Daft Kerplunk

This is utterly boring...we got knocked out. We will play in the FA Cup next season. There is 100% ZERO rational argument that we would definitely have beat Sunderland with another team on the day, or got to Wembley thereafter. Also, Rickie Lambert, our most prolific centre forward of recent times quite clearly missed a golden opportunity. Having a different centre-back had ZERO affect on this. The discussion on this season's FA Cup competition and our performance in it is a poison upon reality. It is genuinely surely time to move on!

so, these comments seem totally fair to me, and don't think he is thinking he sees himself as 'bigger than the club' or definitely leaving. to me, it seems like he is saying we have what is essentially a once in a generation opportunity to break into the top echelon and he hopes we make it happen. I also read this as 'playing for a great club' desire as well. No reason it can't happen for Saints, just that it will rely on some solid action from the new leadership, which, with a massive amount coming in from TV revenue, is entirely plausible. if i was a top player, surrounded by other top future players, I'd want to see the same activity from the leadership whose team I played for. Saying it just shows that there is a desire to make it happen here. Nowt wrong with that. Hopefully the leadership are on that track anyway, which we won't know until the summer.

have to say watching Atletico Madrid the other night, the blue shorts looked good and if they are the colours we'd used in the past, then maybe we should return that way. Plus, I liked watching a red and white striped team make the semis of the Champions league very much

the problem is that treading water will potentially lead to going backwards. I am sure that the current regime will know that the playing side must be good enough to generate additional commercial revenue so we should be hopeful that this will be the case. Younger players will be much better next season, and with a few key additions, we can still climb, and build revenues. Cortese had the right vision for the club to climb as high as possible, just not necessarily the right way of communicating it to us as fans, apart from with results on the pitch (which were pretty bloody good, let's face facts on that) and I've always preferred over fluffy press releases

So, TV money and future TV money guaranteed by us staying in the PL, investment in playing squad and training ground was needed to make this a reality (sign better players, increase overall standards in squad and competitiveness). Need to generate greater commercial revenue. Err, definitely, and realise it is a global environment that we can benefit from. See Ralph (never ever going to call him Freddy) Krueger's ambition to make more revenue globally. Better sponsorship deals, will be helped by not having the person at the top be difficult to work with (as some suggest) Current position is that we owe some money, but who doesn't. I don't read any of this as needing to sell, or that we won't buy new talent, just that it will be done in a measured and calculated way, and that we will generate greater revenue. Also, it is, as others have pointed out, in the best interests of everyone at the club to suggest we don't have as much money as they might think (works for transfers in as well as out), and that there were things not done in the best way under previous regime; hardly a new development in new structural announcements. Essentially, very little to see here until we know how things are going to pan out

sad face, he was doing a terrific job

yes

Looking at it objectively, and considering we are actually not that far from being a very good top side, and closer than the likes of Man Utd, especially considering our young players are a long way from their peak and may defy media logic and want to do something special here, where should we strengthen in the summer given below players in the squad? GK - Boruc, Davies, Gazzaniga (need another new experienced keeper ideally) RB - Clyne and Chambers (covered) LB - Shaw and Targett (covered) CB - Lovren, Fonte, Yoshida and Hooiveld (need another top class CB) DM - Schneiderlin, Cork, Wanyama and JWP (covered) AM - Lallana, Ramirez, Davis, Isgrove, Reed (covered) F - Rodriguez, Lambert, Guly, Gallagher (the key area to strengthen, but the same for every team) Can't think there would be disagreement over needing to strengthen GK, CB and CF. I can only see Ramirez and Wanyama getting better as they're still really quite young. I'd like to see an experienced head in there someone, someone who has won a decent championship (preferably premier league) to help guide the young players to success, a Cantona-like figure but who could that be? Hopefully the scouts are out there and they can be found.

stronger language used to hopefully encourage people to move on from this topic

thought that was a fairly reasoned post

crikey, long-time lurker on here but this one is one of those posts that seems to be going way too far. as far as i can tell, the following is true about the weekend: We weren't significantly weakened, many fully capable first-team players played We didn't lose to a horrendous error by any supposed weaker player There was no guarantee that we would have won with some first-team players involved who were clearly injured (Fonte) and most importantly: We were not guaranteed to go the whole way and win the FA Cup as seems to be implied by the anger resulting from this one match. Everyone would love a great cup run resulting in winning but there's only one team each year that can do this and it wasn't in any way guaranteed for us. Just as finishing higher up in the league isn't but that is very achievable over the remaining games whereas the cup is always a bit of a lottery. I am afraid that once again, Saints fans are ripping in to each other over a potential outcome that was totally hypothetical. Very much time to move on and forget about it, hope we strengthen in the summer, keep our existing young talent and have a squad next season genuinely capable of competing in a couple of trophies. The response to a result that was not a forgone conclusion all is somewhat crazy