pair with Jonjo Shelvey from Liverpool the next one to join us on loan! Although I think Adkins was taking a look at some of the Chelsea reserve players - not Liverpool's - Jacob Mellis included.

Does the 6-2 against Spurs count though as Grobelaar took a bung to let the shots from Rosenthal in!?! I could have saved two of them from my seat behind the goal! Sorry I forgot it was just a coincidence someone was filmed giving Grobelaar a brown paper bag with cash in it around the same time as the game!

I went to Huddersfield University over 15 years ago - but it's a new University as it was a Polytechnic originally - it became a University at the end of my first year. But the original college goes back a long way. It was a fairly rough grim town back then - the students and locals didn't mix (student bashing was rife and my house was burgled 3 times in one year). I had a great time being a student there - something was always going on at the Union - there were a lot of nightclubs which all had student nights - beer was about £1 a pint. Spent a lot of time in Leeds and Manchester at the weekends - 15 and 45 minutes on the train. There were a group of us who were all Football fans (Leeds, Sheff Weds, Boro, Man City). We used to borrow one of the union mini buses and go and watch City, Weds and Leeds quite a bit. I loved watching Chris Waddle dance his way down the touchline at Hillsborough and was in Leeds the day they won the title!

Perhaps the money 'dried up' when Markus Liebherr became ill - as his and everyone else's attention was elsewhere. I expect there is money still there - but less than before - and probably a much revised 5 year plan now as well! Like most fans I was expecting the team to be strengthened in the Summer - to me it seems pointless to spend £3M or £4M last season if your not going to spend the £2M or £3M this season needed to guarantee promotion. But perhaps the issue with Pardew got in the way. We will really only know if the money is still there or not once the Jnauary transfer window has come and gone. Although I would expect Adkins to strengthen the team in the Loan Window before the end of November - at least with a striker and a central midfielder. And at the moment I don't understand why we haven't done so. But perhaps Saints are working to a strict budget now and players will have to be sold before we can buy - to raise transfer funds and free up space on the wage bill.

the problem is all of those clubs are Championship clubs and they will get the pick of the loans from the premiership because of the perceived levels of football in the Champioship and League 1 or 2.

Connolly has strained a muscle in the abdomen or something like that! I must admit when we signed Connolly in the summer on another one year deal I thought it meant the money to bring in the players we needed really wasn't there - at best he is a substitute player because at his age and with his injury record he was never going to last a full season it was a cheap option - because there was nothing else if Lambert and Barnard were both fully match fit for the start of the season we might have been OK - but the reality is you need at least 4 strikers to see you through a season and at best we've only got two and a half!

the 5 year plan was based on getting out of League 1 in the first 2 years by either going up through the play-offs in the first season - i.e. last season - or going up automatically in the second season - i.e. this season. That would have given us 3 years to make it through ther Championship to the Premiership But this was based on rebuilding the team, strengthening it and keeping the momentum going. That momentum has been lost since the end of last season - and the team is visibly weaker than last season. I have no doubts that if the team from last season - with Waigo and Antonio - had been strengthened slightly over the summer we would have been looking at automatic promotion this season and kept that momentum going now we are looking at making the play-offs at best this season - and that is an outside chance unless things change dramatically and the squad is strengthened very quickly with at least the striker, winger and central midfielder we so desperately need the big problem is unless things do change quickly our key players - Lambert, Lallana, Fonte and Schneiderlin will look to move on in January to clubs already in the Championship or Premiership. And if not then I can't see them staying for another season in League 1 so they will be gone in the summer which means we will probably be even weaker next season - and the 5 year plan will have to be revised to making it out of League 1 and into the Championship in 5 years by growing a team slowly - and there is no guarantee we will do that why has this happened - why have things changed do much is just a close season - why has the momentum gone? I think Markus Liebherr's death changed things more than most of us care to admit. It looks as though the money has gone - that the Liebherrs funding of the club has more or less stopped. And that is the simple reason why we failed to strengthen the team in the summer - everybody - players, manager and supporters - new the team needed strengthening but the money to do it disappeared with Markus. This put a stop on the promises made to Pardew and the players about building a team good enough for the Championship - and I imagine caused more friction between Pardew and Cortese over the lack of transfer funds and the failure to sign players (Antonio, Matt Phillips, Nicky Bailey, etc, etc) - and the weight of expectation. If the more probable rumours are to be believed Pardew and his two assistants then applied for the vacant jobs at Villa or asked Cortese for permision to talk to Villa - this proved to be the final straw for Cortese in his relationship with Pardew and led to a parting of the ways. to be honest if this was the case I don't blame Pardew for wanting the Villa job - and I can understand why Cortese got rid of Pardew as a result if the money has run out at Saints Nigel Adkins - with his track record at S****horpe - is probably the better man for the job - but as fans we are going to have to accept the new timescales for getting out of League 1 and probably accept that the Premiership (with the new parachute payments to the relegated clubs in the Championship making it almost impossible to compete with them) is beyond us I just hope we can recoup or make money from the sales of players like Lallana, Lambert, Fonte and Schneiderlin in January or next summer and invest it wisely in rebuilding the team for the new 5 year plan I hope I am proved wrong about the money drying up though

There's a piece on Le Fondre (its French for pouncer apparently) in The Guardian today - 7 goals in 7 games so far this season. It also says that Rotherham would accept £850,000 plus add ons taking it to £1.5 millon for him. Sorry - I realised Vokes was on loan at Bristol not long after I suggested him! I think the money might well have run out - the signing of Connolly on a one year deal in the summer made me wonder that as with his injury record and at his age it smacked on a no alternative signing. It would also make sense as to why we failed to bring in players like Antonio, Matt Phillips, etc in the transfer window. With all our Strikers injured and off-form if we have the money Le Fondre is a must signing. If we don't have the money to strengthen the team in the loan window or in January we will have to be patient as fans - it will take us another 2 or 3 seasons to grow and develop a team good enough to get promoted - players like Lambert, Schneiderlin, Lallana and Fonte will look to leave in the January transfer window - or if not then next summer. If that's the case lets hope we can re-invest the transfer fees in young lower league talent that can grow with the club.

we need an alternative to Barnard and Lambert - apart from Connolly - coz at the moment none of the 3 are working and Le Fondre does score goals at the moment and wants to play at a higher level - and I think he would give us the competition we need up front as for a big man up front - how about getting Sam Vokes in on loan to lead the line

he was Dr Hammond today - far too many hospital passes to his team mates he also kept waiting for the ball to come him instead of going to the ball and claiming it when it was a 50/50 maybe we need to play Guly Do Pardo with Schneiderlin instead

Cortese should bring Waigo and Antonio back to Saints ASAP and spend some money on a new striker - Adam Le Fondre - before its too late

we lost all momentum in the summer when we released 13 players and only brought 3 in more importantly we failed to replace Waigo and Antonio - two key players who gave us both width and pace and could play bwide or up front - massively weakening the team the players, the fans and the manager knew the team needed strengthening over the summer to win the League this season and guarantee promotion - and when this failed to happen everbody's heads went down I still don't really understand why this happened but I think it led to Pardews sacking - which along with Liebherrs' passing away has thrown the club backwards

Get Lambert fit Bring in another striker on loan (Adam Le Fondre) Add some pace to the team. Give us options on the bench. Have a plan A and a plan B Bring Waigo and Antonio back. Bring a central midfielder or two in on loan. Win our game in hand! Win at home!

I am Spartacus!

the reason for not having an installment plan been know for a while - I read about it on here and when I renewed ny season ticket I asked the ticket office and they gave me that reason reflects badly on Saints fans - although the club should have come out and said why - and given a bit more notice! we still don't really know why Cortese sacked Pardew though I think we can probably discount the made up rumours about Fonte or any other players wife - or a bust up at the training ground. The reaction of the players on the pitch seems to prove that this was a load of rubbish 'it had to be done' doesn't really tell us much though does it pre-season was certainly a waste of time this year though - only 3 players brought in, one of whom got injured, 3 games where the first team was played and only for about 45 minutes in each of them, injuries to Lallana, Lambert and Puncheon we started the season at a gentle jog as a result - whereas we should have come out the blocks firing on all cyliners and at a sprint! undoubtedly this all played a part in Pardews sacking - but I think it really came down to an argument about transfers - or lack of them - and lack of transfer funds. Reading between the lines Waigo was all set to return to Saints but Pardew didn't want him - and blocked the transfer - but then failed to bring anyone else in. Sounds like Cortese refused to meet Reading asking price for Antonio at the same time. I think we also failed with a bid for Nicky Bailey, Simeon Jackson and Matt Phillips - mostly because they wanted Championship or Premierhsip football and signed for clubs higher up the league. Cortese then brought in Do Prado ignoring Pardew. This all led to a confrontation about transfers and budgets, Pardew asking for more money to guarantee promotion - Cortese saying no - which along with the poor start to the season and a wasted pre-season led to a parting of the ways. Sure it all supposition - but it sounds a lot more realistic than the rumours I've been reading and hearing. Call it an educated guess. as for the new manager fiasco - I think that will take some more explaining!

I'm starting to think we should walk away from this one. Surely if Adkins was convinced by the Saints job it would be a done deal by now. I don't think his heart is in it - his head might be but his heart isn't - that's rests with Scunny by the looks of it. If he really wants the Saints job he would resign from Scunny.