Wes Tender

Naturally I'm not about to revise my opinion because of anything said by Hockey_saint and solentstars. I lived through that period and well remember the miners' strike and Red Robbo's strikes decimating the British Car industry because of restrictive Union practices. I also clearly remember the cosy chats over beer and sandwiches that Harold Wilson had with the Union leaders who were the Labour Party's paymasters. And talking about the value of the pound, what about Wilson's devaluation of it and the effect that inflation of 25/27% had on the economy? Probably a bit before your time.

The mining industry was destroyed by Arthur Scargill. The British automobile and shipbuilding industries were similarly destroyed by trade union restrictive practices, high wage demands and strikes making us less competitive against our competitors. But you go ahead and believe it was that nasty Mrs Thatcher if it comforts you.

How did fans from the city that is the home of the British Navy come to fly the Union Flag upside down? Surely they must have known that it is a coded sign of distress? I was surprised also to find that it is apparently also illegal. But still, one wouldn't expect Skate fans to know these things with their limited brain capacity. Just another little thing that makes them a laughing stock.

Why would anybody trust Wikipedia for something like this? As you rightly point out, it is ridiculous including somewhere as far away from Portsmouth as Havant, with its massive Leigh Park council estate and not including places that are closer than that near Southampton. Ditto, if Gosport and Lee on Solent are included, which are across the water from Portsmouth, then why not the waterside areas too? Where does Portsmouth end towards us and Southampton start? Fareham? Titchfield? Locks Heath? Bursledon? In any event, these figures are over a decade out of date.

So I ask again; when is enough enough? When does he tell the interviewer that he is tired of discussing his spat with Cortese? As a Saints legend, it is fair play him commenting on matches as his opinion on how he thought we played has some validity and interest to our fans and other football supporters. After the next match, will they ask him for his thoughts on the City match again? No, of course not. So why having given his opinion on Cortese ad-nauseum does he feel the need to go on and on about him? Come on, how many times will you be happy for him carrying this on? You've already admitted that if it were up to you the matter wouldn't be discussed, so presumably you're also getting fed up with it all too.

So you defend your position by saying that provided that he speaks well of the team and is generally positive in most regards, he can prattle on about this vendetta with Cortese ad-nauseum. Right. Is there any point at which you decide that enough is enough, that the longer he persists in dragging up the dirt, the more people will tire of it and tell him to shut up? Why do you think the journos ask him about this matter if his responses make no difference to anything? That seems rather pointless, doesn't it? Perhaps they ran out of questions about the team and the manager and needed to fill the time they had allocated for the interview with a bit of dross. Or could it be that the story of the fallout between the chairman and one of the club's legends is far better copy than his views on how we are doing in the Premiership?

You provide the ammunition for my response in your own reply, by saying that if it were up to you the issue wouldn't be discussed. Several other posters have offered the same opinion, that they feel that MLT has said more than enough on his relationship with Cortese. If MLT himself tired of gnawing on this same old bone, then I have given the easy solution for him not to have to go over and over the same old ground. The fact that hasn't precluded the issue in his interviews suggests that he is content to give it yet another airing, to the increasing annoyance of those who idolised him as a player. It is naive to suggest that just because he was asked the question that he had some sort of obligation to answer it. It is also petty to infer that the issue fades into insignificance just because it was only a small part of the interview and he spoke well of the club otherwise. The journos will be delighted that they had to pad it out with his platitudes about the team and the manager, in order to have him dish more bile on Cortese.

You obviously didn't read what I said. It would have been simple to have told the reporter that he was perfectly happy to answer questions about how the club was playing, but that he wouldn't answer questions about his relationship with Cortese. I'm sure that you would be delighted that reporters continue to throw him this particular bone and that he continues to gnaw on it. But it is getting tiresome and he ought to grow up.

Sorry, Happy, for not spelling Rodriguez's name correctly. Presumably you knew who I meant though? And why do I have to answer your question? I wasn't replying to anything you said, just giving my opinion to the OP. Instead of assuming that a replacement LB would be sitting on the bench nearly every week, couldn't it possibly be that we could get in a player deemed to be better than Shaw, who is still a youngster learning his trade albeit very promising? If that other thread was to be believed, we were prepared to break the Ramirez record to buy that Morroccan. Surely that would get us quite a promising LB? Do I really have to name the potential candidates? The Delldays: It relies on quick thinking and discipline to react to the ball coming out quickly form the defence. The problem is exacerbated when Fox takes a corner from the right hand flag. Personally I don't believe that his ability at taking corners is necessarily better than other players in midfield.

He is nowhere near good enough as a LB in this division. His positional play leaves us exposed on that flank and canny managers exploit it whenever we play him there. It also worries me stiff when he goes up to take corners, as there is no way that he can then get back to defend if the ball is cleared upfield. We should have got in cover for the LB position during the January window. Shaw has been excellent, but whenever he is unavailable I don't consider Fox as adequate back-up for him. He might suffice as left midfield, although if we have Lallana or Rodrigues available, then there is no way that he would be preferred to them.

I listened to the whole interview. If Matt was a true professional and didn't wish to tarnish his reputation by constantly having these little digs at Cortese, there is a very simple solution. All he had to do when he was asked to give this interview, was to make it clear that he didn't want his relationship with Cortese to be discussed. End of. As it was, he commented that Cortese didn't wish to acknowledge the part played by others in the club's history and that the reason for their spat would come out in due course. Even had he not laid down the guidelines regarding the questions he didn't want discussed, he could have batted them away with a simple response that he didn't wish to discuss them. So in view of the above, he must face the ever increasing ire of sections of the fan base, who hold him in the highest regard for what he did for us as a player, but is tarnishing that reputation because he's behaving like an idiot over this vendetta with Cortese.

Pocchettino is an Argentinian, not Spanish. And where are you from with comments that "you" can become one of the strongest clubs, "you" need a coach... Saints fans say "we".

He's headed too many balls in his career and it's affecting his thought processes. What he really meant to say was that a point against City would be more impressive than three against Wigan. He was attempting to illustrate therefore what a mighty achievement it was getting three against the English champions.

You could be right. That could be down to some regional accents that I couldn't quite grasp. Could have been Cornish, or Norfolk.

Is it necessary to start a new thread on this? From the way you're phrasing it, all you're going on is hearsay. Go on, be a devil and tell us who your source is. Is it Doris the Tea Lady? If Nigel hasn't been heard of since, do you think that there has been some serious foul play? Kidnapped? Murdered?

There was a City fan wearing shades at the side of the away block adjacent to Northam block 42. He was a right pillock and probably the one you met. I think that he was the same guy who took off his top also and had a beer can with him in the stand. We duly notified the stewards who kept their eyes on him. He was with a group of pillocks. Some of the fans along the edge of that block weren't too bad though and some even applauded us at the final whistle and sportingly chanted that we would stay up.

Of course. And my subjective judgement will be that as Adkins had us in fifteenth place when he was sacked, a new manager brought in to take us to the next level would therefore reasonably be expected to achieve a higher position.

I was being ironic. Same as the chant from the Northam; "he's always offside, Papa Weigo, he's always offside" even when he might not have been. But there were certainly many occasions when he looked onside, after he had adjusted the timingof his runs. It really is a ridiculous situation when a linesman must keep up with play and try to make a judgement about when the ball was played numerous yards behind him. The only way that the decision could be made more accurate, would be with two linesmen on each line, one forward and one back level with the ball. TV replays show that on many occasions the linesmen gets it wrong currently.

We had passed the half way stage of the season, so it was a reasonable yardstick. We had weathered arguably the toughest early fixture list in the history of the Premiership, when player confidence could have taken a knock and yet we had overcome that and were making good progress. Yes, Man City are a big scalp as Champions, but then again we achieved a draw away at the European Champions recently and should have beaten Arsenal too. It is far too early to make a judgement at the moment and I have enjoyed watching us play lately, but I'm fairly confident that Adkins would have got us 15th at least, so that is my benchmark at the moment for judging Pochettino's performance by the end of the season. It isn't setting the bar that high, is it?

We are now back at 15th place, which is where we were with Adkins. I've already made my position clear; if we end the season at 15th or below, then I don't really see the point of sacking Adkins. Whether we would have beaten City under Adkins is up for debate. But we have given the glory teams a run for their money this season and were improving, so it was not inconceivable.

Papa Weigo was hardly ever offside. He was just too quick for the linos to keep up with him. But I am in total agreement with most on here, that the referee was extremely poor, as was the Itchen side lino. And anybody who had money on us beating them 4-1 can jusitfiably be livid that the nailed-on, dead-cert, stonewall penalty wasn't given. It was as blatant a penalty as I can ever remember. I don't think that I have heard any commentator defend the ref's decision on grounds that there was any element of benefit of the doubt, or that the ref was unsighted. It would be nice to believe that the incident will be assessed by the authorities and that accordingly Adkinson has a black mark against his name.

Yes, I agree. To a certain extent the chairman of a football club can ride roughshod over some fans' feelings, as most are unlikely to go elsewhere. But if comments are received by Cortese from fans who appear to be sensible, intelligent and fair in their criticisms, then he is probably far more likely to pay attention to them.

Anybody who pays to attend a match has the right to tell Cortese if they are not satisfied with the experience. Whether he pays any attention to the opinions of his paying customers is another matter. He isn't obliged to, but successful businesses listen to what their customers have to say.

Whilst visiting Gunwharf Quays the other day, I noticed an extremely impressive Superyacht moored alongside, the £100 million Amaryllis. It is relatively new, but has been there for some time. Although some mystery surrounds who owns it, is is rumoured to be Richard DeVos, an American multi-billionaire. Now, in the same way that the rumour-mongers had a field day when Paul Allen's Superyacht moored up in Southampton, the possibility that DeVos is going to take over the Skates must be considered. After all, like Allen, he does have involvement in sport, owning Orlando Dolphins NBA basketball team. Furthermore a bit of googling unearths some opinions that he built his wealth on what some consider to be pyramid selling, so he fits the profile of dodgy owner that they seem to attract. And should he buy them, he would also qualify for the other requirement of having more money than sense.

Well, that's easy to explain. Channon was watched by older supporters and they are less savvy about how to put up stuff on You Tube than the younger fans who watched Le Tiss. Plus it would be less of a priority in their lives and they would be still have their memories of him and be content with those, without having to look at videos of him playing to remind themselves.