Rebel

Tony Mowbray?

Adkins is undoubtedly a good manager - he track record at S****horpe proves it. But as with all managers it is a case of the right time and place. Would Southampton be the right club at the right time for Adkins - possibly yes and at the same time probably not. I would be surprised if he dropped down a division to manage us - and the Irons fans should be disappointed in him if he does. Undoubtedly he will leave them for bigger and better things at some point - although I would agree with most of the people on that messageboard that right now that's not Saints. Sure we are probably a bigger club and one with more potential - but right now they are the more stable and more successful club. Now if a bigger club with more potential than S****horpe came in for him from the Championship I'd expect him to take the job straight away. But maybe with Adkins he will have to take a step back to take two steps forward - much like Fonte thought he was doing -if he's going to get a job at a big club. There will be a lot more pressure at Saints that's for sure - impatient fans, an impatient chairman, expectation of promotion - and Adkins will have a lot to prove to a sceptical fan base.

You at joking right - he's a terrible manager! We had a Skate in charge before and look where it got us. Apart from a lucky FA Cup run his record at Pompey was awful - and at Chelsea he just sat there as it happened aroun him. And he's not exactly impressing the hammers fans is he. We don't need or want a foreigner - we need someone who can get us out of this division - who understands English Football and League 1! Nigel Adkins possibly. But I'd go for Tony Mowbray - he's English, understands lower league football and built a team playing great football at WBA

Right now he would give us the cover and the pace upfront we so desperately need - a front four of Puncheon, Waigo, Guly Do Prado and Oxlade-Chamberlain would give most teams on League 1 problems it would also allow Lambert to take a break and get the operation he needs - and provide the covet for Barnard whilst he serves his 3 match ban - and Lallana whilst he recovers from hid operation

Is Reed really a Technical Director or Director of Football then. Reminds me a bit of the Sir Clive Woodward situation where no one seemed to know what his role was at the club - he just seemed to cause confusion and then chaos and dismay

when you here sh*te like that you should tell whoever told you to shut their mouths and then never repeat it anywhere - it does nothing but harm the club we - yes we - support

No we are cursed - this should have been our season - but oh no the fates are laughing at us

I'm not convinced that someone who worked for UEFA wil necessarily have the right experience and contacts to market a club in the old English first division. Our TV coverage is minimal (league football show highlights and very occassional SKY games) and the audience for it is pretty much the same as that which uses the Saints website, reads the Echo or attends the games - the active supporter base it's the national newspapers that give us the widest audience and reach unless we are in the premier league we are never going to compete for media coverage with the big clubs such as Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd - but it still seems counter productive to restrict the reach of our brand - or that of a sponsor by restricitng photographers from the national press and other local papers to be honest I don't watch Match of the Day anymore - nor live football on SKY - only the highlights of Saints games on iPlayer - and the only reason I can tell you that Tombola sponsor Sunderland is because I saw a picture in the paper with a match report

the ban on photographers at St Marys will surely affect our chances of getting a 'big' sponsor next season what's the point of paying to have your logo or brand on the front of the teams shirt when its hardly ever going to be seen by a wider audience due to the ban on photographers at St Mary's sure it will be seen by those at St Marys, and on the website and probably in the local paper - but national exposure will be very limited Someone might tempted to sponsor the away shirts - ut only at a knock down price though from a commercial or marketing point of view the ban on photographers seems to be a very strange decision perhaps we'll have to get different sponsors for the home and away shirts - or donate it to charity like Barcelona! Sounds to me like someone made a very stupide decision - and doesn't have the strength of character to admit it was a mistake and revoke the decision

I think it all came down to a disagreement about transfers between Cortese and Pardew Pardew wanted more money to spend and Cortese basically said no - and that led to a major disagreement about they way forward and results on the pitch and a parting of the ways! It seems we missed out on nearly all of our transfer targets this summer - partly because we lost out to teams higher up the league (Matt Phillips to West Brom, Nicky Bailey, Simeon Jackson,etc) or refused to pay the money clubs or players were asking for (Michail Antonio, Adam Le Fondre). It also sounds like Cortese wanted to bring back Waigo - but for some reason to do with Pardew it wouldn't happen - either Pardew didn't want him or Waigo wouldn't come back if Pardew was still there. I think it will tell us a lot if Waigo rejoins us in the loan Window. The Do Prado - or Guly deal - sounds like it was done by Cortese and not Pardew to make a point. Thing is if Pardew said we needed to spend more money to bring some new players in to guarantee promotion he was probably right - at the moment without Waigo and Antonio we are considerably weaker than last season - we have no pace in the team and nothing on the bench that is going to change a game. We are short a striker, a winger and a central midfielder at the moment. But perhaps Cortese doesn't see it this way and thinks the team we have is good enough. If that's the case the next few weeks with Lambert off form, unfit and carrying an injury, Lallana out injured, Barnard banned and Jaidi over the hill the next few weeks will prove him sadly wrong. If we are going to mount a real promotion push we need a decent manager and some new players in pretty quickly - lets hope we get a manager in place before the loan window opens and he brings in the players we need on loan pretty quickly. having said that i think we may need to accept that the money we need to buy our way out of League 1 just isn't there - perhaps Marcus Liebherr passing away changed things - or perhaps the budget originally set was simply never going to be enough it may be a case of wages or it may be a case of lack of transfer funds - only time will tell us if we're lucky the frustating thing is this is a League you can buy your way out off - unlike the Championship what worries me is that if we are not in the top six by January and looking like promotion contenders players like Lallana, Schneiderlin and Lambert will look to move to a club higher up the league in the transfer window - and if we are still in League 1 next summer they will definately look to move if they are still here all we can hope for then is that we are allowed to reinvest all the money we make from selling them back into the squad - and have a manager that can build winning teams by picking gems from the lower leagues and taking great youth players on loan

It sounds to me like it was a heat of the moment sacking - I would guess there has been friction between Cortese and Pardew for a while. It probably started when we failed to make the play-offs last season despite spending money in January. The wasted pre-season and the bad start to this season probably didn't help either. But I have a feeling it really comes down to recent transfer dealings - or the lack of them - sounds like Pardew didn't want Waigo back or Guly at all. But also that we haven't signed the players that Pardew wanted like Antonio or Matt Phillips. I imagine that Cortese refused to pay the money - saying we spent money in January - and argued that we could get cheaper and better players from abroad. This led to a major confrontation just before the close of the transfer window and a parting of the ways.

I am assuming Cortese has written off promotion this season

it is becoming an annus horribilis - but what did we expect - this is Saints - things always go wrong for us

like I want to support another club I bought a half season ticket last season for the first time ever in over 30 years of supporting Saints - to make sure I got JPT final tickets and to enjoy what I hoped was going to be a push for the play-offs at the end of the season this summer I bought a Season ticket for the first time - partly because I was expecting a great season - some great signings over the summers to show our inten - and a team that would hit the ground running now I really really wish I hadn't bothered it means I'm going to go to the game on Saturday wishing I wasn't if Swindon can beat us 3-0 we are in trouble

will it make any difference if he does anyway now - the way Corteses is going we are not going to make it back to the premiership under his stewardship - and certainly not within 5 years - and what good is the Liebherr money to us anyway if we are not going to spend it in the transfer window to build a team good enough to go up automatically we are going to do a Leeds and be stuck in the this division for at least 3 seasons by the looks of it with Marcus Liebherr passing away, a crap pre-season, a weaker team than finished last season, 4 points out of 9 in the first 3 games, and now out of the League Cup and JPT in the first month of the season all the momentum and feel good factor from last season has gone we may have taken two steps forward - but we have taken one step back now yet another false dawn at Southampton FC

I think we are looking at the play-offs at best this season - and that's if we can get a good manager in before too long, bring in some good players on loan and then strengthen the squad in January at the moment the team is weaker than than the one that finished last season - we have a great first 11 - but no real strength in depth and with Lallana injured we really can't afford to lose any of the other players to injury Cortese seems to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory - pre-season was a joke, cup game pricing, matchday tickets prices and the booking tax an own-goal, the ban on press photographers just plain stupid, the failure to strengthen the team idiotic, allowing the team to get weaker criminal and sacking the manager Alan Pardew the day before the transfer window closes insane

that would be the same Leonardo that failed at Milan - partly because he didn't actually want to be the manager - he was happy being a Director of Football but was forced to take the hot seat when Ancelotti left! he was great player - and he's got great contacts in Italy but I think he's proved he's not a manager. he was was criticized for being too pragmatic and unable to change a game (sounds a bit like Pardew) he'd probably make a great DoF though!

look out for a record low attendance

I have to say its been a really disappointing transfer window (unless things have happened that we don't know about) - not too mentions close season, pre-season and start to the season! The transfer window has closed are we have no manager and a weaker team than we finished last season with. We made and filled a hole at right back but that is about it! I'm not convinced that Butterfield and Richardson actually give us any better options at right back than Lloyd James and Wayne Thomas did. We're still missing a striker - we need 4 good stikers to see us through the season and somone who can actually provide cover for Lambert. Connolly was a cheap signing - and at his age and with his injury record won't see us through the season. With Lallana's knee injury it looks like we'll be playing Do Prado/Guly from the start. And Guly was a gamble at that. So without Antonio and Waigo we have no pace and nothing on the bench that can change the game. Oxlade-Chamberlain is too young - and still got a lot of convincing to do before he can come close to filling that particular hole in the squad. Holmes is too small and too slow - injury prone - and not as good as he thinks he is! We also have no depth in the middle - once you look past Hammond and Schneiderlin there is no one there. Wotton is too old and slow and can't pace. Sure he's OK if you want to see out the last 10 minutes of a game at 3-0 up but that it. The Pulis JR situation is a joke. I'd take Gillett and Lloyd-James over those two any day! Wotton, Pulis and Holmes should all have been shifted out for a start. So its 2 weeks until the loan window opens up - that's two weeks to appoint a decent manager - but will it be enough to save our season if we lose the next two league games and get knocked out of the JPT. I guess we'll see how badly the team has been affected by Pardew's sacking against Swindon tonight - but i'd imagine they are bit shell shocked and bit dispirited by it all.

Please no - not a skate again - it will end in tears

It won't be a manager it will be a first team coach under the new structure which will rules out any of the British big boys - which means it will someone like Tisdale or Howe, Zola or some other continental coach

What stupid timing - the day before the transfer window closes - if they were going to sack him it should have been done weeks ago. If we are talking to players they are hardly going to join us now. Did the death of Marcus delay the timing of the sacking or did it remove Cortese's only obstacle to doing it? How will it affect Pardews team? It's probably put an end to our chances of automatic promotion. By the time we have a new manager or whatever it's going to be in place it could well be too late. The only decent managers out there I can think off are O'Neill, Hoddle and Coppell but I can't see anyone of their calibre dropping down to League 1

If we've sacked Pardew does that mean there will no more signings - probably - what a stupid time to sack a manager

Have to agree with you on this one!

good