cambsaint

Surely the best option for all if the breakdown is irretrievable and Katherine Liebherr doesn't want Saints is for NC and MP to remain in place and NC to managed the sale of Southampton for the best price possible. The Liebherr estate would walk away with over£100mill profit and the new owners would inherit a stable and well managed club. Money is usually the deciding factor in these matters and the Liebherrs would surely get a much better price with Chair and manager in place and the possibility of stability. If both walked to an Italian club-probably together then the Liebherrs would be faced with a management problem and almost certainly a worse price.

It sounds logical to me. If we are serious about European football then St Mary's will have to be enlarged, and if you come from outside Southampton and don't know your way around then the logistics of getting there are a nightmare. However I expect that there would be very considerable costs putting in new road links to a site at Fords, but for everyone coming from outside Southampton it would be much easier. I'm sure the Liebherrs could fund it if they wanted to.

One of the BT pundits said very sensibly IMO that we were in our correct position in the league. We were beaten by one of the best teams and managers in Europe today, with a vastly superior squad. It is unarguable that Arsenal, Man City, and Chelsea are in a different class. Man Ure ought to be but have vastly more squad depth and experience, Spurs have spent about 100 million after selling Bale and injuries excepted are a very good team. Liverpool at full strength are very good, but a bit thin, and Everton are a very good team. I hope that at the end of the season we are fighting it out for eighth or ninth which I consider to be our true position. As I think we are better than the ten teams below us I will be very disappointed if we finish tenth or lower. This is a truly magnificent position to be in, after our recent troubles, and better than any rational person could have hoped for. However I think we have to try to strengthen our squad this as we are putting too much pressure on a very thin and extremely young and inexperienced squad.

I've done a few back of an envelope calculations, based roughly on how many points we would expect to take from the top four, four to eight and ten to twenty, and if all goes well we should finish on fifty five to sixty points as a realistic target. Based on the thinness of our squad and the inexperience of our young stars, I will be highly satisfied with seventh, eighth or ninth this season, and it looks as if we are on course to realise that target, assuming no disasters.

The speed of the game and the fitness of the players has increased massively. A ref in their late thirties/forties is unlikely to be able to keep up. Not enough attention is paid to the fact that a tired ref is more likely to make mistakes. The professionalism of the game has increased enormously, but although refs are full-time nowadays, little real improvement has been made. Refereeing should become a career choice for keen footballers who cannot make the grade, and who have the authority and judgement to do it. However realistically the career at the top level would only last a decade, and salaries and pensions would have to reflect this. Cheating has come on enormously and players are much more skilled at cheating-possibly some even practice it. Some of the criticism is based on the availability of TV replays-the ref only has one view in real time. It is ridiculous that technology isn't used at all. It is time for the fourth official to be able to inform refs about unseen incidents, and when there is a break in the play to be able to review a decision, and say inform the ref that a foul has or has not been committed. DRS doesn't detract from the enjoyment of cricket, neither do the video reviews in rugby union. Considering the enormity of the financial rewards that can depend on incorrect decisions it is surprising that no action has been taken. However any review must nit detract from the authority of the referee and they must remain the ultimate arbiters. Just a pity that they don't take this responsibility more seriously and book any player who aggressively questions a decision or a player who attempts to influence their decision.

Playing at the intensity that is necessary with even a mild viral infection is potentially dangerous. There have been reported incidents of fatalities of sportsmen exercising at full performance with viral infections. Leave these decisions to medical professionals.

He had a very poor game; but does this vicious criticism -and I use the word vicious meaningfully, really do anything other than undermine what little confidence he has left. Remember that he's probably our best option until we can buy in Jan or Boruc back from injury.

The simple fact is that we don't have a big squad or strength in depth. We have done amazingly well with teenage players coming in. If anybody had given me top half early in the season I would have been delighted. I can't imagine Cortese and Poch not strengthening in Jan. The suicide squad need to take a reality check and realise that Spurs squad is so deep that Adeboya was training with the kids a couple of weeks agod. They even had Defoe to come on late. OK we had a bad day, but we've had plenty of good ones to balance it out. the important thing is to ensure we can beat the bottom half teams with injuries and suspensions. It was obvious that the absence of Shaw was critical, we must get cover for him.

I'll never forget the goal that Ossie scored for Chelsea against Crystal Palace in the 71-2 season at Selhurst Park. He hit the ball with such force that I and my friends all ducked even though we were stood behind the goal. It was hit so hard that we thought it would break the net. the keeper didn't even move it went so fast. The hardest I've ever seen an old football hit. ( I was working at KCH at the time and only had time to get to Selhurst Park after finishing at one.)

Not to mention Terry Paine, Martin Chivers (often overlooked as a Southampton player), and of course Mick Channon, before the ones Shearer mentioned. With the possible exception of Manchester United has any other English club produced so many real star players-particularly strikers?

I remember the Shilton goal, I think it was the only Saints game I ever left before the final whistle. I was stood in the Milton and even my underpants were wet through. I retreated to the old supporters club for a whisky and was roundly abused by my mates for leaving early. memorable match for all the wrong reasons.

Very good, but Peter Shilton made scores of similar great game saving saves in his prime. One incredible save, it looked as if he change his body angle during his dive. When he played for us he was universally regarded as the best in England if not the World.

!966-7 when Saints made Div One was far more exciting-at last we would be seeing The Arsenals, Man U, Liverpool, Spurs and Leeds at the Dell and we could go away and experience 60K standing crowds. Let down by the fact that with 30K in the Dell standing in The Milton Rd end was very uncomfortable and with unsegregated grounds sometimes very hazardous. But it was still very exciting to actually see something that we doubted would happen, and with local players and nearly the same team as promoted even better. Of course I was young and not so cynical at the time, England had just won the World Cup and I was off to Uni that year so 1966/7 is covered in a rose-coloured haze!

Sorry senior moment-I meant "being unintentionally mendacious"-not disseminate --senior moment!

I find it surprising that fans are criticizing the Club over transfers when there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the club has been and probably still is active in the market. Regrettably you can't make a player who doesn't want to, come; and I can't imagine anybody suggesting the club should pay way over the odds. None of us have ever operated in this market, so is criticism valid at this stage? I think not.

It is an overarching principle of English law that any disciplinary action must be reasonable and proportionate. While I expect that to be dismissed from the site and firm would comply, to try to blacklist them would almost certainly not be held to be so. Damages could be very substantial to anybody thinking of doing this. Remember reasonable and proportionate Its a silly possibly even amusing prank that can have no long term damage. It never fails to amaze me that some people think that social media is private, even somebody like The Speaker's wife who should know better has fallen foul of it.

An obituary on Ron Davies appeared in today's Daily Telegraph, complete with colour picture of him in his pomp. This is highly unusual- perhaps there's an influential Saints fan in the editorial team?!

To use the word "hate" in the context of football rivalry is ludicrous and devalues the true meaning of hate.I cannot imagine any sane Saints supporter actually wishing a Pompey supporter to become seriously ill or have a similar disaster befall them. That is what "hate" means to me. I'm aware that in slang culture the word "hate" is used indiscriminately, but in my opinion hate ought to be reserved for more serious dislikes and loathe is a better word to describe football rivalry. I do think that an anti-Pompey song that used mocking humour and wit to insult them is long overdue, and this is a step in the right direction. A good example of this is the Man U song satire-"In your Liverpool slum>"

I used to get down to half a dozen games a year while my parents lived in Winchester. however they moved to be close to my sister in their late 80's and regrettably are no longer with us. Having been brought up in Winchester since 3yo, my other sister moved away, and I now have no contacts with Winchester -my home town, apart from the Hunt & Co exhibit in the City museum. Unfortunately ill-health struck and I now find it difficult to attend matches without my son's help, so i see very few matches these days. I rely on the internet and Sky Sports, but even though I should know better my Saturday night mood is still dependent on Saint's result- something I find incredible! My attempts to find a decent screen have either resulted in a very poor quality feed or my anti-virus warning me of potential threats.

It seems so sad that such a great player should pass away in possibly straightened circumstances in a trailer park far from home. I sincerely hope he was happy in his last years and my condolences to his family. What memories watching the video clip brought back, even though it was over forty years ago I remember the players like it was yesterday. The array of forward talent on that day was incredible, watching Law, Charlton and Best also brought back memories of my time oop there at Uni. It has been said before but I am absolutely certain that football has never seen a better header of the ball since the sixties. I still remember Saints winning a corner and watching him and Chivers or Channon standing at the edge of the area running in and Paine placing the ball precisely and it rocketing in off Big Ron's head as hard as many kicks. Thanks for the memories Ron and RIP.

Personally speaking I hope that it's meant as a reminder to the Liebherrs to make their mind up quickly. I read somewhere they didn't grasp the urgency that Cortese feels. So hopefully it may be a negotiating ploy. Certainly if they want to sell then keeping Cortese is even more essential to them, who else could sell it better?

The first (adult?) fight I saw-(that is if the word adult can correctly be used to describe fighting) was Saints v Pompey in 63 or 64. The Pompey sailor stood near the wall to the right of the Milton Rd end. Just before kick-off some Saints supporters arrived - aged about 30 or so as I remember, to find their usual positions occupied by Pompey supporters including "The Matalo". A fist fight broke out and The Matalo got a very bloody nose. A few coppers ran round including the sergeant who was built like a huge brick shedhouse, yanked the two out and marched them off, and that was the end of it. I saw no more trouble for a couple of years until it became fashionable in about 66. It must have made quite an impression on me as I can remember little about other matches at that time. In those days Dads brought stools to stand their nippers on, and rattles and horns were commonplace. I was at Uni in Portsmouth in the very late 60s and although there would be trouble between the usual suspects at Saints vs Pompey matches there wasn't the bitter rivalry that exists now. IMHO it began out of the intense jealousy that Portsmouth supporters felt about us during our long stay in the First Division (before The Prem) while they languished in the lower divisions as we hardly ever thought about them in those days. It has reached ludicrous levels, and I used to despair at the number of times anti-Portsmouth songs and chants were sung instead of just getting on with supporting Saints.

Several times recently, I have just lost my mother.