Wes Tender

I stand corrected. As you say, not like him at all. We're all under pressure as fans after a less than convincing start, so viewpoints have become more polarised and a bit terse as a result.

Was Nick hysterical at any stage? As far as I could see, he's been his usual measured, sensible self, backing up his position with some reasonable debate. I would be obliged if you would kindly point out this post where he has been hysterical, as I seem to have missed it.

This thread is a great idea. I propose that you post a similar one before every match.

:lol: And the explanation for the apparent absence of the poppy is also equally easy to explain. He has one of those big ones on the front grille of his car.

Laughs at Patred for believing that anybody should care about something so petty, especially as he doesn't even speculate himself about any explanations, but expects others to.

These are some of life's great mysteries

It isn't so much a case of experience, but ability, quality, right mental attitude, agility, quickness of thought, team spirit, etc. Rookie doesn't necessarily have to mean inept.

This you can say with confidence about a young keeper learning his trade, eh? You've already seen enough to surmise that he isn't going to learn from his mistakes, isn't going to improve with experience or coaching? Whilst we're about it, perhaps you can give us the low down on the future prospects of Shaw, Ward-Prowse, Chambers, etc. I beg to differ. From what I've seen from him already, he has some good attributes, such as better than average distribution, and his catching of high balls into the area. I'd say that his reaction time was also pretty sound. So he made a mistake against Swansea. I don't think that he will do that again in a hurry. I still prefer him to Davis and Boruc at the moment.

I am yet to see one single team in the Premiership that doesn't make defensive errors. There were several made by Arsenal yesterday. Of course we need to work on reducing them, but we are never going to cut them all out. Some of our defensive errors have instead been bad luck, like the own goals for example, or players slipping. And they have also come against top teams' strikers too. Only one defensive error yesterday against Swansea and I suspect that Gazzaniga has learned a valuable lesson from it.

It wasn't me who said that it was bizarre that fans chose to back Cortese over MLT, was it? So who is polarising opinion in one direction or the other? I've already stated that I don't decry the service that MLT offered to the club as a player. But to make comparisons between the two of them now that MLT has been retired for several years is what is strange.

Is Cortese our owner? When did that happen? And is it really bizarre for fans to back somebody who rescued our club from potential liquidation, or at the very least probable turmoil under some other owners similar to those encountered by the Skates, rather than an ex-player? What is bizarre is the perpective that some fans have in their priorities. I don't decry the contribution that MLT made to our club as a player, but compared to the contribution to the club made by Cortese, what exactly has MLT contributed to the club since his retirement? It is arguable that his contribution has been a negative one, which is more the shame considering that he professes to love the Saints so much.

The sane, sensible approach with a good perspective. As the Daily Mail is a national newspaper, one has to wonder whether their readers elsewhere who support other clubs really care a sh*t about any of this. As for their readers who are not at all interested in football, the whole article must be even less interesting. It's not as if it's some expose about British football clubs being run by the Russian mafia or that they believe that this club is being run by a criminal organisation. Looking at the wider perpective, it isn't about national figures or celebrities; its a load of rumours about the personal relationships between the chairman of a provincial football club person and a few others. Therefore one has to wonder why they are that bothered with little ole us and our internal spats, unless the sh*t stirring is because there are people with a grudge who have media contacts. *Yawn*

It's not like CB Fry to take a part of a post totally out of context in a vain attempt to score cheap points in order to pump up his vanity and ego in the eyes of his toadies. Oh, sorry, it is. The usual pathetic, puerile stuff from him.

Why can't they all be wrong? What is it that they would be right about? History shows that the majority of the population of a supposedly civilised country can be wrong. And if somebody upsets somebody else or makes an enemy of them, who is right and who is wrong among them? More pertinently you might have suggested that there is no smoke without fire, but it's far more difficult without concrete evidence and hearing the viewpoints of both sides to asssess the rights and wrongs of a situation such as this. The only comment from Cortese if I recall it correctly was along the lines that there were dark forces within the club with an agenda to destabilise it. Did he mean any of those you mention?

Daily Mail:- Not even the Liebherrs on whose behalf he runs the club? But as Frank says, most of the article is based on rumour and inuendo, which typically is believed to be fact by those who want to believe it. Cortese's forthright manner has ruffled some feathers and these people have friends in the media who are prepared to rock the boat on their behalf. Who cares about tittle-tattle? What is important to most is how we are doing as a club and our rise from the ashes following our rebirth after the Lowe regime has been spectacular. If there was somebody out there who had the naked ambition and focussed drive to achieve this success, but who was also a warm and cuddly human being too, then that would have been great. But I suspect that people with drive and ambition aren't generally blessed with people skills.

Yes, I do. And as you have been one of the vocal minority who has shouted loudest that he should be sacked, I'm not going to take any lessons from you about irony.

Nigel Adkins:- I would say that for most of the fans, that is true. However, there appears to be quite a few on here who want Adkins sacked, regardless of the fact that they offer little in the way of intelligent suggestions as to the alternative candidates who are either able or willing to come here and take over and do a better job. Perhaps the appearance is given that many wish Adkins gone because they are a minority, but a very vocal one. Maybe others who hold the contrary view don't post as often, because they are fed-up with being ridiculed and insulted whenever they dare to disagree with those who believe themselves to be always right, when often opinions by either side are based purely on rumour, or conjecture. You only have to look a few posts above this one to see the polarised views on the relationship between Adkins and Cortese, again all without foundation. It was the opinion of many of the doom and gloom brigade that Adkins would already have been sacked and it has not happened. Presumably these people are now disappointed that their prophecies or wishes have not come to fruition. I still hold the opinion that Adkins deserves a chance to see whether he can turn things around and I believe that he can. But he shouldn't be undermined by supposed Saints fans clamouring for his head, especially if they don't have a credible replacement for him in mind.

You see it as being an excuse and I'll see it as being a reason. You have not explained how Gazzaniga will be ruined yet. As the experts say, if a player is good enough, then the age is immaterial.

Ruin him? How so? Give a young lad a golden opportunity to excel when playing at the very top of the game is another way of putting it, but probably won't sit well with you. And this would be the worst defencive record in Premiership history after 10 games, certainly, with arguably the worst early fixture list against top teams in Premiership history too. But as the season is only a quarter in, I think that some perspective is in order here.

I would only look towards Bournemouth to reflect on how far we have come, since only a short while ago we were at the same level or even below them. There is nothing about them that I envy.

As I said at the time, the move to be manager of the Skates was an astute move by Appy for the reason you stated, plus before he went there he was a non-entity. He got himself into the spotlight well with all the media attention focused on the Skates, which has put him in the frame for far more prestige positions, for which he would never have been considered otherwise.

If the Skates eventually do get to play at Moneyfields, will they give it a more appropriate name? Like "Lackofmoneyfields"?

Thankfully, with him on ignore I miss most of the tiresome diatribes anyway, unless people quote him.

Well, it's over 24 hours since our ignominious defeat against WBA and nothing has happened yet. Adkins' replacement must be travelling one heck of a distance not to have arrived here yet. Or could the rumours be just that; rumours, Chinese whispers with no foundation? It wouldn't be the first time.

I'm going for a) Inspired. I base this conclusion on exactly the same caveat that you mentioned, that we have not seen enough of Ramirez to form a realistic opinion, but instead of concluding on that evidence that the money by inference was wasted, I've instead decided that his signing was inspirational. Personally I think that although Mulumba didn't have a bad game, he isn't exactly one to set the pulses racing and the price paid for him reflects his true worth.