Legod Third Coming

We (genuinely) need CB Fry to tell us how easy/hard it is to catch teams who are obviously not standing still... My view is that we could and perhaps even should win 20+games this season. We have the talent and the manager to do just that. I don't buy it taking a whole season for a manager to build a team and have it performing in our situation. There are two manay examples of it being done much quicker. Managers need time, but in my view three months or 15 games should be sufficient with the resources we have had available. Managers may need longer where they don't have money to buy solutions.

Huddersfield, Hartlepool, Carlisle... or the Dolomites? Are you a holiday rep with the Northen Tourist Board by any chance?? Good points though. Although I'm sure Serie B is still a different kettle of fish to the pace of League One?? (Genuine question as I know feck all about Serie B)

Victor Chandler invited me to the King George and the Tote invited me to Aintree so you could be right... On a serious note, these are small bets (£50 and £20) which, with luck and a fair wind in the economy won't be missed come May... :S BUT, that said, we are only 16 points off the playoffs with a further 114 points to play for. Football (like all sport in my view) is so often about momentum. If we string a few wins together, than that can easily become ten wins, or at least ten games unbeaten. We're already four unbeaten, including going away to the League leaders. Don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting the missus chooses something from Harrods sale!!! But I do think our first 15 is as strong as any in the league and is already starting to look hard to beat. Why shouldn't we go the rest of the season unbeaten and win 30 games???

I took 18/1 and 150/1 to win the league. I've said it before and will say it again, I expect to collect on at least one of those bets. Here's why: Davis Thomas Jaidi Trotman Harding Lallana Hammond Schneiderlin Holmes Saganowski Lambert Waigo, Mills, James, Perry, Thomson... At least eight/nine of the starting eleven are comfortably Championship standard.

You assumed I wasn't refering to Southampton as a bog-hole then...

This poor fella has arrived to play Yeovil Town from Florence. There he had sunshine, good wine, and football where everyone got ten minutes on the ball and more space than you'd find in an Arthur C Clarke novel... If he ever acclimatises to playing Huddersfield Town on a wet Tuesday evening in a bog-hole I will be amazed.

The reality is - and let's not get carried away here - that we have only lost two games after eight. When was the last time a Saints team had lost so few games eight into a season? As you rightly say, those games also identified our biggest problem - conceding from a set-piece. That alone is what crippled us last season and before. Defensively we are starting to look lmuch ess naive and much more composed. This is a major improvement for me as it has been our downfall since WGC lost the use of Svensson. All good things are built from the ground up.

I'm a lot more confident about my 18/1 promotion now, and a little more confident about my 150/1 on winning the league with Charlton only drawing...

Confidence creates chances. Hopefully we'll have some now and the goals will flow. Certainly it really helps going away to Carlisle where they are hardly likely to park the bus...

I will take playing pooly and winning every week. Last year we battered teams and lost regularly...

Lol not much difference between Florence and Hungerford...

I think the big problem here is that those of us who are called 'happy clappers' (ie we are content to sit back and watch, do our bit with regards to supporting the team and prepared to allow the plans to unfold) have nothing to moan about. Therefore, moaners give us an excellent outlet for our pent up frustration...

3-0

I thought he was no longer part of that 'Liebherr' empire??

Mate, I only write the lines, not what you read between them I am not remotely happy with mediocrity which is why I have £50 at 18/1 we get promoted and £20 at 150/1 we win the league. And I fully expect to collect on at least one of those bets. And for Southampton to set a new club record in unbeaten games during the season. All of which will result from the progress seen to date. But where some see progress I recognise the pessimist or anxious see delay.

I think it's called humour. It used to be highly prized in Hampshire...

Do you know, I used to like Saints winning so I could celebrate, spare the dog and have sex occasionally. Now I am desparate for us to win so that I can judge whether some posters have the capacity for celebration and joy in them. Or whether they are in fact just miserable feckers who would find a tenner in the street and complain that it's not a twenty... If you campaigned for a manager and chairman to go, and they went. And then you campaigned for adminstration, and it happened. Then you hoped for takeover by a wealthy backer, and it happened. And then you wanted a proven manager, and got one. You might be considered a little selfish to start fecking complaining again. In my book.. Of course, you might also be Bob Crowe...

hahahaha Nice one!!! Look, here is my view for what it's worth. When my daughter first sat astride her bike I was seriously worried - of course I was. She could fall off and hurt herself. Now, I could run along behind holding on with a grimace and let her see my fear and then that would only make her more nervous and the whole thing would end in disaster... Or I could put on a brave face and do the only thing I could that might, might make that slightest bit of difference, and that was to be confident, appear relaxed and offer as much active encouragement as possible. In the end, I can't ride the bike. I can't control whether she succeeds or fails. But I can dictate how I feel about the outcome. Call it old fashioned, call it ill-informed, I don't care. I think I am as worried as the next man that we have not won yet. But the more I show it and try to find a reason to believe that it won't change, the more likely it becomes that what little positive impact I can have is dminished. What's more, I genuinely believe that good things will happen. We have two people running the club who have thus far taken great decisions. This is no guarantee of success. Nor is changing manager, nor is whinging about anything. I genuinely believe that if you keep doing the right things, you get the right result. Our problem is no-one has been given an opportunity yet to do the right things long enough to see a result!!! And I can't condone Alpine moaning about substitutions under the veil of under-performance when what he actually means is 'I don't want Lallana and Morgan in the team, they should have been taken off!'...

That was my point - those people will be wrong!!!

I would be mightly cheesed off. But it would depend on the specifics. If we were leading 3-0 and they won 4-3, I would be deeply, deeply worried. And personally seek out Pardew for a good kicking... If we were winning 1-0, had had three clear goals ruled out for offside when they were on-side. Had the ref miss two blatant penalties, etc and then they snatch an off-side equaliser. I would be miffed but not blame the manager. There are a lot of people in football (fans) who simply don't accept that sometimes you don't get what you deserve or the rub of the green. You can be unlucky, it is a fact. So my stance would depend on what happens on Saturday. But I don't believe we will be having this conversation after Saturday. Then this place will be full of people saying 'I told you so'.. about Pardew when we win. I believe that we will be unbeaten between now and Xmas. Then I will not only say I Told You So, you will bow down before me and worship me as the God of Football Knowledge!!!!!!

I cannot comment on those clubs as I have no idea (not supporting them) whether the 11 who started (and lost) against Blackpool contained 50%, 60% or 100% of the team who started the last match last season. All I can tell you is that to judge a manager of any team and find him wanting after seven games is bonkers, totally and utterly bonkers, unless his team have been hammered every week and show no signs of looking like a football team. It is particularly mental to say things are not improving when you go to the league leaders and deserve at least a draw, possibly a win. Conversely, I agree, Saturday's result makes a win against Yeovil imperative, otherwise it would be a regression and not the progression we have seen. I fully expect us to win. NOT because 'we should' - because this is a mythical belief fostered in internet forums (otherwise Liverpool would have beaten Wimbledon, Spurs would have beaten Coventry, United would have beaten Southampton and so on...) BUT we should win because we are playing some good football, look like a half-decent team and now have a strong squad with some excelent players. What will stop us winning, in my opinion, is only self-belief and anxiety. But I fully expect us to win. By how many goals is irrelevant. Three points we need. Goals would help build confidence but not as much as a good performance and a win!!!

Not unless we are signing 7 of them, no.

Given that Jaidi and Waigo have been available for one game - and neither match fit, and that they are probably the only two better players than members of the squad who were also assembled during the previous seven matches, and that the manager had no pre-season during which to know the existing squad members, I think it is wholly unreasonable. Surely, for at least the first three/four matches the manager is assessing who can and can't play and where? I suspect that any manager worth his salt is actually using substitutions during this period to assess the squad rather than win matches. I would stake my mortgage that a man at the outset of a vision is doing precisely that. Clearly he has an obligation and duty not to sacrifice everything in the pursuit of learning, but how else is he supposed to establish the needs of the team (ie to win games) and then satisfy them either in the market or through squad selection? So yes, observe a manager over seven games and assess the tactical decisions he makes. But factor in ALL aspects of his long-term strategy and also accept that, given the specific circumstances, achieving a draw at the league leaders is probably a good result. In five games time, with the basis of a full and fit squad, there are baffling tactical decisions, I too will be moaning like buggery!

You have given Pardew seven league games within which you have determined that he can't make positive substitutions. Am I supposed to take that seriously? Why must you ascribe previous managers' failings to this one?

Fickle, it's in the dictionary under F, or SFC...