Lord Duckhunter

I don't know if it's the right decision, what I'm going to do is wait and see whether it was or not. The alternative is to do what?

Makes me laugh. I've lost count of the "best 2 years of my life" supporters, bemoaning NC's treatment of Nigel after the wonderful 2 years he gave us. Yet they dont want that evil NC running the club, they want the sucsess he bought, they matched his ambition to get back to the Premiership, but now we're there, "can we get off now, can you tone your ambition down Nicola". Had Leon Crouch cobbled together some sort of consortianum, we'd have our club back. Lawrie could get in for free, Matt could wave on the pitch, Osman do the halftime nonsense. We wouldn't sack decent people like Nigel, we would be respected in the press and on SSN. Does anyone seriously beleiev we'd be watching Gaston and drawing with Chelsea.

I would suggest that having had no dealings with him themselves, their minds have been made up for them. If he's that evil why do they sing about the man who put him in charge. Or are you trying to say that Marcus didn't really know his personality or that NC was a top bloke, who changed once Marcus died.

Should he run every decision by you, you then decide if it's damaging to the club and then inform the fanbase of your decision. How do you decide whether the decision is damaging to the club, do you. a) Decide it is. b) Wait and see if it is.

There's certain things about most of our fan base's thoughts on Cortese that I can't get my head round. They sing about Marcus Liebherr, they go on about what a wonderful man he was, how he ran his business on a real ethical basis, yet he was the one who appointed NC, was a friend to NC. Did Cortese change after ML die, did he hide his real evil side from ML, or was ML fully aware of NC's personality and NC has been like he is now all his working life. I would suggest it was the later, that ML was a hard nosed businessman, who believed that NC was the best man to run Southampton FC . Onto his record. There is not anybody who can seriously say this is not impressive. Whatever people say about Nigel's 2 promotions in two years, applies to NC. His choice over managers, impressive. His funding of transfers, impressive, his commitment to the academy, impressive. Fineally, the sacking of Nigel Adkins. He obviously felt that he could get somebody else in, somebody who was better, he obviously felt that Nigel was not quite up to the task. Subsittute Adkins for Hammond, and NC for Nigel Adkins and what's the difference? The only difference I can see is that Nigel was given half a season to see if he could match NC ambitions, whereas Deano was shipped out before even getting the chance. Football's a ruthless game, when Rickie Lambert's time is up, it's up. Do we expect the Manager to keep him out of sentiment, to keep him out of respect for 2 promotions, or would you expect the Manager to make the decision to shift him. Please do not confuse this defense of Cortese as an attack on Nigel Adkins. I'm extremely sad that Nigel has lost his job, he appeared to be a fantastic fella, and I would have kept him had the decision been mine. What I object to is the vilification of Cortese, some of the language used towards Cortese and quite frankly some of the bitterness towards him. His record deserves a bit of respect, he's done as much, if not more for this club, than Marcus and Nigel.I dont expect people to sing about him (that's a bit sad), but he has enough crdeit in the bank to have his decisions judged after a length of time and not before a ball has been kicked.

Whether it's a good decision or not only time will tell. My point is that it was Nigel's job to decide which players were "up to it" and get rid of the ones he felt weren't. It is NC's job to do the same with the Manager and senior staff. Yet some are coming over all moral, and all " a part of my club died today". Adkins made a hard nosed decision to get rid of Deano, NC did the same. The moral's behind both decisions were exactly the same, yet NC is evil and Nigel a great guy.......................I dont get it.

There was one chump who texted talksport saying he was our greatest ever manager.

I just hope there's a bit of balance and not an anti NC hour.

But Nigel decided he wasn't up to it and shipped him out. NC has decided NA isn't up to it, so has shipped him out. I'm really struggling to understand why NC is being called all sorts, when he's basically done to Nigel what Nigel did to Deano and Sharpe. Personally I wouldn't have sacked him, but I'm not running the club.

Really? So what happens if the new guy takes us into Europe next season?

Where were we when he took over, compared to where we are now? If he's out of his depth, where on earth do you think we should be? ****ing hell, if we've done that well with a Chairman who is out of his depth, Imagine where we could be.

Perhaps they could employ British people. You cant watch a BBC political programme without someone complaining about lack of jobs. Yet eastern Europeans seem to find them, all very strange.........

Do people wish Leon Crouch, Lawrie and Matt were running the club, and do they think we'd be in the Premiership if they were?

What a load of shiete. How is his treatment of Adkins any difference than Adkins treatment of Hammond? This is what Guillem Balague said. "Ive seen Pochettino work at Espanyol. His commitment, his style, how he deals with youth, tactics. If I was a Southampton fan Id be excited" Perhaps NC was not satisfied with our performance, perhaps he really does want us to go to another level. Perhaps he knows more about the game than you do.

Spot on, 100% agree. Chelsea have won 6 games in a row away from home, home record is awful............

Lose his job, why? His record is fantastic.

What about the way Hammond and Sharpe were treated, notice the similarity? That's football. Adkins made a judgement call that he could find better than Hammond, NC has done the same thing. Time will tell if he was right. All the people talking about protests and never going again, need to get a grip. I'm sure the same people were moaning about Pards going, that was the right call. Here's a thought today's call could be right as well. Perhaps NC*knows more about football than some people seem to think.

The lino's now been "stood down" by the body that runs ref's . http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/15/linesman-manchester-city-arsenal

Very very poor player. I'd rate him alongside Skacel and Surman, all wave and no performance.

Spot on. He hasn't been booed, he hasn't become a scapegoat, in fact quite the opposite,he gets more support than most of the other players. But I genuinely don't recongnise the Gaston Ramirez some posters talk about on here, world class, one of the best players in the league, winning games for us. Never in a month of Sundays, he has flattered to deceive and people would not be saying these things about him if he played for Villa, QPR, Sunderland or Reading. Tim Vicory doubted if he would make an impact in English football and I hope he's proved wrong, but from the very short spell he's spent here, you can see his point. Lets not pretend he's been anything other than average so far .Just because he plays for us, does not make him better than he is. Where are the neutrals raving about him and his performances, because I haven't seen or heard any.

Shows how bad we've been in nets this season, that we make the keeper MoTM for just doing his job. Gazza is too inexperienced and Kelvin shot to bits, so AB to stay.

Why is it that if anyone dares comment on a player in a negative way, they either don't go to games or are embarrassing? Take your red and white tinted glasses off and ask yourselves if the Villa fans came away saying how wonderful he was yesterday. We won despite of him, not because of him. Had Guly played like he did yesterday, would a thread about it be "embarrassing"" would critics be told that they "didn't go to games" . Benteke, Michu, Sterling have burst upon the scene, having neutrals and pundits raving about them. I've yet to hear one pundit or one neutral speak about Gaston in the same way. The only people who seem to say what a talent is, are Saints supporters, players and staff. There's not one person on here who doesn't want him to succeed, but in answer to the tittle of the thread "has he lived up to the hype" is no or not yet. Personally I believe we would have beaten Villa at home and Newcastle at home with or without him and I'm yet to be convinced he can be the difference in tight games like Taarabt is for QPR , by the way he is 23 compared to Gaston's 22.

I'd have rather had Guly, than them, defensively he's had a couple of good games lately. De Ridder was absolutely hopeless at doing the job he was sent on to do yesterday, he didn't seem to have a clue what he was doing and panicked every time he got the ball. He aged me by about 10 years..

Did anyone see him leaving the pitch yesterday, he seemed to be having a go at some Villa fans by the tunnel. I presume they were ****ed off with his timewasting, but he was defo pointing and winding them up as he left.