Wes Tender

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2015/07/22/13782912/- Lovren telling the World that he isn't solely to blame for all of the defensive lapses that he showed for Liverpool last season. It is a shame that he didn't have Clyne, Fonte, Shaw beside him, Boruc behind him and Schneiderlin / Wanyama in front of him to help him out. A pity too for poor old Ricky, who relied a lot on the understanding that he had developed with Lallana, only for Brenda to hardly ever realise what made him tick and play the two of them together. Sad to think that he might be off to WBA, having spoilt his swan-song dream of finishing his career at Liverpool. As for Lallana, he hasn't set the world alight at Scousehampton and faces a lot of competition for his place this coming season.

Quite right. Exactly the same as CMFG, (Chrissy Marsden Football Genius). A bit of hyperbole doesn't go amiss when we remember a player with fondness for the contribution they made for us during our phoenix-like rise up through the divisions.

Went to the ticket office this morning and bought mine and my son's ST seats for the VA match. Wanted to buy a ticket for my daughter too, but she doesn't have a ST, so would either have to buy her a membership for £15, or wait until Thursday. Didn't bother, as unlikely that she would be going to many other matches. What did give me a pleasant surprise, was that they had erected queueing barriers, which is a much fairer system than having 7 or 8 queues and sod's law dictating that you would join what appeared to be the shortest queue, only to find that you were behind the guy that had a fist full of STs for all his mates and family or wished to apply for multiple STS. Another surprise is that instead of issuing actual tickets, I was informed that they had been electronically added to our STs. I hope that works OK, as there is a bit more confidence in actually having a ticket in your hand. What happens if the electronic reading of the ST has not included the match?

You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public. Those who find this outspoken gobsh*te's views impressive are the same ones who rate that other idiot Brand as some sort of juvenile pseudo-intellectual. Pretend to be angry and contoversial in your 4th form views, scatter a few expletives for effect and sit back and wait for the internet clicks to multiply. But internet clicks don't necessarily imply support, as most will have been gained through idle curiosity by the twitter generation of airheads who could do with getting a life in the real world rather than in the cyber one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXCGnTy-v2M

I'll hazard a guess as to why the jury acquited, based on the seemingly overwhelming evidence of the guilt of the law enforcement officers. Could it be that the jury comprised your family or close personal friends of yours?

Having boned up on this, it appears that agents are now a thing of the past and that they will now be called intermerdiaries. They won't now be regulated by FIFA, but by their own national Football Association. Technically anybody can become an intermediary provided that they kept their noses clean and pay the £500 registration fee. They don't have to pass the previous exam and don't really have to have any knowledge of football. These intermediaries can also be companies too.

Typically for you, here you are again with still plenty enough time before the transfer window closes, making knee-jerk reactions about the situation. You see no problem in accusing the board of not spending enough money, even though there is still time for them to do so. You are equally comfortable making assessments of players signed, when you have not seen any of them kicking a ball in a Saints shirt in a PL match. And no doubt Clasie will not be as good as Schneiderlin in exactly the same way that Pelle wasn't as good as Lambert, Alderweireld wasn't as good as Lovren, Mane/Tadic weren't as good as Lallana, Bertrand wasn't as good as Shaw, Forster wasn't as good as Boruc, etc. Regarding the CB, having identified Lovren and Toby from out of the blue, do you believe that those appointments were just lucky and that we can't find another gem? As for Austin, do we really need him with Pelle, Rodriguez, Mane, Long, Juanmi, Gallagher? Mayuka? Do you not credit Koeman with the ability to make a judgment call on him which you can accept? I expect that he knows much more about the players and their potential than you do.

I asked that too, but nobody on here seems to know the answer. It certainly seems to be the case that they ought to be regulated based on what Les says they get up to.

It does exist, but only in the minds of him and "people he talks to".

Les states that a lot of these problems are caused by the deregulation of agents. It begs the questions, why did that happen and why isn't there pressure from clubs like us to have agent regulations reinstated?

Who cares about the chant? The video was infinitely more enjoyable.

Cla-sie, now that we've signed you you ought to know, we'll build a team around you, we love you so. Jordy, you can show you're a hero A Saints hero....... Presumably most recognised the tune - "Baby, now that I've found you" - The Foundations

No, nothing has changed at all. You're still consistent in your position of being critical of the way that the club is run, regardless of whether it's well run or not. Apart from the people you speak to, nearly everybody else would agree that our stock as a club has hardly ever been any higher. Maybe those you speak to mistakenly think that you are referring to the New Orleans Saints.

As high as that? I had it down for a three at most. Saint George usually posts rubbish like that, and I suspect that he is really just a wind-up merchant. Probably more accurate to portray us a club that appears to have developed the habit of only letting their star players go to the top clubs and for ridiculous sums, replacing them with players who turn out generally to have equal ability for a much lower price. When Koeman eventually moves on, if he continues as he has done it will be with a reputation considerably enhanced, thus setting a good example for other potential replacement managers that wish to replicate what he has done. Apart from the top four or five clubs, Southampton would be the next most attractive appointment in England for an ambitious manager, who would inherit one of the best set-ups in terms of infrastructure and one of football's best academies providing a conveyor-belt source of home grown talent.

Tut Tut. Several song attempts and none so far mentioning the essentials, the country he's from, his dietary preferences and whether he hates Pompey or not.

I thought that too. Time to draw a blue line under it and move on.

How do you mean? Lowe only had about 6 -7% of the shares and the entire old board had less than 30%, so it was relatively simple for anybody moderately rich to buy enough of a percentage in the club to outvote them, much as Wilde did. Lowe did a good job at giving the impression of being in a strong position with his utterances about how he would move aside if anybody invested £20 million into the club, but in reality a much lower amount could have seen him off.

They only sell their top players at a low rate because the bigger clubs already have better players than most of them anyway. It is only players like Bale and Modric, possibly Kane and Lloris out of the current crop, who could be deemed as good enough to turn the heads of the bigger teams. However, there are several players at the level beneath those few top players who they have sold recently and who they are looking to sell soon, mostly the dross that they bought in when they splurged the dosh from the Bale windfall.

Easy - we get in Frank de Boer to replace him

I'm looking forward to the article from the Mail suggesting that Spurs are seen as weak, because they cannot keep their star players like Bale and Modric when the really big clubs come knocking on their door. Also, although they wished to buy Schneiderlin and Rodriguez from us, they couldn't manage either, because Schneiderlin went to a much bigger club and Rodriguez is happy to stay here for the time being. As for how the other clubs see us, how would the Daily Fail know? I don't see any of the clubs below us believing that we are a soft touch and those above us like Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd will have reason to believe that we are pretty astute in getting mega-bucks for the players that they want and whom we don't need to sell unless we get an offer we can't refuse.

Because they and Liverpool are the two teams above us that are the more likely candidates that we could rise above potentially? Lloris played quite an important role in them finishing above us last season, so I for one am delighted that Lady Luck has gone some way to balancing our misfortune with the injury to our number one GK.

As far as I'm aware, it is an asset of the club which would now belong to Katherina Liebherr. If I remember correctly, it is 40 acres of farmland, which if given planning permission to build housing, would be a valuable asset. It stretches along the right hand side of Bubb Lane, Hedge End (B3342) towards the Winchester Road. The current building activity is pretty well right up adjacent to it, opposite the Crematorium, so it is not beyond the realms of possibility that planning permission might be granted for it in the future.

He also called me a sh*t too, so we're in good company. Did he ask you if you read the good book too? Yes, it is indeed unfortunate that MLT's connection to the Pinnacle bid came close to scuppering the Liebherr bid, but I believe MLT was an innocent abroad who was used by them and I cannot really see how Mark Fry as administrator could possibly favour a bid like Pinnacle's over that from a German Swiss billionaire. If I understand correctly, Pinnacle had paid some sort of fee that had granted them pole position to state their case, but presumably Fry had a duty to accept the offer which had the greatest chance of paying back the creditors, so if there was a chance that the Liebherr bid was compromised, I am inclined to blame Fry. And wasn't there that funny business whereby Fry had a namesake who was intrumental in calling in the Club loan for Barclays and who subsequently turned up a couple of weeks later on the staff of Begbies Traynor, the administrators? All water under the bridge, but always good to reminisce about how things might have turned out for us under different circumstances. I doubt that we would ever have ended up in a position like the Skates though, as we were always good value for an investor because of the stadium, training ground and Jacksons Farm.

As we have one of the club's historians restrospectively crediting Lowe not only with the original purchase of Schneiderlin, but also the increase in his value due to his development years after Lowe became a footnote in the club's history, it seems time to argue the toss about Lowe once more. For all that he managed to get us out of the delapidated and pokey Dell into a new stadium, Lowe cocked-up the original stadium venue at Stoneham and had to be rescued by Southampton Council saving his bacon with the St. Mary's site. But just as we were fortunate to be rescued by Markus Liebherr from the administration caused by Lowe and his cronies, we were also unfortunate to have been the victims of Lowe's reverse takeover in the first place. In my opinion that was an unethical ploy based on the naked greed of the old board of directors to enrich themselves when the PLC was formed and Lowe and Cowan's arrival brought negligible investment into the club, contrasting sharply with the background of the Liebherr/Cortese takeover and the benefits that has brought to the club subsequently. I know that SOGGY sees Lowe's decade as a golden era, but the reverse takeover, the high turnover of managers, the Stoneham fiasco, the appointment of inexperienced coaches like Gray and Wigley, the Woodward episode, the lack of investment, are all factors which count against him. Apparently though, Lowe is also to be credited for keeping us in the top flight for so long, MLT playing very little part in that. As for Schneiderlin, yes, ultimately a very good servant of the club and signed during Lowe's watch, although as already pointed out by others, a purchase we couldn't really afford at the time and probably more credit should go to Georges Prost for uncovering the young unproven Morgan. And credit should go to Lowe and his cronies without whom we would not be owned by the Liebherr family. There were rumours of wealthy consortia wishing to buy us before the reverse takeover, and the old board seemed to be in an indecent hurry to go with Lowe, but eventually we got there in the end when he finally took us into administration. Somehow that position we now find ourselves in has been made all the sweeter because of where we were with him and even the journey through the lower divisions was fun for our phoenix-like rise to arguably being in the best state of health of our entire history. So what do you reckon, FF? Best ever state of health of the club in all of its history?