Wes Tender

No it wasn't. You weren't old enough to recognise what football was for quite some time after you were born. And a damned good thing that you weren't born on 14th November 2004 or 29th January 2005, as by that reasoning you would have been a Saints fan, they having beaten you twice already that season. The reason that you support the Skates is plain. One only has to look at the slag who is your mother to realise that since you were born, you have probably been wearing Skate pyjamas, sleeping under a Skate duvet, looking at Skate wallpaper and listening to your family bad-mouthing those f*cking Scummahs. I know that it is far too much to expect, but if he had more intelligence, he would realise that in the majority of the few short years of his life, the Skates were in the same division as us when he was born, but then fell two divisions. But then we climbed back to the Premiership by the time he was 7 whilst they had changed places with us in the third division and now a year later they are in the fourth division whilst we continue to climb even higher in the top flight. I suppose the poor mite can console himself that there was another occasion afterwards when they also beat us 4-1, even though they were two divisions above us, but he must also grow up eventually facing the prospect that the chances are that they will never again be above us in his lifetime. But like most Skates, he will be able to console himself that they beat us 4-1 in the ever increasingly dim and distant past.

I was watching the new series of the Three Musketeers of the box tonight and witnessed a startling revelation. It instantly became clear why Cortese left us; he is starring in the production as King Louis. Nicola Cortese Ryan Gage

There is a clue here, (if it's been transcribed correctly) Jeff Stelling:

I'm going to recommend Katharina Liebherr calls off her search for a chief executive, as we have an amply qualified candidate right here in Southampton. In docker-p we have somebody who not only knows the ins and outs of big business finance, but is also unerringly right about which players can be bought and immediately provide successful additions to the team, without any need to bed-in and gel with their team mates. And he will also become a local hero when he makes savings of £35 million by his inspired signings of the right players and then ploughs it back for the benefit of the fans via reduced ticket prices.

So who to believe? Cortese's tame puppets in the media, or Katharina's PR people? I find myself leaning towards her people, because that will have been firmly based on what she instructed them to say, whereas the media can put their own spin on a story to sensationalise it.

I'm very much in accord with these views. I just get the impression that Cortese's ego got the better of him. The control freak side of him has produced very positive results on the pitch, but doesn't appear to be conducive to good business practice when it comes to dealing with the Corporate clients, the fans or the Media/PR side of things.

He guessed. He always guesses. Guesses that cause potential consternation to the more susceptible posters are his favourites. His conclusions are best ignored, or taken with a giant pinch of salt.

I suspect that Katherina's command of the English Language is impeccable, as is the case with many Swiss Nationals, so I doubt that there has been any confusion between the distinction of not planning to sell any players and pledging not to sell any players. In any event, the message from her has been conveyed via a well respected team of PR professionals, so I would expect that if posters on here could pick up on the subtle nuances of the situation, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't also be beyond their capabilites.

This is a football forum we are talking about. That there are some posters who will mouth off before engaging their brains goes with the territory. There were the inevitable knee-jerk reactions and then there were the remarks from the mysogynists whose opinions come from the age of Alf Garnett. Neither group comes out of it looking as if they're the sharpest tools in the box.

An excellent read, Connor, with a good summary of the historic timeline right up to the current situation.

Thanks Nicola for bringing us to the attention of Markus Liebherr and thanks for your drive and ambition that has brought us back to the Premier Division on such a sound footing. But now it is time to draw a blue line under your stewardship and move onwards and hopefully upwards. I recall the introduction that many fans had to Cortese shortly after he arrived, when at the Radio Solent forum at the start of his first season, he stated that he and Markus Liebherr were solely custodians of the club, which was owned by the fans. There were times when it did not feel like that, but we fans cannot really criticise the incredible results that have been achieved by him. Whether it is feasible to have a Chief Executive who is as driven and ambitious as Cortese but at the same time also a bit more conciliatory towards the fanbase remains to be seen. There is no harm in hoping that such an individual does exist and that Katerina manages to find them.

Here are a couple of possible candidates

There is so much speculation and conjecture from the media feeding frenzy, that there has to be an element of truth in some of it, just through the law of averages. But as an indication of how much the press knew about the inside story, it appears to have come as much of a surpise to them as it did to us that Cortese had resigned a few months back. Excuse me if I don't place much credence on their ability to accurately predict what the future holds for us based on what they have got right so far.

I asked you for facts and you have not been able to provide anything factual at all. You just produce an article from a media source which is as much conjecture as yours. The media also reported that Cortese had been offered an "eye-watering" sum of money to stay, but he declined it. That hardly gives any substance to your or the Beeb's contention that Katarina was in a tearing hurry to sell the club, does it?

A superb article exposing the puerile double standards of our gutter press. Other Red Tops are awash with stories that half of our best players will be signed by various glory clubs, wrapping up speculation as fact, as is their usual modus operandi.

Whatever. But the thrust of his argument certainly has merit. It takes a particularly childish poster to throw their toys out of the pram and hurl that sort of petty insult towards the daughter of the man who saved our club from oblivion a few years back. I don't recall anybody mentioning not wanting out club to be owned by Markus because he wasn't as sveldt as they would have liked.

OK then, clever clogs. Give us your detailed appraisal of the facts that leads you to this conclusion. Facts, that is, not conjecture, speculation, supposition or guesswork derived from conclusions that eminate from your febrile imagination.

I've been away from this forum since early this morning, so when I last read it there were just rumours about Cortese going that could be dismissed as paper talk. What a shock to read the official announcement that he has actually gone. But then again, it was also a massive shock to read that Adkins had gone last season and in the cold light of day after the numbness had eased, his replacement hasn't done too shabbily. Who is to say that we are not now entering another period of evolution which won't improve us further? It is natural that such events as these will trigger all sorts of conjecture about the implications for our future and speculation about the motives of the two main protagonists, Cortese and Katherina Liebherr, but until there is something concrete in the form of a statement by either party as to their reasons for this eventuality, it is useless making predictions as to what the future holds for us. The press are having a field day suggesting that all of our best players will be off to glory clubs and some bedwetters on here are wringing their hands predicting a China Syndrome type meltdown. People need to get a grip of themselves and exercise some patience until things become clearer. Within the next few days it will probably emerge whether Pochettino will wish to leave, whether any of the players might wish to go. But I suspect that the players are a fairly tightly knit group and the wiser heads among them will advise their colleagues to sit tight and wait for events to unfold further before making any rash decisions. It has been suggested that some of them were tempted to come here or remain here because of the "project", the ambitious aim to be in Champions League football within a certain timespan. Who is to say that the project dies with the departure of Cortese? Why shouldn't others who might be appointed in his place not be similarly ambitious on the instructions of Miss Liebherr? Tomorrow's another day; let's see what it brings in the way of clarification from sources that are more reliable than those which are currently sending the more excitable on here into a tizz.

There seems to be this opinion amongst some posters that the only way that we could possibly break into the top 6 would be by spending a hundred million or more on players. And yet we have players at the club either now or who were here until comparatively recently, who have come up through our academy and who taken together would be worth this hundred or more millions. Add together the value of Bale, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw, Lallana, Chambers, Ward-Prowse, Clyne etc and you have a pretty decent team without much expenditure if they were all still with us. In the case of Bale, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain, had they been here now, we would not have had the need to sell them and if any of them went to a huge club like Bale did, then that money would have been in our bank account ready to invest in other top drawer players. The players currently coming through are the ones that will improve us immeasurably at minimum outlay, or swell our coffers if sold on. But the additional argument that holds water is that regardless of expenditure of multi-millions, a club is still at the end of the day buying players with all of the human frailties that are common to all players. No player is immune to injury or suspension and then it also depends on their mental strength, so that it is not unheard of that the most expensive team of individuals can be beaten by a much less expensively contructed team who play together as a team, the sum of its parts being greater than the whole. A top team can spend a huge amount on a player like Van Persie who is then out for much of the season and another team can discover a prodigy who is bought for a small outlay and who then sets the league on fire. For these reasons, it is not impossible to break into the top six, Everton have been doing it for years without spending mega-bucks. And the wobbles that Liverpool had these recent few seasons and the wobble that United are currently experiencing, prove that nothing is set in concrete when there are so many factors apart from expenditure that can influence the outcome of a league position.

Rallyboy obviously heard the same figure as I did on Radio Solent; 2003. They even commented on the precise nature of the figure, speculating that they must have counted every Skate through the turnstiles. But we have to consider that there must have been a considerable number of Skates living in the Oxford area, who might have walked up on the day and gone in the home section. After all, this is the South's Glory Club and they will have a massive following of plastic fans in their Southern catchment area who will have jumped at the opportunity to see their heroes when they were playing virtually on their doorstep. Then there will be all those Oxford fans who support Oxford as their second club and Pompey as their first love. So there probably were about 4000 Skates at the match. I'm a bit suprised though that a match featuring one of the division's top teams and the South's biggest club with the best fan's in World football wasn't better attended, when the journey from Portsmouth to Oxford only takes just over an hour. I would have expected a sell-out.

We're only just over halfway through the season, so there is plenty of time for things to change. Even those top teams above us could fall a few places. What would happen to Liverpool if Suarez was out injured until the end of the season? United aren't anywhere near the force they were without Van Persie. Spurs are catchable. We are now almost back to full strength and have a decent run of fixtures coming up. After them, we play some of those top teams and can beat any of them on our day. I see no reason why we couldn't move up the table a couple of places at least.

Are Norwich a big club? How is their star signing Wolf's Winkie doing? They were the club you held up as a shining example of the sort of signings we ought to be making before the start of the season. How are they doing?

What a load of tosh! As we often do, we commanded the midfield, so which team would have walked all over us today? We've already beaten Liverpool and drawn with City, United and should have drawn with Arsenal too but for Boruc pratting about and Clot 'n' Berk allowing them a really soft penalty. The defence we had on the pitch today had the second best record in Europe for several matches and we only started conceding when half of the back five and a key midfielder were out injured. And arguably Pochettino's alternative plan, substituting on Ramirez produced the decisive moment's play that gained us the win. Your post reeks of the sort of opinions formed by somebody not there, lacking perspective and taking no account of the factors that render it shallow.

A boring first half, but we had most of the possession and were winning most of the 50/50 balls. Cork in particular played a blinder, but the other midfielders were also committed and sharp. The few times that WBA penetrated the midfield, the defence looked composed and it was the formidable combination of Lovren, Fonte, Clyne and Shaw that had kept the goals against column so low, their assurance enhanced by the return of Boruc. Shaw in particular stood out, Clyne a little below par. Anelka and Long hardly got a sniff of possession in a threatening area and Boruc had an easy first 45 minutes to reintroduce himself between the sticks. However, for all of our possession, we didn't seem to have the cutting edge in the final third, a Saints shortcoming in many matches this season. The second half brought a little more pressure higher up the pitch and from early on it did look as if we might make a breakthrough, but WBA defended doggedly. When Cork went off to be replaced by Ramirez, I fretted that perhaps Cork's industry might be missed and be troublesome if we began to lose our dominance of the midfield. It was obviously a gamble, with the reasoning that perhaps Cork was tiring and that the introduction of Ramirez would bring some invention and flair to unlock their defence. And so it proved, because Ramirez produced a sweet defence splitting ball into the box for Lallana to run on to and slot away. I note some comments thinking that Ramirez' pass might have involved an element of luck, but I saw it clearly from the Chapel corner and it looked pretty deliberate to me. Frankly, it was what the game desperately needed, as WBA seemed content to play for the point and hope to hit us on the break and Foster should have been carded for some dreadful time-wasting. Nothing concentrates the minds of a team like going behind and WBA suddenly discovered some urgency, which suited us when they had to commit players forward. There were a few nervous moments when they broke quickly and pumped balls towards our box, but apart from the marvellous save from Boruc, we defended well. In the last minute or two, there were a couple of nail-biting incidents when Foster went up for a couple of corners, but we saw the match out and gained a massive confidence boost from the three points and a clean sheet.

You and I can't possibly be right, WG, because we are assured by the forum's know it all that even if the club have played a blinder in getting the FA to look more closely at the standard of refereeing, because in his opinion Lallana came out of it badly, then the whole exercise was not worth it. Also there couldn't possibly have been more to the club's complaint than met the eye, because Fry has given us assurances that he knows that to be a fact, being as how he has the ear of Cortese and is a confidant of Lallana. In reality, the whole thing is yesterday's chip-wrapper and in a month or two, most people won't remember whether it was Lallana or Rodriguez who was denied the handball.