St Marco

Portsmouth are in a similar situation to what we were. They can't really add more seats to their ground just as we couldn't at the dell. They have pretty much maxed it. They have been talking about a new ground for a longtime. Just as other clubs have i.e Liverpool/Everton. Getting a new stadium is not easy, that was not what i implied. But if you are in business and you are say in the prem league you have a better chance of having a £32m loan accepted then if you were a club in say League One. If we had been relegated it would of been harder for him to get that loan. All the things with the club were going in a natural progress such as it was at other clubs like ours. The next step would of been to have moved to generate more funds which would of meant we could of compete. Unless we had got a total chump in chances are we would of moved either way. Because that is how football had evolved at that time.

How do i looklike an idiot exactly? Maybe you should think a bit more TDD before you jump in there head first like you do. The reason we did not get a new stadium in 1981 was because we developed The Dell....Remember the east and west stand? The family enclosure? It was not until the outlawing of terracing did we look at moving. 1-2 years after the Prem League started we developed the dell into full seating creating the two end stands. 3 Years later we were all set for Stoneham. How did that turn out? Almost 5 years after that we then moved to St Mary's. So TDD after all that developing before 1996 what was the next natural step? We had the smallest stadium in the Premier League. It took Lowe 3-4 years before he even got to talking about St Mary's. Whoever was chairman at that time would of got the club a new stadium.

It did, but it is not an achievement. Taking out a loan and then getting everyone but yourself to pay it back is not something to praise him for. It is no different then a guy taking out a loan to build a house, then lose that house because he could not afford to pay the loan back. We almost lost that house. ML practically paid the £30m off himself, if anyone deserves credit for St Mary's he does, seeing as he paid the loan back.

Just thought i would point out to those using St Mary's as his defence. He got a loan for that. That loan crippled us. Anyone can get a loan and put it against a club. If he raised that money in a way that meant we would not have £30m over our head to pay back then praise him. Rupert Lowe didn't get St Mary's the fans did. We would of moved to a new home regardless of Rupert Lowe.

How anyone can slag off the guy who brought the biggest trophy at that time to this club is beyond me. He took a 2nd division club and made them contenders for the league one crown only just missing out. What we would not give to replicate that. What any club would not give to replicate that. Anyone who doesn't respect that success simply cannot be a Saints fan because it is the only success we have had. It is like Man Utd fans in 10-15 years time trying to dis-credit Fergie. For it's day it was a great achivement and will probably never happen again. A team from the CCC will not win the FA Cup, sign the world player of the year and then go on to finish 2nd in the Premiership the following year. Not going to happen.

steam selling Saints Row 2 for £3.75, nice

A new ground for me to add to the list of ones i have visited. Based on the form guide they sit 7th with the same amount of points as us. They don't score many goals and they don't conceed many either. Only 2 in their last 6. So it is going to be a battle and a test to see if we have turned the corner. If we won that would be 4 in a row in all competitions and god knows when we did that last. They are a good team, but i think we now have a very good team who when up for it could murder teams in this league. If Waigo,Lallana,Morgan,Hammond,Lambert play to their levels then it could be like the shoot out at the OK Coral. But this is Saints and when ever we are just about to climb that hill and reach the top somehow we always slide back down! So i got a feeling it will be 0-0.....Either that and we really have changed from the old day's and go on to win 0-2. Im hoping for the latter!

Been playing it for a fair few hours now and 2nd thoughts are i really like it. I think it really could be the best one i played yet! The only gripes i can think of are the people in the stands when you score, they move up and down like they do in South Park. Quite annoying! Other then that the background is either too light or too dark, i know better skins will be out eventually. All in all i thinks its good. Can see many an hour lost on this one!

You can download it on steam if you have a steam account. Thus far i think it's ok. Better then i expected and a clear improvement on 09 in both time it takes to process and in terms of graphics. The stadiums look a bit better which adds to the realism. But i don't think it is as great as some think, not sure it is worth £29.99 as at the base of it the game is more of an update then a whole new game. But i guess it depends on how much you play it. If you put months into it then it is money well spent. The replay value is a lot higher then most games out these days.

Expect and think are two different things. The question was "Where do you expect Saints to finish". As stated i expect at bare minimum 18th. That is my expectations for the club this year. That does not mean i think they will finish 18th just that at bare minimum that is the rank they must achieve. capiche?

I still expect between 13th and 18th. 18th is the minimum i expect for this season. So anything above that is a bonus. But i don't think were finish there that is just what i expect. I think we will probably finish around 8th. Which would be very good. Our team is one of the better ones in the league. Add to that we got a transfer window in a couple of months so could add to it. I just think the -10 and the lack of pre-season really did us in for this year. We slowly got rid of it and that was down to preperation. The last 6 games or so have shown we are a decent team, only 1 defeat in the last 9 games. We will have some more twists and turns in this season but overall miss out on the playoffs by about 10 points. Which would be the final ghost of our recent history laid to rest.

Review Embargo ended today and the first non paid for review is up http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/pes-2010-pro-evolution-soccer-review At the end of the day the only review that matters is your own. Personally i think Konami did some good things this year, it is not all bad. But it is an arcade game now, it does not reflect real football in the way it once did, which in my eyes is a big shame. Always next year i guess.

Same as Wotte. Wonder why he has not taken any of these huge job offers he mentioned in nearly 5 months since he left? The way he was talking you would think he would be snapped up in a instant! But of course the guy truely was a muppet and as people predicted he has not got a job, probably not been offered one and is hanging around Southampton living off the pay cheque they gave him. At least JP did not do that. The sad thing is some people actually wanted to keep him on....

The guy is 24, i don't think he will be playing for England. At least not at football, professional football, anything that involves a ball basically. Goodluck to the guy, hope he does well. Because if he does we will get more money.

Well shall we create one of these polls then Alpine and see where you would come? You feel confident that im just "stereotyping" people so you would have nothing to worry about right?

No im just saying if people choose to look at the stats and base their level of happyness on that then naturally 3 wins from 12 is not going to make them too happy. Where as i think most people, me included are happy based on many things and results are becoming one of them. If we beat Oldham we will have won 4 games in a row, god knows when the last time we did that was. probably in our playoff year. The main reason i myself am happy is down to the fact we can actually talk about football things again rather then rumours of xyz coming back, or xyz is about to leave etc etc. It makes a nice change to actually have people who give a **** about Southampton Fc inside the club.

Im not going to fan the flames by saying names. It is pointless. But im certain most people would agree on who those people are! And i don't think "turned" is the right phrase to use. I think "waiting to be impressed" would probably be a more accurate term. Don't get me wrong im not implying those people are not allowed to think like that. We have only won 3 league games from 12. That is only 25% win ratio, not amazing. But you get a sense of "de-ja-vu" with certain people and their comments. Like say we go to Oldham next weekend and get stuffed 5-0 you already know what those people will say

But that is the point Alpine. It is not ********. You might not like that fact but it is true. If this forum had a poll up asking who would be the first 4-5 people turning on our new manager i am certain the poll would be pretty acurate.

I sort of agree. But i think it maybe goes the other way. Most match fans actually could see the team was playing better. The results were not great but we were not losing. With each new player added to the team the peformances improved. I think adding Waigo and Mellis was the completion of the missing links. After that Bristol game i think most people looked at the team and thought it was now good enough to do what was needed. Where as before i don't think the team was good enough. We added Harding,Hammond,Lambert,Mellis,Trotman,Jaidi,Waigo to the squad after the season started. 4 of those 7 only have been here for the last 6 games. Is it coincidence that then in the 6 games they have been here the team has gone on to win 4 of the 6? I think people expected too much from a pretty crap team prior to that point. But even then they were not playing that bad, they just could not be consistent. I was talking to other Saints fans after the Southend game and they talked about how the team is building up it's own identity. Since Pardew has been here he has brought in Harding,Murty,Mellis,Lambert,Trotman,Jaidi,Hammond,Antonio,Waigo. 9 players. Those 9 players with the exception of Antonio (don't think 45mins is fair to judge him on) the other 8 have made a huge difference. You could say they have all done pretty well. The only players being used from last season are Davis,Lallana and Morgan. Perry and Thomas get a run out when others are injured but they are not first team choice by the looks of it. So really only 2 outfield players remain. It is almost a new team. A team Pardew has put together for just £1.7m. Im pretty sure most fans would rather have this team then the teams we had for the past 2-3 seasons.

What i find slightly funny is if you change the word "Pardew" to pretty much any of our previous 100 managers in the last 12 months, you would find the same things being said about them by the same people now. You got Burley = not happy, Dodd and Gorman = not happy, Pearson = not happy, JP = not happy, Wotte = not happy and now Pardew = not happy. I don't know if it is just me but i see a pattern there!

As far as i can tell since Pardew has picked him he has played in the central position with Wotten behind him. I could be wrong but for the JPT game that is how it looked from where i was. With Antonio and Waigo on the wings. He was the worst player on the pitch in that game and was a huge reason as to why we could not get forward. He was meant to be the creative spark and did nothing. It is an example of why you don't risk players like that in key positions because if they have an off day then chances are your not create much. Pardew took him off at half time and we instantly looked a better team. Personally i think Pardew has got it spot on. We no longer need to give players games for the sake of it. Gillett has had i think 2 starts and 3 sub appearances in both league and cup games. I think 3-5 games is enough time to at least show something about yourself. If you put his performances up against the other players you have to be honest and say he has probably performed the least this season. So keep giving him more chances to shine i think is wrong. If we play him and he plays like he did against Millwall and Torquay then he will get slated and we will probably fall further behind. I think Pardew has to pick every team with the basis of winning, by picking Gillett i don't think that would be the case, it would be a team picked based on experimenting like last season. And we are no longer in a position to do that. If the youngsters are not good enough then they should not play.

Yeah the tickets will need to be much cheaper now or it will be deserted. If they made tickets £8 reserved they would still get a nice turn out. Or even something like two tickets for £15. This is the trophy we stand the best chance of winning and we stand a better chance having more fans in the stadium. If we get to the final which is only 3 games away then they could milk it then. I think whoever wins this game will meet Leeds in the final.

If it was a star player then i would agree but these are young players who are un-experienced. They normally go out to League One or Two teams. We are now in League One so limits the places they can go if we adopt that attitude. These players will not be playing every game, they are short term deals. If they play well they will come back a more vaulable player to us in both financial and experience terms. I would much rather they were out playing games then sitting in our reserves rotting away.

Been possbly our worst player this year based on appearances. The Torquay game he looked terrible. So really not a loss for us. Goodluck to him though, hope he gets games because that is what he needs. We are not in a position to gamble on youngsters anymore, thankfully.

loved that pass the man utd player did about 25 yards out where after a cross he passed it back into his own penalty box (1.52), then the guy rather then turning and shooting crossed it out to the wing. With the 4 man utd defenders running after it. Guess we have different definitions of real football