david in sweden

I watched the youth team film reports of their games (free on the OS).......and he looked useful ...got 10 goals so far....but only for the U18s. Hoskins and Chambers are the best goalscorers for the U21. ****its a sad thing to say, but I seen decades of young strikers blitzing the youth sides and not even making it to the first team.......hopefully we'll get a few good ones now.

........don't you mean his magic wallet ?

I guess Liverpool. I watched them outplaying every European side at Anfield during the 1970's.. .and winning the title almost every season into the bargain and the great players they had then. Ian Callaghan on the wing, St.John, Hunt, the (young) Keegan, Steve Heighway, Ian Rush, John Aldridge, Emlyn Hughes (the 1970's version of Steven Gerrard) ..what a great side they were...dare we forget ....Jimmy Case. I'd support them every time - except when they play us ......

I'd go along with that..with Rickie coming on fresh in the second half. If some of the people on this site could accept that Rickie doesn't HAVE to start every game, and that he could make a big impact coming on (as per Man.City)..things might be quieter on here. There's nothing wrong with that idea in principle....(I notice there isn't big headlines every time Wayne Rooney is on the bench - and so it is for us) .........Having spent all that dosh on Jay Rod, we've got to give him a go and he might start scoring regularly now .... If that happens ...and we win everyone will applaud Adkins' great tactical move

1'min. 34 secs. of enthusiastic Nigel. The only thing that matters is the football club. We're all working hard here, late at night sometimes and we need to get results. He didn't answer the direct question about what Cortese may / may have not said to him ....but we're al working very hard and he's really looking forward to Monday night's game.

Agreed Kraken ..but most of the squad had a good pre-season and many of them are struggling already, I'd hate to think how long it might take for Jack to get upto pace.....after being out so long.

I'm sure that Nigel Adkins knows , but he's not likely to let WBA know that sort of info. in advance - is he ?

more than likely, but some real football types would be glad to do it for nothing, I'm sure !

......and then (sadly) it's often against the lowly sides that you'd beat anyway. Just when you need that sort of player for the Chelsea's and Man Utd's .....the players you really want aren't available / are injured.

I always like stats. they prove things that most people overlook , or can't be bothered to consider... Btw I published some of this info. two days ago under a headline ...O ye of short memory...and got canned by some of the usual pessimists, so don't expect everyone to appreciate your efforts. good text though....tnx

ala..... Anthony Pulis and Tommy Forecast.....

now that's a bit provocative Dibden, (and just when I thought we'd got a good discussion going). tactical changes : the manager has the right / responsibility to field the side he thinks will get a result, however he chooses to play or who he selects. In retrospect (horrible word-isn't it ) ....the selection against Man.City proved to be successful and we scored twice - and even led even if starting with RL on the bench raised some dissenting voices. We all try do double-guess ...why he does certain things, etc? My only guess (as he didn't say why) was that a fighting-fit RL coming on at at 50+ minutes against a tiring City defence might catch them off guard - and so it proved. Even Steve Davis got a goal in that game and he wasn't 100% fit either. Defensive errors cost us that game, but who would have expected us to win that one ? I did question the subbing in the Man U game myself, but again it was the defenders who lost that game for us, not the lack of striking power and everyone would surely admit that all three had run themselves to a standstill and fresh legs were needed. Against Fulham ...no-one played that well (except Fonte for once) and Lambert had a poor game and was last to be subbed. Please read me again...I didn't say we'd lose all the other games. I anticipate that we'll lose a lot more games, and NA said in one interview that we needed to win 10 games and draw a few to survive. As for your comment about Jose and Sir Alex....they are in a totally different class to Adkins with years of top class experience but most importantly managed team with world-class players in them. I was merely pointing out that even they don't win all their games. In comparison, there are scarcely more than a couple of players in our squad that would make the United bench. We......and about a dozen other Prem. sides are simply " not in the same league " in terms of skill/experience.... as you well know.

...goes along with the Leeds radio commentator, who was equally dismissive of Seaborne- who made some bad errors, and poor Luke Shaw who ended up giving away a penalty. The same guy, also said that Isgrove was a lively sub.and said our best player was ......Chaplow..... Comments anyone who was at the match?

LOL nice one, Window Cleaner.......

......as did many of our present squad, when we were in NPC last season.... He surely looks good at Brighton, but nowadays we live in different worlds.......

....but you have to admit Turkish ....that almost half of that sum was spent on one (excellent) player who's played only 2½ games, and has been injured for a month already, and is not likely to be fit for another...... However, I think we all agree that at least half the present side are not upto Prem. standard......

well NA's had the majority of that squad for over two seasons Dibden...... surely he knows their strengths and weaknesses by now. As for wrong tactics, etc....well you surely don't expect us to win every game this season? . We didn't manage that last season when most of the opposition were weaker than the poorest Prem.side is today. If you put every defeat down to bad tactics and wrong substitutions...then what were the reasons for Chelsea, MU and M.City losing their games they have so far? - because they are in the top four. If we fail to get any points at all from our two games with Chelsea, or our visit to Man. U in January...or the return matches with Arsenal and Man .City ....will that also be wrong tactics? We can only use the players we have and that means we play the "best " (excuse that word) that we have in their best positions. The fact that more than a few are off-form, it means we have to play people out of their natural role which doesn't help, or that two of our best midfielders out injured for an extend period is another factor. We have to be philosophical and say some teams are better / much better than we are at present and we're going to lose a few more games before May, but hopefully not so many that we'll be relegated. The best explanation has to be that old comment from Lawrie McMenemy (even at the height of his successful years). He once said; As manager; you can never win .. ... if we win, everyone says ...the team played well....if we lose, it's my fault because I picked them ........"[/I]..........never a truer statement.

Yes I know it's your humour......and actually its 3 games......and a sub appearnace, but that's no reason to sack him - is it ? He'll come again. 10 years ago James Beattie went 9 games before scoring his first .but ended up with 23 goals and was the leading Englsih-born scorer in the Prem. (Thierry Henry won the Golden Boot).

AGREED........and also Yoshida...but unfortunately .....the rest don't have my confidence.

I wasn't suggesting we had a normal or even abnormal start....purely pointing out to some of the contributors that such catastrophic starts do not necessarily mean we will be relegated in May. Very many of the newly-promoted sides suffer a similar fate every season. I'm sure the same case could be made for several other sides. The skill gap between the NPC and Prem....is enormous and unfortunately many people at the club misjudged the ability of some of our key players when moving up to the top division. Having looked so capable last season, it may have been easily done. I am not filled with a wild sense of optimism (your words).and regardless of who is manager in January, we have a better financial position now than we had in ANY of those seasons quoted in the OP. when we did survive. Whether or not the £30 million was wasted or not (as someone else said)...remains to be seen, but I've no doubt that we will spend quite a bit (though perhaps not as much) in the next transfer window - as Cortese surely realises that survival in the Prem. means an income of between £60-90 million - so a few million more is only safeguarding the investment. I was not drawing any comfort from finding three seasons where we had a worse start, merely trying to point out that bad starts aren't necessarily the death knell of a club who have resources to get out of jail ..by the end of the season. I expect a total turnover of the squad after New Year and very much doubt if even half of the existing side will start the last game of the season....by which time I hope we will have secured survival to next season.

I listened to the Radio commentary from Leeds.which was a bit of a downer as they kept on about beating a Prme.side ......when we'd only put out our reserve side and several Academy lads on the bench ! ....there wasn't much good to say ....except that the Leeds guy said he thought that Chaplow was our best player on the night......the rest weren't worth a comment.

this board has been liberally sprinkled with anti-Merrington comments (mostly for his commentaries on Radio Solent) for some years past ...or have you missed that?

the problem at SMS lies in the Boardroom .....not in the dressing room. Most of last season's squad did what they could last season....now they've all found their level. The major decisions made in the summer about signings (apparantly) weren't Nigel's .and he's doing what he can with the squad he has ...(even if some people don't approve of his tactics, subbing sometimes). If he loses his job in the next two months, the Board won't be able to offer " an eventual replacemen t" anything more than a promise of new players in January...provided they are players that Cortese / Reed will approve. A new manager coming now would have to work with the same squad that NA has ...and though they maybe already trying to do their best - but it's clearly not enough! Nigel Adkins has become the scapegoat for other people's poor judgement. For my part ....I'd love to see who was on his " wish-list " in the summer - and didn't get considered.

It's a pity people show their dislike for Dave - because of his dialect......most of us have one, but why is it some of the " southies " seem to condemn folk from the North as less than smart? ----just because they don't speak the Queeens English and drop their h's on occasions . Apart from his own pro. career at Burnley (a good side in his day)...Dave selflessly put together the best youth set-up that Saints have ever had (and I'm including our present Academy setup - at present anyway.) People who roll-off the names like MLT , Shearer and Wallaces (yeah, yeah) but forget the many others who came under DM's guidance in over 10 years, and when it was the first team manager who took the plaudits for the years of work that Dave had put in. When we were left stranded without a manager, he took up the reins and achieved just as much success as his predecessors, and some others who came after - namely he kept us up in the Prem. He didn't fit Rupert Lowe's vision of a manager (who then chose Graeme Souness to succeed him) ....what a masterpiece of misjudgment that was. LIke Lawrie Mac, some people are quick to criticise Dave's manner, attitude and choice of vocabulary without realising he has just as much football knowledge than many of the existing Prem. managers today.