S-Clarke

Saints Foundation is a great initiative and he is the mastermind behind that. The club now has strategies all over. There was a real restructuring process when they first game in, alot of really good people lost their jobs - but that had to happen in order for them to mould the club how they wanted to. He has some good idea's, he's a forward thinking guy and to be honest when you compare him to the days of Wilde then you don't know how lucky we have it right now. Seriously, some people need to take a step back, rewind a few years to what we did have....and then realise what we do have is actually pretty damn solid. He's done some silly things, but I think he's learnt from his mistakes - because this is all pretty new to him as well let's not forget. Be grateful, he didn't have to convince Markus to rescue us out of the mire did he?

I wonder if we can get this to 35 pages....just to add to the list of Charlie Austin, Jay Rod, Maynard and Hooper

They can do if it's in their interests to keep a member going, in terms of keeping the integrity of the league positions and results then it could be in their interests and other clubs.

Surely they can't get out of this now.....Surely? They should now be toast for sure.

We need to play this one cleverly. I'd expect to see Fonte and Chaplow back in the frame (probably the bench) and I'd expect Lambert to start the game Other than that we'll probably see the likes of W-P, Reeves, Shaw get a chance.

He's not the sort of player we can rely on every week, and at teh end of the day when the midfield was as disjointed as it was he had no chance what so ever. They also closed down too quickly and he couldn't find the space.

I think you've got it all absolutely spot on there. Good assessment.

As I said last week, he will look half decent when he comes on and we're coasting. But he's not the player you want to have to call upon when you're chasing a game as he can no longer offer anything. Injuries have ruined him in all honesty. It's a shame because he was always a cracking prospect, but he's lost his touch and any bit of pace he once used to have.

Glad he's here. Good player and the sort of player that should lift everyone. He's pretty high profile in international terms.

Wigan is a great move for Maynard in all honesty. A premiership club where he'll get a fair few games. And probably the wages he wants too.

True....although I don't think we'd bid £4m for Hooper if we didn't! I don't think we have much more than that though.

Fantastic post.

The best £2m we would ever spend.

lol @ people calling NC the new lowe. Seriously, have a look at yourselves.

He's a left back, it's the last position I'd even remotely consider spending money on.

He's not pacey for sure, but his movement is clever and he's a little nippy. Someone like Sordell is the sort of forward we could do with pace wise.

Interesting. McCourt is a winger.....which winger are blackpool looking to replace before they sell I wonder....?

We lack any attacking pace. It's so laboured and static on nights like last night. Teams who close us down quickly have pretty much got a point at least if we're without Lambert. Lambert gives us another out. His movement off the ball opens up space and the players move into the space and get onto his flick ons. He's more than just a goal scorer for us, he's our attacking linchpin - more so than Lallana in some aspects. But pace over the top would make such a different on nights like last night. We need another option for sure.

Yep, which has also been compounded with the loss of a key player in that system - Chaplow. We don't have anyone else who is similar to him, so the system we have setup in doesn't quite work - especially with 3 midfielders that are the same. The sooner he is back the better. We started the season without him yes, but he turned into a major cog in our team and we'll get away with it against lesser teams....but we are shown up against the better sides.

I'm suprised at peoples views on him, after probably his best 2 performances in a saints shirt to date (over christmas). He was frustrating before that and done my head in, but since those games over Xmas i've seen a player there and am willing to give him a chance if the manager trusts him. It would have been fair to critisise him before the christmas games as he'd been pretty non-eventful up until then, but at least we all saw something which gave us a bit of a spark.

The 3 of them, Cork, Hammond and Morgan are way too similar to play in the same team IMO. We seem to be trying to accomodate all 3, which in a way I think is hindering us. I thought Cork looked decent on the right against forest and I thought we had the answer....but he was poor today and gave us no energy down the right, which is exactly what we need. I think Chaplow will come back soon, but will take some time to get back to the level he was playing at. The midfield were simply not at the races yesterdays, lost all the 50/50's, gave the ball away and were pushed off it far too often. When the midfield is as disjointed as that, the front 2 aren't keeping hold of the ball, then you're on a one way trip to a nasty defeat.

Fair point! Although I think Chambo was worth every penny of what arsenal paid.

You're assuming we can invest heavily. That looks like it's probably not the case. For all we know that Alex money was used to cover the losses and it's nowhere to be seen anymore. People need to forget that we're owned by billionaires, because they're not bankrolling us. We're living and surviving by being self sustainable, not emga spenders - I'm sure of it. That's why I think the 7/6m bids for players are wide from the mark. I can't ever see us spending that much in this league.

It was confirmed that it'll start in March, if it doesn't then I think questions will start to be raised about our financial position. The delay is apparently that we don't want it affecting our first team preparation, but they're already living out of the temporary huts so I'm not sure how true that is.

I don't think a thread like this is fair, but he does have his faults. He's brought us more success than not and I think you need to judge him on the bigger picture rather than a couple of secanrios in transfer windows. At the end of the day I don't think we have bucket loads to spend, that's not his problem. And he's being careful protecting what we have got by not splashing more than we feel a player is worth. We'll struggle to get who we ever want that way, unless the club is forced to sell, but maybe that's how we have to act.