Saint86

They're fans really are starting to get it however :- "How do you guarantee an immediate return? Can't think of any clubs that have managed it. Can we even afford the upkeep of FP if we're in the conference? What a complete and utter ******* mess we're in" Then again:- "Someone one here said we're 7 months ahead of schedule with our debt repayments, so presumably we'd be ok as long as it was an immediate return to div4?" And look, the bestest deserting the team! Can't be true surely? "The club has had my blood, sweat, tears and tens of thousands over the last 45 years, and I've always said I am Pompey 'till I die, and I am, BUT, dropping out of the league will be one humiliation too far and while the clubs in its current dire predicament, I will not invest any more time commuting from Somerset to watch the likes of Salisbury playing Pompey! We need a manager with half a clue and twenty players who will give 1000% or die trying! Until that delirious day, I will following us on the internet only. I really can't believe we've been allowed to sink this low!" :lol::lol:

Adrian wind it in bud, you spend 50% of your posts it seems getting sucked in by these guys.. just stick them on ignore and leave it be. Life is a lot more stress free on here! I expect Lallana to stay with saints his entire career. He is nearly 26, and is playing regular top flight football for a club he loves, not only that but he is our star man and attracting lots of praise. He has had options to leave in league 1 and the championship and didn't take them... now he is captain, and not only going to brazil but is a growing favourite for a starting line up... He can swap all this for a likely squad position at a "bigger club" and earn fractionally more than I dare say we will pay him to stay. The final nail in the coffin... know one will pay what we value him at.... certainly not at 25/26.... So he isn't going to leave! I Think!

Right place at the right time... Difference he did it effortlessness where as Glasgow saint waits desperately every Saturday to start the next post match thread before it is actually post match

I think people need to get a serious grip to be honest. We are 9th in the league, and have beaten 1 team in the top 10. If we beat newcastle we'll be 8th in the league having beaten 2 teams in the top 10. 3 and a half years ago we were in league 1 obscurity. Onwards and upwards saints, just keep beating teams in the bottom half and we'll do just dandy.

Let me start by saying we have done incredibly well to sit where we are in only our second season back in the top flight, and even better considering where we were three and half years ago. That said, are we carrying a few bodies who are mentally on their holidays? Boruc - When is he not on holiday? Shaw - Playing for england Fonte - Doesn't really have anything to play for, he has next to no chance of earning a portugal call up imho Lovren - Guaranteed to make world cup so taking it easy in recent weeks, criminal performance vs spurs from him, but everyone has a bad day. Chambers/Clyne - neither have anything to play for tbh. JWP - Nothing to play for and looks distinctly average every time I watch him Cork - Nothing to play for Davis - Nothing to play for Lallana - Has the most drive and determination to get to Brazil of all our players and is showing it every single minute of each game. JayRod - Kicked on again since the 30man squad and denmark, puts in a good shift always. Lambert - Again he looks refocused since the Denmark squad call up and is scoring and assisting again. So all in all, not that surprising that we seems to take the foot off the gas when we are cruising, and when things get tough, we only have around 4 players who really pull their weight at the moment.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2585223/THE-TRANSFER-COLUMN-Moyes-chasing-Lovren-bids-rebuild-United-defence-Monaco-say-Falcao-not-sale.html Will we have a team next year? Anyway thought i'd share as cant see it posted.

The quick "3 month" intervene is that?

Standing is based on the last 5-10 years not 50... Which puts us in mighty good stead to be honest. Club that has had a meteoric rise in england, good stadium, healthy finances, incredible youth production, 4 players in england squad (4th best in england?)... all pretty rosey. For me we are easily 10-15th at the moment, and we sit 8th in the country on position with a young squad. Now, unless you think teams like stoke, sunderland and west ham seriously have better "prestige" than us in current fans thoughts that is your choice. But we are fast returning to our spot as nations favourite second team.... Long may it continue.. If the club continues its upward trend then we can expect to be challenging for europe in the next few seasons - pushing us up into top 10 in recent years.... Or, we will go flat/decline and sit around 15th-20th.... time will tell. Why you would sell us short of 15th is beyond me... Name 15clubs you would say are definitely bigger than us in terms of current standing?

Morgan interested in a move to Arsenal, with quotes http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/southampton-midfielder-schneiderlin-arsenal-why-not-4013137?utm_source=main_feed#.UymT3_l_s1Q

Not to shoot you down, but as allready said, charging less for the same capacity after the financial penalty of having to install them in the first place won't encourage clubs. Our ticket database is a lot larger than 36k as well. What we all want is larger stadiums and cheap tickets.. Clubs missed a golden opportunity to adopt the german model following the increased tv deals which could have been used to finance this. May never happen now, but regardless, safe standing is not the answer.

To be clear, you want the club to pay to install safe standing in an area of the ground (taking up same area per seat as normal) then charge less for them? Therefore reducing the clubs take for each home game.... They would go in Northam, which sells out regardless as well. Why don't they just drop ticket prices if they are fussed? The only way that would keep fans happy, is that the club expands to say 40k and cuts ticket prices, paying for it out of the enhanced tv deals for a few seasons. At the end of that process you'd have grown the fanbase and sell more on merchandising year on year. All this safe standing bollarks is just that. It will never be installed in all but a small section of the ground, and the clubs will rightly charge the same amount for them since fans are quite happy to pay full price to stand in those areas as they are... They certainly won't charge less for the same capacity.... It will undboutly lead to an increase in detrimental "terrace" behavior, such as not standing where your allocated seat is, drinking in the stands and the use of flares etc... a lot of which is on the rise without the encouragement of standing areas. If fans want them in limited areas then that is fair enough... but I wouldn't expect to see cheaper ticket prices for it... There is no financial reasoning behind that. Clubs pays to replace existing seating, then charges less for same capacity. Not blood likely fellas

Having just read into it, it would appear he can play for England, doesn't violate the home nations agreement and there is similar precedent set by a former saints player in 1998. It won't happen though.

Can someone please explain this agreement concisely for me.

So Mo Farah and Kevin Pieterson shouldn't be allowed to represent their home either. I wonder how many Brits are of pure celtic blood....

People moan about Lambert getting less goals because of mopo's system and playing deeper.... Then say they dont think he can play as a target man... Did you watch must of the last 4 years? He's a great target man ffs, but unlike Carroll he has the flexibilty to play deeper and across the front 3. 41 chances is great but hardly surprising, as I stated in the new striker thread... Lambert does a bell of a lot more for the team than some fans seem to notice, Ye we need a younger model, but the guy still has enough in him to get to the world cup, and caroll returning may just push him on... Carroll scores 1 - Lambert 1 goal, one assist. Long may it continue!

Just lol

Exhibit A... NC guides saints from 20th in league 1 to 3rd in the premier league in 3 years and achieves back to back promotions with Adkins who has a net spend of £3m in that time. Exhibit B... Sour mash manages to not hold his fork like plank when eating his cereal, still, its baby steps as he works his way up to the spoon. As for your deligtful trolling and point you are trying to make. I don't have a life objective to prove you wrong on a football forum (hmm maybe that is what my life is missing afterall )... Most saints fans with a basic grasp know Cortese was excellent at negotiating for the club, the oxlade chamberlain deal that Alpine proffered is a great example. But also just signing players like lambert and fonte (who he persuaded to step down a division) and keeping Morgan, lallana together etc was fantastic management. I doubt we'd have done so well if we didn't have a squad of premier league and england internationals on the way up. You also have to look at how all our key players are on long term key contracts giving us financial sercurity when bids start coming in. You may not like people who are successful, personally I'm quite glad Nicola was around when we went bust, we could have had the shower at coventry, leeds, portsmouth etc etc etc.. Instead we got back to back promotions, plaudits for our style of play, 4 england call ups, and the best acadamey in england, with the actual prospect of keeping them all for once. Not only that but he got saints fans signing and dreaming again. All under his stewardship. Any examples for the prosecution per chance? Or shall I bring up relative agent fees vs other clubs for another example of what his negotiating skills gave the club? If not, then do jog on you miserable wind up, are you able to run?

So to be clear, being a swiss banker supporting a wide range of sporting clubs including a catalogue of top european club clients is not a business? Or are you just jumping on the Alpine has spoken there fore must be shouted down.

Jesus chirst sour mash, put a sock in it. You are wrong and Alpine is right, seriously deal with it. If you want to criticise NC for the job he did you're a total numpty.

I'll reserve judgement until we see what he can do, for the time being i'm concerned by the shear amount of management waffle and guff he talks whilst not actually saying much of anything. My main concern is the lack of objective and ambition they are showing, and he is in fact talking down success on the football pitch in favour of better communication with the fans. Ask arsenal how much they like not winning things... Say what you want, Cortese came in and said bold ambitious things, and then he delivered them. "5 year plan to return to the premier league" Long term goal to become and established premier league team (done in 5 years ) and push for europe in next 5... Youth academy 50% of team from academy etc etc The fact that this guy can't give any indication of objectives is concerning, its not hard to just restate the existing ones ala academy and 50% of fist team... but he didn't do that. Worries me. Gone from balls and drive of steel Cortese to what exactly. Far from placated at this present time, a good summer and pochetino signing will go someway to instilling faith in me.

So that feels like euphoria to the rest of us then?

hmmm.... So obvious that he ranks 8th on the EA PPI (Jayrod 9th), and in fantasy football terms, he is the 7th best striker in the prem (JayRod 6th) and comes 12th in points per game (Jayrod 13th).. He is above Negredo for example in every single rating comparison, as well as being above RVP, lukaku, Benteke, Bony, dzeko, agbonlahor, Eto'o, Torres, Bar etc etc etc.. So its not that frigging obvious, we just have a load of fans who don't watch what he does for the team. Granted that he is nearing the end of his playing career, but the man deserves fantastic respect and not the sniping that is going on in the wings. He is doing a more than respectable job in my humble opinion. But.... a younger replacement will be required for next season, or it will be too late to replace him when it really is needed.

I like your logic. 100% of fans who went to sunderland were and are mightily fu cked off. Everyone who didn't go has no right to complain or be happy that we are 9th / be over it. Which I will read as the tiny ticket allocation relative to our fanbase are the only ones who have a right to an oppinion on this issue. Shall I not use your own stick to beat you with. Serioulsy, this thread has reached 97 posts, covers and issue that ****ed off a lot of saints fans... who annoyance at the cup upset is now being used by other saints fans to beat those who are passionate and disappointed about the clubs attitude. If you don't want to discuss the issue or have no grief about supporting a club that has no interest in winning anything of note then thats your look out, BUT DON'T CLICK THE ****ING LINK to abuse fellow fans. For the rest of us (thats those who would like to think that all the money, time, tears and effort is actually worth something) its is frustrating to think that we should have beaten Sunderlands second string (would get relegated from the championship to be frank), and would then have faced a team we have routinely beaten and battered in hull just for a Wembley day out that we can either share with our old man or share with ours kids. Instead the club effectively threw the towel in, then proceeded to give a limp **** in hand performance at west ham after 10days rest. 9th place aint worth it, wembley is. Unless we are going to hark on about 9th place finishes instead of 2nd once 84 fades from memory......

Personally think the club have thrown away the perfect chance to not only reach an fa cup semi, but also the final. Hull had a home draw against Sunderland but also a 3rd tier team at Wembley in the semi. Man. Ity are in the pro ess of losing at home to Wigan 2-0 at time of writing and are on the other side of the draw for the final anyway. Worst case outcome had we bothered to try vs Sunderlands second string was a final vs arsenal as the bare minimum. Once again I am fuming.. If MoPo really wanted Europe it was there on a plate, with a proper cup final and a chance to avenge 2003. He's either lying or awful at squad rotation.. not that a 10day rest did our players any good agaist west ham.... Or Liverpool. Ah well, at least we can enjoy 8th/9th hey guys!

Pulis is a very good manager, and he has shown at palace that he can change up his style, its the stoke faithful that bum the hoofball. He just did what worked with the players he had, he's change club, different resources and squad, and he has adapted accordingly. His stock is very good in my humble opinion.