St Marco

No to Zola, Megson, Hart, Wotte, Jan, Burley, Dowie, Tisdale, Hoddle, Adams, Blackwell, Sven, Cotterill, Southgate, Coleman, Jewell, Ince, Blackwell, Wilkins, Wise, Tilson, To be honest with you i don't consider any of those to be better then Pardew and if any were appointed it would be a step down. Sven did ok once but now he is mr give us a job plz man so will always be reading the job section, has no loyalty. Would be happy with Curbs, Brown, O'Neil (not going to happen), Bradley, O'Leary....

Gamespot were allowed to film a game of them playing between Arsenal and Real Madrid http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/sports/fifasoccer11/video/6274809?tag=topslot;img;3 It is probably the best gameplay of 11 out there and is played but two people who know how to play the game at least. Obviously this is not the final build and we don't know what settings they are playing on. But overall i think it looks a **** load like last years game. No real obvious stand out differences other then the sound. The crowd has had a huge overhaul by the looks of it with louder chanting and typical crowd reactions i.e when a player tries a ****y pass and it is awful the homw crowd cheer it. The same goes for players who try to dribble around people and fail. Other then that the pace looks a bit slower. Maybe they have it on slow setting or something. Once again the keeper AI looks pretty awesome as both keepers saved most shots. Last years game was the best fifa in terms of gameplay so i guess they were not going to make any drastic changes, just refine them. You can also notice passing seems a bit different and a lot harder to get the ball from your area to your opponents in just a few passes. The error level seems more realistic. Can also notice the obvious partnership with Sky Sports in the presentation. So looking better then last years but not a huge step up from it. The commentary is a bit **** again though i think. And i don't like the start of the game where they do the hand shakes and stuff, let's hope we can skip that!

Anyone who has read my comments over the recent months will know i have supported Cortese, gave him the benefit of the doubt with a lot of rumours. But what has happened in the past 48hrs is a huge mistake. And a large part of the blame must be placed upon his shoulders. There is a lot of mix reports about why Pardew was sacked, but for the sake of argument let's accept the view that this was pre-planned, that is the view that some on here stand by. By that logic Cortese will have a few ideas of who he wants to bring in. If we appoint someone who is un-proven in England, someone who has clearly failed at every job they have been at, someone who's only success is promotion from the fourth division then that will be a step backwards. At that point it will be clear Cortese is not running the company in the best interests of success. He would not be running it with the intention of getting the club to reach it's goals of which he set. He will be running it in his interests, in his image. And at that point he will stand alone. He will be no different from previous chairman. He has a week or so to pull something out of the bag to save his reputation, a big name manager will be the only way he can save face. Because if he appoints someone like Zola and he fails then as far as i am concerned Cortese will have to resign. He prides himself on being a business man, i deal with these people and companies on a daily basis. If a chairman makes decisions based on ego and the company fails then that chairman is normally required to resign. It is the pressure that goes with the job. So if he fails to deliver someone who can promote this club this season he must take full responsibility for the failure. The team tonight played awful, they played like they had no morale, no ideas, like a bunch of rabbits in the head lights. Which would of been different if the chairman did not get involved. Why o why can't we get a chairman like those at some clubs i.e Everton who just let the manager get on with it? The club has some curse about it, whoever comes in get's corrupted by the power trip. We need to get those druids back!

I got an Htc Desire. Love it.

In that case you want to order it from game. They always get the games to you a day early.

These "things" i don't know. But based on what the vibe is coming out of there something obviously happened. The BBC think people quit the club due to Pardew. They however don't indicate what he did. Now ask yourself this question CB Fry. Which organisation out of all the media is the closest to what is happening at St Mary's? Which media organisation is the one who speaks to the players/manager/staff on a near daily basis? What organisation does the commentary on the games that in turn is broadcast on the clubs media player? Point being of say BBC/Echo/Meridian/Sky/TheSun etc.. who is more likely to have someone around the club to hear/see these things? If someone at the BBC tells me they have heard something, then i am more inclined to believe them then someone on here. Now that is not a dig at FF. I actually agree with pretty much everything he say's. Have a lot of respect for him. On this however i just don't believe that the club would have gone through all the reviews, then release players, sign new players etc.. if they were planning on making a managerial change. To me Cortese doesn't come across like that. He comes across as someone who once they have made their mind up will act upon it. The BBC say he supposedly had to fight to keep Pardew in the job. That is the total opposite of what we are lead to believe what happened on here. Someone mentioned Sky are not too happy with us because getting info out of the club is difficult. They had to chase up NC while he was on holiday. I simply do not think based on his previous actions NC is the type of person to admit to anyone other then his close aides that he would be sacking Pardew before the season had even begun. The odds that one of them would then tell someone else just seem to low to me. You may think me thinking that is daft. I say it is just thinking sensible.

How am i struggling exactly? Sorry Duncan but your prediction was going to come true no matter what happened. Pardew was going to be gone at somepoint it was just a matter of when. As pointed out Pardew and the words sacked next to his name had been talked about ever since he failed to get promoted. Your post was made on the 1st of august 2010. Here are some Pardew about to be sacked stories that pre-date that 10th may - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1275894/Alan-Pardews-crisis-talks-Southampton-threaten-Inigo-Calderon-signing-Brighton.html 11th may - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1277623/Alan-Pardew-faces-Southampton-sack-club-line-Steve-Cotterill-replacement.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article7122741.ece Hell even some guy on the 6th may claimed he was about to be sacked http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A67730105 There are so many of them i could link them all day but you get the point. As i mentioned in my first post it was common knowledge the board were not happy that Pardew did not get us to the playoffs. It is common knowledge the board held a meeting at the end of last season to review if he should remain or not. The fact they had to do that tells you they were considering axing him. It was all over the media. Now i could not give a monkies if people agree with me or not, if they think i'm daft or my post is stupid etc..Doesn't bother me. As far as i am concerned based on what has happened and the way the media are reporting it something happened in the past few days to tip things over the edge. Your orgional post implies Pardew was going to be sacked no matter what, that Cortese had already decided upon it. Like he was just waiting for the right time. Now you might be right about that, i don't know if that is true or not. I only know what is being reported in the press or amongst fellow Saints fans. And what is being reported now is quite different to what you imply. For example this was just published http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/southampton/7971476/Southampton-sack-Alan-Pardew-due-to-concern-over-staff-morale-at-St-Marys.html The Telegraph believe that Pardew was sacked due to low morale at the club. They say that "The source also said that Liebherr’s family, who now own Southampton, supported the decision to remove Pardew". Which raises a few more questions doesn't it. Like if the family wanted him removed then why do so now? Why not do it at the end of last season? Add to that why was he allowed to bring in transfers recently? Why did he talk on the radio just a few days ago about relief and that he hoped to bring more players in before the end of the window? Does that sound like someone who thinks they are about to be sacked? So maybe you mis-understood what i was saying. So i will re-iterate it. It is unlikely that Cortese decided he was going to sack Pardew no matter what before the season had even started. He was sacked most likely based on things that have happened after you posted your prediction. Now as i said, i don't care if you agree or not. But that is the way the media are reporting it. Maybe you should go and set them straight.

Not at all. We all knew that last january Pardew was told to get some funds for transfers he had to get the team into the playoffs. He failed. From that momment on we all knew the board were not happy. If he had gone on a run of bad results he would of been fired. If he went on a run of good results he wouldn't have been. The evidence clearly shows whatever happened had to have happened in the last day or so. Not something that happened a month or two ago. The fact FF said this is just coincidence. The other bits didn't come to fruition did they.

Just thought i'd point this deal out http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=4467;6;-1;-1;-1&sku=298441&_tag.WT.ac=HC_HALO_REACH-PBODY-HC_HALO_REACH_PROD-298441 If you pre-order from HMV you get it for £37.99 and get 800 microsoft points. Think that is a pretty good deal!

Let's be honest here that is a prediction anyone could of made, it doesn't mean he was privy to information. What makes it inacurate is the fact less then 7 days ago Pardew was allowed to sign a player he wanted. Would Cortese sanction transfers when he was planning to sack pardew? Also if you read BBC's blog they mention Cortese actually was the reason Pardew was not fired at the end of last season. He had to defend Pardew to Markus. So saying i told you so after this is like saying i told you friday comes after thursday. Pardew was not going to be here forever. Just unlike this rumour that was said weeks ago it was most likely down to something that happened in the past 24 hours. I will make a prediction now. We will appoint a new manager before the 1st of october! Let's see if i also have the gift of prediction hey!

Changing the manager so early in a season can go both way's. Norwich did it and went up. Teams like QPR did the manager merry go round and struggled for a season or two. It depends a lot on who the guy is and his experience. If it is someone like Zola who's only experience of managment was in the PL and getting relegated from that then he is not going to find it easier in a division like league one. However if it was say someone like Martin O Neil he has a lot of experience with the lower divisions having managed Wycombe and Leicester. It all depends on the guy coming in. Having the players makes no difference if they are being asked to play in a way they are not comfortable with. Personally i think this will do us more harm then good. We won't have a manager in by tomorrow most likely meaning we probably won't have any new signings in. With Pardew going it would not surprise me to see someone like Lallana leaving because only reason he stayed was because Pardew talked him into it. So we could actually end up tomorrow with no manager and a few players leaving. Which would put us in a bad situation. I think getting promoted now would be a big ask. If we get someone in fast who is well respected then we have a chance. If it is some un-experienced guy being given a chance ala Wotte and Jan again then were truely fooked.

So Cortese actually defended Pardew and if wasen't for him he would of been sacked at the end of last season. That throws a few spanners in the works for those people who say Cortese simply didn't like him etc.. The way the blog is written makes it sound like Pardew was not too popular behind the scenes with the rest of the staff. That people left because of the way he works. That is the total opposite of what people on here have said. I doubt Pardew will say anything though, most managers who get sacked never do. Maybe they have a NDA signed or something so that when they do leave neither can say anything bad about the other?

It will be either zola, Coleman, southgate or dowie i bet. People like o neil won't go to a third division club. Only big names who would drop down the divisions to take over us would be doing so for the money, we don't need people like that. We need someone with the ambition to do well. Someone like Howe would be ideal.

while it is sad pardew has gone i can't say I'm surprised. We all knew the board were unhappy about not getting to the playoffs after releasing the money in the last transfer window. while the smug claim they told you so if you actually look at recent events they are probably wrong. In my opinion something happened in the past 24 hours or so for this to happen. I think cortese and pardew obviously had some disagreement. With the transfer window closing i would imagine it could of been over a potential signing, maybe cortese didn't want to sanction the transfer. WHat we do know is pardew brought in a player a week ago, meaning everything was ok then. I doubt Cortese would sanction transfers if he was going to sack him. I don't think we have anyone lined up. Whoever comes in will have to use the same players pardew had. They won't have time to bring more in. This means we once again have to go througha getting to know each other phase. Whoever comes in will have to get results instantly or this will make the sacking look even worse. Lots of names being thrown around southgate, coleman, zola, dowie, sven. I don't think any of those will do better then pardew. And because of that we can forget promotion this year.

It is like Adrian said on the other thread, they are just covering their bases now. If he get's injured it is Pardew's fault, if he doesn't get injured it is Pardew's fault for taking risks with a player who supposedly had an injury problem a year ago but still managed 40+ games etc.. If he ignores the doctors advice and doesn't play him it's Pardews fault. He is damned if he does, and damned if he don't. They will only be happy when he is fired. Then when he is fired they will say they prefered the other candidate to the guy who takes over the new managers post. That gives them the position to keep on moaning. Thus is the cycle of the moaner.

You got to laugh. People even trying to use Adams unfortunate injury as a way to attack Pardew. Like he really wanted one of his key players to get injured....

Yeah Hypo, that was an advert, not a trailer, none of that is actually in game footage, if it was it would be pretty amazing! There was a beta that had like 3 million people or something in it so lots of gameplay footage about. Here is a cool video a gamer made of his time in the beta graphics kick ass. And here is a proper trailer, all in game footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8uJRYUOdME&feature=player_embedded I just read the CVG preview, if you got time is a good read http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=261713 They say "The Halo marathon that ensued purged any doubt from our minds that not only is the forthcoming Reach every inch the sterling sign off from Bungie, but it's also set to blow its shooter rivals off the face of the planet this September. Straight away you'll clock the gigantic leap in visual quality from Halos 3 and ODST. Bungie hasn't confirmed 60 frames a second - but it certainly looks that way. It's a lot more fluid than Gears Of War - and in-game action runs as smoothly as Modern Warfare 2. This one would have Marcus Fenix and Captain Price going green around the gills. The AI on show is simply staggering, a decade of experience and familiarity with the universe right there on screen to test your gaming mettle" Can't wait.

Someone is going to get mauled by us soon. Let's hope it is Rovers in revenge for when they visited us last year! Which was a great game.

The advertising bomb begins, literally http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IMTK7yuoq0&feature=player_embedded Not normally a fan of Halo but this one looks bad ass and will be bought for sure!

Thought Shutter Island was pretty good.

Also for those who are interested here is a "Be a keeper" tutorial by Martin Tyler http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/fifa-11-be-a-goalkeeper-mode Looks a lot easier then i thought it might be

There was a rumour going around that EA might update the demo to let you use your created team in an exhibition match. It would make sense i guess as otherwise what is the point of giving it to you miles in advance. Also i noticed on the game website due to demand they will now be giving the codes out in batches. They said "Terms & Conditions: UK ONLY. Limited Offer while stocks last. Customers who have already preordered this product will also receive the bonus early access code. Access is only available for XBox 360 and PS3 preorder customers. An Internet enabled device is required. Access to the creation centre will be emailed as per the below schedule: Batch 1 - All preorders until 31/08/2010 11.59pm will be emailed on 1/09/2010 5.30pm. Batch 2 - Preorders between 1/09/2010 to 7/09/2010 11.59pm will be emailed on 8/09/2010 5.30pm. Batch 3 - Preorders between 8/09/2010 to 14/09/2010 11.59 pm will be emailed on 15/09/2010 5.30pm. Batch 4 - Preorders between 15/09/2010 to 21/09/2010 11.59 pm will be emailed on 21/09/2010 5.30pm. Batch 5 - Preorders between 22/09/2010 to 29/09/2010 11.59 pm will be emailed on 1/10/2010 5.30pm." And i wasen't trying to argue with you the9. I thought i'd post it as knew you liked the creating side of football games. That would give you the option to try it and see if it is any good or not before it was released. Sure i come across as a fifa fanboy, i guess i am. But that isn't something i have always been and doesn't mean i will look at pes11 in a biased way. I actually would love to see pes return to form. If it did and fifa went backwards i would be a pes fan again. I am sure there are countless people who are the same.

I have had the game on pre-order for ages and have not been charged anything. I even double checked to see if i was wrong and i can't see anything that say's i will be charged prior to 1st october which is the release date. I am sure you can cancel after getting the code. I have done it with other games to get beta access and cancelled afterwards without being charged.

Ah i see, you misunderstand what i meant. You didn't look at the rest of what i wrote in the other bits your see i mentioned "in sales and metacritic reviews". My point was basically saying that over the past 4 years Fifa has gone from the game that releases the same **** every year, into the the game that has improved every year and is widely regarded as the better football game. Which as much as you try and deny it or twist my words is true. Now go and have a look and tell me if i am wrong.

Here you go again.....Go to game, add fifa to the basket, checkout. Wait until 2nd september, get creation centre code, add it into promotional codes in 360/ps3, download creation centre, and away you go. Whoever told you that you have to pay for it is trying to con you. It is free if you pre-order the game.