paulsfc

Would also stop clubs loaning out players to clubs their rivals are about to play e.g. Nouble to Barnsley and Piquionne to Doncaster

I think the league will be more than happy with this as it ensures Pompey see out the season, which I think they would've done just about anyway. Pompey going bust is a headache they don't need right now. Can't see it helps West Ham out at all really. They're signing players that are no better than they have and weakening Pompey who we play in a few weeks.

Makes sense, it happened so often it I thought had to be a tactical ploy that wasn't quite coming off. Offers us something different and a tactic i'm not sure we've really tried this season

Looks a really decent signing. Exciting to watch, the run for the 2nd goal was great, the most impressive bit was his calmness to wait for AL's run and then pick a peach of a pass for a tap in. Settled in exceptionally well and will only get better as his understanding with his team mates improve. He is a lot stronger than his size and frame makes you think he would be and I've been surprised at how well he can fend defenders off at times. Also not bad in the air either. Amazing to think Sharp can't get much of a run because of him. Doubt anyone thought that would happen when we signed Sharp. Only mild criticism from yesterday was being caught offside a fair bit but that's about it.

I'm talking goals and assists not skill or technical proficiency. Lallana is a better player, easily the most technically gifted in the league and the one player I would bet my house on making it in the prem. However Guly has matched him in terms of goals and assists and, in my opinion, is better defensively. Who would you pick ahead of Guly and why?

I don't doubt that we will be in the market for more players if we go up and I would have reservations that Guly could cut it. But, then i'd have reservations about most of our players as they are untested at that level. However you simply cannot say he is crap, in terms of easily measurable indicators of ability (goals and assists) he is at least equal to Lallana and better than the rest of our midfield and second only to Lambert in attack. I.e. not crap at all. Frustrating at times? Maybe so, but most definitely not crap.

No, i'm saying we are top of the league because of Adkins, he picks a team for each game, and (fitness permitting) Guly is in that team. The Guly is crap argument is redundant because nothing in terms of facts backs it up. It is based on a perception of laziness that doesn't actually exist.

This has probably been said on here somewhere else but....I assume everyone agrees that Adkins knows more about football than us, yes? He picks Guly to start every single game he is available. That should be enough for anyone. He occassionaly looks a bit lazy but he isn't, his defensive work is far superior to Lallana's, he tracks back and gets in crucial blocks and tackles and can be a real goal threat at times. What more do people want? Is Chaplow better? No. Is Puncheon better? No. Is De Ridder better No? Why not? Because Nigel picks Guly ahead of them, and we are top of the league. It is as simple as that

31, Southampton 1st home game, late 80's lost 3-1 to Middlesbrough, remember naff all about the game except a steward telling me off and making me cry! 1st away I think was Forest in late 90's, 1-1, draw, memorable only for my mum being dragged there by my stepdad and absolutely hating it! STH in Itchen, this is currently my most enjoyable time supporting Saints, long may it continue!

Hardly surprising he's been sacked. He is one of those managers who viewed success in the prem as finishing 17th every year despite spending a few quid (Doyle and Fletcher spring to mind). If I was a Wolves fan I'd be looking at how Swansea and Norwich seem to be coping so much better already and it's probably a lot down to attitude. If your manager thinks 17th is acceptable, the players know they can lose around half their games and a negative attitude could creep in. I would put Bruce & Warnock in the same category of negative thinking as Mcarthy so Wolves should stay clear. A bright young up & coming manager is the way forward to freshen it up. The bottom half of the premier league is full of total p*ss and every team is beatable, especially by a team that's been in the prem for a few years. The players just need to be made to believe they can do it. It shouldn't be hard to get Wolves out of trouble

Definitely correct to strip him of captaincy and he shouldn't be anywhere near an England squad. It's too much of a distraction and we seem to keep getting those as soon as a major tournament comes up. I hope Cappello has the balls to drop him but I'm not so sure and I think it'll be Rio that gets left out (though neither should be in the squad as they are nowhere near as good as they used to be). The media hysteria when it comes to naming the squad will be ridiculous unless Terry is given the heave-ho now. If he is innocent then I would feel sorry for him having his career blighted by this and would hope he would receive, at the bare minimum, a very large grovelling apology from all involved. However he needs to realise that the team is more important than him right now and it wouldn't help the team for him to be involved.

Seems a mental decision to me. They are knocking around outside the play offs and doubt they've been throwing money at a promotion push so where does Bates expect them to be?! Probably get Warnock in. He said he fancied a challenging job, can't be anything more challenging than working for Ken Bates

Apparently i'm the only one (so far) who thought Lambert was excellent. All round play was superb. Lallana was very good and full of tricks, but indecisive at times Cork as always was full of energy. Puncheon was excellent for his 60 mins, excellent touch, won the ball back, got a lot of forward momentum off of him. Looks very good for the run in

Under 11's go free in the family stand. Plus the club has done several deals this season, I think the Peterborough game may have been one of them. Can't remember the specifics but it might have been buy a ticket for game x and get ticket for game y for £15. It's not like they are doing nothing.

Christ, if we get him for £1.5m that is a bargain. Guaranteed goals at this level. Would be amazed if we got him that cheap tho, unless Donny need the money desperately before end if Jan

Has Adkins made mistakes? Of course. No one is perfect. Have his successes outwheighed his mistakes? By a mile. We were awesome for the first 17 games when we had virtually a fully fit squad to pick from plus the element of surprise of being the new team in the league (Brighton had the same for a brief while). He deserves massive credit for that. Getting Cork in was a master stroke as is getting the best out of Lambert and Guly in their first season in the championship. He got Chaplow for £50k, found a quality CB in Hooiveld, has us playing some incredible football and scoring lots of goals. He can't help that the squad is decimated by injuries, it's just one of those things. So he maybe got a couple of things wrong last night (Falque from the start was a gamble that didn't pay off, Harding should've been replaced sooner) but I'm not sure that would've made much difference. Leicester were a mile better on the night. It happens. We don't need to lose faith in him or his tactics. It may not happen for us this year but if we stick with Adkins it will very soon.

I guess I lack ambition then! I'm honestly just enjoying life in the lower leagues and don't see the premier league as some sort of football mecca (with it's inflated wages, riduculous transfer fees for worse than average players, journalists spending more time sensationalising off the field activities than reporting on the actual game, wigan, bolton, blackburn et al playing in front of F all people whilst racking up tens of millions of debt) to be reached at any costs. So i'm quite happy to bide our time in the championship. Maybe that's just me tho...

Are you serious about Guly? 11 goals (as many goals from open play as Lambert I think), half a dozen assists in his first season at a level he's never played at before.

So of all the players that we haven't signed (because cortese is bad at his job) who has signed for one of our rivals - Jutkiewicz (boro), Beckford (Leicester) - that's it. Maynard, Sharp, Rodriguez, Hooper are 4 players we were very keen on but not one has left their club yet. So by that logic every other chairman in the league is also not doing a very good job and none of them have ambition. You don't just throw money around to keep some fans happy for christ sakes or you'll end up like pompey. You identify players that could improve your squad and try to get them for a price that the club can afford. If teams want silly money then don't pay it. I'd rather be prudently run and take another year or two to get where most fans want us to be than spunk loads of money for a short term fix to appease a minority of impatient fans

Injuries (and the odd suspension) have pretty much ruined our good start. Not much can be done about that, sh*t happens. I think we just have to grin and bear it. Buying new players because of injuries would be daft. We could loan players but again you have the problem of integrating players into the side quickly (took Jos a while to settle), whilst the new players are getting used to players around them and our style of play performances and results will probably suffer. It could be that by the time a loanee has settled then the player he was brought in to cover is back fit and the loanee goes back without much benefit to us. Possibly better chancing our arm on some of the squad players or kids

Wage rather than size of transfer fee is the issue with me, the higher the fee the higher the wages (as a general rule). So we spend £6m on one player, he isn't going to be paid £15k pw, more like £25k (just an assumption but a not unreasonable one I think). Suddenly your other top players (Lambert, Cork, Lallana, Fonte etc) will want parity with that as will any other multi-million pound signing. That would cripple a club in the NPC. So if we don't get out of this league after spending that sort of money then I will be worried. Having said that I bloody LOVE being linked with bids of £6m. Makes a change from years of spending £600k on crap. And if he scores the goals that get us out the league it is money well spent.

And I predict we'll batter them for 20 mins, barney will hit the bar (twice), we'll then concede from a set piece and i'll go home f*cking miserable

Same back 5 unless Martin is fit in which case he replaces seaborne. Would consider resting Oxo, not because i don't rate him but i fear playing him constantly in a losing side isn't going to help his development. He needs to be coming on for 20 mins when we're sitting pretty in games not having the pressure of having to be our best midfielder. So dickson in for Oxo, Guly for either scneiderlin or hammond. Don't care which but one of them needs dropping just to shake them up a bit. Barnard in for connolly and Lambo starts as well BUT he should be taken off if he doesn't buck his ideas up a bit (something which AP and wilkins seemed reluctant to do). Our bench is cack so i'd only name Oxo and Bart the rest can sod off!

Sacking AP - to me anything else is irrelevant (though can understand why the 'ticket tax' and lack of notice on instalment plans has irked some). Football is a results business, AP was getting results, we have since had 4 games where we have been truly truly dreadful and unless NA is a miracle worker then it'll be a few more before we get ourselves going again. That decision, for whatever reason it was taken, has potentially killed our chances of promotion (yes there are plenty of games left but currently we look shot to pieces). It could be a massive massive error by NC and was a big risk to take from a results on the pitch point of view. Of course if NA does turn it around and we go up then no harm done.

Just what info do SISA want anyway? I don't recall Markus saying I will invest X this season, Y the next etc. We didn't even really know how much money he had (and neither should we). We had a 5 year, then 3 year plan to get the club to the prem. Cortese has said it's still on and the Liebherr's are committed to fulfilling Markus dream. NA has said this week that the plan is for the club to be a top 10 prem team. Honestly what the hell do they want??? They don't speak for me but then again i'm not sure any fans group would really. The only way it could be done would be proper democracy and have a vote everytime a fans group wished to make a statement. e.g. we (the fans group) want to make a statement about NA's appt. Do you think he is the right man for the job? Then as part of the statement they say x% think he is the right man and here are some of the reasons they think that. Otherwise it's always going to end up as one blokes opinion presenting it as lots of peoples opinion