Rebel

We've been linked with Jan Hable on one of the rumours sites - he's a Czech defensive midfielder and U21 international player joint owned by Fiorentina and Ascoli - currently on loan to a Greek side.

I wonder how many people who went on Saturday have been season ticket holders in the past - but wives, kids and finances got in the way of having one this season. I know of 3 myself - and a couple of others in the same boat who couldn't get tickets! I've only had a season ticket for 2 years but have been going to 80% or more of home games for over 15 years - and been going to Saints games for over 30 years! For me if your a Saint your a Saint - it's that simple!

I was born in Chandlers Ford in Eastleigh and grew up there - but have lived in Winchester for over 10 years now. I've always supported Saints and I am the third generation of my family to do so. My dad also played youth football for Saints back in the day. And I'm always bumping into my cousins in and around St Marys on matchdays so for me it's a family thing. I was born to it! I have a soft spot for both Eastleigh and Winchester City though. My brother-in-law is a Pompey fan but he now lives on Botley - he son was born in Southampton much to his disgust! Does that make him a Saints fan? Saying that my nephew does have a season ticket at St Marys with me and my Dad! He also goes to games at Fratton Park with his dad. He's got both Pompey kits and Saints kits - a Pompey duvet cover and Saints pyjamas!

For the most part we should be looking to sign younger players who have the ability to step up to the Premiership. In Lallana, Morgan and Oxlade we already have 3 that can do so - but we need to add some more. Jack Cork and James Vaughan are two players that could do this - and both are available - Vaughan on a free - and would be realistic signings. Matt Phillips from Blackpool would be another if they get relegated. Fabio Borini from Chelsea and Guidetti from Man City are both available on free transfers for another example of the type of player we should be looking at. Jacob Mellis is another. We also have a core of players in Chaplow, Fonte, Davis, Butterfield, Harding, Do Prado and Connolly who are definately of Championship standard. And another group including Hammond, Dickson, Richardson, Barnard and Lambert who can probably step up a level. We definately need another striker with real pace, a left winger with pace, a first choice centre back to partner Fonte and a central midfielder/playmaker. I'd like to see someone like Brian Howard - again a realistic signing - to add some experience and leadership in the middle of the pitch. He would certainly give us commitment. I'd also like to see Matt Mills make a return to partner Fonte at the back. It would all depend on Reading not going promoted though. We should also look at loan signings from the premier league - young players from clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs - players like Lansbury, Frimpong, Eastmond would add some qaulity to the team. Hopefully we will see one or two more players from the youth team step up to the first team next season as well - Ward-Prowse, Sinclair and Hoskins perhaps. If we do sell Oxlade-Chamberlain I would want £10 million a loan back for the season - as well as two other young players on loan as part of the deal! I'd love to see us sign players like Nicky Maynard and Scott Sinclair this summer - it would be a real statment of intent - but I'm not sure I can see us doing that as we would have to compete with premiership clubs on transfer fees and wages.

James Vaughan, Sam Vokes, Lukas Juktiewitz, Nicky Maynard - any 2 of those would do

Gobern is one of the few players we've got - along with Morgan, Lallana and one or two others - who can actually play one touch football - he just needs more games under his belt to get the first team experience needed. He also has pace and power - we would be stupid to let him go. The higher up the league we go the better he will be.

what about Reto Ziegler - he's out of contract at Sampdoria, he plays in Italy, he's Swiss and he's played in England! Versatile as well as he can play left back or left midfield - not that we probably need another player like that wth Joesph Mills, Ryan Dickson and Dan Harding in the squad already!

There are some good young players from the premier league who are out contract this summer - strikers Borini from Chelsea and Guidetti from Man City - not too mention Vaughan from Everton. We should also be looking at getting players on loan like Mellis from Chelse, Eastmond and Frimpong from Arsenal - maybe even Vokes from Wolves if they stay up. Possibly Surman from Norwich.

Nicky Maynard has a year to run on his contract at Bristol City and seems keen to move on - he's not signed a new contract and Bristol City have gone from contenders to also rans. Wasn't he top scorer in the Championship last season - but just come back from injury and to form now. I could see Saints signing him - and it would give us the pace and proven NPC goalscorer we'll need if we go up. James Vaughan from Everton/Crystal Palace on a free would be a good signing in a similar mould. Young and pacey - and good value. Nathan Tyson will also be available on a free I believe. I'd like to see someone like Beattie or Vokes to lead the line and give us another option upfront. A lot of the stuff around who is available and who is not will depend on who goes up and down. If Wolves stay up Sam Vokes would probably be available - if they get relegated they will probably look to keep him. Similarly if Reading stay in the NPC players like Brian Howard and Matt Mills might be available. If they go up Antonio might well be instead. Again if Burnley stay in the NPC Jack Cork might be available. Again if Swansea dont go up Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer might look to move on. If we sell AOC I'd like to see him come back on loan for the season - maybe with a couple of friends - any from Frimpong, Lansbury and Eastmond at Arsenal would do!

The cr*p coming out of Bournemouth and Brighton this season has been amazing! Bournemouth really do have a chip on their shoulder about being the small club down the road that we used to lend players too and play friendlies against - but I think its mostly because half of the people in Bournemouth support Saints just like Adam Lallana and his family. They really don't like being a second club - which they were for a lot of our fans until this season! Brighton I don't get at all - I think a lot of its to do with hating Alan Pardew for his Palace connections and then the rumpus over the summer about Calderon supposedly been offered a better contract by Saints. Something which was not even true according to Cortese and was spouted out by Poyet! Its Calderon they should have an issue with not us! They also seem to forget they came to St Mary's earlier this season playing for a draw from the very first minute - not something to be proud of even if you've won the title. They left a bad taste in the mouth just like Billy Davies Derby County - but you had to admire both teams for their professionalism! If Saints had a little bit more of that street smart attitude - and maybe kept a bit of managerial stability - I think we'd still be fighting them for the title this season rather than trailing behind them in second place! Or first loser as some like to say!

I have to say Umbro do produce the nicest football kits by a long lomg way at the moment - take a look at footballshirtculturte and you'll see what I mean! Looking at the latest Umbro shirts I have a feeling our away kit will be a blue and yellow version of the Ireland away shirt. And I am sure our home kit will be simple red and white stripes. Personally I'd like to see one similar to the early 80s kit with the thick and thin stripes and then the year after one similar to the classic Air Florida Keegan era shirt.

The play-offs are a lottery - and we've never had any luck with them before! We need automatic promotion in second place. I can't see us beating Brighton at the Withdean but hopefully we can squeeze a draw and scrape wins in the rest of our games and we might just make it - otherwise we are going to be relying on goal difference to carry us up!

One problem - Huddersfield and Peterborough are quite likely to win all of their remaining games - so we need to win all but one of ours now as well!

You think he'd of realized by now that we can't play the diamond - we don't have the right players for it - or they are simply not good enough! 4-4-2 from now on please!

The Saints Trust was against the SISU deal if I remember it correctly. The deal would have been very good for Dulieu and the Executive directors - Hone, Oldknow and (the American bloke) - but not the fans or the club as a whole. Coventry are exactly where we predicted Saints would be after 2 years under SISU control. Watch the asset stripping and administration take place before you're eyes!

The new shirts were signed-off before we had a new sponsor so it will be interesting to see how they fit their logo on the design. A white panel with a red logo perhaps on red and white stripes?

That's my point -we had momentum with 12 points out of 12 despite not actually playing very well. After a decent second half on Saturday tonight was our real chance to step it up and keep the momentum going - but snatching a draw from a victory and losing Lallana and Chamberlain to injury (along with Morgan) isn't exactly a big step forward! And my comment about pressure is based on watching these players over the course of a season - they are not good a handling pressure - don't be fooled by the last 3 or 4 results - we have played badly and won games due to the ability of individual players at key moments - and the terrible teams we played against in Swindon, Yeovil and Sheff Wednesday. As a team we have not played well for quite a while. Winning games has glossed over the reality of our team for some people. We should be top of this league with the players we have got in our starting 11- and our supposed strength in depth - not 12 points behind the leaders and fighting for second place. Charlton were there for the taking tonight - after their terrible run of form and lack of confidence - MK Dons certainly won't be!

he's a bad luck charm!?!

We really need to win games like that if we are going to get automatic promotion - losing 2 points tonight and possibly either or both of Lallana and Chamberlain for a number of games definately feels like a bad loss to me! We don't really have thet strength in depth that Atkins supposed to have talked up - so for the next game against MK Dons we could be without Lallana, Schneiderlin, Chamberlain and Gobern on the pitch or on the bench. It's all about momentum - and at the moment our's seems to be slipping away! Three points tonight would have rally put the pressure on Peterborough and Hudderfield for the next few games - Saturday's certainly - injuries or not! Now the pressure will be on us to really make those games in hand count. And to be honest I'm not so sure our players can handle presssure! If an understrength Saints lose to an infrom MK Dons the pressure is really going to heat up!

Gosney from AFC Totton would be worth a gamble if you ask me. N'Guessan and Forte seem to have made no impact so we still need someone to replace Puncheon. At least Guly is back in the squad. If we are going to play a diamond we need 2 wide midfielder (Oxlade + ?) as well as Lallana in the hole. Chaplow is much n better as the attacking or box-to-box midfielder in 4-4-2 than a wide player in a diamond midfield. I think we are still missing Puncheon although Guly can play wide, upfront or in the whole.

Hammond had a good game yesterday - but in the previous two home games he was terrible. He is not a great passer of the ball and his first touch is often terrible. He's not the best tackler either. Saying that Chaplow hasn't had a great game lately either.

Chaplow and Hammond are probably nearing suspensions and we shouldn't be playing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain week in week out. Dickson and Butterfield - not too mention Lambert - could play in midfield - but we could do with another playmaker / creative midfielder whether Gobern and Schneiderlin are out or not.

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!