Legod Third Coming

Mp said about 600 words. Translator about 200...

His Spanish is top class though

Yeah cos what 'real' clubs do is stage a fecking celebration party... The statement thanked him as every club ever in the history of football has done...

Well done the new guy. He told Jason Puncheon he's Messi and he believes him! Now just tell Rickie he's Luis Suarez...

Sorry, you're correct. What I meant was, starring down the barrel of possible liquidation (however unlikely) and being taken over effectively provided Hobson's choice. I still can't get over that man who owns football club decides what he wants to do with football club is a shock to anyone...

But he never backed it with a plan, or money, which Markus and now Cortese are... Personal love of Nigel aside, I can see what's happening here. There's a plan - Nigel may even have known that he was not going to be our manager in the Premiership... But people (MLT, who I love to bits) and Lawrie (likewise) coming out and questioning the Chairman's vision or aproach is bonkers. What has he done wrong since taking over?? He sets targets, you meet them, fine. You don't, you're out... People talk about stability as though it guarantees success but it doesn't (see Arsenal)(see Chelsea and Real Madrid).... As people we think it was unfair on Adkins - we believe he could have taken us up, been a long-term manager at the club and done great things with us. But be honest, he was learning, he was making mistakes (some repeated). Did he deserve to be fired for it? Not in my book because I believe he earned the right to learn. The Chairman took a different view. He was looking at it thinking that he had spent £30m and wasn't beating Wigan of Fulham at home despite having one of the most sought after midfielders (two) in the team... (is my guess at what he was thinking). I may be wrong!

I know I bang on about this but the Chairman has never ever said survival was his goal. This is a clear case of the Chairman having higher expectations than the fans, and now he is being pilloried for it. Whereas Lowe was pilloried for the exact opposite. I do wish people would make thier bloody minds up!!!

So I dreamt the whole Markus Liebherr buying us from admin?? The point that a ruthless authoritarian acts ruthlessly seems to come as a shock to some who think they have a right to tell him how to run a football club. The right they have is to withhold their patronage.

Whatever Henry Winter claims, fans want to win. How many people have sympathy today for the way Alan Pardew was treated? How many are gutted that Cortese sacked him? How many wish Adkins hadn't been appointed? Answer - NONE. Now go to Stamford Bridge and ask them how many are cheesed off with the Russian having just beaten Arsenal... Football fans are a pathetic bunch. We believe in loyalty when it suits us, business when it suits us, money when it suits us, success when it suits us... You had a choice. No club or one run to be successful in the way the Chairman chooses. Henry Winter believes football fans are worth more - that they have some divine right to decide how their club is run, how they feel about it, respresentation on the board. Ridiculous. It's a sport and a business. And both are about success. I am really sad to see Nigel Adkins go. I loved him and his style. But you cannot argue the Chairman doesn't know what he's doing. He's doing it very well. And no amount of old school football wailing will stop him. And thank feck for that!

Right. You read some nonsense in the press and that's what you put your faith in? I've actually seen us come from 22nd in League One to 15th in the Premiership. I wonder did you notice spending £12m on Gaston? £7m on Jay-Rod? £4m on a Vorren? This is confusing for some in the media is it?? I'll tell you what's confusing them - they can't believe that plucky little Saints, everyone's favourite underdog, is now actually a football club with money on the rise.

22nd in League One to 15th in the Premiership isn't working?

Exactly, the better analysis is simply win ratio. And he is our best manager on that basis by a mile!

One thing that I think he will appreciate is the last goal ever scored under his stewardship. It was a pure, utterly brilliant, football goal. Not a header from a free kick. Not a scuffed shot, not a penalty, not a bouncing bobble. It was a football move with pace and style and joy, crafted, and despatched with the exquisite precision of an artisan. It was, in my view, the most perfect epitaph for Nigel.

Listen, don't feel too much sympathy. The guy was plucked from S****horpe and given a chance to spend £45m on footballers over two and half seasons during which he showcased his career brilliantly. He will have doubled/trebled/quadrupled?? his value in the past 24 months and is now a hot property in football management. I will always be grateful to him and I bet you he is grateful to Southampton and Cortese too. He is the type of guy who will use this, learn from it and benefit from it. He is a top, top human being. The message he left at the training ground was pure and utter class. Class you cannot buy. But he's a football manager and knows the game.

No, but I'm sure if we were top of the league Adkins would be granted similar freedoms to Fergie... But don't think Fergie chose to sell Ronaldo - he was sold to meet an £80m debt payment! The point I'm making is that every club has a Chairman and manager who work together to secure players and be successful, within a budget. The fact that the Russian buys players didn't stop them being Champions of Europe. This is the new football.

That's the crux of the whole situation at every club... Our top scorer came off the bench to score within three minutes against the European Champions and this was heralded as a success. MLT tweeted (and many on here agreed) "always start your best players" Then when the manager is fired for one who might do exactly that, he is up in arms... Now, was it Adkins choice to start with Rickie? Was he under pressure to play a younger man because that's what the Chairman prefers? Who knows. You make a very valid point. Was the manager being allowed to manage??

My money's on Blackpool and he would be immense for them. Personally, if I was Randy Lerner I would fire Lambert and install Adkins before the game this evening. That gives him 10 minutes.

No, but should it leave you short of Swansea, Norwich and performing marginally better than Reading? The amount is almost immaterial. The Chairman has ambition. He'll operate like it.

This is all about expectations. The media think 'plucky little Southampton' lucky to be in the Premiership. 17th should be their aspiration. The Chairman thinks he spent £30m on a club that spent 27 years in the top flight and is targeting winning things not surviving. Who will be proven right, only time will tell.

I'm very calm. The King is dead. Long live the King.

I've watched this without being able to take part thanks to Virgin Media. As a business, I think our handling of this (objectively) has been outstanding. It's been clinical and effective - and well marketed, with little consideration for the fallout (fans and media wailing about 'longevity, fairness and stability'). The reality is that three more losses and half this board would have wanted Adkins out. That is football. I am personally saddened to see Nigel go - he is a truly inspirational man. He is a man of enormous integrity. He is also the most positive human being (outwardly visible) that I recall in any walk of life! But he has clearly been set targets he failed to meet. And that's business. And that's Cortese. The new man has decent reputation when you investigate further (which I have today) - ignore Robbie Savage and the 'he didn't have a great record at Espanyol'. He didn't, but there are mitigating factors. There is no guarantee that he will work out (and it pains my I can't say or spell his name) but here is my objective view: 1. The Chairman had a five year plan, we are two years ahead of schedule. 2. The Chairman has appointed three managers - two turned out to be exceptional choices (the third started yesterday). 3. As much as we all love Nigel, the vast majority (and I am among them) prefer watching us win to supporting anything. 4. If the new guy wins the next fifteen games and we qualify for Europe, not a man jack will look back and wish anything other than success for Nigel Adkins but respect that the Chairman made the right choice... In life you can be a 'decent' man or you can be man focused on results. Occasionally you can be both. There is nothing to say (other than loyalty from fans and media) that Cortese did not handle this professionally with Nigel. He is just a very demanding man and that is his right. Even Chelsea fans would admit that the ten years of 'madness' under the Russian have been their most successful ever. Chelsea, Champions of Europe.

It would have to be a big proper club to tempt Nigel. Here he has been given more backing (third/fourth highest summer spenders) than anyone else in the league that he could hope to work for...

Pah! You can't count Defoe - he gets the rebounds from Bale's shots

On a slightly more serious note, what impresses me about SRL (bias aside) is that he isn't quick but his brain is - I wondered whether he could cut it in the Championship, and here he is holding the ball up and beating Champions' League winning defences with his aerial ability. He is a class act. Shame we didn't get him five years sooner!!

I'll take that as an apology