John B

I dont think the current situation is anything like the situation when Lowe tried to avoid Administration it is more like the early to mid 1960s Where we had a respected Manager in Ted Bates home grown talent in terms of Paine Sydenham and Chivers and good Pros like Knapp Huxford Walker Hollywood etc and a 30000 Stadium with no mortgage and not many people knew who the chaiman was Now we have a respected Manager in Nigel Adkins home grown talent in terms of OXO Lallana and Morgan (like Paine he was bought in early) good Pros like Fonte Davis Harding Guly etc a 30000 plus Stadium with no mortgage but everyone knows who the Chairman is. The past is the past SFC did OK with limited resources but the future is bright and before us although some of the dreams of Champions Leage football are a little unlikely

Ever since the PL came into existence SFC struggled and so do all the smaller clubs I cannot see anything changing if we do return unless we spend huge sums of money

You dont seem to have much grasp of reality - Lowe did a reasonable job with the limited resources and like most clubs he had to sell players to balance the books. Cortese like Lowe believes in Sports Science the development of Youth and balancing the books and unlike Lowe has a free Stadium and a billionaire backer. Lowe operated primarily in the Premier League where we were always struggling because of our lack of a rich backer and before the relegation from the PL I thought things were going reasonably well. Cortese is doing a very good job at the moment but it is a lot easier now because of the financial situation at SFC but I still doubt Champions Leage football will come to St Mary's as other teams in the PL have shed loads of money large Stadiums and the same dreams as Cortese . Going into Administration appears at the moment to have been a good thing

Yes I agree but then some go the other way so that players like Lallana can do no wrong

Perhaps Jason Puncheon wanted to play in the PL and was ****ed off when Cortese refused him a chance to talk to another club

It is a shame that Adkins did not get him playing like Holloway did but we got promoted anyway so who cares

Yes I would like to know that too Perhaps there was an amount of money which was spent to get out of League 1 and there will be more to get out of the Championship. Possibly we will get transfer money in for OXO and Puncheon which maybe spent on new players. However we dont seem to have got rid of many of the first team squad so if we got in another four or five it would be a really large one. Without knowing what players will be in Saints shirts next season it is difficult at the moment to guess where we will finish next season

Yes I think you are right especially Birmingham which has large debts according to Radio Five Live

Yes I saw him play in a pre season friendly but he was carried off after a half an hour or so

Not particularly

They have been singing that song for over fifty years I remember hearing it when they were in Europe in the 1960s. They usually sing it really well

It has always been good being a Saint whether we win or lose

The comeback v MK DONS was probably the most important moment of the season but certainly lots more highs than lows

Since Christmas I have expected Promotion but the team has done even better than I expected so Nigel Adkins should be congratulated especially as we have had injuries recently to key players. I wonder how he feels with Southampton promoted and S****horpe relegated The key moments I feel were in the MK Dons match with two goals from Forte So we have done it without spending loads of money recently and based on players brought in by Pardew who no doubt helped us to have two seasons exceptionally good seasons after our awful experiences of two relegations. I think the future is bright and the Premier League is within our grasp although I am not sure I want to bejust another team worried about relegation when we return

Well well your comments agree completely with the discussion I had with my brother on the way home from the game We do really need a good start something we have not had for years

Yes I agree as I said to the lady sitting next to me in the Chapel see you next May for another Promotion If we can keep OXO and Morgan get in a top class CB and Striker and possibly a GK I cannot see why we cannot do really well

I saw the Charlton away game in December then went on a trip through Asia Australia and NZ with no internet I had to follow the results through reading Newspapers in such places as Bangkok Kula Lumpar Singapore Bali Perth Sydney Cairns Alice Springs Wellington and Auckland returned to see the Orient and Spurs matches and will be at St Mary's on Saturday. Also saw us go down at Everton in 1974 when we won 3-1

Last season the team scored 84 League Goals With three games to go this season the team has scored 77 League Goals

I totally agree with you and agreed with you at time. However I was concerned that small shareholders staff and local small businesses would suffer I did not care about the banks or large shareholders. By going into administration the club eventually can gain an advantage that is of course why there is the ten point deduction whether that is enough we can only speculate

Yes I agree we are a large club and Southampton is a large city compared with rivals like Yeovil Brentford etc and with the money spent we should be getting promoted whoever the manager is. However I disagree with you about cheating we did sort of cheat spending money we did not have and going into Administration so losing 10 points and finding ourselves in League 1 which I must admit I have quite enjoyed for a couple of years. Now that we are out of Administration we are I think in a much better position than we would have been if we had not got ourselves into Administration and whether that is particularly ethical is open to debate as we can now spend more money on players as we have nothing outstanding on the players. Being a large club in League 1 means that we should accept that the smaller ones will want to beat us like we wanted to beat Arsenal Chelsea Man U etc but we should not belittle their stadiums and aspirations I like the idea that fans support Tranmere and not Liverpool and Everton and support Hartlepool and not Newcastle and Sunderland

I remember both promotions quite well going to Leyton Orient both times and watching the boring draw between Saints and Spurs in 1978 which got us promoted I will be at St Mary's in May to see us get promoted against Walsall I do have a vivid memory of the 1966 Div 1 game with Man City because in those days there was no crowd segregation and there we lots of Man City fans in with us at the Milton Road End. For some reason half way through the game some of their fans got wound up put knuckle dusters on and told us to stop cheering for the Saints. None of us had any experience of this and duly shut up

Just looking forward to 7th May to celebrate my third promotion but we have done really well with three of the four or so Premier League standard players not available in recent games

At the start of the seaon I thought the team assembled by Pardew /Cortese would be promoted and that any reasonable manager should be able to get us promoted after Pardew left although the poor form with Wilkins in charge was a worry Likke you have said on numerous occassions our squad has cost loads compared with many others

Although Adkins has done OK it is really Pardew's team I think he did really well in getting Butterfield Hammond Harding Fonte Jaidi Barnard and Lambert to join SFC and without them I doubt we we would be in the position we are today

The best result for years in fact I cannot remember a better win for years