S-Clarke

we've apparentley accepted the bid for fonte..... not sure how true that is though. what on earth is going on

Rumours from reading is that they are trying to sort a deal to sign Mills and Jaidi from us.

So we go from pardew who has a win percentage of over 50% to appointing someone with a win percentage of 30%. excellent. Would also start to question if the money is still in place, or are we starting to cut costs?

Sky sports now confirming that we've approached him, on their breaking news banner.

Not a wind up jimmy, sky sources are usually quite accurate - they don't often quote them.

Sky sources confirm that Paul Hart is high on the list to take over at Southampton what the ****. If we get him this club will go backwards very quickly.

why'd you say that? i think he's a cracking little player. Very, very quick.

The echo seem fairly certain (they have been told by the club) that they are very hopeful of having 2 new signings by the end of the day. No clues on who though.

Looks like they're set to sign Lawrence, Kitson and now Micheal Johnson on loan from city.

tbf that mess wasn't really made by him. He was fire-fighting most of the time.

SSN just stated that they will bring us more shortly on the ''possibility'' of a shock return to english football for Zola....

Whats your opinion on the decision Duncan? As you said the fact that it has happened isn't a major surprise, but it's more to do with the timing. Do you believe he already has a ready-made replacement? i have my doubts tbh, i just hope it doesn't drag on too long.

This is why i fear our season could be affected. We'll be treading water for a little while, Wilkins could be sacked as soon as they get the new guy. Not ideal preparation.

I actually think Claridge speaks sense, skate or not, he's praised us when he's had the opportunity to. I don't have a problem with him, good pundit imo.

noooo, you've misunderstood me. I'm not saying he'd be a nightmare appointment in football terms, it would be a nightmare appointment in that he will just clash with Cortese imo.

That would be a nightmare. The reason he's so unhappy at Forest is because of the transfer committee that they have there. So he'd just be coming into a similar role here. I'm a believer that a manager should be allowed to manage the football club, let the chairman sort out the finances, but let the manager manage, pick the players, pick the team, select the scouts. These transfer committees are a disaster waiting to happen.

He's an odd character, as shown with his recent decision at Bristol City, he's just not interested in football management anymore. DoF maybe, but i cannot see him coming here as a manager.

I'm not sure who else you expect us to be able to attract EBS, we're in L1.

The timing of all the decisions he has made has been odd.

One of the guys (i think it's the bald fella from the football league show) confirmed that it's almost impossible to get media access to Southampton this year, they have to jump through lots of hoops to get any interviews. Don't see the sense in that myself, why are we shutting ourselves away?

5 live seem to believe it's Zola. Apparently Cortese has links with him.

That would certainly explain the lack of funds avaliable to pardew FF, but i think the sad passing of Markus may have lead us to the timing of the decision looking at it now.

Zola would make sense and it would add a few 2+2's together from recent rumors. I think the manager we appoint will be someone that's used to working within a DOF/European structure. This was in place at West Ham with Zola, Guanluca Nani is their advisor.

Don't think so Nick. I said earlier that i think Dean has been kept on to keep continuity - the players know him and he can carry on the same methods for now. I would have assumed that Martin Hunter would have been put in charge if we were looking at an imminent appointment, but the fact that Wilkins has been told to carry on for the foreseeable future suggests that we're no where near appointing anyone else. That's just my thought on it though, not ITK or anything.

I think the most realsaitic and decent one out there is Tony Mowbray. Out of a job, just got his payout from Celtic i believe so is fresh for a new challenge. He worked within a ''DOF'' structure at West Brom along with Mark Venus and Simon Hunt. He plays only one way - fast, one touch attacking football and likes to bring through young players. West Brom were fantastic to watch when he was there, maybe a little fragile at the back, but certainly not boring to watch.