up and away

Most fans would accept a manager that gave them success, even though you would have to empty your bowels from all directions after watching one of his interviews. There is two faced and there is two faced, but a fifty pence piece does not come close to Warnock when it comes to camera time and the Chesire cat come Shylock smile spreads over his face. In his first season in the Premier the Mr Angry was modified by some home grown PR and we see what we have today. You can't try and disguise the fact he comes over as obnoxious to fans, even your own. Warnock took a dislike to Saints after a cup game at the Dell against Sheffield United under Hoddle. He went off on one big time, for a game in which was relatively a good, clean game. But something triggered him that evening and when the pressure reached it's climax, he totally lost it over some inconsequentiality. Subsequently he has wasted little opportunity to lace up the boots when Saints come into view. It's not us with him, but the opposite and I know very few fans that don't respond to such a loveable figure.

A valid opinion, but it is just as possible that we did dither, stall or cock it up. We have previous for pontificating over transfers, for better or worse. We don't know either way, so it can only be your opinion that if we really wanted him it would have been done quickly. Not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing. Ultimately we may have been playing hardball and not prepared to pay what QPR or Gorkss wanted, which is legitimate, but there is also the possibility that we did misjudge the situation (particularly with the Fontaine deal breaking down). The "loss" of Gorkss and/or Fontaine will be judged as we progress through the season. If we get someone else in, or Seabourne develops in to a great centre half, then all will be forgotten. No new faces and some injuries or loss of form may bring out some different viewpoints. We have a lot of additional information we can factor in with recent transfers. We look at the market, value the player then stick to the limit we placed upon that player. That does not mean we won't pay over and above as demonstrated with Danny Fox. Equally with Cork, we laid down the offer and had to be patient for him to make up his mind. With Gorkss we could have made a straight forward approach to QPR, but by all accounts we never did this. I don't believe for one minute of the reported friction between NA and NC, they just do not operate like that. Even with NC away on holiday that would only be delayed if he wished it so, otherwise a 5 minute conversation and someone else would have done the neccessary. Adkins stock is so high with Cortese at present, if NA had put Gorkss down as a must have, all the stops would have been pulled out. Gorkss came into this equation because QPR baulked at the Puncheon price and Warnock wanted shot of him. With Jamel that is an odd one, but the reason he gave for pulling out has nothing to do with Saints. Saints cannot block in any manner a sell on to his original club. That's totally bound up in contract with his previous club and something EUFA or FIFA would enforce irrespectively. With that sort of attitude we dodged a bullet there, when you look at what the team commitment has produced so far. Fontaine is another odd one and something got thrown up at Saints when he was here. Most would not rate Fontaine as a stellar signing, but posibly a small improvement on what we currently have. If his injury were to mean he would not be fully up to pace for a month say, it may be well more prudent to use a good loan rather than buy? Our policy is a preference for buying rather than loans, but when the candidate is not that outstanding, then things can change. It's obvious we are in the market for a good striker whom we are prepared to pay several million and a centre back. With Jamel it shows we are prepared to pay a good wedge but prepared to settle for less if the market is not coming up with the quality, as shown with Fontaine. If you are accepting the Fontaines of this world as a second choice, they need to tick every box to make that work. Someone with greater talent would be given more leeway.

It is far more likely at the beginning the problem was Saints not prepared to move the goal posts. Puncheon was available as a straight purchase but QPR did not agree on the price. Throw Gorkss into the picture and all sorts of variations muddy the water. But if Saints viewed Gorkss as a must have, this deal would have been done very quickly. More than likely Gorkss would have been adequate but not essential, hence what occurred. Greater talent is going to become available when the window closes and the loan options from the Premier are available.

That's the one thing I really found spooky, so many similarities. With an intelligent person such as Cortese, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he looked at everything he could get his hands on, accepted what had value and discarded what did not. Lowe's model was the Dutch clubs, primarily Ajax. But just give Ajax the finances and what do you get, a Barcelona? Cortese has set up a player / transfer group which looks identical in personnel and numbers to what Lowe set up for acquisitions. Les Reed seems to be the nuts and bolts man who implements the detail of what Cortese is trying to achieve and I am truly gobsmacked at how things have worked out. This would not stand a chance of working with the likes of the Bassets in the picture, but Cortese has not allowed that to happen, along with the politics to undermine the club. What looks such an over whelming success from the little that I have seen, is how Adkins utilises all the technology and expertise he has available to get the absolute maximum from the system to the benefit of the team on the pitch. I do know that Cortese has looked back through our past in great detail from several comments he has made, so it would come as no surprise that if he found something of value he would use it. Something any intelligent person would do from outside the industry, irrespective of the source. When you look back at the implementation of closing parts of the stadium and the uproar that created, you really wonder why that has abated! Lowe could never remove the politics from the club, but Cortese has shown that with an iron will and fair hand, just what can be done when you have the finances and undisolved power. That was Cortese's cornerstone to what he subsequently built and something he learnt from Saints past, putting a stop to the politics. Cortese's model for the club is very different to others, where organic growth of the youth will be the foundation of the clubs future. Add into that a well placed dollop of finances and you have what you see before you. With the youth side getting equal or greater emphasis and finances from the very start, for me this is a Carlsberg moment.

I think some of the principles could have been excellent; Woodward was seemingly very good at surrounding himself with experts and raising individual performance levels by one or two per cent at a time to get elite athletes performing at their optimal level. Unfortunately, the costs involved were astronomical at a time when we'd just lost the financial security of the Premier League. We could have put the money spent on Woodward into the team and invested in the sports science as and when we got back to the top table. Trying to put together the costs of the whole exercise would just reduce me to tears. Allegedly £1M per year for Woodward. £300K per year for Clifford. They refurbished parts of the training ground setup, putting in various costly gadgets, gizmos, playstations and such like. I'm pretty sure they hired a "vision coach" too. And I've probably erased from memory various other hair-brained schemes that took up vital funds and neglected the playing side of things. This to me is the key. Once we dropped out of the Premier we just could not afford these niceties, it was total madness for a Championship club. Not only was it the costs of salaries and specialists, they also copied Arsenals set up with the amount of money ploughed into the training set up. I think it was something like £1M in improving Staplewood at the time. And if I remember correctly, Woodward offered us an out before he took up the post because of relegation, but how much real truth there was in that is speculation. What Cliffords comments clearly show is that Woodward was out of his depth within football, where his knowledge base from rugby did not square with the approach in football. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the things he was suggesting were of value, but he never had the football back ground to be able to implement them properly. Satchel face was a cant of the first order. Lowe backed him to the hilt to keep us in the Premier (maybe he should not of) that subsequently gave us big financial issues when we did go down. Lowe made something like £4.5M available to Satchel, only to get turned over by that master tactician Bryan Robson without a pot to **** in. Satchel face only came to us in a fit of spite after falling out with Mandaric, clearly evidence when he went as red as a beetroot when holding a Saints scarf at his joining. He never wanted to be here and realised his mistake as soon as he got through the door. he wanted out and was in regular contact with his mate Storey. Taking us into relegation was bad enough, where just a minimal effort would have avoided the drop, but what was to follow was even worse. Lowe spelled out to him what the financial position ahead would be and the youth would have to supply the first team. Lowe made Satchel initial off against a whole range of problems they would face in the future to be 100% on what was expected. This meant nothing to that saggy copped thwat and he stayed on rather than get under Sandra's feet, all the time looking for an out. Blame Lowe by all means, but that twitchy faced thwat was more than culpable irrespective.

When we were at the Dell, I would mainly have to restrict myself to the reserves, juniors and the odd cup game. At the time Lowe came into the club the youth set up under our then Director of football, was at it's worst it had ever been. It was that depressing that the only player of note was Dryden in the reserves, hardly in the spring of his youth. Bridge was converted from a winger to fullback, but at that time the cupboard was bare under Lawrie. What Lowe did in transforming that youth set up to one, if not the best £/£ academy in the UK was truly exceptional. What he achieved for the club with his vision and implementation for the stadium and youth set up was first class. I am not going to argue the downside of Lowe because that is all well documented and something not really worth the bother, he had his faults. If we could have stayed in the Premier for another 5 years, I fully believe the Academy could have taken us to the next level. But maybes get you fook all in this case, but bearing in mind that everything that was bought into by Liebherr and Cortese was delivered by Lowe. Lowe made some stupid decisions without a doubt, but without the finances and having to balance running the club on a minority shareholding it was not difficult to understand. I said at the time that I would take an idiot such as Crouch, if he were to plough in sufficient money into the club, such is the importance of finance. This is why I find it very difficult when people criticise Cortese, he is virtually all our dreams come true and some fans just cannot realise after all we have been through with Lowe, Wilde and Crouch. I don't have to accept the idiot Crouch's of this world with money, I've got an intelligent well funded CEO that is delivering something to Saints I never thought I would see in my life time. Cortese has areas I prefer not to see, but in the grand scheme of things they do not even register compared to what we were dragged through. But take away that finance from Cortese and give him a balancing act of a board to keep happy and we can all imagine the problems that would arise.

What Clifford was selling really works, of that I have little doubt, with the Dutch clubs utilising these methods for decades. In reality there is not a great deal of depth to the idea, just basically a small ball and pitch which allows youngsters to develop their skills much better with the smaller ball. It's just so obvious when you have 3-4 foot FA trying to control the standard football. The trouble was in self publicising as he does to generate interest (which is needed), he makes himself look a total thwat. This has all kicked off because Saints are now taking the idea to another level, backed up by an educational training and qualification. I imagine this has a lot to do with the educational requirement for a grade 1 academy, something this will help in keeping the costs down. As for the ****** about pass completion per minute between the two systems, that surely will be a function of the coaching and how it is implemented. Saints introducing this has certainly kicked him off. I really see this alongside the Academy upgrade as being very significant to produce the talent of the future. In reality Cortese is just mirroring what Lowe was doing to such a close degree it's spooky, but by keeping his mouth shut and a decent wallet is not falling into the pits that Lowe did. It would come as no surprise if we were to find out that Cortese and Lowe have had some form of communication as we are seeing a lot of previous ground gone over again. Or maybe it's just a banker thing!

You could well be right and the answer may lie elsewhere or somewhere in between, hindsight will all give us the edge on that one. You have acknowledged the major obstacle in getting out of this league, because it is so ...... hard. It's then a question of opinion as to how you get out of this league, play sublime football in bursts until stamina reverses results or a more cautious approach. If you go back to last season and consider the two approaches of Brighton and Saints you have the perfect example. Saints undoubtedly had the better players, but Brighton the better team. No one is going to convince me that Brighton were not the far better option in the long run because they factored in the ......... hard league. The Leicester result will not be the definitive answer, but if our performance were to be compromised by fitness and stamina, then the question is really valid. The Millwall game has shown that we cannot impose our brand of football without certain energy levels in key players. In the past playing at such stamina levels has induced injuries to key players such as Lallana, which then has a snowballing effect for the period he is absent. This is just speculation at the present because if we have no fitness / stamina issues against Leicester, then it never becomes valid. I feel that if we had a strong, quick striker that could take on defenders on their own, stopping their back four from pushing up, we could employ a 451 which could easily give us the option of seeing out games with minimal energy expenditure. We don't have that option and as yet I am not even sure we need it. But when players are getting to half time with nothing left in the tank, it's something we have clearly witnessed previously and gone on to cost us. Trying to play at the same standard without the energy levels will always lead to far greater injuries. I would like to have that alternative of playing the lone, quick striker, even if it is never required.

I don't think they looked necessarily fitter, just a little fresher as they play a slower paced game than us. We play a very high-tempo game and to carry that Tuesday/Saturday is a very tough thing to do. I thought we dug in and ground out a good result and at the end of the day they lost, so obviously being fresher doesn't always count towards the end result. A winning mentality is a big thing to shake off. When you have players with nothing left in the tank at half time, there's little doubt about who was suffering fitness wise. That's not even debateable. Going back to Pardew we have always suffered because of the high tempo game and with mid week games sandwiched in and we usually suffer. Thanks to the staff and what looks like the best pre-season for a long time we have rode that out for the first 4 games, but that does not mean it will continue. We have no way of playing the counter attack by soaking up the pressure without using a lot of energy, that is a weakness in my eyes. Leicester is going to be the key, because once you run the battery flat with efforts such as we have put in over the last 4 games, it's not a simple day or two rest and everything is back to normal, it can take far longer. If we get through the Leicester game unaffected we should be ok as the schedule is far less hectic. We ran out of legs and this clearly showed we could not impose our brand of football on the opposition. Millwall are a very physical side, one of the worst to meet in such circumstances. But Adkins recognised the problem and reacted perfectly at half time, along with the players in playing out the opposition. Adkins in part admitted his error in not having fresh legs on from the beginning, something he employed at the end of last season that made it such a winning run. So I would feel he will be more circumspect in the future. Fitzhugh's comments for me highlight whether we will seriously challenge for an automatic spot this season, with the game at Leicester being the first big indicator. If we were playing in the Premier league this would be no issue, but when you look at the problems they have with stamina and the Xmas fixtures, it's no surprise the effect this has.

That is a real worry because when it happened last season it seemed to take a long time to recover. Luckily we now have time to build up our stamina with no mid weekers for a while. This will be a real test for the back room staff, but it would not surprise me if this carried over to Leicester.

That and continually getting shoved in the back. I have always thought they were free kicks but after this amount of time and the referees giving nothing, I don't think things are going to change. It's has to be up to Ricky to change his game, surprised how easily he is nudged off the ball for such a big guy.

And there you have it in a nutshell. Ricky is not playing the standard striker role but taking up Guly's best position, in the hole. Ricky gets nudged off the ball far easier than Guly but I cannot argue that it is working, even with Guly playing in his weaker position on the wing. I have always thought that this formation would not work away from home, when the need is to counter attack. That has easily been dispelled by the performances at Barnsley and Ipswich, you just cannot argue with those performances. I have tried to work out the system that we are playing but everything is so fluid it just comes up as a myriad of different groups of 3 attacking with purpose. I do know that the opposition are equally confused as myself, not knowing fully who to pick up and who goes to cover when Lallana or Guly come off the wings. Full praise to who ever has come up with this and it's going to be interesting which team manages to find an answer. If there is one when you are passing/moving with such intelligence and skill. It's going to be a different problem when someone comes and parks the bus as I expect Millwall to on Saturday, but this is where Guly comes into his own in the team, nearly as good as Jack Frost with his key collection. Adkins has clearly had this system in his mind for a long while and through the summer has fine tuned it on the practice pitch. Add into that equation Jack Cork and a fit Ricky and you see what we have now. Full praise to all, manager, coaches, analysts and players, but I have to admit I just never saw this working as exceptionally well as has been demonstrated. Please shoot this down in flames as you wish, but the only other club I can think of that plays in a similar style, is Barcelona? Where defenders are left marking fresh air until they find a triangle passing through them from where ever.

That's what I reckon... or sadly, the ol' Billy Davies tactic of kicking the crap out of the most influential players and bullying your way to victory The trouble the opposition have at present is that there are too many to kick to effect a turnaround in our form. The whole midfield and attack are interchanging and playing in small groups and triangles that is is very difficult to stem. There are too many players on their game doing the same thing, a nightmare for any opposition.

Cork is a very important part of what we are doing, but equally the way we attack is so effective and balanced. The way we open up from one side then pass through a team is something exceptional which has come off the training ground. We could not do it without Cork, but equally what is being done from that platform is truly exceptional and goes down to the other players and the coaching staff. Take a bow Southampton, playing football that makes us all 10' higher, wondrous stuff.

I thought the gate against Leeds was exceptionally good, but time will tell on that one. My straw poll for the Leeds game only comes from the circle of other saints fans I talk to on a regular basis. Of those a couple were still on holiday and a couple watched the game on Sky because of commitments for the Saturday evening. Half of those were season ticket holders, so they would still be counted but there was scope for a significantly higher gate later in the season at the standard kick off time. I don't know what the economic climate will do to ticket sales, but I cannot see it as positive. I have always noticed big gaps in the season ticket holders for the first game of the season down to holidays, so there is no reason why that should not extend to ticket sales. Saturday evening kick offs on Sky have always suffered significantly so I can only look at those Leeds figures as promising, but all we have to do is wait a few games to find out a more accurate answer.

The things is, this isn't a Sunday League side with a load of mates playing together. It doesn't work like that in professional football. Until I see it actually happen, I would go along with richardc. I heard Adkins say Ricky will be our main striker this season when being quizzed about him not playing during the Liebherr Trophy. I can't believe we are considering paying this type of money on strikers that can only be considered middle of the road, there must be far better value on the continent. I watched Matty Fryatt score for Hull against Leicester at the weekend and just that level of striker would make so much a difference. A striker that can take on defenders without assistance. Give that striker pace and all of a sudden that back line is no longer pushing up so high and they are not looking at your centre forward as an alternative to the goal post as a safe place to leave their chewing gum when they go up for a header. I am petty sure we are looking at an alternative to Connolly rather than Ricky, which may have a lot to do with the opinion of the medical staff.

I have always found your match reports to be excellent, the first I look for. Whilst I understand where you are coming from here (had exact same thoughts after the Leeds game), there are a couple of things out of the ordinary here for Saints. Chatting after the Leeds game, I was trying to figure out whether we were that good or Leeds were that poor. Someone referenced Howson and asked whether he would be any good for Saints, all unanimous in that he would be an asset. Leeds were a bit toothless up front but looking back I don't believe their midfield caved, more we earned it and they then had nothing left. Then taking Barnsley, rarely do we take such control or even with the control, take advantage. These results on their own leave the question you have posed as very valid. But to counter that, when was the last time you saw Saints take advantage in such a manner? Bearing in mind we are now supposedly a league higher than last season! What we have seen from Saints so far this season is exactly what we would expect when you had any of the fancied teams in the Championship play such opposition. Like you I feel we won't really know until we have a team that exerts that little bit more pressure upon all areas, but that should not over look that we have dealt with these two teams as you would expect from a good Championship side.

Tactically he was very poor. He did have Paul Ince in his pocket, but I doubt I would bother putting that on the resume. Pardew flapped a lot and I am sure that got through to the players. I remember when he used the -10 as the reason things were not going for us, only to be picked up and repeated by the players. But after -10 you would always have a while on the -ve, then a while at the bottom, then a while in the bottom 3. Just dumb to use that as an excuse and something the players can hide behind. There were several times where Pardew would become exasperated with the players hoofing, but it still went on. With Adkins it took a couple of early substitutions and the message got through. To be fair to Pardew we played some of the best football under him, but the nature of it meant we could never keep it up for long enough, even against minor opposition when playing twice a week. I liked Adkins last season, but never really felt he was anything exceptional. He needed to go on a good run for that and leaving it to the very last minute, that is exactly what he did. I don't know exactly how he did this, but full praise for bringing it about. So far this season he is different gravy, sorting out the midfield which had malfunctioned for most of last season. What has particularly impressed is the work he has done pre season and putting out a team in the prime of fitness and preparedness. We have a lot of resources at SMS, but Adkins looks to have wrung the maximum from every aspect. The one area I don't agree with Adkins is the faith he has in Lambert. As much as I like Ricky and his support for the team, I believe he is the weak link especially playing against decent opposition away from home. We need a striker who can take on the opposition off their own back, something I rarely see from Ricky.

Maybe, not in a position to argue. But Barnsley took a very useful point off Forest. Although we dominated Leeds, I thought Howson looked a very useful player. The one thing we seem to be getting right is the balance between defence and attack from our midfield. We seem a lot more selective in how we attack with the wide men selectively cutting in to great effect, without exposing too great a weakness for the opposition. One very noticeable aspect is that players are receiving the ball and turning to face the opposition and moving forward, rather than taking the easy knock back. It's also obvious we must have been playing triangles throughout the pre season, such is the efficiency in which we create the space to complete passes. Last season I never rated the balance of the midfield, but Adkins has done a number on this and come up trumps. I didn't think he had it in him to turn this around after it went on for so long, but full praise along with the condition he has presented the players at exactly the right time. I expect we will get blips along the way, but there looks enough to be in the top six come January and enough of a budget to make the difference at that stage. I cannot remember a time at Saints where we had the whole club from stewards to the CEO pulling in one unified effort, especially what is happening on the playing side.

40+ replies and been called a **** a few times? Hardly a fail! Bearing in mind that we never had Theo secured under contract and managed to get that value, exactly how can you compare? And if you are going to compare htf do you reach that conclusion. Thwat of a post!

Great home display, but we will not get away with that performance away from home to the better clubs. Unless our midfield is going to dominate in the same manner we did against Leeds, it is not going to be an easy repeat. If you commit that many players and energy to closing the opposition down when you don't have control, you will burn out playing twice a week or find yourself bypassed without midfield control. The ideal counter attack is where you absorb the pressure, then hit them on the break, expending less energy. That's what we need to do away from home against the good sides. For that you really need a centre forward with pace who can take their back line on without support and someone like Guly sat in front of our midfield charging up to assist, along with others. I like Guly and would always start him, but he is so much more effective when he sits in front of our midfield having a free role. If Ricky can fill that striker role away from home then we will have no problem. How and what Adkins lines up away from home for these difficult away games I don't know but am sure he will have his own ideas. It's going to be interesting to see how we do.

We all seem to be getting our panties in a wad without even considering the one important aspect, has his case for a visa been heard as yet? I heard David Pleat say on Tuesday evening he would be sitting on one of these panels later in the week, immediately thinking of us and whether it had been rearranged at a late date. The remit of the panel is: To consider whether the player is of the highest calibre. To consider whether the player is able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in England. From all the comments and previous experience this would apply to a player good enough for the Championship and not a cheap alternative to what could be already obtained from the lower leagues. On that basis I can't see any issue in the lad getting a visa. What I can see is this being a long drawn out process when those making the decision will have to trawl through all the video to make their decision. It just is not going to be quick unless you are a young Messi and you can easily see cases slipping to the next panel meeting because of the possible length of time need to process the application. It would not surprise me that the case got delayed, possibly more than once and Jemal has got the dog and decided to sit this one out at home rather than a hotel, where the waiter keeps peering round the corner or the bushes at him every other minute. Maybe not the most professional of responses but neither is the cloak and dagger stuff we have been hearing about.

No, and I'd say based on the latest updates that he's not going to. Much as people want to take apart rumours on here, there's been a fairly credible timeline and a variety of reasonable (if French language) media sources advancing the story, mostly corroborated by a few Saints fans with a bit of input here and there about his medical and leaving the country. I am not so sure on that. I have seen all the comments and if you were to take them at face value your conclusions are valid. But there are some inconsistencies here that do not make sense, that being Saints won't have this locked solid such the player has already committed based upon visa acceptance. Now we saw this with Jaidi and Guly it can take its time but I expect they may now have a date when this is going to be heard. Listening to some of the ex-pro's they have on these panels, I don't believe their will be an issue for this lad to get a permit. This does seem at odds with some of Adkins comments, but I wonder how up to speed he is with when this will actually get heard. What we have seen so far is not out of kilter to what happened originally with Jaidi and Guly, so I don't see any real reason to give up on this yet!

Assuming we get our new centre back and he delivers, we don't look that bad and should be there, or there abouts come the window. With the opportunity of buying out any weaknesses or limitations to push on. The key to me will be Ricky and how Adkins uses him strategically. I have heard him say Ricky will be the #1 striker next season, so he obviously has faith from what he has seen in pre-season. For me the real discussion comes away from home and using 442, unbalances and weakens the midfield allowing the defence to be exposed. 442 away from home will drain your stamina to an extent it will have a knock-on. Certain teams like Leicester with their quality could easily make it work, but we really are in the mix in the Championship, unlike League 1. Playing 451 with the option of going 442 has far better percentages away from home. But there is no way I would play Rickie in a counter attacking role, he just does not have the pace and has to wander into neutral areas to be able to get possession. I believe Adkins will continue in the same vein as we ended last season. Which should not be too bad at home but I do question the outcome against clubs of a similar standing to us away. I can't remember Adkins ever playing 451 without Ricky being in there, an inherent weakness in trying to achieve the original objective. I keep looking back to Brighton, no where near the better players but without doubt the better team. The priority being to have a sound balanced and defensively capable side that then extended their range when in control.