spyinthesky

Disagree entirely even tho Jos is not really top Premiership standard I have a soft spot for Aaron Martin as he is a local lad who came to us from Eastleigh. His family are Saints fans and Aaron has always done his best when turning out for us. However he would really struggle in the Premier and probably his future lies in League 1 or 2 where, hopefully, he could do well (possibly as a team captain as he has good leadership skills) and make a decent living btw Aaron injured his leg in the pre season friendly at Eastleigh and is just coming back to fitness so good to see him feature last night Slightly off topic, Lloyd Isgrove doesn't appear to have made the progress expected of him pre season but hopefully he will be able to move forward

Is the big Markus flag still in existence and, if so, will it be allowed an airing now or are there some family reasons for it to be kept stored away?

Any advice to the incoming CEO? Fwiw mine would be (in no particular order) 1. Create a better dialogue with the fans 2. Ditto with businesses in the area (note only about a third of Boxes seem to be taken compared to 100% in early years) 3. Get rid of the 15 min parking charge 4. Convert back to stripes 5. Review some of the previous new signings eg Forren, Mayuka, possibly Ramirez and Osvaldo 6. Assist with supporters travel expenses for some longer away games 7. Get rid of the £2.00 charge for pay on the day tickets. 8. Embrace the clubs history. Forge stronger links with Ex Saints individually and the Ex Saints organisation. 9. Review possibilities of Concerts at St Mary's 10. Continue progress with the Academy and continue the progress the previous Chairman was able to achieve 11. ...and probably most important..keep Katharina Liebherr sweet'....

I am sure MLT has been bombarded with approaches from the press re his take on NC's resignation so his comments, as reported in the Echo, are undoubtedly responsive rather than proactive. I think he has been reasonably measured in the way he has given his view and, I have to say, his comments are broadly in line with my own personal view. However it is interesting to see the mainly negative stance towards MLT taken by people on the Echo Forum with a groundswell of support for NC. Undoubtedly MLT had an Agenda against NC but there again this was probably as a result of NC's view of MLT and past players/history of the club (apart from Terry Paine of course - wonder what TP will say in his Football Echo column today?) One thing that MLT did touch on was that if NC had been a bit more sympathetic towards the history of the club and the requirements of the average fan then he could have become an enduring Saints legend. No doubt his personality did not allow him the luxury to pursue this option, which is a great shame As someone ably pointed out NC can be compared to Marmite. Let's hope if he does re-surface at the club at some stage he will maintain his vision for a successful future but be a bit more understanding of the requirements of the average fan.

I remain somewhat disappointed that Cortese has gone but only the passage of time will provide a proper view. He has been very closely linked with the rise of the club to unexpected heights post Lowe era and for that we have to thank him and the owners for their input. However there has been lots of associated baggage along the way, most of which has been touched upon here. There is probably more to come and certainly a lot of people I know from the business world have not got a great deal of positives to say about him. His attitude towards suppliers (and fans) could be portrayed by some as being symptomatic of a hard nosed business man but you have to build relationships with people (especially in a business as unique as Football) and, in quite a few respects, he did not display the attributes of a fully rounded Chief Executive in sympathy with the traditions of the club. That said when you compare him with some of his counterparts at other clubs he comes out as a shining example. Finally I wonder if the recent Clattenburg nonsense may have had some impact on the owners view of NC's stewardship?

Of course when a club like ours is punching above its average weight has a run of success, there is always something round the corner to rattle the cage. Same is happening at a number of Prem clubs in worse positions than ours. Without knowing all the ins and outs of the matter, I would be more concerned if the Liebherrs were threatening to pull out, although Cortese has reportedly said in the past that there were plans to deal with this situation if it happened. Cortese has, of course, been a leading light in our recent success story but he does come with some baggage. I hope he and Poch stay to provide continuity. However if the Liebherrs, or whoever, decide to continue funding the club then surely there would be other club Chairman (and Manager, if required) to keep the club on an even keel and continue the progress of recent years. All that said we have to be prepared for a rocky road but I guess us committed fans have been used to this over the years

I used to watch Everton once or twice a year when visiting the North West as a youngster in the days of Alex Scott, Roy Vernon, Jimmy Gabriel (who I once later played with in the same team) and later the wonderful midfield of Ball, Harvey and Kendall with Ray Wilson, Brian Labone, Gordon West etc in the team Once watched Everton play Burnley one Bank Holiday in front of 72,000 at Goodison Park!!!! On topic, when Bobby Collins retired from football, I understand he became an Insurance Agent for a while collecting premiums around households in Liverpool. He was only 5'4" and apparently a couple of scallys thought they could rob him of his insurance collections. Story is he was a very hard man for his size and put both the robbers in hospital

FWIW Malcolm Waldron gets my vote but he was generally OK but not outstanding Slightly off topic but what great shame that Duncan Edwards was lost to the Munich Air Disaster England International at 18 I think and many players/Managers of the time, who knew him, reckoned he would have been a world class player if he had survived the crash

Agree

£1.25m for Puncheon seems a decent fee but, as said above, puts the Gaston fee into some perspective To my mind Jay Emmanuel-Thomas looked a decent player (definitely better than Gaston despite Gash's goal) when we played Bristol Cityu earlier in the season. Surprised J E-T has been snapped up by at least a Championship club

DT I think you are being rather harsh on KD He had no chance with the 1st goal OK 'keepers are often criticised for being beaten at the near post but if you have ever played in goal with a forward steaming towards you from the angle Danny Ings had you assume the ball will be hit across goal and that's what Davis did. Ings took the goal very well and credit to him Didn't have a good view of the third but it seemed the finger of blame could be pointed as much towards our defensive frailties as KD's indecision. Don't forget KD's top drawer (and I really mean top drawer) save from Sam Vokes at 2-2 which possibly saved us the game and he made another good finger tip save at 4-2 but unfortunately the resultant corner led to their third. Davis is not as good as Boruc but he is a better stand in than Gazza at the moment

My view fwiw Thought we totally dominated the first half. Burnley had a sniff although they wasted a good free kick position close half time. If SRL had converted a half decent chance then we would deservedly been 3-0 up at the break Second half Burnley were more into it and scored from their first real attempt. Jos then got skinned (from a ball he should have won) for the second and only a couple of very good KD saves plus the woodwork prevented us going behind The introduction of Lallana for Ramirez (another extremely frustrating performance - some good/often bad) made us stronger and we scored a relatively fortuitous third before Lallana fashioned a beauty before we conceded a another sloppy goal Overall our passing was at a much higher tempo and success rate than theirs but our central defensive partnership was poor otherwise we could have won comfortably Just as well MP played a relatively strong side The side who played against Bristol City in the League Cup (relatively strong on paper) would have lost today

Just an aside to this, apart from say 10-12 Championship clubs who have deep pockets/wealthy owners, are there any other lower league clubs who actually pay transfer fees these days? Years ago fringe players from Prem clubs would generally have some value in the transfer market. I guess nowadays they are on such high wages that there is no benefit to them (or their Agents) to drop down a Division or two and the parent club has to subsidise wages rather than benefit from a transfer fee

Are all three still training with Saints or are they left to their own devices whilst continuing to pick up a weekly wedge?

Bit similar to the game at Stamford Bridge where we looked the better side 1st half and then undone by some excellent substitutions from the Chelsea manager We had some half decent chances 1st half (after a dodgy early spell) but credit to some good Chelsea defending Real problem was the wind which we had 1st half and to Chelsea's advantage second half when the game opened out. I really want Ramirez to come good but he ruins some good work by then giving the ball away. Two needless bookings in successive games too. Just goes to show we are well away from top 6 quality Need to get the required 13-15 points under our belts asap in forthcoming games before the natives start getting restless Sub 10k crowd for the Burnley game?

A 2010 production If Razor Ruddick has piled on additional poundage since then he must be fit to burst now. Frank Worthington and Alan Ball tried (unsuccessfully and understandably I think) to chat up a girl friend of mine at the Concorde Club in the mid 80's Carlton Palmer has obviously looked after himself and so has Fashanu

Apart from honours Saints are ahead of Pompey in every respect eg 1. Saints founded in 1885 v Pompey 1898 2. Southern League record - Saints higher placed in 11 of the 17 seasons the two teams competed together winning 15 and drawing 5 of the 'head to heads' 3. Note that the Southern League included all the big London clubs and Saints won the title seven times in 21 seasons up until the Football League was extended in 1920/1 4. Since 1920/1 Saints have been the higher placed club in 51 of the 87 seasons 5. Since 1920/1, Saints have a higher average home attendance despite having a smaller capacity ground for 74 seasons 6. In the League and Cup 'head to heads' since 1920/1 Saints record is ... P 38 W 19 D 10 L 9 F 69 A 48 7. If the comparative records since 1960/1 are looked at (ie the first time the two clubs were in the same League since 1926/7), then Saints domination is even more pronounced and perhaps explains why some Pompey fans have such a dislike for the Saints as in the intervening 54 years Saints have been the dominant force for all bar seven and have enjoyed a higher home support level for all bar three!!

Wouldn't it be ironic if his next club was Garforth Town to be reunited with Rupes

I am a great fan of Rickie Lambert and he has been a huge influence on our recent history but to put him second behind MLT might be taking things a little too far. Some of us old timers might argue for Terry Paine and Mick Channon both local boys done good and, possibly in future terms, Adam Lallana, As for 'bought in' players Ron Davies and perhaps Charlie Wayman would be very strong contenders. To finish on a controversial note, if I was a dispassionate Chairman, I might consider selling Rickie if a decent offer came in. It would be good to remember Rickie at the top of his game not falling away as tends to happen when some players get into their 30's

Pure guess work but I reckon he was probably on £5k a week during his 5 years here plus he probably qualified for Prem promotion bonus so potentially Tommy could have 'earned' well over £1m in wages during his stay here as a squad player. Shame the Sale of Goods Act doesn't apply to players!!

I was speaking to a Saints fan yesterday who occasionally watches Dartford Apparently Tommy only played one full game on loan at Dartford, a 5-1 home defeat by Wrexham back in mid November,Brett Omerod, (remember him?) scoring twice. It was rather embarrassing as our Tommy had the rise taken out of him by both sets of fans and was shipped back to Chelmsford City straight after and replaced by a keeper not felt to be good enough by Div 2 strugglers Portsmouth (Phil Smith?) Tommy now is reserve keeper at Chelmsford who play in the same League as Eastleigh. I guess a further move down the leagues will soon be in order? Meanwhile interested to know what has happened to our other young prospect signed at the same time as Tom ie Anthony Pulis

Interesting piece on Southampton and the Saints team contained within Not exactly complimentary but I guess we are all big enough to take the adverse remarks. It is a bit embarrassing if the comments on the behaviour some of the (youthful) away support last year is correct

First of all anyone giving players stick should be ashamed All of us can get frustrated but to abuse your own players is counter productive and does nothing to enhance the individual's or the team's performance. That said I had tried to keep an open mind on Danny Fox, Jos and the keeper. All three were found wanting and I am sure this is recognised by the management team. It was very unfortunate that both first choice 'keepers were injured and were the two full backs plus the team's defensive midfielder. Both Jos and Yoshida have not looked secure playing alongside Lovren and again it is unfortunate that Fonte is carrying an injury. As regards Danny Fox, I recollect that Burnley fans reckoned he was Ok going forward but suspect defensively (during Burnley's short spell in the Prem) and were somewhat surprised that we paid such a large transfer fee for him (£1.8m?) for him. I reckon their comments were spot on It is eveident

Indeed I assumed that there would be somewhere in the region of 50% allowance for 'stoppages; ie top rate tax plus NI. Not sure how much (if any) players pay into their pension schemes nowadays but the PFA scheme used to be quite beneficial as players could draw down at a relatively early age.

Just out of interest I am reliably informed that Guly nets £40k a month so presume, by this, he is on approx. £20k a week which, I guess, is not a massive amount for a Prem player. However I guess most of us would find this level of recompense to be pretty well acceptable if it came our way