spyinthesky

What's the situation with Bella Kotcha? Is he actually training? Presume he still gets his £60k ish a week wages?

Fair play to Russell. He's invited Swansea fans to stay over at his gaff in Winchester on New Year's Eve before heading down to Fratton Park for the New Year's Day game v Pompey. He and Lucy will provide a hearty breakfast using part of his compo from his exit deal with Sports Republic.

Deadline dates 1st January to 3rd February so plenty of time to get rid of dross and bring in a load of new blood, at reasonable cost and ready for next year's assault on promotion!! I hope!!

I have to agree with your comments. KWP is one of my favourite players who consistently puts in good performances but he was not very good last night although I think he was often exposed along Spurs left flank. Downes was one of our top players last season but it is no real surprise why West Ham werent that worried to keep him and then negotiated a decent fee for him. Manning, who to my mind, is no more than an average Championship player, exceeded my assumptions last night and put in a very decent shift. Spot on with Aribo and Arma, the later in particular last night. Fernandes did OK and Dibling excelled going forward and is beginning to slowly improve on his against the ball play. Currently we are shipping vast amounts of goals but I reckon our back line is not as bad as the goal difference indicates although it was very porous last night. Midfield is nowhere near strong enough to offer protection and as far the forward line is concerned, what can I say apart from nondescript. I reckon most teams could play with a youth team player in goal as we never seem to threaten the important area between the opponents goal posts. The club seems to have gone for quantity over quality when the amount of players did not contribute anything last night ie Tall Pall, Taylor, Bella Kochap Bereton Diaz Lallana Fraser Bree Edwards Ugochukwu Loan Cornet " Stewart Injured (permanently?) Larios " " Smallbone Injured plus Sulemana who got hauled off after 15 mins and has contributed very little since his £20m+ transfer

Ron, Cardiff benefited from European One, Two and Three funding from the EU as well as other capital that the Welsh Assembly managed to obtain from Central UK Govt. When I was younger Cardiff Bay and surrounding area was decrepit now it is buzzing and the city has two decent sports stadia. Southampton and the area generally has only received crumbs off the EU and UK tables in forms of Investment. Dont expect any influx of capital now we have left the EU and at a time when the Govt is trying to fill a significant financial black hole. You are right to say that the city receives revenue via third party revenue streams but none of this finds its way directly to the Council. IF, and its a big IF, the aggregate companies can be persuaded to give up their rights to the land on the west side of the Itchen River then there may be institutional investors willing to underwrite the cost of leisure, commercial and housing developments in the space available but probably concentrating on housing, similar to the development at Woolston on the eastern side of the Itchen.. However this has to be balanced against the City Council's desire to see their development plan on land they own from the Central Station to the Holiday Inn progressed and this is stalling due to lack of financial backing. As for increasing the capacity of St Marys, I think this is well down the pecking order of priorities. When you compare the £80m it cost to expand the Anfield Rd end at Liverpool's ground, to the £32m the club spent to build St Marys, it provides an idea as to how much building costs have spiralled in recent years.

Remind me of the piece from 'This Country' when Kerry and Kurtain go round singing...'He's Dead'..after hearing about the death of one of their old teachers. I can visualise more than a few Saints fans walking around singing....'He's Gone...

Couple of things Ron. Cardiff Bay was financed by a lot of European and UK Govt grant funding and the Council does not put any money into the port nor does it receive any direct revenue from the cruise business apart from rates and rent on the Carnival Offices at West Quay.

I'd be surprised if the MOU has anything in there specifically about stadium capacity. I imagine that the discussion with SCC was opportunities for developing the waterside land and possibly the old Gasholder site and industrial units at the back of the Chapel.

I must admit that I have wondered about the fitness level of our players. I am sure there are statistics available which show fitness levels. Would Russball tactics mean that players are spending too much time passing the ball in training rather than improving fitness?

I enjoy going when we win, or at least seem capable of winning, I tolerate going when our performances are bad (as has been the case for quite a while in the Prem) but I still go as, unfortunately. It is like a drug, expensive and addictive. I am very weak willed so I am so grateful that I have never smoked or taken illicit drugs otherwise I would be wrapped in a blanket outside of West Quay All that said I do find myself needing a bit more alcohol than normal recently to get me through dire times post match.

Rasmus Ankersen must be rueing his departure from Brentford. Seems that the club is on the market for £400m!!

Fair comments and as far as on field decisions they have made then arguably 70% bad and 30% good. However I was at St Marys yesterday and, by and large, they are possibly 70/30 in terms of Stadium/Matchday improvements. I think the railed standing was a positive step, bearing in mind the stadium is over 20 years old, and they appear to be positive in their approach to engaging with supporters even if you dont like the band/light shows/ facilities around the ground. However the stadium exterior is beginning to look a bit tired and ultimately the 'Feel Good' factor is on the pitch not around it. In my opinion SR could be better owners but we could have worse as has happened to quite a few of our rivals.

Championship it is then with the hope we can keep positive, get regular doubles against our friends down the road, and hope to one day to get promotion to the top tier and COMPETE!!

Not me, I'm old school and have a Season Ticket made from a piece of rock and detailed with a chisel. Problem is now I've fessed up and the authorities will know who threw their ticket on the pitch in disgust after another home walloping on Sunday.

I reckon this will be a great chance for Swansea fans who have a beef with their ex Manager to come along and make their feelings known, especially if Swansea do well against us, which is a real possibility if our recent games are anything to go by, especially Cardiff and Stoke games.

Re Sports Republic, they have come in a spent money and actually seemed to have an interest in taking the club forward unlike the previous owner, Chairman Gao. That said, taking away the last ditch promotion from the Championship last season, the team's record in the Prem since Sport Republic took over has been truly awful. The obsession with signing youngsters from Man City at inflated rates (apart from Lavia) has not been at all successful nor have many of the other signings To be successful in the transfer market there has to be a success rate of at least 70% and our signings have not reached that level, nowhere near it. Our transfer and wages outlay have been double or possibly triple what a successful Championship side would expect to spend and taking out the likes of Ramsdale, KWP, THB and Dibling, Saints currently look like a mid level Championship team and possibly worse. Having said all that, I dont necessarily agree with the 'Get Out Of Our Club' comments aimed towards Sports Republic. I say this as someone who has no idea about the club's finances and if Sports Republic did decide enough was enough and sought to recover as much money as possible by selling players, we could end up with another scenario of having to put up with playing youngsters and scratching around for loan players leading to further misery. In such circumstances, we may not have the good fortune to find another Markus Liebherr.

I wonder if that is why we cant get any offers in for him? Conversely why didnt the club check out his background when signing him? The personalities of players are a big factor as well as their playing ability.

To be honest I can remember feeling similar, if perhaps a tad worse, when we were playing at The Dell under Branfoot with around 10,000 in the ground. Even in that time when, circumstances were similar, there was always the possibility of saving ourselves from relegation. Under this regime we are a few games away from Christmas and there is absolutely no chance of avoiding relegation. The Manager is not totally culpable, as the purchasing of players has been pretty poor, but his inability to change the way we play is indicative of his incompetence as a Manager. In financial terms, I wonder how much the club will save allowing his (and his staff's) contracts to run through to the end of the season as opposed to getting rid now. Also I wonder if the players are on win bonuses? Not much to pay out there.

I have to say that I am generally against sacking a Manager, unless he has lost the Dressing Room, which it seems he hasnt, at the moment. However this awful style of play, allied to some woeful expenditure on players, is really causing some significant issues with results and fans feel good factor (which is basically below zero at the moment) The only aim, from most of us, is to get more points than the pathetic low number Derby achieved to herald their return to the lower levels. Russell Martin said that he had to sort out the mess the previous Managers left him and, to be fair he made a decent stab at it in the Championship. Heaven knows what shit show Martin's replacement will have to deal with next season.

Ironically enough I went down to the then lowly Bournemouth for a pre season game during the Branfoot era and was sat next to Steve Williams who had played a couple of pre season games for the Saints at the time. He was left out of the friendly as he had a 'discussion' with Ian Branfoot who had castigated him for coming short to receive the ball from a Saints goal kick. Branfoot had told him not to do that as there was the chance of losing the ball close to goal and suffering the consequences. Branfoot wanted the ball to be propelled up into the opponents half as quickly as possible and make use of the big target man who provided the main target for the teams offensive play. Bit different nowadays. Perhaps Steve Williams ought to come out of retirement!!

Think Branfoot's ghost was giving you duff information. Can you really see our current team scoring three goals in a Prem game this season? We couldnt even threaten the goal when playing most of the game against a 10 man Newcastle team.

To be fair didnt Bree come to us on a Free or a minimal payment? A decent Championship player who has been relatively value for money compared with the majority of players including other full backs such as Larios and Small who cost upwards of £10m in total and have done absolutely nothing.

Agree that he is a great musician and song writer with an decent vocal range. As a 'Soul' fan it is interesting aside that The Beatles covered a few Motown and a couple of other Black American tracks on their early albums. Macca also rated James Jamerson (ie 'The Hook') who played bass with the Funk Bros (Motown's House Band) as one of his favourite bass players.

Agree. We were doing relatively well until that unexpected (at the time) 4-0 reverse at Villa Park. Our Premiership results since then have been awful

As a decent centre half in his day and now Defensive Coach at St Marys, I wonder whether he agrees with the Managers insistence in playing out from the back? All these goals conceded cant look good on his CV