Wes Tender

I appreciated the irony of them saying that Southampton is a sh*thole when their place is such a dirty, run down dump, the unwiped backside of London

I was just thinking that it was long overdue that we had a thread on the stadium, whether we should expand it or move. Heartfelt thanks and eternal gratitude to Horton Heath Saint for raising this on behalf of all of us. We need more posters of his calibre to express so eloquently in writing what we are all thinking. Well done that man.

You have a rather bizarre mentality if you can believe that such infantile behaviour can be justified solely on the basis that somebody else you dislike dares to challenge you on it. And if you think for one minute that holding parties to celebrate the death of a leader of a democratically elected party makes you sane and sensible, then it is obvious that your actions make you neither. Rather you are behaving like a petty, small-minded, immature individual.

You can see why many West Ham fans despair at the team they have become and the football they play under Allardyce. A more niggly, cheating, diving, cynical team of hoofers I've yet to encounter in the Premership this time around. Does Allardyce coach them to dive the minute that someone breathes gard down the neck, or are they that type of player to begin with? Take that overpaid, over-hyped Donkey Carroll for example. As well as being a mystery why anybody would be mad enough to think that he is worth £35 million, it is incomprehensible why such a big lumbering oaf cannot keep his feet when challenged to the ball by a much smaller player. One can only conclude that he does it to gain an advantage via a free-kcik, in other words, he is a cheat. What a shame though that the referee didn't realise that they conned him every time. Even the one awarded to them that resulted in their equaliser didn't look justified to me. I'll have to wait and see it on MOTD. We passed the ball about nicely, generally didn't fall victim to their hoofballs and were the better team. But without Rodriguez to provide his energy and cutting edge, a draw was a reasonable result. Rodriguez showed enough in that last sector of the match to suggest that had he been fit enough to start, he would have been the difference between 1 point and 3. Another match where we were unable to play the Pochettino high pressing game, but Plan B looked quite a bit like Adkins' style of having us play, trying to keep the ball away from WH and passing it about probing for an opening. Generally good performances from most of the players, particularly Cork, Schneiderlin and Clyne. Ramirez is frustrating. OK, he scores the goal to give us the lead, but then had a succession of dead ball situations where he failed to deliver a decent ball. It would be good to finish ahead of WH this season, so I hope that they get nothing from their game in hand. I suspect that following Reading and West Ham, Swansea and West Brom are going to be matches that much more suit our style of play and if Shaw and Rodriguez are both back, our chances of the points will be much better.

It's all well and good making comparisons between Adkins' matches in the Premiership and Pochettino's, but inevitably there are factors which distort the comparison which have not been mentioned. The author makes a point of saying how important Cork has been to the success of the team, especially in partnership with Schneiderlin, but Cork missed several of the opening games and we have been noticeably better, both in attack and defence since he returned. The difficult fixture start we had is also a factor and players like Shaw blossomed under Adkins, but weren't a realistic option earlier. Also the defence was weaker earlier because new signings like Yoshida and Boruc had not had the time to bed in. The fairer comparison would be the same number of matches for each of them and those being the ones closest together, i.e. Adkins last matches, when he had put together a run of matches that had us only beaten once in twelve. But that wouldn't produce such a clear cut case in Pochettino's favour, would it? Although victories over some of the glory teams and the way we went about it, is impressive, the outcome of the matches yet to be played against the more average teams will be illuminating. The win over Reading is cited as evidence that we can employ different tactics against more long ball teams, but one swallow does not make a Summer. A better defined opinion can be formed at the end of the season.

Exactly my thoughts. The scarf, football and halo are distinctly Mickey Mouse and look amateurish, which is only to be expected when it was designed in a competition. Although I've also grown fond of it, I'm also a little embarassed by it and it's long overdue that we redesigned it to reflect the professional outfit that we now are. My only concern would be for all those who have it tattooed onto various visible parts of their anatomy, but a badge change will provide additional work for the local tattooists, so not all bad news.

I've explained that situation enough times that others with more intelligence than you have understood it perfectly well. I'll make allowances therefore that it might take much more time to penetrate your cranium. My ST seat hasn't been available these past years since Lowe's departure, neither will it be again in the foreseeable future (unless he returns). Clear, or should I try and simplify it still further just for your benefit?

We certainly weren't a class apart in the opening 30 minutes and the goal from Rodriguez came very much against the run of play. Reading had chances to have taken the lead during that period but thankfully their finishing was poor. Yes, we certainly looked a cut above them when we were two up and full of confidence and the Reading players' heads had dropped. Funny really that our stats against some of the top teams showed far more shots on goal than against the bottom teams. And as I say, plan B could have been undone even by some poor refereeing decisions, had Rodriguez's goal been disallowed for a foul on the keeper, Hooiveld penalised for his tackle to give away a penalty, or their shot having been considered to have crossed the line. It will be interesting to see which plan we employ for the remaining fixtures. I'm guessing plan A for Swansea, Spurs and West Brom, but plan B for West Ham and Stoke. I don't know which for Sunderland. Maybe plan C?

Oh dear, Roger. What have you done? Brace yourself for the incoming flak about how we'd never fill the enlarged ground unless we're in the Champions League beating Barcelona and Bayern Munich and that's never going to happen, because to get there, we'd have to be capable of beating the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City. And in any event, we don't have the catchment area, because there just aren't 50,000 people in the immediate area who would be willing to pay to watch us play, except of course unless it's at Wembley for a minor Cup.

Doesn't Lawrenson have a Twitter account then? I don't know about these things, but on the face of it, if he did, we ought to be ramming it down his throat on his account, surely?

Yes you're right. A superb defence splitting through ball. Lambert and Rodriguez are both supplying some really good passes now and playing well off each other, as highlighted on Match of the Day.

It was a very nervous start from us today and for 30 minutes Reading were the better team. Where did our high pressing game go? Where did our closing down go? Reading had the greater share of winning the 50/50 balls during that period. But we gradually asserted ourselves and then had Rodriguez to thank for putting us ahead against the run of play. He is a player gaining confidence and improving with each game and forging a good understanding with Lambert. The two of them were too much of a handful for Reading's defence, which began to show why they are where they are through poor defending. Federici did not show the courage and the bravery required to block out Rodriguez, who showed great determination to score. We began the second half much brighter and improved our passing and possession. We improved further when the largely innefectual Ramirez was substituted for Lallana and a brilliant ball into the box by Lambert set him up to stroke it past the keeper. With the two goal cushion we began to relax and play some marvellous possession football and the match was then pretty well a foregone conclusion. There was controversy with a couple of refereeing decisions, which had they gone against us, might have changed the game to give Reading a point, but Hooiveld's penalty box tackle was adjudged to be fair and the linesman also judged correctly that Boruc's save had not taken the whole ball over the goal line. Both were very marginal decisions, but both proved to be correct in replays. Otherwise, Rodriguez hit the bar and Ramirez just put a shot wide. Davis should have done better when he was clean through on goal. He had a solid game, apart from putting Shaw under pressure with a weak back pass. Reading had a couple of good chances which fell mainly to Le Fondre and he should have done better with them. The Gods smiled on us today to a certain extent, but we were overall good value for the 3 points and a clean sheet, two goals off the goals against deficit and three wins in a row in the Premiership for the first time in a decade was all good news. Generally the team played well, but nowhere near as spectacularly as when they recently played Chelsea, Liverpool or City. But at least they managed to win an away game against lower opposition and it was deemed to be a banana skin game against the team managed by our former manager. I'm sure that the media would have loved to have seen an upset, or some rancour between the managers, but neither scenario unfolded today. The meeting of Adkins and Pochettino was civil and polite and it would be good to think that they shared a drink afterwards, which Adkins says is the tradition there with visiting managers. I wish him well with Reading after this match, but it seems an almost impossible task to keep them up this season. But there probably is no better manager that they could have to get them back up.

Our opinions that Lambert is the better player than Holt can be dismissed as bias towards our player, but you admit yourself that neutral fans also know that he is better than Holt. So why shouldn't Hodgson also realise that if he were to consider either of them, then Lambert would have the better credentials? It is simply a matter that there are other factors that influence him, like us being a smaller unfashionable club and that there is probably more pressure on him from the glory club fans and the glory club supporting media hacks to choose players from those clubs. To choose a player like Lambert requires nerve and imagination, whereas if he chooses a player from a higher profile club, the media and fans are less likely to be critical if he fails, as they would be criticising their own idols. As you say, the inability of the England managers to pick those players most in form, regardless of Club or age, has England in terminal decline Internationally.

If the two players were rated equally with the same sort of strengths, then you might have a point. But Lambert is the far better player of the two, with more in his locker than Holt, including a better footballing brain.

What's even more embarassing is having two threads on the prat.

I'll wait until the end of the season before making a judgement.

Big club, they used to be a big club. Unless Liverpool buck up their ideas soon, that is what will be chanted at them, even with tongue in cheek, just to annoy the Scousers. As I said already, all those fans travelling to watch matches played by Liverpool are mostly ex-pats, just like all those you mention going to watch them in Australia. One also sees plenty of Geordie ex-pats wearing Newcastle shirts for the same reason. Depressed areas of the UK with poor employment prospects, so they emigrate, but follow their team wherever they end up. Many of those fans packing the bars around the World aren't necessarily all United/Liverpool/Celtic fans, but fans of other teams whose matches are televised because their teams are playing those glory teams.

Who were Chelsea playing that next day? Wigan? Hull? (depending on how long ago it was). Go to the Far East and you'll see giant billboards with Chelsea's players featured on it with some strapline along the lines that this is a team of champions. Loads of older people supporting Liverpool around the World are ex-pats who emigrated, so equally you see quite a few Rangers and Celtic shirts for similar reasons. But unless Liverpool start winning things soon, and improve on their league position, then they are destined for a gradual decline amongst the plastic fans, who don't like to go to their nearest bars around the World and see them beaten comprehensively by the likes of teams like us that they've hardly heard of before. At home here in the South, the kids like those who used to follow Liverpool twenty years ago, are now wearing Barcelona shirts. Such are plastics; whoever is successful currently, they will be supported. Thankfully we don't see many Skate shirts on the local kids recently compared to when they won the Cup and had half the England team playing for them. But not many of them will have switched to Liverpool instead.

I really do wonder whether players, especially those imported from abroad, place too much weight on the historical background of clubs. To a young player from abroad, much of Liverpool's illustrious glory was in the distant past. The current clubs making the waves and gaining recognition as the glory clubs for plastic fans to support, beside the ManUre, are Chelski and Man City. Chelsea advanced their cause massively by becoming European Champions, and City for becoming Champions. In the far flung corners of the World, you still see the Liverpool, Arsenal and United fans, but that is because those plastics started supporting them earlier and have stayed with them. The younger supporters are going for Chelsea and City now. So a team's history has some affect on where a player might go, but increasingly it is all about money and environment too. After all, when the Skates were in their pomp, massively overspending on players they couldn't afford, they had half the England team playing for them and several other International stars who are still playing for top clubs here and in Europe. Why didn't they prefer to play in the historical heartland of English football, or one of those bigger clubs in London?

Iv'e had to correct this guy, who must be feeling a bit of an idiot, because Adkins didn't arrive here until nearly 6 months after we won the JPT

If Hodgson won't utilise Saints players at the moment, then he could do a lot worse than employ Southampton's style of play. That's been damned effective of late. Perhaps Clyne, Cork and Shaw are ones for the future in an England shirt, so we may look forward to that perhaps. No reason in the meantime that Lambert couldn't do a job for England up to and including the World Cup. Apart from his goal scoring prowess, he brings a lot more to a team in his holding up of the ball and telling passes. He really does have a good footballing brain compared to some of the donkeys that England has had up front in the past.

Spot on. Adkins was a master at positive thought and it wore off on the players too. Even now, when scoring goals, it is immediately evident from the body language of the players that they are a unit, pleased for their team mates when they succeed and ready to console them if they mess up. I would put our team spirit as amongst the best in the division and Adkins probably played a large part in that. Even though Adkins manages our rivals, I won't hear a bad word said against him for what he did for us. I note that some point to the lost opening matches and lay the blame at his feet for that, but nobody had expected before the matches that we would be 2-1 up at one point against both United and City. And hindsight shows that a major cause of the poor results at the start of the season was due to the absence of Jack Cork. Things picked up for us when he came back in. Adkins' record in the dozen or so matches before his sacking was pretty good, although after a slow start, I confess that Pochettino's style of high pressing play is attractive to watch and effective. Whether Adkins would have achieved those wins against Liverpool, City and Chelsea is debateable, but we had come back from 2 down against Chelsea away under him.

There's just a slight difference between the two situations. Lowe was the chief executive of a PLC, owned by the shareholders. Cortese is the chief executive of a private company owned by the Liebherrs. They will have set the salary level and bonuses and are therefore presumably happy with the job he has been doing on their behalf.

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, ......... Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, (Pardew?) Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation (of Schneiderlin?)

Go on Liverpool; send Cortese a fax about it.