up and away

The only reason to go to the "numerous variations on the 2 CB far post routine - and scored from a few of them." is because you are no longer scoring directly. Never given the time of day when they were going in from all angles with a far higher return than the occasional assist at the far post. Ricky was Ronaldoesque in the manner he took free kicks, getting the ball up and down with power and pace. That technique stopped suddenly to be replaced by something not even in the same league. It is very difficult for me to understand why you suddenly dispense with a method giving you untold success to a non event. Why change so suddenly unless your body is forcing you?

Something radical has changed in Ricky's free kicks, both in execution and results. During Rickys first season he was unstoppable, better than many in the Premier. Several of the free kicks were straight blasts that got up and down over the wall that no keeper could do anything about, When your technique is that good and the results so good, there is no question about technique. Have a close look at Ricky's free kicks last season and you will see the style has changed completely, wrapping his foot round the ball to get turn and up and down, completely different to the good old days. Results wise last season his best return was a goal from a deflection off the wall, just no where near his previous best. Why would you change a style which results in you being one of the top free kick takers in all leagues, to an absolutely minimal direct threat? Something has forced Ricky to take this path and because of the change in style for no result, I would strongly suspect this is his body saying no.

You can look at this either way but I would agree with you. Martin played in some important games last season and did not look out of place. From memory I would go with Martin over Seaborne and he should have come on a step at Palace. We will be getting in another CB so you are looking at cup games for Stephens or Seaborne, something they did not want to slow Martin down with. It may look that Stephens is ahead in the pecking order, but I would place Martin ahead from these decisions.

I'd have sacked Pardew for not getting in the playoffs personally. He had a L1 dream team, better than that. -10 is irrelevant when you get to within 4 points with plenty of time to go, then keep slipping up. If we'd finished 10 points off top or 2nd it wouldn't be so bad blaming the -10. I also think Adkins would be in jeopardy if we finished 17th. NC and NA are clearly aiming way higher than that. Fine for fans to say they'd take 17th, but the fact is the club would be slightly disappointed. Not sure I'd want him sacked, but 17th means a lot of losses and there'd clearly be some fans losing faith in him. But I just don't see it. Seen Saints for many years and had varying degrees of optimism/negativity and think I can be pretty objective on it. It's tough for people to accept it going well, especially after so many rubbish years, but anyone watching closely in the last few years could see something good is happening at the club and with the team. People bang on about Norwich and Swansea and they did well, but IMO they just highlighted how little there is to fear about the bottom half, they just went and played without fear. It's still just 1 season though. Lots of football fans struggle to think beyond 1 season, but Saints clearly have been, and we're not there to stay 1 season. Norwich especially might struggle now IMO. I don't know how Saints will get on over the whole season, but I do believe they'll stay up and a lot of players will improve. I see the club moving forward over a few years and being a decent side. Certainly think we could compete in the Everton/Fulham bracket. I don't see Pardew did as well as he could of in the promotion stakes, but I don't feel that was a sacking offence. Pardews problem was always inconsistency but his highs took Adkins a long time to emulate, but without the negatives. When Cortese and Pardew laid out their plans for the January window, Cortese explicitly underlined this was to gain promotion to league 1, nothing else, THE PRIORITY. Cortese backed him to the hilt such we were something like 4th highest spenders in the whole of the UK during that window. Exceptional for a league 1 club. Then Pardew comes out in the Pompey programme that he had deliberately concentrated on the cups and Cortese went ballistic. I can't think of any other business where you go against your boss and fail over such a major matter, that you still find yourself in a job.

I don't believe Ricky can crank his body into shape like the other players because of all the baggage he is carrying from previous injuries. Last pre-season was the same and he broke down, not getting fully fit until well into the season. Taking things that little bit slower this season should have him fully fit when it matters. I find it strange that Ricky can no longer execute those power free kicks, straight up and down over the wall. I feel that is mainly due to his body saying no, rather than any loss of technique. Either way we need someone else for the free kicks, far too long without the returns.

Adkins deserves his chance, I don't believe anyone will begrudge him that. I just don't know how we will do as there is no real point of reference I can judge against at present. My worry is that everything highlights the lack of Premier experience throughout, but others managed to get over that hurdle last season. If Adkins can spring another surprise in our start to this season, we could be well in. Stepping up from League 1 to the Championship was a step up but nothing like the step from the Championship to the Premier. We have a very difficult start to the season with our easy game coming against THE form team of the end of last season, Wigan. I just hope we can maintain some confidence through that very difficult start, then push on from there. Even if we were to get relegated this season, there are plenty of scenarios where keeping Adkins would be the best bet. A lot point to Corteses sacking of Pardew of this being a formality should we get relegated. But I look to the fact he gave Pardew another chance even though the sack at the end of the season would have been justified. Cortese put personal feelings to the side to extend Pardew that chance, all because he felt it was best for the club. Adkins has a lot of plus points, so unless the experience does not break him, I can easily see him still being around.

Once you get this third party come out and lay claim to part of the transfer deal you have to deal with it professionally. Otherwise this can come back at another time requiring payment from possibly any of those involved. No one can ignore this now as it has been brought into the public domain and will require signing off before hand officially, even if the third party is his father. I would imagine as the third party is no longer getting paid? there is really no incentive from them to proceed speedily. Alternatively Saints have to trawl through this with there own legal team to ensure there are no later repercussions, same for the player.

I can't see this post being far from the truth, but the Steven Davis deal is done, absolutely no doubt about that one. The SFA have no budget and would not stick their nose into this one because there is absolutely no need. FIFA will sort this and the only reason for the delay has been Rangers not officially assigned to a league. The players we have brought in are improvements over what we have but there is a very big question mark over whether they area sufficient improvement to survive. We seem to be paying a lot of money for what most of the promoted clubs gained for little when they came up last season. We need the spine of the team able to compete in the Premier and I just don't see it at present from the gk, cb's to cf. Midfield should be capable of putting up some fight but for opening up teams not so sure. Then again we don't know what Adkins is going to do with these players in pre-season because I was gob smacked with what he did last time round. It all appears that few at the club know what's going to hit them in the Premier and by the time we find out will be seriously on the back foot. But I will not bet against Adkins not pulling the rabbit out of the hat like he did at the start of last season.

So the agent is trying to interfere with the agreement between Saints and Vitesse? I believe that is a misunderstanding of the interview. These two points were an issue but both had been settled according to the BBC report which quotes the agent. The agent had wanted fewer instalments but this was dropped along with payment for a third party.

If Buttner has travelled over to Saints, it has to be odds on that he will now sign. Everything but the medical and signing are now settled and acceptale, otherwise the is no point in the trip. So this very much just looks like the medical being the final obstacle.

You may not have heard this mentioned before but when Saints look at bringing in a player, they look at the players character as being significant in that decision. You will have heard Adkins mention this several times previously regarding players. If during the course of negotiations you uncover Anelka's brother or some trait others have shown which goes on to reveal it's best not touching these players with a barge pole. Then you are going to reassess the character side of things pretty pronto. This could all be a simple error by the player which has little effect should he decide to put things right out of his own pocket or his football skills diminish such an occurrence. But without a doubt things are not the same as they were previously and only a fool would not factor everything in. Otherwise why spend all that effort on character profiling with the alternative being the Joey Bartons of this world.

That sounds about right but I would imagine his father has been acting as his advisor, otherwise why the commitment to a % fee of any transfer? Being father and son the agreement could be verbal rather than written, hence the slip through the cracks. The agent in this interview believes the deal will still go through, maybe? When the agent talks about reducing the number of instalments, I can only assume this applies to the agents side of things as Saints and Vitesse have already come to a firm agreement. Cortese will have a price he is prepared to pay for the player and act accordingly. But if he believes he is being shown the pikey 3 card trick at this stage, he could walk on principle. It must be very difficult for someone from a business environment where these horse trading manoeuvres are used regularly in football. The first thought must be to put as much distance between them and yourself as quickly as possible, tempered by the fact the profession is littered with the like.

FIFA have already temporarily bypassed any obstacle to the Davis deal, to be formalised soon. The Davis deal is done, FIFA don't step out of their comfort zone unless nailed in a case like this. As for Buttner this 3rd party demand cannot be coming from another club or owner, illegal under FIFA unless monies owed from original transaction. Any monies owed would have been lodged with FIFA and open for all to see. I would imagine this can only come about with a change of agent who did the deal to take him to Vitesse. Where there is a clause on his sell on, solely between agent and player.

i agree if we were only going to take one cb but i would assume two will be coming in based on martin alreadynout on loan and seaborne injured / fairly averge at best I think Weston has got this right, what incentive is there to develop others players. We are fighting hard to retain our own talent that we can sell for a big profit, Why do the same job without even the profit? The only way this would fit into Saints would be if he came with a buy out clause. That would mean Barca don't rate him highly enough and then what are we looking at? I would say centre backs are the position that requires so much time to develop that this makes no sense.

I may have this wrong but I believe the final cost on the stadium was lower than £32M because of the nature of the deal with the Dell flats and Barratt Homes. We got paid on a profit % as the flats were sold, resulting in an extra £3.1M when the final flat was sold in 2005. I believe that the extra revenue generated from moving to St Mary's covered the cost of the build at the time of relegation. Although that revenue was split to all aspects of the club, especially the team. The biggest problem Aviva had was the book value of the stadium. Useless for anything other because of the attached planning regulations.

He also reckoned Rangers cancelled the invitation to the Liebherr cup because we nicked Stephen Davis from them. The small fact that all Rangers players were available on a Bosman with many going down that route and an embargo to sign new players. Just because Rangers may not have 11 players on their books or even rated to blue square standards does not seem to factor into the decision they are no longer playing in the Liebherr cup.

I don't believe anything has changed since he first picked up the injury when it was commented this could go into pre-season.

. See above about Walcotts family insisting we were treated fairly. You have missed the point. Arsenal shelled out all that money on a contract that was signed with Theo before he was 17. The reason things took so long was for Arsenal (Dein, I believe) to get everything water tight. The point being that if Arsenal were happy about splashing all that money behind a contract at 16, others will surely be able to do likewise.

I can't see how a contract for a minor would be as watertight as a contract for an adult. Arsenal shelled out all that money for Theo on the basis of a pre-contract. That I would imagine was D'sA tight.

I don't believe there is a major change in protocol from Saints, because Buttner had permission from his club to talk to other clubs regarding a transfer. It does seem a bit cart before the horse from Vitesse but we have seen this before from the continent (not sure it would apply with home clubs). The cases where this has happened previously (common for Dutch clubs) have been where this has already been agreed between the player and the club. Seems a very sensible arrangement where the contract accepts the player will be free to move in his final year and the club can cash in on his value.

I really like that away kit, would be more than happy if that were the home kit. The red kit just looks too over powering, white shorts, red socks with the red shirt looks far better. But really this is just a storm in a tea cup, I never liked the single diagonal red stripe until most of the season had gone, now view it as one of the best ever. I thought the way they were talking we were going to get a far more adventurous design, something akin to the Croatia kit with small red squares on a corner of a white back ground.

The reason fans spend so much attending games is twofold. The atmosphere, experience and the group event of being a fan and the quality experience not evident on TV. This quality factor in the Premier is what brings in the post sitters and JCL's, thousands of them. I clearly remember the breath taking effect of a Henry Arsenal side putting us to the sword at St Mary's. Deflated on the walk home but just could not shake off the skill I had witnessed to still bring a buzz about the whole weekend. Elevated to seventh heaven when we actually get a result against these teams and the communal fan experience sets you above all. The quality of the Premier league experience live compared to TV is such it will draw in many thousand of additional ticket sales, the product differential is that good. It's one thing seeing something special on TV but totally another when you are shaking your head asking those next to you what happened there! The larger the catchment area you have the greater the opportunity to pick up casual or hardcore fans. Once you have the product it's getting them along for the first time which will give repeat customers.

The closer you are to London or the midlands, the less the pick up you will get from your catchment area. Speak to any Reading fan and they will readily quote the London clubs as the biggest reason their support is so low from that concentration of population. Our biggest extended catchment area comes from Dorset, IOW and the West country, because Southampton is in the way of getting to all those other Premier clubs. One of the biggest effects for getting new faces to Saints has been the Saints in the community program. If that were to be extended to schools in these fertile catchment areas, I can easily see kids dragging a parent or two along to a game they never would have usually attended. I have always believed we have a very good catchment area, but heavily biased towards the west and south. As you go further up the M3 you are competing with 6 other Premier clubs, plus the championship London clubs. Diminishing returns for every mile up the M3.

The debate on flexible pricing will be a little clearer at the end of this season, because Derby County are trying it. It sounds like it shouldn't work for football, but we will see. Why? We are already considering a bigger stadium so for the next few years it will be maximise the revenue from those seats. If anything I am not sure the club will be so generous with the cheap seats in future. Arsenal look the model to follow where a full stadium results in high ticket prices. It would not surprise me that Arsenal ticket revenue equalled ManU, who have an extra 18000 seats available. Derby have been selling their seats on the cheap now for a while, but it's really academic when you have no idea at what price you could max out. It's very easy to cut prices and get market share, it's another matter trying to get those prices up and maintain full stadiums. You need something special on the pitch to generate that effect.

£2M seems very expensive. Once you go into liquidation the company ceases to exist along with all contracts. All the players will be free agents unless they resign with the newco. The SFA registrations will be lost because Rangers no longer exist.