Rebel

I not totally convinced we strengthened the defence enough in the tranfser window. We are probably still short a first choice right back who can defend - and decent cover at centre back. Of the defenders we brought in only Fonte is off the right quality. We are still missing a midfield playmaker and a starting Defensive Midfielder. If the team finishes the season badly Pardew will be sacked in the Summer - Cortese and Liebher will expect automatic promotion next season and won't take any prisoners in getting there The least I expect this season is a trip to Wembley for the JPT final, victory over the Skates and a top half finish. Anything less from Pardew should lead to serious questions about his future at St Marys

I don't think the current owners will really splash the cash until the summer. This season we have an outside chance of the play-offs and we have strengthened the team a little bit in the January window to make sure we finish in the top half and still have an outside chance of making the play-offs. However I think Cortese and Liebherr are running the club wisely - and making sure the wage bill is met by current revenue. Certainly for this season. The time to gamble is next season - the odds are against us this season! This season is all about steadying the ship and building the foundations for the next few seasons. We should see any trips to Wembley, a good FA Cup run as the jam in the cake. Beating Portsmouth in the Cup and winning the JPT would really be the icing on the cake! The cake itself is finishing in the top half this season and starting next season on 0 points and not -10 as favourites for promotion! In the summer with Wotton, Thomas, Murty, Connolly, Waigo, Ostemboor, Antonio and Perry all out of contract and a lot more space on the wage bill I think we will see some real money spent on transfer fees to put together a squad good enough to get automatic promotion. Hopefully we will get rid of some of the deadwood in the summer as well - Pulis, Molyneux, Holmes et al.

Richard Hall

I'd like to see the 1885 kit as either our second or third kit anyway - and I have a feeling the current England kit with a diagonal red stripe will be the anniversary kit. My favourite kit of all time if the 1976 -1980 kit as its a little bit different - followed by the early 80s kit. The worst are undoubtedly the Pony and Hummel kits. The current Umbro kit is the best we've had for quite a while!

He used to come out drinking with me and a group of friends in Winchester - a long time ago now! Saints were in the Premiership and Reading were in League 1 at the time - I used to take the p*ss a bout that! He was a friend of a friend really. He liked Winchester as nobody really new who he was so he could relax - whereas in Reading he got hassled quite a bit I think. He did get drunk once or twice - but I do remember we all went for a Chinese meal one night and all he had was boiled rice! Haven't spoken to him in years as the mutual friend moved away!

The Itchen Northam corner was where most Lowe/Hone/Wilds biggest and most vocal critics sat - and it was a bit nearer the directors seats and hospitality boxes than they would have liked - so when the opportunity came to close it down they did! Simples!

I've got 5 season tickets but couldn't buy any Pompey tickets online last night - not 10, not 5, not even 1! So I went down to the ticket office this morning and got 5 Pompey tickets! But I'm now the only one of the 5 season ticket holders who can make the game - 2 our away for the weekend ad it's Valentines, one has a commitment he is deperately trying to get out off but it would let about 100 people down! And my sister won't let my nephew go as he under 8! Mind you I got 8 tickets for the MK Dons game when I bought the 5 half season tickets - just created memberships then and there for 4 people! Does that mean I can get 18 tickets if we make it too Wembley!

I'm sure the 2 club rule only applies to permanent signings not loans. Also Arron Davies is 28 - so he was in the youth team a bit before Walcott and Bale! Wasn't he on the fringes of the first team in our FA Cup final season?

Something along the lines of: 'We all love the taxman more than you well know!' to the tune of Mrs Robinson!

genius!

We can smell you over here! We can smell you over here!

Money! Money! Money! In the Saints fans world! We've got lots! You've got none!

My Pompey brother in-law wont answer the phone! lets hope the crowd at St Mary's really get to Pompey's foreign mercenaries if there are any of them left to play! and they won't be used to playing in front of a full stadium either!!

Holmes provided very little cover in front off Mills, failed to track his runners and seemed unwillingly to lay the ball back to Mills to cross it when he had nowhere to go himself and Mills was in space Holmes also lacks the stature and pace to play at this level Left midfield was a real weak spot yesterday

Not sure he was worth the money and Paterson in the long run. He doesn't have the pace we so desperately need either. Still in the short term he can play tomorrow (I think) - and he will be an alternative to playing Lambert every game.

I think it was a mistake to let Paterson go. Lets hope it was just on loan to get some first team experience. He has the potential to be a good striker - just needs the playing time and to develop - and the coaching. Overall I think will regret letting him leave in the long run. And he really wanted to play for Saints!

Paterson, Thomson and White all need to go on loan for the rest of this season to League 2 clubs Boyle, Molyneux, and Martin as well probably - but maybe conference clubs they all need competitive playing time - and the level our reserves play at is pathetic Bournemouth would be a good club for some of them - if they didn't have a transfer embargo - or maybe Aldershot - meaning they could live down here and still train with Saints one or two days a week Pulis probably needs to go on a free transfer Thomson, Paterson and White have all shown in flashes that they've got the potential to make the grade - they just need the time and opportunity to develop their games Wade Elliott, Brian Howard, Brian Stock, Arron Davies and Scot MacDonald are all players we've released or given up on far to soon in past years I bet we'd all like them in our match day squad now though!

I think the MK Dons game last night proved we need an old head in Midfield to put his foot on the ball, pass it and keep posession. When we went down to 10 men we just reverted to the long ball - hoofing forward - inviting MK Dons on to us - and keeping up the pressure on ourselves Wotton is great as a defensive midfielder but he's not a great passer of the ball - Wotton and Mills were both very guilty of just punting the ball forward Wotton was best in a 3 man midfield - sitting in front of the back 4 winning the ball and then giving it short and simply to Morgan, Hammond, Melis or Lallana to make the play Oakley would be a good fit for this role - and I can see him joining us for a swansong next season if we are still in League 1

we went into Administration because Lowe tried to call the banks bluff on the overdraft limit and it didn't work we got relegated anyway thanks to Lowe's Double Dutch policy and his 'youth policy' the reason we got into financial trouble in the first place was down to Jim Hone spending the £7 million Wild promised and never delivered - even when he knew it was never going to turn up - in the vain hope that someone would buy the club if Hone, Hoos and Oldknow had run the club within its means we would never have gone into administration but then if Wild had delivered the £7 million investment he'd promised.... and if Lowe had left Crouch to run the club with Pearson as manager we'd never have gone into administration over a breached overdraft or got relegated on the pitch! but you could argue that if Wild had left Lowe in control in the first place we'd have been run within our means and probably still be a mid table CCC club the massive gap between our revenue and the money spent on players and wages over the 10 years Lowe was in charge has never been explained it wasn't used to build a state of the art training ground and it wasn't used to pay-off the stadium mortgage so where did it go? we could have taken the step forward after the cup final - but we didn't because the money went elsewhere - dividends, exec and non-exec director bonuses and expenses - and lots of other through lots of other completely legal routes into Lowe and his cronies pockets! its no coincidence one of the companies used to do maintenance work on the stadium and training ground was owned by Lowe and his father how many other similar things went on? how many directorships of companies connected to Saints did Lowe hold? St Mary's Catering? Saints FM? I imagine Ray Ransom and SISU are doing something very similar at Coventry right now! Portsmouth are in real trouble because they bought players with money they didn't have and they paid players massive salaries with money they didn't have - funded by loans taken out by Gaydamak how come PFC now owe Gaydamak £28 million when he didn't actually put any real money into the club it looks as though it was all done deliberately - winning the FA Cup was just an unwanted diversion - either for a property deal or for something dogdier got to laugh though! the FA and the Premier League need to take a long hard look at themselves though - as well as the PFA!

I'd have Prutton back as he would give us some bite in midfield, is a box-to-box midfielder and does actually provide a goal threat - he can also play on the right or in the middle. Bit like Hammond really! What we are lacking is a defensive/holding midfielder player who can pass the ball as well! That would allow Hammond and/or Morgan to get forward and into the box - hopefully scoring some goals. Morgan is a playmaker but he's not yet quite up to playing the defensive midfielder role - give him time though

Prutton? He's only got 6 months left on his contract at Leeds Racon or Bailey from Charlton - supposedly they need the money Danns or stock? Arron Davies - been released by Forest - to play on the right.

I'd rather take Pitman from Bournemouth and Tyson from Forest. Pitman would be a great back-up to Lambert as they are similar sort of players - both big second strikers - and I think he would be happy being a back-up in League 1 and opposed to playing in League 2. Also think like Lambert we could improve him a lot as a player. Plus he supposedly wants to join Saints. I's also like us to sign Nathan Tyson from Forest to give us that pace upfront we are badly lacking. He's proven at this level - and would work well with Lambert/Pitman or Connolly. Jackson and Beckford will both end up playing in the Championship or Premier League by the end of January! Vokes on loan would be the icing on the cake - would give us another option upfront - a proper old fashioned centre forward - he wants to play for us or so we are told - he's young and will get better - and he can play with Pitman as proven at Bournemouth!

I would guess the transfer fees are being funded by Liebherr and the club itself is paying the wages with a 20,000 average gate, no mortgage on the stadium, and most of the big earners from the last season gone I would imagine there is room on the wage bill for a couple more players on average League 1/CCC wages Saganowski and Thomas are probably the only players left at the club who are on big wages now and I have a feeling both will be leaving on loan or free transfers this January plus a couple more of the fringe players will be going out on loan - Mills, Lancashire, Gobern, McClaggon, Pulis, Holmes, Forecast, Paterson possibly even if we doubled Lamberts wages when he joined us I don't expect he's on anywhere near £10K a week - and a step up from £3K a week to £6K is still quite a jump for anyone! the clubs turnover is probably something like £15 million - so a £10 million player wage bill is quite do-able.

well if they do - there's a Japaneses college in Winchester - so there loads of Japanese girls to be found there its attached to the University in some way - it used to be called Shoei College or something like that - but I think its just part of the Uni now I used to live just up the road from the halls of Residence in Chilbolton Avenue.

I hope its not Steve Wigley - I'd welcome him back in the youth set up though - maybe as U16s or U18s coach - but I don't think he'd make a good DoF role Huw Jennings would be on my short list for the role of DoF - I see the role as more of a strategic and administrator role rather than a coaching or hands on football role if the role if defined properly and you get the right person in for it I think it would improve the long term management of SFC as I see it the DoF should be responsible for the all things on the football side of the club - the scouting, the academy, the first team, the sports science etc. However the Football Manager should have ultimate responsibility for the first team the Technical Director as I would prefer to call the role would be responsible for the football budget, the players wage bill, the transfer budget, negotiating players conftracts, etc the Head of the Academy, the Head of Sports Science, Chief Scout, Head of youth recruitment, Football Manager would all report to him his primary objective being to manage the football resources of the club with a long term goal and vision - to balance the football managers short term vision in staying up or getting promoted the DoF should be responsible for signing the players the FM needs for the first team, making sure we stay in budget, as well as making sure we have a succession plan and continuity when it comes to managers, coaches and players he should be tasked with making sure there are always players coming through from the academy and reserves in every position capable of pushing for a first team place. he needs to understand football - particularly the business and contract side - and be a good judge of players - but not be a football manager or coach