beatlesaint

If this is true how the hell have we got this guy ?

Thats cos he was at St Marys ;-) Hardly ideal preparation spending the day before the game talking transfers !

You are correct......only thing is I wouldnt use the words great and Puncheon in the same sentence. He is a backup to Lallana !

Desperately need an impact player to come off the bench. Antonio unused sub again for Reading today and now most of their players are regaining fitness thats how its gonna stay. Getup to Reading, offer them a reasonable fee and get him back here FFS

Dont care if it was Elvis Presley who took the project to him, I'm just thankful someone did. When you think of some of the, ahem, more shady characters that turn up at football clubs and run them I think Markus buying us was a god send.

The other thing that makes me confident is that Cortese mentions the blue print they had/have for the club. I cannot believe that in order to realise that plan the necessary funds have not been put into place. A businessman as successful as Markus obviously was would not, I believe, have made no provision for the future and left it to his family to decide wether they would make money available should it be required. I would be surprised if funding is not in place to see us back to the Premiership within the five year plan. If we get back in that time I would imagine the club would then be expected to stand on its own two feet properly as the money is in the Premiership. If we do not make the Prem within the next 4 years then we may see a different approach. But as you say its all conjecture and opinion and none of us know for sure. We must continue to trust Nicola Cortese and the Liebherr family and I for one am happy to do that.

I agree with most of your post but I cannot see where in that statement this suggestion is made to be honest. Trouble with reading between the lines is that you can often read too much or too little into things. There will be enough people dissecting this statement over the next couple of days instead of taking it at face value. The worry would have come if we had been soaked up into the MALI Group, but we haven't.

I agree. The Liebherr family could easily have made an excuse not to travel to Southampton yesterday for the Memorial, they could have stated they were too upset etc. But they didn't - they turned up in numbers - if they didnt know it before they certainly know now just how much Markus was valued. I doesnt look to me like the actions of people who are about to cut the club adrift.

Umm, no its not. Punheon was an invited guest, part of the first team squad. They all wore dark suits, as did all the staff from St Marys. The supporters were NOT invited guests, the supporters went along in their own time with the expectation of standing outside and hearing the service relayed to them. I was there and I can assure you that the fans did not expect to gain entry to the church. It was a touching and lovely decision by someone at the football cub, possibly Cortese, to let us in. So the supporters turned up in their shirts because they were honouring a man who had saved the club and expected to honour him from a distance so to speak. Puncheon is a paid employee of SFC and no matter what some people pontificate on here about the right and wrongs of casual dress, hands in pockets and sauntering down the aisle at the end of the service, I can tell you he stuck out like a sore thumb and did not look like he realised he was in a place of worship, unlike the rest of his colleagues. It did not reflect well on him, he would have been better chaging into a black tracksuit like the academy boys if he doesnt own a suit.

Sorry but there definitely was - there is only one South Today with only one Sally Taylor (thankfully :-) )

I would e mail them an apology if I were you. They actually had the good grace to have it as a seperate, yet brief, story apart from the Sports news, which it should have been.

If they were in any doubt that it was just words one look at the front of St Marys when they returned there for the after memorial gathering would show them just how much he had been taken to the hearts of Saints fans and the people of Southampton. To my mind that display speaks a thousand words over and over again.

Think AP needs to take him to one side and have a quiet word. We dont want any Billy Big Balls here thankyou very much !

Totally agree, I came out feeling very positive about the future of the club and my belief it will continue to be owned by the Liebherr family.

The other thing I will say is what a class act Alan Pardew is. As they all walked out, past the supporters stood at the back on either side of the gangway most of the players looked straight ahead (Connolly looked very emotional actually) but AP looked to his right, smiled and nodded at supporters then did the same to his left where I was stood right in front of him. A genuinally decent guy, I have noticed that about him before but it really bought it home today. Some people know how to conduct themselves, others don't - ie Puncheon.

The guy said at the end he would leave it to people to draw their own conclusions as to why he only bought the one.

Puncheon......i felt like telling him to take his hands out his bloody pockets and show a bit of respect. Arrogant looking tosser.

Spectaculalry missed the point haven't you ? For one the watches were to be bought when the club won a trophy or promotion but on the day he died Markus bought one for Cortese. So use your common sense and try and work out why he only bought one and why he had to buy it THAT day.

I was wondering wether to take my camera but wondered if it was in poor taste to take pictures of people going into a memorial service in a church.

I hope that brings some comfort to them, to see the outpouring of grief from so many who never knew him yet hold him in such high esteem for saving the club. It takes a special man to touch the lives of so many people who never had the pleasure to meet him.

Got a reply from Jordan Sibley. They are deciding in the next few days what to do about the tributes for Saturday's game. Some outside of turnstiles will need to be moved without doubt.

Booked a days leave, driving up from Bournemouth. Its the least I felt I could do, this man saved my football club.

Considering how unassuming Markus seemed I would be very surprised if any t-shirts etc came out with him on.

Oh I'm sure he did. I'm glad that people sang his name out whilst he was there with us and not just after his death.

This is the only cup comp we have a realistic chance of winning so I dont see how going for it would impact on our promotion chances. Its only 6 games inc the final after all.