Saint Fan CaM

Don't know Chris Baird personally, but I know someone who does and it's true Chris does like the club alot. Cannot for one minute see him dropping from Europa league to L1 though can you?!

What are you talking about?!? AP will not be involved in a decision on transfer fee - that will be NC's call. Some people will do all they can to bash our manager.

I think we can ignore the £1m - they owe us money that they do not have, so will offer a player plus cash to offset. Watch out for the 'undisclosed sum'. Mullins is one of their lesser players who they can do without - we need a Hammond replacement if injured. Might be true. If he wants to put on a Saints shirt and give his all for AP then that's OK for me as long as he's not a lazy bugger. We would still need a CM playmaker as cover for Schneiderlin though.

No way. Injury prone - not quick enough. There are much better options.

Pulis followed closely by Rickie Lambert. Err, or was it the other way round....?

We could probably afford Brown and he would be a good addition, however I am less sure we could afford enought detergent to cleanse him of the stench he has accumulated while playing at Farton Park.

Spot on the money with this observation. However, there is another failing tactic and that is that the team pass it around SO much that they run out of ideas, there's not enough movement off the ball and then we lose possession when someone is caught napping or the final pass is poor. It's great trying to compare us to top Prem teams, but the simple fact is that the players we have just are not skilled enough to do this all the time. League One dictates that we hoof to Lambo's head and hope for knock-downs. Not saying it's good or that it always works, it's just the way of lower league football. Let's face it, the youngsters played some lovely football under the Dutch regime, but won very few games.

Yes, I too completely agree with the sentiment and words of the OP. This summer is I think going to be extremely interesting in terms of club and squad development. In fact I'm finding I have to check myself back a little, as I'm looking forward to the summer developments more than the last two games of the season! It is a great time to be a Saints fan now the club is in the ascendency and it feels so good to see the faith of all fans (but particularly ST holders) being repaid by Markus and Nicola. I truly believe that we will hardly recognise our club in 8-10 years time such will be the level of success - on a par with the likes of Spurs and Aston Villa at the moment and pushing for European action once again. And this time, it will be for real and not on a 'PLC style shoestring budget' where we need to sell our best players to stay afloat.

The problem is that many of our fringe players are not good enough having been left over from the old losing mentality side. AP has made it quite clear that there will be a clean out this summer and new players coming in. It is his first real big opportunity to put the final touches to a side that will dominate league one and be very strong in the Championship. I for one cannot wait - this summer and next season is going to be awesome. The climb back to the Prem really is going to be SO enjoyable to behold - stability, continuity of manager, winning mentality in the team, goal scorers all across the team, proper new training facilities, a rejuvenated stadium, new better players to get used to etc etc. Bloody fantastic and I defy anyone not to be just a little excited about whats happening at our club!!!

He did kinda OK, but IMO he was far too slow at releasing the ball and did not look for a forward pass - nearly always having his back to goal and our forwards - which meant he got caught out. IMO he will have to improve very significantly to be anywhere near CCC standard which has to be the benchmark for prospective first team players now. I think it will be sometime before we see him on the bench again.

Team had a good day today, although the first half was a bit dire. Don't like to be negative, however I would like to point out three players that for me are not looking good. 1. Seaborne - he gifted BOTH of their goals today. His positioning is suspect and his character leads to some dreadful and unnecessary challenges. 2. Papa Waigo - his latter 2nd half performance was petulant and lazy. He gave up and looked as if he was in strop because he was not put into the middle when Lambert come off. When Antonio scored his 2nd he ran to the ball and smacked it into the Chapel crowd which could have hurt someone - it was just not necessary. It was a side to him I had not seen before and now I am not so sure his departure would be a bad thing - there are other more suitable players out there IMO. 3. Puncheon - for me he had another poor game, however I think the main observation is that he is not a CM player and it emphasises the need to sort this out.

Frankly, I thought he was better than Puncheon, Lallana and (again) Waigo today. We really should be signing the lad as priority, as it seems we missed his urgency in the mid-week game and looked so much more stronger in attack today.

Oh dear, another own goal there Alpine...you're starting to be found out.

Oh yeah - for some reason (something to do with a late night after bottle of very nice red wine I think!) I got the two mixed up. Doh. Still be pretty incredible if we beat 'em again. And Stockport play their best game of the season and beat Huddersfield 3-0.

I trust the team will be as fired up for this as any other game. It would be pretty incredible to have beaten the same team so many times in one season. I think they'll try to go for it rather than sit 11 men behind the ball - they might even score first within 15mins - but we will win. 3-1 Saints.

For me it would be one of... a. Lambert - without his goals we would be toast. b. Fonte - irrespective of his time in the squad, he has transformed the defence. c. Davis - without out his spectacular (in some cases world-class) saves, we would be toast. I couldn't put a fag paper between these three guys and would award all three jointly. Close follow-ups would be... a. Lallana - most improved player and prospect from the Academy. b. Harding - great consistency and rugged performance throughout the campaign c. Antonio - incredible season given his meterioric rise from non-league to scoring in a cup final at Wembley....school-boy dream stuff to inspire the youngsters.

Are you for real? All AP is doing is acting positively and while asking the fans to turn out, he is also saying that he expects the players to turn up and provide entertainment right to the end of the season irrespective of whether the play-offs are a reality or not. That spirit of positivity is what has been missing at this club for literally many years.

I've got to say that was one of the best Saints manager interviews I've ever heard. AP really has a fantastic way about him and I can see quite clearly how he commands the respect of his players. I loved the way he used the term "our club". Well done Alan - you really are the real deal and I really hope that the team does you proud for the last games of this season and the 1st half of next season. I would be pleased to see you here for many years to come.

Refs should be disciplined over decisions like that. It was so obviously a pen and the ref couldn't have been better placed to see it, let alone the linesman. Not only that, it was just one of a number of very questionable decisions in the game. Ranks as one of the worst referreeing displays I have ever seen in 45 years of watching football.

Personally I thought he had a really good game - didn't miss a trick. If I saw him out of an evening I would shake his hand and tell him what a splendid piece of work he did. I would congratulate him on his even handed handling of the match and his amazing ability to spot infringements warranting a penalty at least 10 yards distant - and on at least two occasions! I would recommend him to the FA for the next Skates match, as he is clearly operating at a level unbefitting his immense skill. Then I would kick his nuts so far up inside, he would be able to kiss them better.

LOL. That's funny, however at 50 and with four grown-up children I think you've seriously misjudged my profile! Anyhow, why give up? Did any of you give up when we were in Prem and sweating over another relegation battle? It's no different now IMO - we keep going - we keep giving 110% support to AP and the lads right to the end of the season and only then should we start to worry about what might or might not happen next season. I bet some of you lot giving up on the team are the guys that leave 10 minutes before the end of a game and block my view! :mad:

Up until Markus came along, if we'd had no bad luck, we'd have had no luck atall. Sorry, feeling frivolous this evening.

In terms of potential - YES - 110%. If AP wants to go to West Ham because they are called West Ham and they play in London, then as far as I am concerned he deserves the very little satisfaction that job will bring and I'll not loose any sleep because he will have shown himself as lacking in intelligence. If however, he shows some balls and integrity and sticks with the Saints project, he will be opting for a far better proposition and could IMO assist in building this club into something better than we've ever known. He could gain a place in general footballing history in the same manner as Fergie at Manure. Such are the plans of Markus and Nicola.

Can you find the quote from AP where he states West Ham are his "beloved" club? If he went BACK to West Ham, he would be going BACKwards - geddit? It's not f-ing rocket science! And if the papers are to be believed, the manager will be on £4k/week. I would guess AP is on close to twice that amount at Saints. And while the Hammers are (struggling) in the Prem right now (with a dodgy Board of Directors I might add), AP has everything a top manager needs right here at Saints. He is envied by all but a few English league Managers. Yes, it would be going backwards frankly and not realising the superb opportunity he has to build HIS team for success.

As mentioned in all the other threads and posts, it's still a possibility and we have to go out and beat Carlisle on Saturday because Huddersfield just may ****-up their last 2 games. Stockport may just have a great day of football left in them - who knows?